Skip to main content

We should hope that ahead of elections, a non-Congress, non-BJP front emerges

By Raqif Makhdoomi* 

This time the elections aren’t going to be a cake walk for the BJP, as have been for some past years. BJP had created smoke around itself which is slowly fading away. By-elections have to a large extent have asked BJP to do something else than Hindi Muslim issues. The Barat Jodo Yatra has done enough good to the Congress and has helped Congress to make a come back which it needed the most. Having a non-Gandhian President is also giving BJP tough times as they have to find something new to attack Congress which no more looks ancestral party. The BJP has lot more to do to find something to attract people.
The inter party conflict in BJP is also a factor that will effect it to a maximum level. Losing UP by-election is nothing but just the result of inter party conflicts. Yogi doesn’t have good terms with the people in the center and that resulted in BJP losing by polls. Nitin Gadkari doesn’t have good relations with people in the party and JP Nadda is himself locking horns with some people in the party. The state unit of MP has conflicts and that might result in BJP loosing MP.
Another difficult thing in this election is that there has been no violence in any of the poll bound area. So BJP has nothing to speak out about “Hindu khatra mai hai” . People are done with NRC , CAA, China, Pakistan and Shaheen bagh. But AMU pro Palestine protests and the arrests after the protests is something that BJP may use but that isn’t of the intensity as were the protests of JNU , which led to so big drama which continued for days long.
BJP is finding it so hard this time to get some burning issue that it can use in election campaigns in the poll bound areas. This time they can’t be using Article 370 either as it is not attracting people. The “Gow Mata” has also been allowed to rest. Dalits are finally allowed to live peacefully and are no more BJP’S prop for elections.
BJP can in no way use its achievements to ask votes as they have nothing to put forth . Prices have gone up. Simiriti Irani the drama queen with gas cylinder is nowhere . When Congress hiked the price of Petrol these people from BJP used to do drama on roads and when today price of everything is touching the sky they have pin drop silence to maintain.
With the formation of INDIA alliance is also that’s getting BJP worried. NDA is losing allies and it has lost it’s ally. A must thing to remember about the BJP won majority of the states is only because it has been able to rope in allies and this time the allies are bidding them a goodbye and joining the INDIA alliance. The recent defeat in Ladakh polls has made BJP sure of it’s defeat in Jammu and Kashmir elections, which aren’t going to be anytime soon because loosing elections in Jammu and Kashmir will put a big question on August 5th decision.
I am not a Congress fan neither do I want Rahul Gandhi to be the Prime Minister because I see Congress more dangerous than the BJP. Congress will ruin you and you won’t even realize what happened. The only problem with BJP is that it isn’t able to maintain the balance which is very important and the Congress knows it. The actual culprit in the Babri Masjid demolition is Congress. If BJP was able to remove article 370 its only because of Congress. If Rahul Gandhi got suspended from the parliament its because he tore the bill that Manmohan Singh as PM has brought. NIA is the creation of Congress, UAPA is the creation of Congress, it’s just that BJP is using them aggressively and Congress didn’t. RSS was allowed to function after being banned by Congress. But at least the Congress allows the institutions to function and BJP has taken full control of the institutions.
As we are moving towards elections all we should hope that things go peacefully and a non-Congress, non-BJP front emerges.
---
*Student of law

Comments

TRENDING

Budget for 2018-19: Ahmedabad authorities "regularly" under-spend allocation

By Mahender Jethmalani* The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s (AMC's) General Body (Municipal Board) recently passed the AMC’s annual budget estimates of Rs 6,990 crore for 2018-19. AMC’s revenue expenditure for the next financial year is Rs 3,500 crore and development budget (capital budget) is Rs 3,490 crore.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu.  He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

New RTI draft rules inspired by citizen-unfriendly, overtly bureaucratic approach

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Department of Personnel and Training , Government of India has invited comments on a new set of Draft Rules (available in English only) to implement The Right to Information Act, 2005 . The RTI Rules were last amended in 2012 after a long period of consultation with various stakeholders. The Government’s move to put the draft RTI Rules out for people’s comments and suggestions for change is a welcome continuation of the tradition of public consultation. Positive aspects of the Draft RTI Rules While 60-65% of the Draft RTI Rules repeat the content of the 2012 RTI Rules, some new aspects deserve appreciation as they clarify the manner of implementation of key provisions of the RTI Act. These are: Provisions for dealing with non-compliance of the orders and directives of the Central Information Commission (CIC) by public authorities- this was missing in the 2012 RTI Rules. Non-compliance is increasingly becoming a major problem- two of my non-compliance cases are...

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By  A  Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Stands 'exposed': Cavalier attitude towards rushed construction of Char Dham project

By Bharat Dogra*  The nation heaved a big sigh of relief when the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel (Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand) were finally rescued on November 28 after a 17-day rescue effort. All those involved in the rescue effort deserve a big thanks of the entire country. The government deserves appreciation for providing all-round support.

As 2024 draws nearer, threatening signs appear of more destructive wars

By Bharat Dogra  The four years from 2020 to 2023 have been very difficult and high risk years for humanity. In the first two years there was a pandemic and such severe disruption of social and economic life that countless people have not yet recovered from its many-sided adverse impacts. In the next two years there were outbreaks of two very high-risk wars which have worldwide implications including escalation into much wider conflicts. In addition there were highly threatening signs of increasing possibility of other very destructive wars. As the year 2023 appears to be headed for ending on a very grim note, there are apprehensions about what the next year 2024 may bring, and there are several kinds of fears. However to come back to the year 2020 first, the pandemic harmed and threatened a very large number of people. No less harmful was the fear epidemic, the epidemic of increasing mental stress and the cruel disruption of the life and livelihoods particularly among the weaker s...

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit. 

Call to "enjoy" pilgrimage of Sabarmati beyond Ahmedabad, where river water turns black

Sabarmati at Vautha By A Representative Nagrik Sashaktikaran Manch (NSM), a Gujarat-based civil rights organization, has called upon the state's citizens to join in a "unique yatra" along the river Sabarmati, starting in Ahmedabad and ending off the Gulf of Khambhat, where the river is supposed to merge with the sea. Pointing out that in Hindu culture, rivers are equated with Mother Goddess, NSM convener Jatin Seth says, it will be a "special event of pilgrimage", because, just like Ganga, Sarbarmati possesses "special properties." "Starting at Giaspur, one can see how industries are releasing chemicals in Sabarmati, and you get a Thumbs-Up like colour of the water, and if you drink it, you are sure to be at least affected by cancer, and this way would enable you to book your ticket in the paradise. The river has a special smell, too, emanating from a black cocktail-type colour", says Seth in a statement. A village next to Sabarmati river In...