The article is very pedestrian and lacks depth. He has restated many known things and assumptions.
However, it is true that instability as we know it is causing serious harm to our government system. This instability is defended by vested interests as a mechanism to meet the aspirations of smaller and smaller caste-based groups. The simple solution is to go for run-off polls.
The top two candidates in each consituency get to run for a run-off poll - this way, people will implicitly vote in a two-horse race and this will more accurately capture the popular need.
The post of Chief Minster itself must be contested in a direct election. The next logical step would be to separate legislative and executive systems.
Our stupid politicians have no time for such debate. Forums like Parliament and State Assemblies where such things ought to be discussed are degraded by the members into caricatures bereft of serious discussion - and used only for political posturing.
Everyone is traitor BSP told it is dalits party and indulging in upper caste politics. congress welknown scoundrel. SP a goonda caste based party. BJP atleast has not done anything in dividing UP on caste lines eventhough it is hindu party So All UP should vote for BJP as other parties are breaking UP into more pieces which is not healthy. ram naam satya hey
RE:people reading this article please vote for MULAYAM'S SP
by Lal Badshah on Apr 25, 2007 02:16 PM
Amitabh and Jaya are also upper class hindus. Teach them lesson as well.
RE:people reading this article please vote for MULAYAM'S SP
by sharib razi on Apr 25, 2007 12:59 PM
U r a moron of the first order. This mulayam has only harmed not only muslims but every one except his own clan.
RE:people reading this article please vote for MULAYAM'S SP
by Ideal Man on Apr 25, 2007 02:00 PM
Who are you to say about Hindus(SC/ST/OBC)they are all our brothers and this is our internal Matter. You look for your own religion. Don't try to play techtical,tumari strategy yahan kaam nahin karegi. Hindus ko apne saath mat jod Namurad.
Amazing Dumb Article....The article criticises the Congress for not indulging in caste plitics...so what do you want??that all of us shud stand divided oncaste and religios lines for votes??????One dosen't know of the past..but today one ahs to look whos is asking for votes on religious caste lines and who on development????I think we will not vote for development but along casye/relogios lines...And then there will be more articles written about lack of development in UP?india by these same columnists...
The need of the hour is a two-party (alliance) system in India - People either vote for 'A' or 'B' - This will avoid polarisation of the votes and the government will then be judged based on the work they will do.
Rediff has definitely done a wrong thing, by publishing an article by a pseudo-secularist, pro-Muslim criminal Praful Bidwai. As a good reader nicely put it, political parties are much times better than this author, who is a self-appointed secularist. This person will even support Al-Qaeda under the pretext of supporting 'peace-loving' Muslims.
My favourite Rediff.com should hereafter ignore such articles by such criminals.
Hope the Rediff.com administration will toe the line of my advice!
RE:Ironic column
by Sanjeev Sharma on Apr 27, 2007 09:20 PM
Rediff thinks very low of its readers intelligence, hence the known naxalites and discarded jholachhaaps are given chance to publish their views which as a rule are conflict of interest with the indian civil society because such authors are committed towards a caste based civil war in India, so that China their fatherland can develop economically without any compition from India.
I could not understand, how this article found a place in rediff. Its completely a sham. It did not have any positive tone. This article\'s aim seems to mock down congress & BJP.
Instead of advocating for unity, this article explores new areas of how people should be split on caste lines.
To me, the political parties appear far better than the author of this article
RE:Polital parties are better than the author or this article
by rahul paNDE on Apr 25, 2007 11:14 AM
YOU ARE RIGHT . PARTIES NEVER DIES . HAR RAAT KE BAD SUBHAH HOTI HAI . BJP WILL FORM THE NEXT GOVT IN UP .
The scion of Nehru-Gandhi family, the greenhorn MP from Amethi, Mr. Rahul Gandhi on his election campaign of Uttar Pradesh is trying to score brownie points against his rivals by his immature utterances. Sample how Bangladesh came into existence, he takes the credit that his grand mother, Mrs. Indira Gandhi planned and executed the partition of Pakistan. This has created a diplomatic row, as India had always held that Bangladesh came into existence because of brutality of Pakistan Army.
Second, without being least charitable his talk of demolition of the disputed structure of Babri Masjid while the then Prime Minister, the late P. V. Narasimha Rao, could not prevent it. Mr. Rahul Gandhi claimed that had his father been the PM such horrendous display of religious intolerance would have not taken place.
It would have done the Congress Party a lot of good if Mr. Rahul Gandhi should have been briefed what to say and what not to say. Without arming him with a coherent alternative to the kind of regressive caste and communal politics preponderant in the state he has emphasised his family's 'pro-Muslim' credentials, has now apparently sought to beat the BJP at its own game by alluding to his grandmother's role in the creation of Bangladesh.
His campaign style smacks of identity management, the Congress's time-worn political-electoral approach in the Hindi heartland. But that is unlikely to revive its cloud-capped fortunes. Identity management can no longer deliver in UP. A perverse and degenerate form of composite politics, identity management has outlived its utility. The networks of identity management, which had, since Independence, apportioned the socio-economic pie and political power, came unstuck under pressure from a large mass of people displaced from their traditional habitats and livelihoods by the nation-building project of the '50s and '60s. That led to the collapse of the Congress consensus, and the eventual rise of competitive identity politics.
Rahul's concerted campaign in UP is a clear indication the Congress is desperate to capitalise on the wide-ranging nostalgia for the Congress raj under the Nehru-Gandhi family. And yet, Rahul's charisma would have translated into political-electoral gains, only if it had been supported by focused organisational and mobilisational work. The only agenda that could now match up to the party's comprehensive pre-independence programme, especially in UP, is that of social transformation. One that would seek to mobilise people on concrete issues, which are beyond the scope of traditional social identities.
Such aggregative politics, if it's allowed to take root, is bound to weaken the nostalgia for the Congress of the past, and thus undermine the central, almost dynastic position of the Nehru-Gandhi family. It is now for Rahul to decide on whether he wishes to be remembered as a dynamic leader who gave UP, and India, Rahul's pique is understandable as Rao posed the first serious challenge to the Nehru-Gandhi family's dominance of the party. He successfully completed his term, unlike the unfortunate Lal Bahadur Shastri, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's successor, who met an untimely death in Tashkent.
In essence, Rahul's statement amounts to a vainglorious boast for the vast majority of theists, who believe that not even a blade of grass can move without divine sanction. Whatever happens is preordained, while men and women play out their parts. Muslims and Hindus, revivalists and communists have all condemned his foot-in-mouth declaration, albeit for different reasons. The divine right to kingship is implied as much as his or some other kin's right to govern.
The imputation is that India is safe only in the hands of the dynasty, an idea that is utterly preposterous in the era of coalition politics. Since no single party or leader or family now dictates politics, the parliamentary ideal is better realised. The old unilateral system, which Rahul fondly remembers, works no more. The irony implicit in his call to end the rule of one-leader outfits such as the BSP and Samajwadi Party is lost on him. Otherwise, his mother, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, reported to be orchestrating party moves behind the Prime Minister's back, might take him to task.
A viewpoint that allows for free will and human errors would also pick holes in the Gandhi scion's theory that seems to ascribe infallible will to his family. It shows his lack of knowledge about our history and events of the past three decades. Or perhaps, he is feigning an ostrich-like ignorance. The Congress's espousal of communal politics after it inherited power from the British has served to ghettoise Muslims, anger Hindus and almost destroy Sikhs. Its lapses are too many to recount but a few need to be mentioned for the sake of truth. The gates to the disputed structure in Ayodhya were unlocked by a court order in February 1986 when Rahul Gandhi's father, Rajiv Gandhi, was the Prime Minister. Since the Congress, which ruled by an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, was then in a mood to woo Hindus, his government did not appeal against the order though it could well be to demonstrate its commitment to preserving the mosque's identity.
Then again, Rajiv and his Home Minister Buta Singh sanctioned the shilanyas or foundation stone laying ceremony for the Ram-janmabhoomi temple in November 1989. If the Narasimha Rao government at the Centre did nothing to stop the demolition of the mosque, it was because the Rajiv Gandhi regime had helped the VHP lay the foundation of the temple.
Immediately after Independence, Sardar Patel's initiative to restore the fabled Somnath temple on Gujarat's western coast was opposed by Pandit Nehru. The former was Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, and the latter, the Prime Minister. Nehru's objection was specious, hinging on the West's perception of India. In letters to State Chief Ministers, dated August 1, 1951, he stated, "The recent inauguration of the Somnath temple with pomp and ceremony created a very bad impression abroad about India and her professions." Earlier, when images of Lord Ram and his retinue appeared inside the Babri Masjid on the night of inside the Babri Masjid of the night of December 22, 1949, Nehru ordered that they be removed. Then UP Chief Minister, Govind Vallabh Pant, declined to do so, observing that it could anger Hindus.
Thus, before he dons the mantle of leadership, Nehru's great grandson would be well advised to brush up his knowledge of India's history and his family's role in communal politics.
RE:Rahul's immaturity
by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay on Apr 25, 2007 10:13 AM
Nehru's great grandson knows all these. That's why he went to Deobond, the Jihad central, and shed tears on Babri.
And then went to a BJP stronghold and took credit for dismembering Pakistan.
COngress is the original beast of Indian politics.
It creates identity, and rally them to win vote.
Just analyze how Indira played Bhindrenwale card to win HINDU VOTE IN NORTH INDIA.
Problem for Congress is: THE ADVENT OF LK ADVANI, WHO CALLED THE BLUFF AND STARTED THE RATH YATRA/
That took the bottom out from Congress's steps like opening gate of the structure, allowing Shilanyas, starting campaign.
