08-22-2007, 02:58 AM
The Left's 'death of a 1,000 cuts'
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->What Manmohan Singh never grasped was the hard work that his prime minister, P V Narasimha Rao, put in with the BJP leaders.
Can you imagine Manmohan Singh having the grace and the wit to appoint a BJP leader to lead an international delegation? But that is just what Rao did, when Kashmir became an issue at a conference in Geneva, making Atal Bihari Vajpayee the leader and Farooq Abdullah his deputy, with a Congressman only as the third-ranking leader.
Manmohan Singh's idea of dealing with the BJP, on the other hand, is to claim that back in 2004 some unnamed BJP leaders were performing a havan for his death; try getting any support for your policies after that!
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It's pity MMS didn't learn a thing while under PVN who clearly was a giant amongst these pygmies.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The prime minister dared the Left Front to cut off his government's head. Did he forget that the CPI-M has other options, including the political equivalent of the Chinese torture called 'Death of a Thousand Cuts?' The Left Front will block every measure of economic reform so dear to the prime minister's heart. Pension reforms? Labour reforms? FDI reforms? Forget about them, Mr Prime Minister!
As I said, there is blame aplenty to go around. The CPI-M has insulted Dr Singh for three years, employing its veto without hinder. His policies have been derailed, and he himself has been lampooned. That outburst against the Left Front may have been regrettable but it was at least understandable.
That said, the saddest part of the story is that there seems to be no way out of the paralysis threatening Delhi. The three major parties -- the Congress, the BJP, the CPI-M -- are notably reluctant to go to the hustings.
The Congress pipped the BJP as the single largest party in 2004 largely thanks to disenchanted urban voters and because the National Democratic Alliance fared poorly in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. But the municipal polls held in Mumbai and Delhi earlier this year led to a hiding for the Congress. And in the 2006 assembly polls, Jayalalithaa ensured that the DMK would be denied even a simple majority. (Please remember that in 2004, the AIADMK-BJP combine failed to win a single Lok Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu.)
The BJP got a gigantic slap in the face in the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha polls. With the party in doldrums in the largest state, with dissent in Gujarat, and with the alliance with the Shiv Sena in question in Maharashtra, the BJP is in no shape to face polls today.
How about the Left Front? The open quarrels between Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and local party boss Pinarayi Vijayan proved so embarrassing that the CPI-M was forced to kick them both out of the Politburo. As for West Bengal, I still consider Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to be one of India's best chief ministers but Nandigram has opened wounds that refuse to heal.
Let us admit that August 2007 has not been the ideal way to celebrate India's Diamond Jubilee. What does it say of our democracy that our principal politicians are notably reluctant to face the electorate, or that our prime minister seems bent on saddling India with a treaty built on a foundation of false assurances (to the Americans) and lack of support (in Parliament)?
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->What Manmohan Singh never grasped was the hard work that his prime minister, P V Narasimha Rao, put in with the BJP leaders.
Can you imagine Manmohan Singh having the grace and the wit to appoint a BJP leader to lead an international delegation? But that is just what Rao did, when Kashmir became an issue at a conference in Geneva, making Atal Bihari Vajpayee the leader and Farooq Abdullah his deputy, with a Congressman only as the third-ranking leader.
Manmohan Singh's idea of dealing with the BJP, on the other hand, is to claim that back in 2004 some unnamed BJP leaders were performing a havan for his death; try getting any support for your policies after that!
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's pity MMS didn't learn a thing while under PVN who clearly was a giant amongst these pygmies.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The prime minister dared the Left Front to cut off his government's head. Did he forget that the CPI-M has other options, including the political equivalent of the Chinese torture called 'Death of a Thousand Cuts?' The Left Front will block every measure of economic reform so dear to the prime minister's heart. Pension reforms? Labour reforms? FDI reforms? Forget about them, Mr Prime Minister!
As I said, there is blame aplenty to go around. The CPI-M has insulted Dr Singh for three years, employing its veto without hinder. His policies have been derailed, and he himself has been lampooned. That outburst against the Left Front may have been regrettable but it was at least understandable.
That said, the saddest part of the story is that there seems to be no way out of the paralysis threatening Delhi. The three major parties -- the Congress, the BJP, the CPI-M -- are notably reluctant to go to the hustings.
The Congress pipped the BJP as the single largest party in 2004 largely thanks to disenchanted urban voters and because the National Democratic Alliance fared poorly in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. But the municipal polls held in Mumbai and Delhi earlier this year led to a hiding for the Congress. And in the 2006 assembly polls, Jayalalithaa ensured that the DMK would be denied even a simple majority. (Please remember that in 2004, the AIADMK-BJP combine failed to win a single Lok Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu.)
The BJP got a gigantic slap in the face in the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha polls. With the party in doldrums in the largest state, with dissent in Gujarat, and with the alliance with the Shiv Sena in question in Maharashtra, the BJP is in no shape to face polls today.
How about the Left Front? The open quarrels between Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and local party boss Pinarayi Vijayan proved so embarrassing that the CPI-M was forced to kick them both out of the Politburo. As for West Bengal, I still consider Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to be one of India's best chief ministers but Nandigram has opened wounds that refuse to heal.
Let us admit that August 2007 has not been the ideal way to celebrate India's Diamond Jubilee. What does it say of our democracy that our principal politicians are notably reluctant to face the electorate, or that our prime minister seems bent on saddling India with a treaty built on a foundation of false assurances (to the Americans) and lack of support (in Parliament)?
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