Indian National Congress, its heir apparent, and Indian politics

 Indian National Congress, Its Heir Apparent, and Indian Politics


Congress party’s debacle in the recently concluded state elections was on expected lines for many independent observers like me who watch politics from a distance.  The party, which governed India, like always, baring few aberrations here and there, is today struggling to survive.

To begin with, during post-independence era, Congress ruled the country without a hitch because of lack of credible opposition.  The sympathy wave post deaths of its leaders too brought it back to power twice.  It faced real opposition only in the late 70s. Then, the only instance when the opposition was able to complete its full term was from 1998 to 2004 when Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the prime minister and completed its full term.  Therefore, by and large, Congress really had its way when it came to ruling the country.

The Nehru-Gandhi family has had always been the glue of the party, and things have always revolved around it.  This has encouraged sycophancy, which in turn has made the party vulnerable to management problems like poor decision making.

Some musty decisions taken in the near past have cost the party heavily.  This took away all the goodwill it enjoyed during UPA1.  The staleness was evident when Congress party announced quota for Muslims of UP.  Muslims understood their fallacious intent and completely shunned the Congress party.  Nevertheless, UP campaign of the party was very aggressive, but without genuineness and was always viewed with a doubt by the UP voter.  Instead an honest appeal to the voters without any political posturing could have garnered them more votes.  In fact, Mr. Rahul Gandhi would have done much better without Digvijay Singh and Salman Khurshid in UP. 

Sycophants usually lack talent and leadership qualities.  Look around any Gandhi and you will see people with zero mass appeal. This style of functioning has created a void between its voters and central leadership. The void became so deep and wide that The Gandhis couldn’t save their own turf.

Another issue Congress has is lethargy.  They take ages to take decisions.  UPA-1 in its common minimum program promised to spent 6% on education and 2-3% on healthcare.  Other issues like administrative reforms, judicial reforms, panchayati raj, women reservation, separate Telangana state have been in limbo, even after eight long years.

Dynastic politics, due to its very existence at the top, is something that Congress has not been able to discourage in the party. This has also alienated the voters.  Goa is a classic example of this with 11 out of 40 seats went to few families of Congress members.  This made voters angry, and they aggressively voted against the party.

Congress party’s heir apparent, Mr. Rahul Gandhi, should start doing things on his own and stop taking advice from others.  After all, he is in his 40s and can understand good versus evil.  He should take control, come out in the open, deal with the issues head on, make some mistakes, and learn from them.  He should brew his own ideas instead of following others.  He should think and should act like a leader if he wishes to be one.

Congress might face tough times going forward.  BJP, on the other hand, doesn’t look very strong and therefore we may not see coalition politics ending very soon, ahh!  What a pity?

State Elections 2012 – Who is the real winner?

 State Elections 2012 - Who Is The Real Winner?

The state elections of 2012 that took place this week are finally over.  Five states went to polls and out of them, two (Punjab and Goa) clearly went in favor of the BJP.  One, Uttarakhand is tied very closely and could go either way.  Only Manipur gave the Congress something to smile about.  Uttar Pradesh once again brought back to power, a regional party and completely ignored the national parties.  BJP and Congress expectedly finished third and fourth respectively.

These state elections left the Congress party in a very bad shape.  For political parties, losing and winning elections is the part of the game, but the manner in which Congress lost the election cannot just be ignored and needs serious introspection by the congress top brass.

Let’s take Punjab first; they could not throw out the incumbent government of the Akalis even though Punjab has a history of replacing governments every 5 years.  In Goa, Congress was in power and were defeated convincingly by the BJP.  State of Congress is so unfriendly in Goa that a so-called right-wing Hindu party got votes from the Catholics of Goa.  The anger and frustration against the incumbent Congress was also evident from an unprecedented 82% voter turnout this time. The real Congress’ debacle came from UP, and this very much establishes the fact that something is horribly wrong with the Congress.  In UP, the party was unable to even save its bastion like Rai Bareli, Amethi, and Sultanpur.  Out of the 15 assembly seats from these areas, it could only manage to win just 2.

Congress itself is to blame for this poor showing.  Today the party is behaving like an arrogant fat cat that drinks milk with closed eyes and roars if you interrupt.  Several corruption scams came up during its regime.  Instead of dealing corruption head on, they tried to defame those who were fighting for corruption.  The way they handled Baba Ramdev and Team Anna and the whole Lokpal episode has not gone down well.  Every time you can close your eyes like a cat when you steal the milk, but you cannot fool the people all the time.  Corruption may not be as big an issue as an inflation or governance, but it nags with the subconscious mind of an average voter.  Congress has failed to acknowledge the fact that it is seriously tainted and needs immediate corrective steps.  An arrogant Congress drank bad milk and now is complaining of stomach ache and may fall very sick if not treated immediately.  They should immediately consider demands of the civil society of an effective Lokpal and come out clean against corruption in order to change its image.  Another reason for the poor performance is the lack of trust of the people in Congress.  After many attempts to woo the Muslim voters, the party has failed to convince them. It needs to correct this trust deficit.

The BJP, on the other hand, may find solace that it has done pretty well by grabbing Goa from the Congress party and keeping Punjab in its belt, but BJP too is crippled with several issues like lack of strong leadership in the center and lack of rural presence.  Mr. Advani has a very low visibility and appeal among the masses.  Mr. Modi is not acceptable to many political parties.  The second-line leadership is extremely talented and deserves to come forward, but needs direction from the RSS.  The magical spurt in BJP’s tally when counting began in UP and then the sudden slowdown demonstrates the BJP is largely a party with an urban presence.  It needs to touch base with the rural masses in order to improve its tally.  How can a national party in India do well if it has a low-rural base?

There are a few winners of this election like election commission, but the real winner of this election is the voter who once again managed to establish that he is supreme by voting out corrupt and arrogant governments.  Rahul Gandhi might have lost the election, but he has won many hearts.  Also, winners are well-educated, fluent, English-speaking candidates from UP. They are refreshingly new faces which bring hope for UP and make us believe that India is changing.

Has Arvind Kejriwal Said The Ugly Truth?

 Has Arvind Kejriwal Said The Ugly Truth?

Arvind Kejriwal spoke something that is hogging the limelight since yesterday.  Social media also is abuzz with what he said and the reactions of political parties after his comments.  Twitter is also adding a lot of spice to this

In his speech, he said parliament has become a problem rather than a solution.  After the last session of parliament, I feel there is so much truth in what Arvind is saying.  After all, parliament in toto failed to deliver what was promised by none other than our honorable prime minister to the people of this country.  An act which could deter people from doing corruption.  Since then, I have no doubts in my mind that parliament can easily be manipulated by people with vested interests.

Everybody saw how the parliament was completely rigged by someone as unknown and insignificant as Rajniti Prasad Yadav.  Nobody even knew about him before his dishourable act of bravery. (don't want to go into the debate who were his masters)

Those who believe it is a mistake to undermine our parliament should also explain what Rajniti Prasad Yadav did.  Rajniti Prasad tore and threw a bill in front of our prime minister and went scot-free.  Is this a democratic act?  Is he democratic?  Doesn’t it indirectly bring disgrace or disrepute to our parliament.  Therefore someone like me, an average Indian citizen by the way, feels the same like Arvind Kejriwal.  What democracy is this when a single person does not allow to pass the bill.  Why can’t we have a provision to punish these acts.  He and a few men behind him completely wished away the desire of billions to have an effective Lokpal.  This demonstrates lack of accountability from our MPs and indirectly from our parliament.

Massive corruption cases have come forward in the recent past.  The magnitude and frequency of these scams have shocked many like me.  They have brought to the fore the need for an effective body to tackle corruption like a Lokpal.  If we put to rest for a while the stupid argument of BJP Vs Congress’ betterness and think in totality, it is the parliament that has collectively failed to deliver.  Delivery is lacking because it is governed by people with lethargy or malevolence and that is the point Arvind is making.

Parliament represents our democracy.  Few people with power and money are taking advantage of the democratic setup and its loopholes for their own benefit.  In this process, they are manipulating everything including media and distort all the facts and findings that people of this country should know.  Political parties seem to have lost all their ideologies in the way and their sole objective is to gain or stay in power.

Arvind’s statement has many takers today.  In fact, the number has gone up especially after the last session of parliament.

Political parties should clean up their acts and should have some decorum both inside and outside parliament before criticizing Arvind.  They should not give people like Arvind an opportunity to criticize.  If they ignore his voice, then it will echo in large numbers and then what will suffer is our parliament as more and more people will lose faith in it.

Congress + BJP - Too Wishful Thinking?

The title of my post itself is self-explanatory that the idea of congress and BJP coming together is very thoughtless and stupid, but hold on….. before you completely write off this thought…. think about those smarty pants who are working sanely inside and outside the parliament, they have run out of ideas too.

This idea is what is the need of the hour, rather than what is feasible or possible.  This idea is a necessity rather than possibility.  We need to think out of the box.

India is at a crossroad of either becoming a superpower of the future, or it can easily lose its way.  The threat of the latter is more evident today.


This thought of two main political parties coming together to form the government is what our parliamentary democracy is all about.  This is what our people (in a larger context) want - stability, reforms moving forward, decision making, and large investments in infrastructure.

India needs a start that we haven’t got in a long time.  We, the people of this country, collectively need to start somewhere.

One song that is relevant in that context is “Lets get it started in here” (Black-eyed peas).  The song too says “get stupid, get started”.

We desperately need to do some stupid things to start with.

After seeing the agile debate in the Rajya Sabha on the Lokpal issue, I believe the lawyers in the parliament always hijack the whole debate by displaying their articulating skills in the parliament, and we start comparing them against each other.  We need someone who can bring forth an idea whether stupid or not, does not matter.

Too much debate has already happened on the circumstances that we find ourselves in - constitution, parliamentary democracy, civil society, who is more corrupt than whom, right or left, but one point is missing and that is how to move forward?

There is really nothing good happening for India right now.  (Cricket not good, economy in shambles, serious global crisis, corruption at the peak, low moral values, and scam-ridden government).  We are stuck at a point for too long.  Therefore we need a starter to start our national engine and move ahead.

I know I am too philosophical and may be impractical here, but this idea could take us somewhere as a nation.

On a lighter note, it has always been the regional parties who take the national parties for a ride; this could give the regional parties something to worry about.  Imagine no pressure from the people like Jayalalitha, Lalu Yadav, or Mamata.

In the past, governments have run on common minimum programs, so it is not completely impossible.

We need to do these crazy stupid things.  I don’t know about others, but I have started doing them already.  I am obese, weighing 95 kg, and have started to jog recently.  Next week hoping to reach 10 km, no matter how slow, but will try to achieve it.  Wish me luck.

Why BJP is still not the party of the poor?

 

 

  Why BJP is still not the party of the poor?

Bhartiya Janata Party, after thirty-plus years of existence, has still not been able to win hearts of the masses especially the rural poor of India.  We can argue that many urban poor vote for the BJP, but largely BJP is considered a party of the middle class, which in its own right is not a voter group and is certainly not bankable especially in view of the BJP's loss in the last election and the very recent Anna Hazare fiasco.  The middle class voter is deceptive and therefore limits the chances of BJP doing well in the next general election.  BJP badly needs something that could turn the poor in their favor.

Now let us analyze why poor do not vote for the BJP on a relative basis.

If we take a look at the regional parties, they seem to be doing far better than BJP even though they are fairly young.  Parties like BSP and SP from Uttar Pradesh, JD(U) in Bihar, BJD in Odisha have a fantastic rural voter base.  Tamil Nadu with different political dynamics also has parties with good rural base.  We can debate that these parties are regional and therefore are able to touch base with their voters quickly and effectively than the national party like BJP.  In a sense, regional parties have made it difficult for national party like BJP to penetrate in rural areas.

Another reason for this could be that it had been in power at the center for just 6-7 years and hence has not been able to make any goodwill among the rural voters.

BJP's central leadership is also partly responsible for this as well.  Other than the legendary Atal Bihari Vajpayee, none of their central leaders has impressed the masses.  Leaders like L. K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, and Arun Jaitley spend more time in criticizing the Congress Party and Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh instead of reaching out to the poor and trying to woo them.  Has anybody seen L. K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, or Arun Jaitley making a deliberate attempt to attract them?  I do not think so.

They have never talked about rural issues in a big way, have never announced any rural welfare scheme when in power, and have never even sounded caring about their problems.

Though I must agree some of their schemes like Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana are very good and have benefited the rural population, but their impact in converting votes is questionable.  They should do more to strike a cord with the “aam admi.”

By repeatedly using the word “Kamjor,” (kamjor pradhan mantri, kamjor Lokpal bill) they are sounding boring to many.  “Aap me kitana jor hai voh logon ko dikhaye na”

The ruling Congress Party has a strong rural base obviously because of its long history.  It also has expressed intent to do things for the poor and implemented schemes like farm loan waiver, NREGA, etc.  Although many of these schemes are marred with large scale corruption and are not more than a temporary relief,  these welfare schemes reflect well in the eyes of rural voter and that translates into votes for the Congress.

BJP should learn from Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar who has managed to impress the masses by implementing innovative welfare schemes.  He has done well so far and has been able to throw a mass leader like Lalu Yadav out of power.

BJP has not yet succeeded in getting votes of this section of society.  If BJP wants to come back to power in the next general election, they need to expand their voter base.  After all, 60-70% of India still lives in the rural area.  There is reasonable amount of time (2-3 years) still left for them to get their act together and focus on expanding their voter base.  Otherwise, I am not a psephologist, but their fortune might not change in a hurry.