5 Questions to Arvind Kejriwal

The problem with a person who has branded himself as non-corruptible is that they cannot digest actions against him or his own people on charges of corruption. Such people are in a continuous self-praising mode. When somebody hurts their pride they almost scream against that and throw foul language, absurd arguments, etc…

There are many many such people in Indian politics, also in the BJP, but the most prominent name still remains Mr. Arvind Kejriwal.

The arguments of Kejriwal almost resemble the famous Deewar dialogue of the great Amitabh Bachchan: "Jao pehle us aadmi ka sign lekar aao jisne mere haath par ye likh diya tha…."

If CBI or for that matte any police department had to go by that logic, none of the accused in any scam, irregularities or crimes will ever be caught. Because then everyone will start shouting the same dialogue.

The anger of Kejriwal is understandable. Particularly when his one of the trusted lieutenants is questioned. But then he also should remember that in past 6 months his other 4 trusted people have been under scanner.

Once the CBI got raided 14 places in the NCR and Uttar Pradesh, a clearly unhappy Kejriwal said if CBI had to lay hands on his principal secretary Rajendra Kumar, the investigative agency should first nab ministers in the earlier Sheila Dikshit government.

Not stopping there Kejriwal went ahead to say "I will send my son to jail even, if there is evidence of wrongdoing against him."

His other argument is that CBI should have informed him and he would have acted.

1.  Does Kejriwal have a problem with CBI acting without informing him or on  the complete action at all?

2.    Is he angry that he did not get a chance to show to people of Delhi that he  acted on another of his ministers?

3.  Does that mean that every action against his own people will be taken by  Kejriwal himself?

4.     Does it not mean that in a sense CBI starts to report to him?

5.  Does it not mean that Kejriwal is contradicting his own statement that investigating agencies should be autonomous?

In this case, he made accusations against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, attributing CBI raids to search for files on Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA), which the senior BJP leader headed for decades. It is no secret that after he became chief minister this year, Kejriwal has been very keen to pursue the DDCA case on the basis of accusations of wrongdoing made by two former Test cricketers from Delhi and some other related functionaries. Most information available is already with Kejriwal and yet, no one is sure of the merit of accusations against DDCA nor has any evidence cropped up against Jaitley but that’s how Kejriwal functions. Make big bang charges against the high and mighty, hit the headlines and let it sink in public perception through corner talks at various levels. That is what he did in 2014 general elections when he stood against Modi. He was sure he will lose but he surely latched on the publicity of Modi. He just tried to be with a big shark fish and gathered small bits of food which fell down from the shark’s mouth.

In this case also, he didn’t elaborate what possibly could be the case against Jaitley other than saying CBI’s real motive was to find DDCA files.

In May 2015, Kejriwal had accused the then Delhi acting chief secretary Shakuntala Gamlin, a senior woman IAS officer, of lobbying for private electricity companies, misconduct and insinuating corruption. But with passage of time, once she relinquished the post of chief secretary, nobody heard of any follow up action against her.

Kejriwal’s accusation against Jaitley or attaching the CBI raids with a particular motive has one major flaw. The CBI couldn’t have found the DDCA file even if such file existed as in his own words no file stays in his office for more than 10-15 days!!! Judged against that claim, Kejriwal's barrage of charge against the CBI and the Union finance minister raises more questions than Its surprising that the chief minister himself stands for an officer in his government against whom CBI conducted raids only hours ago. This is particularly surprising when Kejriwal is keen to bring a law which can arrest Prime Minister without anybody’s consent!!! Is Kejriwal overreacting and putting his own reputation in the line just as he did during the arrest of his former law minister Jitender Singh Tomar by Delhi Police in the fake degree case? Or is he fearing that the searches might lead to something else, which could trouble him in future?

The case is so sensitive that without having a concrete ad substantial lead, the CBI won’t lay their hands on the principal secretary to the Delhi chief minister and conduct raids at his office in the chief minister’s. No government would want to risk it, that too when Parliament session is on. Hence there is a possibility that Kejriwal is shouting due to fear of something coming out which is uncomfortable for him.

Now that the raids have happened, all connected parties, either the CBI and the Modi government or Kejriwal and AAP will have cow dung on their face and no ground to stand as more details would emerge. Common sense says that CBI must have done its homework well, otherwise it will have to lot of explaining to its political fraternity. If the agency failed to do so, it should prepare itself to face the wrath of the courts and also to take further beating of its image in public perception and would make a clear image of a caged parrot. As of now, there is simply too much at stake for the “premier” investigative agency. Perhaps Kejriwal and his colleagues should have shown some patience and waited for contradicting evidence to surface before blazing all guns against the CBI and Modi-led government at the Centre.

It is not at all surprising that the Kejriwal defended his use of un-parliamentary language. He is a habitual offender in that sense. The language only suggests that Kejriwal has transformed himself into a hardcore politician who is now aware how to swing an adversarial situation into a rhetorical advantage.

Despite the political acumen that the Delhi chief minister gathered in such a short spell of time, there is something he should put his thoughts to. Many of those whom he entrusted, Jitendra Singh Tomar, Somnath Bharti, Rakhi Birla - all have found themselves in the wrong side of the law. This time, the chief minister has again vouched for another of his trusted lieutenants to the extent that he declared a virtual war against the Prime Minister's Office. One can only hope that Rajendra Kumar’s name does not end up clubbed with the names just mentioned. Finally, when a person or a party stands on ideology of being un-corruptible and being clean, the party has to go through such “agnipariksha”. Kejriwal could have hit a political sixer had he given a statement to support CBI action and was ready to provide any help to CBI to unearth any wrong doings. Instead he chose to oppose which has led people to speculate “Is there something to hide Mr. Kejriwal?”

National Herald, Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi

As Sonia Gandhi said “I am Indiraji’s bahu and I’m scared of no one,” in reaction to Delhi high court summons to her and Rahul Gandhi, it is important to read between the words and lines.

What was the necessity to make a POLITICAL STATEMENT when the court case is not at all political in nature?

Well, that has been the strategy of none other than Indira Gandhi when she was implicated in 1977-1980 in many criminal cases by then Janata Party government. While, the then PM Morarji Desai knew that the long legal battle could have taken away all the energy from a 60 year old lady and that Indira Gandhi was contemplating to even retire from public life, Chaudhari Charan Singh did a political suicide. He arrested Indira Gandhi, caused hardships to her and suddenly the entire public sentiment turned against the government and for Indira Gandhi. She won the 1980 elections comprehensively. Sonia Gandhi remembers this and is HOPING and WAITING for Narendra Modi government to repeat the same mistakes committed by then Janata government. Therefore, it is no surprise on part of Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi having called this court case as a political vendetta. Both of them and the entire congress party have still not come to terms that they have lost the election in 2014. They still continue to live in 20^th Century which belongs to very few good works of Congress and mostly bad politics of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and then Rajiv Gandhi. Therefore, whenever they face a challenging situation, they can’t stop themselves from invoking Nehru, Gandhi’s. Rahul Gandhi is content in saying “meri dadi ko mara, mere papa ko mara”, somehow trying to pull out political mileage, which doesn’t stop even after a quarter of a century has passed after these sad incidents.

Sonia Gandhi has been the longest serving Congress president. She portrays herself to be an ideal “BAHU”, making her in-laws her shield and her family her sword. She expects each Congress member to worship her, her family, her in-laws and keeps on talking about the past, past, past, past….

This very attitude has prompted the culture of flaunting political connections by the smallest gully-neta when confronted by a smallest traffic police for smallest thing such as breaking the traffic signal. And this culture is hurting the nation the most today.

This attitude of Congress of publicly invoking family legacy when faced with a legal case raises the question: are legal summons an insult or disrespect to the grandeur of Sonia Gandhi’s family? A “how-dare-the court-summon-us” attitude is not particularly democratic. The attitude shows how Sonia and family wants themselves to be treated as privileged, above the law; sometimes even like kings and queens.

But this BAHU politics won’t work in the face of allegations of financial irregularities and malpractices. Sonia may try to compare herself with post 1977 Indira who dared the Janata government to arrest her and eventually used her small period of imprisonment to emerge as a martyred leader. There is hardly any comparison between 1977 and 2015. Most OTHER politicians such as Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata, Devendra Fadnavis, etc… unlike Sonia and Rahul, pride themselves on their humble beginnings.

Subramanian Swamy’s case is not a political challenge requiring street fights and maximum histrionics. Instead, the sycophants around Sonia Gandhi should advise her and Rahul Gandhi to give a point-by-point rebuttal to the charges in court. The legal maze of the National Herald case can hardly be settled through invoking the political era of Indira Gandhi.

The NDA government on other hand is happy to see the Sonia-Rahul duo and Congress squirm under the spotlights provided by the National Herald scandal, where the needle of wrongdoing clearly points to them. However, the government is also facing another challenge in Rajya Sabha over key legislative reforms, the goods and services tax (GST) being the most important among them.aught in a scandal?TI

Therefore, instead of giving in to the pressurization tactics, the government would be better advised to call the Congress' bluff. It should under no circumstances help the Congress wriggle out of the National Herald scandal by directly or indirectly pressuring the investigating or prosecuting agencies to go slow. That would be a real subversion of the rule of law.

The government should give the Congress a simple and strong message to try their best to disrupt the development of the country and that the government is prepared to sacrifice the GST, and should launch a nationwide propaganda campaign to tell the world that the Congress is derailing Indian growth story to protect one family.

The rapid shift in the Congress stand from disruptions over the Herald case to Vyapam and Lalit Modi shows that the party is exposed. The NDA should thus drive home the advantage and allow the Congress to continue with its disruptions and tell the world day in day out that this is about deflecting attention from the Gandhi family's real estate blunder, not Vyapam, which is anyway being investigated by the CBI, and the courts are already monitoring it closely.

The chances are that Congress will give up first.

No. 1, the focus continues to remain on the Gandhi family's Herald blunder.

No. 2, disruptions continue to be seen by the public as evidence that Congress and the Gandhi family is indeed hiding something.

No. 3, Congress allies have already begun to wonder whether they have to be dragged along with Congress antics just to protect the Gandhi family or should they pay the price for just being their ally.

No. 4, the GST won’t be a big loss in the short term as there will only be problems and challenges in the first two years of implementation, causing discomfort in the trading community and mild hike in inflation. GST also will cause a reduction in state autonomy on finances once implemented. It will be impossible for states to give up GST once they are in. Sacrificing GST is therefore no big deal in the short term.

There are chances the non-Congress parties will be tired of the Congress' antics which, they know, is about saving the family. Any prolonged disruption can only benefit the BJP. With state elections due again in a few months' time, the regional parties cannot but be worried about playing the Congress game.

The government should, in the meanwhile, prepare to run the reform programme through simple budgetary actions such as merging excise and service tax and the other financial actions which can be simplified and made to look like reforms.

Legislation may suffer, but not for long. If the government is willing to withstand this winter of discontent, the Congress will return to the discussion table with its tail between the legs. Meanwhile, it should persistently try to divide the opposition and get them to discuss the Congress' tactics.

It is ridiculous to think and assume that the PMO has pushed the National Herald case against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to pressurize the party to support the GST Bill. It would be too innocent to think that Modi won’t be aware of the uproar by Congress members in Parliament following the summons. He in fact would have preferred the case not coming up now as it was always clear the Congress was looking for excuses to stall the parliament functioning. While Congress sensibly argued against the 1% inter-state levy in the GST Bill, they put forth other unreasonable demands like putting an 18% ceiling on the GST tax rate in the Bill itself. That was the best way of ensuring the GST Bill never went through.

Even as Modi showed huge amount of maturity and calmness during answering the debates on both constitution and intolerance, on the day of the meeting, Rahul was sarcastic to mention to the TV channels that government had called upon Congress leaders under pressure, and that the party’s strategy was not of consultation. He further continued his rhetoric when he said that the BJP was out to hurt the interests of farmers with the Land Bill and it was the Congress party that had ensured the Bill never went through even if country needs land for industrialization and urbanization, or that farmers would be better off if they were going to get 4 times the value of their property under the BJP’s Bill, unlike the land acquisition during Congress and other regimes at throwaway prices. And then, amazingly, Rahul Gandhi went on to say that the labour reforms proposed by the BJP were going to hurt labour and the Congress would do its best to stop them. Even if everyone knows the pro-labour policy of the last 68 years has ensured poor jobs growth and so-called anti-labour reforms would do more to generate jobs; Rahul thought he would be able to convince people of this country of the same rhetoric that failed in the elections 18 months ago.

The National Herald case first came up in 2013, when the Congress party was in power, so there was no question of the BJP leadership trying to come up with it to put pressure on the party to pass the GST Bill, or any other legislation for that matter. The allegations, first made by Niti Central, were straight-forward – that Congress leaders like Sonia and Rahul Gandhi had conspired to take over the National Herald, using the Congress party’s money, and that this was done with an eye to the property owned by the newspaper. Whether the allegations hold good or not, is for the courts to decide, and that is where the matter is. If all charges against politicians are to be settled out of court; which is what the Congress party’s strategy seems to be amounting to, it is a sad day for Indian democracy.

The control of the country's longest-serving party by one family has done the nation enormous damage and distorted all politics. TIME TO END IT and MAKE CONGRESS A GANDHI MUKT PARTY. The day, majority of Congress party members gather courage to voice this known fact, better days will begin for Congress party.

Intolerance, Sanjiv Bhatt and NGOs

Riots wherever happened are not only unfortunate but should be condemned in the worst possible words. For past over 13 years Mr. Narendra Modi has been accused of being a silent spectator of 2002 riots. However, these accusations were not based on facts. This was proven last month when Supreme Court dismissed Mr. Sanjiv Bhatt's petition against Mr. Modi.

Not only SC did reject his petition out rightly but also passed serious strictures against him such as:

1.     Liar

2.     Did not come with clean hands

3.     Trying to influence witnesses

4.     Leaking information to NGOs

The complete verdict can be found on http://indiankanoon.org/doc/90920551/. Did the electronic media take cognizance of this very very important news? Yes, for a change!!! Watch it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BIY9ExpFNQ. There were emails exchanged between Sanjiv Bhatt and Congress Leader Shakti Singh Gohil in which Sanjiv Bhatt asks him for Blackberry phone!!! The Congress party bribes an IPS officer? Sanjiv Bhatt’s wife fought elections on Congress ticket!!! The link between Congress party and Sanjiv Bhatt who has been declared a liar by H’ble SC has been clearly exposed. In the email exchange Sanjiv Bhatt also writes that a pressure group be created with help of NGOs!!! This is what the congress party is. Congress party accepted on NewsHour that they had links with Sanjiv Bhatt, they are now disowning him (use and throw, similar to Sitaram Kesari, Narsimha Rao, etc…) Should the people of India who have decided to make India a Congress Free Country wait for any longer?

It is now completely clear that Mr. Narendra Modi had not given any instructions to Sanjiv Bhatt to stop actions against rioters and the Gujarat 2002 riots were a clear reaction of Godhra. A large number (probably the highest in any riot) of Hindus have died in police firing also is a clear evidence that the government has tried its best to control the situation. Further the Gujarat government also asked help from Rajasthan, Maharashtra and MP all Congress ruled states. Nobody offered any help to Gujarat government. This is on record and true.

What has this to do with NGOs? All the while since 2002 a large number of NGOs were involved in defaming Gujarat and India. Most NGOs are funded by none other than American funding agencies. These funding agencies and further the NGOs are the babies of US government and work very similarly to the credit rating agencies such as Moody’s, Fitch, S&P, etc… This is a very large political nexus which most countries don’t understand. Further these NGOs are involved in anti-national activities. They protest against big ticket projects which will take India forward by several decades. They fund Indian NGOs who work against government whom they don’t like. Thus these NGOs have their own preferences of the governments. And Modi government is not their choice. Further these NGOs don’t provide any statement of accounts to the Indian government. All this was not only tolerated by accepted by none other than Congress. Congress was hand in glove in various wrong economic and agricultural decisions by their government. Mr. Narendra Modi has recognized this.

India has toughened rules governing charities, raising concern in WASHINGTON, and this year the government cancelled the registration of nearly 9,000 groups for failing to declare details of overseas donations.

Modi's government has accused foreign charities of trying to hamper industrial projects on social and environmental grounds, and he has criticized what he called "five-star activists."

Under a proposed law, foreign-funded NGOs face more regulatory hurdles and must agree their work will not be "detrimental to the national interest."

B.K. Prasad, the official overseeing the home ministry's new approach, told Reuters, the government had no intention of forcing NGOs to close.

But we have every right to streamline their work," he said. "This attititude that nobody can question influential donors must be put to an end."

US Ambassador Richard Verma has said the United States was in dialogue with India on the matter and he WARNED that the tougher approach may have a "CHILLING EFFECT" on civil society and democratic traditions.

AND WE ALL ARE SEEING WHAT IS THE CHILLING EFFECT.

One such NGO which has its funds dried up is the FORD foundation. And one of the trustee of this NGO is none other than our own Shri Narayan Murthy. When nothing works for Murthy, he resorts to talk about intolerance. I have lost all the respect I had for this person all these years.

NOW ARE WE CLEAR ON WHO AND HOW AND WHY THE PROTESTS AGAINST INTOLERANCE WERE ORGANIZED?

Coming back to the Sanjiv Bhatt’s case, it has been proven that he was only a puppet acting on behalf of Congress. The vital concern is that the congress party is deliberately polarizing the atmosphere which may culminate in a riot like situation, only to further blame Modi government of intolerance!!! This is the true face of Congress Party of which claims to be a grand old party led by Mahatma Gandhi!!

The Congress government has nothing to say against the Modi government on any development issue. They cannot fight politically against Modi government. Thus they resort to such activities.

GST and Land acquisition bills are stalled by Congress

Parliament is not allowed to function and just shout and howl.

With this blog, I am appealing to Congress party leadership to apologize to the people of Gujarat and India for falsely campaigning and using, tutoring a police officer against a section of people of India. Let the parliament function and crucial bills be passed for sake of this country. Don’t mislead people. They are wiser than you think Rahul Gandhi is.

Moody’s, Writers, Awards, Amnesia, Hallucination etc…..

Last week Moody’s cautioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he risked losing the domestic and global credibility if BJP controversialists were not reined in.

The moment this agency issued the caution, there was a huge hullabaloo. People behind the hullabaloo conveniently forgot that the very agency also said, “Key economic reforms could deliver greater potential GDP, as they would improve India’s productive capacity. These include the land acquisition bill, a national goods and service tax, and revamped labour laws. They are unlikely to pass through Parliament in 2015, but there is an even chance of success in 2016,” Moody’s also said that “Modi government has cleared stalled projects worth 60B$” which are the legacy of Congress government.

Although there is no reason to believe any positive or negative reports of any credit rating agency. They are just one of the way to control governments which are not the natural ally of the US. The world knows that they are conveniently manipulated to suit to USA position and condition which prevail at that time. People and my friends may not “accept” what I say, I request them to “tolerate” me.

Anyway, taking a clue from the report the Congress party arranged a march on 3^rd November.

The march included members of congress party, MPs, and a large number of security personnel. In fact, the number of security personnel almost outnumbered the march members.

And why not? This is for the first time in the history of Indian politics where the President, Vice President, party office bearers and members of a grand old party, protested against their own chief ministers!!! One from the ruling Karnataka and 2^nd the former CM from Maharashtra. Hence they needed the protection from their own party people.

Oops…People reading this blog will react by saying “Are you out of your mind? The protest march was against the growing intolerance, not present or former Congress governments”.

The counter question, forget many, I will ask is why not consider this as march against Congress governments? After all the law and order situation is the responsibility of state government!!! Does the Centre have any role to play in maintaining day to day law and order situation in each state? Is the Congress party not aware of this simple fact? Therefore, I say, the protest march was against Congress state governments not the Centre.

The protests have come too little, too late. Had these protests happened immediately after Shri Dabholkar’s and Kalburgi’s murder, the protests and march could have had some value. The march could have had some value had they arranged the same when Nirbhaya died. The march could have had immense value had it happened immediately after the highly condemnable Dadri incident. All these incidents happened when either Congress party or Samajwadi Party was in power!!! Not only they were in power, they were solely responsible to investigate the murders and put the culprits behind the bars. Both Dabholkar’s and Kalburgi’s murderers are still at large. When the congress party government is unable to fulfil this basic responsibility, I have no option but to say that the march is against their own governments. Thousands of Sikhs were butchered and the then Congress Prime Minister shamelessly said “When a tree falls, the earth is bound to shake”. Why did the march not happen then?

There are several such incidents much more heinous in nature in the history of this country when such kind of march did not happen.

There would be innumerable such questions which can be asked and each time the answer would be that as a common man, I have no fear of expressing my views publicly. I have voted for Modi and I have every right to ask him questions on the promises he made during his campaign. Even the Congress party has the same right. They could do so by asking pinching questions in the Parliament. But what have they done? They obstruct the functioning of Parliament; they don’t allow passage of bills which were initiated by their own government in the past. This shows that this party does not want the Modi government to function; this party does not want India to develop. Their only agenda is opposing this government because they are in opposition.

Let us come back to the liberals, seculars and activists. There is an argument from these so called liberals that the freedom of expression is being suppressed. 

My simple question is, How?

Few days back, Anupam Kher asked Arnab Goswamy on the news hour, whether he has received any call from the ministry of information and broadcasting, or the PMO or even a hint from any politician to refrain from showing certain subjects on the channel. The answer was a clear no. The media being so expressive these days, would give a tough fight against any of these censorship attempts. Since there is no report or show on prime time of any channel, there is every reason to believe that no such "threats" have been issued.

Lets talk what is the condition of common man.

Can the film makers make films on the subjects they chose? The answer is yes.

Does the government tell any film maker to not make films on certain subjects? The answer is no.

Has any political party or RSS taken away the freedom of any artist to return the award? A loud no. no….

Has the BJP or prime minister send police to any citizen’s house to ask why he criticized him or the government? At least police have not come to my house even when I have criticized several ministers, even @narendramodi or @dev_fadnavis on twitter or facebook. A big positive is when I have written to the @pmoindia on 2 occasions, I have seen that a change happened immediately within a day. That clearly means that you can definitely write to the highest authority in this country and expect an action within a shortest possible time.

Can people watch movies or even porn whenever they want? A big yes.

Can people buy anything and everything they want, depending on their affordability of course; anywhere in this country? Again yes.

Can you travel anywhere in this country without any fear from a certain community? Yes. I have and am travelling frequently to most parts of this country except the NE and have never felt insecure even at 3am at night.

Can you eat whatever you want? Pizza’s burgers, any continental food, drink the finest wines, or even a desi tharra if you prefer? Absolutely yes.

Can you have sex with your wife or your girlfriend with mutual consent. This question is highly private but at least for me, the answer is yes. No government or Modi has told me either to have or not have sex.

Can you read any book I want or like? Yes.

Can you celebrate your festival the way you like? Burst crackers, celebrate Eid, buy clothes, sweets, etc… A big big yes.

Further, It would be interesting to check a many more similar questions.

The only controversy is on eating beef. The controversy is being created as if, each and every person who is protesting against the law, eats beef in breakfast, lunch and dinner on a daily basis; and there is absolutely nothing left in the world to eat apart from beef and people are starving to death without eating beef!! How many of the awardees themselves eat beef? The prime question I have in my mind is “Why not accept a religious sentiment of a certain community by not eating beef?” Why not come forward and say “We respect your religious sentiments. We won’t kill a cow?" Why not have some “tolerance” there?

I was watching the debate on newshour on @timesnow 2 weeks back. The panelist included a lady called Maya Krishna Rao. A very basic question popped up. “Why the awards weren’t returned when innumerable incidents happened during in the past?” The answer was worth listening. She said “I decide when to take the award and when to return. Nobody can question my liberty. I choose how and when to react to whom”. When she has this basic fundamental right of returning the award, how on earth she could say her fundamental right has been curtailed. She is an eminent theatre personality and writes, directs and acts in plays for which she received a Sahitya Academy Award in 2010. The very same year Deganga riots happened right under UPA rule from whom she took the award. Did she not have the freedom to return the award then?

Several incidents which happened the UPA rule, Congress ruled states in past 10 years, Taslima Nasreen's book was banned, James Laine book was banned inspite of Supreme Court lifting the ban, A cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was arrested on sedition charges during Prithviraj Chavan rule, Dalits were killed in Khairlanji again during Congress rule. The list can be gigantic. A ban on a marathi play "Me Nathuram Godsay Boltoy" is still there by NCP leadership. This play is not allowed at the famous Gadkari Rangayatan in Thane!!! Where was the conscience of the writers then? Again this lady replies, “It’s my convenience. I choose my time”. This means she even has the freedom of choosing the time of returning the award. How can she claim her fundamental right has been violated?.

Further she asks a counter question involvement of Modi in 2002 riots. My question is why the award wapsi programme was not organized in 2002 itself?

Out comes the truth, Mr. Modi is ruling now who is a highly communal figure. Let’s recall, that even the H’ble Supreme Court has discharged all cases and not a single evidence has been found against him. Even the case of Sanjiv Bhatt, the police officer during the 2002 riots has been proven to be lying in Supreme Court in a recent judgement.

The truth still prevails. And the truth is a lot of people in this country cannot tolerate a non-Congress government. People in Congress party cannot tolerate the progress and development which is likely to happen by passage of the land bill, GST bill and several other bills which are aimed to take this country forward.

People who are returning the awards are not only insulting the people of this country due to whom they have got this award but also the hard work of co-artists. Award returnees conveniently have forgotten the contribution of the jury members, one of them could even be an ideologue of BJP? The award wapsi is nothing but a farce on which people of this country and the world is laughing.

I conclude by saying that the award returnees are suffering from selective amnesia. They forget to return their awards for incidents happened during Congress rule. They return their awards for the same incidents during BJP rule as a mark of protest against intolerance by BJP. They could even be hallucinating. A person suffering from hallucination sees nonexistent things. And in India, the so called intolerance described by the seculars, liberals, writers, is nonexistent. If at all intolerance exists, it is the intolerance in the minds of the writers and activists who cannot “tolerate” a non-Congress government in India.

Till this award wapsi farce continues there is no threat to Modi government as people forget the prime issue; DELIVERIES OF PROMISES. The sooner the Congress party realizes this, better is the chance of revival of the grand old party. Otherwise its time up

Will Congress revive anytime soon? Or its time-up?

When people become desperate, they take wrong decisions. And the wrong decisions lead to their doom.

Today, Congress party has come to such a juncture where it has become critical for the party to decide, what it wants to do today to secure its future. One wrong decision and the country will lose this grand old party.

For the past 4 years the party has been on a losing spree. They lost elections in all important states barring Karnataka. Now they rule most of the insignificant states. All the important states are being ruled by either BJP or other regional parties.

So what is the future of Congress? Does this grand old party have an opportunity to revive itself? Or they have lost it and its time up!!

Let’s do an analysis.

2004 UPA1

This was the year when Indian economy had recovered completely from the aftershocks of 1998 Pokhran blasts and sanctions that followed. The economy was growing at 8%. For the first time in long time foreign exchange reserves were very strong. Vajpayee government had taken huge initiatives to build the infrastructure and successfully implemented the golden quadrilateral highway project and made a significant progress to create a huge road network. All in all, it was a surprise loss for BJP and a big big surprise win for Congress.

With the economy progressing at a good pace UPA 1 had a great launch pad for itself to take India further forward and assert its legitimate position. The Manmohan Singh government made a significant progress till 2008 and carried forward the programmes which were started by NDA. The most important achievements of UPA 1 was trying to complete the 123 Civil Nuclear agreement which later helped us to initiate similar agreements with other countries such France, Australia, etc… Prime Minister Manmohan Singh showed a great resolve to conclude the agreement, however the Left withdrew the support of the government. The Prime Minster once again showed his political maturity and diplomacy in working together with Samajwadi Party. The BJP still had not recovered from the loss and did everything possible to stall the deal, which actually was initiated with GW Bush by none other than their own PM Shri Vajpayee.

Another significant achievement of UPA 1 was the initiation of Musharraf – Manmohan Singh pact to resolve the Kashmir issue once for all. All the while and almost every good decision of Manmohan Singh was projected to be taken by Congress party primarily by Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh never got or even try to stake claim for the credit of the achievements of the government.

Here Congress party employed a strategy of projecting Rahul Gandhi for all good decisions and achievements and at the same time blaming the Prime Minster for all the unsuccessful or stalled projects. At every juncture, the Prime Minister had to fight tooth and nail and finally give up to even junior ministers. The term “accidental prime minster” used by Manmohan Singh for himself was exploited by each and every Congressman.

2008 was the best year of Indian economy where it registered the highest growth of 9%. Inspite of lot of good things and few bad things of UPA 1, UPA never expected to win another election due to quite a few bad things like Common Wealth games scam happening in 2009. The BJP was still in search for their win and tried their best. Still they did not manage a win and conceded a defeat to Congress. The win by Congress was only and only due to the clean image of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

2009 UPA 2

Buoyant and confident due to the win, there was no better candidate than Manmohan Singh for the second term as Prime Minister although many from the party tried to project Rahul Gandhi as a candidate. Sonia Gandhi probably wiser than the Congressmen, vetoed in favour of Manmohan Singh. However, the troubles started for Mr. Singh from the day one. He was unable to decide on his cabinet members. Many decisions which should have been taken by him were taken by the party and he was held responsible for all the wrong results.

To add to the misery, for most part of UPA 2 the entire country was shaken by various scams which amounted to literally a significant chunk of Indian economy. The government undertook various popular schemes such as MNREGA which costed the exchequer a huge amount of money. Rather than focusing on building the skills and making common man, including the farmer self-reliant, the government focused on distributing money. Many scams even in MNREGA schemes were unearthed. Then there was coal scam, 2G spectrum. There was not a single day in UPA 2 where people did not hear a new scam. The scamsters were none other than the UPA member party ministers on whom the Prime Minister had no control.

So, the UPA 1 was full of positives which were completely washed away in UPA 2 only to start to build a grave for the grand old party.

People of India were sick of the scams and wanted a serious change. Then came Modi and we all know how he won the elections. It was rather an outright rejection of congress than win of Modi. Somebody had to win and this time it was Modi. People started drawing parallels between Rahul Gandhi and Modi. And the clear verdict was that Rahul Gandhi was no match for Narendra Modi. Modi not only was a good orator but had thorough knowledge about India as a country. He came from RSS legacy and had travelled entire country. Most importantly he came from a modest background. Rahul Gandhi had none of these qualities and yet the Congress party was or rather is hell bent on making him the Prime Minister. Making mockery of the modest background of Modi costed dearly.

May 2014

The grand old party suffers its biggest defeat and does not even manage to win 10% of the strength of the house. Even loses the right to the position of Leader of Opposition. Makes a huge hue and cry about not getting the position. That’s it. Now was the time the leadership in Congress decides to do exactly what BJP did in UPA 2.

Modi had promised development, clean and efficient governance. Congress made a strategy of disrupting each and every good decision of the government. The initiatives by the Modi government will take the country several years forward in world economy. And that will prove disastrous for the grand old party. The party leadership understood that even if 50% promises of Modi are delivered Congress won’t be able to make a comeback in 2019.

So, strategy was clear. Pick petty issues which are insignificant, irrelevant and start bashing the Modi government and ministers. Don’t let the parliament function, stall GST and other important bills which will take India’s GDP forward. Target ministers on petty issues where Congress party themselves had failed. Ask those minister’s resignation. This has been the strategy of Congress since the BJP came to power.

Lalit Modi case can be a classic example. Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj successfully countered arguments of Rahul Gandhi in parliament. What were these agruments? How much money did Sushma Swaraj take to let off Modi, the very person who was allowed to leave the country when Congress was in power!!! There was further embarrassment for Rahul Gandhi when someone clicked pictures of cheat sheets of Rahul Gandhi. With a stature of VP of a grand old party and PM aspirant, the cheat sheet was an embarrassment as it contained very very basic points. If a PM aspirant does not remember even smallest of things, what inference should we draw? Moreover, this was the first time entire India saw him debate in parliament, ask questions, only to be proven illogical later. All the past 10 years this person never asked a single question to his own government about the positive initiatives which will bring out good information and build image of his own government!!!

So when Congress party was in power they did not want to hear anything good about government or Prime Minister. Wanted to give credit of each good thing to Rahul Gandhi and each bad thing to the Prime Minster.

When they are not in power they behave erratically, illogically and stall parliament on petty irrelevant issues, helping to make image of the party to be anti – development, anti - people. It only remains a self-praising, self-centered Gandhi Private Limited Party.

The internal intellectual voices in the party remain suppressed. Jayanti Natarajan, Jairam Ramesh, Shashi Tharoor, etc… the people who helped this party successfully run their government, when spoke the right words were silenced. The grand old party has a tradition of people being close to the Gandhi family and talking, doing what suits best to this family. Having difference of opinion is crime and the opinion maker will be taken to task, whomsoever it may be.

All this for a person who does not know history of India, history of Congress party. Congress party today is like the Kauravs in Mahabharat. Sonia Gandhi has become Dhritarashtra who does not want to listen, see and speak anything bad about party or Rahul Gandhi even if it is a truth.

Rahul Gandhi has nothing more than to say “meri dadi ko mara”, “mere papa ko mara”. People are tired of these antics and it would be better for the Congress party to move on with life and stop making these things a basis of asking votes.

There was a little glimpse of hope when Priyanka Gandhi appeared on the scene. But then her husband’s name is now famous for all the wrong things. Her face resembles to that of Indira Gandhi, looks more mature and wise than Rahul Gandhi. If she just can say sorry to the people of India for whatever Robert Vadra did, there is a good chance of her gaining the past glory for the grand old party.

Otherwise it may be very very safe to say, till this party does away with dynastic politics or the Modi government does something seriously wrong, Congress party revival is not to be seen anytime soon.

Absurd protests on intolerance

For the past close to one month there have been innumerable protests by secular intellectuals against the increasing intolerance of Hindu hardliners. The protesters include artists, painters, writers, film personalities and now the much celebrated national award winning film makers.

Before commenting on the Hindu hardliners, it would be worthwhile to check why is it happening only now? Why it did not happen earlier? Or did it happen earlier and nobody paid much of attention? There are so many dimensions to this. Let us take a deep dive in history.

Hindu religion or culture whatever it may be, dates back to over 5000 years. It was the only religion then. Rather it would not be wrong to say that nobody at that time knew what a religion really meant!!! It was only the culture and way of life which was developed by trial and error over long time of many centuries. Man learnt farming, started developing a kind of phobia for rains, floods, fire, strong winds, etc... and started to worship the "power" behind these natural phenomena. Cow was treated as a "best friend" as it gave almost everything mankind required. It gave milk to build health, cow dung and urine became good fertilizers. Bulls worked in farms to produce food grains. Thus a culture of not killing a "best friend" developed with man who otherwise was a carnivorous creature.

Over a period of time different religions flourished world over and in India Islam gained prominence along with Hinduism, Buddhism, etc... There were several invaders form middle east, the Ghaznis, the Abdallys, Timurs, etc... They came and looted the golden sparrow not only of its gold and wealth but also took back with them the women as their jananis. And then came Babur who established the Mughal dynasty way back in 15th century. The Mughal Dynasty ruled India for over 350 years till its last emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. All this while the Hindu community in India was reluctant to resist as they were totally divided into princely states. They lacked the confidence and a divided India was easy to capture and other prominent reason that Mughals ruled India for so long was due the peace loving nature of the Hindus.

In 1947 with partition based on religious lines, many Muslims migrated to Pakistan. A few who loved India stayed back and decided that India was their homeland for many centuries and it will be forever. However the partition bought with it a genocide of people from both religions, mostly Hindus coming back from Pakistan to India. 

Congress government took over and ruled the country for over 85% time of past 68 years. In this period it not only became impossible to proudly say "I am a Hindu" but it became a national shame to admit to be Hindu. Talking about Hinduism attracted sharp criticism from all quarters. The policies of Congress government were clearly minority centric and majority Hindu who voted for Congress was the electorate who was illiterate, poor and heavily dependent on government food through the PDS system. However the so called poor Hindus became literate, well educated, well cultured and above all wealthy in past 68 years and gained a significant confidence which was dented all along in Congress rule. In between people like Shri Balasaheb Thakeray, LK Advani did try to unite Hindus under one flag with glimpses of success.

On the other hand, Muslims who ruled this country for over 350 years were probably frustrated at the sight that people on whom they ruled for so long are now in position of power. Muslims were not really at the mercy of these erstwhile servants or slaves but then the feeling slowly but steadily built in their minds. Further the policies of government were to protect the religious nature, personal law of Muslims which further pushed them to be more hardcore religious. All this has costed the Muslim community to a great deal as compared to the Hindus. Hindus chose to ignore the religion factor and focused on self development and gained power, status in the country by sheer hard work. Those Muslims who gave importance to self development rather than religion too are in a good shape however the number is quite small.

All the while for over 1000 years Hindus have been crushed by some or the other way and have actually tolerated the intolerance and atrocities of other communities. They went on tolerating till they found a messiah in form of Mr. Narendra Modi. This man changed it all. Hindus re-invented their strength, economical, intellectual and physical (count of Hindus) might after Godhra and slowly steadily started thinking otherwise. They were fed up with Congress and many other parties for their anti Hindu and pro minority policy. What happened in 2014 is history and in front of us.

Whatever religious intolerance if any is happening today from the hardliner Hindus is due to the frustration of past 1000 years of tolerance the Hindus have shown to various other religions. Does this mean that this so called intolerance is going to remain forever? A BIG NO!!! I am of the opinion that this intolerance will increase till there is a resistance from the so called intellectuals, seculars and liberals. And if at all this so called intolerance increases for some time, there is nothing to worry. Each country in its history faces such periods which are only a passing phase, surely for the tolerant Hindu culture. The more this intolerance is resisted, the more time it will prevail. Hindus today are too busy in developing themselves to be intolerant for long time. Therefore its only a short time when Hindus will realize that this cannot go on for long. But how long? That decision lies in the hands of the so called intellectuals, writers, film personalities who decide to resist and are hell bent to prove the Hindus wrong and are teaching Hindus, tolerance, who have tolerated injustice in their own country for over 1000 years.

The questions such as "why were these so called liberals, writers, etc... silent on 1984?" are being asked now from the hardliner Hindus as a counter to the lessons of tolerance. The double standards of these so called liberals and seculars stand exposed when they chose to keep silent when Taslima Nasreen was prevented in West Bengal, AR Rahman cancelled his concert in Delhi, some guy was murdered in Karnataka, there was no debate similar to Dadri and innumerable occasions in the past.

The more these liberals and seculars resist and return their awards, the more the Hindus will be provoked to be intolerant. Therefore it is my opinion that the intolerance from hardliner Hindus will fade as soon as the liberals and seculars start tolerating some of the intolerant Hindus for some time. Resistance creates more resistance and this time around the 1000 year steam has more power than liberals and seculars. Although the normal tolerant Hindu who is not a part of this Hindu intolerance physically, there is a sense of support in his mind for these hardliner Hindus. They may not come out in open and endorse these hardliners or even may oppose in public. But then they will have something different in mind to show in ballot box. Till there is intolerance towards the intolerance of hardliner Hindus, there is no threat to Modi government. The quicker the Congress and opposition of Modi realize this, the better chance they have to gain more seats in many upcoming elections. Otherwise all put together they will be reduced to number of seats which wont cross double digits.