Posts Tagged ‘Arvind Kejriwal’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has concentrated on former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s constituency, Chhindwara, in the style he adopted in Gujarat in the last Assembly elections there. He aims at defeating Kamal Nath this time. It is a straight contest for Kamal Nath. BJP has fielded Vivek Bhanti Sahu, who had contested against Kamal Nath in a by-election in 2019 and lost by 25,827 votes. Sahu is a former BJP Yuva Janata Morcha,Chhindwara, President.While Kamal Nath is a devotee of Hanuman and has got 102-ft idol of Hanuman installed in Chhindwara, Sahu is a devotee of Shiva and was instrumental in installing an 84-ft Shiva idol there.
Modi has adopted a strategy for the defeat of Kamal Nath, like the one he had chalked out for Gujarat vidhan sabha elections in 2022 –,of overwhelming the rival. In addition to blaring of loudspeakers to vote for BJP, several party leaders from other states have been moved in Chhindwara to overwhelm the voters. A member of Ahmedabad Deputy Mayor Bipin Ramswarup Sikka’s team told PTI that they will leave only after November 17- the day of polling.
In 2022 a confident Modi was shaken by the unexpected victory of AAP in Punjab Assembly polls — by getting 92 seats out of 117 — and AAP President Arvind Kejriwal’s declaration that “Gujarat will be our next target”. A nervous Modi ‘forgot’ the rest of India and concentrated only on Gujarat. He started devoting roughly 2-3 days every week in Gujarat, laying foundation stones of new projects. He promised projects worth Rs 3050 crores to the State on June 10, worth Rs 21000 crores on June 18; over worth Rs 8000 crores and worth Rs 2900 crores on October 30 to November 1; Rs 15670 crores; 5860 crores; 4260 crores; 3580 crores; and 1970 crores on October 19-20. This is not an exhastive list but gives an idea.
Courtesy:NDTV.COM
Modi arm-twisted Maharashtra (as it was ruled by break-away group of Shiv Sena which had formed the government with BJP) getting Air Bus project worth about Rs 21931 crores. Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor chip project with a total investment worth Rs 1.54 lakh crore was also taken from Maharashtra. Gujarat has bagged projects worth Rs 2.62 lakh crore in the first half (April-September) of the year, pipping Karnataka and Maharashtra. Of the total fresh investments Gujarat attracted during April-September 2022, the share of the private sector was 21.5 per cent; 224 private sector projects were announced involving an outlay of Rs 1.96 lakh crores.
Courtesy: The WIRE.IN
Before the polling days on December 1 and 5, several ministers and other party leaders from various States, in addition to those in Gujarat, were called in and given duties in various parts of the State. Their duties included to tell the people, particularly their castemen, how Modiji is the best Prime Minister the country has had. But more important was persuasion, purchase and threatening the people with a view to creating an atmosphere of fear all-around. Few were spared, some in ignorance, and others who defied the BJP dictates. Muslims were ‘forced’ to remain at home on the polling day.
Why Modi is undefeatable!
Posted on: September 4, 2023
- In: Government | Politics | Society
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At 8-30 PM on January 18, 1977, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced over All India Radio – first in Hindi and then in English – that she had requested the President to dissolve the Lok Sabha and order elections, possibly in March. In her broadcast to the nation, she listed the gains of Emergency and said that the restrictions (imposed with the promulgation of Emergency on June 25, 1975) would be ‘relaxed’ to allow political parties to campaign. Two days later Minister of Information and Broadcasting V C Shukla announced the government’s decision not to enforce the censorship (on newspapers).
Though such a move by Indira Gandhi has been in the air for some time, the Opposition leaders were taken by surprise by the timing. Some of them were still in jails. They had launched an agitation against Indira Gandhi under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan. The agitation was intensified after the Allahabad High Court judgement in mid-June disqualifying Indira Gandhi. They were all put in jails with the announcement of Emergency.
On January 20, leaders of Congress (O), Jana Sangh, Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD) and Socialist Party (SP) took stock of the situation and agreed to contest the elections in the name of Janata Party. ‘The process of merger’, they decided, would continue ‘till after the elections’. It was a conglomeration of disparate parties, abhorrent of each other in normal times, but brought together by Indira Gandhi’s Emergency rule.
However, the people were not enthused to the extent the Opposition leaders were expecting. There were those who had seen the ‘gains’ of Emergency; some others were impressed by the leadership qualities of Indira Gandhi and favoured giving her another chance. A friend of mine, who was a fiery critic of Indira Gandhi and frequently brought me the banned literature during the Emergency, remarked that he had now nothing to say against Indira Gandhi and that he did not think the Opposition parties would be able to stay together even if they won the elections. Most important was the feeling of fear, generated among people by Indira/Sanjay Gandhi’s highhanded methods during the Emergency. Those who wanted to vote against Indira Gandhi’s Congress were apprehensive about being victimised if she came back to power. People did not discuss politics or elections in public places and talked to trusted friends only when no stranger was around.
Some change – though very minor, and that, too, among the educated class – was perceptible after January 28. Justice A N Ray had retired as Chief Justice of India on January 28 and M H Beg had succeeded him by superseding H R Khanna who was senior to Beg. In protest Justice Khanna had resigned. During the Emergency no judge would have taken such a risk. There was an impressive crowd at Ram Lila Grounds where Janata Party held its first election meeting on January 30. Chairman of Janata Party Morarji Desai presided, though the main attraction was Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Jagjivan Ram factor
Jagjivan Ram resigned from the cabinet and the Congress on February 2 and formed a new party called Congress For Democracy (CFD) along with Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna and Nandini Satpathy. That changed the atmosphere dramatically as it conveyed the message to the people that Indira Gandhi’s Congress was now a sinking ship. Janata Party’s meetings started swelling in contrast to the crowds in Congress meetings. Indira Gandhi inaugurated her party’s election campaign at Ram Lila Grounds on February 5. Originally it was to be inaugurated by Sanjay Gandhi but Jagjivan Ram’s resignation had obviously pushed him into the background. The meeting was thinly attended. Even those present were not in a mood to listen to Congress leaders. Indira Gandhi had to cut short her speech abruptly as the people were leaving. The next day the same Ram Lila Grounds was overflowing with people come to listen to Jayaprakash Narayan and Jagjivan ram. The BBC, in its 9-30 PM Hindi bulletin called it ominous for Mrs Gandhi. The rest is history.
Narendra Modi today is in the position in which Indira Gandhi was in January 1977. The difference is that he is more powerful than Indira Gandhi then was, more unscrupulous, more devoid of ethics and morality, more ruthless in misusing police agencies against his critics and more megalomaniac. He has a knack for manipulating elections the way Indira Gandhi could never do – even by getting inserted in voters’ lists fake voters in large numbers. In 2014, he was elected from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency by a margin of 3, 71,784 votes over his nearest rival Arvind Kejriwal of AAP. When a routine revision of the voters’ lists was held by Election Commission in November 2014, over 6.47 lakh fake voters were detected in the lists.
The Opposition parties, the main pillars of a democracy, are in a worse shape than in 1977. They are more apprehensive of each other’s moves than trying to work out an effective strategy to check Modi’s authoritarianism. They need a Jayaprakash Narayan to unite them for a common cause and a Jagjivan ram to push Modi to the defensive. Both appear a distant dream as of today.
America and India
Posted on: August 25, 2023
America
Reuter reports Donald Trump’s mug shot was released on Thursday evening after he was booked at an Atlanta jail on more than a dozen felony charges as part of a wide-ranging criminal case stemming from the former U.S. president’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia. Inmate no. P01135809.
India
Varanasi, one of the holiest of the cities, shot into limelight in the beginning of this year for reasons other than religious or spiritual. BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had announced his decision to contest for Lok Sabha from Varanasi constituency. That catapulted Varanasi into the most watched city, by politicians, by the media, by professionals, by common people and, most importantly, by Election Commission of India (ECI).
As was expected, Varanasi witnessed a high-pitched electoral battle. Modi was declared elected by a margin of 3,71,784 votes over his nearest rival Arvind Kejriwal of AAP. The Congress candidate came third followed by that of BSP. Modi’s party, with as well as without its electoral allies, won a majority of the seats in Lok Sabha. Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister on May 26.
As a routine revision of the voters’ lists was held this month, it came out that 3,11,057 fake voters had cast their votes in the May Lok Sabha polling in Varanasi. This figure had come out at the initial stage itself. The district administration expected the number of fake voters to go up to 6,47,085 by the time the revision of the entire constituency was completed. This is quite a mind boggling figure. Even three lakh fake voters in a single high-profile constituency is exceptionable.
Election Commission had of late been trying hard to gain greater credibility. But the Sampath-Brahma-Zaidi trio has reversed the process. A question mark now hangs over its credibility after the discovery of lakhs of fake voters in Prime Minister Modi’s constituency. Forgery of such a gigantic magnitude could not have been possible without the complicity of the Election Commission machinery. One should be excused for presuming that only the touts and pimps were assigned the duty as observers and micro-observers in Varanasi.
The people’s faith in the integrity of the Election Commission of India has been badly shaken, though it is difficult to say at this stage in which form it will manifest.
Modi wins Gujarat: How ?
Posted on: December 16, 2022
Prime Minister Narenda Modi was gripped by panic as the results of Punjab assemby elections showed that AAP has received 92 seats out of 117 — without any fanfare. In fact, no one was taking AAP seriously (even though it was the main Opposition party in the last Assembly). But winning with a thumping majority! That too, without any visible campaign like other parties! AAP Convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has, for quite some time, been saying that Gujarat will be our next target. Now Modi, who had earlier dismissed Kejriwal’s statements as sheer bravado, was in panic.
He paid attention to Gujarat like he has paid to no State so far. On an average three days in a week he started spending in Gujarat and ianugurating completed projects (which were few) and promising new projects worth huge money. He promised projects worth Rs 3050 crores to the State on June 10, worth Rs 21000 crores on June 18; over worth Rs 8000 crores and worth Rs 2900 crores on October 30 to November 1; Rs 15670 crores; 5860 crores; 4260 crores; 3580 crores; and 1970 crores on October 19-20.
This is not exhastive list but only a glimps. Modi arm-twisted Maharashtra (as it was ruled by break-away group of Shiv Sena which had formed the government with BJP) getting Air Bus project worth about Rs 21931 crores. Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor chip project with a total investment worth Rs 1.54 lakh crore was also taken from Maharastra. Gujarat has bagged projects worth Rs 2.62 lakh crore in the first half (April-September) of the year, pipping Karnataka and Maharashtra
Of the total fresh investments Gujarat attracted during April-September 2022, the share of the private sector proming 21.5 per cent; 224 private projects were announced involving an outlay of Rs 1.96 lakh crores.
Courtesy:NDTV.COM
Before the polling days on December 1 and 5, several ministers and other party leaders from various States, in addition to those in Gujarat, were called in and given duties in various parts of the State. Their duties included to tell the people, particularly their
Courtesy: The WIRE.IN
castemen, how Modiji is the best Prime Minister the country has had. But more important was persuasion, purchase and threatening the people with a view to creating an atmosphere of fear all-around. Few were spared, some in ignorance, and others who defied the BJP dictates.
Following is the number of seats received by various parties in 2022 and 2017: BJP 156 (99), Congress 17 (77), AAP 5 (0), Others 4 (6).
Union Minister of Law and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad does not favour linking Aadhaar with voter ID card. He said so in Bengaluru on April 1. He, though, added that it was his personal view.
Personal or official, this view makes little sense to the people at a time when the government is going all out to link Aadhaar with everything conceivable by projecting it as the panacea for all evils afflicting the society. In fact, the voter ID should have been the first to be linked with Aadhaar in order to eliminate the scourge of fake voters which have been vitiating electoral process.
The problem of fake voters has been there from the beginning but not on the large scale witnessed in the recent years. The BJP appears to be the biggest beneficiary of the fake voters. Could the fear of checking fake voters through Aadhaar linkage have made Prasad say that linking Aadhaar with voter ID is not necessary?
Narendra Modi had won from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency with a margin of over 3.7 lakh votes in 2014. During the revision of electoral rolls towards the end of the year, over six lakh fake voters were discovered in the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency. It did not help Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal who was a runner-up in Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency. But it made him wiser for the forthcoming Delhi Assembly elections.
Both AAP and Congress had detected bogus entries in voters’ lists for the Delhi Assembly elections. Leaders of the two parties approached the Election Commission but the Election Commission behaved shabbily and refused to take notice of their complaints. The matter was then taken to Delhi High Court which pulled up the Election Commission and asked it what action it had taken on the allegation about the presence of a large number of bogus voters in various Assembly constituencies of the national capital. ‘What is the cause of it? Obviously someone is not doing their job properly’, Justice Vibhu Bakhru said while directing the Chief Election Commissioner and the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi to file an affidavit ‘indicating the cause of error.’ The court said that there were ‘discrepancies’ in the electoral rolls as shown by the petitioner, Naresh Kumar. The court also said that the allegation that there were many persons in the city who had numerous voter cards in their names but with different addresses needed to be rectified if they were still existing.
Election Commission snubbed
In response to the complaints of Aam Aadmi Party and Congress that Delhi’s electoral rolls carried names of a large number of bogus voters, Election Commission wrote to the two parties on January 11, 2015 that 1,20,605 ‘duplications’ had been noticed in the electoral rolls (which have been deleted). Election Commission’s response came two days before it was scheduled to file an affidavit in the High Court. That AAP got 67 seats and BJP only three in the 70-seat Delhi assembly is history.
Madhya Pradesh had two Assembly by-elections in February this year. During the campaign, Congress activists detected discrepancies in voters’ lists. Photocopies showing the same voter registered in more than one locality started appearing in social media. As the complaints at local level did not have the desired effect, the party led by Lok Sabha member from Shivpuri Jyotiraditya Scindia approached the Election Commission. A summary re-check of voters’ lists was ordered. A week before the day of polling, the Ashoknagar district Collector’s office sent its report to the Chief Electoral Officer in Bhopal saying that 1800 fake voters had been detected in Mungaoli Assembly constituency (which falls in Ashoknagar district). Of these 1800, as many as 834 were dead, 312 were listed at more than one place, 245 voters were not traceable and 435 had been transferred to different places but had not got their names in Mungaoli constituency deleted. Similar was the case for Kolaras Assembly constituency (in Shivpuri district).
The BJP candidates were defeated in both the constituencies though Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had made it appear like a life and death question for himself by deputing all the party leaders including his cabinet colleagues to campaign there. The BJP campaign did not recognise the words like ethics and morality.
The Election Commission has ordered a full revision of voters’ lists in Madhya Pradesh in view of the Assembly elections due later this year. So far the Collectors have detected nearly seven lakh fake voters – three lakh of them dead and four lakh untraceable. Scrutiny is on.
Union Budget for 2018-2019 has promised a National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS), a publicly funded health insurance programme for half a billion citizens of the country. But no sufficient funds have been allocated for what Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said would be the world’s largest government-funded healthcare programme.
In the first phase, 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres are proposed to be set up across the country to provide comprehensive healthcare including free medicines and diagnostic services. But the Budget allocation for this is only Rs 1,200 crore. This works out to about Rs 80,000 per centre. If a centre receives 100 patients on weekdays which will make around 25,000 in a year, the average allocation per patient would be a little over Rs 3 which is much too insufficient even to cover the medicines and diagnostic services, leave aside the overhead expenses on running a centre.
It’s not that the government woke up only recently to the health problems of the people. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had observed in December 2014 — a few months after the present NDA government took office — that a major change in the health care system of India was needed. The country, he said, was at present having a fragmented healthcare system which was not at all enough to cater to the needs of the people, particularly the poorer sections of the society.
Addressing the 10th convocation of King George’s Medical University (KGMU) at Lucknow, he said, ‘if the primary healthcare centres are strengthened, almost 85 per cent of the burden on the major institutes like All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences and King George’s Medical University can be brought down.’ he added that the Government of India was working to bring about this change.
But the Government had, apparently, other priorities more pressing than the poor man’s health. A parliamentary panel report on health and family welfare released last year pointed out that in India there is just one government doctor for every 10,189 people, one government hospital bed for every 2,046 people and one State-run hospital for every 90,343 people. (Needless to say that most of these facilities are concentrated in urban areas.) With a doctor-patient population ratio worse than Vietnam, Algeria and Pakistan, the shortage of doctors is one of the biggest ailments afflicting the country’s health management system, the panel noted.
Meagre budgetary allocation for health services is the major factor affecting healthcare system, particularly in the rural and suburban areas. But more than that it is the mismanagement born out of indifference of the ruling classes that is plaguing the health delivery system. According to the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in his report on reproductive and child health under the National Rural Health Mission for the year ended March 2016, the picture that emerges in several States is one of inability to absorb the funds allocated, shortage of staff at Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Community Health Centres (CHCs) and district hospitals, lack of essential medicines, broken-down equipment and unfilled doctor vacancies. In the case of Uttar Pradesh, the CAG found that about 50 per cent of PHCs it audited did not have a doctor, while 13 States had significant levels of vacancies.
A serious effort in this direction has of late been made by the Delhi Government by opening ‘Mohalla Clinics’ for providing free primary healthcare services to the people in the capital. The effort has been lauded by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Annan wrote, ‘we understand that this initiative is proving very successful and we commend you on this impressive achievement.’ Annan wrote the letter in his capacity as the Chair of ‘The Elders’, an organisation of independent global leaders founded by anti-apartheid icon and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela. Dr Kenneth E Thorpe, Chair of Department of Health Policy at the Rollins School of Public Health, USA, remarked after visiting ‘Mohalla Clinics’ during one of his visits to India that these Mohalla Clinics ‘are definitely an important addition to India’s health sector.’
Politicians in power and government servants mostly patronise private nursing homes even for minor and routine ailments. Services in government-run hospitals, dispensaries and health centres will improve substantially if the government stops, by enacting a law or by evolving a convention, reimbursement of expenses incurred by these classes on meeting their health needs in private nursing homes. But the health insurance programme enunciated in the budget is only meant to help further private operators because there is nothing the budget to strengthen Government-run hospitals and dispensaries.
Election Commission has issued notice to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for allegedly asking the voters of poll-bound Goa to take money from leaders of other parties but vote for BJP. Earlier a similar complaint was made against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Election Commission had never had sharp teeth. But T N Seshan, as Chief Election Commissioner, had converted Election Commission into a frightening scarecrow. Politicians and bureaucrats were then taking extra care to ensure that they did not transgress the Model Code of Conduct. Today Election Commission does not even scare the miscreants.
Decency and decorum in election campaigns are fast becoming part of history. Campaigners seem to be vying with each other to show their baser side in public speeches. During Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, Election Commission receives thousands of complaints of violation of Model Code of Conduct by candidates or other party leaders, some of the complaints being pretty serious. One does not recall if Election Commission has taken any serious action against the culprits.
There are certain laws giving some powers to Election Commission, but these are not enough. More importantly, Election Commission does not have its own workforce to enforce its orders even if it wants to take stern action in a case. It has to depend on the officers and employees of State and Central governments for carrying out its orders. They are put under the Election Commission during the operation of the Model Code of Conduct. After that they are at the mercy of their political bosses in the State or at the Centre.
There have been instances of some officers following Election Commission directives honestly and, thereby, displeasing the ruling party in the State. Such officers are harassed by the government of the State as soon as the period of Model Code of Conduct is over. On the other hand, the officers who please the political bosses in the State by making a mockery of the Election Commission guidelines are subsequently rewarded. Election Commission cannot do anything in either case.
Only a cynic can think of following Election Commission guidelines honestly if these do not suit the partisan interests of the ruling party in the State.
Train robbery and the rumours
Posted on: March 22, 2015
- In: Crime
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Madhya Pradesh finance and liquor minister Jayant Malaiya is one of the richest politicians of the State. He was travelling to Delhi along with his politician wife Sudha Malaiya, who is also a consummate danseuse and noted historian. They were travelling in the coupe of a First AC coach of the Jabalpur-Hazrat Nizamuddin Express.
In the wee hours of March 19, as the train was passing along Mathura district in Uttar Pradesh, a group of armed robbers entered their compartment and deprived them of their valuables including a diamond ring. Sudha Malaiya was later quoted by the media as having stated that the robbers had threatened to chop off her finger if she did not remove the costly ring and gave it to them. The Malaiyas lodged a complaint with the Railway Police on reaching Hazrat Nizamuddin.
Now there are always rumours galore when something unusual happens to some big person. Jayant Malaiya surely is a big person as is his wife Sudha Malaiya. And it is not usual for the Malaiyas to be robbed or even cheated, collectively or separately. So it was a perfect subject for the gossip mongers in Bhopal, and may be elsewhere also.
Some were wondering (that is a subtle way of spreading rumours) why one of the seniormost ministers of Madhya Pradesh was travelling by train; even lesser luminaries are known to fly. Since the query was made to start a discussion, soon the gossips were talking that the Minister was carrying a huge amount of money which could have been detected during scanning of baggage at the airport. In a train there was no such fear.
Once it was ‘established’ that the Minister was transporting money, the natural supplementary queries were how much and for whom. One felt that it was the regular money that the ruling party in Madhya Pradesh gives to BJP President Amit Shah for the party fund. An enterprising gossip ventured that it was a ‘special amount’ sent by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to keep Prime Minister Narendra Modi in good humour after the Prime Minister gave a patient hearing to the Congress leaders who were reported to have submitted ‘evidence’ of the involvement of Chouhan and his wife Sadhna Singh Chouhan in the stinking VYAPAM scam. The amount of the money that the Minister was carrying ranged between Rs one crore and five crore.
The most bizarre rumour doing the rounds in Bhopal is that the robbery was planned by the Minister himself. According to this set of cynics, the Minister was not sure that some one in Arvind Kejriwal’s Delhi would not do a sting operation when the Minister was seen carrying suitcase/s with so much money. So he conspired with a trusted courier service to ostensibly rob the train somewhere in Uttar Pradesh and carry his money-filled suitcase/s safely to Delhi by road.
A stroke of genius. Isn’t it? I mean on the part of the rumour monger.
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