Shedding tears (when not sleeping in public) helps
REMEMBER MEHARCHAND KHANNA, the Union Minister from 1954 to 1967, who could not stand unless supported by two persons, one on each side, but was given a Congress ticket to contest again in 1967 in Delhi, but lost?
Some media persons are crying hoarse and shedding copious tears about 91-year-old Lal Krishna Advani being NOT fielded again by the Bharatiya Janata Party, though he is given all respect as’margadarshak'(Mentor-guide) of the party. They themselves wanted “energetic, young” leaders like Rahul Gandhi to take over.
HD Devegowda is the new mentor of Congress in Karnataka, though he heads another party, the Janata Dal (Secular). The Indian National Congress made his son, heading the party that got the lowest number of votes, the Chief Minister of the State. Now it will support Deve Gowda in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Mehar Chand Khanna thought he would win the Delhi election as he, as Minister for Rehabilitation, had “settled” lakhs of Punjabi refugees like himself by giving them houses which are now worth crores. Similarly, Deve Gowda thinks he can win the election on the strength of the Gowda caste vote as he made it a Gowda caste party (you are communal if you talk of Hinduism, but advocating casteism is secular). And all Muslims will vote against BJP. Don’t people vote sheepishly on caste and religion and not on issues?
So the grandfather, Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda is Fighting from Bangalore North. Grandson one is fighting from Hasan, grandson two is fighting from Mandya, one son is Karnataka CM, another son is a minister, daughter-in-Law one is an MLA and second daughter-in-law is Zila Parishad head. Both will be MLAs next,
Did you notice the great sacrifice of Deve Gowda ji?
He did not bring his wife into politics, as another hero of the Congress, Lallu Yadav did, making her the Chief Minister when he himself had to quit because of conviction in a scam. Though that happened during Congress rule, how he is the mentor of the Congress in Bihar as, like the grand old party, he too believes in dynasty rule and his too is a caste-based party.
What a great man, Deve Gowda! He wept in public when “handing over” his Hasan seat, an ancestral property, to his grandson. He knows Indians are emotional fools who will fall for tears.
And that he is good at… when not sleeping in public.
THE DOG IN the picture above is supernatural; it can speak, fly, do a grater job than any human being in any post…even the post of Indian Prime Minister for which several leaders of different partes are fighting – like dogs.
Many leaders of the Indian National Congress have been vying with each other to praise two leaders of the dynasty that rules the party, whose members alone can, according to party leaders like Mani (chaiwala) Shankar (neech admi) Aiyar, can head theparty.
In the picture above, perhaps on a family picnic, are members of the Ghandy (wrongly changed to Gandhi) family, watching keenly the blooming of a lotus (incidentally the symbol of the now ruling Bharatiya Janata Party).
All members of the family enjoyed power – some without the corresponding responsibility, because the INC believes that only the dynasty can rule the country. No Congress worker, however senior or whatever merits, can stake a claim. Now Priyanka Vadra, sister of INC President Rahul, is being prepared for the throne in case Raul fails to make it.
This is to prevent the situation his mother faced – of ruling the country through a dummy proxy PM – being (then) inexperienced, not able to speak Hindi and an Italian.
Why the ‘miracle dog’? Because, if all others are not ready to take the PM’s post Congress may choose to install the dog in that chair
Shashi Tharoor, who held the second highest post in UN, knows huge, unpronounceable and unknown English words, and is described as “highly educated and respected” by a BJP leader, finds Rahul brilliant, capable, and the only one fit to be PM.
Sachin Pilot, educated in St. Stephens and at Wharton, both world famous, himself a part of a dynasty, feels Rahul alone can can be Congress chief and PM. His father, Raj esh Pilot died in a road accident days after calling for election to the party chief’s post.
Jyotiradtya Scindia, also from a royal dynasty, educated at Stanford Business School and Harvard, whose father died in an air rash after analysts saw him as PM material, thinks only Rahul without a degree and known for bloopers, can be a great PM.
ALL these and several other bright achievers in INC sing ‘Rahul chaalisa’ daily, praising the dynasty that partitioned India, imposed the Emergency, invaded the Golden Temple and led the Sikh genocide, because that alone can reward them with posts once INC comes to power.
And that seems a possility seeing the way BJP leaders are badmouthing Priyanka Vadra as if her entry into politics certainly means BJP’s defeat.
So, I would start praising and singing paeons of the dog before others start, because there is a possibility of Rahul being found unfit and Priyanka and her children rejecting the post. That leaves the dog.
Before others (surely) do it, I will ‘dicover’ the greatness of the canine.
Hope I will be suitably rewarded for my canine loyalty
Congress personified: Muslim cap,Christian cross, Hindu sacred thread, Rudraksha garland. If unfit, Priyanka can inherit the throne
THE ONE THING common between the ruling BJP-led NDA and the Congress party which may lead the ‘Mahagut(ter)bandhan’ to power in the next Lok Sabha polls is the loud-mouthed ‘loose cannons’ making silly, inappropriate statements.
The only difference, however, is that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained dignity by not making such comments Congress President Rahul Gandhi, himself leads the pack in calling him a thief. Other sycophants joined him to call Modi a ‘chaiwala‘ (tea seller), ‘unpadh gawar’ (illiterate, uncouth) and ‘neech aadmi’ (low class man).
There are many fringe elements in the BJP who know that Modi depends on their votes to stay in power and so use no restraint in making silly statements. So it was no surprise that many NDA leaders chose to comment on Rahul appointing his own sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as the party’s General Secretary in charge of East Uttar Pradesh.
While one BJP leader commented about Priyanka’s beauty being not enough to get votes and others about the party being dynastic, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the appointment was an admission that Rahul himself failed as a political leader and needed another family member to help him out,
Sumitra, who entered politics as a novice housewife who defeated a flamboyant Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister P. C. Sethi in Indore in the 1980s, is a very sober, mature, person. What she said was just what political analysts have always been saying, even before Rahul inherited the party presidentship from his mother who inherited it from her husband who inherited it from his mother who …
The commentators speculated about Priyanka being brought in when Rahul gave ample evidence of immaturity and earned the epithet ‘Pappu’. Her entry into politics was no ‘plunge’. She was always the hidden trump card.
And even an idiot knows that the trump card is always thrown in when the other cards in the pack are weak and defeat appears imminent. Another factor that silenced the parties, all of them started to oppose the Congress, was that ALL of them were themselves dynastic.
Had they not been disparate to cobble an anti-BJP front ‘mahagut(ter)bandhan’ to garner the Muslim votes, which BJP had already alienated due to its Hindutuva image, the parties now backing the Congress would have criticized her entry.
The Congress either is not confident of fooling Muslims or does not want to lose the Hindu vote entirely. So Rahul, Feroze’s grandson and son of an Italian Catholic, declared himself a ‘janevudhari’ Brahmin (without a sacred-thread ceremony) and put up posters declaring Priyanka an incarnation of Durga, the Hindu goddess. Of course that is secular, as is the caste-based choice of its candidates.
So these developments reminded me of a blog I had put out last July, which I reproduce here. It said —
RAHUL IS CONGRESS, INDIRA WAS INDIA
Rahul Gandhi’s tweet saying “I am Congress” might have reminded many of his grandmother Indira Gandhi’s Emergency-days campaign (by her sycophants, apparently at her instance), that “Indira is India”. (I have heard Dev Kant Baruah, the then Congress President, say it in the Central Hall of Parliament. It is another mater that he was later thrown out of the party).
That no individual is indispensable, that the party is above the leader and that the nation is above party is what any sane person would agree with.
And yet, in most developing countries individuals have been using their power to make it seem that they alone mattered more than everything. Once in power, all tend to retain power for all time by hook or crook (often by the latter).
The tendency to be lifetime rulers, common in tribal African nations, seems to have spread now to China and Russia, reminiscent of ancient kingdoms ruled by autocratic kings.
Congressmen, obviously, believe that Indira Gandhi can be succeeded only by Rajiv though he had no political background, Rajiv by Sonia though a foreigner, inexperienced and unwilling and Sonia by son Rahul though he was unfit and more of a comic figure.
In fact a senior Congress leader Mani (neech aadmi)Shankar (chai wala) Iyer declared there could only be two persons considered for party Presidentship – the mother or the son. Despite overt wooing of Muslim vote banks, the grandson of Feroze was declared to be a “Janevudhari” Brahmin (wearing sacred thread) though no thread ceremony (Upanayan) was held. He even invented a gotra.
Had Rahul refused (as his mother Sonia did) the sycophants would have unhesitatingly opted for his sister Priyanka and if she thought going to beauty parlours was more important than the strenuous job of being PM, they would have found great talents in her children. If they too preferred playing to the hard job of PM, Congressmen would not hesitate to enthrone the family’s dog which they would find miraculous and far superior to any of their own selves.
Even those who believed in the dynastic rule of kings would not have been such great believers in dynasty. All because every one of them belongs to some caste and are bound by caste rivalries, while the Indira dynasty had to no caste as Nehru’s daughter Indira married Feroze, either a Parsi or, as some say, a Muslim.
And these casteists, who demand reservations for Dalit (low caste) Christians and Muslims (who claim to be casteless), call Bharatiya Janata Party communal!
All parties with dynastic leaders now join hands with the Congress. But all want the throne.
If Indira is India and Rahul is Congress, what is Priyanka? The next PM?
Today’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and tomorrow’s — Rahul Gandhi
THE DEFEAT OF the Bharatiya Janata Party in three Hindi hinterland States of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan not only spelt the revival of the Congress Party which was almost becoming extinct, but may also be a trailer for the 2019 parliamentary election
Political analysts are busy listing the reasons for the failure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP’s main leader. Neutral observers feel Modi’s party lost because non-issues like renaming of cities and roads, rebuilding of Ram temple in Ayodhya, pro-Hindutva acts like cow vigilantism, raised by the fringe elements in the party, became dominant and stole headlines.
It cannot be denied that Modi remained silent and did not check these fringe groups – perhaps because he has to depend on them in elections. Though he himself attacked the Congress only politically and on ideology, there were too many loose cannons in the BJP and the government shooting their mouths off.
On the other hand the Congress, ruled by a dynasty, has to depend only on one family as
Muslim cap, Cross and janeu (sacred thread)
it does not belong to any of its numerous caste-factions which consider defeating each other more important than being democratic as against dynastic.
The common man in India understands abusive language better than anything else and Congress leaders indulged in calling Modi a thief, bluffer, chaiwala (tea-seller) low-born (neech aadmi) and worse. The illiterate voters understands only gutter language and it is only they who vote. Educated ‘intellectuals’ enjoy the holiday and think politics is ‘dirty’
So the dynasty sycophants won and Modi Bhaakts lost. The rural voter. cannot understand that ‘Bhakti’
(devotion) is better than boot-licking and that a tea seller being PM is a tribute to democracy, (as against all grass-root level hard work and sacrifice being preferred to loyalty to the dynasty).
Modi did not lose the three states because of the 2002 ‘massacre in Gujarat’ ,or demonetisation. Renaming cities that glorified autocrats and invaders is a big crime, as is installing the Statue of Unity.
Congress-led genocide of Sikhs in1984, and the Army attacking the Golden Temple did not stop the dynasty coming back to power in Punjab or a Sikh minister embracing the Pak army chief, belittling his own CM as “only an Army captain” while Rahul was the captain of the whole nation as the grandson of Feroze belonged to the Dynasty. While Gujarat riot cases resulted in convictions, Congress rewards a Sikh genocide ‘hero’
Several WhatsApp groups received the following post, by a Modi ‘Bhakt‘ obviously,(only slightly edited):
MODI LOST BECAUSE OF 100 MISTAKES ‘opposed’ by those who go to Pakistan and seek help to depose India’s PM, who back J&K stone-pelters and want black money and Swiss bank accounts to remain untouched.
These elements openly appealed to one community, backed casteism and relied on anti-Hindu vote banks. That, of course, is secular!
Modi’s 100 mistakes are:
1. Surgical Strike against Pakistan which they disliked and questioned.
2. Implementation of the historic GST scheme which they kept in cold storage
3. Demonetization which hit their stashed wealth
4. Providing bullet proof jackets to the Indian Army
5. Providing modern weapons to the Armed Forces
6. Providing electricity to 18450 villages which leads to development, as they want backwardness – their main source of votes
7. Introducing Ayushman Bharat medical insurance
8. Not letting the terrorists into India like the UPA government
9. Opting for generic medicines
10. Reducing the prices of stents
11. Mainiaining good relations with Russia, USA and China
12. Providing employment through ‘Make In India‘ scheme
13. Having not a single corruption charge in four years of government
14. Making a Dalit the President of India when Rahul claims to be a ‘januadhari’ Brahmin
15. Making a woman India’s Defence Minister
16. Making an Olympic medalist as Sports Minister and promoting sports
17. Working 18 hours a day for the nation
18. Striving towards making India known and respected all over the world
19. Providing 33 % reservation for women in police department
20. Repaying Rs 2 lakh crore loan taken by the UPA government with interest
21. Making India a lending nation from a loan-receiving nation
22. Detecting three lakh shell companies thanks to GST
23. Controlling black money
24. Curbing stone pelting with note ban
25. Detecting thousands of crores of illegal trade by linking Aadhaar and PAN
26. Providing subsidy to Khadhi industry employees of and saving Rs 150 cr.
27. Breaking the backbone of urban terrorists and naxalites
28. Finding the missing 500 students and uniting them with their family
29. Detecting 13,000 fake teachers
30. Deleting 1.43 crore fake ration cards from Tamil Radu alone
31. Working towards ban on cow slaughter
32. Improving bonds with Japan
33. Bullet train project
34. Securing highest number of medals in Asian Games
35. Distributing LPG to five crore poor families through Ujwala Yojana
36. Doubling MSP on several agricultural products
37. Closing 250 fake companies
38. Launching digital India and easy and quick money transfer
39. Starting Swacch Bharat to promote cleanliness
40. Launching Skill India programme
41. Giving special package to agriculture
42. Introducing NITI Ayog
43. Enhancing India’s security
44. Strengthening international ties
45. Initiating Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao schemes
46. Making India the world’s third highest electricity producer
47. Making crores bank account holders through the Jan Dhan scheme
48. Drive to voluntarily forego LPG subsidy
49. Saffronising 22 states
50. Supporting women empowerment
51. Introducing the Smart City scheme
52. Launching Sukanya Samrudhi Yojana
53. Reintroducing Kisan Vikas Patra
54. Subsidising agricultural equipment
55. Making India a mobile-phone making hub
56. Communicating with people in Man Ki Baat and on his website
57. Subsidising fertilizers
58. Getting World Yoga Day accepted
59. Imposing death penalty for rapists of children
60. Bringing the girl child under Indra Dhanush scheme
61. Establishing AIIMS hospitals throughout India
62. Covering 50 crore people under Modi medicare
63. Making progress in Clean Ganga plan
64. Implementing One Rank One Pension in defence services
65. Spreading and modernizing BSNL which was on the verge of closure
66. Reducing Air India’s losses and trying to revive it
67. Electrifying ALL Indian village though Deen Dayal Upadhya Gram Jyoti scheme
68. Reaching nuclear agreements with Russia, Japan, Canada and France
69. Modernising Indian Railways and making it profitable
70. Indian Postal Payment Bank
71. Getting Naxals into the mainstream
72. Solar power schemes all over India
73. Using Israeli military techniques in India
74. Improving diplomatic ties throughout the world
75. reducing corruption in government
76. Seizing Dawood Ibrahim’s assets
77. Striving to make India free from dynasty rule
78. Linking Aadhaar to bank account and thus monitoring fraudulent transactions
79. Enhancing Indian Air Force’s role in India
80. Negotiating with China in Doklam
81. Trying to get back money stashed in Swiss Banks
82. Making India open-defecation free
83. Providing visa on arrival to several countries reciprocally.
84. Reviving plans to link rivers to control floods
85. Trying to ban triple talaq
86. Trying to construct Ram Mandir
87. Making air travel popular – taking India ahead in aviation
88. PM Mudra Yojana in banks
89. Cancelling Haj Subsidy
90. Increasing/doubling the tax base and making more file IT returns
91. Increasing the speed of highway construction like never before
92. Fasal Bhima Yojana (crop insurance)
93. Earning respect for India in the international community
94. Uranium deal with Australia
95. Raising the salary of Grameen Daak Sevaks through 7th pay commission
96. Increasing number of bunkers on the Indo-Pak borders
97. Signing deals to create an anti-nuclear shield for India.
98. Starting 2+2 talks with USA
99. Making India’s economy world’s fastest growing
100. He or the President visiting countries never visited, or the first time in decades.
There are hundreds of more schemes implemented by Narendra Modi which the Congress could never do in its 60 years of rule.
Modi, while striving to make India a Vishwaguru forgot that we are mentally slaves who like dynasty rule.
All we want are freebies promised by the Congress using your and my tax money, not the leaders’ wealth. The big business evades taxes and makes more money by bribing politicians whose minor children too are millionaires without working.
This Post, forwarded by a friend is only REBLOGGED by me. I did not write it, but agree with it. Hope it is really by Tully.
Mark Tully, India’s true friend
I am going to stick my neck out to predict that the (recent) ill conceived ‘No Confidence Motion’ (in Lok Sabha) is going to be the point, which is going to be looked back at, as the turning point for the end of the Gandhis’ influence and corrupt ecosystem.
Rahul Gandhi will never ever be the PM, or even be in a position to be king maker. Not ever.
Sonia Gandhi will not fight the 2019 general elections now. The debacle, telecast live the whole day, with the highest ever viewership, has put paid to her ability to bribe her way to power. It has shattered once and for all her illusions and mirage of being untouchable under all circumstances.
The stance and ruthlessness of the PM in tearing her and her progeny to bits, is not the polite attacks of yore. It is a clear bugle call that he cares two hoots for her ecosystem or her supposed control on power.
He has finally shed his diffidence to take on these arrogant snobbish dimwits head on, with no quarter to be given to her Lutyen’s Delhi Darbaris and their supposed ability to manipulate levers of power.
So, what are NaMo options ahead to tackle these erstwhile royalty. He is going to make sure Deepak Misra gets an extension of 2 years by amending the retirement age, which will ease the pressure of Lutyen’s Delhi Darbar crowd to approach SC for relief against the government. Also, it will put the Ram Mandir issue on fast track with resolution closer to the general elections for maximum impact.
We can now hope to see an amendment to the SPG act, which assures lifelong security at public expense to the Gandhis & their progeny. With Sonia Gandhi not fighting elections in 2019, her time in 10 Janpath will be over.
Even if Rahul Gandhi wins the next elections (which now is a big huge IF), he will probably be heading a party with less seats than 44. NaMo will shunt him out of his Akbar Road residence and his sister out of Lodi Road residence. That will signal their sorry plight in the power counting one and for all, to everyone to see.
Today’s debacle is going to have a far reaching impact on acceptability of Congress, with the Gandhis as effective partners in an bid to unite opposition. Even though it now seems to be a pipe dream for opposition to present a united front in coming election season. Except maybe in UP, where SP & BSP face possible annihilation if they don’t come together. Congress of course is not even a contender in UP.
Madhya Pradesh may see BSP making compromises with BJP as today’s debacle makes Congress a poor support base.
Today’s debacle has changed the political fortunes of the Gandhis for the worse. They don’t face any challenge to their hold over the Congress as the top supposed leadership of this party is only filled with yes men and royal darbans of the Gandhis, but the effects on the bottom rung will accelerate their complete demise from the political scene.
And without effective bottom cadres, the only way to stay relevant is to throw money to instigate riots, something they have already been doing for the last few years. A short term strategy with even more short term effects but assured long term destruction. And that time is NOW.
So what did NaMo actually achieve today? He essentially called out the empress and the prince as naked. There is now no going back to the illusions of splendour for them anymore. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
(Though fluent in Hindi, Mark Tully is a Britisher by birth and a friend and well-wisher of indua, where he settled down. I have no way to confirm if it is really by him or a fake news.)
RAHUL GANDHI’S TWEET saying “I am Congress” might have reminded many of his grandmother Indira Ganhi’s Emergency-days campaign (by her sycophants, apparently at her instance), that “Indira is India”.
That no individual is indispensible, the party is above the leader and the nation above party is what any sane person would agree with.
And yet, in most developing countries individuals have been using their power to make it seem that they alone mattered more than everything. Once in power they tend to retain power for all time by hook or crook (often by the latter).
The tendency to be liftetime rulers, common in tribal African nations, seems to have spread now to China and Russia, reminiscent of ancient kingdoms ruled by autocratic kings
Congressmen, obviously, believe that Indira Gandhi can be succeeded only by Rajiv though he had no political background, Rajiv by Sonia though a foreigner, not experienced and unwilling and Sonia by son Rahul though he was unfit and more of a comic figure.
In fact a senior Congress leader Mani (neech admi) Shankar (uchai wala) Iyer deckared there could only be two persons considered for party Presidentship – the mother is the son. Despite overt wooing of Muslim vote banks, the grandson of Feroze was deckared to be a “Janevudhari” Brahmin (wearing sacred thread) though no thread ceremony (Upanayan) was held.
Had Rahul refused the sycophants would have unhesitatingly opted for his sister Priyanka and if she thought going to beauty parlours was more important than the strenuous job of being PM, they would have found great talents in her son or daughter. If they too preferred playing to the hard job of PM, Congressmen would not hesitate to enthrone the family’s dog which, miraculously, they would find far superior to any of their own selves.
Even those who believed in the dynastic rule of kings would not have been such great believers in dynasty. All because every one of them belong to some caste and are bound by caste rivalries while the Indira dynasty had to no caste as Nehru’s daughter Indira married Feroze, either a Parsi or, as some say, a Muslim.
And these casteists, who demand reservations for Dalit (low caste) Christians and Muslims (who claim to be casteless), call Bhariya Janata Party communal!
All parties with dynastic leaders now join hands with the Congress.
THERE WAS A TIME when Bharatiya Janata Party was believed to be a party with a difference – a party of principles which it would not compromise.
That, it seems, is history.
All political parties contest elections to win and come to power (except perhaps those who contest just a few seats to retain their registration). But then winning elections becomes an end in itself — an end guided by ‘pragmatic’ decisions and ‘electoral compulsions’.
Jaya Bhaduri Bachchan, MP
Amit Shah has brought to the party politics of manipulation. ‘Winnability’ is the main criterion. ‘Practical considerations’ have nothing to do with what the party stood for. Ideology takes a back seat.
For Congress power – and wealth which came with it — became the only consideration. It took to casteism and minority appeasement, would not think twice about giving ration cards and citizenship overnight to refugees just to build vote banks. Its dynasty. politics promoted sycophancy and ‘darbaris’
The Congress fell because winning was all it wanted — winning so that its leader could enjoy the fruits of power. Most of them have become multi-millionaires if not billionaires. And ‘scam a day’ was common. That was not expected of BJP which is supposed to be ‘remote controlled’ by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologues, consisting mostly of old men of learning and wisdom who sacrificed their lives for their ideology.
And yet it admits an old Socialist Party leader of Uttar Pradesh, Naresh Agrawal, who left his party in a huff when denied ticket for Rajya Sabha. That he was a bitter critic of BJP, supported the SP-Congress alliance a few months ago, and just a fortnight ago attacked BJP for demonetisation, did not seem to matter, as he was expected to bring with him a substantial following from SP as well as his community vote,
That is the new face of the “pragmatic” politics of today. Rita Bahuguna-Joshi, once UP Congress President, could be admitted to BJP and made a Cabinet minister. The party could take in Narendra Tewari, Congress CM of two states and a governor who had to quit over womanising even when facing a paternity case from a son he bore out of wedlock. It could induce defections in other states and continue to have alliance with Shiv Sena despite all is attacks — in the name of pragmatism and electoral requirements.
So what is wrong if tomorrow Indian National Congress admits Dawood Ibrahim under the (mistaken) notion that it could win Muslim votes for the party? Is this the new reality and pragmatism of Indian politics?
Agrawal’s derogatory remarks against Jaya Bachchan, the Socialist Party MP, touched off an outrage as he called her someone who dances and sings in films. I always thought Jaya was something more than just an actress (not just because her father, T.C. Bhaduri, who was a senior journalist and author, brought me into the profession) but someone who always asserted herself on women’s issues.
Unlike most of the ‘decorative’ ‘glamour faces’ from the entertainment industry inducted into Parliament by the Congress, Jaya has been an active parliamentarian. Agrawal’s attack on her came only when the Socialist Party preferred her over him for Parliament seat.
If it been his stand that such ‘glamour girls’ had no place in Parliament, he should have said it when he was still in SP. Just as all the senior Congress parliamentarians kept mum when Rekhas, Tendulkars and Lata Mangeshkars, eminent in their own fields but misfits in politics, were brought in by their party, Agrawal too was silent when Jaya was first inducted.
One welcome aspect of the controversy touched off by Agrawal is that among those who criticised him for is derogatory remarks were leaders of the BJP itself, including senior Minister Sushma Swaraj and Roopa Ganguly an actress-turned-MP., who defended Jaya Bachchan, who herself refused to comment.This is something unheard of in Congress. Renuka Choudhary, known for her ‘Shurphanaka’ guffaws, was silent.
‘Behenji’ Mayawati too came to Jaya’s defence, but obviously this was prompted only by the new electoral understanding between her Bahujan Samaj Party and the SP, entered into by the parties when the political fortunes of both declined drastically.
Agrawal’s entry could mean the exit of ideology from BJP political horizon.
ARE MINDS THAT CREATE CONFLICT OVER RELIGION REALLY DEVOUT? ARE THOSE who want to shed blood in the name of religion really religious?
A controversy has erupted due to an engraved ‘Bhagavadgeeta’ (the sacred Hindu epic) near the statue the late president, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam at his recently inaugurated memorial. His wise Muslim family quickly ended the row by also placing copies of the Quran and the Bible near the statue.
There motive behind keeping only the Geeta there was obviously ulterior. Dr. Kalam’s family at least had the good sense of neutralize the mischief, but raising a controversy on the issue is equally malicious.
No controversy has been raised over the way Sai Baba, who had lived in a mosque as a fakir in Shirdi, is worshipped with all rituals and huge statues of his with costly crowns set up in lavish temples.
No controversy arose over huge temples built for Shiva who was an ascetic.
No controversy has been raised about noisy ‘matadi jagarans’ (all night singing of songs in praise of a Goddess) with extremely loud amplifiers by those who object to Azan, the call for namaz (Islamic prayer) over loudspeakers in a Masjid at odd hours.
No controversy has been raised by most Muslim intellectuals over the communal politics in Kashmir and the killing of Hindu Pandits there.
And yet a Bhagavadgeeta in a memorial for Dr Kalam is an issue for a controversy
Dr Kalam, undoubtedly the best President India ever had, could quote from the sacred Tamil epic, Thirukkural, and never made a fetish about being a Muslim. For him the Bhagavadgeeta was as sacred as the Holy Quran.
He never made an issue of the Hindutva (pro-Hindu) stand of the BJP which was then in power . So the Congress opposed a second term for him and gave the country’s most exalted post to a woman whose only qualification was subservience (more than just loyalty) to the dynasty and Indira Gandhi.
A controversy was raised when, as President, he went to Ahmedabad just after the unfortunate Gujarat anti-Mulsim riots, touched off when a train carrying Hindus working for building a Ram temple at Ayodhya was set on fire. Few cared to know that he went there for the centenary of his guru and mentor, Dr. Vikaram Sarabhai who pioneered Indian space science. Dr Kalam’s reverence for teachers is touching.
Some people just want controversy and tension for their ulterior political ends.
DIGITAL MEDIA LIKE WHASTAPP, TWITTER AND OTHERS ARE AGOG WITH CALLS TO boycott Chinese goods in view of China’s belligerent and aggressive moves in Sikkim and Arunachal
Acharya’s cartoon, tweeted by Kurmavatar, Srikakulam
states of India on the border between the two countries
An association of school principals in Mumbai asked schools to discourage their students and parents from buying Chinese water-bottles, pencil boxes, sketch pens, measurement rulers, writing pads and erasers. Indian markets are overflowing with Chinese goods ranging from crackers to mobile Continue reading Boycott China Call on Chinese Phones
MEIRA KUMAR, THE CONGRESS CANDIDATE FOR the upcoming President of India election says her nomination by the Opposition “united” against the ruling National Democratic Alliance was a ‘matter of ideology and giving it a communal or caste colour was unfortunate.
If you don’t take it as the joke of the decade, you may ask:What is the ideology involved?
The NDA announced its candidate, Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit (belonging to oppressed and downtrodden castes) first. Till then the “united” opposition was speaking in different voices. THEN it announced the name of Meira Kumar whose qualification is the daughter of Jagjivan Ram, for decades the face of the Dalits in the Congress.
Both caste and dynasty qualifications fulfilled.
Earlier the “united” opposition toyed with the idea of putting up Dr. M.S.Swaminathan, an eminent scientist and father of India;s green revolution. A victim of North-South politics when he was director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (popular as Pusa Institute) from 1972 to 1979, he became the Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (1982–88) which is located in Philippines by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN as India, the rightful claimant as the major rice-producing country, did not show interest and pursue the matter.
Shedding tears (when not sleeping in public) helps
