Politicians do not waste words. They realize the pitfalls of saying the wrong things. Digvijay Singh has risen to the ranks of Congress General Secretary by practicing all kinds of dirty politics. He knows what succeeds and what is equivalent to suicide in politics. Why, then, is he lying and prating? There are reasons behind it and the two articles discussed in this post allude to the reasons and consequences of this action. As Mr. Punj says, even with two thirds majority, Rajeev Gandhi government could not survive the Bofors scandal. How can a non performing Manmohan Singh sarkar, with a thin majority survive scams after scams? As per Mr. Punj, one way could be to paint the BJP and RSS in such nasty colors (Nazi is a near invective!) that the opposition will get divided. There exists a problem with Mr. Punj's analysis. Calling someone a Nazi does not require any kind of proof. However, the Hemant Karkare call was a blatant lie and Digvijay would have known that there was a finite probability of this coming out and blowing up in their faces. I doubt that the old guard in Congress would approve of a lie.
Mr. N V Subramanian, another respected analyst like Mr. Punj, says the reasons are future elections where the Congress thinks that they need the Muslim votes. He also says that the Bihar elections show that the Muslims votes are no longer in the Congress kitty. Which may explain the escalation of the anti-Hindu rhetoric by these votebank politicians? Since this has been a Congress ploy for long, no one would be surprised.
Coming back the Karkare lie, I have some thoughts which I would like to share.
1. Digvijay has hitched his political stars to the Rahul Gandhi's wagon. He has been doing and saying things all along to firm up Rahul Gandhi's standing in the party. In fact, he even went up against the inner coterie of Rahul Gandhi's mother. However, the interests of those two groups are not mutually exclusive and the inner coterie may have let Digvijay prevail. I dare say that this could have gone well with the old guard of Congress to which Mr. Sharad Pawar used to belong. The old guard which is now the third group in Congress has been sidelined. They are only used when the other two groups will not do. For example, when it came to soothing the feathers of Karunanidhi camp (in the aftermath of the 2G scam), Pranab Mukherjee was sent.
2. The Karkare lie was to divert the attention from the 2G scam. Digvijay would have needed support to substantiate his lie. However, that support of the third group and the media may have been taken for granted. After all, the media laps up anything which is anti BJP / RSS. But the third group may have been really upset. Being seasoned politicians that they are, they could not have criticized Digvijay. It would have made the party look bad and would have upset the Gandhi family. There existed a third way. Sharad Pawar, being an ex-member of this third group could have offered or agreed to provide his help. Now R R Patil is also a very consummate politician. He would not have opened up his mouth about the lie unless there was a reason behind it. The reason was the third group wanted to shut Digvijay up in an indirect way and Patil's statement about the non-existence of the proof of the Karakre phone call put Digvijay in the spot. His lie was called. But he is like the gambler who has invested too much in the game and cannot go back. He has to bet some more and that may be the reason for his latest outburst about equating Hindu outfits with the Nazis.
NVS also says that utterances like Rahul's embolden the Pakistanis against India and the Pakistani conspiracy theorists find unlikely supporters in India. This exactly what Bhai Narendra Modi said today. With leaders like Diggi and Rahul, who needs the Pakistanis?
A method to his madness
Balbir Punj
The Congress has neither disowned nor silenced him. So the frequency with which Mr Digvijay Singh repeats his absurd stories, including the tale about Karkare (it has been denied by the slain police officer’s widow; but that has not dampened his enthusiasm) raises a fundamental question: Is he saying things which his party wants him to say? Are his utterances part of a larger conspiracy?
The article can be read at:http://www.dailypioneer.com/304958/A-method-to-his-madness.htmlhttp://
Fatal attraction
N.V.Subramanian.
The UPA government has always been suspect on the issue of Islamist terrorism. It directly derives from the Congress's votebank politics. There is no evidence that the Muslims vote en bloc for the Congress anymore if they ever did before. The spectacular victory of the JD-U/ BJP coalition lead by Nitish Kumar in Bihar grounded on considerable favourable Muslim voting advertises that the Congress's votebank politics is not delivering.
And yet, the Congress has become unable to embrace mainstream politics, a politics, in a phrase, of non-appeasement. Non-appeasement politically was first advocated by L.K.Advani in the late-Eighties and Nineties, and much of the BJP's early attractiveness drew from it. With the Advani-led Ramjanambhoomi Movement culminating in the bringing down of the disputed structure in Ayodhya, accompanied by the rightward Hindutva lurch of the BJP and the removal of the feeling of second-rate citizenship on the part of Hindus, the concept of non-appeasement lost its salience and traction. The article can be read at: http://newsinsight.net/archivedebates/nat2.asp?recno=2080
Mr. N V Subramanian, another respected analyst like Mr. Punj, says the reasons are future elections where the Congress thinks that they need the Muslim votes. He also says that the Bihar elections show that the Muslims votes are no longer in the Congress kitty. Which may explain the escalation of the anti-Hindu rhetoric by these votebank politicians? Since this has been a Congress ploy for long, no one would be surprised.
Coming back the Karkare lie, I have some thoughts which I would like to share.
1. Digvijay has hitched his political stars to the Rahul Gandhi's wagon. He has been doing and saying things all along to firm up Rahul Gandhi's standing in the party. In fact, he even went up against the inner coterie of Rahul Gandhi's mother. However, the interests of those two groups are not mutually exclusive and the inner coterie may have let Digvijay prevail. I dare say that this could have gone well with the old guard of Congress to which Mr. Sharad Pawar used to belong. The old guard which is now the third group in Congress has been sidelined. They are only used when the other two groups will not do. For example, when it came to soothing the feathers of Karunanidhi camp (in the aftermath of the 2G scam), Pranab Mukherjee was sent.
2. The Karkare lie was to divert the attention from the 2G scam. Digvijay would have needed support to substantiate his lie. However, that support of the third group and the media may have been taken for granted. After all, the media laps up anything which is anti BJP / RSS. But the third group may have been really upset. Being seasoned politicians that they are, they could not have criticized Digvijay. It would have made the party look bad and would have upset the Gandhi family. There existed a third way. Sharad Pawar, being an ex-member of this third group could have offered or agreed to provide his help. Now R R Patil is also a very consummate politician. He would not have opened up his mouth about the lie unless there was a reason behind it. The reason was the third group wanted to shut Digvijay up in an indirect way and Patil's statement about the non-existence of the proof of the Karakre phone call put Digvijay in the spot. His lie was called. But he is like the gambler who has invested too much in the game and cannot go back. He has to bet some more and that may be the reason for his latest outburst about equating Hindu outfits with the Nazis.
NVS also says that utterances like Rahul's embolden the Pakistanis against India and the Pakistani conspiracy theorists find unlikely supporters in India. This exactly what Bhai Narendra Modi said today. With leaders like Diggi and Rahul, who needs the Pakistanis?
A method to his madness
Balbir Punj
The Congress has neither disowned nor silenced him. So the frequency with which Mr Digvijay Singh repeats his absurd stories, including the tale about Karkare (it has been denied by the slain police officer’s widow; but that has not dampened his enthusiasm) raises a fundamental question: Is he saying things which his party wants him to say? Are his utterances part of a larger conspiracy?
The article can be read at:http://www.dailypioneer.com/304958/A-method-to-his-madness.htmlhttp://
Fatal attraction
N.V.Subramanian.
The UPA government has always been suspect on the issue of Islamist terrorism. It directly derives from the Congress's votebank politics. There is no evidence that the Muslims vote en bloc for the Congress anymore if they ever did before. The spectacular victory of the JD-U/ BJP coalition lead by Nitish Kumar in Bihar grounded on considerable favourable Muslim voting advertises that the Congress's votebank politics is not delivering.
And yet, the Congress has become unable to embrace mainstream politics, a politics, in a phrase, of non-appeasement. Non-appeasement politically was first advocated by L.K.Advani in the late-Eighties and Nineties, and much of the BJP's early attractiveness drew from it. With the Advani-led Ramjanambhoomi Movement culminating in the bringing down of the disputed structure in Ayodhya, accompanied by the rightward Hindutva lurch of the BJP and the removal of the feeling of second-rate citizenship on the part of Hindus, the concept of non-appeasement lost its salience and traction. The article can be read at: http://newsinsight.net/archivedebates/nat2.asp?recno=2080
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