In Rajasthan, factionalism within the ruling BJP is out in the open once again.
Former union minister Jaswant Singh's wife, Sheetal Kanwar, has lodged a police complaint against a BJP MLA and the publisher of posters for depicting Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and other senior leaders as gods and goddesses!!!!!!!
You complain about the vanity of lengthy political comments after the spectacular victory of Mayavati at the UP election and go on and on to expound what went right or wrong in the election. One can diminish the political acumen and strategic planning of Mayavati and her advisers. She realized early on, may be ten years back, if she had to be a force to recon with in the UP politics she needs support not only from her very own Dalits but also from other sections of the society. She has been trying to build up this support right from the previous election with indifferent success. The limited success of the strategy in the previous elections was primarily due to two reasons: the perceptible lack of credibility among the people, especially the Higher Castes, in her approach and unfavourable political environment. One is not sure; how far the credibility factor has become favourable to her now; but one thing is sure, the political environment has undergone a sea change favouring her at the moment. Ironically, she should profusely thank Mulayam for this windfall of electoral success. It is his miss-rule and his associate%u2019s political and business miss-deeds that have created an atmosphere of helplessness and revulsion in a large section of the population. In a general election it is this floating population of voters who decides the fate of a particular party or a combine of parties. While die-hard carders stay rooted to parties irrespective of the miss-deeds of their leaders the floating voters are swayed by the contemporary politico-social events.
To the outraged and disgusted voters of UP Mayavati offered an option. Hers of course is the most credible alternative available to the voters. Mulayam has already discredited himself. BJP could have become viable and credible alternative. But they took voters for granted and played the same old trick to the gallery. The result, BJP leadership came across to the people as a thoroughly confused lot with no firm plan and programme. And the Congress, the less we talk about it the better. But if we look at the vote share it is clear that it is the BJP that has lost the trust of voters more severely than other parties. Add to this some shift of the Muslim votes towards Mayavati, as they perceived her the only winnable party in the election. Hence, Mayavati%u2019s electoral victory appears to have been governed by the forces of socio-political selection, very much like the Natural Selection in organic evolution.
Caste conciousness seems to pay big time in India. To start with we had brahmins being caste conscious, they reaped the benefits. Then Yadavs followed and reaped the benefits. Now, it's the dalits and Mayavati, they will surely benefit too. I am just hoping that in all this muddle India as a nation can get atleast reap a few benefits.
In US the whites are a majority and there is no minority black president. In India the non-brahmins are a majority and yet we have a minority brahmin prime minister. It shows the big heart of the non-brahmins. List of Brahmin Prime Ministers: Pandit Nehru Lal Bahadur Shastri Indira Gandhi Morarji Desai PV Narshima Rao.
RE:India's big heart!
by Nishit Shukla on May 18, 2007 11:21 AM Permalink
Why don't you people get your fact right before writing something. Lal Bahadur Shastri was not a brahmin, he was a Kayastha from UP. The 'Shastri' that you see as his surname was not a surname but a title awrded to him by his alma mater, ok? Get it ?
Say what you Will Rajeev, but you cannot deny the fact that U.P. is now becoming centrist and in some more time, the whole of India will. May be that is what you are afraid of.
The leaders of BJP were in over confidance but defencive mode during the election campaign.Activities of BJP's MLAs of last Vidhan Sabha showed a hidden friendship with Mulayam Government.Mr.Rajnath Singh,Kalraj Mishra,Lalji Tandon & KesariNath Tripathi are egoist personality.They don't hear the voice of grassroot level volunters.They don't understand their emotions & problems.They don't stand behind them when they need.All these and other many leaders of BJP are out of date for modern politics.In short, We can say that in UP BJP is the group of only tired and hypocritic members.Party has no leaders ,no volunters and no cadres.
The columnist is trying hard to hide the fact of the U.P election expecting the readers to be dumb enough to accept his rambling thoughts. Behenji played her cards well and sold her party to the cross section of U.P including those of the Muslim communities and garnering their support got herself elected - the first party to do so with a working Majority since 1991. There is another similarity to 1991 which I will visit again later. From whence did her votes come in???
The S.P of Mulayam Singh Yadav polled almost the same percentage of votes. The Congress party must thank the Gandhis for their campaigning that left them too in the same position they were in at the last elections. Given the sad state of that party they would have definitely done much worse. The votes came from the 'Loser party' the BJP. They did more badly than they did in the 1991 elections! Nazarwalla put it very aptly in his articles in rediffmail - The Hindu Divided Family. They made lofty claims of governing - on their own. They then came down to sitting in opposition and not supporting any party. The bottom-line today is they have such a pathetic showing that no one needs their support.
The readers are subject to some more confused thinking when the columnist in comparing the ruling elite and their favouritism to their kith and kin as Caste ism! The columnist does have that acrobatic (boneless) style of writing that any matter under the sun can be twisted and given spin to suit his party line when he writes.
If there is really an unwillingness of the lower castes to take up priestly duties and their brainwashing into having to belong to their sub castes it actually makes a very strong case for Reservations to these communities so that they - with the education imparted - are able to achieve even more than the so called 'brainy' Brahmins have been doing. That way the very mindset that they are not capable and they too are brainwashed to think that they cannot, tells us of the distances we need to cross to really eradicate the caste system. All men are equal and can do exactly the same things given the opportunity. Inthe US the African Americans were marginalised. Now that they are not we have Condoleeza Rice as secretary of State who is African American - in fact the second after Colin Powell and the time is not far off when there might be a black President!
