After reading thro' the article, one wonder which era does Praful live. Horse trading is a reality (it is not ethical)if NDA wouldn't hv done that UPA surely would have. Do you think the independts will have such conscience, that they will support the best. What we need is a changes in our constitutions, so that we can handle this kind of issues. The question is who will bell the cat, because both alliance are guilty of doing the same thing
Dear Praful when you say, "Sunder Singh Bhandari wanted Rabri Devi dismissed in Bihar in 1999 on bogus law-and-order grounds. He was overruled by President K R Narayanan."
I'll invite you to come stay in patna without your famous name for few days open a saving account in patna again not in PRAFUL BIDWAI name deposit a mere 3-4 lakhs in two installments. Now if you are not kidnapped or don't recieve a threat in the next few days then withdraw 50,000 from the bank and show me that you returned safely to your home.
I'll agree that there is no law and order problem in Bihar.
2nd task I'll ask you to travel to gandhi madan from Mahatma gandhi setu a distance of less than 10 kms in about 1 our I'll agree that a performing government was there in Bihar for last 15 years.
Its very easy to say that the law and order problem is not there in Bihar staying outside of Biharbut staying and surviving in Bihar is quite different.
Look at the "data"- since when are India's elections decided by % voteshare? It always has been a numbers game. What does Praful do when the numbers go against his logic? Simple - they get other numbers to justify their argument!
For once, he's right when he says that UPA threw it all away. But the opportunity for alliances was BEFORE the election, and the election was lost fair & square.
He suggests that had NDA been invited to form the government, they would have fallen short of majority. Everybody knows that the independents were up for grabs, and anybody with a base of 36 was better off than those with a base of 33. This is kindergarten maths, but Praful the educated writer doesnt think so!
Rizvi, Soren & Co. literally hijacked the Constitution of India, and that was just a "blunder". But if Munda & Co bundled up MLAs to parade before the President, that was "kidnapping", a heinous crime! Talk of double standards!!
Praful's paradigm is this: When pinkos win, democracy wins. And when they lose, even when they lose in an absolutely ungracefully, there are "no real heroes".
The columnist has tried his best to reduce the relative gap that widened in the postive and negative directions for NDA & UPA respectively, much in line to dilute the shame Congress has imposed on democracy. In this case there is no need to talk about heroism of any party or person for that matter. The Razi's decision to call Soren to form government is not something mysterious, but a clear hand from ruling party's high command is pretty evident. First they tried to play down the whole scenario that congress high command had no role to play in that. Later when they realised it may not be good enough for the damage control, they started to tell about relative "damage" caused. A responsible party should see things in absolute terms and should openly accept the mistake, which you can never expect from Congress which is always hungry for power and ready to grab it at any cost.
Sometimes it amazes me how the "hate BJP" mindset colours the way people write! Mr. Bidwai has gone to the extent of even criticising the president-for the first time we have a president who is apolitical & is seen to have done a fantastic job but even he has not been spared - Wow
With some criticism of the UPA it is again a tirade against BJP/NDA. he has conveniently put a post-poll alliance of all the UPA partners as vote share, if that was so the combine should have fought together and this situation would not have arisen. The NDA is the largest alliance, BJP the largest party how cannot the governor call them especially if the support letters are given immediately. What horse trading is the author talking about? To get a majority what is wrong if an independent is given a ministerial berth - this is the problem of hung assemblies. It is the UPA which was bent on horse-trading and unfortunately, to avoid this, the NDA has to secure its people. Why does the author not talk about how the UPA stopped a plane from the runway to do a search - what does that reflect?
A top BJP leader accepted that this indeed was a sad state of affairs but congress does not even accept it
