Don’t expect resignations, BJP doesn’t believe in accountability

During the days of Lalit Modi row, BJP’s prominent leader Rajnath Singh, the Home Minister of India, had famously said, “this is NDA, not UPA, our ministers won’t resign”. 

And if we roll back some years and reach the UPA’s time, we could recollect that one of the prime responsibilities of BJP leader Ravi Shanker Prasad then was to ask for the resignations of UPA ministers whenever some controversies arose in their names. And some minsters did resign, due to intense agitations from the opposition parties and continuous guard from the media.

Cut to the present day and you have Ministers like Mr. Singh who openly say, which should be nothing but party policy, that whatever be the allegations against any minister, no one will resign under any circumstances. 

Allegations of corruption charged by the opposition is one thing, which could be rejected as baseless accusation, but dereliction of duty, as in the case of Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar in the Dera Sacha Sauda fiasco, is a matter of serious concern, where accountability has to be fixed on the political leadership.

As was the case with the Gorakhpur tragedy (on which we will come back later), political leadership made scapegoats out of the officialdom in Haryana and absolved themselves from any blame. When the total administrative failure is so obvious for any discerning eye, when the High Court itself has come down on the government and the CM in particular, any democratically elected CM would generally be forced to resign. But that is for ordinary political parties, not for BJP, which is, in their own claim, “party with a difference.”

High Court has given a rap on the knuckles of Haryana CM Khattar and Indian PM Modi. When it came down heavily on the CM for his inability to prevent the riots, the High Court also reprimanded the PM Modi and asked whether he is the PM of BJP or that of India. However in this case one must understand that PM Modi is helpless and he can’t ask for the resignation of Mr. Khattar, for he hadn’t resigned during the Gujarat riots of 2002. When that is the case, on what moral ground would PM Modi ask for Khattar’s resignation? 

Gorakhpur tragedy is a far worse case. 70 children dying in a week, most deaths because of the unavailability of oxygen in a hospital due to non-payment of bills by the government, is a tragedy that would have warranted the resignation of the head of the government in any functioning democracy, but not in Yogi Adityanath’s Uttar Pradesh. 

Instead of serious introspection, the UP government at first came up with the bizarre argument that the deaths were not due to unavailability of oxygen, even when it took actions against head of the medical college, Rajiv Mishra, and also on Dr Kafeel Ahmad Khan, head of the Paediatrics ward, for not making enough oxygen available.

If the deaths of innocent children in Gorakhpur were really due to encephalitis, as the UP government claimed, then why did it take action against the aforementioned doctors? 

So it is clear that the deaths were due to lack of oxygen availability in the hospital. And the reason for the unavailability was that the government didn’t the pay the bills for the oxygen. That makes it clear that the UP government is directly responsible for the tragedy, but still no resignation of CM Adityanath or Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh. 

Speaking about accountability and resignation on moral grounds, one mustn’t forget to mention Railway minister Suresh Prabhu. Under his watch 8 major rail accidents have happened till now. After two rail accidents last week, Mr. Prabhu offered to resign on moral grounds, while PM Modi rejected his offer.

While the BJP wants to judge other parties on the basis of lofty moral grounds, it rarely applies the same standards to itself. In its alacrity to impose bigoted Sangh ideology in India using their political power, BJP has abandoned its commitment to the people of India.

Mysterious deaths, corruption, impropriety, fake degree: BJP in a soup

As this writer wrote elsewhere, criticising the NDA government under PM Narendra Modi could be considered a grave sin by many in this country who voted for it believing the promises of ache din that the then PM candidate quite ostensibly gave. At a time when the whole country was invariably annoyed at the various corruption scandals that came up against the UPA government, Narendra Modi, a master tactician, effectively sold to the Indian people a dream of a corruption-free, nepotism-free, development-oriented government that would take India to enormous heights. To stroke the passions of the common citizen, Narendra Modi was touted as a future PM who has come up from a very humble background (at a time when the truth remains that all Indian Prime Ministers, with the exception of those from the Nehru-Gandhi clan, have all risen from humble beginnings). However one year into the office, the ruling party and the Modi government are in a soup owing to continuation of ministers with fake degrees as well as allegations of corruption and impropriety.

Of all the leaders in BJP, scandal hit first the most widely respected of them all – Sushma Swaraj. Unlike in the case of other political scandals, the media and even the opposition were very sceptical and calculated in making allegations because they knew that they were pointing their fingers at someone who has had enormous goodwill among political supporters as well as detractors. Ms. Swaraj’s extension of a helping hand to the absconder Lalit Modi in gaining travel papers to travel to Portugal for his wife’s surgery was shown as humanitarian assistance by the government and her party. While the opposition and the media alleged that what she did was an instance of grave impropriety if not illegality and a matter of conflict of interest. One fails to understand why Ms. Swaraj bypassed all governmental procedures of the External Affairs Ministry and spoke directly to Keith Vaz MP of UK to arrange travel documents to Lalit Modi. The whole government machinery was kept in dark by Ms. Swaraj, at a time when both her daughter and husband are part of Lalit Modi’s legal team. Even if for the sake of argument one accepts that Ms. Swaraj helped Modi on humanitarian grounds, as an External Affairs Minister she could have done so many other things to make use of this occasion to bring the absconder back to the country to face the charges (16 of them in total by Enforcement Directorate). She could have asked the British government to give him travel papers for one time visit to Portugal, so that he could have no other option but to return to India after the visit. Instead she allowed the British government to give him travel papers for two long years. The opposition was increasingly training their guns at Ms. Swaraj when she was dubiously saved by the bigger scandal of Vasundhra Raje helping Lalit Modi to stay in UK.

During their investigation on the Lalit Gate, media dug out evidence suggesting that Vasundhra Raje Scindia, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, had furtively filed an affidavit in an UK court in 2011 favouring Lalit Modi’s immigration application in the UK when she was the Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly. What made the case more curious was that in the affidavit Ms. Raje had requested the UK court not to make her affidavit known to Indian authorities. Simultaneously the media had also found out that Lalit Modi had diverted some funds from one of his bogus companies in Mauritius to the company owned and run by Dushyant Singh, son of Ms. Raje. This was being considered by many legal experts as a matter of money laundering.

When the BJP was thus engulfed in such scams related to Lalit Modi, it got another blow from a Delhi court as it took cognisance of a complaint that HRD Minister Smriti Irani had given false information about her educational qualification to the Election Commission of India. In many interventions during social media discussions this writer had made the point that it is a matter of absolute shame that India has an Education minister who has faked her education degree. Though the minister as well as her many supporters kept on claiming that one should judge her only by her work and not by her college degrees, what many failed to accept is the fact that it is not the degree or the lack of it that is the major issue, but that she lied on it that should bring out outrage in the country.

The emergence of Vyapam Scam in the state of Madhya Pradesh has shocked the conscience of the nation. Mysterious deaths of 47 persons associated with this scam made news, while the Chief Minister of MP, Shivraj Singh Chauhan of BJP, against whom there are allegation of complicity, claimed innocence. During the initial phase of the scam, where there was calls to transfer the case to CBI, the BJP government in the state resisted it. But when petitions were filed in the Supreme Court, asking for its intervention in transferring the case to CBI, BJP changed their official position and proclaimed that they are ready for it if SC asks them to do so. Like the rest of the nation, SC was also unnerved by the magnitude and enormity of this scandal. The apex court also issued notices on a plea to prosecute MP Governor Ram Naresh Yadav for his alleged complicity in the scam. Even when Mr. Yadav has been named in the FIR, the central government doesn’t think it important to remove him. When BJP was quick to remove many Governors appointed by the erstwhile UPA, it smacks of dubious intent when we find that BJP is quite reluctant to remove the MP Governor, when he is also someone appointed by the UPA government.

At a time when BJP is embroiled in controversy after controversy or ‘scam-a-day’ as the social media likes to call it, what is most conspicuous is the studied silence of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Someone who gained a name as the most eloquent of all political leaders in present day India, Mr. Modi has surprised both his supporters and detractors equally with his silence on these issues facing the nation. At the same time he still goes on merrily in social media by congratulating even many insignificant nations of the world on their independence days, wishing birthdays to many world leaders, sometimes in their own languages and speaking voraciously on many of his pet schemes in his monthly ‘Mann ki Baat’ on Indian radio. Mr. Modi had in the past made fun of Manmohan Singh’s silence by calling him ‘Maunmohan’ Singh, but when he came to power he is closely following his predecessor’s footstep as far as remaining silent on national issues is concerned. By not giving out his ‘mann ki baat’ on national issues he is increasingly losing his sheen as a decisive leader. His blistering eloquence has made way to deafening silence, his defiant rhetoric to uneasy quietude. Now the nation knows that his electoral promise of zero-tolerance to corruption was no more than a gimmick to fool the people and garner their votes.

Political analysts are also remarking that all the corruption and impropriety charges have come up against Narendra Modi’s political rivals in the party, save Smriti Irani, who is a Modi loyalist. So it could well be a ploy hatched by the Modi-gang in the party to politically thwart his critics and buy their silence. Even if it is so, with the emerging facts about large scale corruption and impropriety in the central government and other BJP ruled states, PM Modi’s and his party’s image has received a serious dent, rectifying which would be quite a difficult task.

Image Courtesy: Cartoon 'Politickle' by Manjul

Narendra Modi’s renowned hatred for the S-word

Being a secularist who gets constantly trolled by the sanghi trolls online, this writer very well knows the kind of abhorrence they have for secularism and secularists. The Hindutva elements in our country see secularism as an irritant that prevents their ultimate goal of making India a Hindu nation. Therefore it is not a matter of surprise that Narendra Modi, a former RSS pracharak, share that emotion of dislike, to use a milder word, for secularism and its proponents. He has made that emotion clear many a time, but what makes it curious is the place and occasion he chooses to make his comments. It was always when he was on his foreign trips, which he has had many in the last 10 months, that he makes his disparaging comments on secularism and secularists. When in Japan he had mocked secularists in India when he had said that secularists in his country would be kicking up storm on his gifting Bhagavad Gita to Japanese Emperor. And recently, when in Germany, he gave a second swipe at secularism when he suggested that in India respect for secularism and Sanskrit can never go hand in hand. He further suggested that when in the past German radio had Sanskrit bulletin, India hadn’t due to false notions of secularism prevailing in our country. 

On foreign soil when the Prime Minister himself makes fun of his country and its principles what impression does he leave behind on the audience about his country? That too from someone who is from a background where they claim themselves to be ultra nationalists. It is also from the head of the same government that had prevented Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai from going to London to criticise a mining project in India claiming that she would have embarrassed the country in front of foreign audience. Is it not an act of hypocrisy that Modi is now doing the same thing that he had accused Priya Pillai of planning to do – embarrassing the country in a foreign land?

Unlike Thomas Gradgrind of Dickens’ ‘Hard Times’, Narendra Modi is notorious for his blatant disregard or ignorance of facts. Like always he got his facts terribly wrong when he connected secularism and Sanskrit. In 1956 it was the government under ‘secular’ Nehru that made a series of recommendations on the promotion of Sanskrit in the private and public media. In 1974, it was during Indira Gandhi’s government, which tried to include the word ‘secular’ in Indian constitution, that All India Radio introduced news bulletin in Sanskrit. So his connecting Sanskrit and secularism in India has no factual basis.

Now what prompted Modi to take up this pointless subject on Sanskrit and secularism during a foreign trip that was supposed to be all about ‘Make in India’? It would probably be the controversy that erupted in India last year about Modi government’s thoughtless decision of replacing the teaching of German with Sanskrit in Kendriya Vidyalaya Schools. But it defies logic why he took up the point of Germany’s respect for the Indian language Sanskrit when what his government did was unceremonious defenestration of German language from the curriculum. 

The mocking of secularism, a constitutional principle of India, by Narendra Modi is unbecoming of a PM. It is high time he stop behaving like an RSS pracharak and start assuming the role of Prime Minister of all Indians, with adequate respect for the constitutional values of our country.

In Delhi AAP wave decimates the Modi wave

When a party that won general elections with an overwhelming majority incurs a crushing defeat in a state to a party that came into existence just a couple of years back, you know that you are witnessing history. The Modi juggernaut was rolling on claiming win after win, in the general elections of 2014, assembly elections of Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and then in J&K. The party and its supporters were on cloud nine when electoral tragedy struck, which has brought down all of them to earth. The combination of the master speaker Narendra Modi and the master strategist and the former’s right hand man, Amit Shah has been running the party as their fiefdom and all important decisions of the party have been taken by them. Therefore as the credit of the election victories deservedly went to them, the responsibility of this huge loss must also rest with them. Out of 70 seats in Delhi, BJP was able to win only 3 seats, 29 seats less than what they got in 2013. AAP, under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, made a virtual clean sweep as they won 67 of the remaining seats. How did BJP slump to such a huge loss in Delhi?

Though they boast about and roam around the country claiming to be master strategists, Modi and Shah made the strategic mistake of not calling for elections in Delhi along with elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. It is still unclear what made them postpone the decision for so long. One line of thought is that the duo assumed that in a few months, after the defeat in the general elections, AAP will disintegrate and disappear into oblivion. In that case BJP could have had a free run with no strong opposition to counter them. However in the intervening months what happened was something the duo didn’t expect. Instead of disintegrating, AAP strengthened their grass-root level actions and their volunteers. They worked with the common man and created a strong base that flung into action during the elections. When BJP’s state leadership and activists were involved in deep infighting, AAP’s activists and leaders were concentrating on rebuilding their lost trust after the 49 day government resigned much to people’s discontent. Kejriwal was forthright in apologising to the people for his ill-advised move and requested Delhi-ites to give him another chance to make immense.

Anti-establishment emotions have been very strong in India in general and in a state like Delhi in particular. During the run up to the 2014 general elections, Narendra Modi was able to position himself as someone who is not an insider of the establishment. He made good use of his chaiwallah image, which made common people believe that he was one among them. He positioned himself as the underdog who was fighting against the corrupt establishment, which was Congress. However, after assuming power at the centre as the Prime Minister of the country, Modi lost his image as the common man. His high profile foreign visits, which squandered a lot of public money, came for criticism from the public. The 10 lakh suit with his name printed on it that he wore during the Republic Day celebration established him in the public eye as a narcissistic leader who gives a lot of importance to self image and lavish lifestyle, a characteristic feature of those in the establishment. His arrogance and sometimes laughable show of self-importance were on display on all his public appearances, which flashed into the public’s eye through live television coverage.

Narendra Modi had been the star campaigner for BJP in the general elections and state elections after that. However signs of his losing popularity was evident when only a very few numbers turned out to listen to him in the first public rally he addressed in Delhi. This made Amit Shah understand that Modi wave was not going to work wonders for the party in Delhi. He understood that BJP needed someone with big public acceptance as the BJP’s leader to counter the Kejriwal effect. For that Shah inducted Kiran Bedi to the party and made her party’s Chief Ministerial candidate. But this didn’t augur well for the party as long time BJP workers felt let down by Amit Shah on bringing an outsider as their leader. Public was also able to see through the dishonest political ambitions of a late turncoat like Ms. Bedi. She was not able to garner the support of her party or gain the trust of her electorate. 

When BJP understood that they are losing their battle against AAP in Delhi, they resorted to a lot of mudslinging to discredit AAP. Such a negative campaign didn’t go down well with the people of Delhi. BJP roped in their 120 MPs and 25 ministers of Central government for the negative campaign against AAP. Even Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, otherwise known as a lady of impeccable integrity and dignity, was used to disgrace AAP, where she called AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal a ‘chor’ on the issue of alleged dubious donations to AAP. BJP used cartoons to bring disrepute to Kejriwal and even dragged his family into it. All these negative campaign tactics not only didn’t work for the BJP but also backfired on them.

Another reason why BJP had to face a terrible loss in Delhi is because it was unable to reign in the divisive, Hindutva elements. Delhi voters were clever enough to understand the sectarian agenda of those bigots who attempted to dictate their cultural and lifestyle choices. The likes of Sakshi Maharaj and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti have alienated the liberals in the country from the BJP. Though the aspirational young voters of the country are not moved by the traditional politics over ‘secularism’, which often means minority appeasement, they are not influenced by the inflammatory statements made by the Hindutva elements in BJP either. The Hindutva elements in BJP are not the fringe elements, they are mainstream elements, and it is the development-oriented people who are the fringe elements in BJP. With his silence on such utterances made by the extremist elements in his party, Narendra Modi appeared to have a silent complicity in these acts. If he remains silent people will believe that he connives with those in the party who take forward disruptive Hindutva policies like Ghar Wapsi.

Narendra Modi should now understand that his hollow promises of development won’t work anymore and unless he fulfils his promises with some real work on the ground his popularity will sink to deep depths pretty soon. He should stop playing the role of a King with his ostentatious display of costly suits, lavish foreign trips and orchestrated stage performances abroad. Instead he should get down from his thrown and should work to better the lives of millions of people who voted for him after believing his promises of a better India. 

BJP has credited the Modi wave with their emphatic performance in the state elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and in J&K. But now when they have slumped to one of their biggest defeats, the party is trying desperately to save Modi’s face. If the win was because of the rampant Modi wave, this loss is certainly because the wave is waning in strength and has ceased to be rampant. Moreover, if the party is not ready to consider the Delhi loss as a dangerous sign and continue to derive satisfaction on the technical fact that it has maintained its vote percentage in Delhi, then the party is all set for a nosedive into further embarrassment. 

A Budget for the Khaas Aadmi

As Modi Sarkar and its cohorts have already taken control of most of the large and powerful media conglomerates in India, one will find it most difficult to locate a critical account of the Budget 2014. Most of these media – print as well as TV - was busy singing paeans on the budget. Everywhere in these media there are accounts of how businessmen, the corporates and the multi-rich find the budget to be the one that will “take the country forward.”

Network 18 (of which CNN IBN, CNBC etc. are part) is already being controlled by corporate giants who had unequivocally rendered all the support for BJP’s election campaign. We now know where the fidelity of Zee network lies with after seeing what happened to an article in the online magazine DNA (controlled by Zee network) that showered grave criticism on the new BJP President. The Hindu, previously known as a predominantly leftist newspaper, has suddenly jumped over the fence and is sitting comfortably with the rightists, after the new management took over. Therefore in the mainstream media you will only find adulations and appreciations about the budget. In such circumstances many independent online magazines and individual blogs have gained a lot of significance insofar as finding a critical analysis of the budget is concerned. Hence this writer will also only focus on the cons of the budget; for the pros one can anyways read any of the popular newspapers of our day.

No tax surcharge on the super-rich: Amidst talks of fiscal prudence and reduction in fiscal deficit, the budget of Arun Jaitley plainly missed a great opportunity to increase the revenue receipts of the government by increasing the tax surcharge on the super-rich. When the present government in general and the budget 2014 in particular talk about reducing the fiscal deficit by cutting down the subsidies, it is curious that no one is speaking about increasing the revenue by slapping an increase in tax surcharge on the super-rich of our country. The rightists in the government today behave much like George Carlin pointed out about the conservatives in the United States. He had said – “Conservatives say if you don’t give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. Then they say as for the poor, they’ve lost all incentive because we’ve given them too much money.”

FDI in defence and insurance sectors: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been Mr. Jaitley’s favourite catch phrase in his budget speech. Opening up of the strategically important defence sector to FDI could prove to be quite fatal in the long run. In the insurance sector also the government has decided to increase FDI investment limit to 49% from 26%. It is another matter that without management control available to them with 49% share, how many foreign companies would really look at investing huge amount of money in these sectors.

It is also a known fact that most of the money stashed away in foreign banks as unaccounted black money comes back to our country in the form of FDI. So by increasing the FDI cap to 49%, Modi Sarkar is effectively helping the money hoarders.

200 crore for a statue, 100 crore for women’s safety: In a classic example of a government’s misplaced priorities Arun Jaitley has allocated 200 crores for the statue of Sardar Patel in Gujarat, one of Modi’s pet projects, while allocating only 100 crores for women’s safety. BJP and its ideological backbone the Sangh Parivar have always been at the forefront in exhibiting their pseudo-nationalism with such absurd acts. Had the Iron Man of India, Sardar Patel, been alive now, he would have slapped the men who created such a proposal in a national budget when the nation is facing one of the worst fiscal crises in its history.

No significant increase in income tax exemption limit: BJP has turned out to be the biggest U-turn party in the history of our nation. During the election campaign BJP promised that they will increase the tax exemption limit to 5 lakhs per annum. Even the present day Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had asked the then government to increase the limit to 5 lakhs. However when he presented the budget he increased the exemption limit to just 2.5 lakhs. By extending the exemption limit to 5 lakhs the government would have put more money in the pockets of the common man, thereby increasing the domestic consumption, which would have had a positive impact on the economy. 

Nothing for primary education: One of the glaring omissions of the budget speech has been primary education. When there has been allocation for five new IITs and five new IIMs, there has been nothing for primary education or improving the quality of education in the country. When you increase the number of higher education institutions, you also need to worry about maintaining, if not improving, the quality of faculty in those august institutions of our country. However the budget is quite mum on that factor as well. 

No proposal on bringing back black money: Narendra Modi had been quite vocal about bringing back black money stashed away by Indians in foreign banks. However when the budget was delivered there was no concrete proposal in it about how to bring back that black money to India.

No concrete proposal for containing inflation: Together with worsening fiscal deficit and slumping growth, higher inflation has been much talked about economic factor during the election campaign. The BJP government that got an enormous mandate to find solution for the grave problems that Indians face, has done nothing up to now to control the price rise. There has been no concrete proposal in the budget to control inflation. The many decisions that the government has taken till now has only resulted in an increase of inflation; may it be the increase in freight charges in the railways, or increasing the import price of sugar or the increase in fuel prices.

Many schemes named after Sangh Parivar ideologists: Saffronisation of the government activity seems to be on top of the agenda for the ruling BJP, if the names of some of the new schemes offer any clue. Many new schemes have been unveiled that have the names of RSS and BJP idols like Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, and Madan Mohan Malviya. 

Whenever someone criticises the present government, the supporters of the government immediately come up with an argument that 60 days is not enough time to judge a government. It is certainly true that 60 days is not enough time to judge a government on its performance, but it is certainly enough time to judge a government on its intentions. And if those intentions of the government are anything to go by then it is certainly not going to be good times for the common man, the aam aadmi, but is certainly good times for the corporates and for the foreign investors, the khaas aadmi. The “ache din’ that Narendra Modi promised seems to be too far away.

Image Courtesy: The Hindu

Smriti Irani as HRD Minister, Why Not

At a time when criticising the majority central government of Narendra Modi could be seen as an act of grave stupidity, it requires great moral courage and strength of conviction, not to mention the guts to bear ridicule, to attempt anything of that kind. However it is quite heartening that in a speech in the Lok Sabha the Prime Minister spoke about how he is open to all forms of criticisms and how criticism is the best form of guidance.

In a strange mutation, many of the earlier criticisers of our PM have suddenly turned approvers. When the triumphalism of his perpetual supporters is easy to fathom, what is difficult to understand is how many of his former detractors have suddenly jumped over the fence and became approvers. In this post-poll change of mindset, many Indians have comfortably abandoned many of the principles they had closely held in the past. This mindset change is most evident in the way in which Smriti Irani was easily accepted as the HRD Minister (read Education Minister) of our country. 

When it is most true that Indian constitution doesn’t prevent anyone from becoming the Education Minister on the basis of his or her education qualification; when it is most true that it is the prerogative of the Prime Minister to chose his council of ministers, it is extremely strange that even those who were pretty vocal in their calls to bring in only educated people as our elected representatives have suddenly become mum and have accepted a 12th standard pass as the Education Minister of our great country. We will talk about the false affidavits the minister had submitted to the election commission in the latter part of this essay, but will start with first things first.

Whenever someone makes an issue about this “12th standard pass” factor, he or she is immediately ridiculed as an elitist. Before jumping on to such a conclusion about this writer, his readers would do good to consider his arguments too. If Ms. Irani was an underprivileged person who had no recourse for continued education, it would have been a matter of real pity. However her family history doesn’t provide any clue that she was forced to discontinue her education after her 12th standard because of lack of financial provisions in her family. Even if she had - for an argument let’s assume it was so - she has been in the political field for more than a decade and in these years she had more than enough opportunities to pursue her education, but she chose not to. Being from a party whose manifesto speaks profusely about the importance of higher education, it was incumbent upon Ms. Irani to pursue her higher education. It is a matter of great shame that we as a country have an HRD Minister who personally doesn’t think it important to pursue higher education. How can we expect such a minister to take steps to make sure that higher education in the country is of the highest quality and most of those who aim for higher education get opportunities to pursue it?

Like many other commentators, this writer also doesn’t believe a person with a good educational background can invariably be a good administrator. The converse view that a person without a good educational background may well be an able administrator is also inarguably true. However to put the onus of a ministry as important as HRD ministry to a naive, untested newcomer as Ms. Irani is not a decision that would be called prudent by any stretch of imagination. Though she has been in charge of BJP’s Mahila Morcha for many years, she doesn’t have the administrative experience of governing even a panchayat. Otherwise she should have been someone whom the people of a constituency have elected with overwhelming majority; but she is neither that. Neither is she known for her erudition on matters of great national importance nor has she ever spoken about or written on her path breaking ideas on improving education in India. If she was either an experienced administrator or an educationist of repute or an extremely popular leader with an enormous mandate, one could have overlooked her poor educational qualifications. But if it is only the ‘hope’ that one ‘might’ come out as an able minister the basis on which we elect or nominate a person for a post as important as this, then it must be understood that we are setting an intrinsically wrong precedent. Therefore it is very important to question the rationale on which the decision has been made by the PM. As Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of India, our PM now, it is important for us to trust his judgment, but to question that judgment on the basis of sound facts as explained above is neither injudicious nor stupid, contrary to the belief of many blind supporters of the man, who have unquestioningly bought the dreams he sold during his election campaign. 

A cursory glance at the list of Education Ministers India has had will make it clear that it was always learned men and women who have been at the helm. The argument that those learned people haven’t brought any considerable improvement to the educational scenario of the country is a churlish one only morons will make. From a country of grave illiteracy in the pre-independence era, India has undergone great and salutary changes in primary education. Our higher education institutions like the IITs and the IIMs are world class and they give the Harvards and the Cambridges a run for their money. At a time when education and human resources development are the fields on which global competition is played on, what kind of signal do we send to the world with an under-educated minister in the HRD ministry, who chose to ignore the personal need for continuing education to the higher levels?

Social media is abuzz with a video of Ms. Irani speaking extempore on a stage. Many of those who support her ascendancy to the ministership can also be seen boasting, via captions to the video, if there are any Congress leaders who can match her oratory skills (commenting on the ability of any Congress leader to match the skills would be childish when that party has world famous orators like Shashi Tharoor in its ranks). When there is no doubt that Ms. Irani is a lady of immense oratorical talent, it by no means advances her eligibility of becoming a minister of HRD. Angelina Jolie, an apt comparison with Ms. Irani because of their identical career backgrounds, speaks equally well on global stages. But a US president can never be expected to consider that as criteria to make her the Secretary of Education in the administration. Ronald Reagan, another actor who later became the President of the United States, had to show his mettle in many other administrative fields, including the Governor of California, before putting forth his candidacy to the top job. 

It is also quite bemusing to see those who were extremely vocal (and rightly so) about the lack of integrity of the UPA ministers have suddenly gone into their cocoons of silence when it comes to the questions on integrity of the ministers of Modi Sarkar. The discrepancy in the affidavits filed by Smriti Irani in 2004 and 2014 about her educational qualifications cannot be rejected as a mere oversight or inadvertent human error (if she is unsure about even her educational qualifications, then it is all the more reason to not accept her as our HRD Minister). Ms. Irani had promised that she will come clean about the issue, but hasn’t spoken anything about it till this day. Neither the media nor those commentators who were lucid about the importance of integrity for a national government appear to have any problem with it. May be all of them have also crossed over and joined the other side where real power vests now.

How NaMo Bhakts Think NaMo Will Rule India

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

The most ubiquitous thing in the Indian social media space today is the NaMo Bhakt. They are present everywhere, so much so that if Indian general election is done exclusively online, then NaMo will win hands down; not only will the BJP under him get to the magic mark of 272, they may even get 543 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats. These bhakts give unwavering support to NaMo and they all hope with all their heart that he will become the Prime Minister of India and will rule India and will bring prosperity to the nation in such a way that India will become a super power in the next five years time. These bhakts are generally abusive of those who criticise NaMo and think that those who oppose NaMo are traitors, with hardly any patriotism and are therefore prospective candidates for sedition charges to be imposed on. They were hardcore Rahul Gandhi haters until Arvind Kejriwal came up meticulously propping up facts about Gujarat’s flawed development model, when they sincerely transferred their hatred to the latter gentleman.  It is always good fun to keep following these bhakts and indulging in conversations with them. They all invariably keep similar sentiments on the subject of how NaMo will rule India. The following is how the NaMo bhakts think he will do it.

First of all the hyper patriotic bhakts (oh yes they think so) believe that NaMo will order an attack against Pakistan and will wage war against it if ever that country again attacks Indian jawans at the Indo-Pak border. No need to consider any other factors including the strategic issues associated with such an attack, the bhakts think NaMo will teach that country a ‘lesson’ if it ever shows the audacity to attack Indian jawans.

The bhakths also think that NaMo, being a lionhearted, patriotic Indian, will bomb China if it ever shows the belligerence to claim as their own any of India’s territory in the east. No such incursions from the big, powerful neighbour will be tolerated. Military might of the enemy, where China’s military strength is far more superior than India’s, will not be an issue as long as you have the courage to sabotage enemy intentions, bhakts think. They also think that timidity of those who ruled India until now is the main reason why a country like China keeps on claiming territories of India as their own and when the brave NaMo rules India, any country that shows the impudence of claiming any part of India as their own will rue their rashness.

Once NaMo becomes the Prime Minister, corruption would become a thing of the past in India. It was he, who was in the forefront of the crusade against the corrupt Congress, these bhakts tell us. NaMo’s party, their ideological mentor RSS, and above all, the bhakts will give him all the support required to make this happen. You know, he has already made arrangements to figure out the intricacies of the internal workings of corruption with the re-induction of two of the corruption tainted leaders in Karnataka. They will give NaMo an in-depth knowledge about how corruption works, which is needed to entirely wipe out the menace.

NaMo and his bhakts have been vociferously asking the UPA government to bring back money stashed away in Swiss banks by many politicians of India (read Congress politicians). The bhakts think that NaMo is serious about his intentions of bringing back the money to India. They believe that within one year, maximum two years, NaMo will bring all that money back to India. Anyways he already has the services of Dr. Subramaniam Swamy at his disposal, who incidentally knows more details about Indian politicians holding covert accounts in Swiss banks than those banks themselves. Therefore bringing back the money is quite easy these bhakts think; only what was missing was a brave heart to do that, which NaMo has.

The bhakts think that the Indian legal system should just hang all those convicts who are under death row. They think there is no need to follow what the ‘cowards’ call "due legal process". Just hang them all, is what they call for and they think NaMo will do that, because he is decisive (did I say ‘divisive’?). They think that all those human rights activists in India who call for abolition of death penalty are ‘traitors’ and the international human rights organisations that call for it, ‘foreign agents’ involved in espionage and possible sabotage in India.

NaMo-bhakts also think that Maoist insurgents in the red corridor in India are at best ‘armed nuisance’, nothing more than that and the reason why they still run amok in various parts of the country is because of lack of political will of those who governed India. What one needs to have is that strength of mind, which NaMo has and so he will just order the armed forces in the country to ambush the Maoists and they will be exterminated with ease. 

Terrorists should be shot at sight is what the bhakts think and they show the incident that happened in Gujarat as an example, where three alleged terrorists were encountered by Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch. Again, due legal process, is nothing but humbug for the bhakts and this is how all terrorists must be treated, only then can our nation become strong and safe and the only man who can do this is NaMo, the bhakts say.

The best thing that will happen to Indians, particularly the middle class, if NaMo comes to rule India is that we will no longer be made to pay that little annoyance of a tax called the ‘income tax’. NaMo’s Finance Minister-to-be Dr. Subramaniam Swamy has already explained his idea of a no income tax regime for India. Though it has been stalled for now, the bhakts think that Dr. Swamy will re-invent the idea at the behest of NaMo and that economic blessing will be showered on the Indians once NaMo becomes the PM, sooner rather than later. Now, that is a revolutionary idea from the ‘visionary’ NaMo, the bhakts believe.

Once NaMo starts ruling India, the world will know that the country has a strong PM. Then it is important to strengthen the nation further and the bhakts have no doubt that NaMo will take the right steps towards it. The most important thing to do then would be to increase the defence spending of the country so that we have the latest arms and ammunitions with us. We need to acquire more fighter jets, more nuclear war heads and more robust submarines, so that we have the strongest armed forces in the world. It may lead to lesser social spending on subjects like education and health; but who needs education and health when you have the strongest army in the world, the bhakts boast.

The bhakts ask other, “haven’t you seen the roads and highways of Gujarat?” and then shows that photo of some city in South Korea made famous by the online bhakts, with writings in Korean language in many places. The bhakts are generally quite innocent you know, and hence they believe such things instantly and so they will tell you that once NaMo becomes the PM of India all roads in the country will look like that in the photo of the Korean city, which the bhakt believes is that of some road in Gujarat. 

When NaMo becomes PM, the markets will rise with hope and investment from abroad will rush into India. When BJP governments came in many states in the recently conducted state elections in India, the Sensex soared and the bhakts show this as evidence that India’s economic condition will brighten up once NaMo becomes PM. They say that rupee will appreciate against dollar and will touch even Rs. 40 per dollar once NaMo becomes PM.  Nancy Powell has already come to meet NaMo and the bhakts believe that the day is not far off when Obama himself come to meet NaMo. It’s not that the bhakts need American approval for NaMo, but one can never reject if Obama appreciates NaMo, isn’t it?

All in all the bhakts think that once NaMo becomes the PM and rules India, to quote Malayalam script writer Sreenivasan’s famous dialogue, “dollar kunnukoodum, vyavasayashalakal uyarum, 5 varsham kondu nammude rajyam oru harithaswarga bhoomi aayi maarum”, which could be roughly translated as, “dollar will come in great numbers, industries will come up, within 5 years our country will become the greenest and wealthiest country in the world”. Many of us non-bhakts may think that these expectations of the NaMo-bhakts have ridiculously unsound logic, but haven’t these bhakts already Modi-fied conventional logic?

Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

For all practical considerations, the Indian democracy has become much similar to the UK and US democracy insofar as the major political parties with a national appeal are concerned. Like in those two countries, citizens’ choice has been in the main restricted to two political parties – the Congress and the BJP. 

The conservatives and the liberals have been at loggerheads in most political systems. When the Tories and the Republican Party are the conservatives in UK and US respectively, the Labour Party and the Democratic Party are the liberals. Such absolute categorisation may not be possible in the Indian context, but Congress can be considered more liberal and BJP more conservative in their overall political ideals. However in the coming general election, the choice Indians have to make would not be as easy as between the liberals and the conservatives, because it is a choice between a corrupt Congress and a communal BJP. Without any other competent alternative, the Indian public, much to its dismay, is caught between a rock and a hard place.

As has been the case with general elections in the recent past a third front, a conglomeration of many regional parties under the leadership of the national parties CPI (M) and CPI, has emerged a few months prior to the election. The 10 party front includes the four left parties, SP, JD (U), JD (S), JVM, BJD and AGP (AIADMK had been a party to it, but later opted out). It is a loose association of political parties with a proclaimed policy of keeping Congress and BJP away from power, whereas in reality, most of the leaders of these parties keep a covert desire of being the Prime Minister of India and is perhaps their sole reason to join such a political front. Without a coherent political ideal and with many internal contradictions this front is bound to crumble after the elections, if not before. If by any chance such a front comes to power in the centre, they will face a mammoth challenge of creating a common minimum programme of governance that will have a national outlook. In the absence of a strong national party in the front (the CPI (M) is a national party only in technical terms, in real terms they are now a party with only a limited influence across the country), the satraps of the regional parties will probably govern with obtuse regional outlook, which would be inimical to the future of the nation.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has come up as an alternative form of political party; a party that has come with an image of being an outsider, something that seems to have the same dislike for traditional politics played in India as has most ordinary Indians. Though it is highly unlikely that it will get more than 9-10 seats in Parliament elections, it has given India an alternative way of playing politics. Many of the practical ideas and political ideals that AAP has been practising in their short term as a political party have already had great impact in the Indian political scene. Many traditional political parties including the BJP and the Congress have already started copying them, which is a good sign for Indian democracy. These traditional parties have understood now that those are the things that ordinary Indians expect from their political parties. In that sense the arrival of AAP in the Indian political scene is a welcome development.

The Congress doesn’t seem to have any new idea with them to run the country and the fact that Congress sees Rahul Gandhi as the only option available for them shows the ideological and organisational poverty that the party is afflicted with now. To save Congress from the nadir of corruption it needs a strong leader with high level of probity, but it doesn’t seem to be forthcoming unless Congressmen drop their foolish affinity to the Nehru-Gandhi clan. 

Modi’s BJP has been at the forefront of anti-corruption crusade against the Congress. But they are committing the same crime as those they oppose. They are not doing anything against corruption per se as can be evident from the fact that they are bringing back Yedyurappa and the Reddy brothers and some others who have been facing trials on corruption charges. At least there are two ministers in Modi’s Gujarat cabinet who are facing corruption charges. Still Modi and his bhakths want us to believe that he is working tirelessly against corruption. Many land dealings that the Adani group has done in Modi's Gujarat are far from being transparent. Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP have been asking many questions relating to this to Modi, but he hasn’t given answers to any of these questions. It is very important for Narendra Modi to dispel all doubts about him by coming out openly against the accusations and coming out clean on these allegations with his answers to them, as he is the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP.

It is a shame that a democracy as vibrant as India has only two options to choose from when it comes to the decision of who would rule it. In the absence of a good option, people would be forced to decide between the lesser of the evils. However, to decide between a corrupt-inept Congress and a corrupt-communal BJP, to decide between an incompetent leader and an authoritarian leader, would indeed be a hard task for us. We Indians surely deserve better.

Who is Afraid of the Aam Aadmi?

One thing is for certain, and there could be no doubt whatsoever on it that the conventional political parties in India (read Congress, BJP, the leftists, other existing national and regional political parties) are shaken to the core with the emergence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a force to reckon with in Indian politics. With simple slogans and principled stance on many day-to-day issues of the people, it has caught the imagination of many. Its enormous popular support has forced all other parties to have a rethink on their policies and their election strategies. It is quite a fun to see how leaders of many political parties are claiming that they themselves are already aam aadmi parties. This shows that the brand ‘aam aadmi’ is becoming hugely popular and hence every party is trying to get a share of that popularity.

As is often the case with anyone or anything popular, the aam aadmi phenomenon, if one could call it so, has its share of criticisers as well. It can be seen that many political party leaders and ordinary party workers of most political parties are hell bent on finding fault with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). They suffer microscopic scrutiny from their rivals online and offline. In the social media and in traditional media there are criticisms of all kinds against AAP ranging from how impractical their policies are to how impossible it will be for a political party to survive in Indian political scene without credible and well thought out policies on economic growth, caste equations, national security and counter insurgency.

However such criticisms appear rather naive as there has never been a political party in human history that entered a political scene with well thought out policies on all issues in that political system or in the state where the party is trying to establish themselves in. It is always so that when a new political party confronts an issue they will have an internal debate and will then create a policy on that particular issue, on which they will hold onto tightly from thereon. Karl Marx’s Das Capital didn’t had ideological explanation on globalisation for the leftists to bank upon and it was later when confronted with the issues of globalisation that the Marxist Communist parties the world over deliberated on it and created a concrete policy on it. Similarly, given time, AAP will also deliberate among themselves on the various issues when they confront them and will come out with a policy stance. 

The political parties and their leaders will do well to explain what policies of AAP they find to be problematic. Are they against AAP’s policy of fighting corruption? Are they against stopping VIP culture in India? Are they against a strong Jan Lokpal? Are they against improving education standards in government schools? Are they against improving safety of women in the country? These are the main policies of AAP and if you are against these policies then you are certainly against the people of India. These are the things that Indians want and the overwhelming popularity that AAP has in India is certainly because they stand for what the Indians want.

It is very important for the people of this country to understand that those who say that the AAP phenomenon is a bubble that will burst sooner rather than later - political parties and some section of the media – are those who stand for interests of the big corporates in the country. They know that if AAP and its popularity are not demolished sooner, more people will join it and its brand of politics, which will be detrimental to the interests of the corporates. 

In the economic front there is no considerable difference in the policies of Indian National Congress (INC) and BJP. The deregulation of petroleum prices by UPA government is certainly a move towards helping corporates in the oil exploration and refining sector. When Narendra Modi led BJP won in some states in the recent state elections, the Sensex soared and BJP supporters were gung-ho that it is a sign of how Modi’s rule could reinvigorate the markets and will lead to further economic growth. However it must essentially be seen as a sign of what Modi’s corporate policies will be if he comes into power. They know that Modi will give them a free reign and will give them enough authority to make profits, even if it means putting common man’s economic security at peril. Without doubt Modi’s government will continue with the deregulation policy of the present government vis-a-vis petroleum prices. If AAP comes to power they will bring back government regulation of petrol prices (or so they say), which would be unfavourable for the corporates and the parties that take their support. It is such type of people who are afraid of the AAP and are constantly in the look out for opportunities to decimate the good-will of the party. It is the same group of people - corporates, politicians and the media – who run around saying that great calamities have happened when Arvind Kejriwal moved in an Innova or when Prashant Bhushan spoke out his opinion about Indian Army’s involvement in Kashmir. Many times before politicians have made such remarks and many times before political parties have distanced themselves from such opinions by their leaders. No sky fell down then; no sky will fall down now.

It should also be noted that all the major political parties in India were united in passing a bill that will keep them away from the ambit of RTI act. By doing so they made sure that they keep all their financial records away from public scrutiny. An effort to bring in more transparency into the working of political parties and their financial sources was thus thwarted effectively. In comparison with other established political parties in India AAP voluntarily came out publically with all documents that show the sources of their income. That was an act that showed that AAP was ready to practice what they preach. But other political parties were not ready to take over that challenge, which apparently showed that they have something to hide from the public. When political parties accept donations from the public and when they claim that they work for the public, it is their responsibility to come clean on their sources of funding. 

AAP claims to be the political party that will jettison the ‘business as usual’ mode of working of other political parties in India. That ordinary model of political one-upmanship was on public view when AAP accepted the support of INC and created a government in Delhi. When AAP was reluctant in taking the support of INC and BJP, they were criticised for being adamant and obstinate for not accepting the support; they were criticised for pushing the state into another election, which was going to cost the nation more money. But once they accepted the INC support, the same people who criticised AAP for not taking the support, started crying foul and questioned the intentions of AAP and berated them as ‘opportunistic’. The age old political mindset of Indian politicians, the wretched ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’, was the emotion of the BJP there, who was sulking at its inability to form a government in Delhi. 

When INC’s dislike for AAP is a result of AAP’s claims that they will seriously pursue corruption cases against Congress leaders, BJP’s aversion stems from the knowledge that had it been not for the emergence of AAP, BJP would have reaped the seeds of anti-incumbency against Sheila Dixit in Delhi. Had AAP supported BJP to form government in Delhi, they would have been happy and would have kept on singing AAP’s praise till the next elections.

People in India are fed up with the unscrupulous political parties and politicians. As this writer had written in one of his earlier essays, politicians epitomise all the vices that human ingenuity could invent. What we need is a new brand of politics, where promises made in election manifestos are kept in their entire essence, if not verbatim. A new brand of politics that will comprehend people’s needs and will work towards attaining them. What we need now is an army of politicians who are honest, principled and hard working, who work not for themselves or their parties, but for the people they represent. AAP claims to be such a political movement and if it can remain so all its lifetime then it is the one that Indians were looking for to change their fortunes. Let us hope that AAP will remain a principled political party devoid of all the ills that beset traditional political parties in India.

Disclaimer: This writer is not associated with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in any way.

Hope the UPA Would Come Down Crashing Now

Now that Mamata Banerjee has withdrawn her support for the UPA government in the centre, this writer, like many other common men, hope that this Manmohan Singh government would collapse. There have been few governments in the recent memory that have tested the patience of the country and its people as much as the incumbent government. As if the very many corruption skeletons that tumbled out of the government cupboards were not enough, it made the lives of the people difficult with many increases in the petrol and diesel prices and its inability to rein in inflation, thereby increases in prices of food and other essential commodities, with effective fiscal and monetary policies. The immediate reason for Mamata’s decision to pull out of the UPA is the recent anti-people policy measures of the UPA government including raising the diesel prices, restricting the supply of subsidised cooking gas to six cylinders per household, and opening up India's huge retail sector to foreign super-chains.

This is Indian politics and therefore one must be very careful while making statements on how tomorrow will unfold. Mamata’s ministers will give their resignations only on Friday, which makes one wonder if they are waiting for some compromise formula to come up so that they can stay in the UPA. Though the ministers have denied any such possibilities, one would never know. The UPA would be hoping that Mayawati with her BSP would come and rescue the government with their 21 MPs. Unlike Mulayam’s SP and Mamata’s Trinamool, who got thumping victories in the assembly elections in their respective states of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, Mayawati’s BSP won’t be all that happy with an imminent general election as they have less chances of making any gains. Moreover Mayawati is depended on the UPA government as there are many corruption cases pending against her and any government at the centre with Mulayam’s SP would spell doom to her personally.

Dr. Manmohan Singh of the UPA2 has been a disaster. When the Time Magazine called him an ‘underachiever’ and accused him of ‘unwilling to stick his neck out’, the Congress went berserk and accused the Magazine of not giving Dr. Singh a chance to be heard. Though being a great economist, Dr. Singh was unable to provide a direction to the faltering economy of the country in terms of its senile growth rate and ever increasing inflation. With Coalgate, his image as a man of impeccable integrity took a serious beating. The eternal ‘Yuvraj’ of the Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, seems to be always preparing to take up the mantle of Prime Ministership, but he never appears to be completely ready to take the responsibility.

In the eventuality of the crashing down of the present UPA government what other possibilities do we have at hand? The NDA under the command of the BJP would be the first choice for making a new government. But do they have the numbers? It is pretty unlikely that they have. LK Advani is the leader of the party but it is to be seen if he gets enough support within his party to become the prime minister. Narendra Modi seems to be the choice of many in his party for being their prime ministerial candidate and you can always find many comparisons being made in the media between Manmohan Singh and Modi. However, if Narendra Modi is the prime ministerial candidate then there are fewer chances for the NDA to survive as Nitish Kumar and his JD (U) are opposed in making Modi the prime minister.

What are the chances for the creation of a third front with the leftists in the lead? Many discussions are being held for a non-Congress, non-BJP third front. Mulayam Singh still has his prime ministerial ambitions intact and buoyed by the recent electoral gains made by SP in Uttar Pradesh he would well be taking a lead in making a third front possible. CPI (M), CPI, RSP, Forward Block, Telgu Desam Party, Biju Janata Dal and the AIADMK would all possibly join with SP. With the tension that JD (U) is facing in the NDA on the issue of Narendra Modi being made the prime ministerial candidate, one would never know what Nitish Kumar would decide once there is a possibility of a third front.

As this is Indian politics you can’t be sure what would happen in the future and what all changes can one see in the political dynamics in the country in the event of the fall of the UPA government. This writer would personally like to see the emergence of a third front and a government being made by this third front, with the leftists participating in the government. The leftists have been making all sorts of accusations on the UPA government on the mismanagement of the financial sector, retail sector and the energy sector, to name a few. It seems that the leftists have a magic wand in hand for all the curses of the country. Let them come to the government and using their magic wand bring back the Administered Price Mechanism for petrol and diesel prices and roll back the recent hikes in those prices, control inflation, bring down high prices of commodities and all in all present a new development direction for the economy of the country.

With the government of the third front at the centre, with many regional parties, there could be a danger to the federal nature of our democratic system. But with the availability of the leftists in the front, with a national policy on most matters concerning the country, one could safely imagine that federalism would not be compromised.

For the time being let us stop making predictions on how things would unfold and wait for political parties in the country to make their calls. However, this writer joins with many of his other countrymen in wishing that the UPA2 government would bite the dust sooner rather than later.

Blame Not the Communists, for Violence is in the DNA of Communism

At a time when allegations that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is behind the murder of TP Chandrasekharan in Kerala is going the rounds, one would have imagined that the party members would tone down their violent rhetoric for some time. But the party surprised one and all as its members kept on going with their calls for violence. If MM Mani was boasting how the party had killed many of its enemies in the past, many other leaders of the party from seniors like Ilamaram Karim, MV Jayarajan, P Jayarajan to juniors like M Swaraj and Shamseer have continued with their tirade against the police and the media whom they consider their rivals. On the hartal day, which was called for as a protest on the arrest of P Jayarajan, the party workers went on the rampage and destroyed public property in the state and attacked commuters at will. However if one carefully examines the different Communist movements in the world one should not be surprised on the violent rhetoric of the party members as one can find that violence is in the DNA of Communism.

Marxian ideology, based on which present day communism (political system) works, is basically an economic and socio-political ideology, which is humane in its spirit. Karl Marx believed in the ultimate creation of a proletarian state where the proletariat or the working class has control of all political power. Political practitioners of this ideology, like Lenin, Stalin, Mao and others, believed that this political power can be acquired only by violent struggle, which they call revolution. As Vladimir Lenin once said, "the supersession of the bourgeois state by the proletarian state is impossible without violent revolution." In this violent struggle, or revolution, the communists eliminated their political opponents resulting in mass killings which can only be called genocide in all the countries where communism emerged. These mass killings were at its worst in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, in People’s Republic of China under Mao Tse-tung and in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. 

Stalin’s reign in the Soviet Union can be termed as a period of Red Terror, where as many as three million people were ruthlessly executed and murdered, according to official records made available to the outside world after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This include people who were executed for political offenses, deaths in Gulag, the government administered forced labour camp and deaths during the forced resettlement. The Great Purge, Stalin’s execution of various people in his effort to solidify his position as the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, involved execution by a gunshot to the back of the head, torture by beatings while in ‘investigative custody’ and overwork and starvation in the Gulag camp. Joseph Stalin, who many communists, including those in India, consider to be a great leader, is no one but a mass murderer, who can compete with Adolf Hitler in his brutality and terror.

After the communist revolution when Mao Tse-tung seized power in People’s Republic of China, his policies and political purges resulted in the death of millions of people. After studying the experiences of the Soviet Revolution, Mao came to believe that violence is necessary to achieve what he believed would be an ‘ideal society’. So he planned and executed violence on a grand scale and killed counterrevolutionaries, political opponents and those whom he considered disloyal to him and his ideas. He believed that for agrarian reforms to become a reality one-tenth of the peasants would have to be destroyed. Deng Xiaoping, considered as the architect of China’s transformation into a market economy and its present day prosperity, was purged twice by Mao during the Cultural Revolution as their political ideologies were at odds. Mao gave his Red Guards all rights and power to abuse and execute the revolution’s ‘enemies’.

A detailed account of mass killings under communist regimes in different countries of the world can be found out in Wikipedia, which forms the basis of the above mentioned facts. These killings by the communists have been so widespread, extensive and rampant that it could well form a subject of study in itself.

History of communist regimes and communist parties all over the world is riddled with such instances of violence, mass killings, torture and executions. Marxism is an absolutist ideology and the communism that it wants to achieve ultimately is all about attaining absolute power and this absolute power can only be attained by silencing critics and maiming all who stand against the ideology. Therefore communism without violence is non-existent and if communism has to prosper it needs to be violent. Communism is also about secrecy and hardly can an outsider be able to see through and understand what is happening inside the party and if this secrecy is lost, again the communist party will perish. A practical example of the same factor was seen in Soviet Union, where as a result of Gorbachev’s crusade to introduce Perestroika (restructuring) and Glasnost (openness) the party collapsed and as a result the Soviet Union disintegrated into small countries.  The openness and transparency that Gorbachev wanted to bring inside the party was antithetic to the secretive style of the party and hence it was not able to withstand it and thus collapsed. One can also notice that communist parties have always failed to come to power in countries where there is a healthy functioning of democracy. They have always excelled in places where there is a predominantly one party rule; see examples in China, North Korea and Cuba, where the party has been in power for very many years. In these countries, democratic dissent is often crushed, protests trampled and those who oppose the party are always put behind the bars or executed. In communist regimes there is hardly any personal freedom and citizens’ liberty is always under threat, if at all it is present. These countries are nothing but totalitarian states, where every aspects of public and private life are regulated and controlled by the regimes and citizens are forced to live as the regimes would tell them to live.

One of the gravest crises that the communist parties in India face is the inability to conceal their violent natural disposition and to present a facade of peaceful nature in front of the public. In a country like India, which has a proud history of non-violent struggle to attain freedom under the guidance and leadership of none other than Mahatma Gandhi, it is impossible to influence people and to sustain their confidence for a long period unless you are a party of the non-violent, peaceful patriots. Communism will survive in India only if it abandons violence and embrace peace and non violence; but as its genetic makeup is one of violent struggle and violent revolution, it would be very difficult for the communist parties to transform themselves into a non-violent entity, where in lies their real challenge.

CPI (M) in a Fix Over Political Murders in Kerala

The killing of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader TP Chandrasekharan in the night of 4th May at Kozhikode has shocked and outraged the conscience of the state. A defenceless man was mercilessly hacked to death in the dead of the night by some brutes, who planned and murdered the ex-CPI (M) leader in cold blood. The unidentified assailants who were travelling in a car, hurled country made bombs at TP Chandrasekharan, who was riding a bike, and hacked him to death using sharp weapons. This murder with a lot of political overtones has since become a matter of great political controversy in the state and it has put the CPI (M) in a fix as many of its activists and local leaders are getting arrested on murder charges.

No other political occurrence since TP murder has shocked and appalled the state as much as the hate speech by MM Mani, the Idukki District Secretary of the CPI (M). His revelation that the CPI (M) had in the past planned and killed their political enemies shocked the whole state. It was not a general statement, but the speech was made with all the specifics of the killing mentioned in it, about the places of those killings, about who was killed and about how each of them was killed. He boasted that the party activists shot dead one political foe, another one was beaten to death and a third one stabbed to death. MM Mani also said that CPI (M) had often eliminated political foes and many Congress activists at his place stayed in the Congress party at the mercy of the CPI (M). He had also said that whenever his party had eliminated their political foes they had always proudly accepted it publicly. The hostile body language with which MM Mani was speaking was quite uncharacteristic of a politician. His ludicrous assertions landed him in trouble as his own party disowned his comments, made statements that MM Mani deviated from party line and whatever he said was not party policy. He landed in further trouble as the Police booked him on conspiracy and murder charges. MM Mani’s statements not only embarrassed the CPI (M), but put the party in the defensive in West Bengal, as they are fighting the Trinamool Congress’ violence in that state.  

Now that the CPI (M) is in trouble after many of its activists and local committee and area committee members are being arrested in the TP murder case, they are trying to defend the party by taking party supporters to the street. Leaders like Ilamaram Kareem are not mincing any words in his accusation of the Police and Congress government on arresting party activists on TP murder. The party accuse that this is political vendetta by the Congress and the party and its activists have no connection with the murder of TP Chandrashekaran. If that is the case then it would have been wise for the party to challenge the arrests in a court of law and not in the streets as they are doing right now. Only the court would be able to find out and judge who is really behind the killing of TP and since that time it would be stupid to predict who the perpetrator is. However the panic with which the CPI (M) is reacting to this murder case makes it appear that they have something to hide. Therefore it would be wise for the party to take this easy and challenge the case lawfully whenever the case appears in a court of justice, to remove all the doubts from the minds of people of Kerala.

Making a list of political foes and eliminating them one by one is a style of medieval politics and it has no place in modern day political scene. If the statements made by MM Mani that the CPI (M) has always committed that as a party policy is true, then it is a serious crime and people of our country would never pardon the party for that. If the boasting made by MM Mani is found out to be true by the court of law in our country then the party must be banned in the country. However the people of India hope that what MM Mani said in his speech was just a boasting and there is no truth in it as it is very important to have a strong left force in the country to guard against the very serious and dangerous rightward movement of the country in the economic and political spheres of life.

Fifth Minister Row – UDF Appears a Pack of Jokers

Muslim League has got their fifth minister in the UDF government and as of now the most critical issue that threatened the existence of the ministry appears to have died down. However it must be noted that the shameful way in which the Congress party, the leader of the UDF coalition, gave in to the demands of their junior partner is a sign to the future and it will give other coalition partners more courage to flex their muscles and demand many more things from the Congress. In the name of ‘coalition dharma’ Congress has created a scenario in the state where the regional parties of the coalition have more power in the government than the national party, which is not a favourable situation.

Congress’ headache has only started now. With the Neyyattinkara election quite imminent, the way in which the fifth minister allowed to the Muslim League has angered the religious majority groups like the NSS and SNDP will have its effect. Though the NSS and SNDP don’t have the sort of influence on their respective communities as that of the Christian organisations, their influence can’t be completely ignored. The reshuffle in the cabinet done by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to appease the NSS and SNDP doesn’t appear to have impressed them. By relinquishing the Home Ministry and giving it to Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, a member of the majority community, the Chief Minister was trying to pacify the NSS and SNDP.

Though India is a secular country, caste and religious sentiments are still quite high among the people. Therefore political parties also do consider these factors in determining their candidates during election and in determining ministers during the creation of a cabinet. Even the left parties, who profess not only secularism, but even atheism, are known to give a lot of consideration to the caste and religious sentiments while selecting their candidates and ministers, because they know that only then they can have any realistic chance to gain power. However all responsible political parties should know the limit to which they can consider this caste factor, for once it goes over that limit it would be a threat to the secular fabric of our country.

The fifth minister row has made the UDF appear to be a pack of jokers who are ready to do whatever to hung on to power. If the Muslim League had threatened that they will pull out of the UDF, the Congress party should have told them that they are free to move out. Then the state would have got the chance to see how the LDF and Muslim League would have handle the situation. Would the LDF accept Muslim League in their front? Would League and LDF in that way create a new government? Would the CPI (M), who is quite averse of Manjalankuzhi Ali, make him a minister as League wished? These all would have been questions that we Keralites would have got an answer to. Though CPI (M) had once said that they will never create a front with Muslim League as it is a religious party, it is almost sure that they would have accepted league had they come out of UDF. For usurping power they would have no prick of conscience to team up with any religious party as was seen during last parliament election when they partnered with and shared dias with PDP.

As this writer had earlier observed, politicians epitomise all the vices that human ingenuity could invent. They can do anything to cling on to power, can partner with anyone, can embrace the ones they had showered expletives earlier, can disown anyone who have been with them for years, can change their promises anytime and can fool people with ridiculous audacity. And if about the present UDF government, it must be seen how long they can go on with such demanding coalition partners. If the Congress party continues to buckle down under the pressure of the coalition partners it would surely cut a sorry figure in front of the people and the nation.

The Folly of Celebrating Contempt of Court

MV Jayarajan, a leader of the CPI (M) who was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment by Kerala High Court for contempt of court is out on bail and he was given a rousing welcome by the party cadre and leaders. When the High Court ordered to put Mr. Jayarajan behind the bars without giving him bail or time to appeal against the verdict, legal experts pointed out that it is against principles of natural justice as in Indian legal system bail is the rule, jail is the exception. There is no doubt that the verdict of the Supreme Court in quashing High Court order and granting bail to Mr. Jayarajan is a victory for the CPI (M); however to celebrate the release on bail of a person convicted of contempt of court is an absolute folly which has no place in a democracy like India.

It must be noted that the Supreme Court of India has only upheld Mr. Jayarajan’s right to bail and hasn’t given any verdict on the charges of contempt of court. The celebration on account of his release on bail was made in a magnificent fashion as if he was acquitted of all charges. It is for the leaders of the party to think how morally or politically correct it is for a political party working in Indian democracy to do such a thing. In a democracy it is quite true that political parties carry the greatest worth as they directly represent the people. But it is incumbent upon all political parties and their leaders and activists to respect other democratic institutions, particularly the court. By no stretch of imagination is it a matter of pride for political parties to celebrate the deeds of someone who has been convicted of contempt of court. In the past, during pre-independence period, it was certainly a matter of pride as the courts were illegitimate institutions governed by laws and rules made by the British, who were unlawful occupiers of our country. However in present day courts are democratic institutions established under the constitution of India and any denunciation of such courts is the denunciation of democracy, denunciation of the constitution.

Having said that this writer is not at all making an impression that democratic courts are above criticism, but one should maintain certain level of decency in the choice of words in such criticisms. Mr. Jayarajan crossed all boundaries of decency when he used the Malayalam word “shumbhan” (that roughly translates to fool) to describe judges of the court. He made further mockery of the Indian judicial system when he unsuccessfully made arguments by bringing Malayalam and Sanskrit professors from colleges to establish that the word didn’t mean fool but have some positive meaning.

Politicians are supposed to be the role models, watching and emulating whom the younger generations of a country would become ideal citizens. However the standards set by present generation of politicians is so poor that it is always better for the young people not to make them their role models. Politicians cutting across party lines use such bad and terrible words in their criticism of their opponents that it is honourable not to speak about it. Kerala, a state that prides itself of far better social indicators and education in comparison to other states in India, has been greatly ashamed by the recent conduct of politicians - of UDF as well as LDF - who have used foul language and did uncivilised deeds in the legislature and outside. If they don’t mend their ways sooner, Keralites would lose the trust in them and that would not be a good sign for the state of democracy in Kerala.

Certainly the CPI (M) has set a very bad example in democratic India by celebrating the release of a leader who has been convicted for contempt of court. By doing that the party has sent a message to the civil society that contempt of court is not a crime but a matter of great pride and glory which anyone and everyone can follow and gain appreciation of the crowd. Had it been so that MV Jayarajan had accepted his mistake or the court found that all allegations against him on matters of contempt of court were void, it would have been fine to bestow on him such lavish praise; but incidentally it is not the case. Freedom of speech and expression that Indian constitution grants us comes with reasonable restrictions. Therefore the claim that what Mr. Jayarajan did was upholding that freedom holds no water. This writer wants to point out that getting behind the bars for contempt of a constitutional institution is a matter of shame and disgrace and not pride, if anyone holds such a view.

It is precisely true that politicians epitomise all the vices that human ingenuity could invent, a fact proven time and time again by the politicians of all hues in Kerala. Some sort of shock treatment from the people is needed for these politicians to understand their mistakes and blunders. Whenever anyone criticise the politicians for being unscrupulous they would make a huge cry saying that such opinaions and criticisms would belittle the whole tribe of politicians in the eyes of people which would be inimical to the existence of democracy in the country. But they themselves often use harsh words to criticise the judicial system in the country knowing very well that rubbishing courts is as inimical to democracy as is belittling politicians, as they claim. Politicians in our country often behave as spoilt brats and are incorrigible to a great extend and the day that they would have a rude awakening is not any far off as people have reached their threshold of patience.