While it was more than an open secret, the fact that senior Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) leader A B Vajpayee is out of electoral politics was evident on Thursday when the first list of BJP candidates was made public. As per convention, the party has always named Vajpayee as the first candidate but this time it named National Democratic Alliance (NAD) prime ministerial candidate L K Advani. It is learnt that BJP president Rajnath Singh went to Vajpayee a few days ago and requested him to agree to be the candidate for Lucknow which the old leader refused politely. Now many senior leaders including Rajnath Singh and Kalraj Mishra have been eyeing this safe seat of Lucknow.
Vajpayee is one of the tallest leaders in Indian politics and for years to come he will be remembered for a variety of reasons notably catapulting BJP into a national party, Nuclear Test in Pokhran, Lahore Summit and a host of reforms including a massive modernisation of national highways network -- I had the privilege of watching a film made on the project, along with him and few other distinguished guests at 7 Race Course Road in New Delhi.
I will remember Vajpayee for these and one more reason. He became an important pivot in bringing about a paradigm shift in Indian politics: he kickstarted the era of coalition politics, a system where the government is run by an umbrella of political parties rather than one or two. There were many other reasons such as emergence of regional political forces and erosion in support base of the Congress party that aided this trend, but it was Shri Vajpayee who turned this possibility into a reality and hosted an all-India coalition of mainstream and regional parties for a full term. For next many decades, as things stand today, Indian politics will fall into this trend and hopefully two-time Prime Minister Shri Vajpayee will be remembered for this as well.
NA
Friday, June 27, 2008
Conspiracy of silence
Did you notice the stunning silence of the Indian political class over the conviction of a Bihar Member of Parliament recently? It’s bizarre the same people who are known to stall vital discussions in the Parliament and get to streets disrupting normal lives in the name of aam aadmi and aam aurat could turn deaf and dumb when one of their own fails to pass the test of the rule of the land. It’s abhorring and depicts perhaps one of the worst forms of duplicity of the political class.
For records, the MP Surajbhan Singh belongs to the Lok Jantantrik Party (LJP) of Ram Vilas Paswan, a central minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and was sentenced life imprisonment for killing a farmer 16 years ago in Bihar’s northern district of Begusarai. LJP is an ally in the coalition government that is led by the Indian National Congress whose chief Sonia Gandhi is also the chairperson of the alliance of parties running the Central Government since May, 2004. The silence of the Congress and other alliance partners of the UPA like Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is understandable though not beyond condemnation.
However, what is surprising is the stance of the right-wing opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and their alliance partners. Known to trounce the government and its constituent political parties on even slightest of provocations and trivial issues, the party has adopted a stoic hush and that’s incomprehensible: Either they thought the issue was too trivial to be made an issue or there was a design in this quiet burial. The BJP masters know that no political parties including their own is untouched by criminal elements and who knows tomorrow it may have to embrace LJP again -- Interestingly LJP’s Paswan is known to change his alliance partners more often than he sneezes and was also a minister in the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government which was led by the BJP.
The rest parties were no different. Poll-struck, they know, noises around this issue will neither get them roving cameras, quotable quotes, nor votes.
The Indian media, which is high on N-deal and inflation too did little to probe the leaders on what they thought this delayed justice meant for this slain poor farmer and his families.
I love a dog. He does nothing for political reason.
Said one Will Rogers!
For records, the MP Surajbhan Singh belongs to the Lok Jantantrik Party (LJP) of Ram Vilas Paswan, a central minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and was sentenced life imprisonment for killing a farmer 16 years ago in Bihar’s northern district of Begusarai. LJP is an ally in the coalition government that is led by the Indian National Congress whose chief Sonia Gandhi is also the chairperson of the alliance of parties running the Central Government since May, 2004. The silence of the Congress and other alliance partners of the UPA like Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is understandable though not beyond condemnation.
However, what is surprising is the stance of the right-wing opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and their alliance partners. Known to trounce the government and its constituent political parties on even slightest of provocations and trivial issues, the party has adopted a stoic hush and that’s incomprehensible: Either they thought the issue was too trivial to be made an issue or there was a design in this quiet burial. The BJP masters know that no political parties including their own is untouched by criminal elements and who knows tomorrow it may have to embrace LJP again -- Interestingly LJP’s Paswan is known to change his alliance partners more often than he sneezes and was also a minister in the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government which was led by the BJP.
The rest parties were no different. Poll-struck, they know, noises around this issue will neither get them roving cameras, quotable quotes, nor votes.
The Indian media, which is high on N-deal and inflation too did little to probe the leaders on what they thought this delayed justice meant for this slain poor farmer and his families.
I love a dog. He does nothing for political reason.
Said one Will Rogers!
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