Arvind Kejriwal resigns CM's office

Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP), resigned from the office of the Chief Minisster of Delhi alongwith his cabinet on February 14 night. He took this step as he was defeated in his move to introduce his favourite Janlokpal Bill in the Assembly without the clearance of the Lt Governor as required by the procedure laid down since it had financial implications and had provisions not within the jurisdiction of the Delhi govt. The largest party-the BJP with 31, its ally, the Akali Dal 1, the Congress 8 and independents 2 voted against the introduction; the AAP 27. The BJP and the Congress leaders clarified in the House that they were not against the anti-corruption bill; they only wanted that the bill must follow the legal route prescribed for its introduction as the Lt.Governor had already sent a message to the Speaker to adhere to the necessary rules.

However, Kejriwal and his party were obstinate and defiant. He accused both major parties of conspiracy in acting against the anti-corruption measure. His sole strategy seemed inspired by his desire to quit office on the anti-graft issue to impress his supporters that he was thwarted by his opponents to cleanse the system. He was the servant of the aam aadmi and had no love for office. Hence, his martyrdom. It is quite clear that from day one-December 28, 2013, when he was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Delhi, heading a minority government of 28 MLAs in the House of 70, on the backing of its most hated enemy, the Congress party, the most corrupt political outfit in his eyes, he started acting in an anarchic manner; he was making most irresponsible, wild statements, describing the Congress and the BJP as "chor"(theives) and "bhrasht"(corrupt); Kejriwal and his associate were, presumably, the most honest and moral politicians.

Within a few days, his sanctimonious claims were thoroughly exposed as hollow and false. First, he had sworn in the name of his children that he would neither seek nor support the Congress and the BJP. However, when the BJP as the largest party declined to form the govt as it did not have required minimum majority of 36 members, the AAP agreed to form the govt with the outside support of the Congress, violating its own earlier promise. They justified it by claiming that a large number of Delhites had favoured them to take over the govt, through SMS, etc, in their self-styled "referendum. Their hypocrisy and duplicity were in the forefront when the party took all other decisions such as public dharna in front of the Rail Bhawan, drafting of the Janlokpal Bill, taking govt houses, big cars, security and finally resigning from the govt, without consulting the people. Even their first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls-20 seats-were done without sounding their members in the areas. Hence, there are not only protests from some constituencies, some senior aspirants have accused the leadership of selling the tickets to the highest bidders upto 25 lakhs!     

Anniversary of Kashmiri Pandits' exodus from their homeland in the Valley

January 19 is the sad day when the Hindu minority community in the Kashmir Valley-known as Kashmiri Pandits to which our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, her daughter Indira Gandhi, his grandson Rajiv Gandhi and the ruling Congress party's de facto Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 elections, Rahul Gandhi, belong, was virtually driven out of their ancient homeland, many years ago. Although it was the first and the only case of its kind when Hindus, the majority community in India, but a minority group in the Muslim majority State-J&K in the Indian Union, had to flee their homes due to a campaign of persecution and a dark shadow of death and destruction hanging over them, thanks to the intolerance and hatred of a majority of their Kashmiri Muslim brethren and co-citizens, sharing the same language and heritage. Hardly any one, including the media. is really bothered about the suffering and deprivation experienced by these displaced Kashmiri Pandits, many of whom are still languishing camps in Jammu.

It was a young Kashmiri Pandit, Rashneek Kher who reminded an Indian Express columnist Ms Tavleen Singh when she was visiting the valley recently, about the tragic anniversary of the Kashmiri Pandits' exodus from their beloved homeland, urging her to write about it. He told Ms Singh that his own home had been burnt down and he had lost relatives in the violence. Kher also told her that the hostility of ordinary Kashmiri Muslims made it impossible for those Kashmiri Pandits living in terrible condition in Jammu camps to return to their homes in the valley, as most of them might have been destroyed and illegally occupied.

Writing about this horrible story of Kashmiri Pandits' travails in their own country, Tavleen Singh regretted how false secularism practiced by some political parties like the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, lulled Indian media into indifference vis-a-vis the cruelty to the Kashmiri Hindus; they tend to perpetuate the blinkered, one-sided view that the Muslim community is the only victim of communal violence. Judging from the Congress party's vote-bank politics, one has no doubt that this party is the foremost culprit in promoting the sense of victimhood in the Muslims, instead of bridging the divide between the two largest communities-the Hindus and the Muslims in the country, since independence.

Hinduism is the most tolerant and broadminded faith with ancient traditional values of respect for all faiths. Hence, the Constitution-makers did not think it necessary to specifically mention secularism in its Directive Principles. It was only during the Emergency, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, with dictatorial powers, added "secularism" to the Constitution through an amendment. But, unfortunately, this psuedo-secularism has become the bane of communal harmony.       

Aam Aadmi Party phenomenon

Aam Aadmi Party led by Arvind Kejriwal, a former Indian Revenue Service officer, is making waves on the Delhi political scene following its unexpectedly impressive performance in the recent State Assembly elections held on December 4, 2013. It emerged as the second largest political party with 28 seats behind the BJP with 32 seats in the Assembly's total strength of 70 members. The ruling Congress party headed by the outgoing Chief Minister Mrs Sheila Dikshit was reduced to mere 8 seats. She herself was defeated by Kejriwal in her New Delhi seat.

The main cause of the Dikshit govt's humiliating defeat seemed to be her complacent arrogance. In her 15 year rule, she had improved the Capital city's infrastructure, but the problems of skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, including onions, tomatoes, potatoes, etc., worsened. She was unable to do anything to control them. Problems of sewage, inner city roads, sanitation, remained unsolved. Also, the general image of the central govt, headed by the Congress party as the most corrupt, non-performing, dynastic outfit, had also a serious impact on the Sheila Dikshit govt. There was a widespread mood of anger against the Congress in the voters. This benefitted the main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) and the new one-year old party the Aam Admi Party(AAP).

Since no party got the absolute majority of minimum 36 seats, there was a stalemate in the beginning as the largest party, the BJP declined the Lt-Governor's invitaion to form the govt on the plea that it did not have the numbers to form a stable govt. AAP had publicly declared that it will neither support any party nor seek support from any party-namely, the BJP or the Congress. However, the humiliated Congress party in order to keep its main opponent, the BJP,  out of power, voluntarily declared an un-conditional support to the AAP to form the govt. Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP leader, abandoning all its earlier high-sounding promises that it would neither seek any party's support nor support any party to form the govt., conveniently compromised to come to power. It used the pretext that its self-arranged referendum through SMS, mobile phones, and locality meetings, etc., gave them people's majority approval in favour of forming the govt. The electoral mandate and its earlier high moral claims were thrown to the winds to occupy power.

Similarly, other promises like free water and cheap electricity for every one were quickly announced as a populist sop, but economic experts denounced both these measures as flawed and financially disastrous. No much prior study and their implications seemed to have been gone into. As regards their much-acclaimed aversion to the VIP culture, Arvind Kejriwal and his ministers were found to be hypocritical and duplicitous. The Ministers preferred expensive big limousines like Toyota Innovas for their travels; Kejriwal approved a big official accommodation spread over 9000 sq.ft with ten rooms and a big lawn. He justified it and got his parents' approval to move in. No wonder, his supporters and friends were annoyed at Kejriwal's disconnect between his own words and deeds, and protested to him. He quickly decided to control the damage, reversed his decision, asking for a smaller house. All his decisions seem to have one thing in common: Kejriwal's incapability to adhere to his high moral positions; and a tendency to compromise under the pretext of popular wishes gathered through a self-serving and dubious methods. 

Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade's humiliation in New York

The Devyani Khobragade episode has revealed some disturbing facts:One, the socalled "strategic partnership" between the US and India has been found to be hollow, with a lot of gas but no substance. When it comes the crunch, the US govt as well as its Indian-American citizens act as arrogant, crude adversaries. If Indo-US strategic partnership was based on any genuine friendship, mutual respect, equality and sensitivity, how could a minor incident of an alleged "visa fraud" on the part of an Indian deputy consul-general in New York happen in the way it did? It is unthinkable that a diplomat of a friendly country would be subjected to a worst kind of public humiliation:arresting, handcuffing and strip-searching as a common criminal when she went to drop her two girls to school in the morning. Does this not show the US authorities' utter disregard for even basic courtesies and decencies provided under the Vienna Conventions?

Let us face the bitter truth:our government's soft and weak-kneed  policies to the US-as also other nations-have brought such humiliations on our citizens. The US administration dare not do this China or to Russia. It is reported that when the Russian ambassador's car was towed away in Washington DC, the next day, six American embassy cars in Moscow were picked up. Even Brazil cancelled its President's official trip to the US when Snowden's account of the US spying on it was revealed; it also revoked 4billion dollar military deal with the US. This is how self-respecting assert themselves.   

Sashi Tharoor's decline

Sashi Tharoor, a Congress Member of Parliament from Kerala and the Minister of State in the Central Ministry of Human Resources Development(HRD), once a high-ranking UN functionary who contested the post of the Secretary-General, must be a sad man, though he seems to put on a mask of a satisfied and committed Congressman. Having lost the election for the key UN office, Tharoor quit the UN job and joined Indian politics, getting elected to the Lok Sabha(House of the People) on Congress ticket, in 2009. Because of his impressive background, international exposure and experience, he was appointed as a junior Minister in the Union Ministry of External Affairs. Unfortunately, due to his would-be-wife's alleged involvement in some dubios business deal, that caused a furore in the media and in the public, he had to resign from his office. After a year or so in limbo, Tharoor made a return to the UPA Cabinet, again as a junior Minister(Minister of State).

This time, Sashi was more circumspect, more in tune with the Congress culture of sycophancy; he conducted himself seemingly in a parrot-like fashion, speaking politically correctly like other apologists and third-rater party spokespersons. Gone was a sauve, professional, ethical objectivity of an intellectual.Thus, in all his appearances in TV news channel debates he sounds pathetically predictable like a Manish Tewari, Renuka Chowdry or Manu Abhishek Singhvi. In a recent debate(October 27) on the bomb blasts in Patna at Narendra Modi's massive rally in the Gandhi Maidan, Tharoor was defending the State govt led Nitish Kumar although it was widely condemned for its incompetence to provide adequate security, by retired senior IPS officers like Prakash Singh, chief of the UP police and Ajit Doval, the chief of the Intelligence Bureau. Several persons were killed and many more injured in the blasts.

It is incredible that Sashi Tharoor, obviously in pursuit of self-serving goals, has allowed his image to be comprised and diminished. It has been reduced to that of a petty-minded politician who has to justify his party's mean misdeeds and clear lapses, morally unsound and unacceptable. What a terrible fall for a promising personality!    

Rahul Gandhi's new sob story about his mother

In his election campaign in Madhya Pradesh which is going to the polls in November, 2013, Rahul Gandhi, the heir-apparent of the ruling dynasty, though a reluctant prime ministerial candidate against the BJP nominee Narendra Modi, narrated a sob story of his mother Sonia Gandhi. Despite her ill-health and deteriorating condition, Mrs Gandhi was adamant on staying in the Lok Sabha to participate in voting for her pet food security bill for which she had "fought". Rahul stated that she had difficulty in breathing and had tears in her eyes. He finally "dragged" his mother to the hospital.

Rahul's purpose in telling the story to poor MP tribals was to impress on them his mother Sonia Gandhi's "commitment" to provide "one rupee kg foodgrain" to the poor so that "no one goes hungry" after the bill is implemented. He did not explain that if his mother was so concerned about the hunger of impoverished Indians, why did she wait so long-nearly ten years of her govt's rule since 2004-and choose a few months before the State elections in Madhya Pradesh and elsewhere in November-December, 2013, and general elections in May, 2014, for the passage of the Food Security Bill? Why shed tears now when her coalition govt had numbers to pass the legislation without her vote? Why then this emotional drama?

This reminded us of Rahul Gandhi's younger, Pappu days when he was fond of recalling what he had heard from his parents about the greatness of Nehru-Gandhis. In one such narration, he recalled that had a Nehru-Gandhi been at the helm of affairs in December 1992, the "Babri masjid" would not have been demolished. He clearly did not know or deliberately overlooked the fact that it was during his father Rajiv Gandhi's regime, the shilanyas(stone-laying ceremony) took place in Ayodhya and the doors of the Ram temple were opened. With this Pappu mindset, it did not occur to Rahul that despite his grand mother Indira Gandhi's slogan of "garibi hatao"(remove poverty), during her Emergency rule, poverty is very much with us nearly four decades after the socalled sloganeering. Even if Sonia Gandhi's food security measure is implemented, and wheat is given at Rs 1 a kg, how will it help the poor when other necessities like oil, vegetables, milk, etc., needed for minimum nourishment, are beyond their reach because of the sky-rocketing prices? Will only cheap wheat and rice will satisfy their hunger and lessen their mal-nourishment? Without a job or skill, will the poor not remain beggars, perpetually dependent and at mercy of a corrupt babu and a middleman? By spending tens of thousands of crores of public money what Sonia Gandhi will achieve besides a temporary vote? What is the past experience of such ill-conceived, extravagant schemes like PDS, NAREGA, etc? Will the poor Indians be really impressed with Rahul Gandhi's juvenile sob stories of her mother shedding tears for their welfare when they hear that she flies to New York just for a health check-up?

     

Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai goes international

The story of a 16-year-old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, is a blend of  courage and sadness. The ruthless Pakistani Taliban, the most radical, violent outfit swearing by Islam to set up Sharia rule in the country, was in full control of the Swat Valley by 2008, where Malala was born. Having realised at a young age that sons were preferred over daughters in her society, she was determined to pursue education to come up in life. Hence, Malala was opposed to Taliban's diktat not to allow girls to attend school. Her courage to defy their orders brought young Malala in confrontation with the Islamist extremists' anger. One afternoon, two youthful gunmen boarded her bus when she was returning home from school and shot her from close range. She was hit in the head and bled profusely. She would have died but for a timely help and an emergency  operation in a military hospital in Peshawar with the assistance of two British surgeons who, luckily, happened to be visiting. After a few days, Malala was flown to the British doctors' hospital in Birmingham for major operations. She has now recovered and started attending a British school in that city.

She has been widely honoured for bravery in standing up to the dictates of Islamic radicalism in her country, with awards as well as an address to the United Nations General Assembly-perhaps the youngest person to do so. She was also invited to the White House by President Barack Obama. This extraordinary world-wide attention seems to have to affected the Pakistani teenager to an extent that she was expecting a Nobel Prize for Peace and talking of becoming the Prime Minister of Pakistan like Mrs Benazir Bhutto! However, the western support and patronage caused adverse ripples in her country:many Pakistanis were angry with her for her "closer relationship" with the West. On her part, she has asserted that she still follows the Pushtun culture and wears salwar kamiz and duppatta, and regards Islam as a "true religion" that preaches peace and tolerance. But, she cannot run away from the bitter reality that she cannot return to her homeland with any sense of security and safety.

Hence, her dreams of promoting women's education in Pakistan will, unfortunately, remain just dreams. These could become a reality only if the Pakistani civil society becomes assertive, modern and progressive and unitedly fight the scourge of Talibanisation of Pakistan. Academics, intellectuals and the media have to show uncompromising determination to cleanse the Pakistani society of Islamic radicals, fanatics and jehadis, or, at least marginalising them. This cannot be done without de-emphasising the influence of Sharia in Pakistani lives. Islam has to adjust to modern times and not get mixed up with politics. All Pakistani citizens, regardless of religion, caste, sect and gender, have to be treated equally with equal opportunities for growth and upward mobility. Only then, Malalas of Pakistan can feel at home in their place of birth.