Poly-tricky Politicians of India

Just a few days ago I was watching a debate on a news channel about the raise demanded by the Members of Parliament. Most of the reasons cited in support of this demand were related to them being public representative and that they have to take care of the visitors, pay their staffs, visit their constituency's nook and corner etc.

And every time they were criticized by media they retorted by flaunting their status of being 'representative' of common man. I want to suggest a very good way for testing the representation of these politicians.

Just have a referendum in every constituency for an MP. If the approval is more than 50%, the MP gets a 300% hike (as desired by them), otherwise he/she forfeits the seat and pays Rs. 10 lacs(or maybe more) as fine. Those MPs who do not desire a hike need not have referendum. I am sure very few MPs would dare to hold this referendum and thus a small amount would be spent in conducting referendum. However this will go a long way in taking the sting out of this 'representative' claim and also present true approval percentage of these worthless chaps. This would also go a long way in rewarding those MPs who are diligently discharging their duties.

Do our polity have guts to accept this challenge? No. Simply because most of them 'represent' us not because they are greater 'good' but because they are lesser 'evil'.

Language Barrier

At times I wonder how foolish we can be. Just because someone speaks a different language we see that person as alien. Of course as I have posted earlier, language can be a barrier as far as administration is concerned but how is it that it can be used as tool to alienate a section of society. Why do you feel slighted if someone else speaks some other language? I agree we all should be proud of our mother tongue but that does not implies we look down upon other languages. Still you can see a lot of instances in history where language was used as a tool to create divide in society. Forcing your language on others can lead to a lot of trouble. Pakistan forced Urdu on Bengali speakers and eventually had to part with them. India was engulfed in language movement in 1960's when they tried to force Hindi on southern states. One of the reasons for unrest in Punjab was Hindi/Punjabi divide. Now language is being used as a political tool in Maharashtra. There are several parties who are opposed to the English education terming English as a foreign language. Should we abandon a good thing just because it is foreign? They raise trivial issues such as changing 'India that is Bharat' to 'Bharat, that is India' in constitution. What good this change is going to bring? But as usual these parties have no logic to defend their statements. Be proud of your mother tongue but respect other languages. The language in usage should be the language that is convenient. I will talk to a farmer in Uttar Pradesh in Hindi and a foreigner in English. Just imagine what will happen if I do the other way round?

In God's name

I remember a scene from 'Merchant of Venice' where Antonio, an altruist, castigates Shylock, a mean money lender for justifying his soulless and savage conditions by invoking religious scriptures. So many times in history religion has been used as a tool to achieve ulterior motives.

Be it Osama Bin Laden or closer home Mr. Jinnah or closer in time Varun Gandhi. However, it is not that religion is always used to achieve political gains. In Pakistan blasphemy laws have been blatantly abused to acquire properties of minority communities. In India as this editorial shows they are proving to be hindrance in infrastructure development.

It is appalling that we have more 'places of worship' than 'places of learning'. I am not saying that one does not learns anything in places of worship. In fact if we follow teachings of our respective religions in proper manner this bird named 'Utopia' would be found on earth. But what we have done is that some people planning to grab lands and other properties, public or private, are able to do so defying law in name of religion. We have 60,000 such illegal structures in New Delhi alone. Some of these obstruct construction of roads. You must have noticed worship places in middle of road. The demands of economy say that we must develop our infrastructure quickly if we want to be one of the developed nations in the world. These obstacles slow the pace of development and in the process increase the cost of project. I know religious sentiments must not be hurt for blind development but no one demolishes these structures. They are relocated. It is up to you to view it as demolition or relocation.

Let us put our country first. Don't be a drag in our nation's progress.

Manmohan-Advani spat

Mr. Advani is at it again. I have lost count of how many times he has spoken of "weakness" of Dr. Singh. I don't know what he is trying to put across. We all know Sonia Gandhi made him PM when amidst drama of Sushma Swaraj she laid aside her candidature because of this "foreign origin" thing.
Now 5 years on Mr. Advani and his associates keep on reiterating the same accusation that he is "weak", "puppet" and so on. Can Mr. Advani criticise him on his work? I remember the opposition of the BJP to nuclear deal. Mr. SIngh then braved the threats of left parties and went on with the deal. Mr. Advani should explain us what is wrong in the deal or how NREGA is a failure or reservations in educational institutions should not have been done. There are many decisions which can be attributed to this government solely but instead of being crystal clear in his criticism he talks in air.
We all have seen how "strong" home minister he was. It remains to be seen how "strong" PM he will be(possibly).

Elections are good

So the 'shoe' hit bull's eye though it missed the Home Minister. Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar have been dropped as election candidates in Lok Sabha elections this time. These two had won with thumping majority in last election and were 'winnable' candidate this time but exoneration by CBI came at a 'wrong' time not only for Mr. Tytler but also Mr. Kumar. I am saying 'wrong' because Sajjan Kumar has been acquitted long ago without any reasonable hue and cry to be heard by our media. But this time due to elections round the corner and also Congress government in power, Akalis got a pleasant surprise. It may have been political expediency on part of Akalis but it should be welcomed. Though i cannot point finger at these two as they have been acquitted from court but there is something 'fishy' about them as large number of people are against them, most of whom are riot victims.

This is the power of vote because Congress can't afford to bear the brunt of Sikh anger in Punjab poll. Well, what would happen to Mr. Modi or Mr. Advani if Muslims start voting for the BJP?

Political drama contd.

Mayawati(40)
So the next PM-in-waiting is Mayawati, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Right now her chance looks slim but keeping in mind the kind of PMs we got in past, she cannot be written off. Her best chance though seems to be on both sides, I believe it would be very difficult for her to ally with the BJP. Best condition for her would be that UPA falls short of majority by about 60 seats and then she along with left parties can bargain to be the next PM.

Sharad Pawar(10-15)
Surprising that even Sharad Pawar can be a contestent for PM's post with such limited reach. His chance is again much like Mayawati's. UPA should fall by about 50-60 seats and then he can be a compromise PM, provided left parties are willing. His candidature would be taken by the UPA with lesser pinch of salt than of Mayawati.

There are many others who have not come out openly with their candidature but with their past track record we can expect them to be having buried desire of being PM. I discussed this with my friend Saucy and may be we could have any one of them next time.

Political drama

So how many PM-in-waiting are we going to have this time? The pre poll alliances of two major national parties are in disarray. Congress has lost PMK. BJP has lost BJD. And third seems to be congregation of every possible front in India.

Lets look at prospects of our PM-in-waiting.

Manmohan Singh (235) It is very clear Congress will not be able to cross 200 seats in this election. Well, if they cross 150 it would be their best performance since 1991. It all boils down to its allies. They have several of them but stronger of them are in post poll scenario. RJD, LJP and SP are going to bag about 50 seats but they are not in pre poll alliance with Congress. In fact they have made a mockery of Congress during seat sharing talks. Now they are left with the DMK,NCP,TC,JMM etc. who even if they are on their best can't get over 35 seats. Now there lies the catch. Will Congress go to Left parties? Even if they go they will end up losing Trinamool Congress as next year we have assembly elections in West Bengal. 

Lal Krishna Advani(235) Greater troubles plague L K Advani who is not just having problems with allies but infighting (due to Shekhawat, Jaitley and others) assuming alarming height. They dont seem to be getting more than 150 seats either. Their allies SAD, Shiv Sena, JD(U) (at the time of writing they are still with the BJP), INLD, RLD,AGP can be expected to bag 35 seats. However their richer catch lies in post poll scenario. Though it seems unlikely at this point, they can bag TDP, AIADMK, PMK who could be fairly assumed to bag 50 seats. This makes the number to be 235. Now to make up the numbers they need to fall back on BJD and... yes you guessed it right BSP. And then we have our next PM-in-waiting. More about this in  next post.