Will national parties learn the lesson ?

Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party won 224 Assembly seats in the just concluded polls to UP assembly and in the process shattered both the so called national parties, the Congress and the BJP to obscurity.There is a lesson to be learnt for these parties.Unless there is a strong regional leader with grass root support,it is difficult to  guide these parties to electoral wins,in states.Regional aspirations have to be appreciated by these parties .There is no way a party can be run by bosses sitting at the party high command. Ignoring local sentiments,pride and aspirations have cost these parties irreparable losses at the polls.Imposing leaders from the top and ignoring regional sentiments have resulted in congress losing many states,over the years. In fact the growth and success of regional parties lies in the fact that people want their regional leaders to grow in stature.It appears in UP,like TamilNadu ,it is going to be either BSP or SP and never Congress or BJP .It must be remembered both Mulyam and Mayawati are local heavy weights and there are no one in Congress or BJP to match them. In national parties like Congress and BJP due to manifold dissident groups, each group tries to push down leaders who grow in stature by pulling strings at the party high command.

Wherever there was a strong leader at the regional level,national parties have fared better .Narendra Modi is a strong man par excellence for the BJP and that gave him the strength to deliver and he had won consecutive elections in Gujarat for the BJP.Late YSR was a popular congress leader of AP.On his strengths the party romped to power in AP.It remains to be seen the fate of AP congress  in future elections sans YSR . TDP & TRP are going to give a tough fight to congress in AP and it won't be a surprise if congress losses its stronghold in this southern state also . It must be borne in mind TDP & TRP are parties born out of regional aspirations and regional pride.Their leaders are still popular among the public in AP.After the demise of Kamaraj,Congress is yet to see a towering leader from Tamilnadu.The void is not filled up because the state unit is dictated by  congress's high command .It is no surprise congress could not unseat the Dravidian parties from power since 1967.Congress may fail again if it pursues the same policy of ignoring local sentiments and pride. The Punjab victory for BJP is because of its strong local ally Shiromani Akali Dal .Congress retaining Manipur or BJP wresting Goa from Congress is insignificant as long as the national parties did not make any headway in important states like UP and Punjab .

The only good fall out of regional parties becoming stronger is that the union government has become truly federal,since neither of the two so called national parties can get absolute majority of its own in any of the future elections to the parliament. Already the leftists have strong bastions in Kerala,West Bengal and Tripura.Congress making big inroads in these states would be a wishful thinking.Even if leftists fail in West Bengal,it would only be advantage Mamta,another firebrand regional leader,whom congress finds it difficult to contain.Down South Jayalalitha would be another strong leader eroding Congress chances in next parliamentary elections .At this rate,if these two parties don't mend their ways they would soon lose their national party status and become a party with stronghold in few regional pockets,which is also diminishing at a faster pace.

Ec's order to cover elephant statues is Laputan

Election commission ordering covering of hundreds of Elephant statues in UP ,since it happens to be the symbol of Mayawati's BSP is funny and laputan.I could not help my imagination running wild ,if the EC were to apply the same yardstick for all parties in all future elections, What would happen to the two leaves symbol of ADMK.Will the EC order covering all trees in TN at election time ,or how would EC prevent day break in TN,rising sun being the symbol of the DMK ? In all fairness the EC should have ordered everyone to wear gloves to cover their hands in UP and ordered all cycles to be off the road in UP,hand being the symbol of Congress and cycle that of SP !.The quixotic order of EC is illogical,on the face of it .The reason given for this funny order by EC is that ,it is ensuring a level playing field for all political parties!.The EC is in fact giving wide publicity to BSP's symbol by covering all the elephant statues in UP.EC has also ordered covering up all statues of Mayawati in UP .A PIL was filed in the Allahabad High court by a social activist against the EC order. I was eager to know how the courts look at this partisan and quixotic order of EC .But unfortunately the PIL was withdrawn ,since the PIL had technical shortcomings.EC has made another funny decision to use only women officials for poll duty in Goa ,since they would be immune to distractions.I am surprised to note,of late the EC is talking through the hat.

Such queer laws are passed by governments and its bodies from time to time.Kerala Women’s Code Bill 2011 has provisions to penalize parents who beget more than two children.The draft bill suggests a fine of Rs 10,000 or three months simple imprisonment for begetting a third child.It simply means a third child can land a parent in jail.The third child will also not be given basic amenities like free education and mid-day meal at government schools.Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer has protested against  this proposal of the Kerala government.Such outlandish laws are passed by governments around the world.Here are few examples. in Thailand, it is illegal to leave your house without wearing underwear. It is illegal in Switzerland to flush the toilet after 10 pm.

The EC brought in new initiatives like KYC ,know your candidate in its website ,giving details of all candidates including the declaration of assets by candidates. The details of criminal records of each candidate will be available in the public domain for the first time.While the general public appreciate initiatives  by the EC like KYC,it should not become a laughing stock in the eyes of world by passing crackpot orders like covering statues.

Probity not pertinent to Indian politicians

Of late one after the other many major political scams like the 2 G spectrum scam ,Adarsh housing scam and CWG scam have rocked the Indian politics and many heads have rolled.Going by the report of the Transparency International, this is not at all astounding.The report says Indian politicians are the most corrupt lot .We are not able to fight corruption in public life because the people who run the government are corrupt.A cursory glance of the assets disclosed by our legislators and Parlimentarians between two successive elections reveal the growth of their assets.Unfortunatley many political aspirants in our country considers politics as a career.The moment they consider it as a career,naturally a return is expected out of the career.The loot begins there and as a natural corollary the politician ensures he amasses enough to cover the cost of his next electoral battle.When a corruption is reported in the  public domain,the initial reaction by the concerned politician is always a denial. When he  runs out of defense,corruption charges are traded between the accused and the accuser to show the accuser is also not above board. Finally some probe or investigation is intitated and slowly blanked out.Once these scam tainted politicians become  oblivious they are gradually rehabilitated by the same party.

Arjun Singh was sacked as MP chief Minister for his involvement in Churhat lottery scam .Later he became congress Vice President, Governor and finally a Cabinet Minister.At one time Indira Gandhi astounded the nation by making a statement that corruption is no longer an issue in India because it is a universal phenomenon. It is no wonder Gandhiji even went to the extent of saying  "I would go to the length of giving the whole congress a decent burial, rather than put up with the corruption that is rampant." It must be remembered Gandhiji made this remark about congress ministries formed under the 1935 Act in six states in the pre-independent era.Corruption started in the post indpendent time with the 1948 jeep scandal of V.K.Krishna Menon the then High Commissioner for India in London.Jeeps were purchased for army operations in Kashmir violating the procedures.A comittee was appointed to probe the pruchase deals. In 1955 government announced the jeep scandal case was closed. In 1956 Krishna Menon was made a  central minister without portfolio by Nehru.

T.T.Krishnamachari finance Minister in the Nehru cabinet was involved in the Mundhra scam.He pressurised the government owned LIC to bail out industrialist Mundhra by buying shares worth Rs 1.24 crores in 6 companies owned by him.LIC followed the FM's instructions ,bypassing the investment committee.Ironically this was raked up in parliament then by Feroze Gandhi, Prime Minister Nehru's son-in-law and the father-in-law of current Congress President Sonia Gandhi.Nehru ordered a probe headed by Justice M.C.Chagla.Unlike the present day probes,the probe hearings  were public and proceedings were aired through loud speakers. Mundhra was imprisoned for 22 years and TTK was sacked.

The Bofors scandal was exposed by The Hindu in the 80's.The then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and several others were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply guns to Indian military.Quattrocchi an Italian businessman was reportedly close to the family of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and emerged as a powerful broker between big businesses and the Indian government.In 2004 the Delhi High Court quashed the charges of bribery against Rajiv Gandhi and others.The Italian businessman does not  figures in the CBI's list of wanted persons now.

The DMK chief Karunanidhi was indicted by the Sarkaria commission for corruption in allotting tenders for the Veeranam project.The AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha was convicted for criminal breach of trust and for  illegally acquiring government property belonging to TANSI, a state-run agency, and sentenced her to five years' imprisonment.The conviction disqualified her from contesting the 2001 elections.She appealed agaisnt the snetence in SC.While the appeal was pending in SC her party romped the elections and she became the CM.But the SC ruled a person who is convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to imprisonment for a period of not less than two years cannot be appointed the Chief Minister of a State .Her appointment as CM was held null and invalid and she had to step down.But SC acquitted her finally for lack of evidence.

Sukh Ram was then Union communication Minister in the congress government.He allegedly collected bribe for awading a telecom contract.The CBI seized 3.6 crores cash from his residence in 1996.In 2009 the court convicted him for amassing 4.25 crores of disproportanate assets.

The then BJP President Bangaru Lakshman,along with Jaya Jaitley, companion of the then Defence Minister George Frenandez was caught by the Tehelka sting operation accepting bribe .As a result Fernandez had to resign as defence minister.But the investigations later absolved George Frenandez.

The Lalu Prasad government in Bihar was involved in a scandal on alleged embezzlement of about 950 crores from the government treasury .They fabricated vast herds of fictitious livestock .Medicines and animal husbandry equipment was supposedly procured for these livestock.

The SNC-Lavelin was another scam that rocked the communist government in Kerala.The CAG report charged  the CPM led government of the mid-1990s for a Rs 374.50 crore loss to the exchequer.Former CPM Minister Pinaray Vijayan was allegedly involved in this scam.The CAG found that Lavalin was only a consultant intermediary and not the original equipment manufacturer .Owing to various technical defects in the equipment, the generation of power could not be maintained even at the pre-renovation level and the Board had to spend on repairs.The CAG found that the Government did not receive Rs 89.32 crores out of the grant of Rs 98.30 crores that was promised for the Malabar Cancer Centre.

The UP chief Minister Mayawati was charged with corruption in the Taj Heritage Corridor scam.This project was meant to upgrade the tourist facilities near Taj Mahal at a cost of Rs 175 crores in 2002-03.It is alleged Mayawati has embezzled the money allotted for this project.CBI is investigating the case.It is alleged her bank account has swelled to 2.5 crores during her tenure at that time.Also her total assets was estimated at 15 crores then.The project is now defunct.

Telgi was involved in the fake stamp paper case.It was alleged he earned a monthly profit of over 200 crores. During his narco analysis test Telgi is said to have blurted the name of Sharad Pawar.the NCP chief.Though he was never connected with the case Pawar had to make a public denial.

Amar singh then with Smajwadi Party  and Ahmed Patel  of Congress were charged with accusation of buying votes for 30 million rupees to survivie a no confidence motion against the UPA government.But the comittee that inquired the charges finally exonerated them.

Madhu Khoda former Jarkhand CM was charged with laundering Rs 4000 crores in 2003.His alleged assets include hotels and 3 companies in Mumbai,property in kolkatta,a hotel in Thailand and a coal mine in Liberia.It was also alleged Maoists recieved 30 percentage share of Khoda's plunder.Khoda is now spending his time in jail.

The most recent ones are Sasi Tharoor's IPL connections, Kalmadi's CWG scam, Ashok Chavan's Adarsh Scam, Yediyurapa's Land scam and Raja's 2 G spectrum scam.

India should again go for public hearing of scam tainted ministers, the way Mundhra scam was probed by Chagla. At least that will instill a sense of shame to the concerned person.One fourth of our  MPS are facing criminal chages,reprimands from courts and criminal convictions.Mohamed Shorabudeen an MP from Bihar is facing charges of murder, bank robbery and kidnapping. These days political parties require the support of musclemen to fight elections.Initially they were in side lines.Now they have started staking claims.

But one statisfying factor is there were few upright politicians who were honest and stood for their principles. Morarji,Kamaraj Madhu Dandavate,and V.N.Gadgil were never accused of any corruption.Even among today's politicians there are few of them who lead a simple life and are not ostentatious.It is reported the present Defence Minister A.K.Antony is leading a simple life and has a clean image.Despite finding fault with A.Raja on the spectrum scam ,Subramanyam Swamy has gone on record that Manmohan singh is clean and has no connection with the scam.He says Manmohan singh's efforts only has engineered Raja's exit.He was not the deciding authority and had some limitations.The CPI MP D.Raja is also believed to be leading a very simple life and very honest .There may be some more who belong to this category.But unfortunatley the percentage of such parlimentarians are very meagre.One would hope for the day the entire parliament is filled by people like them. One sincerely hopes Probity does not become oxymoron to the the Indian Politicians.

Mayawati and her delusions

The UP Chief Minister Mayawati is all set to unviel about 40 statues in UP.This includes 6 statues of her own along with her mentorKanshi Ram.The statues of Ambedkar and other Dalit icons are also in the list.The total cost of all these statues are reported to be over Rs 100 crores.It is also reported the statue of Mayawati in Ambedkar Udyan alone costs around Rs1.55 crores.This is an offcial information given in response to an RTI query.She is obsessed not only with erecting statues,but also in building grand memorials and monuments. Extravagant memorials are being built as monuments for Ambedkar and Kanshiram.Her contention is that each political party has tried to construct memorials for their party leaders during their regime.Why should people make a big hue and cry when BSP is building its monuments.Teen Murti Bhavan,Jawarharlal Nehru Memorial is even cited in support of her claims.But the intriguing point is these memorials have 60 mammoth elephant statues(BSP symbol) made of expensive stones at an estimated cost of Rs 3000 crores.Down South Mr.Karunanidhi also has a penchant for erecting statues and building memorials.But to his credit,he did not erect his own statues.Also he had built memorials for all Netas cutting across party affiliations.He has built memorials for Kamaraj and Rajaji also.He did erect the huge monlith statue of Tiruvalluvar at Kanyakumari.Valluvar Kottam at Chennai is his brain child.Statues of Tamil literary giants along the Marina beach were all erected during his regime.Karunanidhi also has a liking for monumental arches.Lots of them were put up in many places of Tamil nadu during his regime.Jayalalitha and her party for her part did erect statues of MGR all over Tamil nadu.The most number of statues in Tamilnadu would be that of the DMK founder Anna and that of MGR.Whether it is Karunanidhi,Mayawati,Saddam Hussien, or NorthKorea's Kim,the underlying fact is their desire to find a place in history.But in Mayawati's case she is using whopping public money for her pet projects.She also intends to project these as tourist spots.But her adversary Mulayam says these monuments and statues are epitomes of corruption and misuse of public funds.He has also gone on record,that when his party returns to power all Mayawati statues would be bulldozed. Already there are two PIL petitions before the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court on Mayawati's spending spree.Even the SC has questioned Mayawati's fetish desire to install her own statues all over UP.Experts believe apart from spending 3000 crores, it may require an annual outlay of 300 crores to maintain these monuments thereafter .But Mayawati is unfazed by her critics and will go ahead with her projects.It would be of great interest to note how the courts deal with this PIL.Mayawati's arguments would pivot around memorials of leaders of other parties in the country and their worth.She would also play the communal card cleverly.She would cite that the number of monuments for Dalit icons are comparatively less when compared with that of upper caste leaders.Environmentalists say five of Mayawati's pet projects are being carried out at the expense of large green areas.This is something really deplorable.At a time when the whole world is concerned about Global warming,it is an unpardonable crime to destory large areas of green cover for the sake of monuments and statues.Hitler and Stalin had plans to build huge cities in their honour.Who knows,perhaps Mayawati also may be harbouring such plans.Lucknow could well be changed as 'Maya Nagar'.

Race for the saddle

On June 2nd the world will know about the next Indian Prime minister.Though it is too early to predict the outcome,there are too many aspiring Prime ministerial candidates form a host of parties.This includes some regional parties also.Who will don the PM's mantle is a million dollar question.Notwithstanding the uncertainites of the poll outcome,given below is a list of possible PM aspirants .

BJP is projecting L.K.Advani as its PM candidate.As of now Advani is the only potential PM candidate from BJP.In fact BJP's entire campaign is pivoted around the theme 'For a strong PM,vote for BJP'.

Like Last elections, Congress is not projecting any one,as its prospective PM candidate.This has nothing to do with the fact that the PM is recuperating after a surgery.PM being a Rajya Sabha member will continue to be a sitting member of the Rajya Sabha until 2010.In case, the UPA manages to secure a majority to form the government,Congress could decide one way or the other.(choose a potenetial candidate from its Lok sabha members or continue with Manmohan singh).However there could be hardcore sycophants in Congress, who would want Sonia Gandhi to assume the PM's mantle.An equal number of youth congress men could vie with fellow congresmen in favour of Rahul Gandhi also.The unfortunate guy in the Congress would be its 'All Purpose Man' Pranab Mukherji.But if Pranab becomes a surprise candidate, it could be a marvel.No doubt Pranab is a competent candidate to be the Prime Minister.

The alternate front(third front) comprising Leftists,TDP,JD(s),AIADMK,BSP,TRS etc also have Prime Ministerail aspirants.The foremost among them is BSP's Mayawati.She does not in any way hold back her aspirations.She has vociferously voiced her thoughts on this.But the constituents of the third fornt have decided not to name any potential PM candidate until the elections are over.This decision is only to appease others in the front, who have similar aspirations.Obviously they don't want the front to break before the elections on the question of declaring the prospective PM.The implied threat is from the AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha.She is also nursing Prime ministerial ambitions.In the event of a fractured mandate, she is capable of doing a hard bargain and achieve her goals.Leftists apparently want a say in deciding the Potential PM from third fornt,should things move to such a situation.CPM committed a blunder years ago forefeiting a PM's chance to Jyoti Basu.Prakash Karat has gone on record this time,in case third front assumes power,CPM might join the government.Does it mean he has some trumpcards up his sleeve?Does the PB of the communist party want to do some amends to its earlier folly?Though Chandrababu Naidu and Devagowda have said they are not in the race,one gets the feeling that the wily Gowda would be hoping, that in case of difference of opinions among third front parties over agreeing to a common candidate,history could repeat itself and he could becme a compromise candidate once again.

Apart from the three major political fronts there are a host of other PM aspirants from other parties also.Some people have expressed it overtly also.People like Sharad Pawar,Mulyam Singh Yadav,Ram Vilas Paswan and Lalu Yadav have also expressed their desire to be the PM at one time or the other in their political career.Anything can happen in politics.There could be dark horses emerging form nowhere.Whatever it is,the stewardship of the nation should rest in the hands of a safe,able,competent,efficient and qualified Prime Minister.