Why the Aam Aadmi went for the party.

Almost all the exit polls have predicted a comfortable win for the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi elections, and for those who believe them, the Modi-Shah magic is likely to fail in mini-India when the results are announced on February 10.

Assuming that the results will be on the line of the exit polls, the question is what happened? Why did the same people who had voted overwhelmingly for the BJP in the last year’s general election voted for AAP this time?

It will not be an exaggeration to say that the Delhi BJP took the elections ‘lightly’. Their campaign started a long time after AAP, its chief political enemy, had begun its. AAP had already secured a sizeable space in the minds and heart of the voters through the virtually nonstop radio jingles, white Nehru cap and smiling volunteers who had come on the street and started ‘mohalla’ campaigning as early as October, by the time BJP decided to rock and roll. The inclination to open the doors for a neighbor, who has been around for sometime rather than someone who has just arrived, is more. 

The local Delhi leaders were banking heavily on the ‘Modi magic’ to counter the AAP’s outreach that had spread on the ground through its loyal cadre. BJP leaders with whom I was speaking to, in the run up to the election, had no hesitation in agreeing that AAP was in a much stronger position but in the same breath they told me that 3 to 4 rallies of Modi would blow away everything that was remotely connected to AAP.  The rallies did happen, but by then, the AAP had strongly entrenched itself to be blown away.

The BJP forgot that in the Lok Sabha elections, the support for Modi was more or less equal to the anger the people had against the ‘corrupt-inefficient-weak’ Congress government. The voters at that time had to decide between the rookie AAP, that was not a national force, and the resurgent BJP led by the macho Modi. They took the logical decision. However in the Delhi elections, it was not about anger, it was more about the perception about the new union government. The question in mind was has the Modi government done enough in the last 8 months it has been in power? BJP leaders say that much has been done by the new government and if that is the case, then they should also agree that despite the media blitzkrieg, the BJP was not able to convey this message to the voters. Some BJP leaders will defend the result of Delhi assembly election by stating that it does not reflect upon the working of the central government. I am sorry, it does.

The BJP overplayed the alleged 'anarchist' tendency of  AAP. When did being a 'krantikari' became a taboo in this country? Acting 'rebellious', questioning the establishment, the status-quo, tilting towards anarchism has been the hallmark of Indians, since time immemorial. Kejriwal might have taken some wrong steps during his 49 days as CM but the way BJP tried to sell his 'anarchism' clearly did not work.

During the 49 days the AAP was in power, they managed to gain the trust of the lower income group. And even though a section of the middle-class grew disenchanted with AAP, these loyal supporters, from the auto-rickshaw drivers to the house-maid, remained loyal and the party was able to cash-in their goodwill in this election.

The BJP party needs to introspect on why it did not call for a fresh poll when Kejriwal, the ‘Bhagoda’ resigned suddenly. A majority of the the voters who had supported him had now become angry with him and wanted to teach him a lesson for not valuing the people’s mandate. The BJP was on ‘high’ at that time with Modi being virtually the messenger of god (no pun intended) that India was waiting for. However for some ‘god-only-knows’ reason, the party decided to wait and watch. Whoever advised the party to not to go for elections needs to be hanged by the strongest rope from the highest tree. His advice seems to have cost Delhi. The party needs to identify these Jaychands and Vibhishans.

In the last leg of the campaigning, negative connotation crept into the picture. Calling names, printing of not- so-soul-enriching advertisements targeting AAP and Kejriwal were bombarded on the same Delhi voters, who not too long ago, inspired by Modi, had voted for BJP for ‘positive campaigning’ and ‘good governance’ and in the process elected many non-existent political entity from Delhi. Party strategists should understand that contrary to the vile in social media, the general public of this country still lives by the century old adage- ‘Pyar se maango, jaan de denge”.

The paratrooping of Kiran Bedi, the woman who till the polling day, was not able to shake off her narcissism, proved to be proverbial final straw that broke the BJP’s back.  “The main- main, “mainey yeh kiya, mainey woh kiya, mai yeh karungi, mai woh karungi”, did not go down too well with the Delhi voters. Compare her with Harshvardan, the former BJP CM candidate. Harvardhan, the humble doctor, modest family man, camera shy, always smiling politician. The man who for years now has been the common Aadmi of Delhi BJP.  Bedi, the moment she joined the BJP, played the match as if it was about her and not the BJP. Antagonizing the cadre and largely ignoring them, she gave a message that she has been hand-picked by Modi himself, which might not have been the case. 

Finally, people will read too much into this electoral result and portray it as the election where the Modi halo was breached. But the point is in a democracy, elections are won and lost. That is what the will of people is, always oscillating, never staying still. Bihar, where the next electoral battle will be played out, may give a totally different picture. A BJP win or loss, whatever happens in the end, should not lie squarely on the shoulders of Modi. The blame or the accolades, as the case maybe, should be shared by everyone, from the party cadre to the union ministers and by the PM himself.

The Modi chasm

One of the most visible dynamic thing that the emergence of Narendra Modi has done is that it has made the 'fence-sitters' take a side.And this assertions hold true both at the micro and at the macro level.
Individuals who criticize the Congress are automatically, without giving any chance to explain, termed as Modi supporters and hence communal. And those who condemn Modi are tagged agents of Congress or secular; lock, stock and barrel. No questions asked, no response sought.There are only two sides that one can be on. And if he is not on one side, then automatically it is presumed that he is on the other side. 

The answer to whether being 'communal' is correct or it's better to be a 'secular' in present times depends on which side of the debate you are.As far as I am concerned, frankly put,both these terms are one of the most misused words that have been molested repeatedly by its connoisseurs for their benefit. 
And it's not just the individuals who have been set in motion.

The diversification among the journalists have been blurred and the press too seems to have lost their uniqueness, their 'impartial stand', so to say. The parameter to judge the political identity has narrowed down.

And one cannot blame Modi for this 'great-divide'. Rather, one can appreciate that at-least because of an individual, the classification has moved from saffron, green, grey to a more simpler black and white.

Now, for every secular 'force' there is an equally strong 'communal' voice. For every pseudo-secular there is a fundamentalist. That’s how the sides to a debate has emerged.

A newspaper that wrote that Ishrat Jahan was allegedly a Lashkar-E-Taiba was automatically painted as a ‘Communally-Right’ publication by another newspaper that is perceived as a ‘Secular-Left’.
This visible political difference in opinion and the efforts of the individuals and the institutions to make a stronger point to support their case should be seen as a positive development. 

It is unique in the sense that rather than letting people enjoy the 'privilege' of sitting on the fence, it has forced them to take a principled stand, depending on their faith, belief and assertions.
One can always question their stand and their political belief or their secular and communal bias but then it also needs to be appreciated, that in our country, taking a stand has never been our stronger points.
The battle of intellects between those who have been abundantly rewarded with it, has been going on ever since Modi transformed from an individual to an election issue.  Those who think that he is the answer to the ocean of problem the country is facing, win sometimes. Many times it is those who consider him as anathema, who emerge as the winner. However, one thing is sure that the debate it slowly but surely moving from the simple shades branding someone a communal or identifying someone as a secular to the more complex world of merits,acumen and the ability of the individual to govern the Country.

The challenging of one’s political assertions and belief was never such a big issue, until now. 

How they define youths in Uttar Pradesh

The impending Uttar Pradesh State Assembly elections have livened up the otherwise monotonous bureau room of newspaper around Delhi. When you have election in a state where there is a presence of  political heavy weights like Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Varun Gandhi, Digvijay Singh and him-who-cannot-be-named then one can be assured of interesting times ahead.

Every political party in Uttar Pradesh is trying to prove to the other that they are really promoting the Youths by way of giving them more representation.

While doing a story on this very issue I came across some very exciting narrations and intriguing individuals.

A Member of Parliament, involved in the selection of candidates very proudly told me that his party has given tickets to seventy odd youths for the upcoming UP state election.

I was impressed . After all seventy is a seize-able number when you consider that the total seat in the state assembly in 403. Logically my next question was that was the profile of these young candidates.

The reply that I got was something that I had never expected.

“We have given tickets to more than 50 candidates who are around 40 years of age. If you take 50 as the upper age, then we have more than 70 candidates who are contesting the elections on our party ticket.

How will the BJP use Modi

The three day Sadhbhavna fast under taken by the Gujarat CM, Narendra Modi has finally managed to push him on to the national stage from where he will look to play a more pan-India role.

The decision of Modi to abstain from food for three days to promote  unity in the state came at a time when the octogenarian and the BJP PM in waiting since time immemorial, LK Advani had just announced his decision to go on an all India Rath yatra to highlight corruption in the country .

This much televised and massively twitterized fast of Modi has managed to take the away the hype and the buzz that the announcement of Advani had generated.

Political commentators feel that the decision of RSS to  support Modis fast rather than Advanis yatra has made it clear as to how much clout does Modi  enjoys in the RSS circles.

Why Congress won't lose 2014

When Mumbai was attacked in 2008 even the most loyal of Congress supporters would have felt that it was the last nail on the coffin for the beleaguered UPA-1.  That was not the first time such a hair-raising misadventure had happened and most of the political pundits said that the next general election that were just months away would see the demise of the Oldest party of India.

They had every right grounds to arrive on such an assessment.


October 2005 brought death of 66 people in Delhi when three serial blast shook the capital out of the festive mood of Diwali, March 2006 saw attack on Sankat Mochan Mandir in Varanasi, Malegaon happened in September  followed by Samjhauta in March 2007. May 2007 went red with blast in mosque in Hyderabad, July witnessed serial blasts in Jaipur, Gujarat and Bangalore. It did not end here. In September 2008 Delhi was struck again resulting in death of 18 civilians and then the mother of all, 26/11 Mumbai happened.

This ' carpet bombing' of sort in no way substantiates a claim about a country that prides in being a resurgent, emerging,torch bearer and what not for the rest of the whole world.

But 2009 election gave a new mandate to Congress, even better than what it had got in 2004. Congress was riding high. No one can definitely say as to why India voted for a party that had let them down in the previous 5 years. 


Were we still evolving as electorates , easily vulnerable to the rhetoric,sweet talks and the goodies of the smiling Neta?

Of a Yogi and a Prime minister

What possibly could Baba Ramdev have in mind when he decided to stage a fast at Ram Lila ground to express his displeasure against corruption and black money that is stashed away in tax haven countries?

Was he scared of the present government which forced him to take this noble initiative and attack the government before it victimised him? Does he have anything to gain monetarily and financially? Does he crave followers, attention and reach at places where it matters? Did the RSS/VHP/BJP combine take him to a hideout and brain-washed his mind to open a front against the UPA which has been crowned the most corrupt government India has seen since independence.

Or was it a simple desire to speak against corruption, which all of us might have felt at one point or the other. The only difference between him and us being that he decided to convert his thoughts into visible actions.

We need to look at all these possibilities and let our mind decide on how right or wrong Baba Ramdev has been, but do not view them through the eyes of a Congress guy or a BJP worker or a pseudo-liberal-intellectual-Leftist but as a common Indian. And as for those who are chronically cynical; do not waste your priceless time here.

An occasion to Commend UPA-II

The second anniversary of UPA-II just went by. And to celebrate the momentous occasion the government had a quiet coalition anniversary dinner on Sunday. It was also celebrated at Tihar in a more subdued manner where the other ‘stalwarts’ associated with the present UPA had their dinner.

And this pretty well sums up the overall scenario. Governance and corruption have always been complementary to Indian political system but never have we seen their public display of affection as openly as we see it now.

When Manmohan Singh took oath on May 22,2009 as the head of UPA –II one would have expected that he would go all out on improving governance because this time he didn’t have to deal with the tantrums of the Leftist. The more than comfortable majority that they UPA got was seen as the kind of political platform that government needed to further its political, social and economic policy.

Did they achieve those goals?

Time to introspect,we disappointed Rahul Gandhi

The ‘hope’ of India, Rahul Gandhi did a superman act today as riding pillion on a bike he managed to sneak into Bhatta Parsaul village of Uttar Pradesh where an intense battle of sort happened between farmers and police personnel a couple of days back.

Defying the imposition of section 144 he sprung a surprise and walked into the village at 5 AM in the morning and it’s been more than 14 hours and still he is sitting on a ‘Dharna’ with the villagers who are demanding better compensation for their land that has been acquired by the government.

That he has little regard for law as he exhibited by ignoring section 144 is something that need not be talked about, that is a minor issue in this whole political game that’s being played in the rural area of Uttar Pradesh.

But what needs to be discussed is his Lack of foresightedness and traces of political immaturity because if he actually wanted to help the farmers then he has surely failed. Media OB vans and reporters with mikes are no measure of  the involvement of 'genuine' intention, if any. Though if he had come their for political and TV mileage, he would be now happy like a child in a candy store.

Can anyone from the Congress party come out and say that this sudden early morning move has nothing to do with the assembly elections that are stated to be held in Uttar Pradesh the next year?

Or was it a genuine concern for the farmers that prompted the Gandhi scion to pay a visit to Bhatta Parsaul?

As guilty as Rupam Pathak

The murder of BJP MLA Rajkishore Keshari by a school principal Rupam Pathak has brought back Bihar in news, albeit for a wrong reason.

The popular MLA was stabbed in full view by the lady when Kishore was receiving visitors at his home in Purnea. According to her, the MLA along with his associate had raped her earlier.

During the election campaign in the state earlier, she had filed an FIR against the MLA but later withdrawn her complaint saying that she had registered her complaint under the influence of political pressure from opponents of Kishore .

This crime in itself cannot be termed or seen as just another murder. For two reasons.

Firstly for a forty three old educated lady to kill someone that too in public without giving a damn to her life which she knew would be at perils once the supporters of the MLA catch her in itself speaks about the mental stress and pressure that she might be experiencing for a long period of time which finally burst out in open through the killing of Keshari. What prompted such a drastic step?

Once there was a man called Lalu

Not long time ago Lalu chalisa was a very common thing in the streets of Patna. You could easily purchase it from the many a small shops that are lined up in front of the Patna railway station. These Lalu chalisa that were written by many of the faithful followers of Lalu Yadav would sometimes outsell the more original Hanuman chalisa.

And like his other predecessors from Bihar Lalu too had a fondness for the Indian railways.

Lalu Yadav and Indian Railway shared a very cordial relationship till he was the Railway minister. And both gained from each other. More aptly - it was the Indian railway that gained more. Not going into the economics, it was because of Lalu that the railway became a household name in Pakistan and world over. And it can be debated upon that whether the Railway as an institution gained any long term benefits during the tenure of Lalu.

Lalu Yadav was at that time Bihar and Bihar was nothing but Lalu. And even now that memory has not faded from the minds of many.

Why I 'hate' India

A long list of people will come up if I start thinking of people who are Anti-Indian. (And what may be anti-Indian to me may be a patriotic individual to you, but that’s a subjective matter.)

But maybe then that list will appear peanuts if I start thinking about those who glorify such people who like to dislike India.

I pose this question to myself and search for answers that why we glorify those who de-glorify India? And for the starters I will make a disclaimer that No I am not a saffronwadi nor a Swaymsevak nor a BJP supporter.

The moment someone starts talking about people who propagate anti India feelings they are attached to an invisible tag of a fundamentalist, a dogmatic and an unsecular intellectual.

You blurt words against the professional dissenters like Arundhati Roy and you are called someone who is in cahoots with the people who perpetrated the terrible riots in Gujarat. The moment you call Geelani , both the Kashmiri and the Professor , anti Indian, you find yourself being measured on the scale of a Saffron promoter.

Why are we such a great nation

Socho yaar kitna mast desh hai apna,not taunting,but think.

We are spending crores of rupees daily on Kashmir. So many people have given their life and its repercussions are felt all over India. Majority of us know that India is trying to thwart attempts of Pakistan to win over Kashmir yet we have no complaints when an author openly shouts in Delhi that India should free Kashmir. The same lady once wrote an eye watering piece on Naxalism and she famously said that one should not cry over the CRPF personnel killed in the anti-naxal operation as they are getting killed because they are killing the naxalites. Tit for tat. Simple.

We have kept alive Ajmal Kasab so that he can spit on the judiciary. Remember we have also kept a guy called Afzal Guru? He should have been hanged long back. Why? Don't quip that judiciary will take its own course. It will only work as it should if we don't ask it to go slow. But sadly that’s exactly what’s happening. Accepted that terrorist attacks are common in India but even a diehard secularist will say that it’s not daily that you have attack on Parliament or it’s not every third morning that you wake up to find five gun totting men consigning everything that falls in their sight to flames. Parliament attack and Mumbai attack were, are and will remain "a remarkable, out of the blue" incident. And it requires action of the same kind; an action that will be remembered and will serve as a precedent.

Why it is that one leader or author speaks for the whole Muslim community. Who asked them? Who told them that Indian Muslims will feel insecure if the parliament accused is hanged and they will feel anger if Kasab is sent to the gallows? None of my Muslim friends told me so. And I never felt that I should ask them this question because I know they too feel the same like every Indian feels.

Why do these intellectuals say that Kashmir is not a part of India, it never was? Just because they are intellectuals? Didn't we had intellectuals before? Or is Roy the epitome of the Intellectual culture of India? And why shouldn't we condemn her statements? And why is that whoever speaks anything that’s against Roy and her intellectual coterie termed as a Fundamentalist? Why is it that we have adapted ourselves to such double standards? And adapted so well that we don't even realize that we have reached the zenith of hypocrisy and the nadir of having respect for India, which I am sure many of us still regard it as our Country.

Yeah, I am done for now.

Is the Marathi manoos at Stake?

A few hours back I was going through a blog of a friend and I came across his recent post in which he has written about how a member of the Thackeray clan, Aditya Thackeray, son of Uddhav Thackeray walking on his ancestral footsteps, forced the prestigious St.Xaviers college, Mumbai to stop prescribing to a book because he felt that this particular book is not worthy and suitable to be taught at the college.

Just for the records it was not a cheap publication that are available at the numerous book stalls on the railway station of Dadar. The book is titled “ Such a long journey” written by the well known writer Rohinton Mistry. It was first published in 1991 and was nominated for the Bookers and won many recognition including the “ Common wealth writers prize”. In 2007-2008, it was prescribed for the BA ( English) course in Mumbai university. And since then it is being taught there. It is a novel about how a family go about their daily life.

But one fine day a boy who is still struggling with the pull and push of attaining puberty, decided that he has to do something to gain some media attention as he was about to start his political career and add more stench to the already nauseous gutters of “India’s secular politics”. As he was considerate enough to not to resort to use of sticks and swords, he decided to go after “Such a long Journey”.

This guy, Aditya has nothing much to write about him. He is a student of the same college from where Rohinton passed out. And by gods grace he has also managed to churn out a collection of poems which he has aptly named “Black and White”.

Its noteworthy to mention that when Rohinton Mistry was penning down the lines of his book, this dude was probably wetting his nappies while listening to the gory achievements of his father and grand father post 1992 bomb blast.

But then creativity and hooliganism runs deep in this family. His father is a photographer, his grand father too is a cartoonist and his uncle as we all know is a painter. So it was but obvious that Aditya too would inherit this creativity and this rogue character. So, I don’t blame him.

This Thackeray feels that the book talks about the Shiv Sena in a negative sense. As far as he is concerned no other reason is required. If the Thackerays don’t like something ; then they don’t like it. And he issues a dictum 'banning' the book. Simple as that.

I won’t talk or write much about Mr. Poet Thackeray because as much as I know this guy by now has gained enough media coverage and I am sure the sycophants Barati around him would add more color and push him more towards the sky for his success in losing his virginity of hooliganism. He passed his debut test of showing his strength without a blood being shed and a office being vandalized.

Welcome to the world of right is might Mr.Black and White . But as a friendly advice, keep writing heart rendering emotional poems, for you have to show the people that you have a tender side too; just like the other members of your clan.

But I would like to comment on the audacity on the part of the university officials. I mean I just can’t stop admiring their ‘bravery’. They just couldn’t stand a college teen hooligan because he was from the notorious Thackeray clan and was going to start his own group of activist , which he has proudly christened “Yuva sena” . This sena will see to it that India’s cultural value or more specifically Marathi culture is not vandalized, burnt or destroyed.

I would like to commend people on their maturity for still regarding the Sena as a political entity. My immaturity suggests that it ceased to a political party long back. I always thought it was a bunch of mentally deranged goons who had decided to conglomerate on one fine day and start a party. Post the 1992 riots my inexperienced mind told me that soon this ‘party’ will disappear from the political scene of India. But as I now see, I was a fool then.

I was in a good mood today as I watched India successfully concluded the Common wealth games. I was enjoying every moments as I felt goose bumps when the army contingent played the band and I was ‘liking’ every facebook status that my friends were posting about the success of the CWG.

But then reality dawned and I realized that still we are what we were. Still we fear some Hindu clans and still we bow too their fancies without even taking a ‘token’ stand.

I have friends in Maharastra and they are much more forward and liberal than me and they are more into activism than me but I just can’t find questions to my answer that why they keep tight-lipped when they should speak.

I am not in Mumbai, many of us are not. But those who are in Mumbai why don’t they say that “ Ok you may not like whats written in the book but that doesn’t give you the right to destroy it”. Is it that difficult thing to make people understand? Does that require too much of courage?

Is being called ‘Bhartiya’ sounds more derogatory than taking pride in being called a Marathi manoos, UP ke Bhaiya aur Tamil Nadu ka Mallu.

You have to decide that , not those bunch of goons who pride themselves in hurting and destroying everything that doesn’t please them.

Its not Marathi manoos at stake, its your freedom to oppose tyranny and to speak your mind out thats the burning question right now.

Always wrong- the Left

Yeah they are the worst because they are more educated than the rest and they use that very intellectual depth and their wisdom to fool the mass. The look on their face when they speak emotes as if they would be the first to sacrifice if anything bad is to befall on this country.

When 76 jawans in Chhattisgarh died the Leftist took out a candle light procession in JNU to express their pleasure. During the previous government on one hand they were supporting the UPA and on the other they were crying foul over the nuclear bill.

Yet they didn't have the conviction to withdraw the support because then they would have lost the power that they had managed to secure after such a long while.

If a particular party is continuously ruling over a state for the past 25 years you expect that the state will have reached a respectable level of development, but thats not the case with West Bengal. Its still lying in the bottom six.

My Leftist friends will say that inspite and despite this, its the Left thats winning in Bengal, again and agian.

And I would say that they are still winning in West Bengal because of their notorious cadre strength, which is so famously prone to physical violence.

They swear by Dass Kapital and yet any journalist or politician will tell you that they are the most wealthiest of the lot. They own a stake in Star News, and most of them have huge farm houses in Mussorie.

Left is a place where the intellectuals suppressed seek a sanctuary , a place where their shits and rubbish is proclaimed as a policy. Like supporting China and showing thumbs down to US. They are the worst hypocrites, living lavishly and strolling in kurtas.

Reading Penguin books, speaking Oxford English, always trying to go against what the others are doing, just to prove that you are different is not very difficult, but implementing the words into action is not so easy, specially if you lack the moral conviction.

Many great minds, economists and writers have wasted their talent by joining Left in fighting what they call fighting the corrupt system. But they have been fooled. The Left is a bastion of the corrupts who play sage.

They just oppose for the heck of opposing.Fools they are, and fools they will remain.

Congress and BJP too are bad but atleast they do what they say. Even if they fulfill 40 percent of their promise of they make, but the leftist are the scourge of the nation and their thinking is destroying talented minds of this country.

Someone who is supporting them should think about what the Communist have achieved. They call themselves the champion of poor but they are exactly the opposite.

They are the worst, the Left.

Patna diary

I

Congressi politicians are facing harrowing time, not because of the scorching summer heat but rather its the political heat generated by their own colleagues that has kept some of them on their toes.

The caste based census issue is something that has wedged a deep divide between the political class in between the UPA itself. As can be read, even the intra party members of Congress are looking north and seeking south. Check Ajay Maken's blog on http://ajaymakenthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/05/letter-to-all-young-mps-on-caste-based.html#comments to find how atleast some of the politicians are not behaving like political opportunist.

Then there is the issue of naxalism on which Congress is divided; again. Digvijay Singh feels that they are mislead ideologues while Chidambaram feels that they are nothing but terrorists.

Then it was Mr.Tharoor who was confused between what he wanted to be. Whether a loyal lover, a dedicated politican or a chirpy twittu. Well he was not even sure that why was he made a minister or why did he come to India in the first place. But as things ended the way it did, he must be a relieved man. Mr.Tharoor, you are still miles away from the honesty (pun intended) that is required from a person to succeed as a political entity in this part of the globe.

Another maverick, Jariram Ramesh had to say sorry to the Prime Minister when he openly criticized Chidambaram for his dealing of India's international relation with China.

Manmohan Singh is literally rocking on how to deal with the naxalites. Should he follow Sonia Gandhi or tow his trusted lieutenant Chidambaram. Whom should be fix the blame on for the recent train mishap? Should he agree with the Railway Minister, Mamta Banarjee who says that it is a political conspiracy to malign her or nod his head by going with the cops and say it was the maoist.

Couldn't stop humming Koi rasta to dikha...khuda ke liye....

II

It is not that only on the national level our political structure is showing signs of going haywire. At a more local front, in Bihar too things are not looking good.

Recently a police officer was appointed as Bikramganj DSP. That shouldn't have made the news, because routine transfers seldom evoke curiosity but in the present case , the newly appointed officer is himself on the run from the police. Even before he could assume charge as Bikramganj DSP, a police team from the district police headquarters was sent to arrest him.

The concerned officer who was earlier attached with STF, Avinash Prasad,is wanted by police in connection with a criminal case for last two months and an arrest order against him is pending in the court of law.

About 2 weeks earlier in a similar sort of comical yet serious incident, which raised fingers on the Policing situation in the state, Bihar Human Rights Commission (BHRC) ordered the state government to pay Rs 40,000 each as compensation to ten persons who were jailed on fabricated charges of murder and kidnapping in two separate cases. The commission has also recommended appropriate action against the then SPs who had submitted a false report.

Again nothing new as such incidents do happen in our country, but what has made this incident serious is the fact that in its reply before the SHRC, the police department said that it was because of the "pressure" on the SP to come out with a result soon due to submission of a representation by the kin of the supposed dead victims in the chief minister's Janata darbar, that led to the gross error on the part of the officers, which included a young IPS probationer.

Bihar Chief minister is undertaking a "Vishwas Yatra" of the state so as to prepare for the state assembly elections that are due soon. Speaking in front of the mass, Nitish is bringing out the achievements of his government, but hard he tries, he is not able to say how he has been time and again let down by his subordinates. The biggest let down was couple of years back when Kosi breached its bank and his officers were caught napping. What happened afterwards is a painful history.

He has a reputation for being upright and high on discipline but that qualities are not channeling down to the lower level. His efforts to put Bihar back on tracks have been successful, albeit, if he got more cooperation of his support staff of government employees the result would have been far better.

Nitish Kumar has all through the last four and a half years focused on Good governance but as the political finale approaches, it seems the state has not progressed much on that front. Corruption has not come down inspite of the fact that a proactive approach was adopted to tackle this disease, including setting up of fast track courts.

The various state departments in Bihar are still to come out of the 'high' that the previous regime gave them. They still feel that they have every right to prolong and unnecessarily delay work of the common men. They still believe that bribe is a part of their salary.

For their routine work they expect that they will be offered cash. And believe me, antics adopted in MunnaBhai won't work here.

I personally had this experience of being asked for bribe for a legitimate act when my cousin who is seeking job of his father on compensatory ground was asked for money in return for moving his file ahead. Not going into the details, a feeling of anguish comes when you think that how can these people be so senseless and shameful. And you feel bad when you think that how will those thousands of illiterate people who have no one to lean on will arrange for ten thousand rupees to join a job which is their legitimate right and whose monthly salary is maybe four thousand rupees.

Losing hope is very easy and to rekindle it is herculean. And right now, after going through the many a such shattering experiences time and again, I am moving towards the easier approach.

It will be easy to change Bihar, but not so easy to change the people here, who for years have lived on situations that have eaten away some of very basic human tendencies.

But then Hope dies when you let it die...just like love.And I am not very good at letting things die.

Mumbaikars loose - MNS wins

Maharashtra poll results along with the poll results in the other two states of Arunachal Pradesh and Haryana has come as a bad news for the BJP. And the saffron colour continues to lose its shine.

It must have been a happy day at work for people at 10 Janpath as the hard work finally paid off in Maharashtra. With the party gaining an absolute majority, it will hope that it will be able to live up to the expectations of a common Indian living in Maharashtra.

But the disheartening news was about a goon party gaining more strength.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena won in 13 seats in the state including 7 seats in Mumbai.

And there can be two ways of looking into the performance.

The first one has more to do with Not reading much into the party’s win. As the seat where it won was not on the basis of the party tag but because of a careful thinking that went into while selecting the candidates. The candidates who won were not imported from outside. Most of them were active in their constituency for years and were earlier a part of Shiv Sena.

So to say that the brand MNS worked would be wrong.

The second way of looking at this is that whether Mumbai has accepted and given its nod to the hooliganism way of politics that was carried out by MNS? And this question needs to carefully understood in the backdrop of the violence that MNS cadre carried out recently.

Infact none of the media post election talk show focussed on this aspect of MNS. Not much time back, this was the same party who held the whole state to ransom and ransacked the city and attacked anyone whom they thought was from north India.

Mumbai sure has a short memory.

Perhaps the Mumbaikars forgot that when 26/11 happened none of the MNS goons or Mr.Thackrey came forward to help. And those who died while tackling the situation where from all parts of the country, it was not a 'Me Mumbaikar' campaign at that time. And it was not just Mumbai who was glued into to the TV for news but the whole India

And it was not just Mumbai who felt frustrated for being so helpless and it was not just Mumbai who cried whenever a still body of an innocent “Indian” came out.

Try to remember; it was hardly 11 months back.

Anyone who saw Raj speaking before the media will agree that he has reached a new realm. The same old arrogance and lust for power was back in his eyes and in his voice as he dared people to perform Chaath Puja.

I thought that the MNS will be routed from the state but now realize that I was wrong. Might has again proved right.

Why do we point fingers at the illiterate class when they elect criminals to power? Don’t we say that the poor class doesn’t have the “intellectual” capability to decide between right and wrong?

What happened to the not so "intellectually backward strata" of Mumbai? Those who voted MNS to power how are they going to justify it?

Is violence the answer to the problem of people coming to a state in India in search for work? MNS had posed this question and many of you nodded in assent.

There were people who were lambasting Karan Johar for succumbing to MNS decree. Now we see why didn’t he resist.

We are moving backward in time. Democracy graduates from a violent natured system to a system that runs on a careful exercising of the power to vote.

This time it was MNS. Who knows by the next election time we might have NINS ( North Indian Navnirman sena). All justifying their violence on one reason or the other.

We pose some questions that can be answered only by ourselves.

http://desicritics.org/2009/10/22/125144.php#commentFrm

Tough time calls for BJP

The 2009 general elections didn’t turn out as the BJP had expected, as a matter of fact, I too was surprised by Congress’s win. But as we now see that surprise defeat was not the end of problem for the saffron party, but just the beginning.

The Chintan Baithak at the scenic and cool Shimla got off to a rather hot start with the safari suit clad Jaswant Singh being expelled from the party. Not quite a long back, he along with Atal and Advani constituted the face of BJP.

He might not had a dramatic rise but a crestfallen Jaswant Singh sure had a rollicking downfall. No single reason can be attributed to the recent development.

The crab mentality that plagues every organization, which currently is working at full force for BJP, the emergence of new ‘young’ leaders, who have waited years for their turn to come but all in vain, the recent poll debacle, the RSS factor, and the slow but steady disappearance of Atal from the party, all made it easy to show Jaswant the door.

We have been hearing the same name in BJP for all these years. Names that have been in queue to climb up the ladder, a ladder whose top three stairs have been booked for Atal, Adavni and Jaswant. Of all the three, Jaswant was the weakest, and he had to go. Advani will be next and with Atalji retired, it will be everyone for himself for the next generation of party leaders.

The loss in general election was a good ground to start with the assault. RSS saw it as a golden opportunity to once again tighten its grip over the party. RSS had reasons to believe that in recent years its hold over the party had been shrinking. With Jaswant Singing Jinnah and blasting Patel, they found a much needed cause to show who the boss is.

The other big reason is that BJP is still figuring out what to do with the Muslim population. It is still going to and from whether to appease the minority population go soft on Hindutva or stick to hard core Hindutva. In between this undecided scenario, Jaswant thought that maybe praising Jinnah was the next best thing to do after denouncing Patel. And as we all now know, neither of them worked in the way he expected it to be.

There have been far greater grounds for axing leaders in BJP in the past, but as I said, if it was just on the basis of the core reason, Jaswant would have been still alive and kicking. It is obnoxious to expel a leader who have been in the party for the last 30 years, who had just won a lok Sabah election by more than 3 lakhs vote and a man who did good, if not great work in various capacity at the central level, just because he wrote a book.

To start with there was no bigger ground than Kandahar to expel a few sleeping man who waited for the god to intervene before the aircraft took off to Kandahar, then came Kargil, still the same old guys continued to ‘serve’ the nation.

And finally came Gujarat. Not trying to sound a pseudo secularist, what happened at Godhra was and is unpardonable and and exception should have been made out and the perpetrators should have been given a medieval kind of punishment. But whatever happened thereafter could and should have been controlled had the BJP state government followed Raj Dharma as Atal pointed out.

BJP right now is going through a churning process, which as we all know is not very memorable. From now on it will be Advani who will have to fight and stave attacks, depending on whether he has any desire to do so.

Don’t think that Rajnath Singh will have to bear the same as he doesn’t have ambitions that require a bloodbath as he knows his position, strengths and weaknesses well. Sushma swaraj too is now a shadow of her former self, and with no Atal to provide her support she too will be contended in whatever she is offered.

The two people to look out in the near future are Modi and Jaitley. They will be the two poles that the others will have to choose from in the near future.

But a party cannot be run by two men who are highly ambitious. Atal always knew that he can never be replaced or upstaged. And Adavani too was aware and accepted the fact that he will be more highly rewarded if he stays with Atal, if not behind him. There was never a dichotomy or any doubt in any of the BJP workers mind that who had the final say in the party matter and that made for a smooth running. In a relationship, of every nature, one has to be one percent more than the other for it to blossom.

And between Modi and Jaitley, one of the two has to realize this. The sooner they do it, the better it will be for them and for the party. RSS should limit its role to that of a guardian, and that too in a strict sense, only coming in the picture when it’s truly required.

There is a difference between meddling and offering advice. This is something that Mohan Bhagwat has to make himself and his organization understand.

The Chintan baithak will come out with many ideas, but only with time, will the BJP regains it full glory, till then it has to wait and bid its time.

Looking at a larger perspective, India, just like any other democracy, will be benefitted more if we have a strong opposition party, which as of now is nowhere to be seen.

India : United and diverse

It was refreshing to go through Vir Sanghvi’s column “Counter point’ in which he very surprisingly deviated from his generous habit of playing ‘Congress is India’ slogan and raised very obvious, valid but seemingly neglected points of the danger posed by the effects of the regional parties when they transcend their region desires and aspire for a part at the national stage.

For the starters Sanghvi pointed fingers at Congress (yeah, actually he did it) for allowing Karunanidhi to play with the religious sentiments of Hindus when he infamously asked for the credentials of a person called Ram ( of Ramayan fame, Ayodhya wale).

Similar he poses uncomfortable questions to the other national party of India, BJP, asking it to come out with a white paper ( well, he didn’t actually used this term, but I would have) regarding its stand, if any, on the whole episode of Marathi manoos Vs North Indians where the Shiv Sena is one of the main protagonist. ( Manoos V Indians, how ironical).

We have always read and heard about this whole Indian world of unity in diversity, a place, a metaphysical state where diversities of various nature, culminate into one, to make up an entity called India. But that changes once we step into the political scenario, for then the role reversal takes place.

A swapping of roles take place as diverse parties, many aspirations, hundreds of inspirations vie to put up a collage of what is called “Alliance”.

Political artists try their best to achieve diversity in Unity. Sometimes that collage, in the crudest form of use, appears satisfactory but generally it is one heck of picture which is best left unviewed.

And when the work is finished, we have Muftis, the Badals, the Yadavs, the Mayawatis, the Mamtas, a whole bouquet of the Leftist, the Ammas, the not so sane Karuna and the insane Thackrey smiling at us. (Already started feeling dizzy, and I have not even worked out the details). The above all are just a broad contours, I still have to work on the colors.

Imagine a government where all the above players come together and assume the role of leading India into the next millennium. (I couldn’t, too much of brain required). If this happens then we can safely assume that Kalyug has truly arrived and the time of Mahapralay is near. A time of apocalypse, when every national aspiration, dreams will be quashed for regional interest, where a CM will come above PM in the list of invitees. The more illogical demand, the more higher a politician will go.

After Amma’s call of marching Indian army into Sri lanka is fulfilled, Karunanidhi’s demands of building an expressway between Srilanka and India overlapping the Ramsetu will be next and then will come the time of heeding to Thackrey’s clan demand of annexing North India and moving the refugees to wherever the government seems fit.

And soon we will have four countries, a grand alliance of sort between the smaller states, teaming up to fight the national aspirations of a country called India that is out their to usurp their regional demands.

And that alliance will broadly be based on geographical indicators, viz, The North India, the South India, the West India and the South India. And soon enough that alliance too will break up and only god knows when will the opportunistic leaders realize that out there is another East India company who is just waiting and watching to rush in just like it did centuries ago.

(What started as a writeup based on facts turned into a work of fiction and imagination just like what started as a fight for dalit cause turned into a struggle for the PMs post )

Who is the more lethal? Karuna or the LTTE

In Southern India, leaders who aspire to play the role of kingmakers in a para-jumbled scenario that will possibly emerge after 16th May are raising a hue and cry over the alleged atrocities carried out by the Srilankan army against the Tamil refugees in their war against the LTTE terrorists.

Karunanidhi, Jayalalita, Vaiko all these ‘Tamil’ sympathizers or more appropriately ‘Tamil opportunist’ have said that they are against this ‘misadventure’ on the part of the Srilankan government. A misadventure that is aimed towards dismantling one of the most feared terrorist outfits.

Someone needs to remind them that this supposed misadventure has been going for the past 2 years. But none of them voiced their dissent against it till now.

The alleged atrocities against the Tamils as purported by Karunanidhi has more to do with garnering the Tamil votebank rather than his genuine sympathy for them.

Kaurnanidhi and Vaiko have openly come out in support of the LTTE which is a banned terrorist organization, not only in India but worldwide. They have orchestrated protests against Indian establishment in UK and in other foreign countries so as to put pressure of the Indian government to use its clout and ask the Srilankan government to stop the offensive.

Even the Congress, whose own leader Rajiv Gandhi was killed by the LTTE has acted submissively to the pressure of its allies and has time and again sent senior officials to Srilanka as a show of its willingness to tow the lines of Karuna and Vaiko and to make sure that they are not displeased least their support is required to form the next government.

The stand taken by Congress is one is driven by short term political gains but in in return they have bartered a peaceful-safe neighbour.

Have not Fingers been pointed at India too for the same level of atrocities that our troops have alleged to commit in Kashmir and in the North east. But national interest has always prevailed. So why should the present Indian leadership or for that matter any leadership pressurize the Lankans in what is their internal matter to stop their assault against a brutal terrorist organization, an organization which has killed numerous high profile leaders and many civilians and even to this day continues to use innocent unarmed combatants and small children for their own safety.

This continuous pressure politics by the Indian government has alienated Srilanka further away from us. Though our old ‘friend’ China has not lost this opportunity to help the tiny island nation by supplying it with arms and materials.

And it is not that the Srilankan government has neglected the refugees. It is doing everything that it can. Independent observers operating in Srilanka have said that the refugees are being taken care of. One needs to understand that even the best of human efforts sometimes appear insignificant in times of human calamities. Give them time, the country has gone through a difficult phase for many years.

All this may seem immaterial now, but years later I hope we don’t use the present Srilankan crisis as an anecdote to illustrate as how not to conduct your foreign policies.

Morality and principles are the two most overly used yet the least applied term in Indian political arena. And it can best be seen by the way Congress has reacted to the rhetoric of a leader who has no personal credentials and a person who prides in calling Rama a drunkard.

It is very sad that it has so easily forgotten the killing of one of its own leader who was killed because he sent the Indian peace keeping force to Srilanka to the very same job that the Lankan army is doing now.

Congress is a “national party”, the grand old party of India. Need we remind this to them again and again?

Go on Das'ji

To be in Bihar and to not be part of any political activity is like living in the holy city of Ujjain and yet failing to take a dip in the Kshipra.

Voluntarily or involuntarily, as the election time approaches you find yourself being attracted to any of the many types of informal, formal political gatherings. Such meetings take place at every conceivable place. Outside home under a mango tree, in the road side teashop, in a temple and sometimes even outside a crematorium. If you have an opinion to share you will find an ear to listen.

Maheshwar Das who retired as deputy SP one months back now finds himself in the illuminated company of politicians who stay in our residential colony.

Dasji, my immediate neighbour is contesting as an MP from the well known Hajipur seat of Bihar. Hajipur is just 15 kms away from Patna and is currently represented by Union minister and Lok Jan Shakti party supremo, Ram Bilas Paswan.

Hajipur has been Paswan's citadel for years and he has created a record of winning that seat by a record margin in the previous election.

It is a reserved seat and my friendly Dasji is pitted against Paswan and Ramsundar Das who is representing (JD)(U).

Dasji a dalit, has started his political move on the right foot as he has managed to secure a BSP ticket. 5 years ago this would not have been significant news, but now with Maywati’s enhanced status it is something big if not spectacular.

Interestingly until he got his nomination, Dasji used to pat my pet German Shepard, Bela, by calling her Mayawati. but ever since he got the ticket everything is back to normal. Though Bela does occasionally misses the tag of being a 'dog' representing the oppressed mass.

Now I leave it upon the readers to apply their own sense of imagination as to what is the significant behind calling my revered Bela as Mayawati.

On the first day of his campaigning I too jumped in the cavalcade of his white Boloeros covered in marching elephants embedded on Blue flags ( representing BSP) as we rode towards Hajipur, the land of world famous small Bananas.

Earlier our former civil servant wanted to wear a black bundy ( jacket) over the traditional white kurta, but he was consented to change his mind by my father and he amended it for a more cooler brown one and we proceeded.

Cries of "Jahan hai Das-wahin hai Aas" filled the air as we crossed the majestic Gandhi Setu connecting Patna and Hajipur. Seating in the back seat I could clearly see the elation on Dasji 's face as he enjoyed every bit of attention that he was getting. Ahhh...the charm of being a leader.

We addressed two political gatherings on the first day and I was not surprised to see a sizable number of people everywhere we went. Probably it was the curiosity to know the unknown or it was the Mayawati effect or most probably the political atmosphere that drew the people out in the basking unforgiving sun.

People with folded hands with glitter and hope in those small eyes gathered around us and their love was reciprocated by folded hands and a bowed head. Dasji at his modest best.

I have heard and read about the concept of giant killers. An unknown-unheard candidates arises from nowhere and trounces a more powerful opponent. Whether I will witness the same in Hajipur will become clear in the third week of May, but if you ask that whether I want to witness another instance of giant killing then my honest reply will be, yes...why not!!!

Go on Dasji...