Thursday, December 27, 2007

Assassination of Democracy

Pakistan back to its old game.




Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today at Rawalpindi, Pakistan. With this, the entire election process has become irrelevant in Pakistan. While the immediate reaction is to blame the Pakistani Army, it may not be the real force behind the assassination.

First we must understand that Benazir should have been assassinated only by those forces which are going to benefit by her not becoming the Prime Minister, which seemed to be a certainty.

Benazir had the backing of the United States, which arranged the agreement between Musharaff and Benazir. With Musharaff relinquishing his uniform, the Army would not have asked for a better choice than Benazir. With so many cases of corruption pending against her, she should be the most vulnerable Prime Minister ever for Pakistan, which is in the best interests of the Army and the Establishment. So the Army would not have ventured into such kind of acts which would backfire on it.

Ony those elements which are feeling threatened by Benazir’s chances could have undertaken such a heinous act. Already the Army under General Musharaff has been taking action against the Al-Qaeda elements in the border provinces of Baluchistan and NWFP, only under the pressure of United States of America. With Musharaff and Benazir entering into an agreement at the behest of US, the actions would only become relentless. Benazir’s opposition to the Madrassa spewing religious fundamentalism is well-known.

Therefore it can only be the fundamentalist’s political parties, especially from the border provinces, which could have done such a shameful act, so that their very existence is not threatened.


Now that Benazir had been eliminated from the political scene, the elections have become totally irrelevant. The moot question is, what the Army will do at this juncture. It is clear that the Army cannot remain a mute spectator when violence erupts all over the country. Nor it can intervene directly into the political process. It can take upon itself the role of maintaining order in the country but it has to do a delicate tight-rope walking. Also there will be vociferous demand, especially by those marginalized political parties and religious fundamentalists, for a major role by the Army on the pretext of restoring normalcy but the Army should not succumb to the temptation. Another bout of Military rule will only lead Pakistan down t
he road of self-destruction.



Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Wrong Lessons

Learning Wrong Lessons:
The recent elections in Gujarat have shattered the hopes of Congress party, especially its president Mrs.Sonia and her son and heir-apparent Mr.Rahul. Who will take the blame for the debacle? It was Mrs.Sonia all the way during the campaign for the elections. There was no local leader powerful enough to take on the all-powerful Modi. So it was simply Modi Vs Sonia in which Modi emerged triumphant. Will the Congress accept the fact that its leader CANNOT get votes for the party? Mr.Veerappa Moili is showing off his eloquence by stating that Modi had won "Not by Incident but By Accident". Moili Ji, do accidents happen at regular intervals of five years and do accidents are conducted by the Election Commission? Or are you alluding to the "Merchants of Death" Remark by your party president as the Accident?

Everybody is telling it is the “Merchants of Death” remark which defeated the Congress party. Nothing can be far from the truth. Remember all the exit polls were predicting that the BJP would lose in Saurashtra and South Gujarat and hold on to Central and North Gujarat. But the BJP did very badly in Central Gujarat, which was worst affected by the Post-Godhra riots. BJP lost in Godhra too. All this goes on to prove that the “Merchants of Death” remark did much good for the Congress Party in Central Gujarat, where it was able to wrest so many seats from the BJP.

It proves that where the people were affected by riots, whether it is Majority or Minority, they wanted a change and so they chose Congress and in areas which were less affected by the riots, the people voted for development. Obviously there was no caste factor in play, as all Political Pundits would like us to believe.

Political Pundits were the ones to be blamed for Casteism. They are ones who are analyzing the demographic profile and the caste influence and population and decide which caste will side with which party. But in reality, it never takes place like this. If caste influences an election, how could Mr.Vijayakanth, a novice to the politics, who had no organization to support, win at Vridhachalam, a predominantly Vanniyar (OBC) area supporting the PMK of Dr.Ramadoss, where even the established Dravidan parties are reluctant to contest? If a person can get the trust of the people, that is enough. NDTV predicted that there was a shift of around 8% of Patel votes away from the BJP during the first phase of polling in Saurashtra but the BJP went on to improve its previous tally.

Political Pundits and TV anchors, will you please stop predicting an election on the basis of caste?

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Re-open Delhi Riots, Not Gujarat Riots, PM

Court asks CBI to reopen '84 riots case against Tytler
               

As Chanakya has wished in his article on "The Choice of Gujarat", the '84 riots cases are to be reopened .  A Christmas Gift for our Prime Minister, who has vowed to reopen the Godhra riot cases, if came to power in Gujarat.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Youth Wing at Nellai




Politics has become part-time business for some people:Stalin

Chanakyan Ssys: True, look how seriously we take Politics.  It is a full-time, family run Business for us.

Mr.Stalin came down heavily on leaders who were aspiring to become Chief Minister immediately after launching their parties. Mr Stalin made it clear that responsibilities come to people who toil and persevere and not for those waiting in the sidelines to grab their chances.

Chanakyan Says:  Have you forgotten Mr.Rahul Gandhi?  He has not started his own party.  Just joined the Congress party a couple of years ago and now Your own sister Ms Kanimozhi is calling him "The man who will lead india in future".  But I would like to make a small correction Stalin ji.  Responsibilities and postings come not to those who toil and persevere but only to those who are born in the family and members of the extended family.  Am I right?

The words in
Red are news published in various newspapers on 17 December 2007.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

The Choice of Gujarat


The election results of Gujarat State Assembly will be out by 23rd December. But before that, few questions remain to be answered. The election campaign of the BJP was originally based on the Development plank. But all of it changed after the now infamous “Merchants of Death” remark by Mrs.Sonia.

It provoked Modi towards the sub-Judice “Justification of Encounter”.

First, is Modi right in justifying the encounter, if we take for the sake of argument that he has justified?

Punjab has witnessed so much terrorism by Khalistanis but how it came to an end? Can anyone disagree that it was the tactics employed by Mr.K.P.S.Gill & Mr.Julius Ribeiro and their famous encounters? Each encounter reduced the number of hardcore militants and sounded the deathknell of terrorism in Punjab. But some of the encounter may even be fake and a few of them may be innocent. But this is War. All is fair in Love and War. Drastic situations require drastic measures.

So Encounters, whether fake or real, serve a useful purpose, that of containing terrorism. It has to be ensured that the Police do not misuse their powers to settle scores with their enemies or for personal gains. Sometimes there will be aberrations but they have to be accepted as “Collateral Damage”.

No one can argue that Sohrabudin was innocent. He was wanted by four states in this country. His crime was storing illegal weapons and aiding terrorism. Still, his killing means he had been denied the due process of justice.

OK But what about Afsal Guru who had been sentenced to Death for the attack on the Parliament? There are vociferous demand for clemency for him and he is still enjoying his liberty inside the Jail. The Central Government has recently sent a reminder notice to the Delhi State government for its opinion about the clemency petition, because according to the Central Government, the crime happened in the state of Delhi. How nice to hear. And the Delhi State Government, headed by the Congress, is keeping a stony silence on this matter. There is no time limit prescribed in the Constitution on how soon a clemency petition is to be disposed off. So in all fairness, we will soon see Afsal Guru, roaming free in the streets of New Delhi, and lecturing about Freedom Struggle and Rights of the Kashmiri People.


This is how the so called “Due process of Justice” goes on.

And as for justification of a killing, well it is not correct on the part of a State Chief Minister to justify a killing. Right? I have a doubt now. Whether this principle is applicable only to the Chief Ministers or it includes the Prime Minister also? When thousands of innocent Sikhs are butchered in NewDelhi, it was brushed off as “Vibrations when a big tree falls”, by the former Prime Minister Mr.Rajiv Gandhi. Even after 23 years, justice has not been done to the victims of those riots.

Mr.Manmohan Singh ji, those accused of aiding and abetting the riots are still in your party and some of them had been ministers in the previous cabinets also. Will you kindly open those cases again and do justice now, as you would like to reopen the Gujarat riot cases now?

If Modi is guilty of justifying the killing of one person who was aiding terrorism, then what about a person who had justified the killings of thousands of innocent civilians? Will the Prime Minister or the UPA Chair person give any answer?

This is not to justify MrModi. But in today’s politics, there are no Mahathma. We have to choose the lesser evil. Nobody can accuse Modi of corruption. After a very long time, Gujarat had a Chief Minister who is totally honest. There is no room for corruption in his administration. That is the reason part of the state government servants are against Modi. Corruption percolates from the top. So if the Top is honest, it will percolate to the bottom and though it may take time, eventually there will be corrupt free administration, which will ensure the welfare measures reach the targeted population. When MsJayalalitha took severe action against the state government servants, including mid-night arrests and summary removal from service, the whole public welcomed it wholeheartedly. It gives an idea about the honesty of the government servants.

So the choice of the people of Gujarat is between a corrupt free government or an inept government which capitulates to the terrorists and pampers them. The choice will be known in less than a week.

The Choice of Gujarat

The election results of Gujarat State Assembly will be out by 23rd December. But before that, few questions remain to be answered. The election campaign of the BJP was originally based on the Development plank. But all of it changed after the now infamous “Merchants of Death” remark by Mrs.Sonia.

It provoked Modi towards the sub-Judice “Justification of Encounter”.

First, is Modi right in justifying the encounter, if we take for the sake of argument that he has justified?

Punjab has witnessed so much terrorism by Khalistanis but how it came to an end? Can anyone disagree that it was the tactics employed by Mr.K.P.S.Gill & Mr.Julius Ribeiro and their famous encounters? Each encounter reduced the number of hardcore militants and sounded the deathknell of terrorism in Punjab. But some of the encounter may even be fake and a few of them may be innocent. But this is War. All is fair in Love and War. Drastic situations require drastic measures.

So Encounters, whether fake or real, serve a useful purpose, that of containing terrorism. It has to be ensured that the Police do not misuse their powers to settle scores with their enemies or for personal gains. Sometimes there will be aberrations but they have to be accepted as “Collateral Damage”.

No one can argue that Sohrabudin was innocent. He was wanted by four states in this country. His crime was storing illegal weapons and aiding terrorism. Still, his killing means he had been denied the due process of justice.

OK But what about Afsal Guru who had been sentenced to Death for the attack on the Parliament? There are vociferous demand for clemency for him and he is still enjoying his liberty inside the Jail. The Central Government has recently sent a reminder notice to the Delhi State government for its opinion about the clemency petition, because according to the Central Government, the crime happened in the state of Delhi. How nice to hear. And the Delhi State Government, headed by the Congress, is keeping a stony silence on this matter. There is no time limit prescribed in the Constitution on how soon a clemency petition is to be disposed off. So in all fairness, we will soon see Afsal Guru, roaming free in the streets of New Delhi, and lecturing about Freedom Struggle and Rights of the Kashmiri People.


This is how the so called “Due process of Justice” goes on.

And as for justification of a killing, well it is not correct on the part of a State Chief Minister to justify a killing. Right? I have a doubt now. Whether this principle is applicable only to the Chief Ministers or it includes the Prime Minister also? When thousands of innocent Sikhs are butchered in NewDelhi, it was brushed off as “Vibrations when a big tree falls”, by the former Prime Minister Mr.Rajiv Gandhi. Even after 23 years, justice has not been done to the victims of those riots.

Mr.Manmohan Singh ji, those accused of aiding and abetting the riots are still in your party and some of them had been ministers in the previous cabinets also. Will you kindly open those cases again and do justice now, as you would like to reopen the Gujarat riot cases now?

If Modi is guilty of justifying the killing of one person who was aiding terrorism, then what about a person who had justified the killings of thousands of innocent civilians? Will the Prime Minister or the UPA Chair person give any answer?

This is not to justify MrModi. But in today’s politics, there are no Mahathma. We have to choose the lesser evil. Nobody can accuse Modi of corruption. After a very long time, Gujarat had a Chief Minister who is totally honest. There is no room for corruption in his administration. That is the reason part of the state government servants are against Modi. Corruption percolates from the top. So if the Top is honest, it will percolate to the bottom and though it may take time, eventually there will be corrupt free administration, which will ensure the welfare measures reach the targeted population. When MsJayalalitha took severe action against the state government servants, including mid-night arrests and summary removal from service, the whole public welcomed it wholeheartedly. It gives an idea about the honesty of the government servants.

So the choice of the people of Gujarat is between a corrupt free government or an inept government which capitulates to the terrorists and pampers them. The choice will be known in less than a week.

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