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20 May, 2009 |
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How to eat words of hate speech
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Ask Mr Advani what he told Varun Gandhi, suggested a colleague as I loudly thought of seeking an interview with the man who fought very hard to be India’s prime minister, but could not pip Dr Manmohan Singh to that post.
From the little I know of Mr Lal Krishan Advani, he will brush off that question, and it is even more likely that he indeed did not say much to Varun, preferring instead to talk to his mother Maneka Gandhi when the two Gandhis called on him a day after the election results showed the BJP their place in the 15th Lok Sabha. There may be many things that went wrong for the party . But that Varun was one of them becomes clear as one listens to the “off the record” views from partyworkers at all levels. The BJP’s well known Muslim face, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi , has received the thumbs down from the voters of Rampur in UP. The 40-somehing Shahnawqaz Hussain, chairman of the BJP’s Minorities Cell, gives away a lot when he points to the difficulty with which he won from Bhagalpur. “Rivals were distributing pamphlets and notices outside the mosque.And these were doctored pictures showing Varun Gandhi and me together ! They were being thrust into the hands of namazis going back”, he said. His own people had turned against him, not because they did not love him or take kindly to the idea of him being in the BJP. But because Varun Gandhi was now a leader of the party!
What will you do, if you and Varun are seated next to each other in Parliament, where both of you are young parliamentarians?, someone asked Hussain.Pat came the reply,”I’m president of the BJP’s Minority cell, my job is to bring the minorities closer to the party, and that’s what I am doing. Varun Gandhi does not fit into this scheme, if you want to know about him, talk to the party spokesperson Balbir Punj”.
Balbir Punj, as spokesperson, had stoutly defended Varun and his kind of speech,elaborated on how he would be sought after to campaign in many constituencies, and had even gone on to suggest that if sent wherever cousin Rahul Gandhi in the Congress went, Varun would be able to turn things in favour of the Congress.
The mention of Varun, in fact, also makes many leaders in the party, talk of Punj’s limited understanding of what it takes to win elections.
Clearly , any follow up of an honest introspection will have to be an implementation of whatever Shahnawaz Hussain suggests before the party’s core group. It is another matter that most of them seem to have gone underground for now. |
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Posted By
vijaya_pushkarna
11:45 hrs
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07 May, 2009 |
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Who'll vote for this: elections in February
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Lal Krishan Advani, the leader of the Opposition and the BJP’s star campaigner, has without a doubt, clocked the maximum mileage in the course of his party’s campaign. It was launched in early 2008,when the party thought the Left would ensure the Manmohan Singh government fell sooner than later. The 82-year old,with whom I had the opportunity to travel for two full days through hot and backward parts of Orissa,never once complained about the heat. Far from it, he would smile off when others spoke of the rigours of campaigning in summer. Not one did he display any fatigue. But a few days back he suggested that elections should be held in February. The reason was not because politicians felt the heat, but because voters would not go to cast their vote, preferring to stay indoors rather than joining long queues under the burning sun. Advani’s suggestion stands to reason and makes for a point which the country should discuss seriously. Not only from the point of view of elections, but also school and college holidays. Holidays in May/June, when most of India is generally sizzling, was the idea of the British, who needed to get away to the cool climes , “back home”.They also had the luxury of a summer capital in Shimla, the Queen of Hill stations. But those who go to Shimla now will see most homes, hotelrooms and guest houses and even offices have fans. Some even have air-conditioners. There is acute shortage of water, and with tourists thronging, things only get difficult. Holiday revelers have a change of scene but don’t reallyget to experiencing a weather vastly different from what they left behind. Not even the power cuts and dried taps. For many, the journey itself is a hot and miserable experience, with some in the party going down with heat stroke, and some gastroenteritis. Sonam Wangchuk, the young social worker who has transformed education in Ladakh, decided to redo the calendar that schools were adopting for decades without let up, so that the students are in class when it is very cold .Holidays were timed with the harvesting season , and along with other agricultural operations, so that students were able to give a helping hand. Of course, the infrastructure in schools have to be such that the hotwinds don’t blow through the windows, putting off teachers and disrupting class.Schools and colleges can be greened the natural way, with trees and creepers, to make classes in summer a doable thing. The good season can be dedicated to all outdoor activities –holiday trips and elections included. But in a land of “lakeer ke fakir” ,where archaic laws continue to dominate the statute, it will need a lot more than Advani’s concern over poor voter turnout, to bring about a change in public calendar. Till then, “We are all going on a summer holiday” as Cliff Richard sang way back. |
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Posted By
vijaya_pushkarna
10:09 hrs
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30 April, 2009 |
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Godmen, psephologists and number crunchers
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Political pundits, including those in the parties, the media and among the social scientists are working overtime, estimating-- or guestimating-- the possible outcome of the Lok Sabha elections, never mind that three more stages of voting are yet to take place.
They arrive at their figures and numbers based on factors that include the caste and community -wise break up of the electorate in that seat, the past trend of voting, the campaigning by the candidates, and finally what is generally called the "mood of the voter" or the "direction of the wind".
There has been one factor that some of them have superficially taken note of. The influence of the godmen.
Godemn of yesteryears, like Chandraswami ,were involved with politicians, but never could influence voters. But "gurus" of today are able to consciously guide their growing number of followers in the matter of exercising their franchise. And some of them are going about it openly, unabashedly, and even proudly.
The controversial Gurmeet Ram Raheem Singh , the self-styled leader of the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda with tremendous following in parts of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, in fact shot into limelight only by directing supporters to vote for the Congress during the last assembly elections in Punjab.
His followers --devotees would perhaps be a better word-- must have "obeyed" implicitly, for in the districts where they lived, the Akali pocketboroughs voted, for the first time, Congress candidates. Angry Akalis decided to hit back, and got the chance because they became the ruling party.
This time around , the Akalis who spearheaded a hate-Dera campaign, have gone to Singh, asking for votes and support. As have Congress leaders led by former chief minister Captain Amarender Singh, who went with the request last time.
The Dera has a Political Affairs Committee, which will guide its voters, before the polling date.Once the word is out, it will become easy for political pundits to factor in the impact of this godman in the results of the seats they may affect.
But there are some who are guiding their followers, but in a manner that pundits cannot read their messages to make result projections. Like the all too popular and famous Swami Ramdev, who has mesmerised the nation with his divya yoga .He has launched a "Bharat Swabhiman" campaign, aimed specifically at electing a government that is ideal for India. It is not as if he is expecting to influence the government formation this time around, but intends to keep the effort going through millions of followers, so that the change happens eventually.
"Swamiji is asking his followers everywhere to definitely vote , and vote for the best candidate, without bothering about the party, a candidate who is devoted to the country,capable of defending the country to the hilt, has a clean character and conduct record, among other things.His followers will do as he asks.And parties will have to look at the kind of people they are fielding," explained a retired colonel, who organses camps to spread the message of Ramdev.
As millions of his followers will be deciding who in their view is the "best", the poll pundits ‘ caste-creed calculations , loyalty considerations, may all go haywire.
While we will have to wait till mid May to know the results, there is a lot of fun in listening to different estimates. At a luncheon party to mark the house warming of BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdevkar, I met half a dozen leaders who had their totals ready. I got back to office with as many possibilities, excited at the quantity.
A phone call from a fan of psephology in Chennai gave me another three possibilities. And with every publication carrying their own survey,there is a lot of result-oriented fun.As if these were not enough, many websites, tv channels and publications have invited readers and viewers to send in their own guesses and conjectures. Thanks to a month-long poll, it is a month of such fun ! Enjoy. I am going to watch what Prannoy Roy & Co are predicting. |
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Posted By
vijaya_pushkarna
10:10 hrs
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22 April, 2009 |
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Politics: It's all in the family
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There are many systemic arrangements that make the USA, Canada or the UK, great places to live in, arrangements that figure nowhere in our system. Be it accessibility for the disabled , or institutionalized care for the senior citizens, half way homes for battered women or a care centre for addicts, or for that matter even short duration boarding facilities for our pets, just to name a few. But we have something that can stand in for any of these or all of these. That’s the great Indian family.
Family members are the ones who are there for us when we need them the most, no matter how terrible and scheming Ekta Kapoor’s soaps make family members out to be. And now the people who are finding they need their parents,spouse,children and siblings the most are the politicians who have hit the campaign trail, braving the cruel climate ,the contaminated water, the dust and dirt made worse by vehicular movement, particularly the helicopters that are doing overtime flying. The family members of most candidates are more than a hundred percent involved in the campaign at the closest level, and are eating as much dust as the candidates.
Starting from the top, we have Priyanka Gandhi, her children in tow, canvassing in Amethi and Rae Bareli, wearing a pleasant smile all the time. She can be seen on TV, saying she is doing it for her family, meaning her brother and mother, and in a larger sense, the people of the two constituencies that have elected her grandmother Indira Gandhi, her uncle Sanjay Gandhi _-though she may not mention that—and her father Rajiv Gandhi in the past.
Kamala Advani, the wife of Leader of Opposition L K Advani , and her children Pratibha Advani and Jayant Advani have been camping in Gandhinagar even before he filed his nomination papers. Kamala Advani had told me that spending a month in his constituency during the electioneering, when he is touring the whole country, is her main if not the only contribution to Advani’s political work. Advani himself had pointed out the virtues of leaving the family in the constituency during the electioneering period, on grounds that “The people feel good, they feel your presence then. There is no complaining that the candidate is missing.”
The other day, I traveled with 34-year old Shruti Choudhry, the Congress candidate from the Bhiwani Mahendragarh parliamentary constituency in south Haryana, as she went from one village to the other. She is contesting for the first time, and it does not need a political pundit to say she got the ticket because she is the grand daughter of late Haryana chief minister Mr Bansi Lal, and daughter of late Haryana minister Surendra Singh. But the party having taken such a compassionate view, one would have thought, would go all out to help out with the campaign. But that was hardly so. The workers are there, but it is she and her mother, Kiran Choudhry, the minister for tourism in Haryana, who are working 24x7 to ensure she wins.
Apparently, the party gives the ticket, and the family works with the candidate till the day voters queue up to press the button across their chosen symbol on the Electronic Voting Machine. But nobody is complaining. A worker explained that most candidates were happier left alone to manage their campaign with help of family members, because “someone else doing in can quietly sabotage”. In the past, many candidates have laid their defeat at the doors of such managers.
Though the examples that I have cited off the cuff pertain to celebrity political dynasties and families, this is true of most candidates. I’ve not analyzed the list of those who filed their nomination papers as the covering candidates of candidates. But it will be safe to guestimate that almost half the serious candidates will have their family members doing that.
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Posted By
vijaya_pushkarna
12:33 hrs
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18 April, 2009 |
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Big fat poll wedding
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Was it a day time Punjabi wedding, complete with a DJ? A stranger to the state could easily have asked that question, as the shrill sounds of Punjabi Pop to the accompaniment of drumbeats and electronic guitars blared from the loudspeakers far away.
It will be a lie if I said I was not surprised. For, it was the morning of Baisakhi -- the new year’s day in most Indian calendars—and I was just short of the historic Damdama Sahib gurdwara at Talwandi Sabo, in the district of Bhatinda .
Punjabis including the honorary ones know that if it is Diwali, people will head to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, and if it is Maghi –Shankaranti—they will go to Muktsar. Holi means all roads will lead to Anandpur Sahib, and the biggest Baisakhi celebration is always at this gurdwara.
While Diwali would involve celebrating and having a dip in the holy waters outside the Darbar Sahib, the other three festivals see farmers from all over the state, and even outside, head to these shrines in thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest. Taking advantage of this flowing mass of humanity, manufacturers of agricultural implements from small sickles to fancy harvester-=combines, set up stalls and display their stuff. They attract the curious farmers. Women and children head for the countless vendors selling plastic toys, eatables, clothes, beads , bangles and the like. But these petty shopkeepers and agricultural implements manufacturers are not the only ones to grab the eyeballs of the visitors to the spontaneous fairs--melas. Political parties too pitch huge shamianas, and have small to big leaders come and have their say. Election or no election. It is not just the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Indian National Congress who have pandals—the splinter groups of Akalis and the Bahujan Samaj Party too attempt to make themselves heard. The BJP does not normally pitch tent, they get invited to the SAD dais. But the Leftists, who would notmally keep off anything to do with religion, do use the opportunity offered by the Damdama Sahib gurdwara.
And so it was at Talwandi sabo last week.
The political parties like to call these meetings “political conferences”. What really happens is a lot of badmouthing of rivals, showing off of their own perceived achievements, and finally passing a resolution, which could be about anything. Since the big leaders tend to come late,and organizers prefer to keep the hapless visitors waiting to hear their “hearbeats” as psychophants never tire of referring to the leaders, the task of ensuring that the crowds don’t go away is a crucial one. And so, there is entertainment punctuated with filler speakers who will not get a chance at the main conference.
Bhangra and gidda shows have traditionally been the main form of entertainment to hold on to the crowds that otherwise may slip off to a rival pandal. People like Gurdas Mann, Jaspal Mann, Hans Raj Hans, have all entertained people. Jokes, small skits etc have been part of the show.
But for the first time, the stage given to entertainers had DJs, Punjabi pop singers, complete with their band ensemble, smartly dressed young men and women, playing their instruments, singing, and dancing. If one imagines micro-mini skirts and bustiers instead of the salwar-kameezes the girls wore, they could have vied with Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkota Knight Riders’ Angels !
Harjinder Sandhu, who was managing one of these pandals, said the tastes of people even in remote Bhatinda and Gurdaspur districts have changed. They too have taken a fancy to bands which are equipped with hi-fi amplifiers that throw out great quality music. The volume and impact is the kind that only bravehearts can take in from close proximity.
But as I went around the constituency where the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s daughter-in-law Harsimrat Kaur is pitted against former chief minister Capt Amarender Singh’s son Raninder Singh, I realized the countryside was full of bravehearts. For many rallies, small and big , had such bands playing to entertain prospective voters !
And to think those in the cities, particularly the metros, thought campaigning was all about interactive websites and catchy messages on the cell phones !
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Posted By
vijaya_pushkarna
15:15 hrs
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