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Politics and Public Policy in India

September 30, 2010 • 12:30 am 42

Ayodhya Verdict – Live Blogging

Latest Updates –

Ayodhya Verdict Issue wise summary http://is.gd/fC4rU via Offstumped on scribd

Ayodhya Verdict Issues for Briefing http://is.gd/fC4wa via Offstumped on scribd

 

This perhaps is the earliest available Digital reference to the Janmasthan in Ayodhya from 1819

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court will pronounce its verdict on four title suits on the ownership of the Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi site at 3.30 pm on Thursday.

The Judgement is expected to be made available at – http://www.allahabadhighcourt.in/ayodhyabench.html

Offstumped invites its readers to join the public debate on the verdict.

The following Comment rules will be strictly enforced:

  • Limit all comments to the substance of the verdict
  • No abuse or slander of individuals, religions or communities
  • Any deliberate attempts at provoking offense, outrage will be deleted
  • Any mischevious posts on false news stories or rumors will be deleted
  • Comments that maybe construed as a call to violence (direct or indirect) are illegal in many jurisdictions and no freedom of speech protections will apply. Readers will have to bear personal responsibility for such comments.

Related blog posts

Related Tweets:

  • KN Pannikar does no justice to his reputation as a Historian with this one sided narrative of the events of 1855 http://j.mp/aBfP5w
  • Leftist Historians like Mr. Pannikar must realize that Google Digital Archives have ended their monopoly in shaping the historical spin
  • This is why VHP & bajrang dal are unfit to represent Hindu interests http://j.mp/a0TDb2 they neither have a sound understanding nor a vision
  • Issue with solutions of this nature is there are no “representative bodies” that can speak for all of either community http://is.gd/fwjkG
  • Yes the judgement should show if the Constitution has teeth but not for the reasons Mr. Kesavan obfuscates with http://is.gd/fwl2Z
  • Contrast Rasheeda Bhagat’s conciliatory tone with Mukul Kesavan’s belligerence – make up your mind, who is for reconciliation and who is not
  • From Ayodhya to CWG solution to so many of India’s problems lies in inverting the pyramid of priorities in Governance to focus on the Local
  • But for the use of obscure words like Procrustean PB Mehta’s piece on Ayodhya in Indian Express makes many perceptive remarks 2 standout
  • Agree with PBM on both – “there was no genuine intellectual flowering of Hindutva thought along with the Ayodhya movement”
  • Also agree with PBM – “The vitality of Hinduism requires that it be liberated from being colonised by the Ayodhya movement.”
  • But then in typical PBMehta style he stops short of a prescription for closure on Ayodhya http://j.mp/bTgBF7
  • Meghnad Desai alone has come closest to alluding to a way out of this intractable problem where every Institution comes out unscathed
  • First hand view from the streets of ayodhya via @mrityunjoykjha - makes my point this has to be about the people of Ayodhya – local solution
  • Reading @mrityunjoykjha‘s tweets makes me wonder if Mr. Advani’s legacy in Ayodhya was to reduce it to a Srinagar
  • Did Mr. Advani ever visit Ayodhya to apologize to it’s people and to connect with them on what his agitation did to their lives ?

See you all at 3pm IST.

Filed under: Internet Hindus, Narendra Modi, Nitin Gadkari, Offstumped, Offstumped Community, UPA-II Critical Appraisal

December 11, 2009 • 10:28 pm 10

Sonia Gandhi’s Telangana blunder

What politics giveth it taketh away

There is a sense of destiny with which the Law of Unintended Consequences operates.

There were just 7 months back staring at a triumphant Congress with a firm lock on Andhra looking at a stable and secure 5 year term.

And here we are 7 months later with a shaken up Congress with an uncertain lock on Andhra clueless on the political faultlines that will likey shape the rest of its term.

There was no way out for Sonia Gandhi on the long overdue demand for a separate state of Telangana. After having campaigned on the Telanagana plank in alliance with the TRS back in 2004 it was foolish of Sonia Gandhi to have put all her eggs in the immortality basket of YSR’s political persona.

Alas mortality is such a great political leveller for in the wake of its assertions it exposes many faultlines leading to even more political upheavals.

Sonia Gandhi had to do right by Telangana but to have done so in a knee jerk manner after being boxed into a political corner, reminds us once again of the Congress’ achilees heel.

No amount of media spin can help gloss over this monumental blunder.

Sonia Gandhi lack of natural political acumen, Manmohan Singh’s technocracy and Rahul Gandhi’s naivety have badly exposed the Congress.

That her political advisers blundered as well goes to once again highlight that political leadership cannot be an outsourced backroom function. A lesson for the BJP as well.

The many headlines say it all – Telangana in a limbo, Andhra in a mess and political chaos across the nation with latent demands for many states receiving a filip.

In the Telangana chaos lie many a political opportunity for the BJP, if only its moribund leadership could demonstrate vision. 

The political environment is ripe for a movement that advocates reorienting India’s fledgling federalism with a firm focus on administrative efficiency and governance.

The issue of smaller states and autonomy to local governance has the potential to rewrite many an existing political equations and marginalizing many an existing political power centers.

The BJP’s hopes of revival rest on breaking new ground and on stitching new social coalitions. There cannot be a better opportunity than this to take on the Congress over the next few years.

Is the BJP up to the challenge of offering a coherent vision and leading the movement on this issue of smaller states and freedom, autonomy to local government ?

Join us for a debate on the same at the next Offstumped Community Live Event on Sunday night – Telangana & Small States – What is the way forward ?

Filed under: DesiPundit, Live Events, Local Governance, Offstumped Community, Telangana

October 22, 2009 • 10:25 am 45

Maharashtra Results – End of the Road for BJP avatar

With Maharashtra assembly election results trending towards a Cong-NCP lead over Shiv-Sena BJP by a margin of around 30 seats it is safe to say that the BJP is headed for the dog-house in Maharashtra.

Barring any post poll horse trading which seems quite unlikely to do much to its status even if the situation were to manifest, the ramifications of the dismal electoral outcome are bound to have a ripple effect in the national party.

That some in the BJP were projecting Nitin Gadkari as a contender for the top BJP job irrespective of the outcome in Maharashtra is a reflection on the bankruptcy of imagination in the party and also a reflection of the grave inertia within the party to think boldy to embrace change.

More analysis and rationalizations will follow on this debacle once the final electoral outcome is clear. Much will be said of the Raj Thackeray factor and every other conspiratorial angle will be analyzed threadbare.

The bottomline however, as Offstumped had said before, is that the BJP is trapped in its rhetoric and legacy of the past while its Delhi based non-leaders are trapped in a Semi-finals mindset.

In the resulting impasse all decision making is reduced factional intrigue and myopic compromises stripping the Party of what little sheen was left of its claim to be the Party with a difference.

Irrespective of whether Narendra Modi is called upon to embrace the leadership of the BJP now or two years from now, we are staring at the end of the road for the BJP to emerge as a national alternative to the Congress.

This is not to say the BJP will not be a viable player in some states where it continues to fill the non-Congress political space.

However barring unprecedented acts of nature and god it is hard to see the BJP breaking new ground to sustain a bipolar polity at the National level.

It would take extradordinary leadership to make a clean break from the past and to chart a new course for the BJP, leadership that is nowhere on the horizon.

The defining faultlines of future electoral politics are decisively drifting towards socio-economic issues. Unless the Center Right stitches new coalitions around socio-economic interests to challenge the Congress’ maai-baap politics we are in for a Congress monopoly for at least the next two election cycles.

Filed under: Assembly Polls 2009, DesiPundit, India Elections 2009, Live Events, Maharashtra Polls 2009, Offstumped Community, Shveta Chhatra

October 22, 2009 • 2:41 am 50

Maharashtra Assembly Election Results – Live Blogging

With Maharashtra set to count the ballots, speculation is rife on the many scenarios that will likely unfold.

Here is what Offstumped will be looking forward to in the results.

#1 How viable is the Sharad Pawar factor – does he stand diminished, enhanced or just about stagnant ?

#2 What is the future for NCP as a standalone political entity ?

#3 In the akahara of Sena politics, which cousin emerges “tagda” ?

#4 How effective was Rahul Gandhi’s rhetoric ?

Finally of course the most important question to this blogger if not to the Maharashtra voter – What does this mean to the future of the BJP ?

Maharashtra BJP President Nitin Gadkari ran a marathon campaign of some 100 odd public meetings while his bete-noire Munde gave this election a nepotist hue. 

Nitin Gadkari who has also authored a Vision document on transforming Maharashtra’s infrastructure has been touted by both Swapan Dasgupta and Kanchan Gupta as likely to be promoted to New Delhi for BJP top job.

Will this election mark the emergence of a new viable leader who has been the BJP’s best kept secret ?

OR

Will this election merely reinforce the Rajnath stereotype that an election wipeout is a great Resume enhancer if you are contending for the top BJP job ?

So as Maharashtra prepares to count the ballots you can catch Offstumped live on

#1 Twitter

#2 at an Offstumped Community Live Event

#3 as always on this blog

Keep the comments coming ……

Filed under: Assembly Polls 2009, Lok Sabha Polls 2008-2009, Maharashtra Polls 2009, Offstumped Community,

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Opinions expressed on this site using the alias Offstumped are the blogger's personal opinions and do not in any way reflect the views of the blogger's Employers.