Congress Party & It's Impotent Leadership

The debate of what method must an affected party (Politically Speaking) should approach is as old as Indian National Freedom movement. While majority of congress party insisted on the method of petitioning and pleading to the oppressor (British) for a better deal without even realizing as to why British has colonized India in the first place, there was a significant section of Indian intelligentsia that contended with the top leadership of Congress that what they are doing is not only illogical but meaningless and argued for a support to some form of armed resistance. Such voices were not only sidelined but maligned as extremists or terrorists. That is why you have had Nehru writing to British Govt. referring to Netaji. Subash Chandra Bose as “Your War Criminal “.  And congress leadership i.e., Nehru & family hid their mediocrity under the garb of Moderates. This debate of Moderates v/s Extremists is very old in that sense. But what is more appalling is that congress as a political entity even after independence continued the same approach of petitioning and pleading with sworn enemies. This Political mendicancy is a symbol of impotent leadership which Congress party espouses. Hence, the non-action of congress government after 2008 terrorist attack was not a surprise to many, because pleading & petitioning is central to its obscurantist political thinking which it uses to cover up its impotent governance. 1971 Bangladesh liberation is indeed an exception.

It is only in this aspect the current day Modi govt. is different from Congress, for it does not believe in pleading & petitioning, that too when you are in a position of strength. Every political action warrants an equal amount of political reaction; at times such an action may be proactive. Hence, after a militant attack on Army in Manipur, the way Indian Army reacted and political will displayed by Modi as a head of Indian State is a departure from impotent leadership style of Congress.

It is fine if our armchair media commentators don’t want to give credit to Modi, as such an act of appreciating Modi would amount to moving away from their ideological position which they are not ready to do, even if it is considered as intellectual dishonesty. The impassioned argument of political parties, especially Congress is that the credit for this Hot Pursuit in Myanmar goes to Indian Army and not to Modi Govt. is certainly laughable. Are they ready to say that Indira Gandhi had no role in 1971 Bangladesh liberation, and the whole credit goes “ONLY” to Indian Army?

Who is getting sleepless nights?

The moment we have had the announcement of BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate we have been seeing all non-sense let loose in an attempt to belittle Narendra Modi. But the question is, are they belittling themselves or Mr.Modi? The recent remarks made by SP’s Naresh Agarwal that Mr.Modi a chaay waala (Tea seller) cannot aspire for PM’s job is truly telling of their attititude. Where in the constitution of this country it says that a chaay waalaa cannot become a prime minister or is there any special law which says a former chaaywaala cannot become one?

It purely shows the frustration of Political parties who are living and fooling people with their bankrupted ideologies. Now what qualification did Dimple Yadav and Akhilesh, for that matter what qualification does Mulayam Singh Yadav has to be a CM?

Cannot agree more with Arun Jaitely who said that Modi defied the conventional system. A cobbler could rise up to become a president of the powerful country – USA. What qualification does Nehru have to become a prime minister? What qualification did DevaGowda have?

What qualification does RaulVinci has? Where people lie about their (literally liars) very education aspire to become PM why cannot an honest man who has set record for good governance.

If there is really some worth and credibility left in them they should start answering the questions which Mr. Modi is posing on Governance and development aspects instead of talking rubbish. This applies well to Congress also.

Now Naresh Agarwal should be asking himself what they have done to UP with their Goonda Raj. This only proves the Slave mentality of Naresh. In parties which are in control of dynasties we cannot expect anything better. All the dynasties - #Congress, #DMK, JD(S), SP and others we should be really careful about. In 2014 I hope people will give these feudal lords a fitting reply.

Why Terrorism and National Security will never be an election issue in India?

Recently we have seen current Gujarat Chief minister raising some security issues in public speeches as a part of his campaign against the incumbent congress such as issues like border incursions by China and Pakistan then the subsequent killing and beheading of Indian soldiers. We are still not sure if it will be an election issue. Can any political leader be sure that by campaigning on issues of national security and terrorism he can change the voting behavior of people in a country like India? We must admit that India is a divided house on different fronts linguistically, politically, economically not to mention the caste word though there is some kind of loose knit of cultural unity but that alone is not a reason to celebrate.

Why border incursions by Pakistan and China in one part of the country are not taken seriously in the other parts of country or when Maoists kill people why people do not react at all in front of ballot? Why ruling government, political leaders are not held responsible for their inefficiency? Why people do not punish the rulers for their inaction when elections ensue? This is a complex question. The examining of this issue is not without a danger of being caught within the dichotomy of right wing and left wing.

Off late I have been reading Max Abrahms a terrorism researcher and professor. I recommend that you too should read him. Max asserts that in most cases in west a terrorist attack generally, polarizes voters towards right and those parties stand to benefit because it is generally assumed that right wing parties are strong in their views and policies on national security. It is especially the case in Israel.

In my opinion poverty and illiteracy are the two main reasons why people really do not worry about terrorist attacks. If people have taken Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008 seriously, Congress party would not have made it to power again in 2009 for a full 5 year term. There was nothing tangible done in reaction to 2008 terrorist attacks apart from dousing victim's feelings by hanging Ajmal Kasab through judicial trial by Indian government.  It is alleged that hanging of Kasab too was timed in such a way that it will benefit ruling party. This is just to prove that government is tough on terrorism.

The real story is nearly 50% of children under 5 year age are undernourished. A significant section of Indian populace do not get food to eat three times a day. And that is why you can have governments which will remain inefficient on every front for 4 years and by fifth year they would release plethora of schemes targeting specific vote banks through freebies and concessions. People do not mind, they would simply vote for the incumbent.

Read Maslow's theory 

Maslow's hierarchy theory comes in handy for a comparison between an Indian voter and a voter in west. Our typical Indian voter is struggling to meet his physical needs, when that elementary expectation is not met he will not think about the needs of safety and self esteem which is why when Tamil fishermen are killed by Sri Lankan navy in extreme south people are hardly bothered about it in Delhi. And if some Pakistani terrorists and army kill Indian soldiers people do not react in North east.

Indian voter is poor, illiterate, has a short term memory, he forgives grave mistakes easily. For people activism literacy is important. Extreme poverty obstructs men to become literate. So political parties keep them in constant poverty. If you are illiterate you cannot question the government. Voters forget all mistakes committed by politicians with one freebie gesture say free rice per month, quota reservation etc., it is not their fault because that is their immediate priority and they are still lurching in the layer of physical needs on Maslow's table of hierarchy theory.

In west people are literate and are well aware of their rights hence politicians are compelled to go to people directly to present their case. In case of a terrorist attack, people unite and make their political rulers answer. For the citizens of west physical needs are no more a priority but for us it is.

This is not to discount the fact that we have united resolutely whenever there was a full scale aggression by enemy, but then too people never punished governments whose misdemeanor caused serious national security crises, 1962 Chinese aggression is a case in point. If people had taken it seriously congress would not have never made it to power. Let's collectively conquer the physical needs of an ordinary Indian citizen so that his voting behavior is not affected by physical needs alone and he also analyzes facts before he decides to whom he should vote.

Politics make strange bed fellows?

The most talked about incident in the recent days is JD (U) unilaterally deciding to get itself out of BJP led NDA on a very flimsy pretence that Mr. Narendra Modi has been elevated as a poll committee chief of BJP.  Though Nitish’s personal ego never allowed him to share any platform with Mr. Modi especially in the run up to last Bihar Assembly Elections and his ego has never waded from then on. Though many contradicted Mr. Kumar that why he suddenly woke up to a term coined and tailor made by congress i.e., Secularism? Most of the media and including BJP reminded him how he showered praise on Modi in the immediate after math of Gujarat riots, but I do not want to go to that far. But very recently JDU said that Modi is campaign committee chief for BJP not NDA. Then what happened in a matter of few days?

Nitish who made his political fortune by opposing congress until recently, began to warm up to the very congress he has been fighting against all his life. Yes. We knew that there are no permanent friends and permanent enemies in politics, only permanent interests but this unexpected flip flop from him shows that he simply over estimated his popularity, and is desperately trying to cash in on Modiphobia which is a media created smoke.

Is this all about Muslim Votes or does he himself aspires to become a prime minister or is it true that he cannot stomach the fact that Modi is increasingly becoming popular? It was often told by neutralists that for BJP and JDU each other’s support is inevitable for each other. Now that one has gone rougue on new found secularism and is ready to enter in to an intercourse with his onetime enemy – Congress, but not anymore. If he thinks that by breaking friendship with BJP he can gain few Muslim votes then it must be realized that gullibility of Muslim voters is fast eroding. In the post poll scenario I will not be surprised to see Nitish extending his friendship to Modi. For now two former enemies are friends, congress and JDU, for JDU doom is not too far as it betrayed not BJP but people of Bihar.

BJP & Inner Party Democracy

The recent debacle of Shri Advani‘s resignation and then reverting his decision after consultations proves once again that it is only in BJP people can agree to disagree and an individual’s will not to be imposed on others unlike Congress. In an era where political parties are run like family businesses, BJP is the only party to reckon with when it comes to putting basic tenets of democracy in to practice. Though I would not be able to comment on what made Advani to take his resignation back, but the very resignation in firstly place is ill timed and did not go well with current situation. There is no one man decision, it is all decided by a group of members – Parliamentary Board whose collective majority decision stands, at least that is how it appears. Elders always want the younger to take cue from their gestures and they do not prefer to say it explicitly and the younger want to pretend as if they have not understood these gestures though they do. It is hard to believe that because of one specific incident he took that extreme action but it is a compounded reaction of acts over a period time which he did not like.

All the while BJP has been talking about Inner party democracy, meaning which if parliamentary board consists of 9 members for example and 8 members agree with a decision then it simply becomes a collective decision it should not matter if one (Advani ?) disagrees. By putting his papers Advani has sent out a wrong message that all these days that it was only he who took the decision unilaterally and other had to just agree on it. So this time nobody agreed and he resigned? One of my friends recently told me that if a politician writes a memoir he must not continue in active politics, I am not sure how relevant it is but that seems to be the practice. So I think he must have gracefully stepped down after publishing “My Life My country” but he remained. I can understand why Swapan Das Gupta burst out after Advani’s resignation. I am too deeply anguished by this.

Even after I have grown up and I am on my own but if I do not listen to an advice of my parent’s and act on my own volition, elders do not like it. They complain to neighbors that their son is not heeding to their advice, without realizing the fact that they are weakening their own and family’s prestige in society. Advani did exactly the same, he has been saying few things to the younger ones with in the four walls, and then he started to complain to neighbors ie., attacking his own party in blogs for quite some time and once he realized that it did not work out, at the right moment he pulled the rug. All the while younger ones pretended that the father is happy because he did not say it explicitly what his problems are.

At times elders too misjudge, opposing Modi’s elevation is one such example. There is no question of whether he is a popular leader and there is no interest to debate on how he has become so popular, it is enough that people started to picture him as one solution for all their woes. When a foreigner/s is looting the country with the help of locals we needed a full strength to counter them and his act was a shocker to all.

Nobody denies you are a father of your daughter or son but expecting them to behave the way you like or do what you want even after they have attained the capability to take independent decisions for the benefit of whole family is uncalled for.