Politics is Puja,Puja is politics

Both these words, namely Puja and Politics are synonymous in today’s political world.  The beauty of politics is such that without performing any Puja, our politicians do not push forward their manifestos or  any other activities. In most of their work, which includes election campaigning, they convey promises tirelessly. But since, these promises are made as a part of political statement, it has its own basis. And, these are political promise; neither they are true, nor they are false. These  politicians made to devotees   after winning the election, try to fulfill their promises given to the common public in their election campaigns, but when they fail, they blame the opposition parties. They seldom introspect that either they have over promised or their promises have no basis at all. At that stage, they try  to manage the situation  by distracting the attention of the common public from the main issues. Then they utilize the theory “If  you cannot convince your voters, you just confuse them.”

At the time of election, the political aspirants flock to your house and ask your favor with folded hands. If you and all other people in your area oblige, the particular candidate wins easily. It has been seen that once a particular candidate has won an election from a designated area, you might not have any opportunity to see him again. Religious events also influence the matter of election. Almost all the politicians visit temples, seek the blessings of the priests, perform Pujas and also extend fasting just to win the election.  They continue to perform all holy things either to retain their seats or snatch the same from their opponents. Sometimes, the election date collides with the dates of some festivals. The next election in Bihar is held in five phases and the same will coincide with the Durga Puja festival this year. So, the various Puja pandals will showcase their candidates who will pay their reverence to the  Durga Goddess and seek  blessings to win the election.  The candidates of all the parties will try to woo the voters after performing Pujas and the auspicious rituals attached to it. To mesmerize the voters, the candidates will narrate their sacrifices, their love for the voters  and their welfare. If the candidate is  new for the constituency, the voters will be somewhat convinced as he may not  have any adverse reputation. If the candidate is already a sitting member and has no record of doing  much appreciable work for his constituency  then also, he will scream to accuse the opposition parties for their step-motherly behavior for his utter failure. Almost all the candidates will exploit the sentiment of this Durgapuja and  will color the religious sentiment with the election and try to maneuver the situation in their favor. The election commission is aware of this fact and they are keeping a vigilant watch to ensure that there are no violations of code of conduct and the contestants are not allowed  to use the pandals as platforms for their volubility to woo the voters. Without performing any significant contributions in their area, these candidates rely on the sentimental values of the Puja and religious magic. So, this is termed as one kind of  Puja based politics.  It may not be  true for the contestants, who sincerely devote their time and energy to serve the people, but their numbers are less. Most of the candidates are non performers. However, by showing their reverence to the Goddess of Durga, these non performers  try to prove that they are the ones on the side of auspicious happenings and they are far better than their adversaries, who mostly obfuscate their voters by not extending any services.  In reality, these contestants in the name of religion or Durgapuja  are also in the same category of a hellish lot. So, politics is a beauty of truth with a wrapper of lies. Once the wrapper is removed, the nakedness of the truth is exposed. And that is the beauty of the politics, which more often than not take the shelter of Pujas. 

If Modi resorts to hawabaazi, then Sonia is for hawalabaazi

Summer is almost retreating paving a way for sweaty month of Bhadra, when people swelter because of more humidity. In this backdrop, a lot of politically motivated hot air is blowing around the country because of ensuing election in Bihar. Now from the title itself, it is evident that using slang words are quite common in politics and more so, when you attack your opponents while doing election campaign. To use slanderous statement is not uncommon because the candidate, in question, may get some added advantage. The state of Bihar is wrapped with the various packages of election manifestos from the NDA government, which prompt the reticent Sonia to malign Modi by addressing him as Hawabaaz. As per her, Modi has drastically failed to keep his various promises given in the general election in the last year.  In the recent days, she shows her  aggressiveness little more and become a Congress lynchpin and tries to attack Modi, perhaps on the wrong foot.  She says that Modi has over promised and under delivered.  Modi promptly retorted back informing that her party, who was at the helm to run the country for two decades, is nothing but a creator and  of  hawalabaazi. The number of scams, which was happening in their tenure, is the maximum  under any government, so far.  In fact, her party was most instrumental to run a government, whose primary focus was how to involve into corruption. Fooling the common public, their government was busy to embezzle the funds via various scams. Further, Modi  criticized Congress to block the proceedings in Parliament because they apprehend that government’s tough decisions for various bills, including the stashing of black money may remove their masquerade.  Congress counterclaim that this black money retrieval is a game to cover their inefficiency and BJP is dagabaaz.  Now this baazi game is very hot and it will be in forefront for some more time, till the results of the Bihar assembly election are declared. Whatever may be the election result, every electoral winner will be doing this hawabaazi in full spirit to garner the supports from their voters. If you delve into the psychological game of any election, there is nothing wrong to prove your voters of your worth and to excite them by making a little tit - bit.  All parties adopt this game plan and Sonia and Modi are also getting engaged in this type of repertoire.  It is to be seen, who is more influencing the voters with the help of this “baazi” propaganda.  Giving promises on the eve of an election is not a new kind of hypothesis.  For example, Nitish is giving a basket of effective and lucrative proposals to his people and he feels that this will entice his voters. How far the same will convert into votes, time will only tell, but as of now, he is not putting any stone unturned to ensure the win of his alliance.  It seems Congress Baba, Rahul who is the Messiah of farmers is desired to run a Kurta Pajama ki Sarkar in Bihar, of course, if his party wins.  What is wrong to see a day dream? One does not need to spend extra money for the same. People or the voters are accustomed to big doses of bombarding words. They get pleasure with these sorts of loose words and wrangling between the candidates.  Along with Modi, his ministerial colleagues Jaitley and Rathore also give tall talks like “India is ready to edge out China as the global growth engine.”  Alas! If Jaitley could have thought a little bit of his inability to implement the GST bill in the country. For politicians, hawabaazi is good; hawalabaazi is equally lucrative, because all  these slogans are at the cost of the voters. So, how does it matter, who is screaming?

Why he is screaming? The only sufferers are the  common people.

Land Bill;The more you discuss,the more it becomes a farce

The discussions on the land acquisition bill seem to be unproductive. Despite government’s repetitive attempts to enact the bill into legislation, they failed to do so. So,  more discussions and debates are really not needed. Now that parliament session has gone into oblivion, let us reschedule our thinking and consider whether this is required or not?  Let us assume that we are in a free market for land.  When there is no embargo for anything, there is no point of enacting a bill. Why this type of thinking evolves?  Because any number of rules you write, landowners and buyers will identify a route to break those rules. So, enacting of any legislation for this land bill will provoke and bring more corruption.

As per the statistics, the landowners and their holdings spreading across the rural areas in India are insignificant as compared to the world standard. They are not so economically profitable. Since 1947, our population has increased four times, but there is a diminishing growth of land.  If the land holdings are economical, they will want to sell.  The owners will be tempted to do so. Now, when the land bill will be enacted and  its rules are truly obeyed by land owners and potential buyers, then the selling and buying will be next to impossible. The poor people in rural areas who have land, will get just stuck and eventually will be poorer. Statistically, the agriculture output stands at a meager 15% of India’s GDP.  Yet the majority of the total population of India stays in rural areas.  Indian agriculture is grossly inefficient and productivity of the land is awful.  If you compare India’s productivity of rice and wheat, the two major food grains with that of China, you will become woeful.

Rural people desperately want to come out from their shelters and want to settle in the cities.  It is a pathetic situation, but there is no alternative. Rural life is full of painstaking and toiling labor and shocking deprivation. The ignominy, humiliation and deep ignorance mostly engulf their lives.  If nearly 70% of Indians still live in rural areas, it is due to the reason that they don’t have any alternative. The day, they will find opportunities, they will move on. We must frame the friendly norms and rules so that people can move off the land  voluntarily. 

Instead of doing unnecessary talks, sometimes being converted to skirmishes in the Parliament to legislate this land bill, we first find out the ways how rural Indians can sell their land and migrate.  Many rural Indians may not have a clear title to the land.  So, the property rights issue needs to be addressed before they can sell their land.  Under these circumstances, how a land acquisition bill will really work, it is a big question for introspection.  Instead of doing  exercise to enact a bill, it is far more important to devise a suitable system that will determine land ownership.  To find out a suitable condition for this sensible and touchy issue, the government must take everybody’s opinion starting from economists to lawyers, bureaucrats to businessmen and local traders and farmers. 

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There is a need to overhaul the laws dealing with title, registration and ownership. If a person stays in a particular land for a considerable period of time, say five years and more, let us treat him as the owner.  If because of any reason, matter of ownership is not settled amicably and become disputed, the titles have to be jointly held by both the parties and the money collected out of the sale are to be distributed proportionately.

Ultimately, we must develop a free market for land and if not, then millions of people will leave the countryside in the course of time and enter the cities to create an administrative and social hotchpotch. So, it is a high time for the Indian government to work out a feasible plan for a free market to sell land.

Don't niggle at him;he is not a damp squib

You may praise Modi for his political functions, you may criticize his working, but you cannot ignore him. The BJP is always exuberant as Modi has taken this party from a local player to a national hero and  proved that they have the guts to win and rule the country. He has shown his charismatic leadership to assert that he is one of the tallest leaders in the world today. The economy is slightly on a path of recovery, but his stance though aggressive, he is not making enough classic strokes to increase the scores on an important subject of reforms. His record of governance for the past fifteen months, particularly on economic reforms is subdued. His niggling cues for this vital  issue and his inability to augment the various reforms making his opposition forces to corner him in the hall of the Lower House. Had he been successful in this direction, the opposition forces would have preferred not to criticize much. Despite his absolute majority in that house, he is playing like one of the greatest openers of test matches, namely Boycott. Why he is in defensive role?  He is not able to come out from the slough of the bureaucrat’s policy paralysis syndrome and not in a position to overrule and take drastic measures to speed up the reforms, which is otherwise sacrificing economic growth. Voted him to power, our country’s literate and the middle class populace are supposed to be his strength and helping to project him as their Messiah to change the economy. Whatever economic upbeat was observed in the past fifteen months, the credit cannot be given to him and his government alone. Some of the of big projects, which are established in the recent past by overseas investors, due credits must be  passed on to the earlier government and reforms declared by them. As for the NDA government’s approach to the economic reforms, the same is found to be timid and lacking a clear cut defined conviction. Modi’s approaching the supreme powers of various countries and convince them by his volubility will not suffice unless a conducive environment of reformatory approach is laid down instantly..

Modi is continually maintaining a chief ministerial style of administration.  He is not so proactive in the role of privatizing activities, the glaring example of perennially loss making public sector companies, such as Air India, which is constantly increasing the burden of losses and bleeding the tax payers money. Further, Modi’s approach to curb the illegal money though a laudable affair, is chilling the business sentiment domestically and this strategical movement is enriching corrupt officials only. Doing a compare and contrast of Modi’s work with Vajpayee, another stalwart of his party, the latter definitely showed a more prominent role in reformatory works. During Vajpayee’s tenure of Prime Ministership who was managing a coalition government, he could able to curb the overbearing role of the state in India’s economy. He widely reformed the infrastructure projects, namely construction of Golden quadrilateral national highways, telecommunications and quickly transformed a perpetual shortage into one of the greatest success stories in the world map. Vajpayee concentrated his whole focus and advised his the then  ministerial colleagues to do work right earnestly in the sectors of roads, schools and hospitals. In fact, his guidance to Arun Shourie saw many privatizations of ailing public sectors and earning revenues for the coffer. Though Vajpayee lost the election held in the year 2004, but his creativities and developmental policies paved a way for Modi to rise. After that trailing, the BJP was sitting on the opposition benches and continue with their lackluster roles. In the period of 2003-10, when economic growth averaged at an 8.3%, their contribution in parliament was negligible. Vajpayee has passed on his legacy to Modi, but what economic legacy Modi will give to his successors? Seeing Modi’s overall performance as a leader of the NDA government, it reminds that though he is batting in the number one  position as an opener, but preferring to adopt a defensive technique.  In that case, how he will augment more reforms in the days to come, is a big question mark. Still, niggling at him  may not be that  justified unless he finishes his first term as PM.

Why Hardik is so eager to sensitize the Patidar agitation

This particular boy Hardik was unknown a few months back.  But suddenly, he grew and developed himself as a Messiah of the Patidar community and vociferously arguing for certain benefits for them in the name of “reservation.” His enthusiasm indicates that he has a support from the big political stalwarts. Perhaps, these stalwarts are thinking that through this agitation, they may  curb the domineering influence of Modi in Gujarat and elsewhere. Whatever may be the reason behind the curtain, but this agitation has been given a mammoth media coverage showing vandalism, hooliganism and various atrocities in some of the prominent cities of Gujarat, namely Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Mehsana. Particularly the disruption of public services and burning of the public transportation in the last week in the city of Ahmedabad and other places show that under the banner of any agitation, we always want to carry out notorious activities and achieve pleasure to satiate our hellish instincts.The administrative callousness of the state government has aggravated this agitation; otherwise this could have been a timid affair. This Hardik Patel may be in the limelight today, but apparently he does not have any political basis. So, the people, who are supporting him, are only making some mistakes by giving extraordinary exposure to this issue, If everybody is asking for reservation for a particular community, the government cannot run their administration properly. Slowly the country will be heading for more disintegration causing an alarming situation politically. It will be known as a country of various groups, societies and a few independent authorities. In fact, the division of the states, namely Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and Bihar and Jharkhand have not yielded any significant benefits, at least for the common public. This bifurcation has only given some political mileage to certain political torch bearers of the country. That is why, this type of agitation or political manifestations are known as “marriage of opportunism.”

As per Hardik Patel’s candid confession, he has indicated that he has a back up of nearly 50000 Patidars and since, the year 2012, he has vouched for certain facilities to be reserved for this community. He also said that after observing various  issues related to their welfare for the past 10 years, he finds that the farmers were committing suicide, the degree holders are not getting the job and the common people are not able to curb the poverty and all these prompt him to augment this agitation. He vehemently denies that he has no political  backing from Nitish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal and Raj Thakre. They only express their support for this agitation. How far it is true, no one knows?  But this is a fact that on his own, he could have not been able to dramatize this agitation.  Of course, this agitation has taken a big leap because of the administrative callousness of Gujarat Government.  First of all, they have arrested him when he was giving some speech and then decided to sit for fasting. It was not all a cause for arrest.At a subsequent stage, the police has beaten some  innocent passers by, used tear gas and some people  also  died. Apart from this, police forces entered into the houses of Patel communities in certain areas of Ahmedabad and used their power to frighten  them, which ultimately dragged this agitation to a further scale of unnecessary attention. Now, what type of benefits these types of agitations are going to yield, it is a wild goose chase, but Gujarat Government, taking the support of Modi has to immediately formulate a strategy to curb this agitation, otherwise this boy will sensitize this issue and cut a hole in the pocket of the administrative machineries in some other states where he will find like minded political authorities.You never know and underestimate your opponent; even he is a boy without any mass appeal, as of now.