<!--QuoteBegin-Capt Manmohan Kumar+Mar 4 2007, 08:00 AM-->QUOTE(Capt Manmohan Kumar @ Mar 4 2007, 08:00 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->VijayK
I know CORRUPT CON men (servants of GNADHI dynastu would never approve democratisation of CON party). But it would be nice if BJP creates a PRIMARY elections to select party candidates. It would be a great change in India and I am sure Indians would love it. Not only that, CON party will DIE because once more and more CON men will start questioning the ITALIAN MAFIA. The DYNASTY will never allow such a thing because if Primaries decide the candidates, the DYNASTY will automatically DIE whereas, BJP will flourish since it is not ONE MAN's party.
Ideally yes but take the example of Utterkhand; but for the intervention of central
party, it would not have been possible to instal Gen Khanduri specially when his competitor Koshayari had more local support. Now this will remain to be seen whether Gen can improve administeration at state level. However this experiment is possible in our style of party democracy only.
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We have to trust people to handle such issues. They may make mistakes but will learn in the process. Even if Gen. Khunduri is a better candidate, BJP as a cadre based organisation should allow the members decide it. The party may be right in choosing a candidate once in a while but people will be better judges over a long time. Also the chosen leader will concentrate on winning the trust of local people than party bigwigs. I think BJP is the only party capable of putting such a measure in place. It is already happening where they have followed informally member feedback to select candidates in Punjab, Uttarkhand. This is not possible even in COMMIE parties since they crush democratic voices by using ideological arguments and violence.
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Feb 27 2007, 11:48 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Feb 27 2007, 11:48 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->As far I know, in Punjab, people are very upset with minority appeasement and OBC reservation.
Himachal where OBC are less than 15% and minorities are very small, I think reservation will cost Congress here also. Minority appeasement policy are major factor in this region.
HP Congress was forced to bring anti-conversion bill but that is too little.
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Mudy.. You are so right here. The SONIA MAFIA with the help of obsessive anti-national COMMIES and India/Hindu hating press started believing that BJP is all done and morons have started so much anti-hindu and appeasement campaign that middle class is slowly moving back to BJP. They started this big LIE that SONIA turned this aroud and BJP is all done. But people are all angry with this endless appeasement and lack of reofrms too.
03-06-2007, 12:46 AM (This post was last modified: 03-06-2007, 12:48 AM by acharya.)
BJP saved the day for Akalis, says RSS mouthpiece
"BJP has proved to be the first choice of urban Hindus in Punjab"
New Delhi: An RSS mouthpiece has claimed that the BJP has saved many Akali seats in urban Punjab, won back the trust of the ``common nationalist'' voter and proved to be the first choice of urban Hindus in the State.
An article in Sangh mouthpiece Organiser has endorsed as ``significant'' former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's comments that the Congress lost to the BJP and not Parkash Singh Badal's Shiromani Akali Dal. `<span style='color:orange'><b>`The support the BJP gained is an endorsement of its recent policy corrections. Top on its agenda were aggressive advocacy of nationalist concern on internal and external security, opposition to sectarian and casteist appeasement by the UPA and commitment to good governanc</b>e,'</span>' the article titled ``saffron spring'' said.
In an unprecedented showing in the Sikh-majority State, the BJP has won 19 of the 23 seats it fought with a strike rate of 83 per cent. ``Many of the Akali urban seats were saved by the resurgent BJP. The party has proved the first choice of the urban Hindu voter,'' the article, which described the BJP's victory in Punjab as ``more politically'' significant than in Uttrakhand, said. It also called ``equally significant'' the drubbing of ``extremists like Simranjit Singh Mann'' of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar).
``What Amarinder Singh... said is significant. Congress lost the poll to the BJP, it lost the urban centres. Even the Akalis won most of the urban seats along with the BJP, though it lost some of its rural base to the Capitain (Amarinder Singh),'' the article noted. -- PTI
We humbly request the muslims to kindly give back one of the many things that are rightgully ours. Rajnath is becoming secular!! <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
BJP president Rajnath Singh on Wednesday urged Muslim leaders and intellectuals to take initiatives for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, and requested them to join hands with the BJP to create a new Bharat. Singh was addressing an impressive gathering of Muslims at the party headquarters on the occasion of MP Syed Shahnawaj Hussain's taking charge as the chief of the party's Minority Morcha.
"The BJP wants a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. It is a matter of our faith. Muslims should take initiative towards that goal," Singh said. Former Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptullah, SC Morcha chief Satyanarain Jatiya and other senior leaders were also present on the dais.
Admitting that his party does not enjoy support of a majority of Muslims in the country, Singh blamed the Congress for the poor economic and educational conditions of the community. He said the BJP was opposed to the recommendations of the Sachar Committee on Muslims, as such moves would create a divide in society.
Singh recalled the then Prime Minister AB Vajpayee's first trip to Lahore and his peace initiatives with Pakistan, claiming that the moves showed the BJP's unbiased political thought. He also referred to the election of APJ Abdul Kalam as President during the NDA rule.
"We did not select the President on the grounds of religion. We wanted a competent man and we found it in APJ Abdul Kalam," he said. <i>(Yes yes, if we could not get Shekawat elected, we will try to elect Kalam for second term.)</i><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I fail to understand why clutter this thread with pesudo psyco-analysis? there aremany threads for that. How is undemocratic people related to BJP? Or is there a Freudian slip?
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->THE HEDGING GAME
- Is the BJP on a great comeback trail, especially in urban India?Â
SWAPAN DASGUPTA
As a city of movers, shakers and fixers, Delhi is blessed with a sensitive antenna. For the past fortnight or so, those who make it their business to monitor such things have been reporting a new trend: the revival of interest in the Bharatiya Janata Party. <b>Even before the popular preferences in the Punjab and Uttarakhand assembly elections were known, BJP stalwarts detected an improvement in their own social standing in the capital.</b> People accustomed to being discreetly shunned since May 2004 found that their pariah status was purely a function of expediency. The great Indian hedging game has returned with a vengeance.
Since the last quarter of 2006, things have not been going too well for the Congress. <b>First, there was </b>the partyâs indifferent performance in the municipal polls in Uttar Pradesh and the corresponding <b>good showing of the BJP. It was taken as a sign that the saffron party was back in business in the Hindi heartland. Second, contrary to the wishes of the editorial and non-voting classes, an ailing Shiv Sena and a dispirited BJP narrowly held on to the Mumbai Municipal Corporation.</b> The Congress, which swept urban Maharashtra in May 2004, performed disastrously in Pune and Nagpur as well. <b>Finally, in both Punjab and Uttarakhand, the Congress found that it was the BJPâs resounding win in the urban areas which made the crucial difference between retaining power and gracing the Opposition benches. In Punjab, the BJP, hitherto taunted for being a party of the Hindu traders, won 19 of the 23 seats it contested.</b> It would have won another seat had the communist vote in Amritsar not collapsed so dramatically, thereby benefiting the Congress.
<b>Is the BJP on a great comeback trail, at least in urban India? With municipal elections scheduled in Delhi later this month and assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in April and May, the Congress is haunted by the prospect of a resurgent BJP. If, on top of its recent successes, the BJP recovers control of the Delhi local body and is seen to be on the ascendant in Indiaâs largest state â no one wants to hazard a guess on the outcome of multi-cornered contests in Uttar Pradesh â it is bound to have a multiplier effect. For one, it will have a nominal bearing on the assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, both due in the latter part of this year.</b> More important, it is certain to re-galvanize the National Democratic Alliance.
Since the 2004 general election, the NDA has existed as a tattered remnant of its old self. <b>Within a few months of losing power at the Centre, the Telugu Desam Party (which was never formally in the NDA) decided to go its own way. This was followed by the BJP unilaterally breaking off relations with J. Jayalalithaa after the arrest of the Shankaracharya of Kanchi on a murder charge. Owing to the unwarranted cockiness of its local unit, the BJP also failed to stitch up an alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad for the 2005 Assam assembly election â a development which helped the Congress in the Brahmaputra Valley.</b>
By 2005, confronted with internal convulsions, the BJP was down to the core and fast losing important incremental support in the states, particularly southern India. <b>It is to the credit of the BJP that it disregarded its Hindu hotheads and chose to persevere with the NDA. This paid handsome dividends in Bihar and has now proved crucial for the Akali Dal in Punjab. In other words, there is now sufficient meat in the NDA for it to both keep the constituent units together and begin the process of accretion.</b> For the moment, only the Telengana Rashtriya Samiti appears to be ready to switch allegiance from the United Progressive Alliance. <b>However, if the BJP firms up its urban base, regional parties such as the Haryana Lok Dal of Om Prakash Chauthala may rediscover the virtues of being part of a national alliance.</b> The NDA still has yawning gaps in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, but it is at least beginning to look like a credible alternative formation to the UPA.
<b>Yet, firming up the NDA alone will not necessarily add to the BJPâs tally. Prior to the next Lok Sabha election, the BJP will have to confront the anti-incumbency against its own state governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.</b> The BJPâs success in its strongholds will depend on its success in projecting national issues over local themes.
It is still too early to determine the issues on which the 2009 general election (assuming there is no snap poll) will be fought. <b>All early indications suggest that assertive Hindutva will not be the central plank of the BJP. Despite the growing grip of the RSS on the BJP organization, there is a belief in the entire parivar that it is important to regain power at the Centre rather than score robust ideological points. In the popular perception, Narendra Modi remains the foremost Hindutva mascot but even he will be fighting the Gujarat assembly election on the twin planks of development and Gujarati pride; âsecularâ issues such as the plight of dispossessed Muslims will be left to the Congress.</b>
This is, of course, not to suggest that the BJP will focus only on bread-and-butter themes such as inflation and agricultural indebtedness â useful themes to whip up anti-incumbency. <b>There will be a subterranean Hindu card played. Yet, ironically, Hindu mobilization will be on issues determined by the UPA: the governmentâs seeming indifference to the jihadi terrorist threat and its unabashed bid to create a sectarian Muslim constituency. Uttar Pradesh will be the testing ground for this approach â it may not remain all that subtle if Mulayam Singh Yadav tries to outdo the Congress in pandering to Muslim sectarianism. The massive year-long programmes by the RSS on the occasion of M.S. Golwalkarâs birth centenary have already set in motion a silent Hindu consolidation at the village and small town level.</b> The BJP will try to take advantage of this, without jeopardizing its larger alliance with regional parties.
This, of course, leads to the contentious issue of leadership. <b>Will the BJP project a prospective prime ministerial candidate? From 1996 to 2004, there was no dispute over Atal Bihari Vajpayee, not least because he facilitated an incremental vote beyond the committed. The present thinking in the BJP and RSS is to persist with Vajpayee (despite his advanced years) as the nominal leader and have L.K. Advani and Narendra Modi play important but different supporting roles. </b>Vajpayeeâs leadership will also set the tone for a more sedate campaign by the NDA â one that concentrates exclusively on development and anti-incumbency. The ideological evangelism which marked the BJP campaign in the 1991 general election and the 2002 Gujarat assembly election may well be missing in action unless a cataclysmic event transforms ordinary disquiet into burning anger.
The Indian electorate has been compared to a restless traveller who tosses from one side to another in the hope of catching some sleep. If that analogy is correct, it follows that adventurism and shrillness are no longer at a premium. The experience of power has proved a great leveller and there is a great disinclination on the part of the political class to bank on revolutionary change. The seamless shift from one regime to another possibly signals the end of idealism in politics, but it also suggests that stodgy parliamentary democracy has struck deep roots in the Indian soil.
Â
Yogi Adityanath, Bhartiya Janata Party Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur, is in no mood to compromise. He refused to take a call from party President Rajnath Singh on Friday morning in the presence of large number of his supporters who have been thronging his 125 North Avenue residence in New Delhi for last one week in the hope that he would be able to get nomination for at least 20 of his trusted men.
Despite repeated meetings with Singh hopes of an amicable solution between the two seems unlikely. "I have made up my mind to float a separate party after I hold consultations with my colleagues in Gorakhpur," Adityanath told Senior Associate Editor Onkar Singh in an exclusive interview in New Delhi.
You seem to be upset with the BJP leadership. Why?
I am definitely upset with the party and its leadership. The manner in which candidates for the Uttar Pradesh assembly have been selected has exposed the leadership both at the state level as well as at the Centre.
You resigned from the National Executive alleging that you have been given unfair treatment?
Well, that is true. If we are not heard in the party then who is going to hear us. So what is the point in continuing in the party. I am going one step further.
The party says you wanted 50 tickets for your workers?
This is not true. We all know that only those who have the capacity to win should be given tickets. I reckon we have influence over 32 seats in the Gorakhpur parliamentary segment. So our candidates should have been given preference. But people with influence and money power have been given seats.
A number of relatives of the BJP leaders have been accommodated in the list of candidates?
I am not one of those who say that just because someone happens to be the son or daughter of a particular leader should be given a ticket or not. Irrespective of the relationship, if the concerned person has the ability to enter politics then he or she should be given the party mandate.
Are you making attempts to sort out your differences with Rajnath Singh?
<b>I am not making any efforts. I have decided to quit the BJP and launch my own party.</b>
<b>When are you going to launch new party and what would be its name?
I am returning to Gorakhpur on Sunday and thereafter I will hold consultations with my colleagues and party workers and launch my party. I have not decided on the name so far.</b>
Surely this is not the only reason to be upset with the party leadership?
<b>While selecting candidates, the BJP leadership has kept in mind the winability of Samajwadi Party candidates. BJP leaders have a soft corner for the Mulayam Singh Yadav who has spread terror throughout the state. He put me behind the bars and tortured me.</b>
You have asked for security cover from the Speaker of the Lok Sabha?
I have given a notice of breach of privilege to the Speaker because Mulayam Singh got me arrested despite the fact that I was member of Lok Sabha and he did not even inform the Lok Sabha Secretariat. Being an MP I have got security cover for myself but what about hundreds and thousands of innocent people who do not have this privilege.
What is going to be your agenda?
<b>Our agenda is strictly Hindutva. We want to create awareness amongst masses and I am sure there will come a time when the people who are running away from taking up the cause of Ram Mandir will be too happy to own up the issue.</b>
Which parties are going to support you and how do you propose to go ahead with your campaign?
Right now it is too premature to talk about these issues. The situation should crystalise in one week from now. Then you would automatically get to know what we are doing and how we are going to plan our campaign.
Did you meet former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee or former deputy prime minister L K Advani for assistance?
No, I did not go to them. Now there is no point in talking about it. Wait for our meeting in Gorakhpur. You will get all your answers.
Actually, I'm pissed off by the way BJP handled Yogi episode in UP. Most likely Yogi will align with Uma Bharati. I too suspect that there is some underground deal between BJP and Mulayam. It is BJP which suppressed ayurveda scam that could indict Mulayam. May be BJP is hoping for Mulayam support at a critical moment in the center.
Overall it will damage not just the BJP but hindutva movement too.
Whatever the case, Yogi will win his election whether its from the BJP or his own party, it's BJP that needs Yogi not the other way around, before BJP the previous Mahant ran several times with Hindu Mahasabha and won a thumping majority, anyway as I had always maintained its good to have Hindu votes go to whichever party that does the most for Hindus and not rely on BJP all the time, it was good to see HC CM pass the anti conversion law, it does not matter if he is in Congress or not. At this rate, BJP will end up with a bunch of oldies who should have retired long time ago, Modi is the only one of standing left in the party.
03-17-2007, 05:41 AM (This post was last modified: 03-17-2007, 06:57 AM by Bodhi.)
<!--QuoteBegin-ashyam+Mar 16 2007, 06:31 PM-->QUOTE(ashyam @ Mar 16 2007, 06:31 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Most likely Yogi will align with Uma Bharati. Overall it will damage not just the BJP but hindutva movement too.
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Yogi will neither align with Uma Bharati, nor will it impact Hindutva movement or BJP negatively. Purvanchal is one area which already has a Hindu vote bank, and Hindus with large yield can vote together, for the candidate decided by the Math.
BJP has been winning Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha seats in Gorakhpur region due to Math support, and until 89, previous mahant used to contest and win independently. Every now and then, even after Yogi joining BJP, Math had supported candidates from several parties in surrounding MLA seats - except SP and communists. So at macro level, no impact to BJP's numbers, after winning he will support BJP/NDA.
What Yogi is after? He is after breaking the control of Lucknow and Delhi over Gorakhpur and create a 'Hindu state'. If my speculatation is right, very soon he should initiate and lead a movement for a separate state called Purvanchal or Gorakshanchal, with Gorakhpur as its capital. Local leaders from all parties will be forced to join him in this movement. This will also get a lot of mass-based support, even from non-Hindus. "ALL" the political leaders in UP, across all the parties, are from western UP. ALL of them - Mulayam Singh, Mayavati, Kalyan Singh, Ajit Singh, Rajnath Singh, and so on. After Kamalapati Tripathi and Veer Bahadur Singh, eastern UP has seen no state level leader of any significance.
Now, Yogi can actually use the vacuum, and fill the space. Let us see how he plays it. (my speculation only)
Clearly, the real story to emerge from the election results in Punjab is the remarkable performance of the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party combine in the urban seats which were generally considered a bastion of the Congress party.
Hindu-dominated urban Punjab has never been a major supporter of the Akali Dal, which drew its support primarily from the farming community, mostly Jat Sikhs.
If ever there was a logic for an alliance between the Akalis and BJP then it derived from their representing entirely different constituencies, something that helped both allies. But never before, except perhaps in 1977, did non-Congress political parties sweep urban Punjab like they have done in this election. Indeed, more than the disappointment over being booted out of office, it is the loss of the urban seats that has shocked the Congress.
What has also set alarm bells ringing in the Congress is the resurgence of the BJP which won 19 out of the 23 seats it contested. But so far it appears that the Congress has failed to correctly identify the reasons for its rout in urban Punjab.
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But it now appears that the Congress wants to undo this and polarise the polity along communal lines.
The other thing I want to say is that there will be no change in the moribund public education system until and unless the ruling class -- the politicians and bureaucrats -- have a stake in it. The only way this can be done is by making a law that the children and grandchildren of all government servants and all elected politicians -- from the municipal level to Parliament -- will have to study in government schools. If they don't, then the bureaucrat loses his job and the politician loses his seat. Once such a law comes into force, I can assure you that within months the government school system will become as good, if not better, than the private schools.
Does Dr Manmohan Singh have the moral courage and the political will to pass such a law?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What do you think about the controversy on the CD issue in UP? Leaving the law of it aside. Will it work? Will such a provocative message get its base out?
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Will such a <b>provocative message </b>get its base out? <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Have you watched?
Mayawati can gets its base out by saying beat brahmins and Thakurs with sleepers,
Mullah Yadav gets its base out by cursing Hindus and supporting SIMI and Haj ministers, Congress was able to get base out by cursing Sikhs and showing Indira Gandhi body for 13 days, 24x7 on TV. Well, time will tell whether CD can help BJP.
LK 'natural' choice for PM: Rajnath
Mohua Chatterjee
[2 May, 2007 l 0327 hrs ISTlTIMES NEWS NETWORK]
NEW DELHI: BJP chief Rajnath Singh has declared that Leader of Opposition and senior party leader L K Advani will be the BJP's "natural choice" for the post of Prime Minister in an interesting positioning exercise for the 2009 sweepstakes.
Replying to a question on who would the party project as its prime ministerial choice, Rajnath Singh said: "Atal ke baad sirf Advani. Advaniji to natural choice hain. Unhe hi PM hona chahiye. Prakriti ka saswat niyam hain... usse Rajnath Singh nahin larh saktey... prakriti ke niyam se khilwar nahin karna chahiye. (After Atal it's only Advani. Advaniji is the natural choice. He should be PM)."
The statement is seen as significant, in fact a major, concession, given the not-so-smooth equations the two have had since RSS nudged Advani to step aside for Singh.
The party chief had since been suspected to be outfitting himself as the rival contender for who leads the party into the next Lok Sabha polls. The perception further gained ground after the upswing in the partyâs electoral performance in the new dispensation.
In the interview to a private TV channel, the party chief was at pains to disclaim any intention to rival Advani, for long Atal Bihari Vajpayeeâs understudy. "Nature has its own law and Rajnath cannot fight it. One should not play around with nature," said Singh who intends to fight the next Lok Sabha polls.
The "concession" was variously interpreted in saffron circles, with quite a few seeing the invisible hand of RSS at work. RSS' unhappiness with Advani after his remarks on Jinnah in Pakistan was instrumental in Singhâs elevation. The Sangh leadership has since mellowed and, responding to several overtures from Advani, appears to have buried the Jinnah hatchet.
Indicative of the patch-up being complete is the fact that Sangh leaders Mohan Rao Bhagwat and Suresh Soni have been spotted regularly at functions at Advani's residence.
As recently as last month, in an unusual gesture, RSS chief K S Sudarshan, who had been a vocal critic of Vajpayee and Advani, had called the latter from Nagpur to greet him on the occasion of the Hindu new year.
Sources said that Singh's gesture followed discreet signals from the RSS about the rapprochement. When approached, a senior RSS functionary confirmed that they have settled on Advani.
Singh's decision to make way for Advani is also significant because of its timing, coming when the party is widely seen to have been resurgent, having notched significant victories in states.
Advani's image as a hardliner has been a mixed blessing for him. It helps rally the core vote around the "hero" of the Mandir movement, but puts off others, including some of the potential allies.
A strong school, however, has been of the opinion that acceptability problem disappears whenever the party has been on the upswing. Party sources as well as those close to RSS feel that allies will come around if the party continues to pick momentum because Advani can also help bridge the stature gap.
There has been three fundamental premises along which the entire politics and the campaign have proceeded forward in Uttar Pradesh, i.e.
1. Casteism vs. development,
2. Crime & criminalisation vs. development
3. Appeasement/rank minorityism vs. national security and nationalism.
The people of the state of Uttar Pradesh has been in the forefront of the campaign and the need to make a resurgent, dynamic and strong India drawing sustenance from its cultural heritage.
The campaign of BJP is well organised, where apart from its top leaders Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee and Shri Lal Krishna Advani all other national and state leaders have thrown their might. Naturally, the BJP is neither a single-leader party nor a single-family party. The Sangh Parivar is also completely united and consolidated.
The most exciting news of the UP election is the phoenix-like rise of BJP and it is curious to understand the perception particularly of the media about the BJP. Hardly a couple of months ago, when, as the national spokesperson of the party, I used to interact with them daily, their response was that BJP would be lucky if it reaches somewhere 40-50 seats in the Vidhan Sabha.
When the first round of election started, the reaction was, you may cross 70-75 and now the same âmedia peopleâ are commenting that the BJP would certainly cross 100-110 seats. The most interesting thing happened in a leading English channel NDTV on the exit poll of the first day of polling. I was invited on their show and they predicted that the BJP would get 50-60 seats. I strongly protested that ground reality is completely different and the result would be beyond imagination.
On the second phase of polling, the same channel conducted the exit poll again and I was present in the programme. Based upon their feedback the channel predicted that the BJP is likely to get 95-100 seats, I laughed and said that in between the first and second round of polling the channel has doubled the projection for the BJP and there are five more phases to go.
In fact, the signals in favour of BJP were emanating repeatedly but the so-called observers were either deliberately ignoring them or were unable to read it. The extra-ordinary success in the last local bodiesâ election in UP had already given a hint as to how the people of the state of Uttar Pradesh were viewing the whole situation. This coupled with the success in Punjab and Uttarakhand has created additional factors favourable to the BJP and enthused its rank and file. The organisational toning up, which had been going on for the last more than a year in every assembly constituency, had further strengthened and consolidated the organisational structure at the Panchayat level.
In fact, there has been three fundamental premises along which the entire politics and the campaign have proceeded forward in Uttar Pradesh, i.e. 1. casteism vs. development, 2. crime & criminalisation vs. development and 3. appeasement/rank minorityism vs. national security and nationalism. The people of the state have been in the forefront of the campaign and the need to make a resurgent, dynamic and strong India drawing sustenance from its cultural heritage. Yes, casteism led to aberration including its resultant political fallout. However, once the people saw its divisive effect they realised that the things are going too far, more particularly when they realised that the whole campaign of social justice of the SP and the BSP was nothing but a facade for family autocratic rule. Coupled with this was the naked and patent appeasement in which all the political parties except the BJP unabashedly indulged into.
One glaring instance is enough to demonstrate the political hypocrisy of the SP, the BSP, the Congress, Left and whatever is left of Ajit Singhâs party. The role of notorious SIMI in overtly and covertly supporting the bomb blasts in Mumbai, Delhi, Varanasi, Bangalore and in train in UP is well known leading to the killings of many innocent people. In a shameful conduct, purely for votes, the government of Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav declared publicly that it will not implement the ban against SIMI in Uttar Pradesh. It went further and withdrew the cases pending against SIMI activists in bomb blasts and other anti-national cases pending in some courts in Uttar Pradesh. It is to be noted that except the BJP not a single political party even spoke against this blasphemy seriously impinging upon national security. There can be no greater example than this of what can appropriately be called a copy book case of âperverted secularismâ. The same chorus was witnessed on the issue of pardon against the capital punishment to Afjal Guru, the mastermind in the attack on the Indian Parliament. These larger issues in their own way have sought to provoke a great sense of outrage among the people in the state besides the country. Therefore, the resurgent support in favour of the BJP.
All the talk of development that the SP would make UP a âUttam Pradeshâ has turned out to be the biggest farce. Criminals and mafia syndicate patronised openly by the SP and in many cases by the BSP have come to occupy a vice-like grip over the state. The common people live in fear and constant misery while the terrorists have a free run because they and their patrons know that in UP action against terrorism is tradable for votes. It is in this context that comparisons are being made. Between the three regimes of Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ms. Mayawati and Shri Kalyan Singh and the difference when there is a BJP government. The fact that the BJP national president Shri Rajnath Singh is from Uttar Pradesh and is campaigning consistently for the last two months has made its own impact. The campaign of BJP is well organised, where apart from its top leaders Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee and Shri Lal Krishna Advani all other national and state leaders have thrown their might. Naturally, the BJP is neither a single-leader party nor a single-family party. The Sangh Parivar is also completely united and consolidated. The united resurgent face of the BJP is getting a very positive response from the people.
I saw it myself when as in charge of 65 assembly seats in western UP. I was travelling extensively in those areas. There was an unexpected under current. There is every indication of a very serious erosion of Samajwadi Party and donât be surprise if Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav gives the worst performance of his career. The Congress in spite of all the game of roadshow by Rahul Gandhi would remain a very marginal player. The BSP has overrun itself to exhaustion very early.
The fact that BJP is important and needs to be checked is evident from the shameful manner in which most of the non-BJP parties sought to gang up against it before the Election Commission seeking its de-recognition. In spite of the fact that the alleged CD was not authorised and was directed not to be distributed at all, these pseudo-secular parties including the Congress, the BSP, the Jan Morcha, the CPI, the CPM and the SP demanded that the BJP be de-recognised. In fact, there was also a one-upmanship among them as to who approached the Election Commission first against the BJP.
All this paranoia itself shows their desperation. They know they cannot defeat the BJP on the ground because the people are with the party, hence, the resorting to extra-legal means but they will fail here as well. The rath of BJP is unstoppable and the results are not only going to be surprising but would lead to the beginning of the end of the unholy UPA as well.
The following op-ed is related to the R Guha book on modern India.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Right awaits its moment
Swapan Dasgupta
In a recent interview to Tehelka on his new book on post-Independence Indian politics, <b>Ram Guha mentioned in passing that whereas liberals and the Left play a meaningful role in the country's intellectual and political discourse, the Right has been hamstrung by its close association with Hindu nationalism.</b> Despite professing a degree of respect for the erstwhile Swatantra Party of C Rajagopalachari, <b>Guha went on to argue that the intervention of the Right would acquire greater currency if its adherents cease to be "spokesmen" for the BJP.</b>
Without going into the merits or otherwise of <b>Guha's idealisation of party-less intellectuals, the larger issue of a void on the Right needs to be seriously addressed.</b> It is a fact that the boundaries of so-called "respectable" discourse have been shaped by a Left-liberal consensus. <b>This is particularly so on the vexed questions of nationhood and national identity - what is known as the "secularism" debate.</b> Even before the Ram Janmabhoomi movement sharpened the polarisation between India's intellectual establishment and Hindu assertion, there was a significant mismatch between the Right's electoral and intellectual influence. The fierce resistance to Mr Murli Manohar Joshi's assault on the Left-wing bias in history and the social sciences and the same elite's acquiescence before Mr Arjun Singh's "detoxification" campaign are indicative of the lack of equivocation.
After it first tasted power at the Centre in 1998, the BJP leadership went out of its way to acquire social respectability and shed its outlander status. <b>Dispelling all fears of India being turned into a Hindu fascist state, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government moulded itself as a conventional Right-of-centre regime. It tried to blend market economics with a foreign policy that incorporated the nationalism of French Gaullism and the realism of Mr Henry Kissinger. In their own ways, both Mr Vajpayee and Mr LK Advani tried to forge the BJP as the party of the Indian establishment.</b>
<b>The results were awkward.</b> First, the NDA Government relied excessively on a bureaucratic elite that was inherently conservative, cautious and non-political. Governance and politics were projected as purely managerial issues. Second, as a political party the BJP steadily acquired all the negative characteristics of the pre-1969 Congress. Dispensing patronage and collecting funds somehow became the rationale of its existence - a habit that explains many of its post-2004 convulsions. The mission of being a "party with a difference" was lost sight of.
Throughout the NDA's term in office policy issues ceased to be the pre-occupation of the party. In retrospect it can be argued that one of the main reasons why 'India Shining' failed to motivate the electorate was its insufficient internalisation by those who were meant to disseminate the message to the grassroots. No wonder there has been an abrupt U-turn in the BJP's approach to economic and foreign policy in Opposition. Third, the controlling stake of the RSS in the BJP was sought to be significantly diluted, leading to prolonged tensions in the Parivar and accusations of betrayal. These problems haven't been fully resolved.
<b>Looking back, the NDA Government's tenure was marked by many missed opportunities. To my mind, two are particularly glaring. First, in focussing on the co-option of an establishment that had been nurtured by the Congress over five decades, the BJP lost sight of the need to craft a counter-establishment. </b>The failure was not unique. In other countries too, first-time rulers have often been beguiled into equating the culture of obsequiousness (one of the perks of the job) with institutional endorsement. No wonder that in Opposition, the BJP finds itself reduced to playing mindless anti-incumbency games.
<b>Second, in attempting to forge an elusive consensus, the BJP proved incapable of grasping the simple truth that compromises were being made by only one side. The BJP owed its spectacular growth after 1989 to its willingness to question the fundamentals of the great Nehruvian consensus.</b>
When it abandoned this combativeness for short-term respectability, it lost momentum. In the process, the project of evolving a robust, intellectually vibrant Right-wing tradition also fell by the wayside. Today, we have the unseemly spectacle of the party having to disown crass propaganda CDs and maintain a distance from the loony Hindu fringe that believes in playing the moral police.
<b>The creation of a vibrant Right has never been easy for the simple reason that it is not dependant on the revealed wisdom of a Marx or Mao. Social institutions and custom, including religion, have been the bedrock on which political conservatism rests. Grafted to these is the historical memory of both the nation and individual communities. Modern conservatism is a considered blend of these - the process of incorporation and exclusion is never-ending - tailored to the imperatives of a modern, ordered society.</b>
No Indian conservative movement is possible without a meaningful participation of the RSS. Apart from the Sangh's commitment to India's inheritance, its relevance stems from its vast organisation and network. <b>However, in insisting that the RSS must have a controlling interest in the BJP, the Sangh has introduced some needless exclusionary distortions.</b> First, it has created a divide between those who are from the RSS and those who found Hindu nationalism by another route. Second, by its stated over-reliance on one tradition, the BJP has failed to inject the dynamism of other social, cultural and religious movements into its bloodstream. It is particularly significant that the BJP has (except in Gujarat) failed to grasp the opportunities arising from the new Hindu evangelical upsurge.
It must be emphasised that conservatism is not the only basis of today's Right. The American and European experience - and the awesome victory of Mr Nicolas Sarkozy in France is still fresh in our minds - <b>clearly shows that to be effective social conservatism has to be tied to audacious prescriptions for political change. Issues of national identity are important but if their invocations become Pavlovian responses to every situation, the results can be drearily predictable.</b> Despite some electoral victories in recent months, the BJP has been inflicted by a collective non-application of mind on issues related to economics, national security and India's relation with the world. <b>Against Mr Sarkozy, who has bravely taken on and demolished the pernicious Left-liberal stranglehold on France, and Mr David Cameron, whose "cool", compassionate and contemporary conservatism has begun yielding results, the BJP is overwhelmed with its awesome show of deficiencies.</b>
The Indian Right still awaits its moment.
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The composition of the new State Government in Utter Pradesh indicates that the Ministers appointed are not only from the Dalit and OBC section of the society. So far the impression that was created by the media and also by most of the political parties has been that BSP is only for the Dalit and the OBC. However, in the new Ministry we find that Ms. Mayavati has appointed 8 Thakurs, 8 Brahmins, 15 OBCs and 10 Dalits plus 5 Muslims as Ministers. Perhaps her social engineering in fighting this election has paid and voters across the traditional caste line have voted for her party. Perhaps this will have far reaching implication on the future of Indian politics.
I look forward for Acaryaji's considered views on the emerging situation.
05-14-2007, 04:54 AM (This post was last modified: 05-14-2007, 04:58 AM by Bodhi.)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->BJP offending cultural world, says Maneka Gandhi
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In a stinging attack on the saffron opposition to painter M F Hussain's works and to an arts exhibition in a Gujarat university, BJP MP Maneka Gandhi said the party and VHP activists have gone âtoo farâ in their protests.
The Pilibhit MP, who <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>praised Hussain for his charity, alleged that his paintings had been misread deliberately and suggested that they were worthy of being displayed in a museum. </span>
"Even if they have been interpreted correctly, and objected to, that is the purpose of good art: to arouse debate, to create emotion and passion, to be a means of communicating the artist's own thoughts.
"Otherwise, all art would be a mediocre representation of the real world and would have no value except as a photograph imitative record of the world," Gandhi wrote.
She regretted that Hussain was living in a self-imposed exile in Dubai and London apparently for fears he could be attacked because of his paintings.
{Ms. Gandhi should know better. Husain is running away to avoid an arrest. Last week, he once again did not appear in the Haridwar court where a case against him is going on, and court asked all his properties to be attached. When UP police contacted Mumbai police, they said that Husain's flat is in his son's name therfore can not be attached.}
"He should be here in India and <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>we should have a museum of his works on public display</span>, instead of considering which ones to ban and destroy," Gandhi said as she requested Advani to advise the party in Gujarat and Maharashtra to call off their campaign against Hussain.
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Let us see what BJP says about this... <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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âA dispirited Hindu community is grateful that someone is acknowledging they exist and are grateful to be treated as a vote bank.â -- RR
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-- This is a very important observation. We must not forget it, ever. And as pointed out, there has to be an agenda: A Hindu agenda. A definition of what is being promised. And as Uma Bharati recently put it, as long as the Hindutva ideologues focus solely on Ram, it an agenda, incomplete. Ditto, if the focus is solely on roti. People have to rethink, reorient and recalibrate. This has to happen in conceptual, organizational and functional terms. And this is a challenge for, not only BJP, equally for RSS and VHP. For, if BJP were to sincerely recalibrate, its asynchronicity vis-Ã -vis its sister orgs would increase if RSS and VHP did not do the same. This is the most important challenge that the Hindu triad (RSS-VHP-BJP) has to face head on. And act upon it with thought, patience, and tenacity.
-- Nachiketa
13 May 2007
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Excerpts:
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That Mayawati unabashedly went about publicly wooing the Brahmins instead of the Muslims seemed to unnerve media who were terrified of the new trend in electoral politics ushered in by Mayawati of dismissing the Muslims as a vote bank. The media which propagates the politics of minority-ism could not tolerate therefore the idea of caste over-riding the Muslims in importance.
Mayawati demonstrated that she did not care to palliate the media, did not care for media opinion about her, her campaign or her objectives. She demonstrated that she could do a u turn on convictions and dump 'manuvadi', 'communal', 'secular' from her lexicon, couldnât care less about what the media thought about her convictions or lack of it, demonstrated that all she wanted was to win the election and she went ahead and did it with a winning strategy and the devil take the hindmost about what anybody thought about her. She may have had no lasting convictions, no ideology, no grand vision. But she had the courage to state her objectives -- become the first Dalit, first Dalit woman Prime Minister of India, and if the road to Delhi was thru Lucknow, well she was going to travel it in her way, in her time and in her vehicle. These are the most important lessons that the BJP has to learn. People who dismiss Maya's caste calculations underestimate her intelligence. Mayawati wooed, not the Congress-voting Brahmin who is extinct today but the BJP voting Brahmin. This is the critical difference.
The RSS consolidated the Hindu community and the BJP reaped the benefits of the consolidation by promising to deliver on a Hindu agenda limited though the agenda may have been. Even then the BJP neither envisioned nor promised Hindu state power. The BJP reneged on its promise completely. It failed to deliver on any significant Hindu issue. It succeeded in many other ways but Hindus saw it as only reneging on the Hindu front.
The Hindu community as a whole turned to alternatives. A dispirited Brahmin community, a dispirited Hindu community responded to Mayawati's wooing although they have not realized yet that just as she didnât promise the Muslims anything, she hasnât promised the Hindus, the Brahmins anything either. A dispirited Hindu community is grateful that someone is acknowledging they exist and are grateful to be treated as a vote bank. They do not realize that they have been reduced to accepting the crumbs of politics. Mayawati has not promised anything so she has no compulsions or the moral necessity to deliver. This consolidation is ephemeral. It will come unstuck. And once again the Hindu vote will scatter in all directions. Hindus will vote without an agenda. The BJP has a lot of thinking to do. But this will not happen as long as the same tired faces and voices articulate the BJP's raison d'etre.
Rajdeep Sardesai with his wife Sagarika Ghose waved his hands passionately and with an intense look tried to convince his viewers that the 'Muslims' were a part of the matrix that voted in the BSP'. That Mayawati unabashedly went about publicly wooing the Brahmins instead of the Muslims seemed to unnerve our 24 hr news channels and our secularists in the print media who were terrified of the new trend in electoral politics ushered in by Mayawati of dismissing the Muslims as a vote bank.
The media would like to perpetuate the myth that the Muslim vote is 'tactical and therefore capable of swinging an election and therefore wooing the Muslims, keeping them in good humor, offering them carrots, is a sin qua non of Indian politics. The English media which propagates the politics of minority-ism could not tolerate therefore the idea of caste over-riding the Muslims in importance. Therefore Rajdeep's angst. It was as heartrending as his sorrow when the President put paid to Lady Macbeth's ambition to rule the natives.
Now, Mayawati did the following --
She demonstrated that she did not care to palliate the media, did not care for media opinion about her, her campaign or her objectives.
She demonstrated that she could do a u turn on convictions and dump 'manuvadi', 'communal', 'secular' from her lexicon, couldnât care less about what the media thought about her convictions or lack of it, demonstrated that all she wanted was to win the election and she went ahead and did it with a winning strategy and the devil take the hindmost about what anybody thought about her.
She may have had no lasting convictions, no ideology, no grand vision. But she had the courage to state her objectives -- become the first Dalit, first Dalit woman Prime Minister of India, and if the road to Delhi was thru Lucknow, well she was going to travel it in her way, in her time and in her vehicle.
These are the most important lessons that the BJP has to learn. Who said you cannot do all this with a vision, with convictions and with firm adherence to ideology. The BJP could not demonstrate either conviction or courage.
It is no use saying she is merely reviving the Congress traditional vote bank. She is not and people who dismiss Maya's caste calculations underestimate her intelligence.
There is no longer a pre-Mandal Brahmin vote. The post-Mandal, post BJP Brahmin in politics and Brahmin voter is a political-minded (not the traditional bureaucratic) Brahmin.
Mayawati wooed, not the Congress-voting Brahmin who is extinct today but the BJP voting Brahmin. This is the critical difference.
The Deccan Chronicle is seeing only half the truth. The truth it doesnât want to utter explicitly is that the RSS consolidated the Hindu community and the BJP reaped the benefits of the consolidation by promising to deliver on a Hindu agenda limited though the agenda may have been. Even then the BJP neither envisioned nor promised Hindu state power.
The BJP reneged on its promise completely. It failed to deliver on any significant Hindu issue. It succeeded in many other ways but Hindus saw it as only reneging on the Hindu front.
The Hindu community as a whole turned to alternatives. The post-Mandal Brahmins across the country, the Brahmins of anti-Brahmin/anti-Hindu Dravidian Tamil Nadu grabbed the idea of a Hindu BJP, a Brahmin Jayalalithha with both hands. Both let the Brahmins and the Hindus down.
A dispirited Brahmin community, a dispirited Hindu community responded to Mayawati's wooing although they have not realized yet that just as she didnât promise the Muslims anything, she hasnât promised the Hindus, the Brahmins anything either.
A dispirited Hindu community is grateful that someone is acknowledging they exist and are grateful to be treated as a vote bank.
They do not realize that they have been reduced to accepting the crumbs of politics. Mayawati has not promised anything so she has no compulsions or the moral necessity to deliver. This consolidation is ephemeral. It will come unstuck. And once again the Hindu vote will scatter in all directions. Hindus will vote without an agenda.
The BJP has a lot of thinking to do. But this will not happen as long as the same tired faces and voices articulate the BJP's raison d'etre.
Lucknow, May 13: Uttar Pradesh's new Chief Minister Mayawati strongly favoured reservation for economically weaker sections among the upper castes and religious minorities.
At her first press conference after taking over as Chief Minister, she also gave a strong message to her opponents that the BSP government would not brook communal violence and withdraw security of 'criminal elements' and came out in support of reservations for economically backward sections.
In keeping with her new social engineering she effected before the elections, Mayawati said she was for reservation for poor among the upper castes and the religious minorities in the interest of their uplift.
"If the Centre brings an amendment (to the law) providing for reservation for poor among the upper castes and the religious minorities we will welcome it. If not not, then we will take our own measures to help these weaker sections in Uttar Pradesh," she said.
In a clear reference to the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav's government, she announced that all the decisions taken by it since February after the elections were declared have been scrapped and a probe ordered into it.
"All investigations into these decisions will be done without any political vendetta," the BSP supremo said but made it clear that no leniency will be shown against the guilty.
The Industrial Development Council set up by the previous government will be scrapped and a new policy evolved.
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COMMENT:
Subject: Re: Maya wants quota for upper caste poor; will BJP learn a lesson?
Mayawati is systematically thwarting Hindu state power by reducing Hindus to a vote bank by offering them the same sops as secular polity continues to offer 'scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, minorities and women'. This is a trap.
Sops cover up the absence of a larger agenda or as in Mayawati's case, cloathes her towering personal ambition bereft of national commitment. She has consolidated the Hindu vote not to deliver on a Hindu agenda but to reduce Hindus to a vote bank. I think it is retrogressive and dangerous for us.
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