by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Amulya Ganguli,
Narendra Modi’s views of the historical events at the time of partition are as problematic as his understanding of what happened in the subsequent periods. Inaugurating the new, plush, 170,000 sq. feet, vaastu-compliant Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office in New Delhi, he said that the party in its earlier avatar as the Jana Sangh was at the forefront of all the leading mass movements in the country.
However, this assessment is unlikely to be shared by those who are not followers of the BJP. In their opinion, far from being a leading player during popular agitations in the 1950s and 1960s, the Jana Sangh was very much on the margins of the political scene if only because it carried the stain of responsibility for Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination and was shunned by the Muslims. The liberal Hindus, too, looked upon the Jana Sangh as a backward-looking party of the “cow belt”, representing all that was primitive in the Indian mind.
This somewhat lowly status can be seen from the fact that the Jana Sangh won only three Lok Sabha seats in the 1952 general election with 3.06 per cent votes. Its subsequent performances were only marginally better. The party won four seats in 1957 (5.93 per cent), 14 seats in 1962 (6.44 per cent), 35 seats, its best performance till then, in 1967 with 9.41 per cent votes and 22 seats in 1971 (7.35 per cent). These figures do not substantiate the claim about the Jana Sangh being a major player in the political scene.
Not surprisingly, the party was not averse to losing its identity in 1977 when it merged with three other equally marginal players — the Congress (O), the Congress for Democracy and the Socialist Party — to form the Janata Party. If the Jana Sangh was as important as it is claimed to be, it wouldn’t have given up its distinct status so readily. As for the three others, they were all bit players and have since disappeared although prominent politicians of the time — Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Jagjivan Ram, Madhu Limaye — were associated with them.
However, it has to be acknowledged that the Jana Sangh was able to reinvent itself as the BJP after the latter was formed in 1980 and now represents one of the poles of Indian politics. From this standpoint, the loss of its earlier identity may have been a blessing in disguise for it could start all over again. But the crucial link between its earlier self and the present one remains. It is that of communalism — the cornerstone of its ideology.
Indeed, this trait has become even more pronounced with the BJP’s assumption of power at the Centre in 2014. Nothing demonstrated this characteristic more starkly than the assertion by a BJP MP, Sakshi Maharaj, that Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, was a patriot. It is a safe bet that a claim of this nature would not have been made by anyone in the Jana Sangh in the immediate post-Independence decades when it was supposedly leading mass movements. The party simply did not have the confidence then to do so when it was unsure of its place in the social and political worlds.
As a result, the Jana Sangh had kept its core beliefs under wraps. If the BJP is less discrete now, the reason is that it believes it has been somewhat better able than before to sell its anti-Muslim ideology in the garb of nationalism and by promising vikas or development which, it claims, can be provided only by Modi, who has been described as God’s gift to the nation by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu.
The BJP has also been helped by the weakening of its opponent, viz., the Congress, which no longer wears the halo as at the time of Independence and for about two decades afterwards when it had no real challengers. At the same time, it is obvious that the BJP’s progress at the central level has been by fits and starts, pointing towards flawed policies which do not have wide popular approval.
The party’s first stint under Atal Behari Vajpayee was followed by a break of 10 years when the Congress was in power. Now, there is speculation that Narendra Modi may find it difficult to repeat his performance of 2014 when the BJP won a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha. The grapevine in Lutyens Delhi now predicts that the party’s tally of seats will be around 200-220, dropping from the present 282.
Rumours of this nature explain the BJP’s caution, as in its Jana Sangh days, against unfurling the Sangh parivar’s saffron flag to the fullest extent possible. Sakshi Maharaj, for instance, has been told not to praise Godse again.
What this circumspection indicates is the BJP’s realisation that it remains a square peg of sectarianism in the round hole of India’s pluralism. From the Jana Sangh days to the present, the party of cultural nationalism — one nation, one people, one culture — has been an outsider, battling unsuccessfully against India’s DNA of cultural assimilation.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Kolkata : Slamming the reduction in the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) interest rate, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the BJP-led Central government of snatching away people’s money and defrauding banks in the name of ‘Acche Din’ (good days) .
“BJP’s ‘acche Din’ means snatching away people’s money, extorting money from the banks and make everyone penniless. Even yesterday, the EPF interest rate has been reduced by one percent. Before the BJP came to power the interest rate was 8.8 percent… it has dipped to 8.5 percent in the last few years,” Banerjee said at a public meeting in North Dinajpur district’s Hematpur.
Referring to the Rs 11,300 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, she claimed the Central government tries to neutralise such massive money frauds by taking away money from the common people.
“Whenever there is a massive fraud, they (centre) try to balance it by taking money out of the common man’s pocket. Imagine how much money they are taking away from every individual by reducing the interest by one percent,” she said.
“How can such scams happen. These are government organisatons. But there are no audits, no CAG reports,” she said.
The Trinamool Congress supremo said while the interest rates on various schemes have been drastically reduced, while people are also skeptical about their savings in the banks due to the proposed Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill.
“They are reducing the interest in Provident Fund in the name of increasing the daily allowance of the employees. The savings rates have also been reduced. Moreover, people are not sure if they would get back their money kept in the banks,” Banerjee said.
“If the proposed FRDI bill gets implemented the banks take a call on whether the customers and fixed deposit holders would get their money back or not,” she warned.
Banerjee further accused the centre’s ruling party of trying divide people along communal lines all over the country before elections and snatching away money from banks and people’s pockets after the elections are over.
She also criticised the centre for the possible disinvestment in companies like Burn Standard Co Ltd, that is considered to be the “pride of Bengal”.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Amulya Ganguli,
For the Bharatiya Janata Party’s supporters, the growing belief that the party is no longer as favourably placed as before must be both bewildering and disheartening.
They must be wondering what could have gone wrong when the BJP was looking forward to not only a comfortable victory in 2019 but was also planning to celebrate the 75th year of India’s independence in 2022.
The talk of a “New India” under the BJP’s near-permanent control was in the air with both Nitish Kumar and Omar Abdullah from two opposite sides of the political spectrum saying that Narendra Modi faced no challenge.
Yet, the scene has changed. What is more, it has happened so over a rather short period of time. Among the reasons for it may be the BJP’s electoral setbacks in, first, the Chitrakoot assembly byelection in Madhya Pradesh in November last year, the near-defeat it faced in the Gujarat assembly polls in the following month and finally the huge margins by which it recently lost three byelections in Rajasthan.
Before these contests, the successes of the Congress’s student wing in the Delhi University and of a leftist union in the Jawaharlal Nehru University student union elections over the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the saffron brotherhood’s student wing, were significant pointers to the emerging trends.
The new scenario has now led to conjectures about a fall in the BJP’s number of Lok Sabha seats to 200/220 from the present 282 in a House of 545. Since these figures have been mentioned by a saffron scribe, it is obvious that assessments on these lines are currently on in the BJP. Another scribe has identified the absence of effective speakers other than Modi as one of the factors behind the BJP’s slide in popularity.
Perhaps one of the first to say openly that the Modi magic was fading was a Shiv Sena spokesperson, who also noted the change in Rahul Gandhi’s “body language” and his transformation into a credible leader. Not long after, the Sena decided not to align with the BJP in 2019.
The BJP’s old ally is not the only party to begin thinking of greener pastures. The Telugu Desam Party, too, has expressed its displeasure over the “neglect” of Andhra Pradesh in the Union budget. To forestall a rupture, the BJP has offered the Shiv Sena 144 seats in Maharashtra in an assembly of 288 seats, but the generous gesture is more indicative of the BJP’s nervousness than of magnanimity.
So, what went wrong for a party which was riding high during the first three years of its tenure?
First and foremost reason is its failure to usher in the promised “achhe din” or better days because of a sluggish economy. The scene might have been better but for the twin blows of demonetisation, which dealt a blow to small businesses, and the shambolic rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which also unsettled the traders and businessmen.
The second reason is the widespread rural distress which eroded the BJP’s influence in Gujarat. As a party essentially of urban lower middle class areas, the BJP’s connection with the countryside has never been very strong. In its Jan Sangh days, the party once even forgot to adopt a resolution on agriculture till the lapse was noticed at the last minute.
Modi is now said to have sought the advice of farming experts to reach out to the cultivators. But the move is unlikely to pay immediate political dividends.
To compound the BJP’s problems, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the Sangh Parivar’s labour wing, has raised the red flag over the “disappointing” Union budget.
Another explanation for the BJP’s woes is undoubtedly the inability to control the saffron goons, who have been running amok to impose their diktats on diet, inter-faith romance and film scripts, among other things.
The rampages of the cow vigilantes have hit the meat and leather industries and resulted in ageing cows being let loose by their owners to roam the countryside and city streets to forage on their own. Hence the proposal to impose a fine on the “guilty” owners.
The result is the prevalence of an atmosphere of intolerance of the kind which made a section of the intelligentsia return the awards which they had once won in protest against the deteriorating state of affairs in the country.
Perhaps the BJP’s only solace at the moment is that its opponents haven’t been able to get their act together. Moreover, the fissures in their ranks are palpable with a rift in the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) over whether to align with the Congress in an anti-BJP front, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) teaming up with the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka on the eve of the assembly elections.
There are also said to be reservations among the senior opposition leaders about accepting Rahul Gandhi as the leader of an alliance.
Karnataka will be the next big electoral battle for the BJP. If it can dislodge the ruling Congress in the state, it will be able to brush aside the party’s setbacks in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Otherwise, the road to 2019 will seem steeper.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews
Manik Sarkar (file photo)
By Sujit Chakraborty,
Agartala : Manik Sarkar, who has been Chief Minister of Tripura for the past 20 years and is attempting a fifth term, has accused the Modi government of being in cahoots with the separatist tribal party, Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), and declares that the people of the northeastern state will fight “tooth and nail” to prevent its division.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership is using the terror collaborator IPFT as hunting cocks and plotting multi-faceted conspiracies against the Left Front government in Tripura,” Sarkar told IANS in an interview ahead of the February 18 assembly polls.
Sarkar, 69, has accused the BJP-led central government of putting up an economic blockade against the Left Front government in Tripura, and of all the top leaders of the saffron party and central ministers, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “pouncing on the state like eagles” in order to oust the Left from power.
“As part of their conspiracy, a series of meetings was held between the IPFT leaders and government officials, Minister in the PMO Jitendra Singh, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and finally with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi — but everything was kept secret and nothing was shared about these meetings with the state government,” said Sarkar, who has been in power since 1998.
On the IPFT’s demand for a separate state, the Chief Minister said that “the people of Tripura will fight tooth and nail to thwart the division of Tripura”.
He said that Tripura’s post-independence history has been “marked by ethnic peace and amity and even though fissiparous forces tried to disturb peace for a brief while, Tripura maintained perfect ethnic harmony”.
“When terrorist outfits realised that their demand of ‘Sovereign Tripura’ would never be accomplished, then the IPFT raised the separate state demand to drive a wedge between tribals and non-tribals,” said Sarkar.
Sarkar, who has termed the poll tie-up between the BJP and IPFT an “unholy alliance”, said it was aimed at dividing Tripura. “But we will not let this happen.”
“Despite being a national party, the BJP has no policy — or it would not forge an alliance with IPFT,” said the Chief Minister, adding that the tribal party was “destroying the future of the tribals”.
“The IPFT, with support from BJP, is trying to remove Tripura’s name from history. So long as Left parties are in the state this detrimental plan would not be allowed to happen,” he stated.
Since 2009, the IPFT has been agitating for upgrading the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) into a separate tribal state. Most major political parties, including the CPI-M, Congress, BJP and other tribal-based parties, have rejected the demand, saying it is not practical to divide the small state which has a population of around four million.
Attacking the Modi government, Sarkar said: “Every month four to five central ministers would be visiting Tripura. After holding meetings with us and state officials, and voicing appreciation at the state government’s achievements, these central ministers would go to the BJP office here or address party meetings where they would make slanderous speeches against my government. When our officials write to the Centre telling them about the reality, it just keeps mum.”
Taking on the Prime Minister, he said that Modi during his election campaign accused the Tripura government of not having spent central funds. “But the central government itself has either reduced or stopped funding to the state under many schemes and projects, including MGNREGA,” Sarkar said.
Sarkar, a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Politburo member, claimed that the Centre has “not been providing the Rs 1,700 crore-Rs 2,000 crore” due to the state every year. “They have also been ignoring our appeals and letters in this regard,” he added.
Among India’s Left leaders Sarkar is one of the main faces and key political figures. Tripura has been ruled by the Left Front since 1978 with a five-year break between 1988 and 1993, when the Congress and its tribal party ally Tripura Upajati Juba Samity were in power.
The Chief Minister said that Prime Minister Modi and the BJP should first implement their 2014 poll pledges, and then raise fingers against the Left Front government, which he said has drawn the attention of the entire country for its good governance and also won many national awards.
“The BJP leadership, after having failed to create anarchy, tried to promulgate President’s Rule in Tripura. It motivated the IPFT to blockade the state’s vital National Highway and lone railway line, like in Manipur, and it also directed officials not to release the due central funds. All this is besides the continued malicious campaign against the Left leadership,” he added.
“The Narendra Modi government’s policies and the activities of the BJP workers have created a deep crisis for the entire country, and led to panic among the minorities and others,” Sarkar said.
Sarkar said his government had made school education free and students get their text books free of cost on the day the results of their annual exams are declared. “In terms of education we have moved far ahead, and Tripura is a leading state not only in education but in all indexes of human development.”
The Manik Sarkar government — in a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country — has launched more than 30 social pensions and schemes from its own funds to benefit over 400,000 people belonging to all sections.
Sarkar, who has been in the election fray since 1981, has been elected to the state assembly six times — in 1981 (by-polls), 1983, 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013. He is seeking re-election in the February 18 polls from the Dhanpur (western Tripura) assembly constituency for the fifth consecutive time.
(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Business Summit, Economy, Emerging Businesses, Events, Finance, Investing, Markets, News, Politics, SMEs
By Mohit Dubey,
Lucknow : The eleven-month-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh is pulling out all stops to make the UP Investors Meet on February 21-22 a grand success and a spectacle to remember — with promises to bring in investments of Rs 1 lakh crore (about $15 billion).
The government machinery in the state capital is on overdrive — over 1,000 rooms have been booked in plush five- and four-star properties, four different menus of seven-course meals have been finalised, over 2,500 policemen have been requisitioned for the VVIP gathering and a fleet of dozens of cars has been booked.
That’s not all. Gallons of paint have been sanctioned to spruce up the road sides, roads are being relaid, the entire route to be taken by the guests has been lit up with LED lights. Murals of prominent city monuments are being painted on the walls of flyovers, new greenery is being planted and more than a dozen bureaucrats are burning the midnight oil to make the event a mega success.
With President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley flying into the city for the two-day jamboree, the bureaucracy and the state government are trying to finalise the minutest of details and to ensure that the state is showcased in the best of ways to attract maximum investment.
A Who’s Who of the business world, including Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, and top executives from majors like Cadila, Mahindra and Mahindra, Torrent and Essel, have confirmed their attendance at the event, which is aimed at hard-selling the state which for years has had promises made but negligible investments.
A war room has been created at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Bhavan where dozens of bureaucrats, assisted by top company executives, are working “almost 24×7” to ensure that the loose ends are tied before the mega event. Alok Pandey, a Gujarat cadre IAS officer on deputation to Uttar Pradesh, who is also the nodal officer for the investors meet, informed IANS that “almost every day, all officials involved leave the war room only around midnight”. Other top bureaucrats involved are being led by Industrial and Infrastructure Development Commissioner (IIDC) Anoop Chandra Pandey and Principal Secretary Navneet Sehgal and many more.
Sources told IANS that MoUs for more than Rs 1 lakh crore investment have been signed and would be exchanged on the inaugural day in the presence of the Prime Minister.
The Adani group has shown its willingness to set up a Mega Logistics Hub in the NCR (National Capital Region). It has also offered to set up a private university in the NCR and the mandarins in the state government are scurrying for land for these projects. Some 1,000 acres have been offered in Bulandshahr, neighboring the NCR, and to show its seriousness to investors, the state government has also sent a proposal to the Union government to expand the NCR up to Bulandshahr, an official said.
The IIDC Pandey told IANS that the “state government is determined like never before to get investments and to ensure that the investors get the best possible facilities in return”. It is for the first time in the state that sector-wise policies are being made under the Investment and Employment Promotion Policy, officials said. With the state and the Centre ruled by the BJP, the “seriousness and convertibility of promises looks tempting”, averred a senior bureaucrat.
“There have been similar events by predecessor governments on a smaller scale, but with very little returns. This is possibly the last chance for the state to salvage its image as a promising destination for investment and to sell all that it has,” Kiron Chopra, a prominent city industrialist, pointed out, adding it should not be just to invite people with no deliverables.
A private PR company has been hired to handle the promotions and social media, and its staff is stationed at the war room to ensure that every event — like the five road shows in various cities of the country — are telecast live on social media and all pictures and news related to the event are posted on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.
The opposition is, however, unimpressed. Chief spokesman of the main opposition Samajwadi Party Rajendra Chowdhary said “public money is being wasted” by the BJP government to “hide its failures in the 11 months of its rule in the state and four years at the Centre”.
He further accused the Yogi Adityanath government of trying to hoodwink the people with such grand events even as the state suffers from poor law and order, soaring crime and distress among the farmers.
Stuti Kaul, an old Lucknowite, however, is less cynical and more optimistic. She is happy that the city is being spruced up like never in the past and pats the BJP government for “at least trying”.
Whether the results of the mega event will show up or not is up to the future. It’s wait and watch till then as the state, for now, soaks itself in the spirit of the investors meet.
(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)
—IANS
