Polarized Political Platforms – Hot, Hotter and Hottest!

Assembly Elections for 5 States – Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipal and Uttar Pradesh – were announced and as on date, elections for 2 phases of Utter Pradesh and Manipal are still remaining – the election dates being 4th and 8th March 2017 and thereafter the results will be announced on the 11th March 2017. Of these States, UP accounts for the highest number of assembly seats – 403 and the election battle in UP is being fought ferociously using all epithets to malign one  another giving juicy stuffs to the Medias which were hotly debated and discussed in the select audiences of a few important assembly constituencies. Pappus’s Coconut Juice and Potato Factory are recent pointers!

Modi’s ‘Rain Coat’ comment on Manmohan Singh, New Political Definitions for SCAM by Modi – Akhilesh - Rahul, Akhilesh Yadav’s Gujarat Donkeys quip etc.  had given colour to the election campaigns especially UP State thereby polarizing the political platforms pushing the real issues to the background. 

It is better to know the sequences of events leading to this un-parliamentary accusation. Before that, Singh’s brief reaction in Washington which exposed his meekness and weakness, was that “the ordinance cleared by the Cabinet has been a matter of much public debate and Rahul had written to him on the issue and also made a statement. The government is seized of all these developments. The issues raised will be considered on my return to India after due deliberations in the Cabinet.”

The Supreme Court had ordered that elected representatives convicted and sentenced to over two years in prison will be disqualified immediately. The ordinance which overturned this supreme court order, provided that such MPs and MLAs can continue in office, without salary or voting rights, if a high court stays the conviction on appeal. 

The decision to bring an ordinance on convicted legislators was said to be taken by the Congress Party’s core group duly presided by Sonia Gandhi and the ordinance being cleared by the cabinet was sent to the President who called three union ministers to discuss his own reservations on the need for it. 

At this juncture and due to the strong voices of oppositions particularly BJP, Ajay Maken, party general secretary and communication department in-charge of Congress Party, was briefing press stating that the ordinance was a perfect one. 

Suddenly Rahul stormed into the press meet and said: “Everybody will give, the Congress will give you. The BJP will give you. Now, I will tell you what is my opinion on the ordinance. It is complete nonsense. It should be torn up and thrown away. It is my personal opinion.”  

Maken who was taken aback, had regained his composure and then echoed His Master’s voice thus: Rahul Gandhi is our leader. His views are views of the Congress party.   What Rahul said is the most important thing. This ordinance will not help us fight corruption. He is our leader and I think this is our official political stand. Rahulji’s opinion is the line of Congress and now Congress party is opposed to this Ordinance.”

It is good that the ordinance was not promulgated, but, the damages done to the PM personally and Congress Party’s   High Command Culture and Autocratic Impulse  of One Young Leader overshadowing democratic order and principle were vividly displayed much to the amusement of the public at large. Here Vice President of the Congress Party even before taking the reigns of the President ship had already usurped the power of Congress President – Dynasty Culture will never die!

Modi’s comment ‘Taking  Bath with Rain Coat’ about Manmohan Singh:

To understand this jibe, a background check of what Manmohan Singh had said in Rajya Sabha about the evils and dangers of demonetization is necessary. He declared amidst thunderous applause from Congress MPs that ‘my own feeling is that the national income, that is the GDP, can decline by about 2 % as a result of what has been done. This is an underestimate, not an overestimate. …So, in all these measures convince me that the way this scheme has been implemented is a monumental management failure, and in fact, it is a case of organised loot, legalised plunder of the common people. ‘

Being a Professor of Economics with Cambrigde and Oxford Degrees behind his name, his assessment and prediction should have been proved correct in the foreseeable future. But, now it was reported that the GDP after demonetization is at a stable state of 7.1% and again Moody’s Investors Service said: “Demonetisation will be credit positive for India as it is likely to reduce tax avoidance and corruption and it will also strengthen India’s institutional framework and it should also result in efficiency gains through greater formalisation of economic and financial activity, which would help broaden the tax base and expand usage of the financial system. All this would be credit positive for the sovereign.” 

Hence Harvard had failed, while Hardwork had won as declared by Modi in an election platform.

Modi’s comments seem to be funny and not offensive, but, at the same time bringing to fore the sad state of the governance that the people at the helm was least affected by various scams – pointing his fingers towards Manmohan Singh!  

Let us quote what Opposition leaders have called Modi: A snake, a scorpion, and bhasmasur, the demon, Hitler, Mussolini , Pol Pot etc. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said about surgical strike: “You are hiding behind the blood of soldiers who carried out the surgical strikes for India. You are dealing in their blood.” 

Some of these un-parliamentary epithets were uttered in the August House itself by the Congress and other parties, but, the BJP had not resorted to a walk-out,  as done by the Congress.  Let Readers decide as to why Oppositions are most intolerant even for a mild rejoinder from Modi and the Congress answered it with Walk Out!

UP Election Platforms had witnessed many such jibes from Modi, Akhilesh, Rahul to name a few.

PM Modi in Meerut: ‘This is BJP’s fight against SCAM- Samajwadi, Congress, Akhilesh, Mayawati’

For this, SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav quickly retorted that the acronym stood for "save country from Amit Shah and Modi“.

Rahul had responded to this ‘SCAM’, differently and explained that for Modi, everything is black – corrupt. "S in fact stands for 'service', C for 'courage', A for 'ability' and M for 'modesty'," he said at the rally in government inter-college ground , giving his own coinage for the acronym. 

Smriti Irani had this to comment on Rahul’s new found definition for Scam. She said that only Congress could see goodness in Scam and none else. Seva was seen in its true congress avatar when Augusta Westland paid hefty bribes to one family and their loyalists. Courage in Congress style, when the Nation was looted by Congress for a decade without a trace of shame. Ability demonstrated by Congress netas in the sheer number of scams in every sphere possible. Modesty when a congress neta termed a scam worth lakhs of crores as ‘zero loss.’

Akhilesh had akined Modi to Donkey – ‘UP does not need Donkey  from Gujarat’, referring to a tourism advertisement by the Gujarat Government inviting people to visit Wild Donkeys Sanctuary. 

Modi’s rejoinder seems to be a befitting one. Modi said that there was no need to be afraid of the animal that lived thousands of kilometres away.  Akhilesh Yadav should worry about his state where under his watch an entire police force was pressed into action to find a ‘lost’ buffalo. (Modi was referring to state cabinet Minister M. Azam Khan’s lost buffalo, to track which special police teams were constituted.)  He himself drew a lot of inspiration from the Indian wild ass found in the Little Rann of Kutch in his home state. The donkey does not only relentlessly without a break, it also is very loyal to its owner – meaning people of India.  And alas, the UPA government, run by the leaders you have embraced today, had issued a postal stamp on donkeys in 2013.

Religious Discrimination practiced by the present UP Government:

Discrimination in budget allocations for Burial Grounds for Muslims and Cremation Grounds for Hindus – Link

Discrimination in Electricity Connections - Link

In a rally in Fatehpur (UP). Modi thundered:

“If a village gets a graveyard, it should get a cremation ground too. If there is electricity during Ramzan, there should be electricity during Diwali too. If there is electricity during Holi, there should be electricity during Eid too. There should not be any discrimination.”

Those who have doubts about the accusations made by Modi, are quite welcome to click the two links above – Burial/Cremation Grounds Discrimination and Electricity Connections Discriminations religious basis by the present UP Government.

The two tables on the left will also throw light on the discriminations played by the Akhilesh Yadav Government on religious basis clearly favouring Muslim communities for the last 5 years.

In Moradabad, an enquiry was carried out as whether there were discrimination in distribution of power connections on the basis of religion. The enquiry had established the charges of discrimination.

The details of the same are now available in the following letter of Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (RECL), in which it is revealed that a committee had investigated the matter and found that there had been discrimination on religious grounds  while implementing  the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) scheme which was designed to provide continuous power supply to rural India.