Showing posts with label Bal Thackeray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bal Thackeray. Show all posts

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Hardik Patel Is Not A Movement



And Narendra Modi is no fluke.

I have not had a chance to dig deep into Hardik Patel. But on the face of it, I see hundreds of thousands of Patels rallying around a 22 year old who scored 50% on his B.A. exam. These are men unhappy that their state has a woman Chief Minister. It does not matter that she is a Patel herself.

I am currently engaged in a debate in Nepal where I am arguing for a dynamic formula on reservations, one with a sunset clause. Once a community makes headway and achieves parity, the reservations are dropped for that particular community.



But reservations affect only a small portion of the targeted communities. Most of the people will be helped in the private sector. The jobs that the private sector will create will do much of the heavy lifting. And Modi is focused on that like a laser beam.

Patels are the most famous Indians in America. They seem to be doing fine. They are no Dalits.

I have watched attacks on women like Irani, the Foreign Minister and the Rajasthan Chief Minister, half the time those sexist attacks come from within the ranks. Goes to prove the point India is a terribly sexist country. It can not become a world power by continuing on that path.

It makes Modi look good that he picked a woman to be his successor. She should be judged on the merits. I have not looked at her record either. But I agree with her decision to not budge to Hardik Patel. He is a flash in the pan.

The Patels should take pride in a woman Patel Chief Minister. For a moment I was comparing Gujrat to First World countries, I am going to stop now.

भुटान में एक होता है Gross Happiness Index. मेरे को लगने लगा है भारत में भी कोइ Gross Democracy Index शायद है। देशके अर्थतंत्र को मजबुत बनाने की कोइ फिकर नहीं। रैली अटेंड करो बस उसी से शायद मोक्ष प्राप्ति हो जाती है। चाहे मुद्दा कुछ भी हो। करप्शन खत्म ना हो लेकिन करप्शन पर रैली कर दो, हंगामा कर दो। वो हंगामा खत्म तो नया मुद्दा ढुंढो और फिर से हंगामा मचा दो।

एक औरत चीफ मिनिस्टर है तो इन पटेलों की मर्दांगी को ठेस पहुँच रहा है। That is all I am seeing in this non phenomenon.

मोदी शायद बिहार में हार जायेंगे। लेकिन २०१९ में हारते हैं तो न्यूज़ है, २०१५ तो प्रदेश का चुनाव है। I will give Modi two more years before I judge him.

America's politics is Gulf Of Mexico. India? South Pacific with the strong winds and the gigantic waves. Turning around the Titanic was easier. This oil tanker is hard to turn around. Modi is at least trying.



Cocky and confused: Why Hardik, the newest Patel icon, disappoints
he is underwhelming in person .... an accidental hero. .... does not know where he stands in the reservation debate. “The youth of our community are not getting jobs because of reservation,” he told reporters on Sunday. Asked whether it should go, he replied in the negative. “We need quota in government jobs otherwise millions of our educated boys and girls will not get jobs,” he added....... “All castes should be given reservation.” ..... Reminded that the government cannot breach the 50 percent ceiling on reservation as ordered by the Supreme Court, he said: “It (the court) can sit at night for a terrorist but not for us. We want quota at any cost. If others also need it they should come forward and join us.” ...... at the time of the Mandal movement, which the community opposed with great force .... I am not a politician and have not any intention to become one.”
'Kitne haath tode maine, maloom?' Meet Hardik Patel, Patidar poster boy and man without a plan
Nothing prepares you for the disappointment of meeting Hardik Patel, the 22-year-old leader of the Patidar reservation movement....... a young man inspired by violence, street-vigilantism, parochialism and contradictory, confused notions of injustice. He comes across as a disturbing mix of his idol Bal Thackeray's politics and Raj Thackeray's methods. Maybe, his movement is the precursor to the launch of the Gujarat model of Shiv Sena. ...... "The day we find out who is the General Dwyer of the Jallianwallah Bagh of Ahmedabad (the man who ordered police action against Patidars on August 25), we will kill him" ..... Hardik Patel owes his rise to the vigilantism of the Sardar Patel Group, aptly called SPG, an organisation that claims to protect members of his community from lukkhas (bullies and petty criminals). "If somebody touches our women, we break their hands. Kitne haath tode maine, maloom?" he asks. ....... His father sells submersible pumps to keep the family afloat; his younger sister, who failed to get a scholarship even after "topping her matriculation exam", is believed to be the inspiration behind his own struggle. ...... "When you see him, you will wonder, is this what India has come to? You will be underwhelmed" ...... Yet, it is

disappointment at first sight

. ...... I almost glide past him, ignoring the anti-Mandal messiah completely..... "I am going to Delhi," he replies. Is it to scale up the movement, interact with leaders of Gujjar and Jat communities, Patidars from other states? "No, I have been asked to appear in Aap Ki Adalat (a TV show). So, I will go when they send the tickets," Hardik Patel reveals his next move. ...... And then the interview is seemingly over. Hardik buries his head in a mobile phone and gets busy doing what most of the youth his age do: chat with friends on WhatsApp. "You speak to Chiragbhai," he says and starts punching the keypad furiously. .......

calls Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu fellow Patidars

..... argues there are 27 crore Patels in India and their influence decides outcome of 118 Lok Sabha constituencies and, when asked if the RSS is behind the movement, jokes that Mohan Bhagwat calls him daily. ...... He talks about how the Patidars have become desperate because of acquisition of their agriculture land for urbanisation and industrialisation, and the failure of traditional businesses because of competition from online retailers. ..... The story of diminishing opportunities in rural areas, sale of agriculture land, either under distress or for government projects, and the rising competition for government jobs and admission to professional courses can be heard in almost every corner of India. ....... "Patels know they have run out of options. Agriculture can't sustain them. Education under Gujarat's self-finance system is expensive, admissions cost money and many Patels are forced to sell their land for it. But, in the end, spending a fortune on education doesn't help either. Admissions to good, job-oriented courses is tough, government jobs can't be secured without bribes. The entire system is unjust, it leads to financial misery and ruin," he says. ......... "People are selfish. When we break the hands of people who touch our girls, everybody supports us because they know their family could be next. It is the same with reservation. Patels have begun to realise that today it is their neighbour's son who is getting destroyed by the system; tomorrow it could be his son's turn. So, they have united."...... Hardik Patel's politics, steeped in violence, retribution and the philosophy of "breaking up every hand that attacks the dignity of Patel women and future of Patidar men" is a counter argument to the pre-Independence legacy of Gujarat. Is this what India has come to? ..... Hardik Patel has left now, whizzing away in an swanky, expensive SUV. ..... Men will be men. And, in politics, boys will be boys!
Hardik Patel arrives in Delhi with designs on turning his Patidar agitation into a national movement
members of the Patidar community from 10 Indian states. Hardik Patel claims the Patidars are spread in several corners of India — from Rajasthan in the north to Andhra Pradesh in south — they number nearly 27 crore. “The Kurmis of Bihar and their leader Nitish Kumar is ours; the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is also part of the Patidar family,” he says. .....

The Bihar CM has already supported the Patidar movement

..... The success of the Ahmedabad rally — he claims there were 18 lakh Patels in the Gujarat capital for the event — has further emboldened Hardik. ..... Ahmedabad-based journalists say that until a few days ago, nobody had even heard of Hardik or his movement. But the young leader from a modest family of Viramgam suddenly appeared on the horizon with the support of thousands of supporters, whose numbers later swelled to nearly a million. ..... The Patels are known to be a clannish, closely-knit community in Gujarat. ...... Hardik claims he built the movement from the ground up by addressing dozens of rallies in Gujarat's villages and towns, before converging in Ahmedabad. The first rally, he says, was organised on 6 July with the support of 25,000 people; after that, the numbers kept growing exponentially. ..... He claims Bal Thackarey and Bhagat Singh are his heroes, and VHP leader Pravin Togadia an inspiration. ..... the real force behind the movement is the RSS. A report in Gujarati daily Divya Bhaskar claims the Sangh has propped up Hardik to turn reservation into an pan-India issue. "The Sangh's objective is to initiate a debate on the caste-based reservation policy and then prepare grounds for its replacement with socio-economic criteria" ...... The Shiv Sena has hailed him as Gujarat's hero. In an editorial on Friday, the party mouthpiece Saamana called him

the new "king of crowds".

Hardik Patel's quota battle is only an excuse, a stick to beat Narendra Modi with
when it comes to reservations, it’s always serious business in India......

Modi’s haters are waiting for Emergency just like Modi’s fans are waiting for Achchhe Din.

..... Emergency was preceded by a student movement called "Nav Nirman" in Gujarat. People were out in the streets protesting against the government of that time, and protests would often turn violent. .... The Surat unit of Aam Aadmi Party had already supported him. Nitish Kumar has also supported him last Tuesday. ..... All the nuances that were visible and audible prominently when Jats demanded reservations or

when Gujjars went full Rambo on railway tracks

will be missing when discussing Patel’s agitation, because this is something that is supposed to weaken Modi’s fort at his home. Nothing else matters. ....... "A Patidar (Patel) student with 90% marks does not get admission in an MBBS course, while SC/ST or OBC students get it with 45% marks." ..... Hardik Patel has come up with the "post-Mandal injustice" .... The fact that Hardik Patel has been able to organise such a big crowd, which only likes of Modi could manage in Gujarat earlier, shows that this feeling of injustice is real. ..... The probability of a taxi driver or watchman in Mumbai being a Mishra is as good as him being a Yadav. And when this Mishra and Yadav go back to their villages, the boundaries increasingly blur. ..... I’d still support caste based reservations, especially for Scheduled Castes. ..... OBCs have acquired political power and clout, which SCs have not been able to. ..... I’d propose that in case of OBCs, the primary criteria should be made economical i.e. 27 percent seats are reserved for economically weaker sections, with preferential allotment on the basis of caste. So a cutoff is created not based on caste, but based on economic status, but preference is given to OBCs (because you can’t wish away castes in entirely yet) in that list.
Hardik tries to scale up his agitation to national level
“Just as Sardar Patel united scores of small principalities and Kingdoms in British India to become one country, I will make sure that we, the vanshaj (descendents) of Sardar Patel unite all communities agitating for OBC status and present a national front,” he said to a room full of Gujjar leaders from across eight states in Gujjar Bhavan in Patparganj, East Delhi. ...... a clear move by him to acquire a national persona and invoke a common spirit of the dominant peasant castes across the country who feel that the current state of agriculture, falling farm incomes and educational backwardness will keep them out of the developmental bandwagon.
Why both Modi and Kejriwal are misinterpreting their massive mandates
India is on the threshold of another “million mutinies”, to use VS Naipaul's evocative phrase. The ongoing agitations by ex-servicemen over OROP (one rank, one pension) and the Patidars of Gujarat for job reservations, and the oncoming public sector strike are symptoms of this mutinous on-rush. Further ahead, there is every chance that the rural distress over unviable small-time farming may also come to a boil, even though the contentious Land Bill has been defanged and possibly sent into cold storage....... it is more than likely that the revolt brewing in many parts of India are against an inept political system and the complete lack of credible leadership in all parties. ...... a continuation of the citizen mutinies that began around 2010-11 with the Anna movement, the overthrow of the Left Front in West Bengal and the DMK in Tamil Nadu, and the gathering storm that peaked in 2014-15, resulting in the rise of two politicians - Narendra Modi at the centre, and Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi. ....... Political pundits are fond of saying that the old Indian anti-incumbency syndrome – where voters kept defeating incumbent governments every five years – had changed in the 2000s once a few politicians started delivering some degree of governance and development. ...... the aspirations of the newer generations are no longer about obtaining rudimentary public goods like roads and power, but something more – education, health, jobs, and higher incomes ..... most mandates tend to get misinterpreted in India’s first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system where small vote swings result in large gains in seat shares. In UP, for instance, the Samajwadi Party got a roaring majority in 2012 on a vote share of less than 30 percent. The AIADMK won an overwhelming majority in 2001 with less than 32 percent of the vote – the vast majority still voted against it; it lost badly in 2006 even with a 1 percent rise in its vote share. The 2011 mandate, where it won 150 seats on a 38 percent vote, was 6 percent below its best-ever performance in 1991. When Mamata Banerjee sent the Left Front packing in West Bengal in 2011, the Left’s vote share was a massive 41 percent – hardly a big mandate for change (“poribortan”). ...... to interpret Indian election results as massive mandates in favour of one party or the other is always a mistake. All mandates are conditional on leaders delivering credible performance quickly. ..... That neither Modi nor Kejriwal has done so is why we are seeing the eruption of new forms of discontent in many places. Modi has not changed the way government and central government do business, and Kejriwal has reduced his party to a one-man show, and has now fallen back on traditional vote-bank rhetoric to avoid having to take responsibility for his own failures. ........ neither has so far lived up to expectations. ..... take the case of Kejriwal. He has done nothing beyond what a Sheila Dikshit or a BJP Chief Minister would have done, by making higher provisions for power and water subsidies and higher allocations for education. He has forgotten all about his Lokpal bill, and has, in fact, focused all his rhetoric on fighting with the Lt Governor when he could have spent the time more usefully delivering on his mandate. He must think the voters of Delhi are stupid enough to buy his rhetoric when he is busy schmoozing with Nitish Kumar in Bihar as though what happens in that state is more important to his politics in Delhi than what he does with the power he does have. Sheila Dikshit was seen as a good CM most of the time because she delivered within the power constraints. But Kejriwal is busy trying to shift the blame. His high-profile fallout with Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan surely has not gone unnoticed by voters. Kejriwal is clearly trying to target Modi and the centre in order to deflect public anger away from his own performance to another target....... The agitation against the land bill is less about fears of land confiscation and more about unviable agriculture and the lack of exit opportunities from it without being shortchanged by politicians on land prices...... Modi and Kejriwal will fail if they interpret their mandates as being about delivering freebies and not about creating a new politics that people can understand and believe in. India will pay a high price for their respective failures to understand their mandates. The mandate is for more honest politics, not more unbelievable promises........

Modi’s mandate is about change, and the first change needed is in the way politicians explain their policies – both success and failures - to the public.

.... Kejriwal’s mandate is about delivering honest politics, not constant battles with the central government. His post-February politics have been dishonest and unnecessarily anti-centre. He won’t be forgiven by the voters of Delhi if he continues along this path and fails to deliver.

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Paramendra Kumar Batting For Nitish Kumar


Nitish Kumar: Prime Minister

My name is Paramendra Kumar, and I am batting for Nitish Kumar.

Bihar bats for Nitish Kumar as PM
L K Advani's blog about a non-Congress, non-NDA Prime Minister coming to power after 2014 polls stoked the fire on Tuesday with Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray criticizing the BJP leader while JD(U) leaders differed in their opinion on the issue. Thackeray's comment, that Advani's prediction might be based on the two contenders - Nitish and Narendra Modi - for the PM's post within the NDA, threw up the issue for debate .... TOI on Tuesday reached out to a cross-section of society for reaction on Thackeray admitting Nitish as potential PM candidate and majority of them preferred Nitish to Modi mainly because of the former's secular credentials, wider acceptability among the NDA allies, clean image and his pan-India appeal among youth. .... his stature will also bring other socialist, secular and nationalist parties under one umbrella. The 2014 battle will be fought in the Hindi heartland. In this backdrop, Nitish will emerge an automatic choice .... "Nobody in this country is ready to accept that Modi is a secular person. Nitish has secular credentials. If the NDA projects Nitish as its next prime ministerial candidate, he would be able to garner support from all secular forces. Among the non-Congress leaders, Nitish would be the best prime minister." .... "Nitish has emerged as the strongest prime ministerial candidate. He would be the most capable and dynamic PM. He has vision and ability to lead a country of different religions, faiths and languages. Unlike Modi, Nitish has experience of running ministries at the Centre. Whichever ministry he headed, Nitish hardly disturbed the basic fabric of bureaucracy." .... "Bihar has taken a big leap in terms of development, safety and security under Nitish leadership. The world has recognized his ability to govern. In 2008, when I was travelling in Gujarat, some co-passengers in train told me about crisis of workers mainly because Biharis had stopped going to Gujarat after tremendous development in Nitish raj. I think Nitish would prove a better PM." ..... "When Lalu Prasad was the chief minister of Bihar, Nitish used to be called his 'Chanakya'. Let this modern Chanakya from Nalanda be the next PM. As he has brought an overall growth in Bihar, he would surely change the economic scenario of the country." .... "Modi has no experience of heading ministry at the Centre whereas Nitish has been minister of different departments, including railways, for several years. Besides, unlike Modi, Nitish has acceptance among people of all religions." ..... "Nitish must be given a chance to become PM. He would definitely bring the nation on the fast track of development as he has done in Bihar. If Modi is doing well in Gujarat it is because he got a developed territory to lead. But Bihar has been a 'Bimaru' state for several years. Nitish has made the turnaround no one had even thought of."
Post-2014 polls, non-Congress, non-BJP PM likely: LK Advani
Advani wrote in his blog, "A non-Congress, non-BJP prime minister heading a government supported by one of these two principal parties is, however, feasible. This has happened in the past also." .... Advani also predicted that the Congress was headed for its worst-ever debacle and might for the first time "sink to just two digits" in Lok Sabha .... at a time when the BJP leadership is debating whether it can risk annoying allies like Bihar CM Nitish Kumar by projecting his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. ..... In his blog , Advani also wrote that a government which will not be led by either the BJP or Congress was not likely to last long. "This has happened in the past also. But as the prime ministership of Chaudhry Charan Singh, Chandrashekharji, Deve Gowdaji and Inder Kumar Gujralji, as also of Vishwanath Pratap Singhji have shown, such governments have never lasted long," he said.
A scenario I am looking at is where either the BJP or the Congress emerge as the largest party but distant from a majority on their own, the non-Congress, non-BJP parties collectively become bigger than either the Congress or the BJP, and the BJP throwing its weight behind Nitish Kumar among all possible non-Congress, non-BJP candidates. That BJP support wipes out any possibility of any other non-Congress, non-BJP candidate showing up. Congress gets left out big time. The UPA as an alliance is no more, and even the NDA as an alliance is in tatters. For the first time the non-Congress, non-BJP government could last a full four year term.


Advani blog: Sena fumes, JD(U) welcomes prediction
A political storm has stirred up over Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L.K. Advani's blog post predicting a non-Congress, non-BJP prime minister after the next polls, with ally Shiv Sena terming it "demoralising" and another ally Janata Dal(United) (JD-U) welcoming it..... JD(U) MP Shivanand Tiwari, however, defended Advani, saying his assessment is "impeccable".... Old ally Thackeray, in a strongly worded editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna, however, said: "If Advani has any doubts, he can come to me at Matoshri (Thackeray's residence in Mumbai) and I will give him a dose of morale and strength." .... He added that the comment would "add fuel to the fire" of ambitions in Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi for the prime minister's post.... "There is price rise, unemployment, corruption, but the BJP is not fighting a sustained battle against these evils... In Uttar Pradesh, Punjab elections, there was anti-incumbency factor which should have benefited the BJP but it didn't," said Tiwari..... Tiwari's comment come a day after his party chief Sharad Yadav said he did not agree with Advani's prediction
LK Advani's Blog
Speculations About Congress' Fate In 2014
the Government likely to take shape can be that of the Third Front. .... It would not at all be surprising if the next Lok Sabha elections yield a result which for the Congress may prove the worst in its history since 1952
How Britain Promoted Opium In India
Today, it is universally acknowledged that the two basic touchstones to judge a country’s conditions are its performance in the field of education and healthcare...... the British rulers in India deliberately and systematically, destroyed whatever wholesome existed .... When the British came there was throughout India, a system of communal schools managed by the village communities. The agents of the East India Company destroyed these village communities…. ..... “Instead of encouraging education, the Government encouraged drink. When the British came, India was a sober nation. ‘The temperance of the people,’ said Warren Hastings, ‘is demonstrated in the simplicity of their food and their total abstinence from spirituous liquors and other substances of intoxication.’ ...... “With the first trading posts established by the British, saloons were opened for the sale of rum, and the East India Company made handsome profits from the trade. When the Crown took over India it depended on the saloons for a large parts of its revenue; the license system was so arranged as to stimulate drinking and sales....... “The Government revenue from such licenses has increased seven-fold in the last forty years; in 1922 it stood at $60,000,000 annually-three times the appropriation for schools and universities.’ ..... She does not tell us that the opium is grown only by the Government, and is sold exclusively by the Government; that its sale, like the sale of drink through saloons, is carried on despite the protest of the Nationalist Congress, the Industrial and Social Conferences, the Provincial Conferences, the Brahmo-Somaj, the Arya-Somaj, the Mohammedans and the Christians, that there are seven thousand opium shops in India, operated by the British Government, in the most conspicuous places in every town; that the Central Legislature in 1921 passed a bill prohibiting the growth or sale of opium in India, and that the Government refused to act upon it; that from two to four hundred thousand acres of India’s soil, sorely needed for the raising of food, are given over to the growing of opium; and that the sale of the drug brings to the Government one-ninth of its total revenue every year. ...... It was…the practice of the miserable tyrants whom we found in India, that when they dreaded the capacity and spirit of some distinguished subjects, and yet could not venture to murder him, to administer to him daily dose of the pousta, a preparation of opium, the effect of which was in a few months to destroy all the bodily and mental powers of the wretch who was drugged with it, and turn him into a helpless idiot. That detestable artifice, more horrible than assassination itself, was worthy of those who employed it. It is no model for the English nation. We shall never consent to administer the pousta to a whole community, to stupefy and paralyze a great people

The NDA has to project Nitish as its PM candidate before the elections. That is a sure way for the NDA to get into power.

The only person contesting against Nitish Kumar is Rahul Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi himself is a fan of Nitish Kumar. I think that pretty much sums up the debate, if there is one.

May 2009: Rahul praises Nitish Kumar, Naidu
"I am not saying that only Congress has leaders (who have done good work), there are leaders in the opposition.... Nitish (Kumar), for example," he said, praising the Bihar chief minister. 
Rahul blundered by praising Nitish, Jayalalitha, quips Jaitley
"It is a blunder on part of young Gandhi to praise Nitish Kumar and Jayalalitha, for his overtures have been cold-shouldered by the parties he was trying to reach. On the other hand, UPA partners got upset and is seeing it with suspicion" 
Lalu, Paswan Dismiss Rahul's Praise For Nitish
Reacting to Rahul Gandhi lauding Nitish Kumar for the developmental work done in the state, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad made no attempt to hide his ire. He told reporters: "Nitish koi achha kaam nahi kiya hai (Nitish has not done any good work)." ... He added, "Neither is the Congress ours nor are we in Congress." ..... Lok Janshakti Party leader and Bihar leader Ram Vilas Paswan too made apparent his irritation at the Congress general secretary's speech. "If Nitish has done good work, then why has the Congress pitched its candidates against him? Kya bolte hain Rahul? (What is Rahul talking about)."
And the biggest name in the BJP is himself saying no to Modi, and yes to Nitish.

Lal Krishna Advani moves away from Modi, says Non-Cong, Non-BJP PM possible
Advani's remarks assume significance in the context of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's reservations over BJP projecting Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate in the next general elections..... Of late, there has been speculation that Advani and Modi do not share the same relationship they used to have years ago. Advani had in an earlier blog also written about not-so-rosy a picture about the state of affairs in BJP

A vote for Nitish Kumar will be a vote for double digit growth rates for India. India becomes the new China with Nitish Kumar at the helm. This is about the economy, stupid. India's time on the world stage has come.
 
Bangladesh Diplomat Identifies Pakistan's Seven Deadly Sins
If Saudis Can Surrender Abu Jindal, Why Can't Pak Hand Over Dawood Ibrahim?
Some Memories Of Past Presidential Elections

I must say Advani has a great blog.
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