March 3, 2024
By Aravind Bhatikar
I.N.D.I.A. ALIVE AND KICKING!
JUST when the Modi-Shah duo were gloating over the comatose condition of I.N.D.I.A. major members of that alliance sprang a surprise on the duo by announcing seat-sharing arrangements among themselves for the forthcoming Lok Sabha Elections. Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) and Aravind Kejariwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced the details of their agreement with the Indian National Congress in their respective states.
It was also widely reported that seat-sharing discussions within the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of Maharashtra, between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Indian National Congress (INC) in West Bengal and between the RJD and the Congress in Bihar were about to be concluded.
As if the news that the I.N.D.I.A. group was still alive and kicking was not enough, the mammoth response Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav received in Agra and the success of whirlwind tours of Tejasvi Yadav in Bihar began adding to the endless worries of the Shahenshah and the other Shah. The response which Rahul Gandhi elicited from youth in all the states through which his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra passed, sent shivers down the spine of the Modi-Shah duo.
The Supreme Court, in keeping with their recently acquired proactive stance, declared that the BJP’s mega pipeline for receiving party funds, the Electoral Bond Scheme, was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court directed the State Bank of India to transmit all details about the source and the use of these bonds by March 6, 2024 and the Central Election Commission to upload all these details on their website on March 13, 2024. If there are no road blocks to the implementation of Supreme Court directives, Indian voters should be able to know by March 15 the nexus between big corporate and political parties and how the quid pro quo arrangements have influenced the country’s governance.
News-minute and news-laundry, independent (not part of godi media) YouTube channels showed some bold initiative and investigated into the misuse by government of ED, CBI and IT department to collect funds for the party. Their investigation revealed that between 2018 and 2023, 30 registered companies against whom cases were registered by these agencies and which were “victims” of these agencies contributed Rs335 crore to BJP.
It is by now common knowledge that Modi’s thumping of his 56-inch chest and ubiquitous posturing — the NDA winning 400+ and BJP winning 370+ seats in the Lok Sabha elections — are nothing more than just that – posturing. Expert analysts, who can often be seen participating in debates on independent YouTube Channels (not godi media), say that BJP will have difficulty even in winning 220 seats, unless a post-Pulwama and Balakot like nationalist fervor grips the nation or extreme communal polarization is orchestrated. Neither of these events is likely to happen, though there are reports of organized attempts by fringe elements to whip up communal conflicts.
The recent election to Rajya Sabha in many states where BJP tried to poach voters from Opposition parties are proof that a drowning man will catch any straw available. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP stole seven MLAs of the Samajwadi Party and in Himachal Pradesh nine MLAs of the Congress. The rebel MLAs in the Samajwadi Party and the Congress who were made to vote for the BJP candidate had either long standing skeletons in their cupboards, or were disgruntled with their leadership.
BJP’s attempts to win a seat in Karnataka failed and hence their dirty-tricks-department mounted a campaign against the Congress alleging that Congress workers were shouting “Pakistan Zindabad.” Modi-Shah’s attempts to bring down the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh failed since the Congress Speaker of the HP assembly suspended 15 MLAs of the BJP and ensured majority for his party.
The Uttarakhand government’s desperate action in enacting the so called Uniform Civil Code and bringing down a Muslim religious structure alleging that it was illegal, the demolition of a centuries’ old mosque in Delhi by government agencies again alleging illegalities, an unwarranted suspension of three Muslim teachers in a government school in Kota, Rajasthan, are all actions allegedly meant to whip up communal conflicts, have failed so far to give to BJP the desired results.
The Ayodhya Ram Mandir euphoria seems to be dying down. There are reports in Hindi dailies about buses from Delhi meant for Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, etc, not getting enough passengers. That religion is a personal matter and Indians can be devout Hindus without being fanatics and without mixing up religion with politics, should be realized by the BJP.
Elections to Lok Sabha will be taking place in April and May 2024. WE, THE PEOPLE will have to remain alert and ensure that the election process is not hijacked by vested interests and that our democracy functions as per the Constitution.
`INTERNATIONAL’ AIRPORT IN SLEEPY JAMNAGAR!
MARCH 06 2024
TWO disturbing events in our Country during the last few days have shaken the confidence of the aam aadmi in our democracy and its survival.
A small domestic airport in Jamnagar in Gujarat was declared as international airport for 10 days from February 25 to March 5 and all concerned departments of the government of India, like Ministry of External Affairs, Customs & Excise department, Internal Security, DGCA, Defense Ministry, etc, extended their activities to make this “International” airport fully functional. The arrangement was not at all warranted by any national emergency or local crisis. It was much bigger than all these.
Mukesh Ambani’s son, Anant, was going to get married soon and the pre-wedding celebrations were scheduled to take place in Jamnagar from March 1 to 3. Facilities had to be made available for bringing celebrities around the world like Bill Gates, Ivanka Trump (daughter of Donald Trump, possibly the next president of the USA), pub singer Rihanna, etc, in their private jets, to the otherwise sleepy Jamnagar. Jamnagar airport is reportedly a defense airport and the use of such an airport for a private celebration, and the reported parking of foreign private jets in technical areas of the airport, was the most shocking aspect of the whole extravaganza.
Many years back the Dabolim airport in Goa, which is a part of the Indian naval establishment, was used by Manohar Parrikar, the then chief minister of Goa, and Amit Shah, India’s home minister, to organize a public meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party within the premises of the naval airport.
Atal Bihari Bajpayee, who was the prime minister of India between 1999 -2004, during his visit to Gujarat immediately after the communal carnage in that state in 2002, had advised Narendra Modi, the then chief minister of Gujarat, to practice “Raj Dharma” while governing the state. Whether one is the prime minister or chief minister, strict practice of “Raj Dharma” would imply that one’s personal relationships, likes and dislikes, should not influence one’s policies and actions as prime minister or chief minister.
Unfortunately, Bajpayee is gone and so have his guidelines for governance. Mukesh Ambani is reportedly very close to Prime Minister Modi and hence there is nothing which cannot be done to keep him happy.
Shouldn’t WE, THE PEOPLE raise an alarm over the misuse of our defense facilities and thus, endangering the security of our country?
The other shocking event of the week is the application made by the State Bank of India to the Supreme Court asking for time till June 30 to release data on electoral bonds. The Supreme Court had directed the SBI to release all the data to the Central Election Commission on March 6. The SBI, in its application made to the Supreme Court on March 4 pleaded that the data on electoral bonds were manually entered in different places and compiling this data would not be possible so soon, and hence the request for the additional time.
It is obvious that the BJP government wants to avoid making the electoral bonds data public, since that would expose its own corruption and the favors it has extended to big industrial houses as quid pro quo for contributions to the BJP. The banking system has reportedly written off about Rs15 lakh crore from loans given to big industrial houses. It is widely suspected that the favors done to big industrial houses are closely linked to the financial contribution they have been making to the BJP. The availability of this information in public domain can damage the BJP’s chances in returning to power in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The last minute attempts by the BJP government to hide this information from the Supreme Court and also from the public, is not only “contempt of court” but also an unpardonable assault on our democracy and the Constitution.
Can WE, THE PEOPLE ensure that democracy wins against dictatorship? Can WE, THE PEOPLE ensure that ethics wins against chicanery and betrayal?
MODI SUFFERING FROM AMNESIA!
MARCH 08 2024
PRIME Minister Narendra Modi is either suffering from not-so short term memory losses or has a pathological inadequacy in estimating the Indian voters’ intelligence. Modi must have been about 25 years old in 1975 when Indira Gandhi clamped the Emergency on the country. In those days, there was neither the ubiquitous smart phone nor the “godi” media, not to speak of the so called social media! And yet, in 1977, when Indira Gandhi held the Lok Sabha elections, she was thrown out by the Indian voter lock, stock and barrel. Today, Modi and Shah may be committing a great blunder, if they take Indian voters for granted, and assume that the total control the BJP has over most of the print and electronic media will automatically get the party a third term in the Lok Sabha.
Whether it is decorum in politics, allegations of corruption, or BJP’s respect for women, Modi’s hypocrisy can be heard loud and clear during his speeches in election meetings.
The most recent example of this hypocrisy could be seen during Modi’s visit to West Bengal for the Lok Sabha campaign. Atrocities on women in Sandeshkhali by Shahjahan, an important member of the ruling Trinamool Congress and a feared criminal, were used by Modi to impress on the crowd how he respects women and how mothers and sisters around the country give him the strength to fight against injustice. Many in the crowd might be wondering whether Modi had totally forgotten Manipur, the carnage of more than 200 Kuki and Meitei men and women, and how two Kuki women were stripped naked and paraded on streets in May 2023? Was it the mothers and sisters in India who gave Modi the strength to ignore the human tragedy and the parading of naked women in Manipur? Is it the mothers and sisters in India who asked Modi not to visit Manipur and not to act to restore law and order in the state?
Indians, irrespective of their religion and political affiliation, will never forget the horror of the Bilkis Bano case. Bilkis Bano was gangraped and seven of her relatives murdered by 11 men in 2002 in Gujarat. The murderers were convicted and sentenced to jail for life. On August 15, 2022 when Modi was waxing eloquent on how the nation needed to empower its women, the 11 murderers were released from jail by the Gujarat government. They received the hero’s welcome by their male and female relatives, when they came out of the jail. The Supreme Court, in the recent past, set aside the release order of the Gujarat government and sent all the 11 murderers back to the Gujarat jail.
The Supreme Court also reportedly dubbed the release of the 11 murderers by the Gujarat government as a fraud committed both by the Central and the State government. Did the mothers and sisters in India give Modi the strength to silence his conscience and forget about the atrocities on Bilkis Bano and the fraud committed by the Gujarat and the Central governments, while blaming the Mamata Banerjee government for Shahjahan’s atrocities in Sandeshkhali?
The inhuman treatment given by Delhi police to India’s champion women wrestlers at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, the insults reportedly hurled by Modi at Sonia Gandhi by ridiculing her as the “Congress widow” and “Jersey cow” are only too well known to the Indian voter to be forgotten. Did the mothers and sisters in India give Modi the strength to insult other women, especially women who have won medals for the country or women who are leaders of other political parties?
Finally, did the mothers and sisters in India give Modi the strength to desert his own wife Jashodhaben and boast that the whole country is his “pariwaar”?
Isn’t it time that WE, THE PEOPLE come together and throw out the Modi government along with its hypocrisy and dangerously divisive policies? Isn’t it time for WE, THE PEOPLE to throw out the Modi government to restore decorum, fair play, honesty and rule of law in our democracy?
