Why I want Modi - Article from The Tribune

Years before the 2002 pogrom in Gujarat, the political psychologist Ashis Nandy had interviewed Narendra Modi and felt he had met a “textbook fascist”. It goes without saying that it would be terrible if Narendra Modi ever became prime minister (PM) of India.
The first to feel the heat, already, are within the Hindu Divided Family, the RSS “Parivar”. There are those within the Parivar who are publicly hailing Modi but privately fuming that there is no space left for “dissent” in the party. And I thought leftists used words like dissent! Well, leftists would use it a lot more if Modi did become PM. Mr Modi does not like dissent, disagreement or debate. If Modi becomes PM, a lot of people should be ready for sedition cases and income tax raids.
However, I don’t think it will be cataclysmic for India’s Muslims. He has done to Gujarat’s Muslims what he had to, and achieved what he had to. It will, however, be another symbolic blow to the Indian Muslim’s right to live as equal citizens that a leader who is liked by his core constituency for having “shown Muslims their place” becomes prime minister.
And yet, in a cynical, masochist way, I have a death wish. I think Narendra Modi will also be good for India. He will be good because India’s left-liberals, “centrists”, constitutionalists, radicals, freethinkers, Communists, Congressis, Dalits, Muslims — a lot of people, will unite to cry “Fascism! Fascism!”, from morning to evening. They will bring such scrutiny upon every action of his as there hasn’t been on the Congress-led coalition that has ruled India since 2004.
A journalist recently met a senior minister in Manmohan Singh’s government and asked, sir ye kia ho raha hai? Why is your government in such bad shape? The minister said, “Hum raj kar rahein hain.” We are ruling.

When I heard this anecdote secondhand, I completely believed it, because of the attitude of the so-called United Progressive Alliance government. They bought over votes to pass a bill for a nuclear deal with the US in 2008. The 2009 elections were held six months after 26/11. The BJP made national security an election issue. To its own surprise, the Congress increased its seats from 145 to 206. Urban and rural voters alike rewarded them for what they thought was good governance. This return to power went to their heads.
Virtually since the beginning of the second term, this government has battled one crisis after another. And their reaction to every crisis is brazen arrogance. They did not save the day for Commonwealth games when they could have, they blamed the auditor for exposing a telecom scam, they put Anna Hazare in jail for asking for a Lokpal and even killed a Baba Ramdev supporter asking for a similar demand. Students came out to protest against rape and they responded with tear gas. They put Muslims in jail in fake terrorism cases, they hanged Kasab and Afzal to appear strong, weren’t able to do anything about anti-Muslim violence in Congress-ruled Assam, let the situation in Kashmir worsen again, allowed the economy to tumble, let Maoists get the better of them, slapped sedition cases against those who don’t want a nuclear power plant next to their house, put people in jail for criticising the government online, and can’t even pass legislation they think will fetch them votes. Is the Congress a good-looking BJP?
And how do India’s centre-left-radical intellectuals and activists respond to such a government? With some exceptions, by silence. Why? They think criticising the Congress will help the BJP. But the Congress’s decline is anyway helping the BJP. And thus, our leftists make themselves even more politically irrelevant because they have nothing to say.
If Modi becomes PM, our leftists will have a lot to say. Even if the BJP gets enough seats to cobble together a coalition, the coalition partners are unlikely to support Modi as PM. Ideally we need a Third Front break to show the “national” parties their place, but it is still possible that the Congress may be able to put together a UPA-3 (a UPA government for the third time).


Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2013
(The writer is a journalist in Delhi. His work has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times International Weekly, The Friday Times, Rediff, the Hindustan Times, among others. He is a member of the South Asian team blog Kafila.org and tweets @DilliDurAst )

In The Mood For Reason

The interview was not to be. “Justice Ganguly is usually extremely punctual...,” a senior colleague of A.K. Ganguly, the chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission, tells us. We are at WBHRC’s Calcutta Office. It’s 1:30 pm. We had an appointment with Justice Ganguly at 11:30 am. “His life has changed after the allegations were made.... Every day he has to wade through hundreds of protestors demanding his resignation as he enters office. The media is hounding him. Today a group of women was brandishing shoes, brooms and shouting slogans.... And press photographers were there, ready to capture his exasperated expression. We dissuaded him from coming in. He feels extremely heckled.”

Indeed, Justice Ganguly has been in the eye of a storm ever since his name was made public as the retired Supreme Court Judge who a law intern accused anonymously in an online blog of sexually harassing her in a hotel room in New Delhi on the night of December 24, 2012. Since then, angry voices demanding punishment for him and justice for the victim have been pouring forth. And politicians, the press, the general public and legal professionals such as additional solicitor general Indira Jaising have all spoken out. When we spoke to Justice Ganguly on his mobile, he was still at his home. “I cannot meet you today,” he said. He sounded exhausted.

In Calcutta, among those to most vociferously bay for his blood is the ruling party, Trinamool Congress. From CM Mamata Banerjee, who wrote to the president demanding that action be initiated to sack him as WBHRC chairman, to TMC MPs Derek O’Brien and Kalyan Bandyopadhyay. Speaking to Outlook, Bandyopadhyay, himself an advocate, said, “It is a matter of shame that the head of a body like the WBHRC stands accused in such a heinous crime. This is why we are demanding that he immediately step down.” In an open letter addressed to Justice Ganguly, TMC general secretary Mahua Moitro urged him thus: “For the last time, Sir, resign!”

Lawyer and former Calcutta mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said, “If people in high offices are forced to resign at every complaint made against them, who will work? It will set a bad precedence if Justice Ganguly is coerced to resign by such character assassination.” While it could be debated why persons in high office should not be made to step down if they stand accused of committing a crime such as sexual assault, legal experts argue that such resignations were dependant on various factors. (See box). Most ‘supporters’ of Justice Ganguly claim that they are not dismissing the allegations, but merely demanding that he be judged according to the laws of the land. “My position is very clear,” said former speaker Somnath Chatterjee. “I am not for once saying that the allegations against him are false. What I am saying is that we don’t know what exactly has happened until he has been tried in a court of law.... Until he is proven guilty, he is innocent.... Only the conviction of a court of law can remove him,” Chatterjee explained.But then, the brickbats tell only one side of the story. In recent weeks, many voices of support for him too have emerged. Among them are members of the CPI(M), who see in the TMC demand for Justice Ganguly’s resignation “a political expediency”. While careful not to dismiss the allegations by the law intern, the CPI(M)’s Mohammed Selim told Outlook that the TMC may be targeting Ganguly, as the WBHRC under him urged the state government to compensate victims of alleged human rights violations (see In A Negative Frame, Outlook, Dec 16). Furthermore, on December 18, even as the protests raged against Justice Ganguly throughout the city, Calcutta High Court lawyers took out a rally in support of the besieged former SC justice. The reasons for extending their support were varied.

There have also been protests in Cal­cutta demanding the resignation of the VC of Visva Bharati University, Sushanta Dutta Gupta, after a recent RTI report rev­ealed that he was appointed even after being accused in 2005 of sexual harassment by a woman colleague when he was director of Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences.

A SCAM WORTH CRORES OR A PROGRESS WORTH CRORES THE DECISION IS UR's

When the COALGATE was exposed our standing PM said :
" The coal blocks were sold because now coal is of no use and so it was given to the people at cheap rates... "
Today the this SONIA ruled PM says :
" The Coal Ministry must ensure increased production by Coal India Limited. .. "

This is the stand of ur chosen PM.. This is the reason we tell u to do some homework before u vote.... U choose a robot for 3 terms consecutively... The option lies in ur hand again today...

‪#‎Do‬ caste ur vote to the deserving candidate only ... not to money and liquor ...
A vote can costs crores of production or crores of scam... CHOICE is urs...
JAI HIND

- SAKSHAM ARORA

15 BIG Questions for Kejriwal's AAP

1. Why Kejriwal took NO Action on this incident on Raghu (MTV) & Shazia ilmi?
2. Why Kejriwal wants support from Maulana Tauqir Raza who is arrested in making Riots in Bareilly and who declared Rs 5 Lakh Price for Killing Taslima Nasrin and 1 crore for killing former American President George W Bush?
3. Why Kejriwal supports Batla house terrorist?
4. Why Kejriwal gave ticket to Deshraj Raghav (Well-known Rashon Mafia of Delhi)?
5. Why Kejriwal is giving tickets to BJP's mayor who was fired from BJP for the Corruption charges?
6. Why Kejriwal is giving tickets to the brother of Kidnappers?
7. Why Arvind kejriwal never gives his opinion on Pakistan / J&K / terrorism?
8. What was the reason of him for writing a letter only to just 1 community (Muslims) saying Batla house encounter was fake and Ishrat Jahan was an innocent who was killed in Fake encounter?
9. Why AAP Party is soft on terrorism?
10. Why AAP wants to give Kashmir to Pakistan?
11. Why Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi and Genaral VK Singh left Kejriwal alone?
12. Why Kejriwal asked Congress youth secretary to do fraud surveys?
13. Why Kejriwal blames Modi & RSS for Muzzaffarnagar Riots without any proof?
14. Why Arvind Kejriwal & his wife were never transferred out of Delhi in their entire career if they were fighting against Corrupt Govt. unlike Ashok Khemka or Durga Shakti?
15. Is Arvind Kejriwal just a Power hungry who is eyeing for becoming CM?

Opinian Poll war

In the land of astrologers and soothsayers, it is faintly amusing to see our politicians in a lather over opinion polls. The very netas who plan their lives according to the stars are now choosing to call the polls "unscientific"! Barely five months ago, when the polls were predicting a Congress win in Karnataka, the party which now wants polls banned was praising their accuracy. In 2004, the BJP, which now is pushing for the publication of polls, had joined the chorus in demanding that polls be banned once elections were notified. As times change, so, well, does "opinion". Sadly, as always in the noise of surround sound, the facts are in danger of losing out to a mix of ignorance and partisanship.

 

 

Examine the primary arguments against polls. It is being argued that opinion polls must be banned because they are inaccurate and unscientific. Yes, opinion polls have gone spectacularly wrong on occasion in predicting election results. But there have also been several times when they have been remarkably accurate. The point is, psephology is not mathematics: to expect exact numbers is to misread the science of analysing voter behaviour. A good poll is at best a trend-spotter, the actual projections are difficult to measure in a highly localised and competitive election environment.

There's also the counter-argument: if opinion polls are inaccurate, what indeed is more "accurate"? Are journalists who confidently predict which way the wind is blowing the ultimate barometers of the political mood? Are politicians who will proclaim their party is winning a landslide to be trusted? Or is the satta market the real guide to political fortunes? Does hard data assembled through a rigorous polling exercise not matter, or do we simply predict elections on the basis of intuition?

Those who argue that a sample size of a few thousand cannot measure a country as large and diverse as India again have little understanding of either statistics or sampling. The true test of a well done poll is not its size, but how representative it is, and the quality of the questionnaire. The real information gleaned from a poll goes well beyond projecting who is winning elections. For example, one of the more fascinating aspects in a recent poll we did was to measure the popularity of Narendra Modi versus Rahul Gandhi among those voters who had Facebook and Twitter accounts. The viewer may look at the big number of which party stands where; a student of politics will find a minefield of information beyond just victory and defeat.

The second argument made is that polls influence voter behaviour and question the idea of a free and fair election. The evidence here is sketchy at best and, in most instances, defeated by anecdotal history. The 2004 elections when most pollsters failed to predict a UPA surge is perhaps the best example. Right through the campaign period, the polls were predicting a NDA victory. The results revealed both the limitations of polling and the autonomy of voter behaviour. Political workers may be swayed by opinion polls, the average voter has shown no indication of casting a ballot based on poll findings. If anything, the voter may take vicarious delight in proving pollsters wrong!

The third argument and, in this age of declining ethical standards, perhaps the most persuasive, is that opinion polls can be bought and sold. There is little doubt that a few individuals of dubious integrity have entered the opinion poll "business". We have had the unedifying spectacle in recent times of the same poll research agency giving different results to different channels within the space of a fortnight for a 'national' poll. While a highly competitive market may eventually sort out the serious pollster from a fly-by-night operator, there is no reason not to put in place transparent guidelines for election-related polls.

For example, in Britain, the original home of psephology, the British Polling Council (BPC) has been formed to ensure the highest standards of full disclosure so that consumers can judge the reliability and validity of the results. Why can't we have a similar body, mandated by the Election Commission, to establish a code of conduct for polling in the country? Regulation might be one way forward to reduce the credibility deficit confronting opinion polls.

What is not a way forward though is the culture of seeking a ban on opinion polls simply because a particular political party may be discomfited with the findings. This is not simply about the constitutional guarantees provided by free expression. It is increasingly about a sarkari mindset which believes that the best way to control information flow is to enforce bans: don't like a book, ban it; don't like a cartoon, withdraw it; today, it's opinion polls, in future, if you don't like a contrary opinion, you may muzzle that too.

Truth be told, this 'fear' of opinion polls primarily stems from those who can be best described as 'drawing room' or 'television studio' netas. The serious politicians know their future lies in the heat and dust of real India, in the slums, bastis and colonies where voters are increasingly influenced by the governance record of their rulers, not by colourful graphics that buzz on a television screen. Every opinion poll, for example, has tended to under-estimate the silent voter of the Bahujan Samaj party. And yet, Mayawati's mass appeal is not diminished by the fact that pollsters tend to write her off all too easily. Instead of agonising over poll results, may be netas would be better of focussing on rediscovering the common touch which can be decisive on the real day that matters: counting day.

 

Compare the 2 major parties & then caste ur vote...

                                                              Re-think

Note:-
we can change the politics in a day nor can we expect a direct change but all I wanna say in this research of mine is that we can at least choose the better so that we get to see development and progress and not just a bad condition of the nation as a whole... Its time we thought a bit more we need to think for the nation as a whole so that we help in developing a better BHARAT and make India a united BHARAt or the golden bird once again...
We have the power and we can do it if u decide to let it happen....

On one hand we have (Congress) :
1. ruled for more than 15 yrs after narsima rao and all the nation saw was
   a. scams,
   b. worst state of depression,
   c. inflation,
   d. increase maoist & terrorist attacks,
   e. communal divide and violence
    f. further divide amongst people.... etc
2. overall not much of an improvement anywhere except in the money in swizz a/c
3. bad foreign relations
4. more rape cases unsolved
5. increase in crime and foreign influencing on Indian internal matters
6. violence against innocent citizens of the nation
7. bad condition of govt. dept. and buss.
8. increase in tax rates
9. increase in foreign dependence
10. making a fool of India since independence and being involved in smuggling Mahatma Gandhi's valuable to Italy by air india
................. etc and the list may go on
On the other hand we have (B.J.P)
This party was earlier known as janata party but because of the rift in the party it made 2 major parts janata and bhartiya janata party and both were lead by a group of hindus or The RSS....
<The overall findings, not on a few states, bcoz states like Punjab have no scope for either of the governments>
1. saw inflation less in comparison to a 5 yr term of congress
2. developed the process of liberalisation and globalisation which was implemented by the congress in their rule
3. saw fewer cases of violent clashes, cast division, tax rate increase
4. saw fewer cases of unlawful actions
5. best foreign relations were seen
6. currency showed appreciation
7. rapes were bare minimum
8. govt. sector gave a tough competition to the pvt sector
9. less dependency on the foreign states in comparison
10. development of indian ethics and enhancing indian culture
11. made more temples which were unnecessary and gave land which was wasted by religious leaders ut still all of this was less than that of the land conquered by the congress family alone..

Suspetion in Patna Blasts is it just the IM or the JD(U) & Congress ?

The lowest level of politics is clearly depicted here in the exclusive stories by victims of the blast... SHAME ON THE JD(U) & Congress for letting it happen... TODAY THE LIFE OF A COMMAN MAN IS SO CHEAP THAT ONLY AT TIME OF VOTE THEY BEG O...THEr TIME THEY STEAL.... Its Time that we all got together and changed this entire system ....

Some statements make u think nitish was guilty and he purposely took no action :
1. Amit Sadar, a rally supporter, was injured not in the blast, but in stone throwing. “The bomb I saw was of metal. It caused a lot of chaos. People were running helter-skelter. They were throwing bricks, because the police were not doing anything,”
2. “We then went inside to help our people. We saw one bomb which was fixed with a watch and one more gadget. Around 12.30 p.m. it went off. The blast was huge. My head just stopped working,” Mr. Singh said. Many victims said the people alerted the police when they spotted the explosive devices, but the police took no step whatsoever to move people to safety.
3. “For 10 minutes we were screaming for help. After hearing about the railway station blast, we were considering whether to stay at the rally venue or make a move,” Upendra Rai, whose friend was badly injured, said with tears in his eyes.
4. “I fell unconscious for a while when the blast took place. When I regained consciousness, I started screaming, bomb phata [bomb has exploded]! Had I anticipated any danger I would never have come for this rally. I am not going to attend any more rallies.
5. “If he did not want this rally, he should have just stopped it. This is a conspiracy by the Chief Minister,” Mukesh Singh said.
6. it isthe government’s conspiracy. Mr. Kumar wants to take revenge on the people,” Mr. Mishra, an injured BJP worker, alleged.
7. “People tried to defuse the bombs by throwing stones at them,” said Brijesh Kumar Mishra, who also suffered injuries.