So the inevitable happened, and we have been gifted with Shmt Rashtrapatil, Swapan Dasgupta in the Pioneer summed it up best, Pratibha Patil won India lost. While the dust settles with the usual suck up to winner, cock a snook at the loser editorials in the Left of Center mainstream media, Shekhar Gupta in the Indian Express redeemed himself with a hitting opinion piece appearing unusually on a Sunday lamenting the decline of the two major parties and the unprecedented leverage enjoyed by the Prakash Karat lead CPI-M. The UPA-Left pick in Hamid Ansari for Vice President seems to be a smart move by the Left. If picking Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister was a masterstroke by Sonia in 2004, the pick of Pratibha Patil will go down as her worst blunder for the next 2 years in the run up to the 2009 elections she not only has to endure the national embarassment everytime Devisingh Shekhawat shows up at the court or Rajni Patil knocks on the CBI’s doors, she also has to face the vulnerability of a first ever Presidential Impeachment if the court verdicts go adverse. As Shekhar Gupta rightly points out the Hamid Ansari pick in contrast will be stark and the message unmistakable. Is this guy the most politically correct Muslim or what ? From promptly condemning M.F. Hussain’s paintings in the same breath as the Danish Cartoons to reacting to the Varnasi Blasts Hamid Ansari seems to be the right Muslim at the right place. His left leanings are no secret, one has just to look at the innumerable op-ed pieces by him in the communist rag tag The Hindu criticizing the Americans in Iraq and his acquittal of the Buddhadeb Government in Bengal of any communal violence in connection with the killing of Muslims in SEZ land acquisition related violence. No wonder The Hindu was quick to hail his nomination calling him a Statesman, it remains a mystery though when exactly Mr. Ansari acted like one by putting National Interest above community and personal identity. All in all he seems to be very much an establishment guy who makes the right noises at the right places and ensured himself a chequered post retirement career.
With Hamid Ansari all set to become Vice President, Offstumped trains its guns on a Municipal election in West Bengal. Shekhar Gupta’s op-ed piece makes an important point on the significant role likely to be played by the Left in the run up to the 2009 General Election. The unprecedented leverage enjoyed by the 60 MP strong Left comes primarily not from Prakash Karat or Sitaram Yechury’s personal clout but from unprecedented electoral dividends in Bengal and Kerala in recent times. The CPI-M seems on a suicidal path in Kerala with the endless intra-party squabbling between the party led by Pinarayi Vijayan and the government led by V.S. Achutanandan. The recent slush fund expose has further eroded the CPI-M’s moral high ground in Kerala. However the Buddhadeb Government in Bengal continues to weather the political storms in Singur and Nandigram despite the CBI implicating a CPI-M leader in the Tapasi Mallik murder case.
The left needs to be challenged and unseated from Bengal to break the UPA-Left axis of evil and to erode the Left’s unprecedented leverage on National Affairs.
Hence the interest in Haldia.
The India Express reports a grand alliance like no other in West Bengal. A minor municipal poll in Haldia has got the Congress, Trinamool Congress, BJP and Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind joining hands to fight a common foe—the Left Front. In the 2002 elections, the CPI(M) had swept the polls 25-nil with a vote share of 73 per cent of the total votes polled and 64 per cent of the total voters. The TMC on the other hand got 9.91 per cent, the Congress about 7 per cent and the BJP 2.5 per cent. Haldia is the home of CPI-M strongman Lakshman Seth, who is credited with sparking off all the trouble in neighbouring Nandigram in east Midnapore district. Interestingly Lakshman Seth was also the chairman of the Haldia Development Authority and was in the cross hairs of the election commission during the Office of Profit issue. It is this same Haldia Development Authority that was going to bring the Salim Group into Bengal. Lakshman Seth’s moment of ignominy came on December 28th 2006 when he read out the notice of the Haldia Development Authority (HDA) notice listing the blocks identified for land acquisition in Nandigram. The notice mentioned the names of 27 mouzas at the Nandigram block that had apparently been shortlisted for the Salem-promoted chemical hub resulting in Lakshman Seth drawing flak from the party top brass for the “haste’’ with which he had issued the Nandigram SEZ notification.
Lakshman Seth’s wife is a candidate in the civic polls making it all the more, it remains to be seen if Lakshman Seth and the CPI-M pay the price for Nandigram in the Haldia Civic Polls on sunday ?
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“I am reminded of a phrase—
‘The spirit of Time ‘
To me there appears so much incompetence in almost all public life in India To-day.
The decline of Excellence of Print Media(both English and Regional Langauge ), almost total Politicisation of Video, Audio and Print media and columnist writers’ mind and approach , with a single idea to demolish Nationalist( Hindu ) forces and only self glorification and promotion of a poorly defined concept of ‘secularism’ which thrives on somehow or other bringing in Gujarat’s Modi Govt , Shiv Sena , RSS , BJP as a sole reasons to be blamed for any so called ‘communal’
conflict! It is very clear that Muslims being more than 20 % in many states,( and still they are termed MINORITY) they can be grouped and will become political strength in winning elections. So by such a strategy they ensure that , Muslims will never vote Nationalist parties !And why do we call Muslims as a minority community in the same vein we call Christians , Sikhs and Parsis as minority community ! There is need to define Minority community only if they are less than 3 to 5 % !Because then they are not politically influential and so may need some protection by soem law or laws .
It is obvious that there is a ‘threshold ‘ phenomena operative here! If Muslims were less than 3 to 5 % , no political party would have bothered about them ! They too would have been peaceful citizens and would have progressed as much as Parsis have progressed , contributed to national building( Tatas , Godrej , Wadias ) , reformed their religion while still maitainning there identity.
It is clear that good nationalist spirited intellectuals , writers, media people will absorb all historical ,Sociological , economic aspects before writing about any event of the Time , essentially ensuring Bias Free writing . Hope this will be possible in near future . Till then we just do not read Newspapers , do not watch TV News Channels.
It is known that in every village and Urban community , people of same community ,language , attitude , siocial values live in the same neighbourhood. This is not a Ghetto , but lief of center political commentators/writers make a hue and cry if Muslim shift from a mixed community living to a Muslim majority living area in a city !
The stratification of Neighbourhood based on Income and Wealth is very and clear and accepted .
In the middle class , stratification in living ( Hosing Societies etc )based on Langauge , religion , community , education , social values etc does take place .
For Rich these considerations vanish — one sees religiously mixed communities coexist in Rich and wealthy areas in the cities and metropolice.
Same things happen in case of ‘poor ‘ –mixed communities in Zopadpatti etc.
When conflicts occur , the rage and conflict and deaths and crimes are more here >
However , Left of Center Political commentators once more drag in Shiv Sena ( in Mumbai ) or BJP ( in Modi Gujarat ) as the sole contributors to the conflict and destruction.
And they thrive and then Congress hopes to thrive and CPM thrives in some regions !
Noone dare talks on need for REFORM in ISLAM . All of them are scared of Fatwa! They have learned the lesson from Salman Rushdi phenomena. They know nothing of the kind will happen if they write anti-hindu nationalist. And hence all this strange phenomena of negativism of Indian democracy.
so also
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The Haldia arrangement is commonplace in many Bengal panchayats. It is the only level at which the Congress can be with the BJP without arousing too much suspicion. I am in agreement with you that the Kerala government, after one year, has been an utter disaster, and they may be wiped out there come 2009. As for Bengal, regardless of whether Mamata tries to tie up with the BJP or Congress come 1.5 years from now, such an alliance wouldn’t be able to capture more than 10-15 seats. She is trying to portray herself as the next great Socialist of the state and it hasn’t created waves, just ripples. Could those ripples get bigger? Perhaps…but some other rural election results do not indicate this at all. Still, a Left Bloc with only 25-30 MP’s would destroy all their leverage, which is the ultimate dream.
Thanks Offstupmed for putting focus on West Bengal “farce” election.
CPIM has completely destroyed democratic principles, rule of law in WB. However, all India Press, being filled with Leftists, hardly publicize those stories.
As far as this Haldia election is concerned, CPIM has done huge rigging and may win handsomely.
I lived in haldia for 5 years when I used to work there. I can tell you, there is no way, a 250 Square KM Checmical Hub can be established there. There is simply no way so many people can be uprooted from their agricultural land however Buddha/Sen is willing.
No wonder The Hindu was quick to hail his nomination calling him a Statesman, it remains a mystery though when exactly Mr. Ansari acted like one by putting community and personal identity above National Interest.
Shouldnt it read national interest above community and personal identity?
Dr Damle – Nitin has written on this subject you should check it out
Janpar – you are right we need to aim for bringing it down to 20-25 seats, but I guess you have to start somewhere one municipality at a time
Bhaskar – thanks for the native insight, i guess the next target should be the state election commission then
Sriram – good catch, must be the ADHD at work, have fixed it now.
You have been mentioned in IE,
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/206145.html,
Good going
Gaurav – thanks for pointing that out missed seeing that one
Yossarin, you’re going mainstream – Gaurav’s Kulkarni’s article…
Are you the establishment now?
Chandra – I guess with You Tube contributing to Presidential Debates in the U.S., this intersection of blogs and mainstream media is inevitable.
Looks like N. Ram had a role in Karat’s vice president Hamid Ansari…IE reports without bringing up the commie’s name.