Wednesday, July 9, 2014

PM Modi’s control is now complete

With the appointment of BJP General Secretary and its master strategist Amit Shah as the new president of the party by Parliamentary Board, the highest decision making body, the control of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on government as well as organization is now complete. PM Modi leaves no stone unturned in ensuring his stamp everywhere. Now both the PM and BJP President are from the state of Gujarat. Amit Shah has been PM Modi’s most trusted lieutenant since his Gujarat days. He was Home Minister in the state government when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He had to resign from the Modi ministry in Gujarat because of his alleged role in the fake police encounter cases. He has been a controversial but charismatic leader of the BJP. The credit of achieving spectacular victory in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections goes to Amit Shah as he was the in-charge of elections in the state. His spectacular success in UP catapulted him to the highest post in BJP. Winning more than 70 Lok Sabha seats out of 80 from the state of Uttar Pradesh is not an easy task. He has made it possible almost single-handedly. Amit Shah is also relatively young and dynamic and expert in infusing zeal, guts and courage in party workers to fight the opponent at the right point of time. It is also said that he has vast experience of galvanizing the party workers to fight the opponent successfully. It is alleged that he can also play communal and emotional card very shrewdly to polarize the voters in his party’s favour. With Amit Shah at the helms of the party, PM Modi will always be rest assured that he will have no problem from the side of organization. Now PM Modi is the law in BJP and no leader of the party can throw any sort of challenge to his authority. Now it is be everywhere Modi and none else in the BJP. Fifty-year-old Shah was trusted with the significant organizational role after he brought about BJP’s extraordinary victory in Uttar Pradesh and was able to nearly triple the party’s vote share in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.Shah has succeeded Rajnath Singh, who is now the Union home minister.He is expected to give a complete makeover to organizational structures, replacing at least three vice-presidents and three general secretaries, who are now ministers in the Modi cabinet. Shah was the Gujarat home minister under Modi when was chief minister of the state.He had to step down in 2010 after allegations that he sanctioned a fake encounter by the state police, which saw three Muslims being killed by officers who alleged they were terrorists planning to assassinate Modi. He also faces murder charges for allegedly allowing the encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi. Shah denies the charges saying they are a political conspiracy.

Monday, July 7, 2014

First big test for Modi begins With the beginning of the Budget session of Parliament, the first big test of the newly elected Narendra Modi-led NDA government begins. The first day of the Budget session witnessed the ruckus created by the Opposition Congress and other parties over the issues of price rise and railway fare hike. Congress MPs rushed to the well to demand adjournment motion over price hike. The opposition members were so agitated and vociferous over the issues that the Speaker had to adjourn the Lok Sabha for the day. The scene that was witnessed in the Lok Sabha is not new. When BJP was in opposition, it had also created ruckus and bedlam in the Parliament on most of the days over same issue in the last 10 years during Congress-led UPA government. Now the Congress is in opposition and the BJP is in power so it is facing the same situation in Parliament from the beginning itself. Neither the ruling BJP nor the opposition Congress-led UPA loses anything and the ultimate looser is only the people of the nation and the national exchequer. Congress-led Opposition wanted to discuss the issue of price rise under adjournment motion as it is directly affecting the day to day lives of the poor people. The momentum of price rise of all essential commodities, including food items picked up during the previous UPA government is now getting speedier and speedier without any check. People are being burdened in the same way as in the previous government. So they find no difference between the two governments. They are confused which one of two is lesser evil. The all round rise in prices has made the lives of the poor very difficult. A sense of betrayal is being felt by the people because the Narendra Modi's promise of Ache Din (Good Days) appears to be in far distant. The people have also started saying that Ache Din for BJP leaders has come, when will it come for them? Modi-led NDA government hiked rail fare and freight before the budget session to avoid embarrassment in the Parliament. If the behaviour of the opposition Congress party inside and outside on the first day of Budget session is anything to go by, Narendra Modi-led NDA government must not make mistake of taking the opposition lightly. The action of the Congress party clearly showed that it was very much concerned with the common men's problems and it would never be found lacking in grilling the government on the issue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi must realize that the people saw in him their hope and aspiration. That is why they gave him massive mandate rule in the hope that he would bring relief for them. Now it is up to his government to deliver on the promises without any loss of time. The issues of price rise and rail fare hike have disrupted proceedings in Lok Sabha on the opening day of the Budget session on Monday with Opposition insisting on a discussion on the matter through adjournment motions.