by admin | May 25, 2021 | Interviews, Politics
Yashwant Sinha
By Anand Singh and Prashant Sood,
New Delhi : Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha says opposition unity against the BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections is a “work in progress” but feels that the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party should have included Congress in the alliance in Uttar Pradesh that would have “finished the game”.
He also feels even if the concept of one common candidate against the Bharatiya Janata Party has not emerged so far “closer to elections” it may materialise. Even if there is no grand alliance at the national level, there will be state-specific alliances to corner the BJP, says a confident Sinha.
“Yes, the BSP and SP should have accommodated the Congress. That would have finished the game,” he told IANS in an interview about the alliance in Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 MPs to Lok Sabha.
Sinha, who resigned from the BJP last year and has floated the Rashtra Manch, a non-party platform, said his advice to opposition parties was that they should come together and form strong alliances and have a common minimum programme at the national level.
He said there was no need to go into the “Modi versus who” question being raised by the BJP before the elections and named Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, Sharad Pawar, H.D. Deve Gowda and Rahul Gandhi as among leaders with qualities to be Prime Minister.
Sinha, 81, expressed hope that if a “mahagatbandhan” (grand alliance) was not created at the national level, there will be effective state-level alliances to take on the BJP.
He said the idea of putting up a common opposition candidate against the BJP has not materialised.
“Perhaps it is not looking like materialising so far, but I am sure closer to elections something may happen,” he said, adding added that efforts were being made in that direction.
Asked about the opposition parties not coming together to form a grand alliance in several states, Sinha said: “it is not easy for disparate elements to come together and these parties are individual separate parties because they are different.
“So it is not easy for them to come together. Some attempts are being made but necessity is the mother of the invention,” he said, adding that in states such as Jharkhand, Karanataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, opposition parties have come together.
“So there are many states where they have come together. There will be issues because they will have to agree not only on the number of seats but specifically which seat but I am hopeful even if this so-called Mahagatbandhan at the national level is not created there will be effective state level alliances to take on the BJP.”
The former Minister said there were some settled principles on the basis of which seat distribution can decided if everyone is liberal and fair about it.
Answering a query on the index of opposition unity, the former Finance and External Affairs Minister said it was work in progress. “Opposition unity is work in progress.”
On a common CMP of opposition, he said efforts are being made in the direction.
He said opposition parties have understood the importance of social media and Modi will not have an advantage in his campaign.
Answering a query on Priyanka Gandhi entering active politics, he said it will have an impact on the voters in Uttar Pradesh as well as nationally and it will help the Congress.
Asked about the opposition candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming elections, he said it is a very idle question that the BJP is persuading people to ask because it suits them.
“The counter to the BJP is who was the Chief Minister candidate of BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand when state elections were held there. And who have been the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate earlier.
“Who have been the BJP prime ministerial candidates earlier. The first time the BJP said that Mr Vajpayee will be the prime ministerial candidate was in 1995 before 1996 elections when Advaniji announced it. Who was the prime ministerial candidate in 1977 when the Janata Party scored such a massive victory?” he asked.
He said there was no declared prime ministerial candidate when Congress stitched an alliance with other parties to form the UPA government in 2004.
“So, therefore, when you look at our political history you will find the parties have anointed somebody only when it suited. Otherwise, they have gone without a so-called commander-in- chief, without a projected leader. More recently the BJP also has been doing it.”
He said it suits the BJP and they were asking everyone to ask this question and were even making fun as BJP chief Amit Shah has done by asking who will be the prime minister (of opposition) on Monday and who will be on Tuesday.
He said the candidate has eventually emerged as was the case in 1996.
Sinha said when Narendra Modi was projected as the prime ministerial candidate, he was chief minister of Gujarat.
“Now we have many chief ministers in opposition ranks. We have many former chief ministers. We have many chief ministers who also have been central ministers. We have central ministers who have occupied important positions. Therefore, anyone can fill the bill.”
Asked if can be Mamata Banerjee or Mayawati, he added more names.
“Mamata, Mayawati, Sharad Pawar, (H. D.) Deve Gowda, Rahul Gandhi,” he said, adding that though Gandhi does not have administrative experience his party was doing well now.
Asked if he had endorsed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee earlier, Sinha said he had not endorsed her.
“I barely said that she has the qualities to be a prime minister. One has to be be very careful or else media twist it. Who does not have the qualities, several people have qualities. That is why I am telling you what was Modi before, he was just chief minister of a state.”
Sinha said he had talked about Mamata Banerjee because a question was posed to him. “No one asked about others.”
To a further question about Mayawati, he said: “I have named all these people who can fill the bill.”
Asked about his assessment of how Rahul Gandhi has come up, he said he has come up very well.
“The way he was made fun of, he has proved them wrong. I think Modi and Amit Shah who wanted a Congress-Mukt Bharat and were talking about it, that has completely vanished from the discussion now.”
Sinha said he will not contest elections.
“As of now, no,” he said, adding that he had decided not to take part in electoral politics before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
The former Finance Minister said he did not have problem with the BJP of Vajpayee and Advani but he had issues with the style of working of Modi and party President Amit Shah.
Sinha said ruled out his going back to the BJP but said “it will be a better party without them (Modi and Shah)”.
He said the most important issue against the government was that it has destroyed all the institutions in this country. “The federal structure has been badly hit under this government.”
He named agrarian distress, unemployment, issues concerning Dalits and crimes against women as other issues that the opposition would highlight.
He said considering the country’s diverse political landscape, a federal party concept “is an interesting concept which should be explored”.
He said such a front can have alliances with national parties such as Congress and CPI-M.
Asked if he will play a role in the formation of such a party, Sinha said he can play a role up to a limit. “Your effort depends on your accommodation space that everyone else is prepared to give you.”
Sinha said he will try definitely to bring opposition parties together.
“I will try definitely to make it as reasonable as possible for everyone. I am prepared to give whatever assistance whatever anybody wants. And it will depend on them now.”
(Anand Singh can be reached at anand.s@ians.in and Prashant Sood at prashant.s@ians.in)
(This story is an intellectual property of IANS)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Lucknow : BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday marked her 63rd birthday with a fulsome attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of betraying the people on promises made in 2014 and the BJP of dividing people in the name of caste and religion and said the people would vote them out in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Three days after her party tied up with the Samajwadi Party for the Lok Sabha battle, she addressed a press conference again and said the alliance was giving the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and others “sleepless nights”.
“Modi is doing a number of rallies at many places. He is again making a number of false promises to the people like his earlier promises. And these promises will also be shelved,” she said.
Accusing the government of betraying the people, she said: “The government failed to fulfil its promise to farmers, students and others. They promised to bring back black money, they promised to put Rs 15 lakh in every bank account.”
Demanding that Muslims be also given 10 per cent reservation on the basis of their economic condition, she said, “The Modi government brought the 10 per cent reservation to the economically weaker sections of the upper caste in view of the elections. But our party supports the bill.
“But we want that the Muslims should also be given 10 per cent reservation on the same basis,” she said.
Targeting the BJP and Rastriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the four-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said: “They in the name of religion are not only doing wrong politics but now they have started doing politics on the caste of gods and creating communal divide for political gains.”
She accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of doing politics over Friday prayers by Muslims.
She alleged that the government was using religion based identities to alienate masses from one another.
Talking about the alliance of BSP and SP in the state, she said: “This year my birthday has come at a time when the Lok Sabha elections are very near. And keeping the polls in mind, my party has formed the alliance with the SP which has given sleepless nights to the BJP and also others.”
She accused the Centre of using the institutions like CBI to harass its political opponents.
“The best example is of Akhilesh Yadav, and such an act by the government is condemnable and unfortunate. It is a political conspiracy.”
On January 12, Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav announced that the they will contest the coming Lok Sabha polls together in Uttar Pradesh sharing 38 seats each of the 80 in the state, while not putting up candidates in Rae Bareli and Amethi, the constituencies of Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress has otherwise been kept out of the alliance.
The Bahujan Samaj Party supremo also said that it was Uttar Pradesh that decides which party would form the government at the Centre. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and its allies had won 73 seats.
Appealing to the party workers to vote for the alliance and forget earlier differences, she said: “To make this alliance a success, I appeal to all the workers of the SP and BSP to forget past differences and work for the victory of both parties’ candidates. This would be the biggest gift on my birthday.”
She also warned the party workers that the BJP was capable of spreading confusion and rumours and urged them to remain alert.
Slamming both the Centre and the Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, she said the BJP had lost support of the people of the state as they did not fulfil promises made in 2014.
Batting for a complete farm loan waiver of farmers, she said it would have been beneficial to the farmers of the country if the Modi government had implemented the Swmainathan Commission’s recommendations regarding the agriculture sector.
“The ground reality of the agrarian dimension is that small farmers still continue to opt for private money lenders and loans from private banks as there is no structured government policy of waiving their debt.
“The government should give 100 per cent farm loan waiver. Else farmer suicides will continue. A strong farm loan waiver policy should be made,” she said.
Mocking at the Congress’s farm loan waivers in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, she said the Congress government announced to waive farm loans till March 31, 2018 after it came to power on December 17, 2018.
The BSP leader blamed the BJP and Congress governments for corruption since Independence.
“Due to corruption, the farmers, Dalits and tribals did not get opportunity to progress. And thus we had to form the BSP after getting disillusioned,” she added.
At the event, Mayawati released the 14th edition of her “Blue Book”, which details her struggles as the BSP leader.
She also wished Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple, an MP from Kannauj, on her birthday which also falls on Tuesday.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions, Politics
By M. Burhanuddin Qasmi,
The strategic partnership of Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in UP is very crucial in the run to 2019 general election in India. The Indian National Congress should have been taken on board but its arrogance, as seen in recent past during Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan elections, might be among the reasons to keep it out. However, with or without Congress, the outcome in UP for the alliance is not going to be much deferent in the post election.
Following 2014 election it was proven unmistakably that in UP, precisely, votes division among SP, BSP and (at a few places) Congress caused BJP’s sweep. The colourful Modi baloon that was on air in 2014 is no more entertaining for many NaMo fans. The SP-BSP duo will be in better position to check the mad-horse ride of BJP in UP this time.
The political chemistry in whole of India is not same and it cannot be the same. Kerala, Telengana and Assam are arithmetically somehow similar for Muslims in India. They should try to consolidate more power in these states. It will be in Congress’s interest, nationally, to club with AIUML and AIUDF in Karela and Assam as pre-election partners.
Muslim leaderships with small parties in UP and Bihar could not create their own support bases and failed to take wise decisions at right times. Without a visible foothold on ground no political party can claim shares in the real political game. Thus protecting constitutional interests and future dignity of Muslims in India should be the soul objective of voters in UP and Bihar.
Muslims should favour SP-BSP in UP and RJD-Congress in Bihar without slightest doubt in minds. The alliance parties in both the states should, however, ensure adequate representations of the community within their respective parties while distributing tickets. UP and Bihar will pull the king down in 2019 unlike past, when these states had been the king makers.
West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka may throw unexpected results as was seen following Tripura assembly election last year. There are hopes for BJP to make some gains. Muslim, Dalit and ST voters can play smart with EVMs. These states are going to be the swing states in 2019 elections and these may also heavily influence the overall outcome by the end.
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chattisgar, Assam, Haryana and Punjab will offer better chances for the Congress. These states will decide either Rahul Gandhi will be an option for the post of Prime Minister following 2019 counting day or not.
At this point of time, it is useless to speak about any Muslim-led political party beyond Assam, Karela and Hyderabad unless a Waisi, Ajmal or Abu Asim is visibly present somewhere. Those Muslims who are harbouring political aspirations in their hearts should nourish themselves politically mature and grow their persons as capable players within Indian complex polity before jumping in the ring unwisely.
Undoubtedly, there is a scarcity of genuine Muslim leadership in India, those available are very very few or are very limited in appeal. To begin with in politics, especially for a new party or even for an individual, it is always better to contest Panchayat or Corporation elections, then Assembly and then Lok Sabha. A reverse of this order is a bad idea and those who advise to try it, are simply amateur and emotional lots.
Defeating NDA should be a clear terget this time by all Indians. Unity of India and communal harmony among its citizens are some of the laud calls to respond by all en masse. Indian Muslims must not get confused by excited slogans from unseasoned politicians. Be it driven by extra-nationalist zeel of some or victimhood mind set of others, application of minds on individual level will the wise way for voters. Muslims have been, of course, always in the receiving end but have been, on the other hand, surviving with some dignity and basic safety since post partition India.
This on going five years – post 2014, clearly proved that if they do not make mature decisions in politics now, they may even be like Muslims in Israel, Borma or China. If a Muslim leader is not ready to understand or read this clear writings on wall, then he or she is either naive, vested interest or senseless tool and such people should be rejected outright by all.
——
(The author MB Qasmi is editor of Eastern Crescent and director of Markazul Ma’arif Education and Research Centre, Mumbai.)
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The CBI on Saturday searched 14 locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, including the residence of a woman IAS officer, a Samajwadi Party leader and a BSP leader, in connection with its investigation into a case of illegal sand mining, with sources saying the role of former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who held the portfolio of mining, will also be probed.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) spokesperson Abhishek Dayal told reporters that the agency registered a case on January 2 against 11 people, including a few known public servants and unknown public servants and others, under several sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The agency has named the woman IAS officer B. Chandrakala, a former Hamirpur District Magistrate, miner Adil Khan, geologist/mining officer Moinuddin, SP leader Ramesh Kumar Mishra, his brother Dinesh Kumar Mishra, Ram Ashray Prajapati, a former clerk in the mining department in Hamirpur, Sanajy Dikshit, who contested the 2017 Assembly polls on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket, his father Satyadeo Dikshit, and Ram Avtar Singh, a former clerk in the mining department.
The official said that it conducted searches at 14 locations including one in New Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar area and Kanpur, Lucknow, Hamirpur, Jalon, Hamirpur and Noida (in Uttar Pradesh).
The agency carried out searches at two residential premises of Chandrakala in Lucknow and Noida and at the premises of the SP leader and his brother in Kanpur and his close associate Ambika Tiwari in Hamirpur.
Dayal said the case relates to the illegal sand mining between 2012 and 2016, which it had started investigating on the directions of the Allahabad High Court.
He said the agency was investigating the granting and renewal of the licenses for the mining in the state between 2012-16 and also during the ‘obstruction’ period.
The official said that the CBI team recovered a few documents and seized a bank locker and two bank accounts from the IAS officer.
From the residence of Adil Khan, the agency collected the documents related to mining. “We found that the mining licence to him was provided on the recommendations of the then mining minister Gayatri Prajapati,” he said.
He said the agency recovered Rs 12.5 lakh and 1.8 kg gold from the residence of Moinuddin in Hamirpur and Rs 2 crore and two kg gold from the residence of the retired clerk of the mining department, Ram Avtar Singh, in Jalon.
“Ram Avtar Singh was also holding a mining licence on a different name,” the official said.
The official said that it also carried out searches at the residence of SP leader Ramesh Kumar Mihsra’s wife in Lucknow but she has not been named in the FIR.
A senior agency official said that the agency will also probe the role of the Mining ministers in the state in 2012-16.
Former Chief Minister and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav held the mining ministry portfolio in the state from 2012 to 2013. Gayatri Prajapati succeded Akhilesh Yadav as Mining Minister.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions, Politics
By Mohit Dubey,
Lucknow : A year is a long time in politics. In Uttar Pradesh, the change of the calendar from 2017 to 2018 saw a tectonic shift in the political landscape, one that left the ruling BJP and its cadres shocked to the core. Mayawati, the Dalit powerhouse who was daggers drawn with arch rival, the Samajwadi Party (SP), since June 2, 1995, after a murderous attack on her at a guest house by its supporters, decided to bury the hatchet and join ranks with the party.
This was by far the biggest development in UP this year as Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the SP were sworn enemies for decades — using their stints in power to make flyovers next to the residences of each other, downgrade the other’s security cover, get political leaders bashed up by the police and what not. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been benefitting from the divide and would often gleefully boast that as the “twain shall never meet” it would give the saffron camp increased seats, election after election.
Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav are now glued to each other in their hatred for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and haunted by the spectre of his again returning to power in 2019. Political observers here say that this was the “only option before the regional satraps as they fought for survival and not success anymore”. And, as the Modi juggernaut rolled on, the BSP scored a duck in 2014 and the SP managed to win only four of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats. The SP got under 50 seats and was booted out of power in the 2017 state assembly polls, while the BSP was reduced to 19.
The new understanding between the two seemed to have found favour with the voters who threw their lot behind the duo after which SP candidates romped home winners in the Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana parliamentary by-polls. Having tasted blood, the two parties now have more or less cemented a seat-sharing agreement for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Tackling a whimsical Behenji, Akhilesh Yadav knows, is not an easy task — but he, unlike his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, is ready to bend backwards to see the alliance through.
Even BJP chief Amit Shah has conceded that the coming together of the SP and BSP would cost the party dearly in UP. The mandarins in the BJP camp, however, are now working the wires to ensure that this does not become a reality and a nightmare for them.
“From the ED (Enforcement Directorate) to the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) to other factors, all are at work — but we are determined to decimate the BJP this time,” said an informed source in the SP who is privy to the seat-sharing talks. And so, while the hostility between the Jatavs (the BSP vote bank) and Yadavs (SP’s electoral backbone) continues to simmer, hopes of the alliance arithmetic percolating down to the grassroots is not lost on both the parties.
The other significant change in the opposition camp this year was the parting of ways of Shivpal Singh Yadav from his political alma mater, the SP. A man credited with grooming the SP from scratch to three times in power finally threw in the towel after being completely sidelined by his estranged nephew and party chief Akhilesh Yadav. As a first step to breaking ranks with his party of 26 years, he formed a front but finally took the plunge and floated his own political party named Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP).
While his elder brother, Mulayam Singh Yadav, has been swinging like a pendulum between both the factions, sometimes making a guest appearance at SP events and also turning up at a PSP rally, party veterans seem to be siding with Shivpal Singh Yadav, who is extremely popular with workers and middle-rung leaders. Deepak Mishra, the spokesman of the PSP, told IANS that, in a short span of time, it is “ready with its organisational structure and is upbeat about contesting all 80 LS seats in UP”.
He also termed as opportunistic the SP-BSP alliance. “We have the old guard, the real socialists, with us who have been fighting the communal forces for years,” he claimed, adding that any party or formation will not be able to take on the BJP without the PSP’s support.
Another significant churn in politics this year was caused by the floating of his own party by independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh, aka Raja Bhaiyya.
The Kunda legislator, for the last 25 years, has been the favourite pick and essential part of almost all governments, barring Mayawati’s. This time has decided to form his own party and contest all 80 Lok Sabha seats. Having christened his party Jansatta, he said his aim was transfer power to the people. In his initial public outings after declaring his party, Raja Bhaiyya has been wooing the upper castes by drumming up the fear of the SC/ST Atrocities Act and has openly declared the legislation was potentially a big threat to the “savarns” (upper castes).
With all political parties in the state tilting towards the OBC and Dalits, Raja Bhaiyya hopes to corner the upper caste votes from the Congress and the BJP. Insiders said his electoral foray is backed by the BJP, which feels that certain upper castes — Brahmins and Thakurs — could go to the Congress because of the Act. In such a grim scenario, they would prefer to shift the vote to Jansatta rather than the Congress.
Raja Bhaiyya’s ideological proximity to the saffron camp is well known. He has been thrice minister in BJP governments in UP.
As the year draws to a close, a lot of political activity has happened in the state, enough to make 2019 an interesting year as the race for the Delhi Durbar hots up.
(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)
—IANS
