Wednesday, April 16, 2014

War of ideology

Congress leader and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi, who is compared with her grandmother and former prime minister Indira Gandhi in look and charishma, has rightly said to the Congress workers that her cousin Barun Gandhi has gone astray to contest LS election as BJP candidate. So, it is not a family tea party but an ideological war in Lok Sabha elections. She also appealed to Congressmen to bring him back on the right path by casting votes against him. Barun Gandhi is fighting Lok Sabha elections as BJP candidate from Sultanpur under which comes Amethi from where Priyanka’s brother Rahul Gandhi is fighting for the third term. Undoubtedly, Barun Gandhi also represents Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.He is the son of late Sanjay Gandhi, who was a Congress leader and younger son of former prime minister Indira Gandhi. Priyanka being the in charge of Amethi and Raeberali constituencies for Rahul Gandhi and Mother Sonia Gandhi respectively has rightly alleged that Barun has betrayed the family by accepting divisive politics of BJP against which Gandhi family has made great sacrifices. Rajiv and Indira Gandhi were killed by terrorists. Indira and Rajiv sacrificed their lives for keeping India united and its secular fabric intact. They always fought under the banner of Congress Party against the BJP. Even Sanjay Gandhi took BJP head on. He was the youthful face of the Congress Party, though died premature in a tragic plan crash. Having kept all these things in view, it is apparent that Barun and Maneka Gandhi, both are BJP leaders, accepted the divisive ideological belief in stark opposition to their family’s political and ideological belief. Due to the family differences, Maneka Gandhi and her son Barun Gandhi chose the other way that is completely different from Nehru-Gandhi family thought, belief and ideology. Because of this, they have naturally lost the advantage of public attraction for Nehru-Gandhi family attraction. This time, Barun Gandhi has chosen to fight Lok Sabha elections as BJP candidate from Sultanpur with the intention of getting public sympathy because of belonging to Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. To make the matter clear among Congress workers of Sultanpur, Priyanka Gandhi asked them to vote against him so that he could be brought back on the right path of secularism to which Nehru-Gandhi family has inalienable bond. It appears clear from her appearance, body language, tone and tenor that Priyanka Gandhi takes after her charismatic grandmother Indira Gandhi. This time, the Congress party is passing through difficulty in the Lok Sabha elections because of anti-establishment anger of the people. Congress needs a charishmatic leader like Priyanka Gandhi at this juncture. Priyanka Gandhi is the last trump card of the Congress party and it is almost certain that if it fared as badly as predicted in this Lok Sabha elections, she would definitely made a decisive plunge into electoral politics and take the party out of woods.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

AAP’s Delhi bastion shaking

Delhi is the bastion of Aam Admi Party. It has born here and risen to eminence in the shortest possible time. Within a year of its birth, AAP came to power by winning 28 assembly seats in Delhi elections last year. It has fought both the major political parties-Congress and BJP- in Delhi. It has labeled both of them as corrupt and inefficient to provide good government to Delhiites. It appealed the people in Delhi most. Delhiites felt that they got alternative to the mainstream political parties. That is why they supported AAP in assembly elections. With spectacular victory in Delhi assembly elections, AAP formed government and its convener Arvind Kejriwal became the Chief Minister. AAP promptly delivered its promises made to the Delhiites immediately after forming government. It reduced electricity rate by half and provided free supply of water up to 700 litres per day. As the Arvind Kejriwal government was dependent on the outside support of the Congress Party, CM failed to get along with coalition partner and ultimately resigned in only 49 days on his own. It was not his inability but inexperience and over ambition to emerge on the nation political scene to make claim for the post of prime minister after Lok Sabha elections that Arvind Kejriwal resigned. But 49 days of Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi left at least one thing in the mind of Delhiites that it was an honest government and it had noble intention to serve them with honesty and sincerity. Arvind Kejriwal’s running away from the government is because of his inexperience and lack ability to cope with political and administrative challenges. This tendency may have shaken the faith of Delhiites in his commitment, and that is bound to reflect in the result of Lok Sabha elections for all the seven seats. Opinion polls undertaken by different media agencies also point clearly that AAP is not going to bag all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi because of the drifting of its supporters towards Congress and BJP. As BJP had emerged as the largest party in assembly elections, it would bag up to five Lok Sabha seats as predicted by an opinion poll. Congress is also improving its position and trying hard to retrieve its pre-eminent position in Delhi. And it may get 1 and AAP’s position slid from its unenviable position in Delhi assembly elections. The graph of BJP is bound to go up because of the 10 years of anti-incumbency factor of the Congress-led UPA government going in its favour. As Congress-led UPA government has completely failed to rein in corruption and price rise, the ire of the people against it is just natural. Whatever may be the result of Delhi assembly elections, one thing is certain that Delhiites are convinced that it is only AAP which can not compromise with corruption. They also feel that it is only AAP which can provide corruption free government and have intent to act against price rise to provide relief to the poor Delhiites.