Rahul Gandhi- On path to reform Congress

The former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair has described Rahul Gandhi as the most talented politician. He is right as Rahul during his short tenure as the Congress general secretary and member of Lok Sabha has proved himself as the most talented leader that represents the new breed of politicians who want to make India a Leader in the world.

He has emerged as a Reformist in Indian Politics, particularly the Congress and has gone to the extent of suggesting injecting young blood in the party and the government and even recommending his mother to “take rest” (retire ).

Rahul wants to learn about India and its people. He mingled with the tribals in Orissa ignoring security restrictions and later declared security cover can not prevent him from meeting the people. “It is for me to decide where to go and whom to meet, not the SPG”.

While on his ‘Discover India’ tour , Rahul Gandhi announced that it was time that The Congress as a political party starts enforcing democracy in its own organization. Rahul denounced the High Command culture too. 

He got a responsive Media appreciating his words of wisdom and political analysts called this an exercise which has been long due in the party. Some termed it as a statement that showed the level of political maturity he has attained and for some it was just a political statement; nothing less, nothing more.

Rahul visited the Bundelkhand region to meet the families of the farmers who committed suicide and Vidarbha to sympathies with the farmers’ families,toured drought-hit Kalahandi (a favorite spot of his grand mother,Ms Indira Gandhi and father,Rajiv Gandhi too) in Orissa and went to console the Dalit families whose relatives were killed in Aminanbad (Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh).His intervention in the Sarabjit Singh case yielded result and Singh’s execution was extended by General Musharraf for a month. Rahul like his father means Business.

The Gandhi scion has always been seen as someone who was born with the silver spoon ion his mouth. It was known that sooner rather than later he would be following in the footsteps of his family members who have graced the India political system since time innumerable.

Most of the observations that have been offered to the readers have a connotation that suggest since he is ‘Gandhi’ hence everything will come easily to him. This observation grew stronger with time as he went on to become an MP, a party general Secretary and now he heads both the youth political entity that represents the congress party the NSUI and the Youth Congress.

Though not many have looked into the other side of the implications of being born with the proverbial silver spoon that has always been associated with Mr. Gandhi. Since he is a Gandhi he is expected to win every elections seat that he campaigns for. Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh were seen as a wind that separated the wheat from the chaff. Political observers were already out with a verdict that since he was campaigning is Uttar Pradesh, Congress tally will improve. Then in Gujarat pundits went on to say that it was a battle that will decide the weight Rahul Gandhi has. It’s true that people turned out in large numbers to hear and see him but equally real is the fact that these mass congregations did not turn into votes. Critics are already out in the open saying that Rahul Gandhi has the charisma to attract people but not votes.

To be frank these and many similar observations were not mouthed by Rahul Gandhi himself but by the media and the political observers. It would be injustice to expect someone to pull congress out of a debacle that has inhabited it for years in states like UP and Gujarat just because he is the child of Rajiv Gandhi.

The baying of blood that has been associated with Rahul Gandhi has always been on the lines of the fact that he is a Gandhi. His Political acumen has not been tasted or seen yet. Still he has been termed as someone who owes his political ambitions to his family rather than his understanding of Indian political structure. His biggest handicap in his own words is his inexperience.

He knows that if Congress has to perform well in the long run the NSUI and Youth Congress will have to be nurtured with care and attention. His take on a democratic setup in the party should be commended. In his AICC meeting speech Rahul Gandhi called for organizational setup of NSUI and Youth Congress in such a manner in which meritocracy and accountability will prevail.

In his budget speech Rahul Gandhi called for linking implementation of governments programs to objectives spelled out under RTI. Similarly he called for more encouragement and strengthening of Panchayati Raj Institutions which according to him are empowering the poor rural to be a part of the democratic structure. Similarly no can deny the success of NREGA which is his pet project, more-so considering the fact that although NREGA is the brainchild of the UPA government but it depends on state governments for its implementation.

Neither Rahul Gandhi nor Congress can refute the fact that right now it is a party of kith and kin. Madhya Pradesh has the father son duo of Arjun singh- Rahul Singh. Then there is Kamal Nath who recently launched his son Nakul. JyotirAditya Scindia had Madhav Rao Scinda to give political lessons. Rajasthan has Sachin Pilot, son of Rajesh Pilot. Recently Subhash Yadav, the former PCC chief of Madhya Pradesh managed to secure an assembly ticket for his son Arjun. Then we have Amitesh shukla son of SC Shukla. The list is long and the names are many.

Conversely no one can refuse the fact that if Sachin pilot and JyotirAditya Scindia didn’t had their family name still they would have earned the same respect that they command now because they have time and again proved they have the understanding that is required to be politically successful. Their parliamentary voters are happy with them for the work they have done in their constituency.

When Rajiv Gandhi came into power in 1984 he candidly expressed his dis-satisfaction with the internal structure and working of the Congress party. Rajiv rose not because he had any achievements that he could boast of at that time but it was her mother’s assassination that catapulted a reluctant youth to a reluctant leader of India’s largest political party. At that time Congress was known for having more than a fair number of power brokers. According to him this was one of the three problems that plagued Congress the other two being lack of Organizational elections and intra party discipline.

In the 1984 general elections one third of the sitting MPs were denied tickets. Most of them were known to be corrupt and unscrupulous. Younger people and college goers were encouraged to become a part of Sewa dal and the state level functionaries including Chief Ministers were dissuaded from flying to Delhi to pay their monthly respect which was a norm in the times of India Gandhi.

History will tell that after pursuing these new policy for a couple of years , Rajiv Gandhi had to abandon them as they were not quite appreciated by the senior strung leaders and that was evident in the way he lost a number of assembly elections. If these valuable policies were religiously followed for a longer period then they would have benefited the party in the long run but unfortunately were aborted for political considerations.

Now Rahul Gandhi is on the same path of reforming the Congress party. He has history to guide him through but then he also has the seniors who like in the past will also try to make his path easier the way they made his father’s journey enjoyable. His Father didn’t succeed and only time will tell whether Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Gandhi family will emerge triumph or not.

Ends

http://desicritics.org/2008/03/22/024010.php

Tibet's fight for freedom

It’s amazing that how easily we forget and ignore issues that are not affecting our daily life even if the concern is about oppression and annihilation of a country, its citizens and its culture.

For all these years we have chose to ignore Tibet and its demand for freedom from China. To be seen as a politically correct democracy our leaders have time and again said that they have done their bit by granting asylum to the Tibetan refugees. But does granting asylum absolves India of its responsibility that responsibility which comes when you are celebrating 60 years of democracy that responsibility which owes its existence to the freedom struggle that India itself witnessed and that responsibility which becomes due when you call yourself a south-Asian superpower ?

China has for long using its economic and political power to arm twist the international community in toeing its line that what is happening in Tibet is not a freedom struggle but a violent separatist movement. Sadly every country, including India has nodded its head in approval and they have arrived at an international consensus that Tibet is China’s internal matter and it should be left untouched to be dealt by China itself.

Feeble voice have been raised in various forums, voices that has words like ‘restraint’, ‘constraint’ but not even one of them has ‘condemned’ or ‘condoned’ the senseless killing of protestors.

In India the picture is no different. The Left which prides in calling itself the crusaders of human rights has remained shamefully mum in the parliament. These pseudo politicians, the so called intellectuals are the best example when it comes to the dirt that surrounds the Indian political system. The hypocrisy that they practice is too hard to swallow even in the Indian context. Yesterday when the Congress and the BJP MPs were raking up the issue of Tibet in parliament the Leftist were still crying over the nuclear deal.

When it comes to the third world countries there are ‘n’ numbers of laws and norms that govern their conduct. But when the greater countries are in question than the same laws are thrown out of the window. 

Earlier it was the US who shocked the world community by ignoring UNs call for not attacking Iraq and now it’s China. The world community too has done its bit by rewarding China with the opportunity to host the Olympics as to show gratitude to China for its effort in strengthening peace and restraint.

We have the Universal declaration of human rights (UDHR) and we have the International covenant on civil and political rights (ICCPR) but history has time and again proved that these for the weak and not for the powerful.

China, often called the role model for the developing country is a neighbor that one wishes was not there. Simply put when it comes to China, India lacks the political will to stand up and protest the human rights violation.

We may call ourselves and Independent country, a south Asian giant but in the midst of all this euphoria we tend to forget we are also on the fore-front when it comes the shrinking our responsibility whether its been Tibet or Iraq.

Freedom for Tibet - Standing Up To China
Published at: http://desicritics.org/2008/03/18/103355.php

Political diary- Chhattisgarh ,Bihar and Madhya Pradesh

Chhattisgarh:

Chhattisgarh will be one of the most affected states due to delimitation of constituencies for Lok Sabha and Assembly seats. Jagdalpur in Bastar, Ambikapur, Surajpur, Premnagar and Paal would be changed into general seats from SC/ST at present. Kanker Lok Sabha seat will become a general seat from ST reserved at present and Janjgir-Korba, presently a general seat will now become a SCC reserved Lok Sabha seat. Ms Karuna Shukla, niece of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and president of All India women's wing of the BJP represents the constituency.

The heavy weights likely to be affected include former minister, Satyanarayan Sharma, whose traditional Mandir Harshoud seat will cease to exist and Ms Renuka Singh, another former minister, whose Prem Nagar seat is being converted into a general seat.

Ms Singh has challenged the recommendations of the Delimitation commission in Supreme Court and opposed the decision of the Cabinet to reduce ST reserved seats for Chhattisgarh Assembly from 34 to 29 and ST reserved seats in Lok Sabha from the state from four to three.

The former chief minister, Ajit Jogi, who represents a general seat-Mahasamund in the Lok Sabha has also pleaded like Jharkhand, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland, Chhattisgarh should also be exempted from delimitation of constituencies in the coming elections. The elections for the new assembly are due in November this year.

The Chief Minister Raman Singh is hoping that his ambitious 'Rs 3 per kg rice and Rs 10 per litre Kerosene for BPL families' scheme will help the BJP government in Chhattisgarh in wooing the rural voters where 42 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line.

The state BJP leadership recently had reasons celebrate as the party grabbed victory in the recent assembly by-poll in the Naxal stronghold of Keshkal (Bastar).

The saffron party has now decided to put enhanced efforts on the impoverished regions of the state where corruption and delays stops people from getting food grains and kerosene from the Public Distribution System (PDS) as political pundits are of the view that that if the welfare schemes are sincerely implemented the BJP would be able to enjoys its success in the forthcoming assembly election.

Raman Singh has issued instructions to the government officials asking them to maintain strict surveillance to prevent any malfunctioning and corruption in the rice distribution scheme or face stern actions.

Bihar:

The delimitation of constituencies would affect adversely several leaders, including state RJD president, Abdul Bari Sidiuqqui, health minister, Chandra Mohan Rai (Ram Nagar) and sports minister, Janardan Singh Segriwal (Jalalpur), whose constituencies will cease to exist in the coming assembly elections.

Sadhu Yadav, brother-in-law of the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav ,who was elected from Gopalganj (general) seat to the Lok Sabha will have to search new constituency as Gopalganj has now become a SC reserved seat ,Ramchandra Paswan, LJP MP and brother of Ram Vilas Paswan and Surajbhan, another MP of LJP will also have to look for new seats as their current seats , Rosera and Balia have been scrapped.

In the 243 state assembly, now, there would be 37 SC and two ST seats and six out of 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar would be reserved for SCs

Patna Saheb and Pataliputra will have two new Lok sabha constituencies with changes in the areas of Patna and Barh constituencies. In Patna, there will be one new assembly seat from Kumhrar, which would be carved out from the existing Patna South, Masaurhi and Phulwari constituencies.

Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) has decided to don the political cap with the party now working to make its presence felt between the OBCs and the Minorities. MJ Akbar, who once successfully contested for the MP seat from Kishanganj (Bihar) is all set for a comeback, though this time he will be going to the Upper house courtesy JD (U).

Madhya Pradesh:

If the Lok Sabha elections are held immediately in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress would be gainer .The past trends of the by-elections also indicate, the BJP would be loser, as in all the by-elections, the BJP lost the seats won by it in the last elections. The BJP lost the Khargone Lok Sabha seat to the Congress in November. In the summer, the party could not retain the seat it had won in 2004 elections in Shivpuri.

The recent 60000 crores debt relief relief given to the Kisans by the finance minister, P Chidambaram, will definitely help gain the support of the cotton growers of Khargone-Khanwda and soyabean growers of Malwa region and also in central Madhya Pradesh. Many farmers had committed suicide in these regions due to heavy loans.

The former chief minister, Ms Uma Bharti, who would be fielding her candidates against the BJP, would also help the Congress in a triangular contest.

Politically stating Congress is on a revival mode after Suresh Pachori was made the state PCC chief recently. The old PCC had virtually become defunct under Subhash Yadav and inspite of many opportunities presented by the BJP, the PCC was no abe to successfully utilize them. Now the workers are hoping for a change in fortune under Pachori as he is more taller than Yadav and commands more respect among the senior leaders like Digvijay Singh, Jyotiraditya Scinda and that would help him to silent the intra-party fighting that has been brewing for quite a while now.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) was hoping on using the Ram Sethu issue for electoral gains in Madhya Pradesh but it got a rude shock as the Ramsetu issue backfired as was clear from its performance in the Karnataka local body elections where the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) emerged as the winner.

BJP and Congress both have shifted their spotlight to the sizeable number of tribal votebank in Madhya Pradesh. This was evident after LK Advani chose Jabalpur to launch his 'sankalp yatra' while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a visit to the remote tribal belt of Jhabua.

Tribals dominate both Jhabua and Jabalpur regions. They play a decisive role in 91 of the state's 230 assembly constituencies. Of these, 41 are reserved for the community.

Tribals would play an even more significant role if the delimitation of constituencies takes place before the polls. Under the new system, the number of tribal seats would go up.

The significant of the tribal vote was demonstrated in the 2003 assembly polls at Nimar, Malwa, Mahakaushal and Vindhya regions. The BJP swung 15 percent of the tribal votes away from the Congress and won three-fourths of the tribal seats.

Though recent trends suggest that the Tribals appear to have distanced themselves from BJP as was evident in Khargone Lok Sabha and Sanver and Lanjhi assembly by-polls which the BJP lost.

Another important part in the whole picture is to be played by Gondwana Ganatantra Party (GGP), which has substantial strength in the tribal areas of the Mahakoshal region.

Both the BJP and the Congress are wary of GGP and if the Gonds in the Mahakoshal region, where 60 percent of the voters are tribals, decide to go with GGP, the electoral prospects of the two mainstream parties will surely suffer.

Similarly Mayawati’s BSP which recently organized a show of strength in Bhopal, will also give sleepless night to both BJP and Congress strategist as BSPs policy of wooing the Brahmin vote bank is sure to change the political equations in the state.

Indian media-Leader oriented, Reader neglected

'Freedom of media' is a relative term. It is just not limited to the freedom enjoyed by the media to report everything without being stopped forcefully but also obliging the members of media fraternity so as to stop them from giving out a true picture. The term "obligation'' assumes enormous proportions in the backdrop of media ethics. The modern media is like the now banned ‘Mumbai's Bar Clubs’ with Market guiding them in all respect. Editors have become Bar Girls? .

All major Indian newspapers with few exceptions have now turned into what is popularly known as "Response run" rather than "editorially run" papers. There was a time when management people were given independent responsibilities to generate revenue and the editorial wing was consider sacrosanct. Now the most of the editors of these papers have to cut a sorry figure in face of a Harvard, IIM or any management institute educated manager, and wisely they have now learnt to buckle under the demands and whims of the Response. These days an MBA has more say than an editor in deciding the contents or colour of a newspaper.

As a result of this approach content and quality wise these newspapers are heading southwards and there is nothing astonishing in it as when Ad and revenue generation becomes important the priority than the quality of newspaper goes down. This is a cardinal principle which is always true. The newspapers and magazines have now become any consumer product with perishable value.They have lost their retention capacity by the readers.

The Correspondents are now given the additional responsibility of procuring state sponsored advertisements for their respective newspapers. There are examples of the state and district level or even block level stringers being asked to collect advertisements for special supplements to be brought on Republic Day, Independence Day, State Foundation Day and even foundation Day of the newspaper itself. This is happening even in the villages of Bihar, UP and Jharkhand, where Hindi readership is very large.

This is true for almost all the publications, and in this context it would be foolish to expect that a newspaper will encourage the correspondent to report against the same government which is providing the publication with advertisements that runs into crores.

The 'old lot of journalists' who started their career in the 60s or 70 now find it increasingly difficult to function in this comparatively new Response oriented market environment which demands from them a lot more than just good writing skills.

Everyone knows that Vinod Dua, Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt recently accepted the state sponsored Padma Shri but not many are aware of the fact that Pranoy Roy declined the same when it was awarded to him just after the UPA came into power.

There was a time when even the fear of state sponsored prosecution was not able to stop media from speaking out against Indira Gandhi and emergency. Sadly the times have changed.

Readers who have been committed readers of the the self proclaimed Leader of newspapers ,particularly those preparing for the Civil Services now do not subscribe the paper as they are getting better contents in other newspapers .They are getting thought and views from non-leader newspapers as the Leader has lost its serious reader value contents. The Leader is growing in the Market, but not among the Minds as its has lost its "Retention Value". The Leader is more concerned about its TRP now giving good bye to quality reading materials and news. The Response oriented editorials are not liked by the serious and committed readers.

Readers loyalty has shifted from the Leader as the paper has now turned into a 'skin-friendly' paper of the establishment of the Day. The Leader's editorial page which perhaps was its best part too has deteriorated and as for the Sunday pull-out page the less said the better. It is neither interesting nor entertaining leave alone educative.

This nexus between media-politicians, media-industrialists has always been there but earlier it was healthy interface and the media always knew that being the fourth estate it is under the obligation to keep a check on the other institutions of democracy. And I don't deny that the checks and the controls are still there but now it is more of a "manipulated checks''.

The Freedom of Press is meant only for the Leader and its subsequent followers and not for Readers is now confirmed.

http://desicritics.org/2008/03/06/023744.php

Budget 2008- a not so aam budget

Mr.Chidambaram take a bow. He has shown how to practice the art inclusive politics. The FM has somehow successfully managed to bring a feel good atmosphere both economically as well as politically.

Budget 2008 will be remembered as a master stroke which left both the opposition and the supporters in awe. The Harvard educated Chidambaram was not only able to present a populist-election oriented budget but he was also successful in providing the impetus that the economy was searching for in view of the recent slow down that the market as a whole is witnessing.

The Rs. 60,000 crores waiver to the farmers that has been termed as the mother of all waiver is a bold step which can be termed as an action that owes its birth to compassion and to the impeding general elections.

Critics are already out with some of them suggesting that financial institutions will get a rude shock as they will have to write off the loan-waiver but then when you consider the plight of the crores of farmers that are in debts, debt that has already resulted in suicidal-deaths of so many farmers then it doesn’t look that bad decision.

Banks will surely and gradually recover, but if the waiver was not given then it would have resulted in more deaths in a country where 65% of the population is still engaged in agriculture as a source of livelihood.

The burgeoning Middle class has been given more than expected tax-relief and that will come as good news for crores of the common Indian. The Budget 2008 has been successful in attaining the fusion of growth, social justice and providing middle class more cash thereby increasing the purchasing power which will ultimately lead to growth in the economy.

Tiger conservation which doesn’t have enough power to influence the voting bank politics was also given its due attention as a one time grant of Rs 50 crores was made to National Tiger conservation authority. The fund will primarily be used to raise an armed tribal protection force to guard tigers. This is above the 600 crores plan which the cabinet had cleared earlier to help relocate displaced people from protected zones.

The protection force will have staff that will be made up of the local tribal population that inhabit the forest. This way the twin-objective of upliftment of the tribals and protection of wildlife both will be achieved.

Increase of allocation has also been announced in safe drinking water programs, national highway development program and minorities upliftment which saw a whooping allocation of 1000 crores.

34,440 crores has been kept aside for developing the all important Education sector.
The FM should also be applauded for increasing the allocated sum on internal security from 17674 crores to 21715 crores. This was necessary in view of the increased naxal activities in the country.

In my earlier articles I have suggested that Rahul Gandhi's pet program, the NREGA should have been more carefully handled and a policy of selective implementation should have been followed. Budget 2008 has proposed a hike of 4000 crores for NREGA and the program is now expected to be extended to all the districts of the country. This is a good step as now every district will be given its due share, though I still would have been more happy if preferential treatment was accorded to those part of the states that are more poor.

The medical and health sector also saw a boost with the excise duty being reduced to 8% on all drugs. This will result in prices of essential life saving drugs coming down. Tourism sector too had something to cheer about as 5 years tax-holidays was announced to upcoming future hotels in selected areas. Tourism and allied sectors are sure to witness a huge boom especially considering the Commonwealth game which is scheduled for 2010 .

Planned expenditure on sports was also increased to 781 crores. Although it will not be wrong to say that more allocation would have been welcomed considering the stagnation that sports in India is facing.

Small cars, hybrid vehicles, scooters became cheaper which will further augment well for the Aam-admi.

The Aam-admi which is regarded as UPAs punch-line will sure gain more acceptability among the common-man simply because now more people are aware of how will the budget 2008 affects them and the growing media in local languages sees to it that even a rural Indian knows how the government plans to use his money. And these things do play in the minds of voters when the time comes.

Also, while Chidambaram was announcing the sops, not very far from the parliament Congress was requesting Supreme courts permission to resume dredging of the Ram Setu. It seems even Ram was forgotten in the hullabaloo that the budget generated and now it remains to be seen when will the opposition smell the rat.

History suggests that populist budget have rarely proved a sure shot method of being reelected to power. It may happen that Congress will be routed out in the next general elections but still the budget 2008 will go down in history as a budget which was almost perfect if not fully perfect in the utopian sense.

http://desicritics.org/2008/03/01/081838.php

More than one reason to show Congress the door

The continued silence on part of the congress leadership including Sonia Gandhi and the Prime minister Manmohan over the violence against the north Indian migrants in Maharasthra speaks volume about the real picture of the UPA in general and Congress in particular.

Maybe the congress will mend its way in the future and assume a more responsible role but right now this decade old party doesn’t deserve to govern this country.

Vote-banks have and will always play a very important role in deciding the actions of a political party but there are some times when national interest has to be brought into the forefront but this has rarely been the case with the Indian political structure.

When Mohammad Haneef was victimized in Australia, Manmohan singh went on the record and said that he had trouble sleeping and he saw faces of Kafeel and his mother in his dreams. It would have been gracious enough of the PM had he shared the same sentiments about those poor migrants who were beaten mercilessly just because they belong to a certain part of India.

There is more than one issue that will play on the minds of the voters when the country goes to poll next year.

The Ram Setu controversy was one which was unwarranted and one that could have been avoided. It is just another example of the political immaturity the present top rung Congress leadership posses. Congress meekly surrendered itself to Karuanidhi in order to save the UPA and gave Karunanidhi the liberty to speak out his insane mind and hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus all over the world.

The nuclear deal and the way it was handled will also be instrumental in deciding Congresses fate. The whole India and the rest of the world saw Congress arguing for operationalizing the nuclear deal, numerous statements were made , many more pro-deal debates were staged in which the congress leaders left no stone unturned to make us believe that the nuclear deal was the best thing that was happening to India in recent times. 

Mrs.Gandhi even termed the leftist as anti-nationals and called them people who were against the development of India. The deadlock lasted for many a months and Manmohan dared the Left to pull its support and stop the deal. Unfortunately for the PM, the left called his bluff and left the PM red-faced and soon the deal was dumped into the back burners.

According to the PM he wanted to save the country from another General election and hence conceded to the Left’s demand. Someone should have told the Respected PM that this ‘novel-noble’ policy of ‘country first’ would invite more cynicism than appreciation from his country men.

Rural Indian population may not be so much affected by the deal and its aftermath but the amount of press this deal got has sure given the urban India enough idea of what this deal was all about and the given a clear picture about the incompetence on the part of Congress.

NREGA, the much hyped program is something which the Congress can cheer about but it is not sufficient to save the congress from a rout. The implementation should have been planned out in a more systematic manner and it would have been more beneficial had the policy of selective implementation of the act would have been practiced.

The rate of un-employement in Bengal and Chhattisgarh is far greater than in Punjab or Karnataka. The living standards of the inhabitants in the so called BIMARU states is dismally low when compared to the other more prosperous states. Even a 10^th grader will tell that more impetus on increasing the employment opportunity is needed in the northern-eastern hilly states than in Gujarat.

100 Rs per day won’t be of much value for an unemployed youth in Punjab but the same 100 rs is what a laborer earns in Bihar if he works for two days.

The act should have given priority to those states which are lagging behind in terms of state GDP when compared to the national GDP. Once all the states were on equal playing ground then the benefits of the acts would have given more benefits.

The Forest Rights bill was another political attempt to woo the tribal vote-bank but sadly that vote-bank was in exchange for huge forest land and exotic endangered animals. Though the implementation of the act has been stayed after a mounted offensive from the environmentalist but it remains to be seen how long will the animal continue to breathe without any fear.

The minority appeasement policy that the present government is following has assumed dangerous proportion and this may not augment well for the secular framework of this country.

And make no bones; this “please the minorities” policy is not aimed towards uplifting the conditions of the minorities, albeit it has more to do with increasing the already dwindling vote-bank of congress. Fortunately the minority class is not oblivious to these nefarious designs.

The recent result in the various by-elections that were held in different states is a precursor to what the future hold for Congress.

Sadly the dilemma that plagues us all is that the BJP which is the most probable alternative to Congress also doesn't have a good record to boast of. We Indians always have to decide between the devil and the deep blue sea.

http://desicritics.org/2008/02/19/002058.php

The great Indian north-south divide

The Lt Governor of Delhi,Tejinder Khanna on Thursday while launching the special mobile patrol of Delhi police alleged "it is fashion of the North-west Indians to violate laws. They feel pride in breaking rules, while in South India,people respect laws". Khanna, a few months back had recommended identity cards and special driving licences for North Indians in New Delhi.

The chief minister, Ms Sheela Dixit had earlier regretted North Indians; particularly those coming from Bihar and UP were burden on the state capital. In Maharashtra, Raj Thackarey is speaking against the North Indians and his supporters are attacking the taxi drivers of Bihar-UP origins operating their services in Mumbai, the house of Amitabh bachchan is attacked, the office of Bhojpuri film hero, Manoj Tiwari is ransacked and the hall screening a Bhojpuri film is vandalized.

Not only the political leaders, but those occupying the constitutional posts like Lt Governor and chief minister are speaking against Bihar and UP and their people staying in the national capital and commercial capital of India. Four decades back, there was an agitation against Hindi in South India and against English in North India.

A few months back, labourers from Bihar and Jharkhand were massacred in Assam. Their crime, they came from North Indian states .A decade back, the Pandits from the Valley were ousted from their homeland, Kashmir when militancy gained momentum.

In Gujarat, there was an attempt to divide the society on communal lines after Godhra. In Ahmedabad, Mulsims staying in the main housing colonies like Sarkhej, Pragatinagar,Vijay Nagar, Navrangpura left the cosmopolitan "societies"(as the residential colonies are called there) and migrated in the cluster of colonies developed for the Minorities only on the outskirts.

Is India heading towards Balkanisation, whether the Indian Republic is cracking up like different unions in the United Socialist Soviet Republic? A dangerous trend which can divide the nation. Because, those speaking in terms of South-North divide are not tribals, but elites of the society, civil services and politics.

Maharashtra for Marathi, Bihar for Bihari ; what is left for India?

Another example of spineless governance from the Congress party was seen as a bunch of goons in Mumbai held a city to ransom and assaulted poor migrant laborers in full public view. Their crime- they hailed from the eastern states of India like Bihar, UP and Jharkhand.

It is just impossible to believe that a person like Raj Thackeray with no political standing and following can carry out this ‘regional cleansing’ without any political patronage.

I am no BJP supporter. BJP did the same in Gujarat in the post Godhra period, the state government in Gujarat kept mum as the minority class was butchered. The same thing is true about Congress in the present case. Innocent people who strive hard to earn two pieces of meal are beaten up; their means of employment broken and the state continues to look the other way.

It’s situation like this that feeds the fuel to anarchy ; where the oppressed finding no one to safeguards his rights and legitimate interest takes the ‘law’ ( which in the first place has been torn to pieces by the perpetrator) in his own hand. Clashes start and gradually it spreads into wherever it sees an opportunity to thrive.

And it is situation like these that shows how helpless the common mass still is.

Fortunately there has been no counter reaction from the people of the states from which the victims hail and one can only imagine that what would happen if their belief that goons like Raj Thackeray will be brought to the books is shattered.

Shiv sena was earlier more of a pawn which the congress used to its benefit now the same Shiv sena runs a parallel government in Maharashtra. There is more than enough evidence to book Bal Thackeray for the anti-Muslim riots of 1992 but he is still out because successive state government have said that his arrest may lead to large scale violence.

Sometimes people forget that pawns never remain a pawn, after completing the required steps it becomes a very powerful ‘Wazir’. Same was the case with Bal Thackeray and god forbidding same will be the result in Raj’s case if the state continues to keep its eyes shut.

There are provisions in law which are enough to haul Raj Thackeray into the prisons but as has been the misfortune of this country legal provisions have always been made but never applied; even if they are then its the poor that face them and rarely the powerful.

Raj Thackeray’s ambition for a greater role in Maharashtra has fuelled his narrow mentality and his good organizational skill has helped him gather a sizeable following. Not surprisingly he follows his idol Hitler whom he admires for his organizational skill.[1]

The precedent that is being set by the Congress ruled state is very detrimental for the framework of this country. The north-eastern states of Assam and its sisters have been facing this issue of regionalism for long and no one can forget that anti-Hindi movement that was seen in the southern states of India.

Vote bank politics drives everything in this country and times are rare when political parties rise over it but this is truly a time when they need to look at things apolitically.

Another very important point of focus is the lack of employment in these BIMARU states. The state machinery of these north-eastern states needs to work on improving the existing employment opportunity and take up development work that will increase the employment level. Once this has been achieved the migration will come down.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel took lots of pain to integrate the erstwhile 600 princely states into one dominion, India and now we have Thackarey who is hell bent on undoing the efforts of Vallabhbhai.

Going by the recent happenings Maharashtra for Marathi, Punjab for Punjabi and Bihar for Bihari doesn’t look far. And it will soon be a reality if the leaders continue to follow their ‘modest’ political ambitions but who can wake the slumber of those who sleep in Delhi.

Go on MNS; you are on path to make history.

---

[1] http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/jun/14hit.htm

Patna diary

The past one month has been very busy for me (pun intended). To begin with people round the world celebrated my 25th birthday (again the same intention). As I was in Patna I was forced by my dad to pay obeisance at the age old temple of Goddess Kali situated at the historic Darbhanga house.

The Patna University which houses the Darbhanga house is a very serene place near the banks of the ever shrinking river Ganga. One visit is all that is required and if one has the patience to loiter there for around 20 minutes he/she will overhear the veterans of that establishment remembering those good old days when Ganga in full fury at the time of the 'Bihari' monsoon would wash the feet of goddess Kali. During that one month the idol at the temple would be spared the inevitable trouble of the priest waking her up in the wee hours of morning as the raging Ganga would stop anyone from coming near the temple.

Now that same old Ganga has been forced to follow the path of her distant cousin Yamuna who too is fighting for her survival and many don’t give her much chance of making it. Ganga like many other rivers of India has also been given the responsibility of taking the departed souls to the heaven as many of the corpse that can be seen floating in the river suggest.

The age old river though is no match due to the sheer number of corpses that are dumped in the river. Some time back ‘Snapping turtles' that scavenge on corpse were released into the river in thousands so as to provide a solace and support to the river but like Ganga the turtles too conceded defeat in wake of the ever increasing number of the dead and the corpse enjoy a free ride up to the heaven.

One year back while being a part of cremation procession I got the chance to watch the banks of Ganga up-close. The mourners were understandably sad for the demise of their close one but their gloominess increased when they had to walk 6 kms from the main road to reach the bank where the cremation takes place.

Suppressed murmur on the shrinking of Ganga, some accompanied by pity some by anger were heard. The one still that is fresh in my memory goes like this "Kah ho Ganga maiya itna gussa gail..itna mehnat karwaib.. itna chalwaib ' ( Mother Ganga you have become so angry that you have made us walk so much).

A river is dying and shrinking and trying to survive and still people think that she is showing her anger.

The historic Patna University (7^th oldest University in India established in 1917) saw a change of VC as the incumbent Mr. Y.C. Simhadri was removed by the Governor and the new VC Mr. Shyam lal took charge.

Mazharul Haque, Rajendra Prasad, Sri Krisna Sinha, Dr. Sachidanand Sinha, Anugral Narain Sinha, Jay Prakash Narayan, B. P. Mandal, Karpoori Thakur, L. N. Mishra, Baliram Bhagat, Ram Dulari Sinha, Sidheshwar Prasad and many others, all alumni of this University.

The Quit India Movement of 1947 saw almost all of the entire PUs students jumping into the agitation. The Total Revolution called by Jai Prakash Narayan in 1974 had its support base in this University. That revolution gave birth to many leaders that are active in the state and national politics like George Fernandes, Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi. Sadly none of these alumni including the present honorable Railway Minister have been able to emulate their distinguished seniors.

Mr. Lal who is from Rajasthan happens to be a close friend of my dad and when he visited at our home I was taken back by his softness and his simple-ness. He talked about many a things and he also disclosed that he also had his apprehension about coming to Bihar as the other Indians living outside Bihar do. But he was pleasantly surprised when he discovered that what all is said about Bihar and Patna is more of words that lacks any credibility than anything else. Every state and every city has its problems. The situation worsens if those issues are not looked into. Previously in Yadav’s regime there was no government, no administration and to even think about development was a sign of insanity but the present Nitish kumar led government is working and changes are visible

Mr.Lal was so happy with the state of affair and the all-round improvement that the state is witnessing to that he asked his son to take admission in the soon to be started Chandragupta institute of management in Patna which has been established on the lines of IIMs.

Coming back, yesterday I rescued 5 soft-shell-turtles from a fish market in downtown Patna. All of them are weak, and have got injuries of various natures. The whole of yesterday went into preparing a 'desi aquarium' one with more of mud than water.

Today morning I got a feel of how expert diggers the turtles are as one of them managed to 'escape' from the high security enclosure by tunneling a 15 cm tunnel beneath the fencing that I had erected but with my pet German shepherd, Bela taking up the responsibility of bringing the culprit to books I know that I can breath easy.

A couple of days back one of the students of my university committed suicide. She was very junior to me and took admission in NLIU when we had already graduated. Though she was only an acquaintance as I met her only recently in the convocation yet she came out to be as a young, energetic, ambitious girl having high hopes and unfulfilled dreams enjoying the colleges days and it was truly sad to see an ending that was never expected. It’s never a pleasure experience to hear such kind of news about someone you know.

Have busy days ahead, with the GD/Pi calls waiting to be tackled, calls that would decide where I will be one year down the line. Then there is a wedding of a school friend in Bhopal who is a member of the close circles of friend that we boasted of in our school days.

A visit to Bhopal is always welcomed with open arms and the present one, I am sure will be more memorable as we plan to have a ‘get-together' of all of the school mates. There was a time when we use to meet twice in a day and now it has been almost more than 2 years since I met some of them. Such is life.

One of my friend Patel@lalit finally managed to find a company and a job that suits his stature and I can just speculate that how happy all his other friends are over this.

Many states including Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh that I follow closely will soon be going to polls and it would be interesting to see the drama unfold, perhaps more interesting than the drama itself.

Madhya Pradesh gears for Polls

Hectic political activity is expected in Madhya Pradesh as all the political parties-, BJP, Congress, Bharatiya Janshkati Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have started making –pre-election preparations.

The Congress is promoting the younger generations of politicians to lead in their respective areas. Jyotirdtya Scindia ,Ajay Singh” Rahul”, sons of Madharao Scindia and Arjun Singh, are already active for over a decade. Arun Yadav, son of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, Subhash Yadav, Nakul Nath, son of the union commerce minister, Kamal Nath are the two political sons to rise in the state.

Arun Yadav was fielded by the Congress in the Khargone by-election and Nakul saw the political fields in Betul, an adjoining constituency to Chhindwara last week.

With the assembly elections round the corner, Shivraj Singh led BJP government has embarked on an “please all’ policy. After successfully evading the bouncer over an alleged corruption charge over ‘Dumper’ and a rebellion inside the party, the incumbent CM has shifted his focus on how to tackle the ‘anti-incumbency’ factor which is expected to play a decisive factor in the coming polls.

The CM had much to cheer after the state was awarded a place in the Guinness Book of World Record for being able to galvanize maximum public participation in social sector for a consecutive second year. But politically, lines on his forehead increased.

After facing Bhartitva (Uma Bharti) which was expected to be reintroduced into the state’s electoral plans, the state unit is now facing dilemma over implementing Moditva. One of the factor that is being attributed to Modi’s win in Gujarat is his denial of ticket to almost one third of the sitting MLAs.

The BJP legislators of Madhya Pradesh are tense as they sense a repeat of the same formula getting implemented in Madhya Pradesh during the ticket distribution for assembly elections scheduled in November this year. The possibility of the same got stronger after in a Chintan Baithak (brain storming meeting) of party leaders at held Sanchi, it was decided that all ‘non-performing’ MLAs could be denied ticket by implementing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s formula. Many state leaders feel that implementing the policy of Gujarat in Madhya Pradesh will be detrimental as Shivraj is no Modi and the large scale rebellion that is sure to arise will cause the party more harm than it may be able to take.

BJP also saw one of its rival growing weak as following differences with Bharatiya Jan Shakti (BJS) president Uma Bharti, former Union Minister Prahlad Patel was removed from the executive body of the party. Prahlad patel was the staunchest of all the few allies that the sadhvi had and in all probability this would negatively affect more of Bharti’s political journey rather that Patel’s political future as he was regarded as the spine of the still infant BJS. Many see this is as a probable exit of Patel from the party.

The differences between both the leaders were evident at the time of Gujarat assembly elections, when Patel had decided to go against Uma for not withdrawing party candidates from the elections. Uma had publicly announced to withdraw the candidates considering that division of votes would not help Narendra Modi to form government.

Similarly The Congress high command is facing a dilemma over change of guard in Madhya Pradesh after verdict in the recently held by-elections in Khargone and Sanwer. Removal of state Congress chief Subhash Yadav was imminent if Yadav’s son Arun was defeated from Khargone but he got a lifeline as his son romped home against all expectations. Such was the infraction that none of the senior leaders except Scindia campaigned for Arun Yadav. Yadav had been running the defunct Congress in Madhya Pradesh for the past four years and by all political analysis he has been a weak leader. Surprisingly, the party leaders never seemed so anxious to remove Yadav, but after the by-elections, scenario has completely changed. Almost all the party camps are eying Madhya Pradesh.

Subhash Yadav though has been using his office well by packing the state congress with his loyalist as he recently demonstrated by successfully making his supporters presidents to four departments out of eight, and 14 cells out of 16. This has caused much infuriation among the other tall leaders of the state like Kamal Nath, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, Union Ministers Arjun Singh and Suresh Pachori.

Some reports have suggested that Kamal Nath has been trying the Betul seat for his son Nakul who till now has no political experience. If this turns out to be true then sleepless nights for many state leaders including Pachori who was eyeing Betul as his tenure comes to close, are surely expected.

The plight of being Bihar

I had to draft a letter to Mr.Tarun Tejpal . Editor of Tehelka after his magazine carried out a highly biased report on the state of governance in Bihar in the December 29th issue “ Two years On, no new deal ” . Also have produced a counter-article and mailed the same to Tehelka. Producing the same here. Abhinandan

Dear Mr.Tejpal,


This is with regard to the piece on Bihar that has been published in Tehelka's 29th December issue. “ Two years On, no new deal ”

I expected a much better supervision from your side before the article saw press. Even a man from mars will be able to say that you already had a pre-determined negative picture of Bihar in your mind when your magazine started working on that report.


You have every right to to paint such a negative picture of Bihar but just for the sake of it and for the sake of the principles of journalism you could have inserted the other side too.


I have drafted a letter in reply to the article and if you get time then do go through it. Maybe then you will realize that things are bad because they are portrayed bad. And I hope that you understand that every thing has two sides.


Warm regards and best of luck.

Abhinandan Mishra , New Delhi


The plight of being Bihar

We have time and again read and heard the the concept of “ Prejudiced reporting ”. Those who have gone through this weeks Tehelka magazine ( December 29, 2007) would have surely read the article “ Two years On, no new deal ” on the state of governance in Bihar by Tehelka’s Bihar correspondent. And one would not find a better example of ‘prejudiced reporting’ than the above mentioned article.

Those who are not aware of the ground realities in Bihar are sure to rise in unison and call for the rolling of Nitish ‘s head after reading the current Tehelka’s write up. The writer has left no further scope for criticizing Nitish kumar led JD (U) government and he has through manipulative use of facts turned every work of progress and development that has been taken up by Nitish into that of misdeed.

He in the end of his article says that the ‘people of Bihar are wondering whether they did the right thing in electing Nitish as a CM’? The writer has failed to answer on what is the parameter that he has has used while constituting ‘the people of Bihar’ in the present case.

The writer has embarked on a “feel bad” drive while criticizing the state government and made sure that by the end of the article people start feeling that “Nitish is the worst thing that has happened to Bihar”.

It would have been better if the writer had acknowledged the efforts that are being taken up by Nitish to improve the situation Bihar which has been result of 15 years of ‘‘susasan’’ by RJD. (pun intended)

It has been only two years since the JD(U) assumed power in Bihar. The Correspondent at one place says that Nitish has formed commissions after commissions to implement policies.and to conduct enquiries into the various social and legal misdeeds of the previous state government. What else he expects? Does he expects that all mis-adventures of the previous government should be ignored?

For the records one of the commission was on the 1989-90 Bhagalpur riots. The Justice N N Singh Commission of Inquiry which was constituted in February 2006 recommended that victims of the 1989-90 Bhagalpur riots should be compensated on par with those of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Later after the JD(U) came into power a Bihar court sentenced Kameshwar Yadav, the prime accused to rigorous life imprisonment. The police had earlier closed the case against Yadav, citing lack of evidence. In fact, he was later given a citation for maintaining communal harmony by the state police in 2004 when the state was ruled by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) government of Rabri Devi.

.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar last year ordered a fresh probe into the 27 riots cases that were closed by police citing lack of evidence. So much for bad governance.

Later the writer says that although the crime rate has gone down in the state after the new government yet crime committed has increased. He states that this is due to the fact that the police machinery has been told not to register cases. If this arguments has any substance then I am sure that the previous government also had enough ‘clout’ over the police to stop them from registering cases. But under the RJD rule both the crime rate as well as crimes committed increased.

The writer further quotes a PUCL worker to substantiate his claim. It is illogical to expect that a human rights activist with due respect will say that all’s well in the state. Better choice would have been a local trader or a local journalist.

The biasness continues to gain strength as we turn the pages. The magazine goes on to criticize Nitish Kumar on the ground that by setting up speedy trial courts he is targeting his political adversaries. They further say that the CM is targeting leaders from particular castes. One of the so called ‘target’ was Anand Mohan , a JD(U) leader and a former MP. He was ‘targeted’ by Nitish for inciting a mob to lynch the then district magistrate of gopalganj Krishnaiah 13 years ago.

Then the magazine dwells on the issues of development. The appointment of 3.12 lakhs of teacher comes up ; but even in this case Nitish earns negative input. He uses this number to point out that only 1 lakh post of policeman and engineer have been filled up till now. Nobody not even a CM possesses a magic-wand these days and expecting him to bring the golden days of patliputra back in a short period of 2 years is a bit too much.

The most childish of the magazine claims is embedded in the first paragraph of the article. The writer says that Nitish and company are worried after around 2 lakh disenchanted people turned up for a “Chetavni rally’ of Lalu yadav.

Those who were in Patna at that time will tell that these rallyist were not the ‘dis-enchanted lot’ and by no stretch of imagination they numbered 2 lakhs. As a matter of fact that rally was supposed to go on till 5 PM but when the RJD leaders saw the sparse crowd they decided that it was in their best interest to windup the rally by 2 PM but not before Laluji dedicated his two sons to the service of the nation.

Much of the rallyist composed of rural people who came in buses and tractors, not because they wanted a change in the state but because it was better to earn some bucks and have a good time in the city rather than idlying away a Sunday afternoon.

Quoting opposition leaders and local activist for describing two years rule may give a picture but it will not be a true and complete picture.

I have time and again reiterated that a mess that took 15 years to be done cannot be undone in 2 years. Atleast Nitish is trying and putting efforts to put things back on track. Let us save our critiques for 3 more years and till then let Nitish do his job and let Bihar live in peace for the state has already earned more than its share of bad name.

http://desicritics.org/2008/01/01/001242.php