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From: face build <in_face2001@yahoo.co.in> Date: Fri Nov 12, 2004 4:40pm Subject: write-up on election Dear Friends, Here is the write-up for you. Thanks Asad Bin Saif BUILD, 11 Sujata NIwas, S.V.Road, Bandra (W), Mumbai- 400 050 Democratic exercise with maturity The recently held Maharashtra State Assembly election declared in favour of secular outfit and even strong anti-incumbency factor did not count against them. Had the result gone in favour of Saffron Combine there would have been repercussions at the Centre and equally Saffron brigade would have got new vigour to begin their onslaught on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliances (UPA) regime. The result also shows it is a victory for Coalition and Secular dispensation. It is also a vote against Saffron Outfit, which unleashed a campaign to malign Sonia Gandhi on her foreign origin, which proved to be a hollow proposition. People voted obviously in favour of development and progress with the clear intention to get rid of the gnawing issues and which could be dealt with sincerity and outwit the designs of communal and reactionary forces. The result created a congenial atmosphere for the retrieval of the nation from being trapped in a messy situation let out by the sectarian parochial elements. The first casualty was the President of BJP Mr. Venkaiah Naidu who resigned by taking morale responsibility for the defeat. The party is really in doldrums. The hardcore started grumbling that the defeat was natural because BJP discarded its core agenda Hindutva. In order to revive the party its hardcore proponent Mr. L.K.Advani emerged as the successor of Vankaiah Naidu. It was a calculated measure adopted with obvious intention to repudiate the moderate lines. Mr. L.K.Advani on taking over the mantle of the party presidentship went straight to his Alma Matar, Nagpur the RSS Headquarter to take part in Vijya Dashmi, on the eve of Durga Puja and showed great affinity for its ideology and vowed to adhere to it. But the problem arose from the side of other allies of NDA like Janta Dal groups who started clamouring against this stand and threatened them that if they went to their ideological moorings then they had to sever their ties with the coalition. Again in order to provide sop meant for the RSS hardcore consumption, a senior leader criticized Congress policy of pampering Muslims and declared that they would be responsible for the making of third Islamic State in the subcontinent due to the demographic incursion of Bangladeshi Muslims. He also declared Hindutva was Nationalism, which was the exclusive domain of BJP, and that Hindutva was its ???Ideological DNA??. An identical statement came from Shiv Sena party also. It proved that they were desperate to remain in the reckoning by invoking communal propaganda. That was why they started Hubli-Jaliaanwal Bagh Tiranga Yaatra, Andaman Satyagraha and VHP-led campaign against Afzal Khan Shrine at Pratabgarh. But all efforts to foment troubles and polarize the situation failed miserably. The people are disillusioned because their apathy towards the redressal of their grievances are not given due priority under them but rather trying to devour their aspirations at the altar of rabble rousing. Shiv Sena also faced identical problems, which culminated into internecine feud between two cousins Raj Thackerey and the working president of Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackerey. The basic difference between the two is that Raj is proponent of ???son of the soil politics?? and for that he had made pertinent remark that adoption of Hindutva harmed them. It was felt that the city was bursting at the seams and held migrants responsible for all the ills afflicting the city. This was proved when acolytes of Raj Thackerey thrashed the employment-seeking youth from Bihar and U.P. at Kalyan station and elsewhere which was committed with the sole purpose to checkmate the efforts of Uddhav Thackerey, to reach out to diverse sections of the state under ???Mee Membaikar??. Few months back he was the force behind the celebration of Chat Puja at Juhu Beach, which was meant to bring North Indians into their fold and get political dividend. In Mumbai over 60% population live in slums and other shanty structures and there are equal number of migrants. The thrashing incidence against North Indians proved to be the nemesis for the saffron combine in both Lok Sabha and Maharashtra Assembly election particularly in Mumbai city. This created contradiction and now they have mired between regional chauvinism and communal ideology i.e. Hindutva, which made it difficult for them to come out unscathed at the hustings. They tried to ignore the problems facing our youths and spurred the aggravation of the same. The party is facing true danger of disintegration after the defeat because the glue to keep them together i.e. power was snatched away. The fa?§ade of unity was facing debilitating impact. It is important to mention here that the formation of Shiv Sena in 1966 was basically because of cashing on the disgruntlement among the youth by caring about their employment and job opportunity. But from 1980s onwards the party became strong votary of Hindutva in order to become an All India Party and its Chief loved to proclaim himself as ???Hindu Samrat??. Till 1995 the appeal of Hindutva worked after which it started waning. Their base was only to obey its chief and there was no second rung leadership who could take up the mantle of leadership. It is predicted that last bastion i.e. BMC is on the verge of collapse during forthcoming Municipal election which may prove further decimation of the party. It is also a fact that the Assembly results of Maharashtra subscribed that era of centralized polity has further gone down and regional parties has assumed equal say in the governance of nation which is manifestation of true federal set-up as we have. Even the results of by-election conducted in various places shows wherever regional forces are strong the people preferred to vote in favour of them. But the unfortunate part was that Congress party did not like to accept this harsh fact. Take for example for the last ten days the Congress and NCP did not reach an agreement who should lead the affairs of the state. It was simple to understand that Congress did not budge from its centralized stance and did not like to respect ???coalition dharma?? and insisted to hold key post. But results clearly showed that mandate was in favour of NCP and they got two more seats and they deserved to lead the state without any hitch. It had happened in Karnataka where as a bigger party Congress put its foot down to hold the premier post then why NCP was deprived to have the same. This is the moot point. Congress might have lurking fear about the emergence of NCP as regional outfit under Sharad Powar and close ranks as third front. But it is irrefutable fact that Congress has inherent problems in sharing power with others. In the Union Ministry too among four key portfolios one should have gone in the kitty of coalition partner but it was not followed. If the country is to be ruled with secular forces we should not ignore the fact that federal polity needs to be protected and it was best subscribed with the emergence of coalition polity. It is also a fact that communal elements have to face more insalubrious situations if regional parties are at the helm of the affairs. This needs to be given precedence over centralized polity, which has created problems of immense dimensions as we have been facing in Jammu and Kashmir. It is pertinent to mention that BJP, which came to the fore as Centralized party but later on, realized that without coalition they would not go ahead and their dreams of coming to power would remain unfulfilled. And in spite of highly centralized party and adherent of centralized ideology of Hindutva, they had to adopt coalition as an inevitable reality. BJP always sung the songs of replacing Congress party from the political landscape of the country but they also ultimately realized that they were not occupying the space in the same intensity as Congress was vacating. In the long run they had to realize that the regional forces were actually filling up that space. In order to sustain such development we have to see that decentralization of polity work and participation from all sections including deprived and marginalized sections could be ensured. Through participation one can achieve the goals of empowerment, equity and democratic governance. Gandhi was the arch advocates of participatory democracy, which had been very much ridiculed by Mr. Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. It is apt to mention here that participation is a mechanism through which needs and preferences of citizens are communicated to political decision-makers and by which pressure is thought to bear on them to respond. For making Democracy work, there should be strong responsive and effective institutions and for that we have to ensure efficient good governance through active participation of the civic community in public affairs and create a civic culture in which the participation are bound together by relation of reciprocity and cooperation, not of authority and dependence. For that, there is a strong need for the strengthening of statutory units of the Panchayats and Municipal Corporation which represents the lowest tier of federation. Last but not the least we have to see how such forces, which are deleterious to our secular and modern values, should be marginalized and socially and politically cauterized. The UPA government must work to accommodate diverse views, governed with transparent integrity, create space for accountability, make right of information as vigorous accessible instrument and ultimately make our system truly participatory where people, the ultimate sovereign of any democratic polity, should behave as arbiters of their own destiny. It would be a happy situation when we can create an atmosphere where secular forces would fight for the issue-based healthy democracy between themselves. I think the new incumbent government led by a man of utmost sincerity and impeccable integrity and commitment like Dr. Manmohan Singh would be able to bring in such a situation. This would be the happy situation for civilization, for secularism, peaceful co-existence, modern enlightenment, progress and just polity. It would be in tune with the declared objectives under the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the Alliance, which stresses among other basic principles of governance they have also declared to preserve, protect and promote rights and aspirations of downtrodden, minorities and other vulnerable sections of the society. In fact it is a source of rejuvenation that people has proved their maturity of vision to negate the deleterious outfits and thwart their pernicious designs and supported the secular combine to save the nation from their depredations and annihilation. In fact people are great because at the crucial juncture of history they decided to vote against them. They also voted against their pesky machinations. They deserve all accolades for such endeavour. ------------------------------------------------------------ INDIA THINKERS NET quote Let those who would die for the flag on the field of battle give a better proof of their patriotism and a higher glory to their country by promoting fraternity and justice: Benjamin Harrison, 1889-1893: - Inaugural Address, 1889 ------------------------------------------------------------ |
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| << November12, 2004 - [India Thinkers Net]Family chains two teenaged Dalit girls |
November12, 2004 - [India Thinkers Net]Happy Diwali & Eid, and some Action For Human Rights! >> |
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