RACE TO INDIA'S ELECTION:2014
SECTION - THIRTY- FOUR
MODISM IS SAVIOUR OF EXISTENTIAL HINDUTVA A LAST STEP FOR HOPE , SHORT OF FORCED DONNING OF ROBES TO "KESARIYAS"
Is Narendra Modi genuinely BJP?
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/is-narendra-modi-genuinely-bjp/article5872576.ece?homepage=true
As politics, as style, as message, Narendra Modi presents an ersatz version of the BJP. There is little that is civilisational about him. Worse still, he creates an artificial Swadeshi, without any sense of Swaraj
A civilisation is greater than the sum of its individual values and an election is bigger, more poignant than the sum of its candidates. As one watches the drama of the current election, one realises that each candidate represents a Weltanschauung, a world view. Mr. Rahul Gandhi represents the Congress in decline, Mr. Kejriwal, a new politics of possibility dignified as the AAP, and Mr. Narendra Modi plays the BJP. Watching reflectively, one realises that while he is an effective candidate, he is a poor representation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). I do not see this either as a naive or a Machiavellian statement. Anyone interested in politics should confront this possibility.
Tectonic shifts within the BJP
Let us begin by going down memory lane, watching a Vajpayee as Prime Minister. He is at ease with himself. There is a style, an affability, a grace about him. He recites poetry with a flair. He does not need a Prasoon Joshi or a Piyush Pandey to do it. He can think civilisationally with ease. Then, consider his organisational double, Mr. Lal Krishna Advani. He is a Vajpayee in corsets, stiffer, more ascetic, and intensely serious about life. For him, the BJP is a vocation. He is a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) exemplar. Vajpayee who is more accessible, represents a less procrustean view of the BJP. Mr. Vajpayee makes the BJP a more inviting and inclusive proposition.
Whether it is Mr. Vajpayee or Mr. Advani, one senses an authenticity to them. They smell, evoke the BJP. The very differences in styles seem to add the realism of difference. Oddly, when I watch Mr. Modi, I miss this authenticity of text and context. Is Mr. Modi, an authentic BJP text as message and performance, and does the BJP as a party, as a community, see him as that? The answer is worryingly ambiguous. If one wants to be generous one can say that he represents not the exemplary values or the leadership qualities of the BJP, but a lowest common denominator of the BJP.
The BJP is a framework of values, an organisational system, a style of politics, and a way of constructing social reality. As a parliamentary party, the BJP is seen as being more open-ended than the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or the RSS, and less coercive than the Bajrang Dal. When push comes to shove, the BJP, as a parliamentary, political fragment, seeks wider adjustment, compromise, unlike cadres or pressure groups which might be more ideological. The BJP has to be more discursive as a party, be more conversational politically and sound less like a catechism. Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani captured such a politics with grace and style. Mr. Narendra Modi sees the party as a necessary evil. No leader seems more hostile to his party than Mr. Modi. The party seems uneasy and even wary with him. Recent events indicate that the unease is a deep fault line.
Consider the fate of some of the classic leaders of the BJP, Mr. Jaswant Singh, Mr. Advani or Mr. Joshi. These leaders were almost exemplars of the style of the party. Yet, they also evoked a style of cosmopolitanism. They were literally the voice and the message of the party. Yet, the party dismisses them today, treating them as being irrelevant, like cultural strains to be rejected. When Mr. Jaswant Singh cried, or when Mr. Advani or Mr. Sudheendra Kulkarni talk of wider worlds, they are read as noise. Yet, suddenly, this wider cosmopolitanism seems unnecessary. The BJP as a mentality shrinks to a parochialism to guarantee electoral victory. The BJP seems to be back in some strange uniform. But it is not just strains in the party I am talking about.
A Party in Crisis
As politics, as style, as message, Mr. Modi presents an ersatz version of the BJP. There is little that is civilisational about him. Worse still, he creates an artificial Swadeshi, without any sense of Swaraj. Mr. Modi’s Swadeshi does not empower locality, it creates a politics of anxiety around security. He evokes paranoia insulting Mrs Sonia Gandhi as foreign and Italian which neither Mr. Advani nor Mr. Vajpayee would do.
He is leader of a nukkad not of a nation.
He behaves like a Bajrang Dal bully rather than a BJP leader ready for adjustments, coalitions or even a compromise necessary for an Indian idea of unity. The paradox of Mr. Modi is that he might criticise the Congress model of Federalism but adds little to the alchemy of unity and inclusiveness. Mr. Modi represents a reductionist, single strand of leadership which is un-Indian. A Vajpayee can reach out to the Opposition and talk easily to it. Mr. Modi suffers from an arid sibling rivalry which destroys a syncretic style of leadership. Mr. Modi can be diktat but never a conversation.
There is a deeper inadequacy to his politics. As a country, we need leaders who can win more than the next election. Our Prime Minister is not a winnable horse, which corporate or media punters can be happy about. A leadership has to think fifty, hundred, at least five hundred years into the future.
Mr. Modi offers little sense of the future, whether it is of craft, knowledge, agriculture or biotechnology. He has not a single significant line on an India of the future. Sadly, Mr. Modi might play a second rate mimic of Vivekananda and talk of the Parliament of religions at Chicago. But, Mr. Modi keeps thinking that his Parliament of Religions is Davos and a subsidiary at that.
He might look China in the eye but has no alternative vision to China.
Narendra Modi
A caricature of itself called Narendra Modi.
The least a Veer Savarkar, a Har Dayal, a Lajpat Rai or a Vivekananda would have done is to provide an alternative to the Chinese idea of autocratic growth. Yet, Mr. Modi becomes through behaviour and style, as a second rate mimicry of China. Worse still, Mr. Modi seems to caricature the BJP. As the BJP declines as a party, as the older generation of visionaries disappears, a party in crisis produces a caricature of itself called Narendra Modi.
Any writer who has a commitment to Parliament and party politics must recognise the importance of parties like the CPI(M), the BJP or even the Congress. We would have to invent them if they did not exist. Each represents a critical part of the history and imagination of Indian Politics. I want to emphasise this because my opposition to Mr. Modi was initially triggered by his authoritarianism and his responsibility for the riots and their cruel aftermath. Electoral politics and sanitised law cannot exonerate him. But by watching him grow in popularity, and listening to his message, I want to argue that Mr. Modi is dangerous to the BJP and its value frames. His narrowness hypothecates the BJP, politics and Indian society to a jingoism of nation-state and development.
There is a cultural backstage to Indian politics where small groups with a mix of ethical and religious perspectives seek to argue and discuss the future of Indian politics. One strain or strand of these groups includes people who would embody a sense of cultural politics. Some, in fact, many of them would be BJP influentials. I wonder how many of them would pick Mr. Modi as an exemplar. I was imagining whether a historian like Dharampal, a shrewd student of politics, would pick a Modi or see him as a straw man, an ersatz model of the BJP at a time where its political poverty cannot produce more than a mediocre leadership. Mr. Modi seems a solution of an RSS desperate for power rather than a BJP rethinking the possibilities of politics. Nagpur has fettered India for decades to come.
Let us not confuse contempt for the Congress as approval for the BJP.
Mr. Modi’s Neanderthal model of development in the age of sustainable and human development shows that Mr. Modi is an anachronism, dusted up and presented as technocratic model of development. It will not take long to prove that the Gujarat model of development and the Gujarat model of violence are part of one picture
I wish I was a politically curious fly on the wall listening to BJP leaders and workers thinking out private doubts about the public face of Mr. Modi. A psychoanalysis of the party reveals that there are deep fault lines in the party about Mr. Modi. A desperate RSS cannot paper over it for long by arguing that parliamentary success will erase organic doubts. I wish someone from the BJP would articulate this politics of doubt openly so that India and the BJP can be saved from an excruciating future
(Shiv Visvanathan is a professor at Jindal School of Government and Public Policy.)
COMMENT
THE FACT IS PHENOMENA "MODI" IS THE DIRECT PRODUCT OF SIXTY YEARS OF GROSS MIS- RULE OF INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS WHERE IN THE INDIAN PRIDE HAS BEEN PUSHED TO THE HISTORICAL NADIR IN EXISTING SCENERIO
"MODISM "
IS THE ONLY ANSWER & INDIA WILL GO FOR IT. IT IS THE TIME FOR "HINDUTVA" TO SURVIVE IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY INDIANS HAVE TO DON THE ROBE OF "KESARIYAS" MODI or NO MODI UNDER THE PRESENT SCENERIO THE RESULT WOULD STILL BE
"MODISIM"
SECTION - THIRTY- THREE
Why I Joined BJP
M J Akbar
.Anyone who speaks in public, whether master orator or ordinary word-shuffler, comes to a platform after some preparation. The one eventuality no one can quite prepare for is a crisis; and there is no crisis greater for an individual than a threat to one’s life. At that moment, the reaction is more likely to emerge from a heart than the head.
The bombs that began to burst at Narendra Modi’s Patliputra rally were aimed at the crowds, of course, but also at him. His instant response was to ask a powerful question to both Hindus and Muslims that went to the crux of the principal challenge before our nation, and included its solution as well. He asked these two great communities to choose: they could either fight each other, or together they could confront that shaming curse called poverty.
This placed everything in context and priority: we need peace in our country as an absolute fundamental necessity. This gives us the chance to rescue an economy that has been sent to hospital in the last decade before it sinks to a deathbed. The primary purpose of economic growth is to lift the poorest from their awful misery; and this can best be achieved only when every Indian, across differences of creed and caste, works hand in hand.
We either move together or we barely move at all. It was an incisive definition of inclusive growth. At a time when Modi could have been forgiven for being emotional, he was practical, clearly focused and determined to pursue an economic vision. This fit a pattern. In a speech on August 15 last year, he said that the religion of anyone in public service was the Constitution of India.
Acompilation of his views by Siddharth Mazumdar, released a few weeks ago, opens with this sentence: “The essence of secularism is that all religions are equal before the law.” It asserted that sarva darma sambhav was the philosophical magnet that united India from an ancient age.
But how do such principles accord with the fact of the Gujarat riots, which is a constant theme in all attacks on him? I raised questions at the time of the riots as much as any other journalist did. Paradoxically, these questions were answered over ten years by the UPA government There has never been, since independence, such intense scrutiny, or such absolute determination to trace guilt to a Chief Minister, as Modi faced from institutions loyal to the UPA government over two full terms.
Every relevant instrument of state was assigned the task of finding something, anything that could trace guilt to Modi. They could not.
The Supreme Court, which is above politics and parties, and which is our invaluable, independent guardian of the law and Constitution, undertook its own enquiries. Its first findings are in, and we know that the answer is exoneration. Moreover, there has been judicial accountability to an unprecedented degree in Gujarat. We are still waiting for justice in a hundred previous riots.
One suspects that only some politicians have a vested interest in the past during an election when Indians want to vote for their future. The young want a government that gives them jobs; parents want turn into food on the plate, into schools for their children, and into a horizon of hope.
When Modi talks of building a hundred new cities, they can see jobs and opportunity rise with every floor of a new township. One significant indicator of the public anger lies in a statistic: employment has grown, on an average, at only 2% in the past decade. If the rate was higher in the first five years of UPA, when the economy was faring better, then one assumes it must have sunk to less than 2% in the second UPA term. A nation that was soaring on achievement and hope has sunk into depression.
We need a national recovery
mission. Only someone who has
delivered can offer a credible
promise of leading such a critical
mission.
For those on the wrong side of 30 or 40, five years is just another passage in life. For those who are 20, five years is the difference between aspiration and despair. If a young person does not find a job in these five years, he or she begins to lose that vital energy which comes from self-confidence. If the young do not power the economy then the economy will be stuck in the quagmire of idle waste. There is only one way forward. And there is, among the visible choices, only one person best suited to lift the nation out of a septic swamp.
You know his name as well as I do.
"MODI"
SECTION - THIRTY- TWO
WINNABILITY QUESTION MARK
OF
MODI FROM " VARANASI "
In Varanasi, each of the Brahmin, Muslim, Patel and Vaishya communities number 2.5 lakh or more. If any two of these communities were to fully back one party, its candidate would be sure to win. PTI
FATE OF MODI WILL REST WITH THE ACUMEN OF CONGRESS IN THE SELECTION OF THEIR CANDIDATE AGAINST MODI
BECAUSE
Candidates from Varanasi must note:
you can only ever own half the city.
Badri Narayan
SECTION - THIRTY- ONE
26 MARCH 2014
In 2014, Hindutva versus Caste
The question in this general election is whether Hindutva will triumph over caste. There are at least three factors clearly nudging politics towards Hindu consolidation
Of the numerous public appearances by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi over the last year or so, two have been strikingly inconceivable. Both happened in Kerala, often projected as a politically progressive State. In February 2014, Mr. Modi addressed a meeting of Pulayas, a Dalit community that has been for years a bedrock of support for the Communist parties. In April 2013, Mr. Modi was chief guest at the Sivagiri Mutt, founded by Kerala’s legendary social reformer, Sree Narayana Guru who led the backward Ezhava community to social awakening. The Ezhavas too have been largely supporters of the Left. At both the platforms — events separated by more than a year — Mr. Modi made a similar pitch. “Social untouchability may have ended, but political untouchability continues,” he said, referring to the continuing isolation that he faces from various quarters.
“The next decade will belong to the Dalits and the backwards,” he said, emphasising his own lower caste origins, at a rally in Muzaffarpur in Bihar on March 3. That event too was significant as he was sharing the stage with Lok Jansakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, who returned to the saffron fold 12 years after he quit it over the Gujarat riots. And there is more to it. Dalit leader Udit Raj, who has been fashioning himself as the new age Ambedkar, joined the BJP. So did Mr. Ramkripal Yadav, who has for years been a shadow of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, a champion of backward class politics in Bihar.
The BJP’s efforts to overcome caste barriers in its project to create an overarching Hindu identity are showing signs of success, though it is still far from being a pan-Indian phenomenon. “Mr. Modi has broken the stranglehold of caste. The affinity of these Dalits and backward leaders for the BJP is a clear indication of his acceptance among them,” says Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, BJP general secretary.
The issue of caste identity
Among the several factors that slowed down Hindutva politics in India, caste identity has been prominent. Politically empowered sections of the backwards and Dalits viewed the Sangh project of a unified Hindu society with suspicion, as its insistence on traditions implied sustenance of the hierarchical social structure that disadvantaged them. One of the most pronounced examples of this was Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who concluded that Dalit emancipation would not be possible while they remained within the Hindu social order. In turn, Baba Saheb — portrayed with considerable fulmination in Arun Shourie’s book, Worshipping False Gods — has been a villain in the Sangh discourse. But in 2013, an article in the Organiser, the mouthpiece of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), portrayed the Dalit icon as someone who contributed to Hindu unity.
The Hindutva project tried a combination of aggressive integration, sometimes accommodating Sanskritising demands from below and constantly working on the fear of an “Other.” But until they hit upon the idea of replacing a mosque in Ayodhya with a temple, all of this could not gather enough strength for the BJP to win a majority in any region of India. But coinciding with the Ayodhya movement was also a great upsurge of backwards, triggered by the implementation of the Mandal Commission report. Subsequently, caste and religion alternated as the prime moving force of politics, depending on the particularities of the time and place, in parts of northern and western India. The BJP gained power in several States. But except in Gujarat, the debate has not been settled conclusively in favour of Hindutva.
The question, therefore, in this election is whether Hindutva will triumph over caste. There are at least three factors clearly nudging politics towards Hindu consolidation.
Debate on Muslim Reservation
Hindutva politics in Gujarat rode on violent anti-reservation agitations spearheaded by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in the 1980s. Though the agitation was against the reservation for backwards, the targets were Dalits. Almost immediately after the agitation, Hinduvta politics struck roots, co-opting vast sections of the lower castes into its fold, even as a rising portrayal of Muslims as the “other” unified them. But the trajectory in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar that together elect 120 members of Parliament has been different, as strong backward politics suspected the RSS on the question of reservation and found Muslims as allies. Ironic as it is, quota politics is dividing them now. The lower castes see the demand for Muslim quotas as detrimental to their interests. The case for affirmative action for Muslims is strong, no doubt, but the politics over it has played out much to the advantage of the Hindutva project. A social coalition that has been a bulwark against Hindutva in U.P. and Bihar for the last two decades is showing signs of unravelling.
The Dalit participation in the Muzaffarnagar riots in U.P., and the numerous Yadav versus Muslim skirmishes in Bihar over the last two years have strained the solidarity among the poor and the disadvantaged. Lower caste movements that challenged caste structures have also had a streak of Sanskritising aspirations that seek a better place within the Hindu hierarchy. When the image of the “other” is clearer, this streak becomes prominent.
Willingness to Concede Leadership
The lower caste sympathy towards the Hindutva project has been matched by a willingness among the upper castes to be content under the leadership of the lower. The turning point was the 2005 Assembly election in Bihar, when the BJP-JD(U) alliance sought a mandate, with Mr. Nitish Kumar being declared as the chief ministerial candidate. Only six months prior to that, when the alliance vacillated over projecting him — because the upper caste segments were not comfortable with the idea of a backward caste CM — it could not win and there was no clear majority for any formation. In 2007, the upper castes voted for Dalit leader Ms. Mayawati in U.P. who won a clear majority, the first for any since the Ayodhya movement. In 2010, the rainbow caste coalition voted for Mr. Nitish Kumar again; in 2012, another variant of the coalition voted for backward caste leader Mr. Akhilesh Yadav in U.P.
This change in the upper caste attitude can dramatically turn round the fortunes of the BJP. The BJP has been responsive to the leadership ambitions of the backwards and Dalits, but the upper caste support to leaders such as Mr. Kalyan Singh and Ms. Uma Bharti has been tentative. “We have the so-called backwards and lower castes standing up and wanting to be counted as Hindus. Sangh has empowered them. Even the communist movements could not accommodate these sections of the society in their leadership,” says Mr. Ram Madhav, senior RSS leader. “In 1998, the BJP had 58 MPs who were SCs and STs, possibly the highest for any party ever as a proportion of its strength,” he says. With Mr. Modi at the helm and the change in upper caste attitudes, the Sangh’s efforts have got a major fillip.
Media-Propelled Popularity
A third factor that has developed over the last decade is the dramatic popularity achieved by several lower caste gurus, aided by the visual media. To cite two examples, both Swami Ramdev, who was born a Yadav in Haryana and Mata Amritanandamayi, born in a fisherman’s community in Kerala, have attained such a huge following that their caste origins have been eclipsed. TV evangelism, as opposed to scriptural Hinduism controlled by priests, has enrolled a large section of poorer and lower caste people into thinking as Hindus. This may be a rerun of how TV serial “Ramayan” contributed to the Ayodhya movement; and lower caste Hindu gurus are not unprecedented. What makes it all extremely potent is the context of a certain level of economic prosperity among the lower castes, media penetration and the Sangh propaganda.
The terms of engagement between the state and the poor, between the upper and the lower castes, and between Hindus and Muslims could change further in the emerging scenario. “Lalu and Mulayam had managed to command backward castes support with a the promise of share in power. Mr. Modi’s politics for backwards and Dalits is not based on doles and welfare schemes, but overall development,” says Mr. Pradhan.
varghese.g@thehindu.co.in
SECTION - THIRTY
Modi didn’t visit riot victims for 35 days
Posted by
India Facts Staff
December 26, 2013
Assertion:
National spokesperson of the Congress party Sanjay Jha in a Tweet on 2 November 2013 claimed as follows:
.
Facts
Communal riots erupted in Gujarat after 59 innocent Kar Sevaks were burnt alive in the S-6 bogie of the Sabarmati Express on 27 February 2002. Chief Minister Narendra Modi imposed curfew on the same day and deployed police contingents in all the communally sensitive areas across Gujarat. On 1 March, he had already flown in the army, which staged flag marches in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot. For detailed information on the Gujarat Government’s action, head
see http://www.gujaratriots.com/index.php/2008/05/role-of-the-government-in-controlling-violence/
This apart, a news clipping dated 6 March 2002 from the Hindu reports as follows:
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) in its report on the riots notes that
Verdict
Given that this information is in the public domain and easily verifiable both on the Internet and offline, one wonders the basis of Sanjay Jha’s claim.
It appears that the only purpose of Sanjay Jha’s assertion is to mislead the public and is motivated by political animosity towards Narendra Modi. As the national spokesperson of a national political party which is heading the current Indian Government, Sanjay Jha’s statement is highly irresponsible.
IndiaFacts verdict: Sanjay Jha’s statement that Narendra Modi did not visit the Gujarat riot victims for 35 days exposes him to be an Incorrigible Liar.
National spokesperson of the Congress party Sanjay Jha in a Tweet on 2 November 2013 claimed as follows:
.Facts
Communal riots erupted in Gujarat after 59 innocent Kar Sevaks were burnt alive in the S-6 bogie of the Sabarmati Express on 27 February 2002. Chief Minister Narendra Modi imposed curfew on the same day and deployed police contingents in all the communally sensitive areas across Gujarat. On 1 March, he had already flown in the army, which staged flag marches in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot. For detailed information on the Gujarat Government’s action, head
see http://www.gujaratriots.com/index.php/2008/05/role-of-the-government-in-controlling-violence/
This apart, a news clipping dated 6 March 2002 from the Hindu reports as follows:
Mr. Modi visited relief camps housing the minorities and instructed the officials concerned to ensure supply of essential commodities. Doctors visited the camps to treat the injured for the first time today since the beginning of the violence. Some 30,000 people are being sheltered in 18 relief camps.
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) in its report on the riots notes that
…Modi visited Gulbarg Society and Naroda Patia, which witnessed two of the worst massacres during the riots, and relief camps on March 5 and 6, 2002.Therefore, it is clear from these facts that Narendra Modi did visit the riot victims in just about a week contrary to Sanjay Jha’s claim of 35 days.
Verdict
Given that this information is in the public domain and easily verifiable both on the Internet and offline, one wonders the basis of Sanjay Jha’s claim.
It appears that the only purpose of Sanjay Jha’s assertion is to mislead the public and is motivated by political animosity towards Narendra Modi. As the national spokesperson of a national political party which is heading the current Indian Government, Sanjay Jha’s statement is highly irresponsible.
IndiaFacts verdict: Sanjay Jha’s statement that Narendra Modi did not visit the Gujarat riot victims for 35 days exposes him to be an Incorrigible Liar.
- See more at: http://www.indiafacts.co.in/narendra-modi-didnt-visit-riot-victims-for-35-days/#sthash.VMR5w8v6.dpuf
ALSO VISIT TO SEE WHAT BLUE BLOODED COP OF INDIA HAS TO SAY
http://bcvasundhra.blogspot.in/2014/02/the-blue-blooded-cop-r.html
A History of the Congress plunder of India
By
Gautam Sen
February 22, 2014.
The extraordinary material greed being displayed by India’s elites highlights profound moral degradation. It surfaces when concern for preserving the goose laying the golden eggs, if only to sustain future avarice, evaporates. This is what has been happening with much of India’s political, bureaucratic and economic elites. They have lost all sense of proportion about even the need to safeguard the nation, the estate they have largely usurped, for their own future offspring. The scale of the plunder that has been taking place has grievously undermined the very foundation of the fabled wealth of Bharat, the object of covetousness of invading looters for countless centuries.
The acquisition of gargantuan wealth has become the preoccupation of India’s elites, defying reason since it is unnecessary for even the most unwholesome luxury. Yet it guarantees the self-destruction of these very elites by diminishing the capacity of Indian society to sustain itself. Their greed has endangered the economy gravely and with it the security and integrity of the nation. The blame for this parlous situation lies with Sonia Gandhi, a grasping and ignorant foreigner, whose loyalty to the Indian nation, its people and culture is plainly faux. She is unconcerned because she does not value Indian civilisation and is incapable of the devotion to it the ordinary people of Bharat, its Hindus, instinctively feel.
The greed is really only for money and status because the thirst for political power is evidently only a means to attain them. No doubt a significant portion of the plunder is for electoral purposes, but it is the callous indifference towards the consequences of looting that appals. Besides, very little has been done with political power in the past decade to advance other goals. Even issues of vital importance to the nation have not been addressed, although pursuing them would not have militated against the personal interests of these elites. But a devastating act of betrayal has been committed by the UPA, which has been to preside over a massive, unseen surge in religious conversion, from Nepal in the foothills of the Himalayas to the south of India.
This is why no foreigner must ever again be allowed to enjoy the unbridled power Sonia Gandhi has wielded over the fate of India. All those around her are culpable, especially the incumbent President of India, but senior Congress politicians as well. They could have prevented her from seizing political power in India, but failed to do so. On the contrary, they have become co-conspirators in the unprecedented undermining of India. Legislation must now be enacted, as a matter of priority, to prevent the mendacious foreign spouses of stupid rulers from seizing the country again. This is a must and no resistance should be allowed, even if it requires a Constitutional amendment to permit a national referendum to implement it.
The manifold acts of criminality of India’s incumbent political elites are astonishing. They are complicit in almost every post-Godhra terrorist attack, which the terrorist bombers invariably cite as a major motivation for causing mayhem. Yet, these venal elites and their acolytes in the media continue to inflame Jihadi terror with the canard that that Narendra Modi and the people of Gujarat were responsible for genocide against Muslims. This fabrication was repeated recently by the UPA’s anointed heir despite the unequivocal rejection of the accusation by India’s Supreme Court. The dangerous vilification continues ad nauseam and has become a timeless cry espoused by India’s secular traitors to enjoin Jihad against India and its people.
Nor did the leaders of the UPA and their purchased media allies hesitate in conniving to damage India’s intelligence services by trying to ‘fix’ one of its most distinguished Intelligence Bureau officers. The ugly rationale was the vendetta against Narendra Modi because he threatens to bring their dreadful anti-national orgy to a close. Blatant incitement for his assassination also seems to be an option, by provoking Islamic terrorists to do their worst. Neither did the UPA government have any qualms about undermining India’s chief of army staff because the prime minister’s family had a candidate of its own to succeed him. The dismal affair concluded with the government revealing sensitive state secrets to embarrass the chief of staff.
Everything this lowly political order touches turns into dust, whether it is the US downgrading of India’s Director General of Civil Aviation or its Olympic organisation’s pathetic plight. The admixture of incompetence and arrogance exceeds the stench of a morgue. And the supporters of this dismal political dispensation in the media and what masquerades as Indian academia are mere street walkers. Their personal services are purchased for money. All the fluff of shrill, pretend-anglicised accents and lower second Oxbridge degrees should be laughed out of court. Treason must be viewed with more severe circumspection. Their intellectual and cultural pretensions are mere appendages in the attempt to subjugate India that has originated from abroad.
Malevolent European and US intellectual institutions are ultimately creatures of their governments and routinely serve their subversive political purposes of their State. Rabidly obnoxious texts emanating from Chicago and Harvard, etc., misrepresented as deep thought, are instruments of cultural aggression. They are intended to demoralise and infuse self-doubt in order to better overpower citizens of the target nation. Who says wartime propaganda cannot be conducted through the written word? India is veritably at war for its survival as an autonomous civilisation. The austere rules of warfare must apply against malicious attacks, whether political, military or cultural, against its integrity. The unsparing injunctions of the sacred Bhagavad-Gita, which apparently terrify Chicago University harridans, should be unleashed against foreign combatants.
During the past decade foreign conspirators have penetrated deep into the body politic and society of India although the process had begun a little earlier. A tsunami of money from abroad, Arab, Chinese and Western, has pretty much subverted India’s political life, as well as its journalists, academics, etc. Much of this illicit funding from abroad is camouflaged under the veil of human rights awards and other routine guises and takes the hawala route as well. In any case, knowledge of its provenance has not deterred traitorous recipients, some of whom have now joined the farcical drama that passes for politics in India.
Ford Foundation sponsored Magasaysay awardees, effectively foreign agents, having thwarted Baba Ramdev’s anti-corruption movement, with a diversionary one of their own, are working over time to prevent strong government emerging in India. The dubious AAP is now joined by another distraction, with the nomination of a certifiably insane opportunist as potential prime minister. Can India’s entire Islamic clergy now expect to be on the Government payroll, alongside the IAS and IPS? However, the most corrupt buffoons remain on the Left, gorged on the same Ford Foundation largesse and the hospitality of India’s sworn Pakistani and Chinese enemies. They are cheerfully calling for the dismantlement of the nation, to the chorus of freedom and human rights sonatas. In any respectable country they would have ended up behind bars or worse.
Moral degradation does not fall like rain from the skies, it must be fastidiously nurtured. The blame for it lies in the utter cupidity and intellectual mediocrity of Jawaharlal Nehru and his absurd political mentor. The banishment of all trace of Hindu sensibility, the life blood of Indian civilisation, from the public space, in favour of spurious toxic bile called Indian secularism, must be held responsible. In fact it is nothing of the kind since historic secularism was entirely a struggle against the ostensible fascism of the church in Europe. Secularism has no bearing on the cultural and social life of pluralist Hindu society, which did not control the State.
Indian secularism became instead a contemptible instrument of war against Hindus. It is systematically denying them their very socio-cultural identity, their history and their future. The absence of considered religious reflection removed essential restraints from Indian social and cultural life and imposed in its place gratuitous materialism and degraded sensuality. Without the divine, as Dostoevsky remarked, everything is permitted. This has been the malign gift of Nehruvian secularism to Indian society.
(Dr. Gautam Sen taught international political economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.)
- See more at: http://www.indiafacts.co.in/a-history-of-the-congress-plunder-of-india/#sthash.CcoznsyO.dpuf
SECTION - TWENTY NINE
SANTA KEJRIWAL PARACHUTES RIDING ON A BROOM
KEJRIWAL THE " X " FACTOR
SWARAJ (MEIN KAMPF OF INDIA)
BY
ARVIND KEJRIWAL
&
THE RULES OF THE BALL GAME CHANGES
Kejriwal’s Delhi Dharna – This is not anarchy, Mr Home Minister, This is Revolution
What we are witnessing in Delhi today is historic – for the first time since Independence a legitimate political party has refused to play by the rules that all political parties in India have battened on for sixty-five years; for the first time a State Government has taken on the Central Government at its own doorstep; for the first time a Chief Minister and his entire Cabinet are sitting in protest in their own capital; for the first time their own police force is ranged against them in their thousands.
The immediate reason for this may be the demand for the suspension of five police officials, but the actual reason is more basic, and fundamental to any democracy — accountability of the rulers to the ruled.
CHIEF MINISTER
Kejriwal fighting the Central Government on Delhi streets
The rulers are not just the politicians and the bureaucrats – they are also the larger constituency that benefits from the present status quo: the industrialists, the TV and news organisations, the “cognoscenti”, the “glitterati”, the South Delhi socialites, the “intelligentsia” that makes a nice living by appearing nightly on TV panel discussions: in short, all those who are comfortable with the status quo.
They have, with the assistance of disgruntled elements like Kiran Bedi and Captain Gopinath, unleashed a veritable barrage of abuse and condemnation against Kejriwal and his party over the last week, terming him a Dictator, Anarchist, Chief Protestor, Law-breaker and so on.
It is because they feel genuinely threatened by the forces that the AAP has unleashed, the ethical standards that it has prescribed and demonstrated, the personal examples that its leaders have shown. Because they know that if these paradigms become the norm of a new India then the sand castles that these privileged reside in shall come crumbling down in no time.
And so they accuse Kejriwal of not following prescribed conventions, protocol or procedure and thus encouraging anarchy. Let us look at just three of these alleged transgressions:
Yes, it is operationally independent of the government (as it should be) but it is certainly not a holy cow whose performance cannot be questioned, or monitored, by the people of this country through their elected representatives.
The judiciary is meant to serve the people, just as the bureaucracy is, and it cannot have internal accountability only. An elected government has to have the right to review its performance, especially given the pathetic state of the disposal of cases in courts.
In my view Mr. Bharti was within his rights to take a meeting of judicial officers to assess the shortcomings of the system (which is the first step to removing these shortcomings). Yes, he could have routed the request through the High Court, but this was a trivial error and certainly not the grievous violation that the media made it out to be.
To the contrary, the Law Minister should be lauded for his initiative in seeking to address the issue instead of washing his hands of it as ALL LAW MINISTERS OF THIS COUNTRY HAVE DONE SO FAR, as if the collapse of the judicial redressal system was no concern of the government!
2. Subsidies on water and power to small consumers in Delhi (something for which Kejriwal has been contemptuously branded a populist). Really?
The Central Government dishes out more than 160000 crores worth of subsidy every year on just three schemes (Mid-day Meals, MNREGA and Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan). Just about every state gives subsidies on water and power.
Here’s something Mr. Arnab Goswami and his kind should consider: the Golf Club in New Delhi which has about 4000 privileged members (all of whom are now arraigned against Kejriwal) has been given 250 acres of the most expensive real estate in the country worth 60000 crores for a paltry lease of about Rs. 15 lakhs per annum.
The annual return on Rs. 60000 crores should be at the very least Rs. 6000 crores: in effect, what this means is that every member of the Golf Club is being given a subsidy of Rs. 1.50 crores every year! The same is the case with the Gymkhana Club, another watering hole for the rich, the famous, and the now scared.
According to the latest report of the RBI, the total non-performing assets (NPA) of the Banks in India is more than Rs. 1.60 lakh crores.
NPA is just a euphemism for what the Vijay Mallyas and the Captain Gopinaths of the world owe to the aam aadmi (and refuse to pay) while flying all over the world in their private jets and pontificating in TV studios on the correct form of governance. Is it “populism” if indulged in by Kejriwal, and “entitlement” and “economic surge” when practiced by others ?
Shorne of all this, what does the entire incident amount to?
Merely this:
a Minister, in response to complaints by residents (which are on record, as is the police inaction on them for months) of a locality personally visits the spot and asks the police to take immediate action by raiding the building where illegal activities are taking place.
is the essence of the matter. "
All the rest – search warrants, lack of female police, racism, urinating in public, cavity search(!) [the latest addition to the shrinking vocabulary of Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi] etc.- are red herrings and a smoke screen which no doubt the judicial Inquiry Commission shall see through.
How was the Minister wrong in asking the police to take action? Is it a Minister’s job to simply sit in an air-conditioned office and write on files? (a question which Kejriwal has asked and to which we are still waiting for an enlightened response from Ms. Barkha Dutt and gang).
Does the police require a search warrant to enter
a place where they have reason to believe that
illegal activities are going on? Really, Mr. Salve?
"If so, then how do you explain their barging
into the house in the Batla House encounter and
shooting three people, WITHOUT A SEARCH
WARRANT? Or their constant nocturnal forays
Into the poor whore-houses of GB Road
whenever they are short of spending money"
No, sir, the opposition to Kejriwal from the BJP and the Congress, from the Arnab Goswamis, Rajdeep Sardesais, the Barkha Dutts, the Kiran Bedis, from the Editors of English dailies, from the captains of industry, from the Single Malts and Bloody Marys of Gymkhana and Golf Clubs, does not stem from any illegality or impropriety on his part, or from any ideological differences between them.
It stems from their complete and total failure to comprehend what Kejriwal is and what he stands for. It stems also from the deep social divide between the upper crust of society( who are happy with the status quo where their money, power and contacts can ensure them a comfortable life) and the masses below them who have to daily bear the brunt of the system inspired corruption, harassment, inconvenience and indignity that the present dispensation guarantees them.
This (hitherto unacknowledged and invisible) divide becomes clear when we compare the editorial slants of the English and Hindi channels in the coverage of the ongoing protests: the former are virulently anti AAP and only pop up panelists who support that view, while the latter appear to be more understanding of what AAP is trying to do.
Those who are denouncing Kejriwal for being an autocrat, anarchist, activist and for protesting at Raisina Road are missing the most obvious point of his movement –
THAT KEJRIWAL WILL NOT PLAY BY
THEIR RULES ANY MORE.
As they say in Las Vegas – you can’t beat the house, because the dice are loaded against you.( Everyone wants him to play with their set of dice which they mysteriously call the Constitution and the CRPC!) but Kejriwal wants to play with his own dice, hence the confrontation.
They want him to pass a joint resolution of the Assembly for bringing the police under the Delhi govt.-he’s smart enough to see that the resolution will be thrown into the same waste paper basket where presumably the Ordinance on protecting convicted MPs was consigned by Rahul Gandhi.
They want him to be a good boy and take his dharna to Jantar Mantar where all civilised protests begin and inevitably end, while the govt. of the day can get on with its gerrymandering uninterrupted-he knows that unless he disrupts the comfortable existence of the bourgeois he may as well relieve himself in the Yamuna for all the difference he will make.
"They want him to sit in the Secretariat and be
guided by his bureaucrats and lose all touch
with reality- he won’t fall for this Pavlovian
routine. They desperately want him to become
one of them, red light, siren, gun-toting
commandos, Lutyen’s bungalow and all- he
knows that if he falls for this he loses his USP
and becomes just an intern in this hoary club of
gnarled sinners."
They want him to follow the script co-authored by all the political parties of the day, not one excluded, because this script contains an agreed-upon plot, wherein politicians make noises but don’t act against each other, wherein corruption is just a sound-bite, where dynastic succession is a silently accepted sine qua non, where no one is interested in finding out whether the hundreds of proved Swiss bank accounts contain anything other than Swiss chocolates – Kejriwal, however, wants to write his own script with substantial inputs from the aam aadmi, not from the Ambanis or the Radias or the Shobhna Bhartias.
They want him to talk about corruption but not do anything about it, something Manish Tewari’s poetic flair would term “willing to wound but afraid to strike”, an attitude as old as Chanakya and Kautilya which offers all of us a catharsis via the good offices of Arnab Goswami and little else- but Kejriwal is no respecter of Machiavelli or Chanakya, his vocabulary is limited because he can only call a spade a spade, he is colour blind because he can only see in black and white (the shades of greys can be left for the likes of Manu Singhvi), and therefore he insists on striking, not just talking.
The establishment has made the supreme mistake of trying to counter him by quoting the rules of the game (loaded in the former’s favour, naturally!) they are past masters of- but Kejriwal has changed the rules, and now they don’t know how to control him or neutralise him.
"For the time being only Kejriwal knows the new rules, and he is springing them on the carpet baggers one by one, catching them by surprise all the time."
Forget the English TV channels-they rarely get anything right. Forget the Manish Tewaris, the Kiran Bedis, the FICCI spokespersons, the Minakshi Lekhis- they are either scared witless or rank opportunists. What they all do have in common, however, is that they have failed to see how the common man-the aam aadmi-are gathering behind this dimunitive man with the perpetual cough.
The sincerity, integrity and commitment of this man is phenomenal, his capacity to harness the anger and frustration of the people is limitless. His defiance of accepted conventions and interpretations is not anarchy – it is nothing short of a revolution. When the people have had enough of injustice, callousness and indignity, they will not play by the rules of the rulers-they will make new rules.
"The French Revolution would not have happened if the existing rules had been followed. Tehrir Square would not have happened if everyone swore by the old rules. Changing the rules, Mr. Home Minister, is not anarchy – it is the beginning of a people’s revolution."
The sooner we realise this the less pain in the transition, the less violence. No matter how the stand-off in Delhi ends – capitulation by the Home Minister and the Police, withdrawal of support by the Congress, imposition of President’s Rule, police violence on the protesters and their eviction – one thing is certain: Kejriwal is going nowhere.
He, and his paradigms, are here to stay and haunt our rulers. With his uncanny understanding of the pulse of the people he has re-written the rules of politics and governance.
There are now only two options Kejriwal has left the ruling class –
either they change,
or
the people will change them.
Satyameva Jayate: Truth Alone Triumphs
My dear sisters and brothers,
The law of nature is that Truth alone triumphs –
Satyameva Jayate. Our judiciary having spoken, I felt
it important to share my inner thoughts and feelings with the nation at
large.
The end brings back memories of the beginning.
The devastating earthquake of 2001 had plunged Gujarat into the gloom of
death, destruction and sheer helplessness. Hundreds of lives were lost.
Lakhs were rendered homeless. Entire livelihoods were destroyed. In such
traumatic times of unimaginable suffering, I was given the
responsibility to soothe and rebuild. And we had whole heartedly
plunged ourselves into the challenge at hand.
Within a mere five months however, the
mindless violence of 2002 had dealt us another unexpected blow.
Innocents were killed. Families rendered helpless. Property built through years
of toil destroyed. Still struggling to get back on its feet from the natural
devastation, this was a crippling blow to an already shattered and
hurting Gujarat.
I was shaken to the core. ‘Grief’, ‘Sadness’,
‘Misery’, ‘Pain’, ‘Anguish’, ‘Agony’ – mere words could not capture the
absolute emptiness one felt on witnessing such inhumanity.
On one side was the pain of the victims of the
earthquake, and on the other the pain of the victims of the riots. In decisively
confronting this great turmoil, I had to single-mindedly focus all the strength
given to me by the almighty, on the task of peace, justice and rehabilitation;
burying the pain and agony I was personally wracked with.
During those challenging times, I often
recollected the wisdom in our scriptures; explaining how those sitting in
positions of power did not have the right to share their own pain and anguish.
They had to suffer it in solitude. I lived through the
same, experiencing this anguish in searingly sharp intensity.
In fact, whenever I remember those agonizing days, I have only one earnest
prayer to God. That never again should such cruelly unfortunate days come in the
lives of any other person, society, state or nation.
This is the first time I am sharing the
harrowing ordeal I had gone through in those days at a personal
level.
However, it was from these very built up emotions
that I had appealed to the people of Gujarat on the day of the Godhra train
burning itself; fervently urging for peace and restraint to
ensure lives of innocents were not put at risk. I had repeatedly reiterated the
same principles in my daily interactions with the media in those fateful days of
February-March 2002 as well; publically underlining the political will as well
as moral responsibility of the government to ensure peace, deliver
justice and punish all guilty of violence. You will
also find these deep emotions in my recent words at my Sadbhavana fasts, where I
had emphasized how such deplorable incidents did not behove a civilized
society and had pained me deeply.
In fact, my emphasis has always been on
developing and emphasizing a spirit of unity; with the now
widely used concept of ‘my 5 crore Gujarati brothers and sisters’ having
crystallised right at the beginning of my tenure as CM itself from this very
space.
However, as if all the suffering was not enough,
I was also accused of the death and misery of my own loved ones, my Gujarati
brothers and sisters. Can you imagine the inner turmoil and shock of
being blamed for the very events that have shattered you!
For so many years, they incessantly kept up their
attack, leaving no stone unturned. What pained even more was that in their
overzealousness to hit at me for their narrow personal and political
ends, they ended up maligning my entire state and country. This
heartlessly kept reopening the wounds that we were sincerely
trying to heal. It ironically also delayed the very justice
that these people claimed to be fighting for. Maybe they did not realize how
much suffering they were adding to an already pained people.
Gujarat however had decided its own path. We
chose peace over violence. We chose unity over divisiveness. We chose goodwill
over hatred. This was not easy, but we were determined to commit for the long
haul. From a life of daily uncertainty and fear; my Gujarat transformed into one
of Shanti, Ekta and Sadbhavana. I
stand a satisfied and reassured man today. And for this, I credit each
and every Gujarati.
The Gujarat Government had responded to the
violence more swiftly and decisively than ever done before in any
previous riots in the country. Yesterday’s judgement culminated a
process of unprecedented scrutiny closely monitored by the
highest court of the land, the Honourable
Supreme Court of India. Gujarat’s 12 years of trial by the fire have
finally drawn to an end. I feel liberated and at peace.
I am truly grateful to all those
who stood by me in these trying times; seeing through the facade of lies and
deceit. With this cloud of misinformation firmly dispelled, I will now also hope
that the many others out there trying to understand and connect with the real
Narendra Modi would feel more empowered to do so.
Those who derive satisfaction by perpetuating
pain in others will probably not stop their tirade against me. I do not expect
them to. But, I pray in all humility, that they at least now stop irresponsibly
maligning the 6 crore people of Gujarat.
Emerging from this journey of pain and
agony; I pray to God that no bitterness seeps into my heart. I
sincerely do not see this judgement as a personal victory or defeat, and urge
all – my friends and especially my opponents – to not do so as well. I was
driven by this same principle at the time of the Honourable Supreme Court’s 2011
judgement on this matter. I fasted 37 days for Sadbhavana,
choosing to translate the positive judgement into constructive action,
reinforcing Unity and Sadbhavana in society at large.
I am deeply convinced that the future of
any society, state or country lies in harmony. This is the only
foundation on which progress and prosperity can be built. Therefore, I urge one
and all to join hands in working towards the same, ensuring smiles on each and
every face.
Once again, Satyameva
Jayate!
Vande Mataram!
Narendra Modi
SECTION - TWENTY SEVEN
Wish-List for the Wannabe Prime Minister! -- M.G.Devasahayam
13 DEC 2013
An excellent article on Modi by Shri MG Devasahayam, an eminent retired IAS officer of Haryana cadre, who has been inspired by the JP Movement and chronicled the defining moment in India's democratic history.
I thank Shri Devasahayam sincerely for the balanced analytical piece in times when psecularati main-stream-media has gone berserk.
I hope this article by this former Army Major will be read carefully by NaMo's election team (if one such team exists), the lessons of elections as warfare learnt and the needed course corrections applied as the cry gets louder: Simhasan khaali karo, ke janataa aati hai.
Kalyanaraman
Wish-List for the Wannabe Prime Minister!
When Narendra Modi was made BJP’s campaign committee chief, a leading newspaper column wrote this: “For the faithful, there is no truth bigger than Narendra Modi’s ‘destined’ future as Prime Minister. His critics protest that the elevation will not happen, worry that it might happen, and agonise over what will happen when that happens….The Gujarat Chief Minister is admittedly a challenge the like of which India has never seen before.” Soon thereafter the saffron party threw down the gauntlet by declaring him as the prime ministerial candidate. And he is running a full juggernaut around the country adopting a ‘Messiah’ mode of campaigning!
Modi is the longest-serving chief minister of Gujarat. He is known for his astute administrative skills and has a record for being incorruptible. He is credited with turning around Gujarat's economy and making it an attractive investment destination for industrialists. Modi is a compelling orator who, as one corporate executive after another has said, offers the best model of governance in a country rife with corruption and red tape.
Across the nation there is a palpable sense of elation at the prospect of Modi becoming the Prime Minister. According to his admirers NaMo has arrived in style, notwithstanding the stiff resistance from many quarters. For them Delhi is finally on NaMo’s radar and his devotees can see the domes of South Block, which he will hopefully occupy not in the distant future.
Fortifying this, Narendra Modi is claiming the legacy of the ‘Iron Man of India’ Sardar Vallabbhai Patel by reiterating the comment that has been in the minds of many people: “Had Sardar been the first prime minister of India, the country’s destiny would have been different.” Another association NaMo claims is that of Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) whom his chronicler Sunanda K. Datta-Ray considers “as the best Prime Minister India never had.” Those who knew JP would agree wholeheartedly. Narendra Modi’s involvement in the Navnirman Movement of the turbulent 1970s was deeply inspired by none other than JP who remained a powerful guiding force for him.
I have known JP closely and had the privilege of having indirectly assisted him in achieving India’s second freedom. I have read a lot about the Sardar and what he had done to shape India as a unified nation and position the instruments to sustain it. I entirely agree that had these true patriots and passionate leaders guided the destiny of independent India in the initial years we would today be a true and functional democracy and not the false and dysfunctional ‘dynacracy’ that we are! Nevertheless, for Modi to convincingly invoke the names of these towering titans, his agenda needs considerable depth and width.
There are several positive things going for Modi though. He spoke for entire South India when he declared at a Chennai meeting that ‘India is not just New Delhi’. He draws massive crowds wherever he goes and the vibrancy at his rallies are reminiscent of the post-Emergency scenario when people of the Indo-Gangetic belt, responding to the battle-cry of JP, threw out Indira Gandhi’s government in the 1977 election lock, stock and barrel. I have been witness to this. What has also impressed the public was his composure and demeanour while addressing a massive crowd, even as low intensity bombs were going off at his Hunkar rally in Patna. This is clear demonstration of his courage in the face of mortal danger, his presence of mind, his leadership qualities and forbearance.
Of late, in his own inimitable style ‘the tea-seller’ is projecting a vision in which bare necessities like electricity and clean water will be basic rights and not favours from government and creating an economy that generates real jobs is as important as formulation of economic policies for a rich and prosperous India. These are not easy ideas to convey to people but there are signs that Modi is getting his message through.
Be that as it may, Modi has a long way to go and many hurdles to cross before he occupies the high office of prime minister through democratic means unlike the present un-elected surrogate of the dynastic clan! The most formidable hurdle is Godhra-killings (2002) and the wide perception that he is non-secular. N. Ram of ‘The Hindu’ puts it bluntly: “It is this unbreakable genetic connection between 2002 and the present that makes it clear that a Modi prime ministership would be disastrous for democratic and secular India.” BJP does deny this vociferously as being contrary to truth. But in the public domain ‘truth’ is not the ‘truth’, perception is the ‘truth’!
The second major hurdle is Modi’s own creation-the ‘development model’ that he has been ardently advocating. While admitting that Modi has the penchant for pursuing ‘development’ by fast-tracking industrial and other projects many experts and economists feel that his model is not inclusive. They are of the view that while cities and towns have ‘developed’ under Modi’s infrastructure /industrialization pursuit, villages have mostly been left in the lurch. His is not different from UPA’s FDI-driven ‘growth’ agenda, laden with predatory and market-mad economic policies that is polarising people into one-third ‘privileged’ class and two-third ‘laggards’ living on the crumbs that trickle down!Polarising politics and the society is the main charge against Modi. Polarising the economy in addition would be triple-whammy with adverse consequences. Seeking to impose this Gujarat ‘development model’ on the whole nation could result in backlash from the ‘laggards’.
These major hurdles apart, Modi’s campaign itself has serious flaws. As of now, apart from one-liners, punching jibes, personal anecdotes, stale platitudes, satirical flings and promised goals there is no worthwhile content in any of his speeches or discourses. This is despite the fact that never before in the history of independent India has there been such dire need for serious debate to address the gravest crises that confront the nation. India needs to know what should be done to set things right. These include near-total inaction by governments in the midst of humongous corruption; severe compromise of energy security by the mad pursuit of imported nuclear reactors; complete foreign-policy disaster resulting in neighbouring countries including tiny Sri Lanka humiliating us; the Telangana implosion and huge gaps in the working of our Constitution which have wrecked federalism, ruined governance and removed all accountability from our political system.
The form and substance of affirmative action to introduce social justice have left huge segments of population aggrieved and angry while creating bitter divisiveness between many castes and communities. The economy is sinking. Prices are soaring. Unemployment, particularly in rural India is mounting. Due to extractive land policies, agriculture is perishing and food insecurity is looming. Bereft of any ethos, urbanisation has descended into chaotic land-lust. The FDI-GDP mania has choked labour-intensive manufacturing sector, crippling skill-development and employment generation. With horrendous loot in defence procurement and mainstream armed forces nurturing a sense of alienation, military morale is low and national security is under threat. There have been concerted decimation of institutions and instruments of governance and those that are left stand diminished and devalued. Civil Services (IAS/IPS) are in total disarray.
None of these burning issues that are threatening the stability, safety and integrity of the nation has been meaningfully addressed by the Gujarat Chief Minister who could soon be ‘guiding the destiny of the nation!’ The man who wants to change the face of India and the way the Republic functions has not even talked of the ‘Idea of India’ and ‘Philosophy of the Republic’ as defined by its Founding Fathers.
‘Political idea’ of democracy is contained in the ‘Objectives Resolution’ moved by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1948 seeking a Republic “wherein all power and authority of the Sovereign Independent India, its constituent parts and organs of government, are derived from the people”. As early as 1922 Gandhiji had described ‘Swaraj’ as merely a “courteous ratification of the declared wish of the people of India”. Visions of these two Founding Fathers envisaged people-based governance with a bottom-up decision making process that would give everyone ‘a place in the sun’.
Structurally, India’s democracy was to rise storey by storey from the foundation comprising of self-governing, self-sufficient, agro-industrial, urbo-rural local communities-gram sabha, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad- that would form the foundation of vidhan sabhas and Lok Sabha. These politico-economic institutions will control and regulate the use of natural resources for the good of the community and the nation.
Built on such foundation is the ‘economic idea’ of equity envisaging Independent India as sui generis, a society unlike any other, in a class of its own that would not follow the Western pattern of mega industrialisation, urbanisation and individuation. India’s would be a people’s economy that would chart out a distinct course in economic growth, which would be need-based, human-scale, balanced development while conserving nature and livelihoods. In a self-respecting nation every citizen should get the strength, resource, opportunity and level-playing-field to stand on their feet and earn his/her livelihood with honour and dignity instead of endlessly depending on corporate trickle-downs and government charity.
Philosophy of the Republic is in the Preamble of the Constitution: "….to secure to all its citizens JUSTICE; social, economic and political, LIBERTY; of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity and to promote among all its citizens; FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation.”
These now lie in virtual ruins and needs to be rebuilt. On the ‘development’ side instead of blindly advocating a predatory agenda one should listen to what authors James A. Robinson and Daron Acemoglu say in their scintillating Book, ‘Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty’: “Inclusive economic institutions that enforce property rights, create a level playing field, and encourage investments in new technologies and skills are more conducive to economic growth than extractive economic institutions that are structured to extract resources from the many by the few….Inclusive economic institutions, are in turn supported by, and support, inclusive political institutions…”
Most of India’s ills are due to too much of ‘government’. This needs urgent remediation. One should recall Thomas Jefferson’s sane advice: "That government is best which governs least."
The task is cut out for “modi’fication” of Narendra Damodardas Modi, the man who could be PM!
SECTION - TWENTY SIX
MOTHER INDIA
SECTION - TWENTY FIVE
India
Would Modi save India or wreck it?
India’s Muslims have reason to fear Narendra Modi. He should reach out to them.
EVEN five years ago it would have been inconceivable; but, with a general election due by next May, Narendra Modi is the front-runner to become India’s next prime minister. The long-serving chief minister of Gujarat has always had a core of passionate supporters for his mix of economic efficiency and hardline Hindu nationalism, and because he gets things done, an increasing number of voters see him as the saviour of India’s struggling economy (see article). But Indian politics has no more divisive figure. A terrible blot hangs over his reputation since an orgy of violence in his state in 2002 left over 1,000 dead, most of them Muslims. Do his qualities outweigh that huge stain?
Modi madness
In four of the five state elections announced this week Congress was deservedly walloped. One encouraging sign was the emergence of an anti-corruption movement in Delhi (see article). The main beneficiary of this passion for change, however, is Mr Modi. Not only is he the prime-ministerial candidate for the Hindu, centre-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but, to an unusual degree for an Indian party, he is the public face of its campaign. His visibility helps account for its success this week in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi. A brilliant orator, the 63-year-old attracts huge crowds around the country. Whereas Indian politicians usually pay people to attend their rallies, Mr Modi charges an entrance fee—which is both a sign of the enthusiasm he arouses and a way of making supporters feel they belong to a powerful movement. Many of India’s business titans are besotted with him. Anil Ambani of Reliance Group calls him “the lord of men, a leader among leaders and a king among kings”. Investors think that he would fire up the economy. Bright young acolytes are giving up well-paid jobs to join his campaign.
Much about Mr Modi appeals to this newspaper too. He is a man of action and an outspoken outsider in a political system stuffed with cronies. In contrast with the pampered Mr Gandhi, great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru and son of Sonia Gandhi, Congress’s behind-the-scenes boss, Mr Modi comes from a low caste and a modest background as a tea-seller; his success is down to drive and ambition. And in a system shot through with corruption, he seems pretty clean.
Unusually for a serious contender to be prime minister, Mr Modi has a record from a dozen years as a chief minister. Gujarat, a state of 60m people, has boomed as he has cut red tape and built roads and power lines. Business has flourished and investment has poured in. Gujarat accounts for just 5% of India’s population, yet produces nearly a quarter of its exports. State GDP has almost tripled under Mr Modi. Most social indicators have also improved. Even among Muslims, generally poorer than Hindus, the poverty rate has fallen from over 40% to 11% in two decades. Mr Modi talks of replicating Gujarat’s rapid growth, industrial development and improved infrastructure across India. That is refreshing. Politicians usually promise subsidies and largesse for special interests.
This is the Modi who could save India and greatly benefit hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people. But his business supporters should face the fact that there is also a Modi who risks breaking India. Two serious questions hang over his character.
The first concerns his leadership. He is an autocratic loner who is a poor delegator. That may work at state level, but not at national level—particularly when the BJP is likely to come to power only as part of a coalition. A man who does not listen to the counsel of others is likely to make bad decisions, and if he were prime minister of India, and thus had his finger on the button of a potential nuclear conflict with Pakistan, Mr Modi would be faced with some very serious ones.
Beyond the pale?
The BJP is not the only party in India with a bloody history. Congress turned a blind eye in 1984 as thousands of Sikhs were massacred in rage at the murder of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Yet Congress does not pursue a policy against Sikhs or any other ethnic or religious group, while Mr Modi has devoted much of his life to the pursuit of an extreme form of Hindu nationalism. His state party included no Muslim candidates in last year’s election and he has refused to wear a Muslim skull-cap. Other BJP leaders have worn them. He failed to condemn riots in Uttar Pradesh in September in which most of the victims were Muslim.
All sins of omission perhaps, but in India symbols like skull-caps matter—as Mr Modi well knows. India’s great strength is its inclusiveness. In the next five months Mr Modi needs to show that his idea of a pure India is no longer a wholly Hindu one. How he does that is his own affair, but an unambiguous public demonstration that he abhors violence and discrimination against Muslims is a bare minimum. Otherwise, this newspaper will not back him.
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The party begins...8 (CONCLUDED)
With Narendra Modi’s elevation, the Bharatiya Janata Party has rebooted itself.
2 December 2013: This is the concluding part of the series, “The party begins...,” and focuses on the Bharatiya Janata Party, the favourite to win next year’s general election and the in-progress assembly polls.
Although it is an established mainstream entity, the Bharatiya Janata Party does not understand power in the venal manner that the Congress does. The Congress seeks power for itself. Any and all means are fair towards its possession and preservation. Such obsessive foundations for power were laid for the party by Jawaharlal Nehru and carried forward by Indira Gandhi.
Although it is an established mainstream entity, the Bharatiya Janata Party does not understand power in the venal manner that the Congress does. The Congress seeks power for itself. Any and all means are fair towards its possession and preservation. Such obsessive foundations for power were laid for the party by Jawaharlal Nehru and carried forward by Indira Gandhi.
On the other hand, the forerunner of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Jana Sangha, had shaky beginnings, half-heartedly brought to existence by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangha chief, Guru Golwalkar, to pacify the two Deoras brothers, Balasaheb and Bhaurao. Golwalkar hoped the party to be wound up in his lifetime and enable the Sangha to concentrate on its core work of organizing Hindu society. Until some years ago, at least in moments of dissatisfaction with the Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangha leaders reiterated Golwalkar’s fond hope of the political organization’s eventual demise.
With Deendayal Upadhyay’s untimely death, the party came under Atal Behari Vajpayee’s tutelage, who being a Nehruvian could not mould the organization to have a distinct ideology, remaining a poor copy of the Congress. His number 2, Lal Krishna Advani, while a robust leader of movements, could not fix the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological weaknesses. It has devolved on Narendra Modi to give the party a political and ideological grid, and he has turned to Sardar Patel. The move is certainly brilliant, but Patel studies must go to great depth for the Bharatiya Janata Party to draw the fullest inspiration from India’s true Iron Man.
But learning is only a part of the process of rebuilding a party, and much has gone wrong with the Bharatiya Janata Party apparatus. There is disconnect between the leadership and the cadres which for a cadre-based party such as the Bharatiya Janata Party spells disaster. The disconnect may not be so evident in the states where the party is in power, but it is markedly so in Delhi, where the Bharatiya Janata Party’s central leadership is based. If this situation had continued unremedied, the Delhi assembly polls and the national elections would have been lost cases for the party.
It is to cease the drift that the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangha drafted Modi as the party’s prime minister candidate. After long years, the cadres were enthused about one leader, and the Sangha could not pass up the opportunity. The large crowds that attend Modi’s rallies all over the country are self-actuated, but the cadres are also enthused to spread the word about him. It is the cadres who will work the last mile to coax the voters to the booths, and the Modi magic has trickled right down here as well.
Essentially, therefore, apart from whatever else he is doing, Modi is also saving the Bharatiya Janata Party from becoming moribund. Under the collective leadership established by Advani, the party was functioning as a B-team of the Congress. This was basically a continuation of the Vajpayee formula for the National Democratic Alliance. The Bharatiya Janata Party would constitute the diffident core while the allies would arrive after handsome bargains. There was no boldness with this scheme, and the aim was for the soft jettisoning of the Congress, if at all. Narendra Modi has completely rebuffed the project.
The Gujarat chief minister has led the party into the centre of battle. He aims for the party to capture the most number of Lok Sabha seats and reduce the dependence on allies. There would have been no place in the new setup for Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal - United so he walked out. But others are knocking the door for admittance, including Nara Chandrababu Nadu. With the Bharatiya Janata Party resurgent, the suitors have increased.
In the highly competitive world of politics, this is bound to happen. Modi is seen as an agent of change. But it remains to be seen how much he can transform the party. Others have to pitch in, notably the party president, Rajnath Singh. The focus is on the elections, as it needs to be. But the party also requires long-term reconstruction. Direct election for the party president’s post would considerably improve the party’s standing. The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangha is currently opposed to this, but it will become inevitable in times to come. In the meantime, urgency must be shown to build a second- and third-line party leadership.
Much has to be done. But things have fallen in place with Modi’s elevation. The Bharatiya Janata Party will never become dubiously power-centric like the Congress, but under Narendra Modi, it will shed Vajpayee’s diffidence and Nehruvianism. Rating: 6 out of 10.
Concluded...
Also read “The party begins...1,” “The party begins...2,” “The party begins...3,” “The party begins...4” “The party begins...5.” “The party begins...6.” and “The party begins...7.”
The party begins...7
A power-obsessed Congress has committed hara-kiri.
New Delhi: Today’s analysis in the series, “The party begins...,” focuses exclusively on one of the two mainstream parties, the Congress, and the concluding part featuring the Bharatiya Janata Party will appear next week.
The Congress party is a little like Pakistan. India has multiple agendas with Pakistan, and Kashmir is not at the forefront of them. Once Pakistan progresses to complete democratic normalcy, with the military under firm civilian control and having no say in foreign affairs, and jihad extirpated as an instrument of state policy, India believes the Kashmir issue can be settled. But Pakistan is singularly focussed on Kashmir; it has destroyed itself for possessing territory which cannot strengthen its fragile nationhood; and it is engaged in a war to the bitter end with India.
Like Pakistan is obsessed with Kashmir, the Congress party exists solely to be in power. Power determines its being. Because the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has proved so long to be an ideal vehicle to reach this state of being, the dynasty is worshipped with a fanaticism usually reserved for dreaded ideologies. Naturally, in the circumstances, power cannot be used to the good. Power is employed to perpetuate power. And in this no-holds-barred process, nothing is kosher.
And nothing is quite as special as loot. The bigger the loot, the better, because it generates surplus, after the enormous individual avarices are satisfied. This surplus is employed to suborn the election process by rigged polling (one Union minister won a Lok Sabha election by a laughably low margin); votebanks are created and funded; dirty tricks are liberally resourced, and one manifestation of this is sting journalism which has sullied the profession; institutions are subverted, which includes certainly the subordinate judiciary, all levels of police, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Comptroller and Auditor General; and Parliament is compromised, and this can no longer be brushed aside after the corrupt confidence vote in favour of the Indo-United States nuclear deal, and in the way laws have been passed with no correlation to public good but all singularly designed to keep the Congress in power. In other words, in the most fitting Nazi tradition, the Indian state exists only to serve the Congress party, with the people becoming slave labour.
How did things go so wrong? The rot began when Mohan Karamchand Gandhi ignored the superior claims of Sardar Patel to be India’s first prime minister and anointed Jawaharlal Nehru who was supposed to have international charisma. Patel’s early death enabled Nehru to bury his glorious legacy and supplant it with phoney democratic liberalism, which did not prevent the dismissal of arguably the world’s first elected communist government in Kerala (the Paris Commune was a forerunner of a different kind).
Her father’s virtual dictatorship grew to become Indira Gandhi’s authoritarianism. This lead to the decimation of residual inner-party democracy in the Congress, the promulgation of Emergency, the rise of the first dynast, Sanjay, and the second, Rajiv, and it provoked the tragic joining of faith and politics in Punjab, which culminated in the horror of Operation Bluestar. Through Rajiv Gandhi, the Bofors scandal, the insane intervention in Sri Lanka, down to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, the Congress has been on a downward trajectory since. But as the party’s growing electoral rejection rings alarm bells in dynastic quarters, the desperation to preserve power by any means becomes rabid. Today, Narendra Modi stands as the only alternative to the venal and dynastic Congress, and therefore, the entire Congress machinery is mobilized to destroy him.
What does it tell about the Congress that one man symbolizes doom for the party?
The history of dynasties is that they grow extinct or cease to matter over a course. This happens with royalty (the British revere theirs because there is nothing else going); it is true of industrial and banking dynasties; the record is no better in cinema and in the others arts. The Kennedys and the Clintons will pass on, and may already have. The trouble with the Congress party is that it is entirely bound up with the Nehru-Gandhis, and cannot conceive of an independent existence. There are those such as Pranab Mukherjee who refuse to equate the Congress party with the dynasty, famously demanding to be prime minister after Indira Gandhi died, but eventually he too bailed out to the Rashtrapati Bhawan. But his departure has weakened the Congress.
The Congress today is a vast dinosaur which finds itself marooned in a suddenly mutated environment of round-the-clock hostile television, a vengeful social media, and a great sullen electorate that has had enough of a political party that should have ceased to exist long ago. India no longer wants to be an appendage of the Congress. It desires to be rid of the dynasty, because the dynasty has only brought it pain and hurt and suffering. It wishes to start all over again, and the process has commenced with the assembly elections that are underway, and will reach its apogee in 2014. The Congress will suffer a knockout blow next year from which it cannot re-emerge in its old dynastic form. Rating of the Congress: 2 out of 10.
Also read “The party begins...1,” “The party begins...2,” “The party begins...3,” “The party begins...4” “The party begins...5.” and “The party begins...6.”
To be continued...
The Congress party is a little like Pakistan. India has multiple agendas with Pakistan, and Kashmir is not at the forefront of them. Once Pakistan progresses to complete democratic normalcy, with the military under firm civilian control and having no say in foreign affairs, and jihad extirpated as an instrument of state policy, India believes the Kashmir issue can be settled. But Pakistan is singularly focussed on Kashmir; it has destroyed itself for possessing territory which cannot strengthen its fragile nationhood; and it is engaged in a war to the bitter end with India.
Like Pakistan is obsessed with Kashmir, the Congress party exists solely to be in power. Power determines its being. Because the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has proved so long to be an ideal vehicle to reach this state of being, the dynasty is worshipped with a fanaticism usually reserved for dreaded ideologies. Naturally, in the circumstances, power cannot be used to the good. Power is employed to perpetuate power. And in this no-holds-barred process, nothing is kosher.
And nothing is quite as special as loot. The bigger the loot, the better, because it generates surplus, after the enormous individual avarices are satisfied. This surplus is employed to suborn the election process by rigged polling (one Union minister won a Lok Sabha election by a laughably low margin); votebanks are created and funded; dirty tricks are liberally resourced, and one manifestation of this is sting journalism which has sullied the profession; institutions are subverted, which includes certainly the subordinate judiciary, all levels of police, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Comptroller and Auditor General; and Parliament is compromised, and this can no longer be brushed aside after the corrupt confidence vote in favour of the Indo-United States nuclear deal, and in the way laws have been passed with no correlation to public good but all singularly designed to keep the Congress in power. In other words, in the most fitting Nazi tradition, the Indian state exists only to serve the Congress party, with the people becoming slave labour.
How did things go so wrong? The rot began when Mohan Karamchand Gandhi ignored the superior claims of Sardar Patel to be India’s first prime minister and anointed Jawaharlal Nehru who was supposed to have international charisma. Patel’s early death enabled Nehru to bury his glorious legacy and supplant it with phoney democratic liberalism, which did not prevent the dismissal of arguably the world’s first elected communist government in Kerala (the Paris Commune was a forerunner of a different kind).
Her father’s virtual dictatorship grew to become Indira Gandhi’s authoritarianism. This lead to the decimation of residual inner-party democracy in the Congress, the promulgation of Emergency, the rise of the first dynast, Sanjay, and the second, Rajiv, and it provoked the tragic joining of faith and politics in Punjab, which culminated in the horror of Operation Bluestar. Through Rajiv Gandhi, the Bofors scandal, the insane intervention in Sri Lanka, down to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, the Congress has been on a downward trajectory since. But as the party’s growing electoral rejection rings alarm bells in dynastic quarters, the desperation to preserve power by any means becomes rabid. Today, Narendra Modi stands as the only alternative to the venal and dynastic Congress, and therefore, the entire Congress machinery is mobilized to destroy him.
What does it tell about the Congress that one man symbolizes doom for the party?
The history of dynasties is that they grow extinct or cease to matter over a course. This happens with royalty (the British revere theirs because there is nothing else going); it is true of industrial and banking dynasties; the record is no better in cinema and in the others arts. The Kennedys and the Clintons will pass on, and may already have. The trouble with the Congress party is that it is entirely bound up with the Nehru-Gandhis, and cannot conceive of an independent existence. There are those such as Pranab Mukherjee who refuse to equate the Congress party with the dynasty, famously demanding to be prime minister after Indira Gandhi died, but eventually he too bailed out to the Rashtrapati Bhawan. But his departure has weakened the Congress.
The Congress today is a vast dinosaur which finds itself marooned in a suddenly mutated environment of round-the-clock hostile television, a vengeful social media, and a great sullen electorate that has had enough of a political party that should have ceased to exist long ago. India no longer wants to be an appendage of the Congress. It desires to be rid of the dynasty, because the dynasty has only brought it pain and hurt and suffering. It wishes to start all over again, and the process has commenced with the assembly elections that are underway, and will reach its apogee in 2014. The Congress will suffer a knockout blow next year from which it cannot re-emerge in its old dynastic form. Rating of the Congress: 2 out of 10.
Also read “The party begins...1,” “The party begins...2,” “The party begins...3,” “The party begins...4” “The party begins...5.” and “The party begins...6.”
To be continued...
The party begins...6
Political infirmity is no worse than having strength without vision.
New Delhi: The Communist Party of India: In the aftermath of the party’s split in 1964 partly as a consequence of the Chinese aggression, the Marxist breakaway faction grew in strength compared to the principal entity, which aligned with Indira Gandhi’s Congress party to further debility, and became largely irrelevant in the decades following the Emergency. To be sure, the party had doughty leaders whose hallmark in Delhi’s murky political world was their shining integrity and their proclivity to call a spade a spade. Rarely has a politician gone through so much agonizing as did Indrajit Gupta when called upon to be the Union home minister in the Third Front government in the later 1990s after a lifetime spent at the barricades. Between the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the first had more interesting leaders.
But the Marxists kept them relevant. For all the terror that successive Left Front governments spread in West Bengal, especially in the rural areas, protocol-wise, Left Front unity was exemplary. The quota of seats for the smaller Left and Left-leaning parties was kept by and large stable, and if the Communist Party of India has survived so long, the Marxists must be thanked. But on one thing the Marxists would not yield, which was the reunification of the two communist parties. Till the 1990s, there were explicit conversations in that direction, but the final deal remained elusive.
The Communist Party of India presently under Doraiswamy Raja is barely alive, and the waning Marxists can no longer be a source of support and succour. Commentators have wondered why the parliamentary Left has shrunk while the Maoists are gaining territory. Perhaps the Marxists with greater stakes should be more concerned but the Communist Party of India cannot rest easy either. Among other things, it points to a crisis of identity. In young transforming India, the parliamentary Left is unable to position itself, and its anti-Congress, anti-Bharatiya Janata Party sloganeering has grown jaded, and moreover lacks credibility. The two Communist parties have a future if they unite and pool their resources, relinquish leadership positions to popularly elected legislators and parliamentarians, and attempt a broad equivalent of Britain’s New Labour programme for political revival. Divided, and as they are, shambling along aimlessly, they are finished. Rating of the Communist Party of India: 1 out of 10.
Rashtriya Janata Dal: With Laloo Prasad Yadav in jail on account of the fodder scam, his party is in deep trouble. Old loyalties demand that the Congress ally with the party for the Lok Sabha election, but the dynastic Nehru-Gandhi outfit is looking favourably towards Nitish Kumar after his break with the Bharatiya Janata Party over the ascent of Narendra Modi. But aside from all this, how does it look for the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar? Bad.
People have not forgotten Laloo Yadav’s misrule which is why they brought the Janata Dal-United/ Bharatiya Janata Party alliance to power. No sooner than this alliance unravelled than Bihar seems headed towards administrative collapse. Nitish Kumar is no longer in control of things, hiding behind the bureaucracy. Meanwhile, just a single rally of Narendra Modi has rooted Nitish Kumar in fear. He is bewildered and stonked by its runaway success.
The message in this for Bihar’s politicians is that the Bharatiya Janata Party is resurgent in the state. Modi’s mantra of self-help, growth and development has caught the people’s imagination, especially of the youth, who Nitish Kumar and Laloo Yadav preferred to keep subjected with handouts and crumbs cast from the table. Both these regional upstarts are headed for doom in the state. Although perhaps it cannot get worse for Laloo Yadav, his party will bleed in Bihar. It does not stand a chance alone, but its position would be infinitely worsened after a tie-up with the Congress, which is headed for a national rout. At the same time, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Janata Dal-United and the Congress will cut into one another separately standing against the Bharatiya Janata Party, and bound together, they would lose credibility by the aggregation of their sins. The imprisonment of Laloo Yadav is the beginning of the end of the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Rating: Minus 3.
Biju Janata Dal: The party did well in the panchayat polls but if the Narendra Modi factor plays out in Orissa, the going might get tougher in the 2014 general election, which, should it happen, would go to show the limits of Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik’s appeal.
To Patnaik’s biggest advantage, the Congress as an opposition party is nearly obliterated in the state. The party is deeply fractionated and the chief minister has been trucking with one faction or the other at various times. Besides, after the split with the Bharatiya Janata Party, Naveen Patnaik has become politically stronger. His former aide and present mortal foe, Pyarimohan Mahapatra, worked out the strategy to make the break with the Bharatiya Janata Party. But ironically, the chief minister has not made great strides after striking out alone, but rather become diminished in the while. He has political strength, but it is not joined with vision for statesmanship.
Naveen Patnaik lacks vision. He commenced with the aim to combat corruption in Orissa and the bureaucracy in the initial years faced the heat of his zeal. That zeal is markedly blunted today and Orissa’s bountiful resources of iron ore and bauxite provide enormous underhand opportunities for officials. To the extent that Naveen Patnaik has turned a blind eye to the looting and merely ensured that he is not implicated. He is being called the Manmohan Singh of Orissa.
The “betrayal” of Pyarimohan Mahapatra, a former Indian Administrative Services’ officer, is what apparently has shaken Patnaik to the bone, and made him insecure about the chief-ministership and the party. Mahapatra got Patnaik to breach with the Bharatiya Janata Party and then sought to take over the leadership when the chief minister was abroad. Up to a third of Biju Janata Dal legislators could be with Mahapatra, and this has left Patnaik embattled, and drained of energy for governance. The Congress-led Central government is also blocking industrial growth opportunities in the state for political reasons.
This writer believes regional parties have a limited future unless they actively seek alliances with one of the two national parties. Being traditional rivals, the Biju Janata Dal cannot go with the Congress, and the Bharatiya Janata Party seems a closed option currently, although equations may change after the 2014 polls. But one thing is evident. Naveen Patnaik has no talent for governance although he has had an extraordinary run of luck to survive so long. But this state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely. Rating of the Biju Janata Dal: 1 out of 10.
Also read “The party begins...1,” “The party begins...2,” “The party begins...3,” “The party begins...4” and “The party begins...5.”
To be continued...
But the Marxists kept them relevant. For all the terror that successive Left Front governments spread in West Bengal, especially in the rural areas, protocol-wise, Left Front unity was exemplary. The quota of seats for the smaller Left and Left-leaning parties was kept by and large stable, and if the Communist Party of India has survived so long, the Marxists must be thanked. But on one thing the Marxists would not yield, which was the reunification of the two communist parties. Till the 1990s, there were explicit conversations in that direction, but the final deal remained elusive.
The Communist Party of India presently under Doraiswamy Raja is barely alive, and the waning Marxists can no longer be a source of support and succour. Commentators have wondered why the parliamentary Left has shrunk while the Maoists are gaining territory. Perhaps the Marxists with greater stakes should be more concerned but the Communist Party of India cannot rest easy either. Among other things, it points to a crisis of identity. In young transforming India, the parliamentary Left is unable to position itself, and its anti-Congress, anti-Bharatiya Janata Party sloganeering has grown jaded, and moreover lacks credibility. The two Communist parties have a future if they unite and pool their resources, relinquish leadership positions to popularly elected legislators and parliamentarians, and attempt a broad equivalent of Britain’s New Labour programme for political revival. Divided, and as they are, shambling along aimlessly, they are finished. Rating of the Communist Party of India: 1 out of 10.
Rashtriya Janata Dal: With Laloo Prasad Yadav in jail on account of the fodder scam, his party is in deep trouble. Old loyalties demand that the Congress ally with the party for the Lok Sabha election, but the dynastic Nehru-Gandhi outfit is looking favourably towards Nitish Kumar after his break with the Bharatiya Janata Party over the ascent of Narendra Modi. But aside from all this, how does it look for the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar? Bad.
People have not forgotten Laloo Yadav’s misrule which is why they brought the Janata Dal-United/ Bharatiya Janata Party alliance to power. No sooner than this alliance unravelled than Bihar seems headed towards administrative collapse. Nitish Kumar is no longer in control of things, hiding behind the bureaucracy. Meanwhile, just a single rally of Narendra Modi has rooted Nitish Kumar in fear. He is bewildered and stonked by its runaway success.
The message in this for Bihar’s politicians is that the Bharatiya Janata Party is resurgent in the state. Modi’s mantra of self-help, growth and development has caught the people’s imagination, especially of the youth, who Nitish Kumar and Laloo Yadav preferred to keep subjected with handouts and crumbs cast from the table. Both these regional upstarts are headed for doom in the state. Although perhaps it cannot get worse for Laloo Yadav, his party will bleed in Bihar. It does not stand a chance alone, but its position would be infinitely worsened after a tie-up with the Congress, which is headed for a national rout. At the same time, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Janata Dal-United and the Congress will cut into one another separately standing against the Bharatiya Janata Party, and bound together, they would lose credibility by the aggregation of their sins. The imprisonment of Laloo Yadav is the beginning of the end of the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Rating: Minus 3.
Biju Janata Dal: The party did well in the panchayat polls but if the Narendra Modi factor plays out in Orissa, the going might get tougher in the 2014 general election, which, should it happen, would go to show the limits of Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik’s appeal.
To Patnaik’s biggest advantage, the Congress as an opposition party is nearly obliterated in the state. The party is deeply fractionated and the chief minister has been trucking with one faction or the other at various times. Besides, after the split with the Bharatiya Janata Party, Naveen Patnaik has become politically stronger. His former aide and present mortal foe, Pyarimohan Mahapatra, worked out the strategy to make the break with the Bharatiya Janata Party. But ironically, the chief minister has not made great strides after striking out alone, but rather become diminished in the while. He has political strength, but it is not joined with vision for statesmanship.
Naveen Patnaik lacks vision. He commenced with the aim to combat corruption in Orissa and the bureaucracy in the initial years faced the heat of his zeal. That zeal is markedly blunted today and Orissa’s bountiful resources of iron ore and bauxite provide enormous underhand opportunities for officials. To the extent that Naveen Patnaik has turned a blind eye to the looting and merely ensured that he is not implicated. He is being called the Manmohan Singh of Orissa.
The “betrayal” of Pyarimohan Mahapatra, a former Indian Administrative Services’ officer, is what apparently has shaken Patnaik to the bone, and made him insecure about the chief-ministership and the party. Mahapatra got Patnaik to breach with the Bharatiya Janata Party and then sought to take over the leadership when the chief minister was abroad. Up to a third of Biju Janata Dal legislators could be with Mahapatra, and this has left Patnaik embattled, and drained of energy for governance. The Congress-led Central government is also blocking industrial growth opportunities in the state for political reasons.
This writer believes regional parties have a limited future unless they actively seek alliances with one of the two national parties. Being traditional rivals, the Biju Janata Dal cannot go with the Congress, and the Bharatiya Janata Party seems a closed option currently, although equations may change after the 2014 polls. But one thing is evident. Naveen Patnaik has no talent for governance although he has had an extraordinary run of luck to survive so long. But this state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely. Rating of the Biju Janata Dal: 1 out of 10.
Also read “The party begins...1,” “The party begins...2,” “The party begins...3,” “The party begins...4” and “The party begins...5.”
To be continued...
The party begins...5
party begins...5
Continuing the series with the focus on the Telugu Desam and the National Conference.
New Delhi: Telugu Desam Party: Lacking the charisma of his late father-in-law, Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, or the youthful drive of his Andhra rival, Yeduguri Sandinti Jagmohan Reddy, Nara Chandrababu Naidu is seeking a comfort zone with Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, but he has to get his own political vision clear to reach anywhere. On hurt Telugu pride, Rama Rao, the star of mythological cinema, rode to a breathtaking victory in Andhra Pradesh, and Naidu became his able party manager. But when he became chief minister after the palace deposition of his mentor, he somehow did not sparkle, although he had a continuous run for 9 years.
What does Chandrababu Naidu lack, and why is the Telugu Desam Party under his leadership going down? The biggest issue confronting everyone in the state is its division into Telangana and Seemandhra, which the Centre has agreed in principle to do, but is faced with the daunting mechanics of execution. The Congress party at the Centre knows it will lose Andhra Pradesh in the 2014 election. So it has quickly agreed to Telangana to get its votes while reconciled to forfeiting the Seemandhra region. The Telangana demand may or may not be justified. But propriety demanded that the Andhra Pradesh assembly resolve in favour of the state’s bifurcation, if at all, in consequence of which the matter could have been taken up (or dropped) by the Centre. But of course the Congress only knows to play the divide-and-rule game.
Chandrababu Naidu ought to have been visionary faced with the Telangana issue, and a good deal politically smarter, which he hasn’t been. Naidu was spooked by the rise of Jagmohan Reddy and the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party, especially when it won a bulk of the assembly bi-election seats. Indian voters are emotional, and the way the Centre witch-hunted Jagmohan Reddy dramatically added to his electoral appeal. Let it be clear. He is far from clean. He will be a disaster for Andhra Pradesh, a failed dynast like Akhilesh Yadav or Omar Abdullah or Rahul Gandhi, and he can be quite vicious in power. But the voters will be blind to all this now. They will see him as their deliverer. He will unravel after a time.
Chandrababu Naidu should have developed insights about his young rival. He should not have vacated the opposition bastion. Instead, faced with the Jagmohan Reddy juggernaut, he compacted with the Congress on Telangana, thereby yielding Seemandhra to an upstart and newcomer. And Jagmohan Reddy is not the sort to let grass grow under his feet. He has gotten grittier with his long incarceration. What should Naidu have done? He should have taken a principled stand on Telangana. As a former chief minister, he ought to have positioned himself as a well-wisher of both regions and the state in its entirety, and demanded that the decision be put to a conscience vote in the assembly. It would have given a face-saver to the losers, whether the verdict favoured or rejected Telangana. Now, Naidu seems to be flowing with the current, not knowing where he is headed. This happens to all politicians who lose touch with the grassroots, are unable to take risks, and cannot visualize the future.
Chandrababu Naidu’s gamble with Narendra Modi may yet pay off, but there is much he has to learn from the Gujarat chief minister. For all his experimentation with governance, his understanding of the need for big industry, his accent on development and so forth, Modi has not lost touch with the ground. His capacity for political micro-management is astonishing. Always modest in his assessment, he has done better than his own expectations, especially in the Gujarat assembly elections. It is these lessons that Naidu must apply in Andhra Pradesh. He must think hard and deep about where he is stuck, and then perhaps arrive at some solutions. For starters, a return to the roots would be beneficial. If he can reach properly and effectively to all the districts of the state, whether or not it remains united, he would begin, by the time of the 2014 election, to get a grip on things. Rating of the Telugu Desam Party: 1 out of 10.
National Conference: Because it is one of the two chief regional parties of Jammu and Kashmir (the other being the People’s Democratic Party), it gets a higher national profile than it would otherwise obtain, but it has nevertheless limited relevance for any discussion of the 2014 general election. In one respect though, the National Conference resembles the dominant structure of most other mainline political parties, in that it is comprehensively dynastic. It was founded by Sheikh Abdullah, and after perilous mutations, inherited by his son, Farooq, passed on in turn to his next-in-line, Omar, and is back with him, though his son continues as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, an assignment that he has thoroughly mismanaged.
In the 2002 election, the Abdullah clan got a shock and a scare when the Congress turncoat, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, and his daughter, Mehbooba, got the People’s Democratic Party to power in the state for the first time. That and the present are coalition governments with the Congress as an ally, but they haven’t done a world of good to the state. Expectations aren’t pitched high because of the dispute with Pakistan over Jammu and Kashmir, but this sentiment runs contrary to the finality of the accession, which should spur development and progress level with the rest of the country, but this has not materialized.
The political space in the state would liven up and throw more interesting and valuable options were the separatists to quit their churlishness and participate in the electoral process. While such participation would certainly destroy their separatist credentials, it would also test their popularity with the people, a prospect perhaps not entirely to their liking. So in their absence, the electorate is stuck for choice, with the People’s Democratic Party being communal and neglectful of development and delivery, while the National Conference is directionless, which is made worse by Omar Abdullah’s lack of political engagement. The chief minister is not as visible among people as his gregarious father was, and there is not much hope from the opposition as well. The state needs to elect a national party for a change, and two back-to-back coalition governments with the Congress may be pointing in that direction, but such convulsions are still far out in the future. At any rate, the National Conference will go on as before, muddling along, creating one or two controversies, but it will never amount to much. Just another family enterprise that has become a millstone around the people’s neck. Rating: 1 out of 10.
Read also “The party begins...1,” “The party begins...2,” “The party begins...3” and “The party begins...4.”
To be continued...
What does Chandrababu Naidu lack, and why is the Telugu Desam Party under his leadership going down? The biggest issue confronting everyone in the state is its division into Telangana and Seemandhra, which the Centre has agreed in principle to do, but is faced with the daunting mechanics of execution. The Congress party at the Centre knows it will lose Andhra Pradesh in the 2014 election. So it has quickly agreed to Telangana to get its votes while reconciled to forfeiting the Seemandhra region. The Telangana demand may or may not be justified. But propriety demanded that the Andhra Pradesh assembly resolve in favour of the state’s bifurcation, if at all, in consequence of which the matter could have been taken up (or dropped) by the Centre. But of course the Congress only knows to play the divide-and-rule game.
Chandrababu Naidu ought to have been visionary faced with the Telangana issue, and a good deal politically smarter, which he hasn’t been. Naidu was spooked by the rise of Jagmohan Reddy and the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party, especially when it won a bulk of the assembly bi-election seats. Indian voters are emotional, and the way the Centre witch-hunted Jagmohan Reddy dramatically added to his electoral appeal. Let it be clear. He is far from clean. He will be a disaster for Andhra Pradesh, a failed dynast like Akhilesh Yadav or Omar Abdullah or Rahul Gandhi, and he can be quite vicious in power. But the voters will be blind to all this now. They will see him as their deliverer. He will unravel after a time.
Chandrababu Naidu should have developed insights about his young rival. He should not have vacated the opposition bastion. Instead, faced with the Jagmohan Reddy juggernaut, he compacted with the Congress on Telangana, thereby yielding Seemandhra to an upstart and newcomer. And Jagmohan Reddy is not the sort to let grass grow under his feet. He has gotten grittier with his long incarceration. What should Naidu have done? He should have taken a principled stand on Telangana. As a former chief minister, he ought to have positioned himself as a well-wisher of both regions and the state in its entirety, and demanded that the decision be put to a conscience vote in the assembly. It would have given a face-saver to the losers, whether the verdict favoured or rejected Telangana. Now, Naidu seems to be flowing with the current, not knowing where he is headed. This happens to all politicians who lose touch with the grassroots, are unable to take risks, and cannot visualize the future.
Chandrababu Naidu’s gamble with Narendra Modi may yet pay off, but there is much he has to learn from the Gujarat chief minister. For all his experimentation with governance, his understanding of the need for big industry, his accent on development and so forth, Modi has not lost touch with the ground. His capacity for political micro-management is astonishing. Always modest in his assessment, he has done better than his own expectations, especially in the Gujarat assembly elections. It is these lessons that Naidu must apply in Andhra Pradesh. He must think hard and deep about where he is stuck, and then perhaps arrive at some solutions. For starters, a return to the roots would be beneficial. If he can reach properly and effectively to all the districts of the state, whether or not it remains united, he would begin, by the time of the 2014 election, to get a grip on things. Rating of the Telugu Desam Party: 1 out of 10.
National Conference: Because it is one of the two chief regional parties of Jammu and Kashmir (the other being the People’s Democratic Party), it gets a higher national profile than it would otherwise obtain, but it has nevertheless limited relevance for any discussion of the 2014 general election. In one respect though, the National Conference resembles the dominant structure of most other mainline political parties, in that it is comprehensively dynastic. It was founded by Sheikh Abdullah, and after perilous mutations, inherited by his son, Farooq, passed on in turn to his next-in-line, Omar, and is back with him, though his son continues as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, an assignment that he has thoroughly mismanaged.
In the 2002 election, the Abdullah clan got a shock and a scare when the Congress turncoat, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, and his daughter, Mehbooba, got the People’s Democratic Party to power in the state for the first time. That and the present are coalition governments with the Congress as an ally, but they haven’t done a world of good to the state. Expectations aren’t pitched high because of the dispute with Pakistan over Jammu and Kashmir, but this sentiment runs contrary to the finality of the accession, which should spur development and progress level with the rest of the country, but this has not materialized.
The political space in the state would liven up and throw more interesting and valuable options were the separatists to quit their churlishness and participate in the electoral process. While such participation would certainly destroy their separatist credentials, it would also test their popularity with the people, a prospect perhaps not entirely to their liking. So in their absence, the electorate is stuck for choice, with the People’s Democratic Party being communal and neglectful of development and delivery, while the National Conference is directionless, which is made worse by Omar Abdullah’s lack of political engagement. The chief minister is not as visible among people as his gregarious father was, and there is not much hope from the opposition as well. The state needs to elect a national party for a change, and two back-to-back coalition governments with the Congress may be pointing in that direction, but such convulsions are still far out in the future. At any rate, the National Conference will go on as before, muddling along, creating one or two controversies, but it will never amount to much. Just another family enterprise that has become a millstone around the people’s neck. Rating: 1 out of 10.
Read also “The party begins...1,” “The party begins...2,” “The party begins...3” and “The party begins...4.”
To be continued...
party begins...4
It doesn’t look good for either Prakash Karat or Mayawati in 2014.
New Delhi: Bahujan Samaj Party: Although Kanshi Ram founded it as a national party for Dalits in North India commencing from Punjab but leaving its footprint everywhere, the Bahujan Samaj Party has become restricted to Uttar Pradesh, where it formed a government for the first time on its own led by Mayawati. Mayawati comes in the league of such strong-minded chief ministers as Jayalalithaa Jayaram and Mamata Bannerjee who are virtual dictators in their parties but, nevertheless, she has her own particularities -- and not a few peculiarities.
Mayawati is that rare Dalit politician who is totally assured of the votes of her community in Uttar Pradesh although she can be a spoiler in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh as well. Contemporary Dalit politicians such as Ram Vilas Paswan cannot share her assurance about the Dalit votebank and are struggling to remain relevant. What makes Mayawati special? It is an old theory of this writer that Mayawati on purpose has never directly worked under another upper caste politician. She has refused Union ministerships and in Uttar Pradesh, it is the chief ministership or nothing for her.
Jagjivan Ram who was the doughtiest Dalit Union minister to date and far down the line, Paswan, elected to be in cabinets led by forward caste prime ministers. Not Mayawati ever. This counts for a lot with Dalits. They are proud of her apparently absent political subjection. They are happy to bear her scorn and are delighted by her garish birthday celebrations, over-the-top personal jewellery and obsession about handbags. The stronger the allegations of financial irregularities against her, the greater their cause to rally to her defence.
But in the end, Mayawati is a rather disastrous package. She has no governing vision. It is doubtful if her government left any impact on Uttar Pradesh whose electorate, after all, dumped her for the equally or more disastrous father-and-son duo of Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav. She kept the peace in Uttar Pradesh to be sure. It did not have the rash of riots which have happened now. But this cannot be noted as an extraordinary achievement. What about growth and development, bringing the state out of generations of backwardness? Mayawati contributed nothing in that direction. But her personal riches have considerably grown in the five years she was Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister.
Ultimately, this is the great tragedy of Mayawati. If Kanshi Ram were alive, he would resent the direction of the Bahujan Samaj Party. Dalits doubtless feel more empowered today than at any time before. But they cannot, in all honesty, claim the political status of the so-called other backward classes, the Yadavs, Kurmis, Koeris, etc, represented by the likes of Mulayam Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Laloo Prasad Yadav, and so forth. Remove Mayawati from the picture and there is no Dalit politician of any consequence in national politics. The blame for this can no longer be solely directed against the forward castes. The “creamy layer” of Dalit politicians has denied growth opportunities to others in the community. This includes the Paswans of the world who are promoting their own dynasties and Mayawati is no exception to this trend.
Mayawati is still comparatively young but there is no suggestion that she is creating a structured leadership in the Bahujan Samaj Party. At least Kanshi Ram mentored her. On the other hand, Mayawati’s more trusted aides and subordinates largely are from the forward castes. After her, would the country see the bizarre situation of the Bahujan Samaj Party being led by a non-Dalit, much like a Dravidian party being headed by a Brahmin, Jayalalithaa? It is not unlikely. Below a mean, the party would not lose its strength in Uttar Pradesh and in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, on account of the Dalit votes, but it will not grow, and the decline would begin after Mayawati. Rating of the Bahujan Samaj Party: 2 out of 10.
Communist Party of India-Marxist: To run a successful political party in India, you need to be more than an ideologue, and the repeated electoral failures of the Communist Party of India-Marxist reflect rather poorly on its general secretary, Prakash Karat’s leadership qualities and instincts. The party has lost power in Kerala and West Bengal and holds on to Tripura strictly courtesy the magical electability of Manik Sarkar, who has been continuously chief minister for 15 years.
To be fair to Karat, he has also been elected to the top party post repeatedly, and his grip over the Marxist front organizations is more or less unassailable. But his traction with the electorate is nil. The last Marxist heavyweight who commanded the popular vote was Jyoti Basu, and his ambition to be prime minister in the mid-1990s was scuttled by Karat and the other young and rising communists. His argument, made to this writer on one of those days, was that it only made sense to have a Marxist prime minister of a Marxist government, and he would work in that direction. Basu’s point, although it was only generally and indirectly articulated, was that if a Marxist prime minister left a deep and abiding impression on the country, it would give a fillip to the Communist Party of India-Marxist in the future. It is debatable if history would have hewed to that course, but clearly Karat’s obduracy and puritanism have made the party stagnant and pushed it into decline.
Some weeks ago, Karat and other like-minded politicians tried to bring together a third front to be led by the likes of Nitish Kumar and Mulayam Yadav. Where has this group politics led Karat’s party? Nowhere. How on earth does it make sense for Karat to expend energies to make others the prime minister? Why not Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the former West Bengal chief minister? Or himself? Granted, the party is in no position to call the shots. But who brought it to this pass? The party was much stronger, the third in contention after the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, when Jyoti Basu wished to be prime minister. This writer believes he would have made a decent prime minister. But Karat churlishly denied him the final glory.
In a multi-party democracy, such hard line gets you immobilized. Karat does not have the flexibility of an elected politician. If he had been one, he would have been alerted to the danger of the authoritarian terror that the party had unleashed in rural West Bengal. He may not have been able to prevent the rise of Mamata Bannerjee, but there is nothing to suggest that he has since learnt the lessons from the debacles in the eastern state and in Kerala.
The bigger crisis of the party under Karat is that it has been unable to expand to new territories, while facing negative competition from the Maoists. The party has no programme for the young, no plan for the country’s economic revival aside from a stodgy opposition to reforms, and it does not have a political architecture for itself other than to seek non-existent spaces athwart the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. This is no way to do politics.
But the situation is unlikely to change. The Marxists may return to Kerala but no more in West Bengal, and it would continue to draw a blank in the rest of the country, and especially in the heartland states. This writer has great personal regard for Karat, one of the few decent and upstanding men in Indian politics, and his refusal to truck with the Indo-American nuclear deal was indeed principled. But at the same time, the Communist Party of India-Marxist has been marginalized in politics, and before long, it would be too late to revive the party. Karat must turn over the party to a younger, dynamic elected leadership. On current standing, the party will do poorly in the 2014 election. Rating: 2 out of 10.
Please also read “The party begins...1,” “The party begins...2” and “The party begins...3.”
To be continued...
Mayawati is that rare Dalit politician who is totally assured of the votes of her community in Uttar Pradesh although she can be a spoiler in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh as well. Contemporary Dalit politicians such as Ram Vilas Paswan cannot share her assurance about the Dalit votebank and are struggling to remain relevant. What makes Mayawati special? It is an old theory of this writer that Mayawati on purpose has never directly worked under another upper caste politician. She has refused Union ministerships and in Uttar Pradesh, it is the chief ministership or nothing for her.
Jagjivan Ram who was the doughtiest Dalit Union minister to date and far down the line, Paswan, elected to be in cabinets led by forward caste prime ministers. Not Mayawati ever. This counts for a lot with Dalits. They are proud of her apparently absent political subjection. They are happy to bear her scorn and are delighted by her garish birthday celebrations, over-the-top personal jewellery and obsession about handbags. The stronger the allegations of financial irregularities against her, the greater their cause to rally to her defence.
But in the end, Mayawati is a rather disastrous package. She has no governing vision. It is doubtful if her government left any impact on Uttar Pradesh whose electorate, after all, dumped her for the equally or more disastrous father-and-son duo of Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav. She kept the peace in Uttar Pradesh to be sure. It did not have the rash of riots which have happened now. But this cannot be noted as an extraordinary achievement. What about growth and development, bringing the state out of generations of backwardness? Mayawati contributed nothing in that direction. But her personal riches have considerably grown in the five years she was Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister.
Ultimately, this is the great tragedy of Mayawati. If Kanshi Ram were alive, he would resent the direction of the Bahujan Samaj Party. Dalits doubtless feel more empowered today than at any time before. But they cannot, in all honesty, claim the political status of the so-called other backward classes, the Yadavs, Kurmis, Koeris, etc, represented by the likes of Mulayam Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Laloo Prasad Yadav, and so forth. Remove Mayawati from the picture and there is no Dalit politician of any consequence in national politics. The blame for this can no longer be solely directed against the forward castes. The “creamy layer” of Dalit politicians has denied growth opportunities to others in the community. This includes the Paswans of the world who are promoting their own dynasties and Mayawati is no exception to this trend.
Mayawati is still comparatively young but there is no suggestion that she is creating a structured leadership in the Bahujan Samaj Party. At least Kanshi Ram mentored her. On the other hand, Mayawati’s more trusted aides and subordinates largely are from the forward castes. After her, would the country see the bizarre situation of the Bahujan Samaj Party being led by a non-Dalit, much like a Dravidian party being headed by a Brahmin, Jayalalithaa? It is not unlikely. Below a mean, the party would not lose its strength in Uttar Pradesh and in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, on account of the Dalit votes, but it will not grow, and the decline would begin after Mayawati. Rating of the Bahujan Samaj Party: 2 out of 10.
Communist Party of India-Marxist: To run a successful political party in India, you need to be more than an ideologue, and the repeated electoral failures of the Communist Party of India-Marxist reflect rather poorly on its general secretary, Prakash Karat’s leadership qualities and instincts. The party has lost power in Kerala and West Bengal and holds on to Tripura strictly courtesy the magical electability of Manik Sarkar, who has been continuously chief minister for 15 years.
To be fair to Karat, he has also been elected to the top party post repeatedly, and his grip over the Marxist front organizations is more or less unassailable. But his traction with the electorate is nil. The last Marxist heavyweight who commanded the popular vote was Jyoti Basu, and his ambition to be prime minister in the mid-1990s was scuttled by Karat and the other young and rising communists. His argument, made to this writer on one of those days, was that it only made sense to have a Marxist prime minister of a Marxist government, and he would work in that direction. Basu’s point, although it was only generally and indirectly articulated, was that if a Marxist prime minister left a deep and abiding impression on the country, it would give a fillip to the Communist Party of India-Marxist in the future. It is debatable if history would have hewed to that course, but clearly Karat’s obduracy and puritanism have made the party stagnant and pushed it into decline.
Some weeks ago, Karat and other like-minded politicians tried to bring together a third front to be led by the likes of Nitish Kumar and Mulayam Yadav. Where has this group politics led Karat’s party? Nowhere. How on earth does it make sense for Karat to expend energies to make others the prime minister? Why not Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the former West Bengal chief minister? Or himself? Granted, the party is in no position to call the shots. But who brought it to this pass? The party was much stronger, the third in contention after the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, when Jyoti Basu wished to be prime minister. This writer believes he would have made a decent prime minister. But Karat churlishly denied him the final glory.
In a multi-party democracy, such hard line gets you immobilized. Karat does not have the flexibility of an elected politician. If he had been one, he would have been alerted to the danger of the authoritarian terror that the party had unleashed in rural West Bengal. He may not have been able to prevent the rise of Mamata Bannerjee, but there is nothing to suggest that he has since learnt the lessons from the debacles in the eastern state and in Kerala.
The bigger crisis of the party under Karat is that it has been unable to expand to new territories, while facing negative competition from the Maoists. The party has no programme for the young, no plan for the country’s economic revival aside from a stodgy opposition to reforms, and it does not have a political architecture for itself other than to seek non-existent spaces athwart the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. This is no way to do politics.
But the situation is unlikely to change. The Marxists may return to Kerala but no more in West Bengal, and it would continue to draw a blank in the rest of the country, and especially in the heartland states. This writer has great personal regard for Karat, one of the few decent and upstanding men in Indian politics, and his refusal to truck with the Indo-American nuclear deal was indeed principled. But at the same time, the Communist Party of India-Marxist has been marginalized in politics, and before long, it would be too late to revive the party. Karat must turn over the party to a younger, dynamic elected leadership. On current standing, the party will do poorly in the 2014 election. Rating: 2 out of 10.
Please also read “The party begins...1,” “The party begins...2” and “The party begins...3.”
To be continued...
The party begins...3
A benign but strong Centre can weaken regionalism.
New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party: This is another dynastic organization headed by Sharad Pawar and its reigning ideologies are corruption and loot. Pawar hopes that the party would pass into the control of his daughter after him but his nephew, Ajit, a sort of gangster politician of Maharashtra, would not permit an easy transition. Sharad Pawar may be a big fish in Delhi and Bombay and in the national cricket board but Ajit more or less controls rural Maharashtra and even its western sugar belt that was once the citadel of the Maratha strongman.
Because the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party were not up to speed in Maharashtra, the default winners were Sharad Pawar’s party and the Congress, with Bombay being the prize, a great milch cow as anyone on the inside track knows. Together, both these parties have destroyed the great city, but there may be reprieve for it from a Narendra Modi wave in the state, which can no longer be denied, and this also means the end of the good times for Sharad Pawar. More than any other Union minister, Pawar is responsible for the high food prices, and with the Congress going down, he would try to bail out, as he has in the past, and the Bharatiya Janata Party beware of his feelers.
If Prakash Singh Badal was once the country’s biggest farmer, Pawar was the richest politician. Surely, others would have overtaken him now, but then ten years of the United Progressive Alliance have not been altogether damaging for his wealth creation. His ego might have been hurt when someone slapped him in Delhi around the time of the Anna Hazare agitation, but his diligent profiteering from office has not diminished to any noticeable degree.
Sharad Pawar says he is through with active politics, but if there was a chance of becoming prime minister, he would enrol for the marathon tomorrow. But basically, he is finished, although he cannot be forgiven for the killer food prices. He would rate as the country’s worst agriculture minister, and his party the most expedient that India has had the misfortune to have. Rating of the Nationalist Congress Party: Zero.
Samajwadi Party: When the Mulayam Singh Yadav dynasty swept the Uttar Pradesh election, and Akhilesh Yadav became the chief minister, many hoped and believed that the backward state would be transformed. This writer begged to differ. Straightaway, he put Akhilesh in the category of failed dynasts such as Omar Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi, and subsequent events have proved so.
The Samajwadi Party is a dynastic party. It cannot have a governing vision. A dynastic party’s first and last objective is to preserve the dynasty. Such being the case, where is the scope for governance and vision that aspiring India seeks? As someone wrote, the Samajwadi Party is an association of “uncles”. They are the brothers and cousins and long-time aides of Mulayam Singh Yadav, and the former wrestler with national ambitions holds the whiphand.
Criminals, extortionists and land-grabbers abound in the Samajwadi Party. They are not present in such large numbers in most of the other parties. People in the know will tell you that the Muzaffarnagar riots were programmed by the land mafia because the area serves as a transit for the hill state of Uttarakhand. That the Samajwadi Party is a manner of a mafia organization has been long known. Some of its leading lights have been involved in ransom kidnapping, a source of income too when Laloo Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal was in power.
But the Samajwadi Party is headed for a rout in Uttar Pradesh. A Narendra Modi wave is visible here as well. Modi’s rallies have a huge turnout, outshining Rahul Gandhi’s, whose party has had to ship crowds from Delhi to make up for the thin attendance. Mayawati’s Dalit base will largely remain intact but the Samajwadi Party and the Congress will be depleted by the Bharatiya Janata Party. The writing is on the wall.
How could the Samajwadi Party collapse so soon? Part of the reason is that Uttar Pradesh is coming out of Mandal politics. The electorate is giving clear mandates for governance. Mayawati received it first and now the Samajwadi Party. Instead of understanding the mandate and working to fulfil it, Mulayam Singh Yadav fell back on Mandal and communal politics. The criminal tendencies of the Samajwadi Party also came to the fore.
The Samajwadi Party would still have got by except for two reasons. The first was the Muzaffarnagar riots, coming in the train of other sectarian disturbances, which exhibited the Akhilesh Yadav government’s complete disinclination and inability to control them. Mulayam Yadav was perhaps of the opinion that pandering to communalism would keep the regime safe. The electorate thought differently. The second reason for the blight of the Samajwadi Party has been Narendra Modi. Uttar Pradesh suddenly sees hope for governance and change in this man, someone who will pull the state out of backwardness, which generations of local politicians have conspired to trap it in. Bad times are here for the Samajwadi Party. Rating: Zero.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam: Jayalalithaa Jayaram’s party is on a strong wicket for the 2014 election on account of the chief minister’s own decisive performance and because of dynastic troubles in the rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam of Muthuvel Karunanidhi. Although out of the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre, Karunanidhi’s party will take flak for the Central regime’s corruption and loot of the country. His daughter, Kanimozhi, also went to jail in the 2G scam. The net beneficiary of all this would be Jayalalithaa. As the Congress simultaneously declines in the state, the Narendra Modi effect will be felt to the advantage of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
But in the long term, Jayalalithaa’s party has problems, which may not be unlike those to be faced by Mamata Bannerjee’s Trinamool Congress and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party. All three formations being led by strong-minded women, there is no second-line leadership in place. Jayalalithaa has prime ministerial ambitions which may remain unmet but who is after her in the party? There is nobody with her national presence and leadership qualities. Being dictatorial, she has not permitted talent to flourish. Although not a dynastic party like the Congress, there is equally no organic growth in the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Which is why, this writer believes, in five to ten years, or perhaps less, Tamil Nadu will return to national parties. To be sure, there are strong regional currents, such as with the Sri Lanka Tamil issue, but it is nothing that cannot be gently assuaged by a national party. Indeed, if Narendra Modi is able to provide good governance, the architecture of regional politics in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere will dramatically change.
But although that pertains to the future, it also tells on the limited viability of regional parties. Jayalalithaa’s party does not suffer the usual regional formation’s inability to furnish quality government, but the absence of a structured leadership is a nagging issue. It is not apparent that Jayalalithaa engages with any seriousness in that direction, but for the longevity of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, it may be imperative. It is all the more important to ensure that another formation does not take the place of the shrinking and rived Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Rating: 5 out of 10.
Please also read “The party begins...1”and “The party begins...2”
To be continued...
Because the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party were not up to speed in Maharashtra, the default winners were Sharad Pawar’s party and the Congress, with Bombay being the prize, a great milch cow as anyone on the inside track knows. Together, both these parties have destroyed the great city, but there may be reprieve for it from a Narendra Modi wave in the state, which can no longer be denied, and this also means the end of the good times for Sharad Pawar. More than any other Union minister, Pawar is responsible for the high food prices, and with the Congress going down, he would try to bail out, as he has in the past, and the Bharatiya Janata Party beware of his feelers.
If Prakash Singh Badal was once the country’s biggest farmer, Pawar was the richest politician. Surely, others would have overtaken him now, but then ten years of the United Progressive Alliance have not been altogether damaging for his wealth creation. His ego might have been hurt when someone slapped him in Delhi around the time of the Anna Hazare agitation, but his diligent profiteering from office has not diminished to any noticeable degree.
Sharad Pawar says he is through with active politics, but if there was a chance of becoming prime minister, he would enrol for the marathon tomorrow. But basically, he is finished, although he cannot be forgiven for the killer food prices. He would rate as the country’s worst agriculture minister, and his party the most expedient that India has had the misfortune to have. Rating of the Nationalist Congress Party: Zero.
Samajwadi Party: When the Mulayam Singh Yadav dynasty swept the Uttar Pradesh election, and Akhilesh Yadav became the chief minister, many hoped and believed that the backward state would be transformed. This writer begged to differ. Straightaway, he put Akhilesh in the category of failed dynasts such as Omar Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi, and subsequent events have proved so.
The Samajwadi Party is a dynastic party. It cannot have a governing vision. A dynastic party’s first and last objective is to preserve the dynasty. Such being the case, where is the scope for governance and vision that aspiring India seeks? As someone wrote, the Samajwadi Party is an association of “uncles”. They are the brothers and cousins and long-time aides of Mulayam Singh Yadav, and the former wrestler with national ambitions holds the whiphand.
Criminals, extortionists and land-grabbers abound in the Samajwadi Party. They are not present in such large numbers in most of the other parties. People in the know will tell you that the Muzaffarnagar riots were programmed by the land mafia because the area serves as a transit for the hill state of Uttarakhand. That the Samajwadi Party is a manner of a mafia organization has been long known. Some of its leading lights have been involved in ransom kidnapping, a source of income too when Laloo Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal was in power.
But the Samajwadi Party is headed for a rout in Uttar Pradesh. A Narendra Modi wave is visible here as well. Modi’s rallies have a huge turnout, outshining Rahul Gandhi’s, whose party has had to ship crowds from Delhi to make up for the thin attendance. Mayawati’s Dalit base will largely remain intact but the Samajwadi Party and the Congress will be depleted by the Bharatiya Janata Party. The writing is on the wall.
How could the Samajwadi Party collapse so soon? Part of the reason is that Uttar Pradesh is coming out of Mandal politics. The electorate is giving clear mandates for governance. Mayawati received it first and now the Samajwadi Party. Instead of understanding the mandate and working to fulfil it, Mulayam Singh Yadav fell back on Mandal and communal politics. The criminal tendencies of the Samajwadi Party also came to the fore.
The Samajwadi Party would still have got by except for two reasons. The first was the Muzaffarnagar riots, coming in the train of other sectarian disturbances, which exhibited the Akhilesh Yadav government’s complete disinclination and inability to control them. Mulayam Yadav was perhaps of the opinion that pandering to communalism would keep the regime safe. The electorate thought differently. The second reason for the blight of the Samajwadi Party has been Narendra Modi. Uttar Pradesh suddenly sees hope for governance and change in this man, someone who will pull the state out of backwardness, which generations of local politicians have conspired to trap it in. Bad times are here for the Samajwadi Party. Rating: Zero.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam: Jayalalithaa Jayaram’s party is on a strong wicket for the 2014 election on account of the chief minister’s own decisive performance and because of dynastic troubles in the rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam of Muthuvel Karunanidhi. Although out of the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre, Karunanidhi’s party will take flak for the Central regime’s corruption and loot of the country. His daughter, Kanimozhi, also went to jail in the 2G scam. The net beneficiary of all this would be Jayalalithaa. As the Congress simultaneously declines in the state, the Narendra Modi effect will be felt to the advantage of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
But in the long term, Jayalalithaa’s party has problems, which may not be unlike those to be faced by Mamata Bannerjee’s Trinamool Congress and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party. All three formations being led by strong-minded women, there is no second-line leadership in place. Jayalalithaa has prime ministerial ambitions which may remain unmet but who is after her in the party? There is nobody with her national presence and leadership qualities. Being dictatorial, she has not permitted talent to flourish. Although not a dynastic party like the Congress, there is equally no organic growth in the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Which is why, this writer believes, in five to ten years, or perhaps less, Tamil Nadu will return to national parties. To be sure, there are strong regional currents, such as with the Sri Lanka Tamil issue, but it is nothing that cannot be gently assuaged by a national party. Indeed, if Narendra Modi is able to provide good governance, the architecture of regional politics in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere will dramatically change.
But although that pertains to the future, it also tells on the limited viability of regional parties. Jayalalithaa’s party does not suffer the usual regional formation’s inability to furnish quality government, but the absence of a structured leadership is a nagging issue. It is not apparent that Jayalalithaa engages with any seriousness in that direction, but for the longevity of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, it may be imperative. It is all the more important to ensure that another formation does not take the place of the shrinking and rived Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Rating: 5 out of 10.
Please also read “The party begins...1”and “The party begins...2”
To be continued...
The party begins...2
Continuing with the report card of the major political parties ahead of the general elections.
New Delhi: Trinamool Congress: For having evicted the cynical, manipulative and destructive Communist Party of India-Marxist from West Bengal, Mamata Bannerjee’s party deserves no small credit. Critics, however, would say that that was a long time ago, and that there is no reason to be satisfied with her government since, which is not untrue. But the case of West Bengal is a little like the old Soviet Union in microcosm, so bear with it some more.
When the Communists were done with the Soviet Union, they had destroyed the spirit of free enterprise. A feudal society under the Czars, Russia after communism was entirely directionless, fashionability pushing it in the direction of destructive American capitalism, and the old kleptocrats pulling it towards a sort of mafia raj, in which the country’s huge dependence on oil and gas exports and the absence of grassroots multiparty democracy did not assist.
West Bengal remains tottery for not very different reasons. Decades of Stalinism destroyed its entrepreneurial culture, and choked democracy at the bottom, whose beneficiary, ironically, has been Mamata Bannerjee. But little is gained by cursing her, as the Bengali middle class that has departed the great state is wont to do. The alternative to Mamata is the reviled communists or the Congress run by thugs. Is this what the people of Bengal want?
So good or bad, the people have to work with the Trinamool Congress. It has been some months since this writer visited Calcutta but it is not the hellhole it was under the communists. West Bengal needs nurture to return to the glory days. It needs an entrepreneurial culture which can presently only be supplied by the rest of the country. West Bengal is not just another state. It is the gateway to the east and needs generous Central assistance, which is not forthcoming under the United Progressive Alliance government.
Are Mamata Bannerjee and the Trinamool not at fault at all? Surely, they are. But history also has been cruel to West Bengal since the time the Capital transferred to Delhi. Anyone else who had replaced the communists would find themselves in Mamata’s predicament. If there is a better alternative to her, the electorate must exercise that choice, but currently, there is none, although there is space for a solid national formation to grow in the state just as in Tamil Nadu.
But that is for the future. In the 2014 general election, this writer does not see a major upset in the state. Mamata’s Lok Sabha tally may suffer, and her ambition to remote control Central policies, at least insofar as they benefit her, will also receive a setback. But that is no reason to punish West Bengal. It has suffered enough and everyone must pitch in to give it a new beginning. Rating of the Trinamool Congress: 3 out of 10.
Akali Dal: Prakash Singh Badal must be savouring the moment as the Congress hurtles towards destruction in the national polls. By bringing up Indira Gandhi’s assassination in the campaign, Rahul Gandhi has returned attention to the tragedy of Operation Bluestar, which was a culmination of her anti-Akali Dal policies, these being triggered by the Dal’s opposition to the Emergency.
In any case, the Congress is a spent force in Punjab. In the last assembly election, it was widely expected to come back, but didn’t. Captain Amarinder Singh is a decent man, but the party itself is moribund in the state. Unlike the other dynasts though, Badal’s son, Sukhbir, has proved rather adept at the game, and the Akali Dal’s continued good performance may be owed in large measure to his political tactics.
But the key question is, has the Akali Dal powered Punjab’s growth in recent times? Not to the desirable extent, because you cannot, with the exception of the Gujaratis, get a more entrepreneurial people than the Punjabis and especially the Sikhs. The Akali Dal has returned to power only partly because of its inherent strength and more on account of the Congress’s weakness, which has become a national phenomenon. But it is not good for the party in the state or for gaining a national presence, such as in a place like Delhi.
The thing that the Badals must guard against is complacency, because it comes to cripple dynastic parties sooner than later. Politics must be joined with governance, because this is aspiring India’s principal demand from future leaders. This is the success of Narendra Modi. On the metric of delivery and governance, Punjab under the Akali Dal has fallen behind, and this needs serious introspection. Rating: 4 out of 10.
Janata Dal-United: Nitish Kumar has led the party into a hole by breaking up with the Bharatiya Janata Party, and this situation cannot be easily repaired. Looking back, it is astonishing that Nitish Kumar owed so much of his high profile and popularity to his association with the party he ditched, and his fall has been commensurately precipitate thereafter. The Muslims of Bihar may or may not go with Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party but if Nitish expected them to flock to his door in consequence of the divorce with the erstwhile ally, it has not happened. So stunned is Nitish with Modi’s rise that he has cocooned himself, resisted cabinet expansion out of fear of desertions, and has been operating through the bureaucracy out of some strange fear of the people. He was not on hand in some of the recent tragedies, including the bomb blasts at Modi’s Hunkar Rally and the midday-meal deaths of small children.
The media says the Janata Dal-United is split between trucking with the Congress and aligning with the Left-sponsored Third Front. Nitish Kumar is keen on the Congress whereas Sharad Yadav, the other party heavyweight although he does not belong to the state, prefers the status quo or joining the Left front. This front will smash up in the general election but Nitish loses more by going with the Congress. It is political history that whoever has allied with the Congress has been diminished. See the reduced stature of Sharad Pawar, Muthuvel Karunanidhi or even Mulayam Singh Yadav, battling a plummeting national graph.
Nitish Kumar no longer believes that baiting Narendra Modi will fetch extra votes, because there are many doing the same pony trick, but he has painted himself into a corner. He thought the Bharatiya Janata Party would choose him over Narendra Modi. This is called delusions of grandeur. Janata Dal-United’s rating: 2 out of 10.
Please also read, “The party begins...1”
To be continued...
When the Communists were done with the Soviet Union, they had destroyed the spirit of free enterprise. A feudal society under the Czars, Russia after communism was entirely directionless, fashionability pushing it in the direction of destructive American capitalism, and the old kleptocrats pulling it towards a sort of mafia raj, in which the country’s huge dependence on oil and gas exports and the absence of grassroots multiparty democracy did not assist.
West Bengal remains tottery for not very different reasons. Decades of Stalinism destroyed its entrepreneurial culture, and choked democracy at the bottom, whose beneficiary, ironically, has been Mamata Bannerjee. But little is gained by cursing her, as the Bengali middle class that has departed the great state is wont to do. The alternative to Mamata is the reviled communists or the Congress run by thugs. Is this what the people of Bengal want?
So good or bad, the people have to work with the Trinamool Congress. It has been some months since this writer visited Calcutta but it is not the hellhole it was under the communists. West Bengal needs nurture to return to the glory days. It needs an entrepreneurial culture which can presently only be supplied by the rest of the country. West Bengal is not just another state. It is the gateway to the east and needs generous Central assistance, which is not forthcoming under the United Progressive Alliance government.
Are Mamata Bannerjee and the Trinamool not at fault at all? Surely, they are. But history also has been cruel to West Bengal since the time the Capital transferred to Delhi. Anyone else who had replaced the communists would find themselves in Mamata’s predicament. If there is a better alternative to her, the electorate must exercise that choice, but currently, there is none, although there is space for a solid national formation to grow in the state just as in Tamil Nadu.
But that is for the future. In the 2014 general election, this writer does not see a major upset in the state. Mamata’s Lok Sabha tally may suffer, and her ambition to remote control Central policies, at least insofar as they benefit her, will also receive a setback. But that is no reason to punish West Bengal. It has suffered enough and everyone must pitch in to give it a new beginning. Rating of the Trinamool Congress: 3 out of 10.
Akali Dal: Prakash Singh Badal must be savouring the moment as the Congress hurtles towards destruction in the national polls. By bringing up Indira Gandhi’s assassination in the campaign, Rahul Gandhi has returned attention to the tragedy of Operation Bluestar, which was a culmination of her anti-Akali Dal policies, these being triggered by the Dal’s opposition to the Emergency.
In any case, the Congress is a spent force in Punjab. In the last assembly election, it was widely expected to come back, but didn’t. Captain Amarinder Singh is a decent man, but the party itself is moribund in the state. Unlike the other dynasts though, Badal’s son, Sukhbir, has proved rather adept at the game, and the Akali Dal’s continued good performance may be owed in large measure to his political tactics.
But the key question is, has the Akali Dal powered Punjab’s growth in recent times? Not to the desirable extent, because you cannot, with the exception of the Gujaratis, get a more entrepreneurial people than the Punjabis and especially the Sikhs. The Akali Dal has returned to power only partly because of its inherent strength and more on account of the Congress’s weakness, which has become a national phenomenon. But it is not good for the party in the state or for gaining a national presence, such as in a place like Delhi.
The thing that the Badals must guard against is complacency, because it comes to cripple dynastic parties sooner than later. Politics must be joined with governance, because this is aspiring India’s principal demand from future leaders. This is the success of Narendra Modi. On the metric of delivery and governance, Punjab under the Akali Dal has fallen behind, and this needs serious introspection. Rating: 4 out of 10.
Janata Dal-United: Nitish Kumar has led the party into a hole by breaking up with the Bharatiya Janata Party, and this situation cannot be easily repaired. Looking back, it is astonishing that Nitish Kumar owed so much of his high profile and popularity to his association with the party he ditched, and his fall has been commensurately precipitate thereafter. The Muslims of Bihar may or may not go with Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party but if Nitish expected them to flock to his door in consequence of the divorce with the erstwhile ally, it has not happened. So stunned is Nitish with Modi’s rise that he has cocooned himself, resisted cabinet expansion out of fear of desertions, and has been operating through the bureaucracy out of some strange fear of the people. He was not on hand in some of the recent tragedies, including the bomb blasts at Modi’s Hunkar Rally and the midday-meal deaths of small children.
The media says the Janata Dal-United is split between trucking with the Congress and aligning with the Left-sponsored Third Front. Nitish Kumar is keen on the Congress whereas Sharad Yadav, the other party heavyweight although he does not belong to the state, prefers the status quo or joining the Left front. This front will smash up in the general election but Nitish loses more by going with the Congress. It is political history that whoever has allied with the Congress has been diminished. See the reduced stature of Sharad Pawar, Muthuvel Karunanidhi or even Mulayam Singh Yadav, battling a plummeting national graph.
Nitish Kumar no longer believes that baiting Narendra Modi will fetch extra votes, because there are many doing the same pony trick, but he has painted himself into a corner. He thought the Bharatiya Janata Party would choose him over Narendra Modi. This is called delusions of grandeur. Janata Dal-United’s rating: 2 out of 10.
Please also read, “The party begins...1”
To be continued...
The party begins...1
Rating the principal political formations as the polls get underway.
New Delhi: The election season is upon us. The assembly elections have commenced and the campaigning for the national polls early next year have also begun in earnest. Such an extended election season highlighted by prolonged campaigning would not have been seen in a while.
It is always tricky in this country to separate assembly from general elections because one is never sure when the local becomes national and vice-versa. There are, to add to the confusion, an ever-growing number of political parties in the fray, with coalition politics making even the small players important.
Against this backdrop, we take stock of the key political parties and their election prospects. The two national parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, will be analyzed in addition to the regional groups that have come to play a major role in mainstream politics.
Assigning ratings to them is not straightforward because political parties naturally differ in their goals and objectives, but their own particularities would be the basis for their grading. The following analyses are being serialized and the first part runs today. The order of appearance of the political parties does not necessarily reflect their ranking:
Aam Admi Party: Arvind Kejriwal has certainly caught the imagination of Delhi. For some two terms now, Shiela Dixit had conspired to make Delhi the country’s costliest city, with outrageous utility bills, and unrelenting corruption in every service provided by the government. The Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party under Vijay Goel seemed not to be in control of things and was seen to be acquiescing in the loot of the Congress government. To that extent, the rise of the Aam Admi Party has come as a rude shock to the chief opposition grouping, which was wise, though not terribly prompt, to drop Goel and make Harsh Vardhan the party’s chief minister candidate.
But the Aam Admi Party comes with problems. Chiefly, it is untested. As a pressure group, it has its merits, but it is too early to give it charge of administration. The electorate is wise to this. It would give Kejriwal’s party a good presence in the assembly, but not likely an overwhelming one. This writer does not readily accept the opinion polls that split Delhi’s votes three ways, with the Bharatiya Janata Party leading, but faced with a hung assembly. The Aam Admi Party’s gain will be at the cost of the Congress, and the Bharatiya Janata Party would be able to form a government in Delhi.
The other problem with Kejriwal is that he appears to run a rather authoritarian party. Before long, this would prove a handicap, especially in a politically charged city such as Delhi. One of his detractors faced a riotous crowd at a recent press conference. More of such goonda-giri and the Aam Admi Party would die before it can take flight. Also, it is driven by loathing for the existing dispensation, which is scarcely extraordinary in itself, but a political party needs to be more an avenging machine. Leading a movement is quite different from becoming a sustained power player, and negative campaigning ultimately cannot replace ideology and vision. Arvind Kejriwal needs to concentrate on these areas, and cannot afford to erase the association with Anna Hazare, the moral equivalent of who is unavailable in the current political spectrum. Rating: 5 out of 10.
Shiv Sena: It is struggling to be relevant after the death of Bal Thackeray. Uddhav, his son, who can be as rabid as the Shiv Sena founder at times, lacks the political touch of his estranged cousin, Raj. To be sure, the Shiv Sena was not doing well under the senior Thackeray too, which, despite the alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, could not dislodge the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party from power in Maharashtra. Blame for this in large measure must rest with the national leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which had lost heart in combating the Nehru-Gandhi establishment. Narendra Modi has changed the dynamics.
But the Shiv Sena is not the earlier force. Dynastic politics has taken its toll. It is difficult to imagine how the situation can be retrieved without the abdication of Uddhav, which is out of the question. As the head of the Shiv Sena, he would be prickly to counsel from the Bharatiya Janata Party, but there is no other way to save the party. And presumably, as the general election draws near, Modi would be increasingly in demand to plan the campaign strategy for Maharashtra, in which offering sagely advice to Uddhav Thackeray would indubitably form part of the package. But future collapse is the fate of all dynastic formations, and the Shiv Sena cannot be immune from this trend. Rating: 3 out of 10.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam: Another dynastic formation that has seen better days. After Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the party is destined to split among his two sons, and this can only benefit Jayalalithaa Jayaram’s All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and any national party that plays for the long haul. What has killed the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, apart from the dynastic quarrels, is its appalling corruption. Nothing symbolized this more that Karunanidhi’s daughter going to jail for the 2G scam with a party Central minister, and his wife is up for questioning by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
It is increasingly difficult to tell what Karunanidhi’s party stands for, besides looting the exchequer. Dravidian politics played itself out long ago, not least because Karunanidhi had charismatic cinematic rivals for it in Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandran and his protege, Jayalalithaa. Karunanidhi had a better reputation for administration than Ramachandran, who had a bigger fan following, however, but Jayalalithaa has a decent record in governance as well, which is what returned her to power. But her ascent has come at the worst time for Karunanidhi, who further sees no hope of a third United Progressive Alliance regime at the Centre, from which to extract rent as before. Not that the old campaigner has given up, who is as diligent about party work as before, but times have changed. Rating: 2 out of 10.
To be continued...
It is always tricky in this country to separate assembly from general elections because one is never sure when the local becomes national and vice-versa. There are, to add to the confusion, an ever-growing number of political parties in the fray, with coalition politics making even the small players important.
Against this backdrop, we take stock of the key political parties and their election prospects. The two national parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, will be analyzed in addition to the regional groups that have come to play a major role in mainstream politics.
Assigning ratings to them is not straightforward because political parties naturally differ in their goals and objectives, but their own particularities would be the basis for their grading. The following analyses are being serialized and the first part runs today. The order of appearance of the political parties does not necessarily reflect their ranking:
Aam Admi Party: Arvind Kejriwal has certainly caught the imagination of Delhi. For some two terms now, Shiela Dixit had conspired to make Delhi the country’s costliest city, with outrageous utility bills, and unrelenting corruption in every service provided by the government. The Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party under Vijay Goel seemed not to be in control of things and was seen to be acquiescing in the loot of the Congress government. To that extent, the rise of the Aam Admi Party has come as a rude shock to the chief opposition grouping, which was wise, though not terribly prompt, to drop Goel and make Harsh Vardhan the party’s chief minister candidate.
But the Aam Admi Party comes with problems. Chiefly, it is untested. As a pressure group, it has its merits, but it is too early to give it charge of administration. The electorate is wise to this. It would give Kejriwal’s party a good presence in the assembly, but not likely an overwhelming one. This writer does not readily accept the opinion polls that split Delhi’s votes three ways, with the Bharatiya Janata Party leading, but faced with a hung assembly. The Aam Admi Party’s gain will be at the cost of the Congress, and the Bharatiya Janata Party would be able to form a government in Delhi.
The other problem with Kejriwal is that he appears to run a rather authoritarian party. Before long, this would prove a handicap, especially in a politically charged city such as Delhi. One of his detractors faced a riotous crowd at a recent press conference. More of such goonda-giri and the Aam Admi Party would die before it can take flight. Also, it is driven by loathing for the existing dispensation, which is scarcely extraordinary in itself, but a political party needs to be more an avenging machine. Leading a movement is quite different from becoming a sustained power player, and negative campaigning ultimately cannot replace ideology and vision. Arvind Kejriwal needs to concentrate on these areas, and cannot afford to erase the association with Anna Hazare, the moral equivalent of who is unavailable in the current political spectrum. Rating: 5 out of 10.
Shiv Sena: It is struggling to be relevant after the death of Bal Thackeray. Uddhav, his son, who can be as rabid as the Shiv Sena founder at times, lacks the political touch of his estranged cousin, Raj. To be sure, the Shiv Sena was not doing well under the senior Thackeray too, which, despite the alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, could not dislodge the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party from power in Maharashtra. Blame for this in large measure must rest with the national leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which had lost heart in combating the Nehru-Gandhi establishment. Narendra Modi has changed the dynamics.
But the Shiv Sena is not the earlier force. Dynastic politics has taken its toll. It is difficult to imagine how the situation can be retrieved without the abdication of Uddhav, which is out of the question. As the head of the Shiv Sena, he would be prickly to counsel from the Bharatiya Janata Party, but there is no other way to save the party. And presumably, as the general election draws near, Modi would be increasingly in demand to plan the campaign strategy for Maharashtra, in which offering sagely advice to Uddhav Thackeray would indubitably form part of the package. But future collapse is the fate of all dynastic formations, and the Shiv Sena cannot be immune from this trend. Rating: 3 out of 10.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam: Another dynastic formation that has seen better days. After Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the party is destined to split among his two sons, and this can only benefit Jayalalithaa Jayaram’s All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and any national party that plays for the long haul. What has killed the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, apart from the dynastic quarrels, is its appalling corruption. Nothing symbolized this more that Karunanidhi’s daughter going to jail for the 2G scam with a party Central minister, and his wife is up for questioning by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
It is increasingly difficult to tell what Karunanidhi’s party stands for, besides looting the exchequer. Dravidian politics played itself out long ago, not least because Karunanidhi had charismatic cinematic rivals for it in Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandran and his protege, Jayalalithaa. Karunanidhi had a better reputation for administration than Ramachandran, who had a bigger fan following, however, but Jayalalithaa has a decent record in governance as well, which is what returned her to power. But her ascent has come at the worst time for Karunanidhi, who further sees no hope of a third United Progressive Alliance regime at the Centre, from which to extract rent as before. Not that the old campaigner has given up, who is as diligent about party work as before, but times have changed. Rating: 2 out of 10.
To be continued...
SECTION -TWENTY THREE
SECTION -TWENTY TWO
Bookies favour BJP, but say bets will be off if any leader is dead
MUMBAI: The odds favour BJP and betting volumes on the upcoming state elections are likely to exceed Rs 10,000 crore, but all bets will be called off if any prominent leader dies, bookmakers taking bets in Delhi and Mumbai said.
The 'force majeure' clause, the first time such a caveat has been introduced into the unofficial satta bazaar, comes in the wake of recent bomb blasts in a Narendra Modi election rally in Bihar. Bookies fear the upcoming state elections in Delhi, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh may witness violence.
"Therefore, all bets would be calledoff in the event of death of any prominent leader in blasts or other violent acts during polls," a Delhi-based member of a betting syndicate said.
Those fears apart, bookies expect BJP to do well in all four states going to polls. "Modi Mania may ensure a comfortable victory for BJP in all states," the Delhi-based source said. In Rajasthan, bookies expect the BJP to easily defeat the Congress government.
The odds on the saffron party winning 101 out of the 230 assembly seats in the state are 14 paise over every rupee bet.
On the other hand, bookies are willing to pay out 26 paise over every rupee bet on the Congress managing to win even 60 seats in the state. Similarly, there is an offer of Rs 2.8 over ever rupee bet if the Congress manages to win at least 75 seats.
Congress now has 96 seats. In Delhi, bookies are willing to pay 24 paise over every rupee bet if the BJP wins 28 or more seats out of the 70. Individuals placing such a bet would lose their money if BJP's seat count falls below 28. The BJP had won only 23 seats in Delhi in 2008.
Bookies add the Aam Aadmi Party is unlikely to win more than eight seats in Delhi, but will play spoil sport. In the past, there were also separate bets on chief minister candidates.
This time though bookies say such wagers are not being taken as CM candidates are mostly obvious. In MP, BJP is expected to come back to power. Bookies are willing to offer Rs 1.10 over every rupee bet on the Congress winning 70 or more seats out of 230.
Those fears apart, bookies expect BJP to do well in all four states going to polls. "Modi Mania may ensure a comfortable victory for BJP in all states," the Delhi-based source said. In Rajasthan, bookies expect the BJP to easily defeat the Congress government.
The odds on the saffron party winning 101 out of the 230 assembly seats in the state are 14 paise over every rupee bet.
On the other hand, bookies are willing to pay out 26 paise over every rupee bet on the Congress managing to win even 60 seats in the state. Similarly, there is an offer of Rs 2.8 over ever rupee bet if the Congress manages to win at least 75 seats.
Congress now has 96 seats. In Delhi, bookies are willing to pay 24 paise over every rupee bet if the BJP wins 28 or more seats out of the 70. Individuals placing such a bet would lose their money if BJP's seat count falls below 28. The BJP had won only 23 seats in Delhi in 2008.
Bookies add the Aam Aadmi Party is unlikely to win more than eight seats in Delhi, but will play spoil sport. In the past, there were also separate bets on chief minister candidates.
This time though bookies say such wagers are not being taken as CM candidates are mostly obvious. In MP, BJP is expected to come back to power. Bookies are willing to offer Rs 1.10 over every rupee bet on the Congress winning 70 or more seats out of 230.
SECTION - TWENTY ONE
CENSORSHIP
India Opines
Ban Opinion Polls, Ban Opinions!
Opinion Polls
Are Part of
Freedom of speech
The right to freedom of expression is recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 19 of the ICCPR states that "[e]veryone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference" and "everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice".
Opinion Polls
Are Part of of these RIGHTS
Freedom of Speech and Expression
We need to strongly condemn changes being proposed to our laws and protest the mal-handling by the police as regards to our freedom of speech. This is not just related to the freedom of speech in the internet, but elsewhere as well. It would almost appear that our government and bureaucrats have taken a cue from the Arab Spring, have realized the viral potential of messages on the Internet, and are trying their level best to curb it. Interestingly enough they have allowed, in central Delhi, processions by political parties, but have declined to allow a peaceful protest against the lack of safety in Delhi’s streets (see Nirbhaya). Perhaps this is due to the fact that political parties are powerful entities in their own right, while the women’s’ movement was being led by no-one in particular, it was being led by good conscience and not a political personality and therefore curbed.
Facebook and Cartoons
As per the current law, even an innocent complaint in Facebook of the nuisance cause by politicians can have you thrown in Jail (Palghar) – with the inspectors who help in perpetrating such a crime probably potentially being invited to become an office bearer of a political party. A cartoon ridiculing powerful people/institutions can have you thrown in Jail (Jadavpur University, etc.) – where is the end to this? On the flip side people having committing scams of thousands of crores go scot free as the legal process takes a few decades?Legal Process Tilted Towards Politicians
We are in a system where the legal process seems to be tilted towards the rich and powerful – the only correcting factor to this is our freedom of speech. The ability to question and point out that something is amiss and to spread it among other concerned civilians. This is not about intrusion into someone private affairs. I mention private affairs as politicians use this as a ploy to deflect accusations, to keep family members out of the accusations. There are a lot of questions that one can ask these days, some more obvious than the others?Are We allowed to Question Censorship & Corruption?
Are we allowed to ask these questions? Are we allowed to question corruption? Are we able to make constructive suggestions as to the course of the economy, education, and industry – this is why we need our freedom of speech today more than any other time.VASUNDHRA'S OPINION POLL
VOTER HAS THE RIGHT OF FINAL OPINION
FEED PAKISTANIS
&
HAVE
CENSORSHIP
Related Posts
- Internet Censorship–Information Technology Act 2000
- Our right to freedom of speech and expression is under attack !
- United Nations Arms Treaty–India’s View
- Language And Civil Society
- Freedom Of Speech
- Freedom Of Speech For Terrorists
- Internet censorship: Censor Kapil Sibal and a government that gags
Related Sections of the Law
SECTION - TWENTY
Source:
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/09/27/seas-of-humanity-at-namos-speeches-images-media-will-never-show-you-138365.html
Crowds throng to NaMo’s speeches: Images media will never show you
Modi in Mumbai
Bhopal rally. (Image credit :@nisheethsharan)
Rally in Hyderabad
Sea of people at Hunkaar Rally, Patna
Sea of people at Hunkaar Rally, Patna
NaMo in Udaipur, Rajasthan
Rally in Rewari , Haryana
Rally in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Rally in Hyderabad.
NaMo rally in Bhopal
Rally in Tamil Nadu.
NaMo in Delhi
BJP Vikas Rally in Delhi
Modi Mantras in all his rally’s so far
SECTION - NINETEEN
PRELUDE TO ELECTIONS 2014- AAM AADMI (party) IN DELHI
Watch an Episode on each SLIDE
SECTION -EIGHTEEN
UPA KI BATI BANDH
UPA wants to curtail election speech telecast
| SOURCE: http://www.sunday-guardian.com/buzzword/upa-wants-to-curtail-election-speech-telecast | |
SECTION - SEVENTEEN
TURNING POINT - ELECTION 2014
SPEECH OF THE YEAR - ELECTION 2014
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ont7QjwS0
of a series of blasts in the ...
Shri Narendra Modi addresses BJP Hunkar Rally at Patna, Bihar ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8ont7QjwS0
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s aggressive *Hunkar Rally* felled three birds
with one stone, beginning unexpectedly with Congress vice president Rahul
Gandhi’s rally in Mongolpuri this morning, which became victim of invidious
comparison with the mammoth Patna rally that could not be defeated even by
serial bomb blasts in its vicinity.
Rahul Gandhi’s rally had to be postponed several hours as the crowds were
dismal at the scheduled 10 am.
Hindi channel News Nation telecast the empty
stands, exposing the bleak crowd-pulling potential of Congress’s Prime
Minister-in-
Gandhi eventually began his speech around 1.30 pm,
around the same time as Narendra Modi, who deflected Congress anger at his
mocking references to their leader with a quip, “I will give up the
‘shehzade’ reference if he quits dynastic rule”.
The second casualty was Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who, having
failed to use President Pranab Mukherjee as a pawn to scuttle the Hunkar
rally displayed pettiness by not putting up welcome posters in the
President’s honour, and then literally ran for solace to Rajgir (capital of
the mighty Mauryan Empire) and Munger for a yoga conference.
The flight was doubly unfortunate for Nitish Kumar. The sea of humanity at
Gandhi Maidan exposed the Bihar Chief Minister’s fading popularity; the
manner in which the crowds chortled at every barb against*hamara
mitra* indicated
the way the wind would blow in the forthcoming Lok Sabha and the next
Assembly elections.
But the unexpected serial bomb blasts, and poor preparedness to deal with
contingencies by providing first aid and taking the injured to hospitals,
have sealed Nitish Kumar’s fate.
One bomb burst in a newly constructed
toilet on a railway platform meant for local trains;
11 trains booked by
the BJP to ferry rallyists to the city fortunately arrived safely.
But one
person was injured in the blast, who later succumbed to his injuries.
Five
more bombs exploded at the venue of the rally while one more has been
reported to have blown off near the twin towers and Elphistine theatre.
While 5 people reportedly died in these serial explosions and 55 were
injured,
one more bomb was found under the dais where the BJP leadership
had assembled to address the mammoth crowd.
If news of the blasts was known
to the rallyists, it did not dampen their enthusiasm to stay for hours to
hear the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, in perfect discipline.
Narendra Modi certainly learnt about the serial blasts and made a special
appeal to the people to leave the venue without haste or panic and reach
home safely.
To the credit of the people, these blasts in the site did not
trigger panic or stampede while the rally lasted.
Clearly, people are
becoming stoic and prepared to face such risks while attending BJP rallies;
many remember the 12 bomb blasts at BJP veteran LK Advani’s rally at
Coimbatore in 1998.
Besides the obvious security lapses – less than four months after serial
blasts at the Mahabodhi temple complex in Gaya in July – even stretchers
were not available to carry the injured to hospital;
this sparked public
anger and open conflicts with the police. The blast which occurred near
Eliphistine cinema hall on the western side of the Maidan injured six
persons.
Two crude bombs were discovered before they could explode; another
bomb injured one official while being defused at the railway toilet.
It is pertinent that the District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police and
Senior Superintendent of Police and other senior Government officials live
across the street from Gandhi Maidan, which is a high security area.
That
so many bombs could be planted, that too at a political rally that ought to
have had tight security, calls for explanation at several levels.
The third ‘bird’ – the Bihar public – was felled by Narendra Modi’s
unparalleled oratory.
Continuing his carefully crafted genre of appealing to people without bias
or prejudice, and doubtless influenced by knowledge of bomb blasts wreaking
havoc, Narendra Modi made a special appeal for communal amity and for unity
to fight the common enemy of poverty.
Mentioning Hindus and Muslims by
name, he asked if people really wanted to fight the other community, when
they could unite against divisions fostered by failed leaders and work
together for prosperity and progress.
India First must be the mantra, and
shanti (peace) and ekta (unity) the paradigm for achievement, he exhorted.
By way of illustration, he said that while Gujarat’s quota for Hajj
pilgrims is only 4800, every year around 40,000 applications are made,
because Muslims, particularly in the districts of Kutch and Bharuch where
they are most populous, are prosperous enough to afford the pilgrimage.
He
urged a new unity to take the nation to the heights it rose to under
Chanakya, which was called the golden age because he sought to unite all
kingdoms in political unity.
The Congress, on the other hand, divided
people on lines of religion, caste, and further fractured society into
sub-castes. It was time to undo such negative politics.
Honing in on Bihar’s backwardness and the demand for a special package of
Rs 50,000 crores, Narendra Modi asked the people to wait for just 200 days
more. As the crowds went hysterical, he said, “your love will be repaid
with interest,” and the Vikas Mantra will solve all problems.
The UPA, he warned, could not deliver anything on any front. More than 80
per cent of its promises since 2004 remained unfulfilled. The Ganga is
still unclean, and looks like a sewer. There is no employment for youth, no
future besides abject poverty. Farmers are ruined by price rise and high
input costs, while the Barauni fertilizer factory remains locked up. The
Centre’s own 20-point programme – monitored by the Planning Commission – is
poorly implemented in Congress-ruled States, while the top five performers
are all BJP States. Bihar ranks 20; it is obvious such regimes do not care
for the poor and will do nothing to alleviate their suffering.
The Bihar Chief Minister, Modi said without naming him, is our “friend”,
but a man who could abandon JP and Ram Manohar Lohia who worked for an
anti-Congress regime all their life, cannot be expected to stand by the
BJP. The BJP had joined hands with the Janata Dal (United) in order to free
Bihar from *jungle raj*; he reminded his audience. And though BJP had
double the number of MLAs, it made a sacrifice and gave Nitish Kumar the
chance to form the Government. He failed to garner the necessary votes and
lost power in one week. Later, when the two parties formed a coalition
Government, the best work was done by the BJP ministers. Despite this,
there was reluctance to let Narendra Modi come to the State for campaigning
during the last Assembly elections; said Modi, he accepted this slight in
the interests of the nation and the State.
Making a direct pitch for the massive Yadav vote-bank that is feeling
orphaned with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s imprisonment, Narendra Modi said some
three months ago, he learnt that Lalu ji had met with an accident and
promptly called to ask about his health. “I never told the media. But to my
surprise, Lalu ji called the media and told them – Modi asked about my well
being because of my accident”. This was a clear message from the RJD leader
to his community.
Tugging at Yadav heart strings, the Gujarat strongman thundered, “I say (to
you), Yaduvansh raja Krishna lived in Dwarka, we have rishta (kinship); we
have love for you (Yadavas). In both Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, we will worry
about the Krishna-vansh”….
Modi began in flawless Bhojpuri, flattering Bihar for its rich cultural,
educational and political contributions that are intrinsic to the Indian
civilisational matrix. Indeed, it is impossible to conceive of India
without Bihar – birthplace of Sita ji, land of prince Karna (Anga raja);
land of the first Gupta dynasty of Magadh, the politics of Chanakya and
Chandragupta; the democracy of Vaishali; the great emperor Ashoka; the
grand city of Pataliputra (modern Patna); the famous university of Nalanda;
the land of Gautam Buddha and Vardhaman Mahavir and the unmatched Guru
Gobind Singh (sawa lakh se ek ladaoon tab Guru Gobind Singh kehlaoon).
Bihar, he said, gives India what she needs.
Not forgetting the coming festival of Diwali and Bihar’s famous Chhat Puja
where the setting sun is worshipped to signify the onset of winter, he
noted that Bihar alone worships Surya devata in all His forms. The people
here are not opportunistic, he said, barring a few (the crowd roared).
More pertinently, political revolutions are synonymous with Bihar. From
giving a black eye to Prince Alexander, to ousting the Nanda dynasty and
launching the Maurya dynasty; to the Champaran Satyagraha of Gandhi (which
he skillfully linked to the satyagraha at Dandi); to Jai Prakash Narayan’s
fight against the then Congress Government, Bihar has seen it all. This
time, he exhorted, it must give all 40 Lok Sabha seats to the BJP and lay
the foundations of a new history.
Party president Rajnath Singh, who spoke briefly, said Narendra Modi had a
humble background and rose by dint of talent, very much like Chandragupta
Maurya who was nurtured by Chanakya.
Condemning the corruption and price
rise under the UPA, he pointed out that under Atal ji the BJP gave credit
to farmers at the rate of 4% interest; now BJP State Governments have
reduced this to zero percent. If the Yuvraj laments that his grandmother
and father were murdered and he is himself in danger, then, said Rajnath
Singh, he (Rahul Gandhi) should know that the country does not need leaders
who do not have the hearts of lions (sher dil).
Other leaders who addressed the gathering included State unit chief Mangal Pandey; leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley; CP Thakur,
Sushil K Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav, Radha Mohan Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad,
Shatrughan Sinha, Rajiv Rudy, Shahnawaz Hussain; Dharmendra Pradhan and
Giriraj Singh.
http://www.niticent
--
S. Kalyanaraman
SECTION - SIXTEEN
NaMo, RaGa, PM, AM and Advani-vs-Antony
After his dramatic press conference on Friday, Rahul Gandhi sped away to a secret location - waiting for him there was Narendra Modi.
The meeting, the first tete-a-tete between the two, was as impromptu as Gandhi's Delhi Press Club appearance. Modi, ET has learnt, texted Gandhi inviting him for a drink (nimbu paani) after he saw the presser, and Gandhi texted back saying, sure, but that he takes sugar-free sweeteners with his nimbu paani. Modi texted back saying his highly efficient team is arranging for five sugar-free sweetener brands.
Gandhi texted back saying his own highly efficient team has found out that Modi sweetens his nimbu paani with jaggery (gud) and that he will be bringing with him high quality jaggery for Modi. It's from an area near Muzaffarnagar, Gandhi also texted, asking that he hopes that's not a problem for Modi. Modi texted back saying he has no problem, he's not Akhilesh Yadav, after all.
ET can't reveal the venue of the Modi-Gandhi meeting, because it was the condition imposed by both sides for letting ET be a silent observer. Here's an exact record of what transpired:
Narendra Modi (NaMo): Namaste Rahulji, has Manmohan-ji resigned?
Rahul Gandhi (RaGa): Namaste Modi-ji, that's a strange question, why should PM-ji resign?
NaMo: (sipping jaggery-sweetened nimbu paani, and smiling) Because Rahul-ji, you have just made PM-ji look so weak. Of course, he's always weak
RaGa: (sipping nimbu paani mixed with sugar-free sweetener, and laughing) Modi-ji, you almost got the point but not quite...PM-ji is always...not weak...he always knows what his job is...his job is not to act like a PM...it's to act like an AM
NaMo: AM?
RaGa: Haanji, AM, Attentive Minister, our PM has to be an AM because, Modi-ji, his job is to pay attention to me and mom
NaMo: Ha, ha, that's what I have been saying...but, thanks, Rahul-ji, for that AM thing...I will use it my speeches if you don't mind
RaGa: Modi-ji, go ahead, but you won't get any benefit out of it...people of this country know PM is AM, only the press of this country can't figure it out
NaMo:Hmm, you have a point... what's the point of saying PM-ji can't act forcefully when his job is to not act forcefully...
RaGa: Exactly, Modi-ji, and let me tell you, since we are chatting and all that... this PM as AM works beautifully...look at what I did today...I get the glory...PM is unbothered...and the press is bamboozled... which is always nice (laughs)
NaMo: (laughing) Bamboozling the press is always good fun...but you are right, thanks, I have decided I will not be the BJP's PM candidate
RaGa: Wow! You are admitting you can't win...
NaMo:No such thing, I am saying I will be the BJP's campaign face but someone else will be PM candidate...we will win, of course, and that person will be known as PM, but he will be my AM...and I will be like you and your mom
RaGa: Smart move...who's your PM, I mean AM candidate
NaMo: Guess...(smiles)...he always wanted to be PM...and this time he has a real chance...
RaGa: Oh! Advani-ji, but will he be your AM?
NaMo: Of course, he has no hope of becoming PM on his own, just like Manmohan-ji never had... your mom made him PM and told him to act like AM... same for Advani-ji..I'll tell him, you are the country's PM but my AM...he will be happy...like Manmohan-ji is
RaGa: True, I am also looking for another AM...any suggestions?
NaMo: Antony-ji
RaGa: Excellent, so 2014 will be a Advani-vs-Antony contest...and since neither of...you know...are great speakers or media darlings...
NaMo: Yes, yes...the press will get fed up trying to make headlines out of Advanivs-Antony contest...and you and I can get on with the real job of campaigning... with reporters not bothering us
RaGa: Great...oh, there's a call from AM, I mean PM, see you later
NaMo: Bye, I'll have to call our AM candidate, I mean PM candidate
SECTION - FIFTEEN
Dear Friends,
I had requested senior offrs to write what they would like to say at
the rally if they were not able to attend. Our very own Former Air
Chief, Air Chief Marshal Anil, Tipnis has sent me his write for the
rally I was unable to use it as it was alittle late, coming all the
way from Mumbai where he is spending some good time and then
translating it into Hindi would need a Shashtri. But I feel we all
need to read through it as he has rightly put things that we at our
level need to think and not only get stuck like a bad gramophone on
one subject
It is my privilege to send it across for you all to saviour it and say
proudly , He is my Course Mate;
Rgds
Niranjan Malik
Lt Gen NS Malik, PVSM
VIEWS OF AIR CHIEF MARSHAL TIPNIS
AND
ESM RALLY WITH MODI
From: anil tipnis <molinanil@hotmail.com>
Date: 15 September 2013 11:51
Subject: Greetings to Veterans Rallying at Riwari
To: Malik Lt Gen Niranjan <gen_malik@airtelbroadband.in>
, Malik
Niranjan Singh <genmalik@gmail.com>
Warmest Greetings Fellow Veterans now on parade at Rewari! The Rewari Rally can have great significance for the well-being of India's future generations if we veterans play our role, not as much as that of warriors, as of elder statesmen. What India needs today is not our willingness to make the Supreme Sacrifice, but our wisdom earned through honourably always putting Duty-before-Self and our commitment to placing the welfare of the people that we commanded before our own comfort and security.
While in service we served the Nation by thwarting the enemy on the battle-field, despite not having been equipped as well as India's security challenges demanded. But we succeeded because we had political leadership, perhaps lacking in strategic understanding, but certainly not in patriotism and in its commitment to the welfare of our Motherland. Today, that very political leadership is no more the driving force for rallying our collective effort towards preserving our sovereignty and national honour. Instead, political leadership has turned itself in to the biggest threat to our Nationhood. Altruism has given way to selfishness, Republicanism has given way to Dynastic Rajshahi.
As Shri Modi addresses the Veterans' Rally and seeks to know our difficulties, it would be in the fitness of things to lay aside our grievances and stay focused on the issues that ail our governance. As a composite body of patriots we need to assess whether Shri Modi is indeed made of the old political fervour of patriotism and Nation-First philosophy. Assess whether he has the integrity, the political will & skill, the administrative abilities, but most important of all establish whether he has the instinct of a patriot, a statesman and a true saviour of a society to know how to go about setting right the many infirmities that have been inflicted upon this Nation. Convince yourselves that he is not just political bluster, but truly a man of action, that he has the magical blend of impatience with sycophants & band-wagon riders, bur patience with true solution-providers.
If you think he is different from the run-of-the-mill politician and
can do for India what he has done for Gujrat, then we have to give him our whole-hearted support. India needs all its true patriots to be united to politically, socially, economically, strategically save it for future generations.
Jai Hind!
Air Chief Marshal Tipnis
(Former Air Chief)
SECTION - FOURTEEN
RACE TO INDIA'S ELECTION:2014
ARE AMERICANS
ABETTING
ELECTION-COMMUNALISM IN INDIA
SOURCE :NEW YORK TIMES :
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/world/asia/indian-vote-off-to-a-violent-start.html?ref=global&_r=0
Campaign for Prime Minister in India Gets Off to Violent Start
Sam Panthaky/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Narendra Modi, the opposition candidate for prime minister of India, accepted a portrait of himself on Tuesday on his birthday.
By GARDINER HARRIS
( Hari Kumar contributed reporting from Ahmedabad, and Nida Najar from Muzaffarnagar, India. )
Published: September 17, 2013
AHMEDABAD, India — India’s most important election in a generation began in earnest this month the same way consequential elections nearly always start here — with a proclamation and a deadly riot.
Multimedia
Related
Memo From India: As Corruption Abates, Hope Amid a Slowdown (September 10, 2013)
Tsering Topgyal/Associated Press
Narendra Modi, center left, with Rajnath Singh, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, on Friday. Mr. Modi, 63, is a divisive candidate for prime minister in India's national elections next spring.
In New Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party announced last week that it had chosen Narendra Modi, one of the most divisive politicians in India’s history, as its candidate for prime minister in next spring’s national elections. Mr. Modi, the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat, is an unapologetic Hindu chauvinist who has been accused of mass murder.
Mr. Modi has tempered his anti-Muslim tirades and replaced them with a message of development based on a record in Gujarat that even critics acknowledge is impressive. But critics also say he and his Hindu nationalist party have benefited from past violence between Hindus and Muslims, using it to paper over Hindus’ historic differences over caste and get them to vote as a bloc along religious lines.
Not coincidentally, mass rioting broke out last week in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous and politically important state, after a legislator from Mr. Modi’s party circulated a fake video of two Hindus being lynched by a Muslim mob. Forty-four people were killed and 42,000 were displaced as villages were sacked.
Riyazat Ali of Bawari said he watched from a hidden room as a Hindu mob stormed his house, hacked his brother to death and fatally shot his 18-year-old niece.
“I saw everything,” said Mr. Ali, who has been living in a refugee camp in Kandhla for the past week with his 11 children. “It was raining bullets inside the house.”
India may be the world’s most populous democracy, but election campaigns here are often fueled by hate and soaked in blood. By choosing Mr. Modi, a fiery orator who once peppered his speeches with anti-Muslim slurs, the Bharatiya Janata Party has raised the prospect that this election could be the deadliest in decades.
Hindus make up roughly 80 percent of India’s population and Muslims 13 percent, a share about equal to that of blacks in the United States. Sushil Kumar Shinde, India’s minister of Home Affairs, said that there had already been 451 cases of sectarian violence this year, surpassing last year’s total of 410. He warned that violence was likely to intensify as elections approached.
Among the country’s vast urban youth, Mr. Modi has rock-star appeal. Half of India’s population is under 25, and most have seen little more from their leaders than the soporific near-whispers of octogenarians like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. By contrast, Mr. Modi is a charismatic preacher of a resurgent India, a vision that millions mired in a sputtering economy find intoxicating. To many Hindus, he is a revelation.
To many Muslims, though, he is an abomination. In 2002, less than a year after he was appointed the state’s chief minister, riots swept Gujarat and killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. Mothers were skewered, children set afire and fathers hacked to pieces.
Some witnesses claimed that Mr. Modi encouraged the violence, which he has denied. He has never been charged, but close associates of his were convicted of inciting a riot.
“They want to create a Hindu voting bloc that transcends caste, and they’ll use hate to do it,” said Sumant Banerjee, a fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla.
The riots only bolstered Mr. Modi’s political standing. Months later, having consolidated the Hindu vote, he led his party to a resounding victory in state elections. Since then he has dominated Gujarat’s politics, the state’s largest city, Ahmedabad, remains deeply segregated and most of India’s Muslims hate him.
Mr. Modi, 63, refused requests over months for an interview (he rarely speaks to Western news organizations). Jay Narayan Vyas, a leader of Mr. Modi’s opposition party, said that Mr. Modi was not to blame for the 2002 riots and that his party did not demonize Muslims.
“The B.J.P. philosophy is justice to all but appeasement to none,” he said.
Mr. Vyas said that as prime minister, Mr. Modi would bring wealth to India and tame its political chaos. He said India needed a strong leader who “doesn’t allow democracy to be a passport to misbehave.”
In a country where family ties are paramount, Mr. Modi has remained single and is rarely seen, even with close relatives. But his loner status has endeared him to many, as it suggests that he has few reasons to solicit bribes, routine in Indian politics.
While never apologizing for the 2002 riots, Mr. Modi has shifted his focus recently to development, and he is now the darling of India’s business elite, who hail him for his ability to cut through the country’s infamous bureaucracy and create jobs.
“The reason why Modi needs a chance to lead is that he is the first politician since Nehru who has articulated a clear economic vision,” said Tavleen Singh, an author and commentator who was referring to Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, and who argued that hate crimes were so routinely incited by Indian leaders that no major party or politician was innocent.
Car plants now crowd the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Top industrialists say they have located plants in Gujarat because Mr. Modi got them land, steady electricity and a pliant work force, a rare combination in much of India. Although Gujarat has just 5 percent of India’s population, it accounts for 16 percent of its industrial production and 22 percent of its exports.
A drive through Mr. Modi’s constituency of Maninagar in this western city demonstrates both the hopes and fears swirling around him. The neighborhood is a mostly middle-class enclave of tidy homes and handsome apartment buildings with well-paved streets, a functional sewer system and constant electricity.
In almost any advanced country, Maninagar would be unremarkable. But in a country where roads are often atrocious, more than half of the population has no access to toilets and electricity is fitful at best, Maninagar is almost an idyll. Even the richest neighborhoods in New Delhi and Mumbai lack such services.
Drive past M.S. Car Repair Shop, however, and this scene turns decidedly darker. Here, the roads are potholed and crumbling, the houses are tin-roofed shacks, trash is everywhere and the stink of sewage is pervasive. The reason for the difference in this small part of Maninagar? Religion, say its residents.
“Only Muslims live here, and you can see for yourself that it’s not nearly as nice,” said Mohammad Yusuf while repairing a punctured inner-tube on an ancient bicycle. “It should be a lot better, but it’s not.”
A similar partition is now taking place in the villages around Muzaffarnagar, where riots erupted last week. Zareen Khatun, whose son found his father’s mutilated corpse at a hospital, said she would never speak the town’s name again.
“We’ll never go back there,” she said firmly.
SECTION - THIRTEEN
WE NEED A MAN LIKE HIM
SOURCE:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/incorruptible-in-wikileaks-narendra-modi-smiles/766153/0
Wikileaks say's @narendramodi ji is the most "incorruptible " -Infact the Lone honest Indian politician
Note: This story was first inserted on 23-03-2011
WikiLeaks Cables from American envoy show he wanted to woo Modi unofficially after US denied him a visa
Narendra Modi and the BJP today made the most of the latest diplomatic cables
released by WikiLeaks, saying these showed that the Gujarat Chief Minister was
"incorruptible" — in fact, "the lone honest Indian politician".
Dated November 2, 2006, the cable sent by Michael S Owen, the Consul General
in Mumbai, refers to Modi's growing potential as a national leader of his party
and the need to engage with him to "directly" deliver a message on human rights.
In an appraisal of the CM, Owen adds: "Modi has successfully branded himself
as a non-corrupt, effective administrator, as a facilitator of business in a
state with a deep commercial culture, and as a no-nonsense, law-and-order
politician who looks after the interests of the Hindu majority."
After a lecture at Pandit Deen Dayal Univerisity at Gandhinagar on Tuesday,
Modi said the cable acknowledges him as "incorruptible" and refers to Gujarat as
"a progressive state". "There are many non-corrupt people, but they have termed
me incorruptible, which is good for the people of Gujarat.
WikiLeaks shows two
faces — that of the government of India and another of progressive Gujarat."
In a press release, the BJP said the US documents only assert and prove that
Modi is the lone politician in India to be honest, fearless and clean.
Said BJP
national vice-president Purushottam Rupala and state party spokesperson I K
Jadeja: "The government which has denied Modi as Modi now finds him as one with
strong political willpower, an able administrator as well as the only
non-corrupt, no-nonsense politician of India."
The BJP rubbed in the fact that the same US government had denied Modi a visa
after the 2002 riots, and said America seemed to be "in a mood to repent".
In the cable, Owen comments on the denial of the visa, saying: "We believe
that Modi's rise in the BJP seems likely. In coordination with Embassy New
Delhi, we intend to continue our policy of interaction with the Chief Minister,
whose B1/B2 visa we revoked in 2005. Such interaction allows us to deliver a
clear message on human rights and religious freedom directly to the source. It
will also shield us from accusations of opportunism from the BJP that would
invariably arise if we ignored Modi now but sought a dialogue with him in the
likely event that he makes it to the national stage."
While delighting in Owen's praise, Modi reacted to this part of the cable
too, saying he needed "no lesson" on human rights from the US.
The CM claimed that at a meeting with Owen in 2006, he had "looked into
Owen's eyes and said America should not give us advice on human rights. I am a
son of India and I know what human rights violations you have done."
SECTION - TWELVE
Ten Points in Favour of Modi
1) He is an Indian first. Always India first for him.
2) Quick on the uptake.
3) An efficient Politician / Bureaucrat/ Economist / General / …… all rolled into one.
4) Simply does not belong to any cocktail circuit.
5) Terrorists have no place to hide. No Blood and Biryani diplomacy.
6) If you are innovative, you are the man for him.
7) Respects the country’s armed / paramilitary forces.
8) Likes India to stand up on her own legs, and not go around with a begging bowl.
9) Great extempore orator and speaks to the point. Hopefully, one day he will speak at the UN in Hindi.
10) Last but not the least, he does not steal nor does he allow others to steal.
In Addition ......
He is a good administrator with proven record.
He is workaholic.
No dynastic background.
One feel ashamed when Dr Manmohan Singh after working as PM for last 10 years says that he is looking forward to work under RG with one, whom, not having the experience of even administrating a village.
Conduct of the rest of the intellectuals in Congress are also pathetic and an apology to proud Indians.
He is subjected to the worst form of crucifixion from the corrupt, immoral, biased and selfish media, NGOs and critics (big mouths on sale).
He is a bachelor therefore nation got his 20 hours a day in service.
He keeps his family and relative at a distance from power.
He got a vision for the nation and knows how to implement it.
He is a common man who has experienced poor Indians problem.
He knows how to motivate the nation.
SECTION -ELEVEN
WHO SAVED INDIA
FROM
BUDDHU THE MORON - DR MMS
CLICK & HEAR
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQdrebTcuhM&feature=youtu.be )
__________________________________________________________-
SECTION - TEN
BILLIARD TABLE OF ELECTION SCENARIO AS ON SEP 2013
Rahul Gandhi, vice-president of the Congress party and its presumptive prime ministerial candidate should his mummy, Sonia, deem the situation ripe for his elevation (because Manmohan Singh is history — “a good man who turned out to be a good-for-nothing man” in Arun Shourie’s memorable words), called his party the voters’ “default option”. Default, by definition, implies failure of an alternative. In the context of the looming general elections, it means that if the Bharatiya Janata Party does not secure a “critical mass” of at least 185 seats in the Lok Sabha, smaller parties would choose once again to rally to the Congress party’s moth-eaten standard, and help it to continue with its policies that have left the country diminished and derelict.
Congress party’s optimism may not be warranted, however, because Prakash Karat has clarified that under no circumstances would the Left Front, still chafing from Manmohan Singh’s 2008 “betrayal” on the nuclear deal with the United States, side with Sonia Congress. It will stoke Mulayam Singh’s PM ambitions; after all his Yadav family party has all along sustained its samajwadi (socialist) pretensions by rubbing up against the Communist parties for a semblance of ideological respectability. But Mulayam has hurt his bonafides by enabling the Congress party to survive in office for nine long years. He cannot afford to botch up his record further by signalling in any way the likelihood of SP propping up a Sonia Congress-led future dispensation, and still expect the Left Front to help hoist him into 7, Race Course Road. In this competition for support of the Left parties in parliament, Mulayam and Sonia Congress are rivals.
With a reviving BJP in Uttar Pradesh, moreover, the coalition Mayawati had stitched together is falling apart with the Brahmin and Muslim voters she had attracted gravitating towards the BJP and Mulayam’s Samajwadi Party (SP) respectively. The underway “polarisation” of the electorate, precipitated principally by SP’s over-the-top strategy of wooing Muslim voters, is reflected in the SP member of parliament Kamal Farooqui’s astonishing charge that the recent arrest of the Indian Mujahideen founder Yasin Bhatkal was because he was Muslim and not a terrorist mastermind. A polarised electorate has, for the duration of the next general elections season, thus become irreversible. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Ayodhya yatra fiasco, in this context, was a minor distraction, successful only in terms of alerting the majority community to the over-tilt in the approaches of the SP and Congress.
This leaves Mayawati with her backward caste (BC) support base, part of which may be drawn to Narendra Modi’s BC roots burnished by his proven administrative acumen and political success. For reasons of UP politics, moreover, Mayawati may be pushed, post-elections, towards tying up with BJP.
These political developments have brightened BJP’s prospects, except for the habit of some of the current party leaders to score self goals and to try and trip up the only worthwhile leader with the chance to make good, the Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi. Many of them may be experienced in the ways of parliament, but simply do not have the mass pull or reach and, more significantly, the ability and the rhetorical wherewithal to connect with the people in the elemental sort of way that Modi effortlessly does. The Congress party’s stratagem of using Gujarat Police DIG DG Vanzara’s resignation letter to implicate Modi in the “fake encounter” case is shoddier still, considering it has rendered the Intelligence Bureau’s modus operandi suspect and made fighting the terrorist menace hostage to its political objective of derailing Modi, whose candidature it fears.
The fact is BJP without Modi helming it seems bereft of new thoughts and policy ideas. Indeed, the parliamentary debates on the food security and land acquisition bills showed up BJP as Congress lite. If institutionalised access to food for the poor, for instance, was deemed a political imperative then it was incumbent on the parliamentary BJP leaders to have fleshed out the party’s own food security programme based on its Chhattisgarh model, worked out the financial liability aspects at least in skeletal terms, and mounted a sustained public campaign on its behalf in the months leading up to the monsoon session of parliament. It would have highlighted the hollowness of the Congress policy of merely bestowing the “right to food” without explaining just what quantum of financial resources would be necessary, how these would be mustered, and the manner in which the central government would help the states defray the massive expense. By forcing the ruling party to bend to the contours of its more practicable Chhattisgarh model-motivated programme, BJP could have legitimately claimed the laurels for the ensuing legislation, and enabled it to turn this issue into electoral gold, rather than reducing chief minister Raman Singh’s flagship Chhattisgarh scheme to a mere debating point.
Surely, it is the main opposition party’s duty to anticipate the agenda of the treasury benches and provide the people with alternative solutions on issues of national import and impact. This, unfortunately, BJP did not do. The irony of the absent right-wing policy alternative to the Congress’s usual unviable nanny-state populist spendthrift ideas is that a manifestly more thoughtful but politically far weaker Swatantra Party led by C R Rajagopalachari provided much richer fare by way of policy choices and political contestation to Nehru in the Fifties as did Piloo Mody to Indira Gandhi in the Sixties.
Narendra Modi’s outlining his “India First” philosophy predicated on economic growth and less government, less corruption but more efficient and effective administration to deliver good governance can be juxtaposed against Rahul Gandhi’s “celebrating” the “victory” offered by the land acquisitions bill to Odisha tribals opposing bauxite and iron ore mining.
The contrast between Modi’s and Rahul’s visions, between prosperity spurred by opening up opportunities for economic growth, and meagre returns to a benighted people from a calculated policy of handouts to keep them dependent on mai-baap sarkar cannot be starker.
Indians confront the clearest electoral choice since Independence.
SOURCE:
http://bharatkarnad.com/2013/09/06/alternative-to-default-option/
SECTION - NINE
Beyond Modi vs Gandhi
A daring letter by an IIT'an to Rahul Gandhi.
An All-out War for Election 2014 has started Raging ... Still an year to come ...
Interesting read, though little long, shape of our dynastic destiny, why crib; it was Mughals, Britishers and now......
Dear Rahul,
YOU REALLY WANT TO FEEL ASHAMED???????
But don't be disappointed, I would give you ample reasons to feel ashamed... You really want to feel Ashamed..?
* First Ask Pranav Mukherjee, Why isn't he giving the details of the account holders in the Swiss Banks.
* Ask your Mother, Who is impeding the Investigation against Hasan Ali?
* Ask her, Who got 60% Kickbacks in the 2G Scam ?
* Kalamadi is accused of a Few hundred Crores, Who Pocketed the Rest in the Common Wealth Games?
* Ask Praful Patel what he did to the Indian Airlines? Why did Air India let go of the Profitable Routes ?
* Why should the Tax Payer pay for the Air India losses, when you intend to eventually DIVEST IT ANYWAY!!!
* Also, You People can't run an Airline Properly. How can we expect you to run the Nation?
* Ask Manmohan Singh. Why/What/Who kept him quiet for so long?
* Are Kalmadi and A Raja are Scapegoats to save Big Names like Harshad Mehta was in the 1992 Stock Market Scandal ?
* Who let the BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY Accused go Scot Free? (20,000 People died in that Tragedy)
* Who ordered the State Sponsored Massacre of SIKHS in 84?
* Please read more about, How Indira Gandhi pushed the Nation Under Emergency in 76-77, after the HC declared her election to Lok Sabha Void!
Dear Rahul, to refresh your memory, you were arrested/detained by the FBI the BOSTON Airport in September 2001. You were carrying with you $ 1,60,000 in Cash. You couldn't explain why you were carrying so much Cash. (Incidentally He was with his Columbian girlfriend Veronique Cartelli, ALLEGEDLY, the Daughter of Drug Mafia. 9 HOURS he was kept at the Airport. Later then freed on the intervention of the then Prime Minister Mr. Vajpayee.. FBI filed an equivalent of an FIR in US and released him. When FBI was asked to divulge the information, by Right/Freedom to Information Activists about the reasons Rahul was arrested ...FBI asked for a NO OBJECTION CERTIFICATE from Rahul Gandhi.
So Subramaniyam Swami wrote a Letter to Rahul Gandhi, " If you have NOTHING to HIDE, Give us the Permission" HE NEVER REPLIED!)
Why did that arrest not make Headlines Rahul? You could have gone to the Media and told, "I am ashamed to call myself an INDIAN?". Or is it that, you only do like to highlight Symbolic Arrests (like in UP) and not Actual Arrests (In BOSTON)
Kindly Clarify.....In any case, you want to feel ashamed, Read Along...
YOUR MOTHER'S SO CALLED SACRIFICE OF GIVING UP PRIME MINISTERSHIP in 2004.
According to a Provision in the Citizenship Act, A Foreign National who becomes a Citizen of India, is bounded by the same restrictions, which an Indian would face, If he/she were to become a Citizen of Italy. (Condition based on principle of reciprocity) Now Since you can't become a PM in Italy, Unless you are born there. Likewise an Italian Citizen can't become Indian PM, unless He/She is not born here!
Dr. SUBRAMANIYAM SWAMI (The Man who Exposed the 2G Scam) sent a letter to the PRESIDENT OF INDIA bringing the same to his Notice. PRESIDENT OF INDIA sent a letter to Sonia Gandhi to this effect, 3:30 PM, May 17th, 2004. Swearing Ceremony was scheduled for 5 PM the same Day. Manmohan Singh was brought in the Picture at the last moment to Save Face!!
Rest of the SACRIFICE DRAMA which she choreographed was an EYE WASH!!!
In fact Sonia Gandhi had sent, 340 letters, each signed by different MP to the PRESIDENT KALAM, supporting her candidacy for PM. One of those letters read, "I Sonia Gandhi, elected Member from Rai Bareli, hereby propose Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister."
So SHE was Pretty INTERESTED! Until She came to know the Facts! She didn't make any Sacrifice, It so happens that SONIA GANDHI couldn't have become the PM of INDIA that time.
You could be Ashamed about that Dear Rahul!! One Credential Sonia G had, Even that was a HOAX!
THINK ABOUT YOURSELF.
You go to Harvard on Donation Quota. ( Hindujas Gave HARVARD 11 million dollars the same year, when Rajiv Gandhi was in Power) Then you are expelled in 3 Months/ You Dropped out in 3 Months....(Sadly Manmohan Singh wasn't the Dean of Harvard that time, else you might have had a chance... Too Bad, there is only one Manmohan Singh!)
Then Why did you go about lying about being Masters in Economics from Harvard .. before finally taking it off your Resume upon questioning by Dr. SUBRAMANIYAM SWAMI (The Gentlemen who exposed the 2G Scam)
At St. Stephens.. You Fail the Hindi Exam. Hindi Exam!!! And you are representing the Biggest Hindi Speaking State of the Country?
SONIA GANDHI's EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
Sonia G gave a sworn affidavit as a Candidate that She Studied English at University of Cambridge. According to Cambridge University, there is no such Student EVER! Upon a Case by Dr. Subramaniyam Swami filed against her, She subsequently dropped the CAMBRIDGE CREDENTIAL from her Affidavit. Sonia Gandhi didn't even pass High School. She is just 5th class Pass! In this sense, She shares a common Educational Background with her 2G Partner in Crime, Karunanidhi.
You Fake your Educational Degree, Your Mother Fakes her Educational Degree. And then you go out saying, " We want Educated Youth into Politics!". WHY LIE ABOUT EDUCATIONAL CREDENTIALS? Not that Education is a Prerequisite for being a great Leader, but then you shouldn't have lied about your qualifications! You could feel a little ashamed about Lying about your Educational Qualifications. You had your reasons I know, Because in India, WE RESPECT EDUCATION!
But who cares about Education, When you are a Youth Icon!!
YOUTH ICON
You traveled in the Local Train for the first time at the Age of 38. You went to some Villages as a part of Election Campaign. And You won a Youth Icon!! ... That's why You are my Youth Icon.For 25 Million People travel by Train Every day. You are the First Person to win a Youth Icon for boarding a Train.Thousands of Postmen go to remotest of Villages. None of them have yet gotten a Youth Icon. You were neither YOUNG Nor ICONIC!
Still You became a Youth Icon beating Iconic and Younger Contenders like RAHUL DRAVID.
SURNAME
Shakespeare said, What's in a Name?
Little did he knew, It's all in the Name, Especially the Surname! Speaking of Surname, Sir DO YOU REALLY RESPECT GANDHI, OR IS IT JUST TO CASH IN ON THE GOODWILL OF MAHATMA? Because the Name on your Passport is RAUL VINCI. Not RAHUL GANDHI..
May be if you wrote your Surname as Gandhi, you would have experienced, what Gandhi feels like, LITERALLY (Pun Intended)
You People don't seem to use Gandhi much, except when you are fighting Elections. ( There it makes complete sense). Imagine fighting elections by the Name Raul Vinci...
You use the name GANDHI at will and then say, " Mujhe yeh YUVRAJ shabd insulting lagta hai! Kyonki aaj Hindustan mein Democracy hai, aur is shabd ka koi matlab nahin hai! YUVRAJ, Itna hi Insulting lagta hai, to lad lo RAUL VINCI ke Naam se!!! Jin Kisano ke saath photo khinchate ho woh bhi isliye entertain karte hain ki GANDHI ho.. RAUL VINCI bol ke Jao... Ghar mein nahin ghusaenge!!!
You could feel ashamed for your Double Standards.
YOUTH INTO POLITICS.
Now You want Youth to Join Politics. I say First you Join Politics. Because you haven't Joined Politics. You have Joined a Family Business.
First you Join Politics. Win an Election fighting as RAUL VINCI and Not Rahul Gandhi, then come and ask the youth and the Educated Brass for more involvement in Politics.
Also till then, Please don't give me examples of Sachin Pilot and Milind Deora and Naveen Jindal as youth who have joined Politics. They are not Politicians. They Just happen to be Politicians. Much Like Abhishek Bachchan and other Star Sons are not Actors. They just happen to be Actors (For Obvious Reasons) So, We would appreciate if you stop requesting the Youth to Join Politics till you establish your credentials...
WHY WE CAN'T JOIN POLITICS!
Rahul Baba, Please understand, Your Father had a lot of money in your Family account ( in Swiss Bank) when he died. Ordinary Youth has to WORK FOR A LIVING. YOUR FAMILY just needs to NETWORK FOR A LIVING. If our Father had left thousands of Crores with us, We might consider doing the same. But we have to Work. Not just for ourselves. But also for you. So that we can pay 30% of our Income to the Govt. which can then be channelized to the Swiss Banks and your Personal Accounts under some Pseudo Names. So Rahul, Please don't mind If the Youth doesn't Join Politics. We are doing our best to fund your Election Campaigns and your Chopper trips to the Villages. Somebody has to Earn the Money that Politicians Feed On.
NO WONDER YOU ARE NOT GANDHIs. YOU ARE SO CALLED GANDHIs!!
Air India, KG Gas Division, 2G, CWG, SWISS BANK Account Details... Hasan Ali, KGB., FBI Arrest.. You want to feel ashamed..? Feel Ashamed for what the First Family of Politics has been reduced to... A Money Laundering Enterprise. NO WONDER YOU ARE NOT GANDHI'S BY BLOOD. GANDHI is an adopted Name. For Indira didn't marry Mahatma Gandhi's Son.
For even if you had one GENE OF GANDHI JI in your DNA. YOU WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN PLAGUED BY SUCH 'POVERTY OF AMBITION' (Ambition of only EARNING MONEY) You really want to feel Ashamed? Feel Ashamed for what you ' SO CALLED GANDHI'S' have done to MAHATMA'S Legacy.. I so wish GANDHI JI had Copyrighted his Name!
Meanwhile, I would request Sonia Gandhi to change her name to $ONIA GANDHI, and you could replace the 'R' in RAHUL/RAUL by the New Rupee Symbol!!!
RAUL VINCI : I am ashamed to call myself an Indian. Even we are ashamed to call you so!
P.S: Popular Media is either bought or blackmailed, controlled to Manufacture Consent! My Guess is Social Media is still a Democratic Platform. (Now they are trying to put legislations to censor that too!!).
Meanwhile, Let's ask these questions, for we deserve some Answers.
YOURS SINCERELY
NITIN GUPTA ( RIVALDO)
Sarath.........
B. Tech, IIT Bombay
SECTION - EIGHT
EK BHRAT, SHRESHTH BHARAT
POLL MASCOT & THE GUIDE
MODERN BHISHAMPITAMA
ALL IN ONE
BY
- Radhika Ramaseshan
Poll mascot and the guide “Ek Bharat, shreshth Bharat (one India, best India)” - Radhika Ramaseshan
New Delhi, June 11: L.K. Advani rolled back his resignation from the BJP’s top policy-framing committees without securing a concrete assurance on the “concerns” he had raised other than an ego massage from the RSS.
Soon after, Narendra Modi — the ostensible provocation for the extreme step Advani took —tweeted: “I had said yesterday that Advaniji will not disappoint lakhs of (BJP)karyakartas (workers). Today, I whole-heartedly welcome his decision.”
The BJP’s campaign spearhead also coined the first poll slogan: “Ek Bharat, shreshth Bharat (one India, best India).”
A combination of general assurances and an appeal to the call of “duty” he owed to the BJP as one of its founders apparently prompted Advani to withdraw his resignation.
Sources present at the numerous meetings today between Advani and his colleagues said the issue of Modi’s anointment as the BJP’s national campaign committee head and the prospective choice of him as the putative Prime Minister did not figure. “Neither did he ask nor did we bring it up,” a source said.
Advani’s “concern”, the source said, was “more on the internal decision-making procedures and the BJP’s image”.
He was told by his confidants — who are making a place for themselves in a Modi-led dispensation — that he should not have resigned and “dampened” the euphoria that followed Modi’s anointment and that as the architect of the BJP’s early victories, he should “place its interest above everything else”.
“We told him that the mood of the workers is to strengthen the party, prepare for the elections and combat the Congress and not fight within the family,” a source said.
Advani was told clearly that if the BJP suffered a third successive defeat in 2014, it would spell its doom.
An Advani aide said the “clincher” was the conversation with RSS chief Mohanrao Bhagwat. Other sources said former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari and swadeshi votary S. Gurumurthy dialled Bhagwat’s number and handed the phone to Advani.
Bhagwat, the aide said, assured Advani that he would ask Rajnath to “address your concerns” and to “work out the necessary modalities”. He told Advani he would call on him when he was in Delhi on June 18.
Advani’s callers included his staunchest loyalists Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar and their acolytes, S.S. Ahluwalia and Gopinath Munde. His other visitors were Jaswant Singh, Uma Bharti, Murli Manohar Joshi, Balbir Punj and Gadkari. Advani’s former political adviser, Sudheendra Kulkarni, no longer in the BJP, was by his side as well.
For the rest, it was business as usual. Rajnath briefly met him before departing for Rajasthan to address Vasundhara Raje’s ongoing “yatra” as did Arun Jaitley before taking off for London.
During the day, Bhagwat phoned the BJP president and conveyed that Advani was willing to rethink his decision. He asked Rajnath to issue a statement, signalling that “all is well” within the “parivar”.
Rajnath returned this evening and addressed the media at Advani’s residence in the company of Sushma, Uma and Jaswant among others.
A terse statement he read out said Advani was assured that his “concerns” about the BJP’s functioning and the “modalities” of addressing these would be discussed with him. Rajnath also alluded to Advani’s conversation with Bhagwat.
He said the RSS chief had “asked him to respect the BJP’s parliamentary board decision (rejecting his resignation) and continue to guide the party in national interest. Shri Advani has decided to accept Shri Bhagwat’s advice”.
Rajnath refused to take questions on whether the bold print had papered over certain conditions Advani had laid down and if these would be met. Sources rebuffed the suggestion of a quid pro quo.
Ironically, Bhagwat’s projection in the BJP’s statement and by an Advani aide ran counter to Advani’s recent agenda. For the past 10 years or so, Advani had consistently maintained the Sangh should stop micro-managing the BJP’s affairs.
Advani’s run-in with his ideological parent began after his Pakistan visit in 2005 that culminated in his praise of Jinnah. The RSS refused to countenance the act and prevailed on the BJP to replace him as the party president. Advani went out, kicking and screaming at the Sangh. He refused to disown the Jinnah phase.
Sources said what tipped the scales against Advani in the latest episode was the BJP’s near-total backing of Modi as its new poll mascot.
It appears that even Sushma and Uma have reconciled to the phase-out of their mentor and the arrival of the Modi dispensation. The sadhvi told journalists today that Modi was like Advani’s “son”.
The only solace, if at all, for Sushma and company was that Advani’s continuance in the panels could be a buffer of sorts against Modi. But his resignation and rapid withdrawal have already become a butt of jokes in the BJP.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130612/jsp/frontpage/story_16998374.jsp#.Ubhc8Ocwevc
RSS not managing BJP's affairs, says Ram Madhav over Advani's resignation episode
PTI Posted online: Wed Jun 12 2013, 15:15 hrs
New Delhi : A day after senior BJP leader L K Advani withdrew his resignation following the RSS chief's call to him, the Sangh founthead today said that it is not interfering or managing the affairs of the right-wing party."When a senior person of the stature of L K Advani needed to be given some advice, naturally some senior people in the country and society will give him advice. Not just RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat but also many others had advised him to reconsider his decision," RSS leader Ram Madhav said.
Advani, who had quit key party posts in the wake of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's elevation as head of the BJP Election Campaign Committee, withdrew it after Bhagwat persuaded him on the phone to do so. BJP and RSS have reportedly assured Advani that he will be consulted on all big decisions of the party. BJP President Rajnath Singh had said yesterday that Advani changed his decision after Bhagwat convinced him that the concerns raised by him in his resignation letter will be looked into. Insisting that Bhagwat and others merely gave suggestions to Advani, Madhav said, "Do you mean to say that everybody who was giving advice to Advani was interfering in affairs of BJP? RSS does not and shall never do any micro-management of the affairs of BJP." The crisis in BJP blew over after Advani took back his resignation. http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/1128166/ |
SECTION - SEVEN
BHISHAMPATAMA - THE LOH PURUSH
BY
MUNI VYASA
( Watch : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-dADPw25lk )
YEH KAHANI HAI DIYA KI AUR TOFFAN KI
mauf karna galti ho gai
YEH KAHANI HAI KURSI AUR CHARPAI KI
Kursi : Made by Iron Man (Loh Purush)
A curdled old codger and BJP-NDA’s game-theoretic future
By
Bharat Karnad
Source: Security Wise
Much of the contretemps in the BJP boils down to the thwarted ambition of the one-time "loh purush" who, with time, has rusted into a heap of scrap metal but entertains notions of him as the central pillar of the party. It is a pitiable scene to see L.K. Advani so tragically reducing himself into a sullen, sulky, old man who will be remembered, if at all, for his turning a page-turning chapter in the country's life into a personal melodrama. For the first time in independent India's short history there is the possibility of Narendra Modi -- the hard-charging, no-nonsense, right-of-centre ideologue firing up young and aspiring sections of society -- the bulk of the electorate in 2014 and, perhaps, assuming helmsmanship of the country. And then Advani has to go play the rancid old codger without the political wit and wisdom to espy a polity on the cusp of radical change and economic betterment.
Advani has in a huff resigned from all party posts but not given up the chairmanship of the the National Democratic Alliance. Strange, but he is presumably the chairman on account of his leadership of the BJP so, to be consistent, should't he surrender the NDA position as well? Maybe he sees his continuing occupation of this position as offering him the outside chance at PM-ship. It is a self-serving ruse then to keep alive his candidacy. But should BJP garner more Lok Sabha seats than in 2009 --thanks mainly to Narendra Modi's galvanizing efforts, say, in the 180 range, and BJP require the help of allies and coalition partners to bid for power, would Advani at that moment in time have the political currency to be hoisted to head an NDA government by acclamation? Doubtful, in the main because a person who will have contributed nothing to the party's electoral success cannot remotely hope to mobilize support behind himself -- least of all among the elected BJP MPs and the party cadre, who will owe him nothing, and sentiments about his past role in founding BJP will count for even less. Politics is hard business not fueled by sentimentality but success.
The more likely prospect is Advani setting himself up as spoiler, fully cognizant of and canny enough to know what he is doing but determined to harm the chances of his own party at the hustings any way, whatever it takes. This will be sad denouement for a man who has lived by his political acumen but will be brought down by hubris. History will pass a curdled Advani by and very fast with whatever love, respect, and goodwill he has generated among the people over the years dissipating like a thin wisp of smoke.
Of course, the Congress party clutching at straws, will keep alive the Advani issue with snarky comments by Messrs Digvijay Singh and Co., in the hope that BJP partners like JD(U) will be sufficiently alarmed to desert the NDA in the next general elections. Except, if BJP needs Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) equally desperately needs the upper caste and urban votes in Bihar that Modi and BJP can attract. After nearly a decade of misrule, misgovernance, and rank bad and grossly corrupt government, it will be a wonder if the Congress Party will be able to fill the space vacated by BJP in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's scheme of things. This is no small consideration because Lalu Yadav threatens to storm his bastion. (Lalu does not stand a chance, but damned if, together with Paswan, he doesn't spice up life for Nitish!) The prospect staring Nitish in the face will be this: He has not a snowball's chance in hell to be Prime Minister of any coalition; worse, he may not even have Bihar to lord over! He will be reduced, you guessed it, to being a JD(U) version of Manmohan Singh -- no political support base, no constituency, no future.
In game theoretic terms, it is Nitish and JD(U) confronting enormous uncertainties. Narendra-bhai's problem is a more straightforward one by comparison -- to win as many seats for the BJP as possible, every additional Lok Sabha seat secured firming up his right to run the country. When it comes down to it, Nitish has no choice other than to blink!
CHARPOY MODELS MADE BY
&
AVAILABILITY
(THIS IS ORIGINAL AS VISUALISED BY MUNI VYASA, IN CASE OF REJECTION OF OTHER MODELS, IS AVAILABLE FOR FREE ANY TIME )
BY BJP : Mamla Gambhir Hai
By UPA : MELODRAMA as visualised from the eyes of Dig, VIJAY Singh
By NDA : We below are all models for "SALE"
SECTION- SIX
National Executive Meeting
Panaji (Goa)
8-9 June, 2013
POLITICAL RESOLUTION
In this sixty sixth year of independence -- when the post globalosation born generation expected fulfillment of their great aspirations from the government of the day-- the non-performing UPA has driven all sections of the society in great despair. This National Executive of the BJP meeting at Goa, through this resolution gives voice to the feeling of betrayal deep in the minds of the people. This resolution is the articulation of our commitment to throw this most corrupt govt. lock, stock and barrel.
On May 22, 2013 the Congress-led UPA-II government completed four years in office. Self-certification and self-congratulation were the only noticeable features of this muted celebration. Its leaders had nothing tangible or worthwhile that might merit commendation. The environment was dominated by gloom, pessimism and negativity. UPA-II's only achievement appears to be that it has completed four years in office. As far as the people's judgment is concerned, this government has inflicted serious damage on the nation.
In the long list of crimes committed against the people of India by the Congress in the last four years, three stand out: obnoxious corruption; degradation of the economy; and a malignant assault on the federal spirit of our polity.
There has been monumental corruption, with scam following scam involving massive loot of public money, rank mal-governance and causing untold misery to the common man. The entire growth story of India is in doubt because of a leadership that is unsure and indecisive. This depressing combination has seriously dented the image of India.
DEFECTIVE STRUCTURE OF LEADERSHIP
The Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is not the real leader of this government. He is merely in office, not in authority. True power vests with UPA chairperson Shrimati Sonia Gandhi, who has the last word on policy issues. For its future, Congress looks towards the heir apparent, her son. The woeful weakness of the office of Prime Minister in a nation like India is evident in the fact that senior ministers and party leaders routinely signal their obedience to dynasty by demanding that Shri Rahul Gandhi be declared leader and Prime Minister candidate for the next election while Dr Singh is compelled to seek, periodically, a certificate for his continuance from Shrimati Sonia Gandhi.
In fact, the President of Samajwadi Party, on whose crutches UPA-II substantially depends to survive, has publicly commented that Dr Manmohan Singh is not a strong leader and is not free to take decision. Despite being PM for nine consecutive years, Dr Singh has become synonymous with indecision, inability and silence at great cost to the country.
RAMPANT CORRUPTION IS UPA'S DEFINING FEATURE
The BJP has said repeatedly that Congress-led UPA is the most corrupt government since independence; each passing day only reinforces that impression. Bribery, kickbacks, gross financial impropriety and endless scams have become so common it is difficult to keep count. There is no guarantee that another major scam might not explode soon.
The arrogance of power has made Congress indifferent to popular outrage. It used each day in office to loot the nation's resources, whether in farmers' land, spectrum, or mines, even as individual ministers, encouraged by laissez faire freedom in corruption accumulated private bounties wherever and whenever they could. Just a few weeks ago, one Cabinet minister was forced to resign because a relative was caught by police soliciting bribes in his name. A second had to go because he was manipulating CBI evidence to disguise the Prime Minister's authorisation for the scandalous allotment of coal mines. Like a fish, Congress has begun to rot from head down. The family of the Congress president was involved in dubious deals on farming land. And the Italian police have mentioned the involvement of a "family" within the ruling hierarchy which has been allegedly paid off to obtain the Agusta helicopter deal.
This massive loot of public money has taken place because of patronage and involvement of people at the very top of the Congress pyramid. In coalgate, the biggest of these scams, involving loot of Rs 1.87 Lakh crores, the role of the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh himself is under serious scrutiny because he was also Coal Minister when the scam happened. When the Supreme Court began to monitor the CBI investigation in coalgate, a former Law Minister and officials tried to interfere and change the status report to dilute evidence against the highest in the land, in this case the Prime Minister. Indians were also aghast to learn, in the past few weeks, that the highest posts in the Railway Board were being sold by the family of the Railway Minister. The PM and Shrimati Sonia Gandhi tried to protect this minister even in the face of national outrage, and they were compelled to resign only because of relentless public pressure and an assertive campaign by the BJP. The last session of Parliament was a complete washout because of the government's obstinacy in protecting the Law and Railways Ministers. curiously, two days after the session ended the two resigned. Such is the dismal record of political accountability within this UPA government.
The massive corruption in allotment of 2G licenses by the Minister of Telecommunications remains one of the most shameful stories in independent India; here too, the PM and present Finance Minister P. Chidambaram have a lot to explain. Shockingly, their role is not being investigated at all. Similarly, there is no investigation against Delhi Chief Minister Shrimati Shiela Dikshit despite the fact that the Shunglu Committee report has exposed her government's unsavoury involvement in the Commonwealth Games scam. Besides, the Delhi Lokayukta too has recently severely indicted the Delhi Chief Minister and yet brazenly, Mrs Dikshit has the gumption to say that corruption is not an issue in Delhi.
BJP is also concerned over the reported patronage and sharing of public dais by Delhi Chief Minister Smt. Shila Dikshit with person accused of terrorist attack on an Israeli diplomat.
The UPA government has done nothing to bring back black money, estimated at Rs 25 lakh crores, stashed away in foreign banks; or to pursue those who made money in the commercial allotment of prime land worth thousands of crores in the privatization of the international airport in Delhi; the Adarsh housing scandal; or those who took bribes in the Agusta helicopter deal. Shrimati Sonia Gandhi and her son maintained a conspicuous silence, particularly about the last.
In 2009, Shrimati Gandhi declared that corruption would be brought under control within a hundred days. Instead, it has become a cancer afflicting all parts of the body politic. It was only because of the sustained campaign by the BJP, inside and outside Parliament, the splendid initiative taken media and social organizations, and intervention by the courts that investigation is underway.
WEAKENING OF INSTITUTIONS
UPA has deliberately and consistently weakened and disregarded democratic institutions. This has been done in many ways, both overt and surreptitious. Among them is the quality of appointees to Constitutional and statutory offices. UPA is a minority government that owes its survival to CBI, which has become pliable and partisan. Congress uses a policy of carrot and stick to retain the support in Parliament, at decisive moments, of parties like Samajwadi and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Some appointments to august bodies like the Election Commission, National Human Rights Commission and CVC have been highly questionable. Legitimate concerns have been brushed aside with impunity. There have been instances where major appointments have been set aside by the judiciary. Senior ministers have publicly criticised CAG when it has stood up, with integrity, and done its duty by the Constitution and the people of India by exposing financial improprieties of this government. The manner in which the Congress tried to belittle the sanctity of an important Parliamentary institution like the JPC forced members of this body, cutting across party lines, to seek the removal of its chairman.
Immobilised by scandal, and bereft of national purpose, the Congress-led UPA has weakened India through a weak government. The erosion of India’s credibility is visible in the aggressive postures of some neighbours, while others treat our most important concerns, like terrorism, with callous indifference. Leaders of those malignant and militant organisations who perpetrated the unforgiveable assaults on Mumbai in 1993 and 2008 are safe in their sanctuary, while we shuffle out a response that can only be described as appeasement.
STATE OF ECONOMY
Statistics measure, but can never accurately convey, the painful impact of economic free-fall. We have witnessed since 2004 what can only be described as a decade of gloom. The charismatic leadership of Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, and his wise, mature policies, set India on the path to high growth, poverty alleviation through higher national revenues, and the creation of an infrastructure for a modern economy. The Congress-led UPA has driven India into economic despond. Growth has slipped from 8.3% in 2004, when NDA demitted office, to a miserable 5% today. Inflation has robbed food from the poor and middle class, in both city and village. The whiplash of unemployment and under-employment has left scars on the minds of the poor. There is paralysis in decision-making, which has hurt the industrial sector immeasurably. There has been major growth in just one area: the wealth of those in power and their cronies.
Gross economic mismanagement and miserable governance by an "economist" Prime Minister has punctured and paralysed India's growth story. UPA inherited a growing and booming economy in 2004. The initial years of UPA showed growth because of the impetus of its inheritance. The unprecedented price rise during UPA years has caused immense hardship to the common man. The investment environment in the country has been strangled. One a showcase for the world, the Indian economy has lost its bounce and attraction. A reverse flight has begun in investment; Indian industrialists are finding better investment destinations abroad. Unemployment is rampant as job creation has taken a massive hit. Growth has plummeted to 5%, a stark statistic reeking of failure.
Even success stories such as telecom, power, national highways, rural roads and seaports have suffered setbacks under the UPA. The rupee has weakened to dangerous levels. A decision like the government's move to allow FDI in the multi-brand sector is a serious setback to domestic retail, manufacturing and consumers.
Agriculture is suffering because of policies that can only ensure calamity. The Indian farmer suffers from heavy debt; irrigation facilities are meagre. The agricultural growth rate in most parts of the country is inadequate. Farmer suicides continued unabated, and UPA remains an indifferent, heartless spectator. The agricultural growth that we see now is predominantly on account of significant growth in states like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar.
Dr Manmohan Singh tried to explain this on the fourth anniversary of UPA-II by saying that the glass is half full. He forgot that Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee left him with a glass rising towards the brim. After nine years, that glass is full only of corruption.
ATROCITIES ON WOMEN
The sanctity and security of women has become extremely vulnerable under UPA. Gender atrocity has become the order of the day. Rape, gang rape, sexual assault, acid attacks have become commonplace. Popular protest forced tightening of the law, but its effect is still not being felt in real life.
BJP-LED NDA IS ONLY CREDIBLE ALTERNATIVE
BJP congratulates its State governments in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Punjab and Goa for a sterling performance that has won the hearts of people. These governments, alone or in alliance, have lifted millions from the degradation of poverty through economic growth and honestly-administered welfare programmes. They have ensured peace and harmony between communities. Every community, whether of the majority or minority religious or caste persuasion, is equal. The true meaning of secularism is sarva dharma sambhav. Our positive discrimination programmes have recognised hunger as the true problem that needs emergency attention; and our gender promotion programmes cut across every divide.
In contrast, the record of UPA is one of despair. The people are enraged by corruption, price rise, bad governance and the indifference of those in power. The BJP shall continue to serve the people by taking up their cause, and challenging this decrepit government. We promise the people that it shall restore our nation's pride in itself, and relieve our country from gloom and depression. It is a proven fact that NDA under the able leadership of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee had taken the country way ahead on the path of progress. We had converted the economy of scarcity into an economy of surplus. Connectivity was the watch word of those days. From telecommunication to highways we had successfully tried for integrating this great nation. Our credibility on the front of Good Governance is further consolidated by the performance of BJP-NDA states. Remember, all the important and prestigious awards for Good Governance, nationally and internationally; have come to our State Govts and we take pride in this fact.
The nation has been driven back to the edge of an abyss. In such a crisis, the defeat of the UPA is not merely a partisan wish, but a national responsibility.
The people have already decided to kick out the UPA and welcome the NDA. BJP is the vehicle for bringing this resolved into reality.
We must remember that since a BJP-led NDA is the only credible alternative to a defunct UPA we have an onerous responsibility. Dethroning this government that dithers is now our historic duty and we must discharge the same with all our strength.
SECTION - FIVE
May 26, 2013
By
Sudha Ramachandran
Source: http://thediplomat.com/2013/05/26/indias-election-beyond-modi-vs-gandhi/?all=true
The polls show Narendra Modi with a clear lead. But India’s electoral calculations are not so simple.
On May 22, India’s ruling coalition, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), celebrated the fourth anniversary of its government and the completion of its ninth straight year in power.
With little achievement to its credit – not only has it failed to address the agrarian crisis or revive a sluggish economy but this government has also been described as India’s most corrupt since independence – and its prospects in the 2014 general election bleak at best, political commentators questioned whether the UPA should be celebrating at all.
As the UPA begins its tenth year at the helm, its stock with the people has dipped to an all-time low. Several opinion surveys conducted in recent weeks predict a UPA defeat if general elections were held now.
True, the surveys reveal that the Congress’ losses would not translate automatically into gains for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with smaller regional parties expected to be the main beneficiaries. But the BJP – or at least those sections that support Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi – can draw some satisfaction from the results of the opinion polls. The surveys are unanimous in declaring Modi to be the most popular prime ministerial candidate in the country. For instance, the CNN-IBN poll reveals that 38% of urban voters prefer Modi over incumbent Manmohan Singh (13%) and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi (14%).
In fact, the surveys predict that Modi will improve the electoral prospects of the BJP and the coalition it leads – the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). “Only Narendra Modi can deliver them within striking distance of power in Delhi,” observes R Jagannathan in Firstpost.com.
Modi has been Chief Minister of the western state of Gujarat since 2001. In December last year, he led the BJP to its fourth consecutive win in the state. Emboldened by that emphatic mandate in his home state, Modi turned his eyes towards Delhi, the Indian capital. He is clearly eyeing the prime minister’s job.
But Modi’s ambitions have been under attack, not just from secular India but from within his party. Several BJP leaders are uncomfortable with his abrasive style and see him as a liability in a general election. Some of the BJP’s allies threatened to quit the NDA if Modi is projected as the alliance’s prime ministerial candidate in General Election-2014. Their opposition stems from their unease with Modi’s alleged role in communal violence, which could cost them the votes of Muslims.
In 2002, Gujarat was engulfed in communal violence. Over a thousand people, mostly Muslims, were killed, raped or injured. The violence was unleashed by mobs that included many members of the Sangh Parivar, a family of Hindu right-wing organizations of which the BJP is a part. Ministers in Modi’s government are alleged to have orchestrated the violence and incited crowds to attack Muslims and Modi himself is believed to have told a meeting of police officials that Hindus should be allowed to vent their anger (over the burning of a train at Godhra which resulted in the death of 53 Hindus) against Muslims. In the 12 years since that carnage, Modi has never accepted responsibility or shown the slightest remorse for the horrific violence.
Starting early this year, the Indian media has been describing the 2014 general elections as an epic battle between two personalities: Modi and Rahul Gandhi.
The two are polar opposites. A scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family, Rahul’s political lineage is unmatchable. His great-grandfather, grandmother and father were prime ministers. His mother Sonia, the Congress Party President and chairperson of the UPA, is arguably the most powerful person in India.
Rahul is often described as the Congress’ yuvraj or “crown prince.” The prime ministership is seen as his natural inheritance. Yet he has repeatedly claimed that he is not interested in becoming prime minister. He would much rather work to rejuvenate the party, he says, and to build its grassroots support.
Modi has often mocked Rahul as a child of privilege, someone who was “born with a golden spoon.” Unlike Rahul, Modi comes from a family of moderate means and had to work his way up the hierarchy of the Sangh Parivar. Having served as Gujarat’s chief minister for over a decade, he would like to serve “Mother India” now, he says.
Modi has often mocked Rahul as a child of privilege, someone who was “born with a golden spoon.” Unlike Rahul, Modi comes from a family of moderate means and had to work his way up the hierarchy of the Sangh Parivar. Having served as Gujarat’s chief minister for over a decade, he would like to serve “Mother India” now, he says.
Drawing attention to their personalities, eminent journalist Dilip Padgaonkar, who is seen to be sympathetic to the Congress, says: “Both men are aloof. While Modi's aloofness has a touch of arrogance to it, that of Rahul reeks of shyness. The former's demeanour signals overbearing self-confidence; that of the latter reveals shades of vulnerability. One is authoritative, stern, pugnacious, decisive and domineering; the other, modest, sober, hesitant and, above all, eager to play the Good Samaritan.”
Although Rahul has been in active politics for over a decade now, he has little administrative experience, having repeatedly rejected ministerial assignments in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet. Many have criticized this reluctance to take on ministerial position as shirking responsibility. Critics say he has no vision, no plan or agenda for India.
In administrative experience, then, Modi scores emphatically over Rahul. He has headed the government in Gujarat for over a decade and likes to remind listeners that he brought prosperity and development to the state. Indeed, Gujarat’s economy has been growing steadily, and Modi has an image of a clean and efficient administrator. However, critics point out that Modi has simply built on development achieved in previous decades, that his development model is pro-rich and excludes minorities and rural Gujaratis, and that while the economy is booming, the status of women, children and religious minorities is appalling.
Modi is a deeply polarizing figure, easily among India’s most controversial. His perceived arrogance and authoritarian manner is despised by many Indians, who are repelled by what they see as a chest-thumping, aggressive Hindu nationalism. Yet he is also admired by many, especially “those who buy into his development mantra, those who prefer a strong authoritarian leader, and those who favour a strong Hindutva line,” according to senior associate editor of The Hindu, Mukund Padmanabhan. These are more likely to be urban Indians.
While he has shown that he can win elections in his home state Gujarat, whether he can impress voters elsewhere in India remains to be seen. In the recent election to the Karnataka state assembly for instance, the “Modi magic” did not work. He was unable to save the ruling BJP in that state from being booted out of power.
Moreover, it is rural India that accounts for most of India’s electorate and here Modi has failed to strike a chord with voters. While he has successfully wooed voters in Gujarat, convincing the rest of India, especially rural India will not be easy.
But trying to predict the outcome of India’s parliamentary elections by comparing its prime ministerial candidates is flawed. India’s general elections are far too complex to be reduced to a contest between two personalities. This is not a presidential election but an election to parliament, one that will see multifarious contests in which thousands of candidates and political parties will butt heads for 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house.
Who will form the next government will be determined not so much by who is leading the campaign or who is being projected as the prime ministerial candidate as it is by calculations of caste and community, alliance arithmetic and a host of other factors. Regional parties could hold the key to who will rule India after the 2014 electoral battle.
Some in Congress are wondering whether Rahul is the right person to take on Modi. Should the Congress front its campaign with a more aggressive leader? Perhaps the increasingly unpopular and “weak” Manmohan Singh could be replaced by Palaniappan Chidambaram to project the Congress’ image as a tough party?
A former home minister and currently India’s finance minister, Chidambaram is perceived as a tough, no-nonsense figure. He strikes a chord with India’s English-speaking elite.
He is no mass leader, though, and may have difficulty saving his own seat from the Sivaganga constituency. His lack of any political base makes him an ideal person to keep the seat warm for Rahul; he is unlikely to challenge Rahul’s leadership in the Congress and will remain beholden to the Nehru-Gandhis.
While Chidambaram has powerful detractors within the Congress and the UPA, there is a perception, too, that making him prime minister until election day could boost the ruling coalition’s fading image and fortunes.
Besides, it would also enable the Congress to save its crown prince for an easier battle.
SECTION - FOUR
FOR BJP THERE IS NO THIRD CHOICE
MODI OR NO MODI
During my college days when high intellectualism and profanity went hand in hand, there was a crude Hindi phrase that became shorthand for a phenomenon that can best be described as the hype-thatnever. It is possible that the highminded disciples of the venerable Dr Raghu Vira in the BJP have never allowed such disagreeable colloquialisms to sully their speech and thoughts. This may explain why this repository of high culture has titillated itself with unending foreplay - a perversity that is fast becoming a bore.
The allusion is to the tortuous prevarication that has greeted the intense all-round pressure that the BJP end the uncertainty over the leadership question. The speculation over the role to be played by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the general election has been hanging fire for nearly six months. Now, as the political game enters the proverbial slog overs stage, the impatience of those who are demanding a formal decision is approaching boiling point. They want a decision, preferably at the meeting of the National Executive in Goa later this week.
The choices before the BJP leaders are simple: either they project Modi as the face of the general election campaign or they adopt a lofty stand that the party is more important than any individual. There is no third path. The suggestion, periodically mooted by sundry individuals, that the old war-horse L K Advani be given another throw of the dice amounts to very little and would probably constitute an affront to an India that is demographically more attuned to the 21st century. Equally, the wild-card proposal to anoint previous party president Nitin Gadkari as chairman of the party's campaign committee is just a transparently sly bid to stop Modi at all costs.
In reality, the BJP has no real choice but to bite the Modi bullet. Anecdotal evidence-which counts for a great deal in India's political decisionmaking-has quite clearly indicated that the BJP's natural supporters are enthused by Modi in the same way as they were by the Ayodhya issue in 1991 and by Atal Behari Vajpayee's leadership in 1998 and 1999. More to the point - and this is privately conceded by the leaders of non-NDA parties - the Modi buzz has infected sections that, in the normal course, are not partial to the BJP.
The anecdotal evidence is backed by opinion polls that point to a significant Modi bulge for the NDA parties throughout the country but particularly in northern and western India. The findings suggest that if the downhill slide of the UPA-2 Government persists and the other side isn't debilitated by self-inflicted wounds, a Modi-led campaign would enable the BJP and its allies to maximise its seat tally from its traditional areas of influence. This is particularly appealing to the BJP in Uttar Pradesh where it has been struggling to re-establish itself since 1999. It may even prove an attraction to parties who are still outside the NDA fold, as the Vajpayee factor did in 1998 and 1999.
In a country as vast, diverse and differentiated as India, there is no single explanation for the dramatic surge in the popularity of a regional leader without any dynastic claim. To a vocal minusculity, Modi is the standard bearer of Hindu nationalism. But beyond this fringe, his appeal rests on other factors: as the proverbial no-nonsense, strong leader who can check India's drift, as a champion of economic resurgence and as an epitome of personal integrity.
To these perceived attributes is a curious addition: caste. Modi has never flaunted his social origins and that he comes from a small backward caste is still relatively unknown. But throughout northern India, the bush telegraph is resonating with the news that, for the first time in living memory, there is an OBC aspirant to the post of prime minister. The potential emotional appeal of this is incalculable.
These may explain why, if the BJP leadership persists in dithering, we may witness an Indian variant of Mao's famous call in 1967 to "bombard the headquarters" when a staid leadership was upstaged by raw enthusiasm of the Red Guards. For the BJP, Goa could witness either a celebration or an insurrection.
SECTION - THREE
SECTION - TWO
SECTION - THREE
A WESTERN JOURNALIST ON LK ADVANI
When I started reporting in India, I had the same ideas as most western journalists : secularism, as practiced by Jawarlahal Nehru, was the best policy for India, given its caste and religion differences; Islam was a peaceful religion; and there were also Hindu fanatics.
But I had been given three boons by the Lord: I spent the first seven years of my life in India far from Delhi (in Pondicherry); I read Sri Aurobindo extensively and discovered that he had a towering mind, educated in the West, but Himalayan in its breadth; & I started freelancing in the South, which is much softer, much more attuned to its culture and spirituality than northern India.
Thus, when I interviewed K.R. Malkani, then one of the spokespersons of the BJP in 1988, I went there thinking I would get a Hindu ‘nationalist’ spiel. I was surprised to find a very cultured man, who spoke softly and courteously. And funniest of all, most of the things he said made sense and reminded me of what Sri Aurobindo had written nearly a hundred years before. Thus I became, probably the only ever western correspondent sympathetic to the BJP (Mark Tully, who has an intuition of Hinduism, always remained too British and too Christian to cross that threshold).
I met LK Advani in Jaipur in 1989 and took an instant liking to him: his forthrightness, Spartan simplicity and forceful thoughts. I remember in these days, there were only 3 pillars of the BJP: Advani, MM Joshi and Vajpayee. I was never very impressed by Mr Vajpayee, though no doubt he was a consensus man and an able statesman: but both the times I interviewed him one to one, I found that he had no knowledge about the world and nothing much of interest to say. But I had a lot of admiration for Mr Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. Both demonstrated that they had guts: MM Joshi by raising the Indian flag in Srinagar in 1992, which at that time was made fun by the entire Indian media; and LK Advani by breaking a jinx : Muslims destroyed hundreds of thousands, if not millions of temples in india, but he was the one who had the guts to destroy that one mosque, abandoned as it was. It was a symbolic message of the Hindu renaissance.
The pity is that these three kept each other neutralized: MM Joshi and LK Advani have hated each other for the last 20 years and Vajpayee made sure that Advani always remained N°2 in the BJP.
I however always though that L.K. Advani’s reputation as a fanatic hardliner and a hawk was misplaced: I have spent many moments in his home and I have never heard him raise his voice. In fact, I doubt he ever hit someone in his life: he is very much a family man, dedicated to his wife Kamla and daughter Pratibha, both of them remarkably intelligent. In fact, it often struck me that these two women were the two biggest influences in his life.
Wen the BJP again lost the last elections in 2009, I met Mr Advani shortly thereafter alone in his office & he firmly told me: “it’s time for me to retire from politics”. I believed him then: Advani is a quiet man, whatever the press says, he likes to read, think, watch films and spend quality time with his family.
Yet today, he is clearly positioning himself as the BJP PM candidate for 2014 and that is wrong. For one, he will be 87 at the beginning of his mandate and 92 at the end of it, when most of the leaders in other parts of the world are in their fifties or even forties. Secondly, he is wrecking the chances of the BJP, because, whether it is fair or not, he does not have a good image with the electorate. Thirdly, as usual, in the true tradition of Hindu disunity, he is stabbing in the back Narendra Modi, the only man who has a chance to beat Rahul Gandhi and bring the BJP back to power. Fourthly, however much I liked LK Advani, when he was Home minister and deputy PM, he did not do better than the Congress: neither did he help the poor Tibetans as he had promised, nor did he show any iron hand in Kashmir, nor did he stand up to the Chinese. In fact he did nothing except trying to project a goody image of himself and the BJP.
THE EMPRESS OF INDIA
Like Sonia Gandhi, I am a Westerner and a brought-up catholic. My father, a very good man, was a staunch Christian; my uncle, whom I doted upon, was the vicar of the Montmartre Church, one of the most picturesque landmarks of Paris. Like Sonia Gandhi, I have lived in India for more than 40 years, and I have had the good fortune to be married to an Indian.
But the comparison stops there. I did land in India with a certain amount of prejudices, clichés and false ideas, that most Westerners pick-up here and there (Tintin, Kipling, the City of Joy, Slumdog Millionaire, today) and I did think in the enthusiasm of my youth to become a missionary to bring back Indian ‘pagans’ to the ‘true God’. But the moment I stepped in India I felt that not only I had nothing much that I could give to India, but rather, that it was India which was bestowing me. In fact, in 40 years, India has given me so much, professionally, spiritually, sentimentally. Most Westerners, who come here, still think they are here to ‘give’ something to a country, which, unconsciously of course, they think is lesser than theirs. It was true of the British, it was true of Mother Teresa, it is true of Mrs Sonia Gandhi.
It is a fact that Sonia brought discipline, order and cohesion into the Congress party. But the amount of power, that she, a non-Indian, a simple elected MP, like hundreds of others, possesses, should frighten her. All the television channels report without a blink that Maharashtra CM rushes to Delhi to Sonia Gandhi to plead for his life. But should not Chavan have gone to the Prime Minister first? Her power is indeed terrifying: a word, nay a glance of her is sufficient to trigger action by her entourage, using any means. Thus, the instruments of power have never been so perverted in India. The CBI blatantly and shamelessly quashed all injunctions against Quattrochi and even allowed him to get away with billions of rupees which he had stolen from India. Yet, without batting an eyelid, and with the Indian Media turning a blind eye, it goes ruthlessly after the Chief Minister of the most efficiently run state, the most corruption free. Today the Congress, with Sonia’s overt or silent consent, pays crores of rupees to buy MP’s to topple non-Congress governments. Her governors shamelessly hijack democracy by twisting the laws.
Are Indians aware that their country has entered a state of semi-autocracy, where every important decision comes to a single individual, residing in her fortress of Janpath, surrounded by dozens of security men, an empress of India. Are they aware that she controls tens of billions of rupees of the taxpayer’s money, which she uses to keep her party in power? Do they know that the huge amounts of the scams, whether the 2G, the CWG, or the Adarsh one, do not go into politicians pockets (only a fraction), but to the coffers of the Congress for the next general elections, and more than anything to please Sonia? Thank God, the Judiciary here still holds some independence!
Nobody seems to notice what is happening under the reign of Sonia Gandhi. That an Arundhati Roy is allowed to preach secession in India, whereas on the other hand the Congress Government has been going after the army, the last body in India to uphold the time honoured values of the Kshatriya –courage, honour, devotion to the Motherland, they who alone today practice true secularism, never differentiating between a Muslim or Hindu soldier, and who, for a pittance, give daily their lives to their country. First it was the attempt of a caste census, a divide and rule ploy if there is one; then there are the first signs that the Government is thinking about thinning down the presence of the Indian army in the Kashmir Valley, which will suit Pakistan perfectly. And now there is the Adarsh scam, in which the army officers, at the worst, were innocently dragged into it. We know now that it was the politicians of the Congress who benefited the most of it.
One hears from persons who know her well, of Sonia’s’ qualities of honesty, courtesy, or personal care. But would be impossible, in France for example, to have a non-Christian, say an Hindu for instance, who is a non-elected president or PM, to be the absolute ruler of the country behind the scenes, superseding even the PM. There are many capable people in the Congress. Why can’t a billion Indians find one of their own, who will understand the complexity and subtlety of India, to govern themselves? Not only that, but her very presence at the top has unleashed forces, visible and invisible that are detrimental to the country. There is nothing wrong in espousing the best of the values of the West - democracy, technological perfection, higher standards of living - but many of the institutions are crumbling in the West: two out of three marriages end in divorce, kids shoot each other, parents are not cared for in their old age, depression is rampant and westerners are actually looking for answers elsewhere, in India notably.
One does not understand this craze at the moment to westernize India at all costs, while discarding its ancient values. Mrs Gandhi should do well to remember that there still are 850 million Hindus in India, a billion worldwide and that whatever good inputs were brought by different invasions, it is the ancient values of the spirituality behind Hinduism, which have made India so special and which gives her today her unique qualities, making an Indian Christian different from an American Christian, or an Indian Muslim different from a Saudi one. It is an insult to these tolerant Hindus to show President Obama as his first input of the Indian capital the tomb of Humayun, a man who slaughtered Hindus in thousands, taking Hindu women and children as captives. He even subjected his elder brother Kamran to brutal torture, gauging his eyes out and pouring lemon into them.
The tragedy of India is that it was colonized for too long. And unlike China, it always looks to the West for a solution to its problems. Sonia Gandhi, whatever her qualities, is just an incarnation of that hangover, an Empress of India in new clothes.
SECTION - ONE
INDIA's POLL : MATHEMATICS & ARITHMETIC
MATHEMATICS
INDIA POLL 2013
The India Poll 2013 is one of the most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on the attitudes of Indian citizens towards their future in the world.
Key issues covered in the poll include: Indian perceptions of India's economic future, India's role in the world, domestic policy priorities, the challenge of corruption, and relations with other countries including China, the United States and Pakistan.The India Poll 2013 is a collaboration between the Lowy Institute for International Policy and the Australia India Institute.
KEY FINDINGS
74% of Indians are optimistic about the prospects for India's economy
80-85% of Indians see shortages of energy, food and water as big threats to their country's security, while 94% consider Pakistan a threat, and 83% consider China a threat
95% of Indians support the democratic rights of fair trial, free expression and the right to vote
96% of Indians think corruption is holding India back
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INDIA POLL 2013
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The India Poll 2013 reports the results of a nationally representative opinion survey of 1233 Indian adults conducted face-to-face between 30 August and 15 October 2012. It is a collaboration between the Lowy Institute and the Australia India Institute, with additional support from the MacArthur Foundation.
Hopes and fears
Most Indians (74%) are optimistic about prospects for their economy. But Indians are divided about whether the fruits of rapid growth are being justly distributed: while a small majority (56%) of Indians see themselves as economically better off than five years ago, about 18% feel worse off and 27% do not think their economic situation has changed.
Most Indians see major problems looming. Shortages of energy, water and food, along with climate change, register as the most important challenges, with 80-85% of Indians rating these issues as ‘big threats’ to their country’s security. Other issues rated as big threats by large majorities of Indians include possible war with Pakistan (77%), home-grown terrorism (74%), foreign jihadist attacks (74%), possible war with China (73%) and a continuing Maoist insurgency (71%).
Feelings towards other countries
Indians like the United States most and Pakistan least. Asked to rate their feelings towards 22 other countries on a scale of 0 to 100, Indians rank the United States first at 62 degrees, then Singapore (58), Japan (57) and Australia (56). Indians feel warmer towards these countries than those in the so-called BRICS group with which India is often seen to share diplomatic or economic interests: Brazil (44), Russia (53), China (44) and South Africa (47). In fact, 78% of Indians think it would be better if India worked more like the United States, while about 60% think the same about Australia, Japan and Singapore, well ahead of other countries.
Soldiers and diplomats
Indians are exceptionally attached to their armed forces: 95% see the possession of a strong military as very important for India to achieve its aims in the world. Most Indians also believe that nuclear weapons (79%), India’s image in the world (78%), wise political leadership (78%) and strong political leadership (75%) are important for achieving their nation’s goals. Despite a tradition of strategic autonomy, 72% of Indians attach great importance to India having strong countries as partners.
Pakistan
An overwhelming majority (94%) of Indians see Pakistan as a threat, citing terrorism as a major reason. Other reasons identified include a belief that the Pakistani army sees India as its enemy, that Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and that it claims sovereignty over Kashmir. Even so, 89% of Indians agree that ordinary people in both countries want peace, 87% agree that a big improvement in India-Pakistan relations requires courageous leadership on both sides, and 76% agree that India should take the initiative.
China
The poll results suggest wariness towards China from the Indian public. A large majority (83%) considers China a security threat. The poll reveals multiple reasons for this mistrust, including China’s possession of nuclear weapons, competition for resources in third countries, China’s efforts to strengthen its relations with other countries in the Indian Ocean region, and the China-India border dispute. Although China has become India’s largest trading partner, only 31% of Indians agree that China’s rise has been good for India. But in responding to China’s rise, most Indians want an each-way bet: 65% agree India should join other countries to limit China’s influence yet a similar number (64%) agree that India should cooperate with China to play a leading role in the world. Almost two thirds of Indians (63%) would like relations with China to strengthen.
The United States
Most Indians (83%) consider India-US relations to be strong. And 75% of Indians want US-India ties to strengthen further over the next 10 years. Still, a substantial minority (31%) of Indians think the United States poses a threat to India, though only 9% see it as a major threat.
Democracy
Most Indians value democracy: 70% consider it preferable to any other kind of government. Still, 21% say that in some circumstances a non-democratic government can be preferable. Indians overwhelmingly believe in basic democratic rights: at least 95% support the right to a fair trial, the right to free expression and the right to vote, while 87% support the right to a media free from censorship.
Priorities at home
Indians consider social peace and harmony to be the highest priority for domestic policy (82% consider it very important), followed by reducing corruption (78%), jobs and healthcare (76%), education (74%), infrastructure (72%), economic growth (71%), and protecting democratic rights and the environment (69%).
Corruption
The poll confirms intense feelings about corruption: 94% of Indians consider there to be a lot of corruption in their country, and 92% think it has increased in the past five years. An overwhelming 96% think corruption is holding India back and 94% believe that reducing corruption should be a top priority for their government. Most Indians (80%) think anti-corruption campaigners have made India a better place.
THE POLL
Introduction
With the rapid growth and reach of the Indian media, the citizens of the world’s largest democracy increasingly recognise the challenges confronting their nation. Leaders and decision-makers in New Delhi are facing a more complex and demanding foreign policy environment. External power balances are shifting, other nations are competing for India’s attention, transnational challenges are accumulating, and more and more domestic actors – from business to the Indian diaspora, political parties to journalists, state governments to civil society – are insisting on playing their part in India’s engagement with the world.
Not long ago, Indian external policy was the preserve of a small and professional elite, seemingly removed from public opinion and the news cycle. Those days are over. Professional opinion polling is regularly conducted in India on domestic issues, while international research organisations have polled Indian attitudes on specific foreign policy questions, such as attitudes to America. The India Poll 2013 goes a step further: it looks comprehensively at what Indians think about a wide range of foreign and security policy challenges and how these connect to vital domestic questions about India’s future.
The results, presented in this report, suggest that Indians from all sectors of society are taking an interest in the outside world as well as their nation’s future.
This data provides an important resource for decision-makers crafting policy choices within India, as well as those from other countries seeking to engage with this emerging giant.
Looking on the bright side
Despite India’s many obvious problems, most Indians seem broadly positive about their current and future circumstances. When asked to think about world events a majority of Indians say they feel safe (64%), though there is a tension between this general feeling and most Indians’ concern about the specific security threats examined in other parts of the poll. Even more (74%) are optimistic about prospects for the Indian economy. A small majority (56%) sees itself as economically better off than five years ago. Notably, those Indians with the highest level of education are more positive about the way India’s economic growth has treated them: 68% say they are better off than five years ago, whereas only 47% of those with the lowest level of education say they are better off.
Looking at the world
We asked respondents to rate their feelings towards 22 other countries on a scale of 0, meaning a very cold, unfavourable feeling, to 100, meaning a very warm, favourable feeling. The United States ranked first, at 62 degrees, followed by Singapore (58), Japan (57) and Australia (56). Indians feel warmer towards these countries than those with which India is sometimes grouped diplomatically or economically, the so-called BRICS: Brazil (44), Russia (53), China (44) and South Africa (47). Pakistan was ranked lowest (20).
Significantly, popular feelings of warmth or coolness are at odds with some traditional preferences of Indian foreign policy. For instance, Indians feel almost equal coolness towards Iran (37) and Israel (36), even though both countries are important in Indian strategic calculations, Iran as an energy supplier and Israel as an arms provider and defence partner. And Indians feel a little more warmly towards China (44) than towards Vietnam (39) or Indonesia (40) even though these countries are sometimes seen as potential partners for India in balancing against Chinese power. In India’s own neighbourhood, there is a distinct hierarchy of friendliness: Indians prefer Nepal (54) and Sri Lanka (52) over Bangladesh (42) and Burma/Myanmar (41). Afghanistan (29) does not rate very far above Pakistan (20).
These results are in some accord with Indians’ views on whether other societies and systems of government function well and are worthy of emulation. A total of 78% of Indians think it would be better if India worked more like the United States, while only 5% think it would be worse. Australia (60% better), Japan (60% better) and Singapore (59% better) rank next, out of the ten countries considered in this part of the poll. Other countries, including Britain (45% better), China (42% better) and Germany (41% better), do not fare as well. Saudi Arabia (21% better) and Iran (17% better) fare poorly, while Pakistan’s rating is by far the lowest; only 5% of Indians think it would be better if government and society in India worked more like they do in Pakistan. Wealthier and more educated Indians are the most supportive of India emulating other democracies or more developed countries. For instance, 74% of highly educated Indians would like India to be more like Japan, whereas only 32% of the least educated Indians would.
Asked whether other countries give India more or less respect than it deserves, or about the right amount, only about 23% said India was receiving less respect than it deserved. A surprising 36% indicated that they felt India was getting more respect than it deserved, and the same proportion thought the amount of respect was about right.
What is Indian foreign policy for?
Indians set high expectations for what their country ought to be achieving in its foreign policy. But they do not discriminate much between the importance of particular goals: Indians attributed high and roughly equal importance to 13 potential foreign policy goals – including strengthening the Indian economy, energy security, combatting terrorism and joining the United Nations Security Council as a permanent member.
Indians are more discriminating in their views of what instruments matter for success in external policy. Ninety five per cent of Indians see the possession of a strong military as very important for India to achieve its foreign policy goals, and 99% see this as important to some degree. Meanwhile most Indians see the possession of nuclear weapons (79%), strong political leadership (75%), wise political leadership (78%), and India’s good image in the world (78%), as important to achieving the country’s goals.
Significantly, 72% of Indians think it is very important to have strong countries as partners for India, something that seems at odds with Indian traditions of non-alignment. By contrast, 68% of Indians see an effective external affairs ministry as very important to achieving the country’s foreign policy goals, and 66% see effective intelligence services in a similar light. Nevertheless, a majority consider that the Indian Ministry of External Affairs should be bigger than, or at least as large as, the foreign ministries of a range of other countries offered in the poll: the United States, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. For instance, 44% said that India’s foreign ministry should be larger than China’s, while 29% said it should be about the same size. In fact, in 2012 the Indian Ministry of External Affairs had just 790 diplomats while China had 6,200.
Relations with South Asia
Many Indians have mixed views about India’s relations with the other countries in its wider South Asia neighbourhood: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma/Myanmar, Maldives and Sri Lanka. A total of 70% of Indians think India has good relations with most of these countries, although only 15% describe these relations as very good. Asked to respond to a range of statements on this issue, most (80%) agreed that for India to have better relations with other countries in South Asia, it needs to be more generous and respectful towards them. At the same time, a similar majority agree that other countries in South Asia can learn from the example of India’s democracy (79%) and should do more to accept India’s leadership in the region (78%). A smaller but still substantial majority of Indians see a stabilising role for commerce: 71% agree that free trade between India and other countries in South Asia would make the region more peaceful. Even so, a majority of Indians (62%) also feels that their country should not worry about the problems in neighbouring countries, although only 28% hold this view strongly.
The Indian Ocean
Indians are more united when it comes to Indian power and leadership in an ocean that is seen as India’s natural sphere of interest. An overwhelming 94% of Indians agree that India should have the most powerful navy in the Indian Ocean and 89% agree that India should do more to lead cooperation in that region.
Indians have clear views about which countries they would prefer as security partners in the Indian Ocean. The United States fares best, with 72% agreeing it can be a good partner for India in the Indian Ocean. This view is especially prevalent among the wealthy (86%) and the highly educated (83%). Despite some frictions in India-China relations, a sizeable 39% of Indians agree that China can be a good partner for India in the Indian Ocean. In between, 56% agree that Australia, another Indian Ocean country, can be a good partner for India in this maritime region.
Threats and challenges
To find out how Indians felt about challenges to their nation’s security, we asked about a range of possible threats ranging from energy and water shortages through terrorism and insurgency to war with Pakistan or China. Respondents were asked whether they regarded each issue as a threat, and if so whether it was a ‘big threat’ or a ‘small threat’. Although a large majority of Indians consider all of these issues to be a threat, there is a reasonably clear ranking of which issues matter the most, particularly when it comes to distinguishing between a big and a small threat.
Shortages of energy, water and food, along with wider environmental issues like climate change, register as the most important challenges, with 80-85% of Indians identifying these issues as big threats, and 97-98% in total identifying them as threats.
The next three highest-ranking threats are war with Pakistan (77% big threat, 94% in total), homegrown terrorism within India (74% big threat, 93% in total) and Maoist/Naxalite insurgency (71% big, 93% total). Similar levels of concern are expressed over foreign-sponsored jihadist attacks within India (74% big, 91% total), separatism in Kashmir (72% big, 91% total), and nuclear weapons held by other countries (71% big, 90% total). The possibility of war with China ranks only very slightly lower in Indian threat perceptions, with 73% of Indians seeing this as a big threat and 88% seeing this as a threat to some degree. Two-thirds of Indians see separatism in their country’s Northeastern states as a big threat, with 89% in total seeing it as a threat to some degree. Of all the potential threats presented in the poll questions, only ‘instability inside Pakistan’ rates markedly lower in Indian public concerns. But even on this issue, 81% of Indians perceive a threat to their country’s security, and 60% rate it a big threat.
Indians are much more discriminating when asked to rank which countries they see as threats to their nation over the next 10 years. Most Indians identify only two countries, Pakistan and China, as threats to their national security.
Pakistan
Only 10% of Indians consider the relationship with Pakistan to be strong, with only 1% defining it as very strong. Instead, a very large majority (84%) consider that relationship to be weak, with 51% describing it as very weak. And only 40% of Indians would like relations with Pakistan to grow stronger over the next 10 years, with an only slightly smaller proportion (37%) indicating that they would like relations to grow weaker.
An overwhelming majority (94%) of Indians say that Pakistan poses a threat to India’s security, with 78% rating this as a major threat and only 2% saying it does not pose a threat. Indians who consider Pakistan a threat indicate that they do so for multiple reasons, with the top four being that terrorists from Pakistan launch attacks inside India, that the Pakistani military sees India as its enemy, that Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and that Pakistan claims sovereignty over Kashmir.
For all their perceptions of Pakistan as a threat, most Indians see some grounds for improved relations with their neighbour. A very large majority, 89%, agree that ordinary people in both countries want peace, and 60% strongly agree with this statement, with only 7% disagreeing. A similarly large majority (87%) agree that a big improvement in India-Pakistan relations would require courageous leadership in both countries, and 76% agree that as the bigger country, India should take the initiative towards peace. A substantial majority (72%) also identify trade and economic cooperation as ways to help bring about peace with Pakistan.
Yet strikingly, slightly more than half of Indians (56%) consider that there can never be complete peace between the two countries. Moreover, Indians are evenly divided on whether this is a good thing: 48% agree it is acceptable if India and Pakistan are never completely at peace; 48% disagree. In any case, two-thirds of Indians (67%) consider that peace will only be possible with an agreement on Kashmir.
Kashmir
Many explanations have been offered for the bloodshed and unrest in the Kashmir Valley. An overwhelming majority of Indians polled (93%) consider that forces within Pakistan use the Kashmir issue as a reason to continue fighting with India. A very large majority (85%) agree that extremists use the Kashmir issue to justify terrorism. Substantial minorities agree with other reasons offered as explanations for violence in Kashmir: 47% consider the security forces in Kashmir as too harsh; 43% believe that many Kashmiris do not want to be part of India; and 42% of respondents consider that these governments of India and of Jammu and Kashmir have not done enough to improve the lives of ordinary Kashmiris.
Due to political and security sensitivities, surveys for this poll were not conducted in Jammu and Kashmir (see methodology, page 32).
China
A significant minority of Indians (41%) consider India-China relations to be strong, although only 14% describe this relationship as very strong, and 47% define it as weak. Almost two thirds of Indians (63%) would like relations with China to become stronger over the next 10 years, with 33% wanting them to be a lot stronger.
Indians are divided about what a rising China means for their country, although a majority tends towards wariness or even mistrust. Despite the fact that China has become India’s largest trading partner, only 31% of Indians agree that China’s rise has been good for India, with 58% disagreeing. Indians are more divided on the question of whether a more powerful and influential China would harm their country’s interests: 45% consider it would not be harmful to India, 41% disagree. Similarly, 40% of Indians agree that the United States should give China a larger say in regional affairs in Asia, while 42% think it should not.
Greater mistrust towards China is evident when Indians are asked whether ‘China’s aim is to dominate Asia’: 70% of Indians agree with this statement, 40% strongly, and only 14% disagree. A slightly smaller majority of Indians (65%) agree with the statement that India should join with other countries to limit China’s influence, and only 21% disagree. Yet many Indians are hedging their bets about China: a majority (64%) of Indians also agree that India should cooperate with China to play a leading role in the world together, with 30% agreeing strongly and only 23% disagreeing. In other words, some Indians who want cooperation against China also want cooperation with China. Most Indians do not, however, want their government to do more to pressure China on human rights, with 57% agreeing that India is doing enough in this area already and 25% disagreeing, 6% strongly.
A large majority (83%) of Indians consider that China poses a threat to India’s security, with 60% defining this as a major threat and only 9% saying it does not pose a threat. These threat perceptions are most intense in north India, where 93% consider China a threat, and 81% consider this threat to be major. Threat perceptions are markedly lower in south India, where only 31% consider China a major threat, although a total of 77% there still consider China a threat to some degree. Almost all of those Indians who consider China a threat indicate that they do so for multiple reasons, with the top four being China’s possession of nuclear weapons, competition for resources in third countries, China’s efforts to strengthen its relations with other countries in the Indian Ocean region, and the India-China border dispute.
The United States
A large majority of Indians (83%) consider India-US relations to be strong, with 38% describing this relationship as very strong. Three quarters of Indians would like the US-India relationship to become stronger still over the next 10 years, with 50% wanting it to become a lot stronger.
In spite of most Indians’ positive responses to questions about the United States, a substantial minority (31%) of Indians consider the United States to pose a threat to India, although only 9% consider this a major threat. These threat perceptions are distinctly lower in west India, where only
4% consider America a major threat and a total of 20% see it as a threat at all. Interestingly, more Indians consider the United States a threat to their country than they do Iran: only 18% consider Iran a threat to India, and only 4% judge this a major threat.
Democracy
Most Indians value their democracy. Asked to choose from three statements about preferred political systems, 70% agree that ‘democracy is preferable to any other kind of government’. This sentiment is strongest in India’s south (83%) and weakest in its east (60%), a sharp contrast that warrants further examination. A substantial minority of Indians (21%) agree instead with the statement that ‘in some circumstances a non-democratic government can be preferable’, while 6% opt for the view that ‘for someone like me, it doesn’t matter what kind of government we have’.
Indians overwhelmingly believe in basic democratic rights. Almost every Indian adult (95%) agrees that ‘the right to a fair trial’ is important in India. There is similar near-universal agreement over ‘the right to vote in national elections’ (96%) and ‘the right to freely express yourself’ (95%). These views are firmly held, with large majorities saying they ‘strongly agree’ with these rights. There are slightly lower levels of support for the fourth democratic right presented, ‘the right to a media free from censorship’ (87%), although even here only 6% of Indians disagree that this right is important.
Domestic policy priorities
Indians feel strongly about the things they want their government to achieve at home. When asked about a range of nine possible policy objectives, ranging from maintaining social peace and providing jobs to improving infrastructure and protecting the environment, almost all Indians (between 97% and 99%) indicate that every one of these goals is important to some degree. Some sense of priorities can be gleaned, however, by looking at those issues they ranked as very important rather than fairly important. From this, it appears that Indians consider maintaining social peace and harmony to be the highest priority (82% consider it very important), followed by reducing corruption (78%), providing jobs and improving healthcare for Indians (76%), improving education (74%), improving infrastructure (72%), making the economy grow (71%), and protecting democratic rights and the natural environment (69%).
Corruption
The poll confirms the strength of Indian public feelings about corruption, an issue that has attracted intense attention from civil society movements. An overwhelming majority (94%) of Indians consider there to be a lot of corruption in the country, and a similar majority (92%) considers the level of corruption to have increased over the past five years.
Asked to agree or disagree with a range of statements about corruption, an overwhelming majority of Indians (96%) agree corruption is holding India back, with 78% holding this view strongly. Similar proportions agree that reducing corruption should be a top priority for the Indian government, with 94% agreeing and 73% doing so strongly.
Most Indians applaud anti-corruption campaigners with 80% agreeing they have made India a better place, and 49% strongly agreeing with this statement, even though a little over half (56%) also agree that such campaigners ‘have their own political motives’. Indians are divided on whether corruption can be beaten: 43% agree that there will always be corruption in India so there is no point in trying to fight it, although a slight majority, 52%, disagree.
At the same time, most Indians are not convinced that the corruption in their country is the global exception: two thirds agree with the statement that corruption in India is about the same as in other countries.
ABOUT THE POLL
The India Poll 2013 reports the results of a nationally representative opinion survey of 1233 Indian adults conducted face-to-face in India between 30 August and 15 October 2012. In addition to the questions covered in the present report, the survey included questions on Indian perceptions of Australia, the responses to which were published as the India-Australia Poll in April 2013.
This polling project is a collaboration between the Lowy Institute for International Policy and the Australia India Institute, part-funded by a substantial grant from the Australia India Institute with additional financial support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and from the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The fieldwork was conducted by GfK Mode. The poll was designed and managed by Rory Medcalf, with the advice of Fergus Hanson, Alex Oliver and research consultant Sol Lebovic, who additionally provided technical support, reviewed the questionnaire and helped interpret the data. The author acknowledges ideas and insights from Amitabh Mattoo, Christopher Kremmer, Rohan Mukherjee and Harsh Shrivastava as well as extensive assistance from Danielle Rajendram. David Longfield at Longueville Media showed his usual professionalism and patience. The partnership of the Observer Research Foundation in the India launch of the poll is also gratefully noted.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rory Medcalf is Director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute. He is Associate Director of the Australia India Institute, heading its Sydney Node at the University of New South Wales. His professional background spans diplomacy, journalism and intelligence analysis. As a diplomat, he served at the Australian High Commission in New Delhi from 2000 to 2003. He maintains a close interest in Australia’s relations with India and is the Australian co-chair of the Australia-India Roundtable, the leading informal dialogue between the two countries. Mr Medcalf’s wider research covers a range of strategic issues in Indo-Pacific Asia. He is a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution.
THE LOWY INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY
The Lowy Institute for International Policy is an independent international policy think tank. Its mandate ranges across all the dimensions of international policy debate in Australia – economic, political and strategic – and it is not limited to a particular geographic region. Its two core tasks are: to produce distinctive research and fresh policy options for Australia’s international policy and contribute to the wider international debate; and to promote discussion of Australia’s role in the world by providing an accessible and high-quality forum for discussion of Australian international relations through debates, seminars, lectures, dialogues and conferences.
As an independent think tank the Lowy Institute requires a broad funding base. The Institute currently receives grants from Australian and international philanthropic foundations; membership fees and sponsorship from private sector and government entities; grants from Australian and international governments; subscriptions and ticket sales for events; and philanthropic donations from private individuals, including ongoing support from the Institute’s founding benefactor, Mr Frank Lowy AC.
THE AUSTRALIA INDIA INSTITUTE
The Australia India Institute (AII) is a leading centre for research, teaching, public policy and outreach programs that build co-operation and mutual understanding between Australia and India. Based at the University of Melbourne, and with Nodes at the University of New South Wales and La Trobe University, the Institute hosts a growing range of events and programs that are deepening and enriching the relationship between the two countries. Core funding for the Institute is provided by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, and the State Government of Victoria’s Department of Business and Innovation.
INDIA POLL METHODOLOGY
For this opinion poll, GfK’s local field agency, GfK Mode, conducted 1233 interviews in India between 30 August and 15 October 2012. All interviews were conducted face-to-face in respondents’ homes.
The sample was designed to be broadly and nationally representative of India’s adult population, aged 18 years and over. Due to the sensitive political climate in Jammu and Kashmir, and the remoteness of the North Eastern states and Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, these areas were excluded from sample design.
The questionnaire was written in English, and translated into Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Tamil, Marathi and Kannada, after several rounds of review and revision.
A multi-stage stratified random sample was designed as follows. The population was arrayed by four geographic regions: North, East, West, and South and by four strata: large metro areas with a population size of over 5 million, large cities with a population size of 1 to 5 million, small cities with a population size of under 1 million; and villages.
With probability proportional to size, one large metro area, one large city, one small city, and seven villages were selected per geographic region.
Electoral rolls were used as the sampling frame in urban areas, and randomly selected electoral constituencies served as primary sampling units (PSUs). Starting points within each PSU were randomly selected from these electoral rolls. In villages, clusters of blocks or streets served as PSUs, and were selected randomly in each village as a starting point. In both urban areas and villages, no more than 10 interviews were completed per PSU.
For household selection, systematic random sampling with a pre-specified interval of 1 to 5 (for urban dwellings) and 1 to 4 (for rural dwellings) was used. The Kish grid method was used to randomly select a respondent from adults residing in the selected household. Up to three attempts in different points of time (morning, afternoon, evening, working day, or weekend) were made in order to achieve an interview with the chosen respondent.
Both age and gender were monitored throughout the course of fieldwork in order to ensure sufficient base sizes in each age/gender cross-cell. A response rate of 57% was achieved. Data for this survey were weighted by key demographic variables – age within sex, region, and community size – according to the 2011 census to ensure that the final weighted sample was representative of India’s adult population, ages 18 years and over.
All samples are subject to some degree of sampling “error” – that is, statistical results obtained from a sample can be expected to differ somewhat from results that would be obtained if every member of the target population were interviewed. For this poll, the maximum margin of error at a 95% confidence level is within ± 3.6 percentage points for the total sample. Sub-sample margins of error may be significantly higher.
MATHEMATICS
Read full Report
http://www.lowyinstitute.org/files/india_poll_2013_0.pdf
ARITHMETIC
INDIA ELECTIONS: POLITICAL ARITHMETIC
May 26, 2013
India’s Election: Beyond Modi vs Gandhi
By
Sudha Ramachandran
Source: http://thediplomat.com/2013/05/26/indias-election-beyond-modi-vs-gandhi/?all=true
The polls show Narendra Modi with a clear lead. But India’s electoral calculations are not so simple.
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