After Beni Prasad Verma shoved his foot in his mouth, sending the SP into a tizzy, Sonia Gandhi had to go to Mulayam Yadav with folded hands asking for his forgiveness. You see, without the DMK support, Congress needs SP and BSP to survive. Sonia Gandhi may be a lot of things but her power in India in undeniable. An arrogant and aloof person like her was forced to beg Mulayam Yadav. Such is the power of regional parties. At least in this case, India as a nation does not lose anything. However, there are umpteen numbers of examples that clearly show that the emergence of regional parties is not only bad for the nation but to some extent for the regions these parties claim to champion.
West Bengal, which used to be an economic powerhouse and a bastion of culture now, has been reduced to a beggar state and a bastion of intolerance (anti Mamata cartoons) and leftist crap (the JNU kind) thanks to the selfish and narrow policies Commie and Mamata. It took three decades for WB voters to throw the commies out. However, instead of a pro-development BJP, they chose Mamata Bannerjee who is nothing but a street level rabble rouser. She had a lot of leverage with the UPA and could have used it to WB’s advantage. However, thanks to one bad decision after another, she has all the problems that the commies had and no leverage. To top it all, her bad decisions have hurt the nation too. We all know that India would rather have Sheikh Hasina rather than Khalida Zia and her Jamaat goons in power. We could have helped Hasina by making concessions to Bangla Desh including the Teesta water sharing. However, Mamata threw a hissy fit and scuttled Manmohan Singh’s initiative which would have helped the nation. On the other hand, the commies and she adopt a soft line on illegal Bangladeshis (all potential voters) which in turns hurts the nation’s economics and safety. One can safely say that the Commies (essentially regional – WB and Kerala) and Trinamool have hurt the nation.
Look at Tamilnadu. Both Amma and Karuna have never uttered a word about the problems Tamilian Hindus are facing in Malaysia (maybe because the Malaysians are Muslims). However, when it comes to the Tamilians in Sri Lanka, who were led to their doom by the Christian leadership of the LTTE, Amman and Karana have become their biggest champions. I am sure that you can see their hypocrisy. Not to undermine the pain inflicted on the Elam by the hyper nationalistic Sinhala’s but we do have another concern here. The Chinese are already in Sri Lanka. They have made a deep water naval port in Hambantota. If we continue to marginalize the Mahinda Rajapakse government, we will push them deep into the arms of the willing Chinese and Pakistanis who voted against the UN resolution. India is surrounded by China, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. We will be totally surrounded if the Sri Lankans join up with the other three. I am sure that there are ways to convey our concern about the Tamilians in Sri Lanka and actually influence their policies without resorting to humiliating them internationally, beating up Buddhist monks and discriminating against Cricketers (actually Karunanidhi is not talking about the cricketers because he has money invested in the IPL – another proof of his crocodile tears). For the selfish politicos of TN, it is about votes and not the human rights, Indian interests be damned.
Omar Abdullah is insisting that the CRPF jawans carry lathis rather than guns. Anyone can see that this unscrupulous regional politician is playing dirty religion based politics with the lives of Indian jawans and our national security.
The examples of regional pseudo-secular politicians playing vote bank politics while closing their eyes to our national security are too numerous to be mentioned here.
We can see that the local effectiveness of the regional parties is extremely limited because in most cases, these parties represent a family or a person. Their demagogic politics may get them elected but do nothing for the state and actually hurt India. Because of these parties, the central government is always susceptible to blackmail and become totally ineffective. Because of Mulayam or Nitish or Mamata squeezing the central government for more money, performing states get hurt. The regional parties are destroying our democratic system and hurting our safety.
The only solution to this problem is that either these parties should be rejected by the voters or the voters become mature enough to vote regional for state and chose between BJP and Congress for national government. A legislation could also help but with the regional players in command that is not going to happen. So we will have to wait for the Indian voter to mature. That is the only solution. I know that it will be a very long wait but what choice do we have?
THIS IS A COMMENT WRITTEN BY A FELLOW INDIAN BY THE NAME OF CHINMAY IN RESPONSE TO AN ARTICLE BY AAKAR PATEL IN FIRSTPOST. IT IS NOT WRITTEN BY US AND WE ARE POSTING IT WITHOUT CHINMAY'S PERMISSION. WE HOPE HE WOULD NOT OBJECT.
The fact of the matter is that any way you look at it Nitish Kumar has boxed himself into a corner. Actually most of the political analysts sitting in Delhi with virtually no clue of Bihar sub-altern politics sprout nonsense and give more weightage that what is his due.
Let me elucidate some basic facts here for such foolish political analysts.
The vote share of various parties in Bihar 2010 elections was
JDU-22.61%
BJP-16.46%
RJD-18.84%
LJP-6.75%
CONGRESS-8.38%
But there are some interesting points here.
1.BJP in Bihar contested only 102 out of the of the 243 seats at stake in Bihar due to alliance with Nitish Kumar whose party contested the rest of the seats. So this 16.46% vote share of BJP is heavily concentrated unlike that of Congress which contested all 243 seats but polled just 8.38% votes. So these are basically wasted votes and any party which allies with Congress is unlikely to benefit significantly from such an alliance.
2.The vote share of BJP throughout the 90's and last decade has been constant at 13-15% of total vote while Congress has virtually stagnated at 8-10%.Indeed there hasn't been an election in past 17 years where Congress polled close to 15% of total vote. This is the main reason why Lalu once exclaimed that leaving a seat in Bihar to congress means losing it. It is the only party in Bihar which has no core vote unlike BJP which is steadfastly supported by upper castes,kayasths and banias,RJD-Muslims and Yadavs, LJP, pasmanda Muslims and paswans,JDU-lower backward castes, kurmis and to some extent pasmanda muslims.
3.Upper castes are mainly concentrated in Kosi, Mithila and Magadh regions with thick concentration in the districts of Dharbhanga,Patna,Bhagalpur,Gaya,Aurangabad,Madhubani,Samastipur,Nalanda.An unusual feature of upper castes are they are highly dynamic and opportunistic and would not bat an eye lid on leaving their favored parties and sailing with any party if they sense it's close to gaining power. This has been the feature of upper castes in almost every state but Bihar has been sole exception to this as higher castes have largely struck with BJP even when it was in opposition for considerable period of time. This can be largely attributed to the fact that other parties in Bihar are largely non Upper caste in their orientation and core base.
4.Many analysts think that once Nitish and JDU get rid of BJP under Modi pretext just like BJD did in Orissa they would get the bulk of the upper caste vote and with his back ward class vote and Muslim vote he would be able to sweep elections. But the stead fast backing of upper castes to BJP demonstrated repeatedly in every tier of election from gram panchayat to Parliamentary polls makes such a possibility impossible.
5. Another interesting feature is that Muslim support for JDU is highly overrated. Actually contrary to public opinion Muslim vote in Bihar has not been voting overwhelmingly for Nitish as is being projected by Delhi media.
Consider these statistics
In seats with above 40% Muslim vote
JDU won just 1 out of the 5 seats it contested although it fielded Muslim candidates in all 5 seats. The vote share in these seats was JDU-32.3% while that of RJD-LJP was a close second at 27.3%.
In seats with 30-40% Muslim vote ( a total of 10 seats out of which JDU contested 4 seats it won just one seat) while BJP swept all the 6 seats it contested!
Actually it was the heavy OBC-Upper caste consolidation behind JDU-BJP which enabled their historic sweep and not any massive Muslim polarization behind Nitish.
Nitish Kumar knows all these statistics. He is not a fool to be carried away by media propaganda. After all he waited for 16 years to become Bihar CM and knows too well any break up with BJKP would only benefit Lalu-paswan brigade.
Hence he would mellow down and like a cat with its tail between its legs go along with BJP
I failed to mention one important aspect. Akar Patel says that BJP-JDU alliance did well in SC reserved seats.This is because Nitish succeeded in building up a mahadalit alliance of pasmandas, valmikis, pasis as an alternative to Paswan domination of LJP. Non paswan dalits at lower end of spectrum in Bihar resent how Paswans have cornered the reservation benefits particularly in eastern Bihar. This strategy clicked an results are there for all to see. The only way JDU can sweep Bihar without BJP is to have an alliance with both Congress and Paswan since only then he can fill the void of BJP departure(Congress-8.38%+LJP-6.75%=15.34% <=BJP-16.46%)
But here is the main problem.The minute Nitish joins hands with Paswan he would lose the chunk of maha dalit vote so Paswan is certainly not an option.
So what's the option for Nitish. Frankly there are none.
He was able to swing the 2010 election becoz of complete upper caste-OBC consolidation with rich help from non paswan dalit castes and urban vote. Should he dump BJP he would be delivering Bihar on golden plate to Lalu.
The firstpost article can be read at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/why-nitish-kumar-is-unlikely-to-break-up-with-bjp-for-2014-673150.html
That bastard Churchill said this about the USA: "Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted all other possibilities." A similar thing happened with the Italian marines in India. The marines are back and the Congress lobby cannot stop gloating about this great “victory”. Of course to convince those people of Congress’ limitations and intentions would be futile. For others, I have a theory.
1. Congress could not suppress the cacophony over the Augusta-Westland scam. Fearing another Bofors, they tried their best to get a modified report from the Italians to protect the powerful. This gave the Italians a weapon.
2. The Italians did a quid pro quo and asked for the marines back on some lame pretext. I don’t know if the Supreme Court was taken into confidence on this matter. I don’t know if Congress knew that the Italians would renege. In that way, they got fooled in a big way. Their gullibility was on display.
3. Scams and incompetence would normally not bother Congress. After all, the last nine years have been an unending saga one or the other or a combo of both. However, with a general election on the horizon which would probably be the last chance for Rahul Gandhi’s coronation, the Congress needed to remove this latest monkey of their backs.
4. Congress and other politicians are probably aware of the Indian economic might. However that power has been leveraged by the neta-babu-businessman nexus to get rich rather that benefit the nation. This is the first occasion when that might was used to do the right thing (even though it was ultimately for the benefit of Congress). Think about it. In a conversation between a costumer like India with a growing thirst for advanced machinery and a failing economy like Italy, who holds the aces? It must have been a simple phone call like the one Colin Powel made to Musharraf in the aftermath of 9/11 (are you with us or against us). No wonder the Italians capitulated.
5. However, knowing the Indians the Italians must have driven a hard bargain. I can almost predict that the marines will get housed at a better facility than they have in Italy. We will have a farcical trial. They will be punished to time already and will be sent back.
To those who are celebrating this as a major diplomatic coup, I have two words; Pakistan and Bangladesh. I am not even going to mention the Chinese who are too smart for us. We have tried to get so many criminals and terrorists back from Pakistan (who are not strategic assets like the Muslim terrorists) e.g. Dawood and his ilk or the Khalistanis. The pakis have thumbed their noses at all our requests. All the movies, ghazals, aman ki aasha, biryani, kabab and cricket have failed to make any headway. Bringing even one of those guys would be a real diplomatic coup. Forget Pakistanis. Even the Bangladeshis have harbored the ULFA terrorists and we have not been able to get them. So before Salman Khushid and his supports start to break out the champagne, please do not look at this one success and ignore all other failures.
Yes. Congress did succeed in bringing these marines back but they did so under pressure and for wrong reasons. Nothing to gloat or celebrate here.
The cartoon is from:
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/03/23/kabootar-aa-aa-aa-58388.html
Power and glamour go hand in hand. Power backed by money needed to sustain glamour is a nasty combination. This is what they had in Bollywood back in the day. Money needed to make movies came from underworld which is turn was protected by politicians. Nasty stuff that. Dawood Ibrahim was the de facto ruler of the whole show. What bhai wanted, bhai got. Some actors associated with him and his ilk because they had no choice. Others did because they wanted to. Sanjay Dutt may have belonged to the second category.
Now the problem with Dutt was that he came from a very privileged background and he fancied himself as a tough guy / cowboy. He was a young man living in the world of glamour and political power (thanks to his father) where he started to believe in this make-believe world where he was invincible. He thought that he could get away with it. As they say, “umr ka takazaa tha”. Unlike a regular daydreaming youth who deals with his own kind of people, Dutt was dealing with hardened criminals; maybe unbeknownst to him. Of course all this is conjecture. I do not know anything about the guy other than the fact that he has never struggled to make a living, has no talent and would not be where he is if it were not for his father.
What is clear is that this guy is no terrorist. Not the brightest of bulbs, he has made a lot of foolish and terrible choices in life but he is not a jihadi. But as we see clearly is that he is getting punished (and very rightly so) for crimes he has been found guilty of. However, this is all a big “nautanki”. Think about it. No one who was really guilty has been even caught, let alone punished. The only big fish they are going to fry here is Tiger Memon’s brother. I am glad that someone from that family is going to pay for it.
Until the Indian government can get to the terrorists hiding in Pakistan or Bangladesh, or their sympathizers in India (SIMI / Madani / Owaisi / Zakir Naik) kind of people or those politicians who used to be or are still on the payrolls of the underworld, this whole thing is going to be a “Bandar ka naach”.
Sunjay Dutt is a bad actor, a privileged brat who refuses to grow up, a debauch (how many times has he been married?) and a fool with a penchant for making bad choices but he is not a terrorist. However, he is going to pay for sins of lot of others who are still walking free.
Youth Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi (left) and Smt Maneka's marriage register being signed by a witness Mohammed Yunus (right) as Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (2nd left) looks on, in New Delhi on August 1, 1974.
Letting the Italian marines off the hook in a quid pro quo is nothing compared to what happened in the aftermath of the Bhopal disaster. We all know how the Union Carbide CEO, Warren Anderson was allowed to leave India under Arjun Singh’s rule (of MP). What some of us may not know is why he was let go. An article in an online American magazine (which has now been purchased by Newsweek) says the following:
On June 22, a spokesman for India’s Bharatiya Janata Party challenged the ruling Congress Party-controlled government’s plan for more compensation for Bhopal victims. More pointedly, he claimed that the late Rajiv Gandhi, an icon of the Congress Party, protected Union Carbide’s CEO in a secret 1985 political deal with President Reagan.
The contention is that the prime minister secretly promised India would not seek to extradite Anderson. In exchange, Reagan allegedly granted a presidential pardon to a childhood friend of Rajiv Gandhi’s, who was also the son of an important foreign policy adviser to the Gandhi family.
That friend, Adil Shahryar, was serving a 35-year federal prison sentence for drug trafficking, wire fraud, and firearms violations, when, without fanfare or public notice, he was pardoned by Reagan on June 12, 1985, the day Rajiv Gandhi made his first formal visit to the White House.
That pardon has never been made public. The Daily Beast asked the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to release details of it, but so far, it has not been released.
“His dad was part of Indira Gandhi’s (and later Rajiv Gandhi’s) cabinet,” says a Florida lawyer, Douglas C. Hartman, who represented Shahryar on separate state arson charges before the Indian was convicted in 1982 on the five federal counts. “He always told me: ‘I will be pardoned.’ And I am just looking at the guy, you know, ‘Right.’”
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley last month twice ducked questions about whether India had asked for Anderson’s extradition, saying such requests are confidential. He added: “If the government of India makes such a request of us, we will carefully evaluate it.” Then, in Toronto for the G-20 meeting, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh avoided the question at a June 28 press conference.
“We will try to ensure that the U.S. government takes a more favorable attitude toward extradition,” Singh said. “But we have not approached them yet. I did not raise this issue in my discussions with President Obama. We will cross the bridge when we come to it.”
The implications of this are staggering. To protect a Gandhi family friend, Congress let go of a guy who was in some way responsible for the deaths of over 3000 people. The Italian marines had killed just two Indians and thus are very small potatoes.
The extremely upsetting detailed report can be read at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/07/18/union-carbides-warren-anderson-life-in-exile.html
Our earlier blogpost on the topic can be read at: http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2010/11/hamara-mai-baap-kaun-hai.html
In what is being describes as a clever move by Nitish Kumar at a rally in New Delhi, we get a clear view of the same old and tired way of doing politics. Opportunism instead of ideology, positioning instead of performance, fear (labeling the BJP as communal) instead of hope, freebies instead of opportunities, victimhood instead of pride are some ways that petty and selfish politicians have been ruling this unfortunate nation of ours. Nitish Kumar is clearly trying all the tricks to keep himself relevant with one eye on the PM’s chair. His ambition is clearly diverting his focus which should be doing his current job well. And this guy is one of the better politicians we have. We all know what others are capable of.
We also know what brand of politics Congress plays. The country has paid dearly for the mistake of less than 30% of the voters who chose to vote for these guys. But what should the voters do? Why should they vote for the BJP? After all they had their chance and blew it in 2004 and 2009. Having said that, the BJP of late has made some good choices. One of them was to remove Gadkari and the second was to bring Narendra Modi to the national stage. There are indications that Advani is still playing dirty politics with his 85 year old eyes on the PM’s chair. Let us hope that he comes to his senses and does the right thing which would be to give his unconditional support behind the man who is changing the rules of Indian politics i.e. Narendra Modi.
In his third national appearance this year, Modi has shown to the Indian voters how it should be. In an anecdote, he said the following:
I was sitting with a PM. He wouldn't talk so I started. I explained the revamp of JNNURM to the prime minister. He was interested, he asked me for a report. Sam Pitroda was very enthusiastic after I gave him the report. But it has been three years since that and not one word.
He has proposed privatization of railways which has become India’s version of social welfare. He proposed innovative ideas on waste management, alternative energy, more accountability from bureaucrats (something that UPA is trying to implement. Modi did that in Gujarat back in 2003), amongst other things. A fellow conservative, Shashi Shekhar wrote it well when he said:
The highlight of the speech was Narendra Modi standing up for his convictions be it on why Government must not be in the business of Government, why a mindset shift is needed from rights-based entitlement towards the spirit of enterprise, on how creating a sense of pride and ownership can make a marked difference. The speech also saw for the first time a major BJP leader speaking out against the UPA’s flagship schemes like NREGA and the UPA’s penchant for new Acts and rights. The punchline, “We don’t need more Acts we need action”, clearly resonated with the audience.
These are the kind of things we expected from Chidambaran and Manmohan Singh who are associated with Harvard and Oxford not from a man who has risen through the ranks. He may not be able to vow the liberal urban elite with fluent English or may cut a rustic image. However, his oratory, wit and substance / ideas are second to none. He may not be a Sam Pitroda or Montek Ahluwalia but his ability to use Technology or sense of economics leave those two in the dust. Modi has concrete ideas about removing poverty while Congress has sought to remove poverty by redefining the term.
It seems that the new traffic system in Amdavad is inspired by a French system and the power distribution system in Gujarat was inspired by a South Korean system. Clearly, he thinks of himself as a student and as one, he is always on the lookout for the next big idea. As Venky Vembu says in his excellent article:
In other words, the critics’ unblinking focus on the 2002 riots all these years has compelled Modi to work harder than he otherwise might have to project himself as an agent of development – and spin off ideas for reimagining India. That’s an enterprise that’s well worth continuing…
Clearly, Modi has seized the debate and changed the rules of it. His message laden speeches are going to force other politicians to change their message as well. Freebies and fear mongering is not going to cut it anymore. Whether he becomes the next PM or not, we will have to thank him for introducing India to a different kind of politics.
Shashi Shekhar's article can be read at: http://www.niticentral.com/2013/03/17/modi-articulates-centre-right-agenda-56292.html
Venky Vembu's article can be read at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/modis-critics-should-never-stop-talking-about-2002-riots-664195.html?utm_source=frontpagepicks&utm_medium=hp
Highlights of his speech can be read at: http://conclave.intoday.in/article/india-today-conclave-2013-narendra-modi-namo-mantra/3712/39.html
It seems like it is an open season on Indians. Soldiers beheaded. Killer blast in Hyderabad. Got sucker punched by Italy. Terrorist attack on our CRPF boys. All this happened just this year. A business quarter is not even over. We are like the proverbial lamb, ready to be fleeced and then slaughtered.
This kind of thing does not happen to China. This is despite of the fact that they are also considered lesser people (non-white and non-Christians) like us by West and Muslims. They have translated their new found economic might into a protective weapon of sorts. Moreover, they are ruthless pragmatic and cunning people. No one messes with them. They shot down an American spy plane and made the US apologize in the Hainan Island episode. They are determined not to repeat history.
While we do not have the same economic might as the Chinese, we are no slouch in that department. We have a money to spend, services to provide and we are a democracy which gives us righteous footing in the international stage. And yet we are completely helpless.
Pragmatism says that we need to strengthen Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh by helping her out with water and other issues. But we cannot because Mamata Bannerjee is opposed to it. Pragmatism says that we side with the Sri Lankan government against UN resolution (the Chinese are waiting to fill in the vacuum there which will surround us) but Jayalalitha is opposed to it. Pragmatism says that we formulate a hard-nosed strategic foreign policy vis a vis Pakistan. However, to appease Indian Muslims and liberals, our policy is one of hope and well, I don’t really know. This is what happens when people place selfish interests before that of the nation. In that sense I don’t think that we are patriotic at all.
Atalji’s government capitulated to the British pressure and released the Brit guilty of the Purulia arms drop. What pressure can the British apply? These bastards are trying to sell their wares to us. We should be holding all the cards and yet we kneeled. Then there was the Kandahar case where bureaucratic turf war ruined BJP’s credentials for ever. Just today, someone compared the Italian Marines escape to UPA’s Kandahar, ignoring the fact that no Indian lives are at stake in this shameful episode.
As weak as the BJP government was, the UPA really has outdone all their predecessors. Not only do we look like helpless cowards, given to hollow talks but we also look like gullible fools. We let Union Carbide chief walk out of India. We let Quattrocci leave the country and if that were not bad enough, unfroze his bank accounts. We let the French fool us in a case similar to the Italian marine case. And now we have the Italians take us for a long ride. If Manmohan Singh has a Dodo sized egg on his face then it is his own doing. Do you think that the Chinese would have let those marines stay at a nice cottage like we did? If that were not bad enough, they were allowed to go home for Christmas. Now we have the Supreme Court (headed by a man who is a Congress faithful) allowing these guys to leave the country on a promise by the Italian government, the kind that was headed by a debauched pervert like Silvio Burlesconi. Only a gullible fool would trust the Italians. Have we learned anything from history? The Europeans are white and Christians. They have gotten fat by robbing people like us. They consider us lesser people. They may have succeeded in masking their revulsion for us under the guise of civility and colonial guilt but make no mistake – every action of theirs reveals their true colors.
I have a solution to this problem. Let us all convert to Islam. Then the Pakistanis will not attack and hurt us. If we become Sunnis then we will get cheap oil and backing from the Saudis. Don’t like that idea? How about converting to Christianity? That way, we will get the backing of Pope and the religious lobby in Europe and the US. Don’t like that either? Then we have very limited choices. Rejection of fractured regional politics, Hindu unity and election of a leader who can say more than "theek hai" in times of need, are some of the preliminary steps. Don’t like that either? Then be ready to be fleeced and killed. You can be a lamb or you can be a lion. It is that simple.
Manmohan Singh recently said “Joh garajte hain who baraste nahin”. He then went on to quote Chacha Ghalib. Wow. A lot of words from a guy who kept quiet through the systematic pillaging of the nation by his allies, terrorist attacks, beheadings of our soldiers, brutal rapes, farmer suicides amongst slew of travesties and tragedies. Yeh who sajjan hain jo nah toh garajte hain na hee baraste hain. It took one speech by Bhai Narendra to wake this sphinx up from his power-induced stupor. Meanwhile, the Mamata Bannerjee who is the CM of a state where the workers riot and strike more than any other state said that they riot in Gujarat, not in Bengal. Noise coming out of the anti Modi lobby is becoming shriller. In fact the closer he gets to the official declaration of his ascension to the national stage, the anti Modi hate speeches are going to become nastier and nastier.
In fact a non issue like the speech at Wharton has filled the anti Modi lobby with glee as if permission to speak at a US university or visa to US is some kind of validation for an Indian leader. Those with even a cursory knowledge of US politics know that political correctness has run amok in that country. Liberals have been meeting with known America haters like Hugo Chavez without any consequences. A typical US university is bastions of liberalism and as a result preach freedom of expression but do not practice it.
Even conservative writers in India are bothered by all this. One author is worried if Modi can ignore his critics. People are worrying if Modi is going to be enough to put BJP over the top in the next elections. I have a suggestion for all those people.
As a researcher, I know how to differentiate between baseline noise and relevant data. If you want to use a traditional analogy then think of Arjun who could see nothing but the eye of the fish. That is precisely what the BJP have to do. Modi already knows what to do because that is what he has been doing since the tragedy at Godhra station and riots after it. The party needs to FOCUS. The next election is akin to the eye of the fish. All the rest is just background noise. Modi has essentially been given the lead role. His speech at the BJP meet was meant for the party cadre and it did the trick. The enthusiasm in the workers was palpable. An expert hand at this, Modi clearly knows what to say to whom.
Modi and the BJP need to ignore the increasing din from the Modi detractors and focus on the message of development, prosperity and India first, all encompassing kind of secularism (something we on this blog have been a long time proponents of). The voters are clearly tired of same old politics. The voters want to hear about clear cut and implementable plan rather than trumped up statistics and Ghalib poetry. Modi has implemented a lot of plans that have been working wonders in Gujarat. Those plans can and need to be implemented on the national level. That is the message the voters want to listen. The response of students at SRCC tells us that.
Let us leave the statistics, poetry and good looking / polished fluff to Congress. Let us stick to the basics – integrity, food, development, security and path ahead for our children. In the end, actions speak a lot louder than words. Congress has failed the nation. Modi has delivered at state level and can deliver for the country. That should be the message which rises above the cacophony.
A good article on the Wharton fiasco can be read at: http://www.niticentral.com/2013/03/05/fiasco-of-modi-at-wharton-52433.html
This is what we wrote a last year on our blog:
When PV Narsimha Rao took over as PM, the Indian economy was in tatters. He offered the job to IG Patel and then to Manmohan Singh (when Patel refused). India had, has and always will have tremendous potential which will remain untapped. Manmohan Singh did the obvious (PVNR gave him a carte blanche and stepped aside) and India’s economic recovery began. The myth of Manmohan Singh was thus born.
The fact still remains that India’s economic ascension began on Manmohan Singh’s watch and thus he deserves a lot of credit. But he has been amply rewarded for his role. Even though he has never won in a general election, he has been a two time PM of our country. However, while Manmohan the FM did well, Manmohan the PM has failed at every level. I am a scientist and can barely manage my own money so I defer to others when it comes to matters of money. Heritage foundation ( a liberal American think-tank has published an article where Dr. Derek Scissors says that India stays on the path to economic failure. He has used terms like undisciplined spending and unrealistic expectations, consumer inflation, lack of reform, unsuccessful infrastructure program, ill-defined property rights, deficit, falling GDP etc. Now what even I understand is that all these terms have to do with Manmohan Singh’s area of expertise i.e. Economics. He and his man Friday, Montek Ahluwalia, have miserably failed. Even though Chidambaran is the FM, he is a party faithful and thus more interested in making Sonia ji happy. Management of economy is PM’s responsibility. If he wants to take credit for putting India on a road to recovery then he has to shoulder the blame for our misery as well. When taken to task by the opposition, Singh got help from Rashid Alvi who says that Singh’s honor is national honor. What a pile of dung! If Alvi is right and Singh’s honor is the same as country’s honor then Mother India’s honor resembles MF Hussain paintings of Hindu deities. Alvi’s loyalty is acknowledged but he cannot cover up Singh’s failure in managing the economy.
I am not even going to bring up the issue of corruption. That is way too painful to talk about.
But what about foreign affairs, you say? Hasn’t he succeeded there, you ask? Other than toeing the American line with little to show for, he has done nothing. Even the much-vaunted nuclear deal is nowhere to be seen. That was supposed to be the crown jewel in Singh’s infrastructure development. Other than Gujarat and other prosperous pockets, power remains our Achilles’ heal. In every budget or plan, even the promise (forget about reality) of development is made only in Congress rules states.
The aam aadmi laments that if you cannot feed me then at least keep me safe. Well, other than liberal lapdogs like Aakar Patel (if you do not know who he is then you are lucky) no one thinks that Singh has done anything to keep us safe. If we have not been attacked more often than we have then it is because the pakis have been too busy with their own problems to attack us. But that does not mean they cannot attack us at will. Known IM operatives, the Bhatkal borthers are living in Karachi’s defence housing colony (sounds like a cruel joke) under paki protection. One of these brothers was arrested in Bengal but was let go by the police over there. These policemen are good at arresting cartoonists lampooning Bannerji but when it comes to Muslim terrorists, their incompetence comes through loud and clear. Anyway, despite of all of pakistan’s perfidy, Singh is hell bent on making peace with them to cement his legacy. A legacy built on a pile of dead is still a legacy to Singh. I suppose that is the liberal way of thinking.
In most civilized democracies, when a tragedy strikes, the political leadership is there to reassure the population that all is being done for their safety and bringing the guilty to justice. What we saw in the brutal rape and murder of Jyoti Singh Pandey (I am still at a loss why is this goddamned government hell bent on keeping her name a secret), Singh was nowhere to be seen until they could hide him no more. After that all we heard was “Theek Hai”. What inspirational and reassuring words!
If you cannot feed me or protect me or inspire me then what good are you? What right do you have to continue to stay in that chair? If the Indian opposition and the voters were not so divided, this man would not be there as a painful reminder of our impotence. If the voters do not set their priorities straight then be prepared for another Congress term in the next election. In the next term we may get someone even worse than Singh as PM.
Our blog on the topic can be read at: http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2012/07/manmohan-singh-is-not-only-one-at-fault.html
The Heritage Foundation article can be read at: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/02/28/india-stays-on-path-to-economic-failure/
The Nanjappa article on Bhatkal brothers can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-ib-traces-bhatkal-brothers-to-terror-colony-in-karachi-pakistan/20130301.htm
