Indian regional polls 2017: Anti-incumbency, Congress-SP and media management cause big win for BJP! (3 parts)

Dr. Abdul Ruff  

Part-1

Year 2017appears to be an eventful one for India as that would be important for Indian politics. Besides facing the crucial Presidential elections, five states such as Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have gone to polls in February-March, Gujarat (PM Modi’s home state) and Himachal Pradesh will go to polls in 2018.

While Uttar Pradesh (UP), Uttarakhand and Punjab have given clear mandate to BJP and Congress party respectively, Goa and Manipur refused to give a clear mandate either Congress or BJP, but the federal ruling party BJP has got the upper hand as its governors supported BJP to form the government in these states, though the party did not get either a majority or at least maximum seats, though it has got less seats than Congress in both instances.

The BJP is the clear winner in this round of Assembly elections in five states. With an apparently decisive mandate in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and its impressive showing in close races in Manipur and Goa the party is giving all credit to the Modi wave which has apparently succeeded in combating people’s perceptions about demonetisation. For Congress, the only saving grace was Punjab.

The extremely right wing political party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with military support under a highly “sophisticated” and very energetically dynamic leader Narendra Modi has had an easy win in the by-poll held last month in 2 of 5 states in a polarized India’s corrupt polity. At the outset, the election, conducted as a referendum for his demonetization drive to check and end black money flow and stop financing of terrorism operations in the country and around, was out and out PM Modi’s “historic” win. However, many factors like anti-incumbency, indirect support of Congress and Samajwadi Party in UP, absence of any credible honest leader or genuinely people’s party at national or regional level etc, contributed greatly to Modi’s fortunes.

Today after the regional polls, Narendra Modi has become the most important leader of India, above Hazare and Kejriwal who caught the imagination of entire nation with their anti-corruption movement against the Congress-BJP governments. BJP and PM Modi do deserve well wish for the electoral victory for working for equality in the nation. In a democracy, seats in state and federal assemblies decide government formation. However, seats could be won by politicians through cheap and undemocratic means.

The outcomes of the by elections have revealed anger and disappointments of voters towards the ruling dispensations including Congress, BJP, SP, etc and opted for the opposition parties, almost everywhere. Political parties cannot take the voters for granted in polls, at least. People have displayed a great sense of responsibility in punishing the ruling class for being dishonest.

Goa

BJP has sage managed the show in Goa state even without a majority by horse trading the independent MLAs. Congress secured more seats than the incumbent BJP but it did not stake its claim to form a government while BP did exactly that and now ruling the state and now Congress has approached the court, maybe as a mere formality to fool the world. ..

Close races in Goa and Manipur but with bargaining and deflections, BJP staked claim There were four major contenders for the 40 seats in the Goa Assembly – Congress, BJP, Aam Admi Party and the smaller Maharashtrawadi Gomanthak party and the Goa Foward. While the present Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar has lost his seat, Congress’s Digambar Vasant Kamat who is also former Chief Minister, has won in his constituency, Margao. During his door-to-door campaign, Digambar Kamat repeated one mantra frequently. “Call me any time, 24×7. You need no agent to come to me. Although the Congress had 17 seats, just one lesser than BJP the latter has staked claim to form government.

Congress, as usual, played mischief and let BJP become the ruling party but when BJP became the winner, it called it a foul play by the governor who just obey he federal government’s orders. . Even as counting as underway it was expected that neither party would be close to the magic figure of 21 seats. The Indian Express reported that the MNP and smaller parties may play the king maker and that is exactly what happened.

The night long negotiations finally sealed the deal for BJP as both the MNP and Goa Forward Party agreed to support the BJP after they were promised ministerial berths by Nitin Gadkari. The Congress leaders, including party general secretary Digvijaya Singh and top state politicians, camped at the iconic Mandovi hotel in Panaji, where for five hours they wrangled over the choice of CLP leader, apart from waiting for Sardesai and other Independents. The Governor invited the BJP to form the government and current Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar will be sworn in as Chief Minister.

Goa and Manipur experiments of letting the Hindutva party control government show that there is a consensus between Congress and BJP that the latter should rule India and its states to solve many issues (like Muslims, Pakistan, China, security, etc)

Manipur

In Manipur also, BJP stage managed and formed the ministry and Congress party that ruled it for many years has quietly gave in, almost signaling that its time is over as ruling party and BJP could take its place and communal pride. With the BJP and its alliance of regional parties together got 30 seats. By using ‘security issues” and using Sharmila as a serious threat to India as she wants all extra military laws withdrawn to let people live without fear, the BJP made a stunning debut in Manipur, winning 19 seats and leading in two of the 60 assembly seats in the states. The party’s concerted efforts to make inroads into the conflict state paid rich dividends. Ram Madhav of the BJP said that the performance of the BJP has been satisfactory given that the state unit was weak. Manipur too saw a record turnout of almost 86% in the second phase of polling as BJP intensified its security campaign.

The Congress has been ruling the North-eastern state Manipur for almost a decade and a half and faced a tough challenge from the BJP which, supported by the military establishment, as usual, made security issues to win poll. Since Manipur does not have any Muslim population it needs not to target anti-Muslim sentiments for Hindu votes but Sharmila gave the stuff for the BJP to talk at length about the security issues threatening India.

With communal agenda on cards, the BJP has very cleverly exploited anti-military feelings in Manipur state being represented by Irom Sharmila to expand its vote share in the Northeastern state.

On 11 March, as the results for Manipur Elections started coming in, Thoubal constituency was among the first few seats from where the results started coming in. This valley seat from where Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh was contesting the elections, had another key player who for 16 years was on fast for Manipur’s rights. Social activist Irom Sharmila Chanu aka ‘Iron Lady’ was the icon of Manipur who with her decade-and-a-half long fast against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Acts (Afspa) garnered a lot of national attention sympathy and support. Upon ending fasting, Sharmila soon formed the PRJA which garnered support and attention from national parties like Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Left and Democratic Front (LDF), etc. The party with its clear intention to revoke the draconic military law Afspa and redraft Inner Line Permit system set about campaigning through the state and gathering political funds.

In a state which is rife with violence, corruption, administrative struggles, and development deficits, her fight seemed watered down. While the BJP gathered votes by making promises about removing the economic blockade, creation jobs, removing corruption, ensuring rights to the Nagas, etc. Sharmila kept mum on all these issues.

Military played important role in the defeat of Sharmila and she lost so badly in her maiden election contest that she became panicky and vowed to quit politics altogether. Sharmila was mostly treated as a laughing stock by both Congress and BJP and its chief minister, because victory for Sharmila can be disastrous for both parties. When they all joint tempered with m voting machines remains to be investigated.

But the story in this 60-Assembly seat state is very different as there seems to be anti-democratic operations during poll day. Sharmila’s party Peoples’ Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA) failed to secure a single seat in the state and its leader lost the fight against Manipur’s three-time chief minister Ibobi who won with 18,649 votes, Sharmila didn’t get more than 90 votes, giving rise to genuine suspicion of voting machine tampering during the poll by the Modi regime.

Many in the national media hailed this as a tragedy that an internationally renowned human rights activist couldn’t manage to secure even a 100 votes. However, the local populace has a different picture to share. When the 44-year-old decided to quit her 16-year-old fast in 2016 and join politics, it was welcomed by both national media and political parties. She soon formed the PRJA which garnered support and attention from national parties like Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Left and Democratic Front (LDF), etc. The party with its clear intention to revoke Afspa (through legislative means) and redraft Inner Line Permit system set about campaigning through the state and gathering political funds.

In a state that has some 1,500 cases of extra-judicial killings, she was the face of the revolt against Afspa. When she ended her fast, people perceived it as the end of the movement. This angered a lot of people. Her popularity also tanked after she revealed her plans to get married to Goa-born British national Desmond Coutinho, whom her supporters have always accused of diverting her attention from the fight against Afspa. She had plans to tie the nuptial knot after the 2017 polls but Desmond recently said the marriage would not take place before 2019. While the party has allied with the Nagaland People’s Front of the neighbouring state, it chose to not announce an alliance with the regional party in Manipur. The reason, a senior party leader said, is a clause in the NPF’s manifesto that talks of Naga integration. “That made the party a bit uncomfortable,” the party leader said. A post-poll alliance, however, is not ruled out, the leader added.

Congress and BJP one and same!

BJP could easily target both Congress and Sharmila to victory. In a state hit badly by anti-incumbency against the ruling Congress government, the neglect that the various hill tribes suffered under Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh’s government helped the BJP make inroads in the hill areas. Of the 60 assembly seats, only 20 seats are set aside for the hill areas, while the Valley has 40 seats. While the hill areas account for 85% of the state’s geographical territory, the Valley accounts for 15% of the total area.

BJP didn’t just have a national appeal, it also went door-to-door to campaign about the party. They had swayamsevaks (volunteers) who regularly held meetings to discuss local issues, way before the elections were announced. The people in the hills (Naga districts like Senapati, Ukhrul, Tamenglong) saw an alternative to Congress, which with the creation of the seven new districts in December 2016, had lost the vote of the Naga tribes.

Sharmila, who has won several international human rights awards, said in her interview with HuffPost India that both the leading national parties — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress — were practically “the same”. However, this did not stop either of the two national parties — Congress or BJP — from using the funds in their deep pockets, to campaign extensively in the state. The state which rarely received any national attention was suddenly getting visited by senior leaders of the BJP like Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Narendra Modi, Prakash Javadekar, etc. Their rallies gathered thousands of Manipuris, whereas Sharmila’s PRJA went house to house to campaign for their party.

Sharmila decided to compete from a Meitei populated seat against a Meitei favourite Okram Ibobi and expected victory. In the interviews before the polling began, she reiterated that she hopes to win against the three-time chief minister. However, she forgot that the highly seasoned Congress politician had managed to snag the Thoubal constituency in two consecutive Assembly elections and that too with high margins. This time too he secured the seat with a margin of 11,470 votes against BJP leader Leitanthem Basanta Singh. Even the BJP didn’t put up a strong candidate for that seat. Sharmila’s misguided political judgment cost her MLA seat.

While the core media lords we are being harsh on the celebrated human rights activists, it is a matter of concern that the state which has a million female voters failed to support their female icon. An abysmal 90 votes are what the ‘iron lady’ got for her 16-year penance.

People’s mandate does not matter in Goa and Manipur; dictatorship or democracy?

In both Goa and Manipur BJP regime has played well to deny the party that got maximum seats to form government but let BJP form the government. In doing so, PM Modi has made the BJP ideology of”BJP only” crystal clear. The message is simple: If any other party is unable to get a clear majority BJP alone can form the government by purchasing MLLAs and MPs.

In Goa and Manipur, the BJP was in a minority. It won 13 seats out of 40 in Goa, with the Congress winning 17. In Manipur, its performance was just as poor, winning 21 out of 60, to the Congress’ 28. However, the party which rules at the centre has manipulated legal provisions to ensure that a state does not remain headless to claw its way to power against the will of the people. In Goa, it put together a coalition after negotiations with a party that had projected itself as secular – the greatest sin of the virulent anti-national, in the lexicon of most supporters of the BJP.

The narrative of the BJP (even Congress) has been that the minorities have been given too much leeway, and the trolls its leaders – including a Sikh Prime Minister – follow feel the minorities should acknowledge that they don’t deserve to be treated as more than second-class citizens. The minorities they attack include Muslims, Christians, and those unfortunates with intellect. The one democratic procedure in which the minority has no right is what follows the outcome of an election.

In a country that is becoming increasingly more bigoted and hostile to minorities, people must ask themselves what strategy makes leaders out of people who have, on the surface, no qualifications to run a country. The most powerful man in the world is Trump, a businessman with no political, diplomatic, or policy-making qualifications. The most powerful man in India is a healthy orator Modi who stays silent on the most burning issues of the day, asks others to react, recently deputing his Home Minister to handle the Kashmir crisis.

Standing in long queues in extreme weather is seen in the context of soldiers dying in battle for their country. How are the two comparable? A soldier dies in the uniform he volunteered to wear, for a country that he is defending of his volition against an enemy. When a pensioner has a heat stroke or a cardiac arrest while waiting through the day to exchange notes that he was saving for an emergency, where is his volition, whom is he defending, and who is the enemy?

Indian protests generally are just a show and never intent on real changes or reforms or at least further development. BJP’s one of the main agendas is to somehow acquire majority in Rajya Sabha (Upper House of parliament) to pass all bills and enact new bills as per RSS designs. But the move that upset the RSS agenda and brought the nation literally to a standstill was demonetisation. For weeks, even months, people struggled to pay each other. People literally died from standing in queues. Yet, despite all the chaos, there was no public protest – unlike the outrage in Venezuela, whose government attempted to follow India’s move. In that country, the people will saw the government withdraw the demonetisation move. In India, though, months after the dramatic decision was announced, when the memories of standing in queues for hours only for the ATM to run out of money before one’s turn came and notes being rationed out on a war footing are still vivid, the BJP has made a clean sweep of two Northern states. BJP has enough money to get votes.

 

Punjab

Apart from Delhi it is Punjab that has adopted AAP in a big way for its appeal and principles but AAP has not done any useful work for the people of Punjab so that Punjabis also have trust in the new party. . The state sent 4 MPs to the parliament even though Kejriwal did not campaign there then. Delhi itself did not elect any AAP candidates since Kejriwal did not contest form Delhi state and went all the way to UP to contest in Varanasi against Modi.

Punjab, ruled by BJP led coalition until the poll, has now opted for Congress party – of the 117 seats, the Congress was leading on 64 seats – and brought the AAP to focus by giving it a historic status with 28 seats.

While the entire country was full of energy during the counting of votes, the social networking websites were as silent as a grave with the AAP leaders going silent on the election results. The Twitter account of most of the AAP leaders, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal did not show any activity since the results started pouring in.

In the initial phase of counting, it became quite evident that the AAP party scored zero in Goa while it backed 2nd position in Punjab. The exit polls had predicted that either Congress or AAP would win. Whereas Shriomani Akali Dal (SAD)- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance which was written off by all political pundits and journalists before the elections, has sprung a surprise by becoming the second largest party in the state. While the leaders were quite excited in the morning and tweeted motivational messages on Twitter before the results, their account became dull after the initial trend. AAP leader Ashutosh tweeted in the morning saying the result will set the tone for the future politics in India. “It’s a historic day,” he tweeted. Kumar Vishwas was among the few AAP leaders who came out in open and spoke about the elections. The leader congratulated BJP and the Congress on their win. Accepting the defeat in his style, he also tweeted a poem. The AAP, which fought its first assembly elections in Punjab, was at third place with 22 seats.

BJP is increasing its national presence step by step, indirectly supported by Congress, SP and other essentially anti-Muslim outfits.

Congress party with largest black money owners’ does not oppose BJP. What is even more shocking than that is that the BJP has ensured that it will form the government in two states where another party had garnered more votes than it had.

Anti-incumbency factor readily worked against the ruling BJP led coalition and brought back the Congress as AAP could not develop into a truly national party as yet. Kejriwal is under the illusions that Delhi experiment could automatically make other states also to go for AAP.

After a bitter political battle that went on for months between rival political parties, the Congress has emerged as the single largest party in the Punjab Assembly election that concluded on Saturday. Captain Amarinder Singh led Congress to a successful campaigning in Punjab, securing 77 seats, nearly a two-third majority.

__________________

Indian regional polls 2017: Anti-incumbency, Congress-SP and media management cause big win for BJP!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff _________

Part-2

Apparently the Modi government has done everything possible not to let the voters to make the by polls as the referendum on the crucial demonetization move and PM Modi fully succeeded in that respect. The official results of UP polls clearly show voters have not got the real opportunity to express their opinions on the subject on the basis how much they struggled for money and suffered waiting at banks in long queues.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a political offshoot of Hindutva RSS with links to all major parties in the country, including Congress and SP, has remained a communally divisive party seeking votes on Hindutva agenda rules and proved its Hindutva mettle in the poll once again in 5 regional polls 2017.

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Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand

 

Uttar Pradesh with maximum MPs and MLAs in the country decide the fate of national politics and it has given the edge to the BJP in both Houses of Parliament to pass any bill or make amendments to the Constitution to make Indian a Hindu nation just like Israeli fascist regime trying to make Israel an exclusive Jewish state.

Fanaticism and occupational crimes bring India and Israel together.

Uttar Pradesh is a large state crucial in deciding the national government formation and BJP wanted win the state for many reasons like Babri Mosque, Rajya Sabha majority, silence the Muslim population which about 29% in this Northern state which previously returned 69 Muslim MLAs.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won 312 seats, including some of the Muslim-dominated seats such as Deoband, Chandpur, Moradabad Nagar, Noorpur, Naanpara and Nakur where analysts feel that Muslim votes got divided between Muslim candidates of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Muslim candidates, however, managed to win seats like Meerut, Kairana, Najibabad, Moradabad Rural, Sambhal, Rampur and Suar-Tanda.

UP then ruled by former defence minister Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi party (SP) under his son Yadav and Uttarakhand ruled by Congress party have conveniently stood by BJP. In fact, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have given a complete turnaround to Modi and his BJP after the backlash of demonetization. Media reports suggest federal government has tampered with the voting machines to make BJP the “historic” winner.

The BJP won with a clear majority in Uttarakhand with 57 seats in the 70-member assembly, ousting the Congress led by Harish. In politically crucial Uttar Pradesh, the saffron party witnessed an unprecedented victory with 321 seats, while the Congress-Samajwadi party alliance bagged 54, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got 19 and others 18 seats respectively.

The BJP won a three-fourths majority in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly and is returning to power after 14 years. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state of India, with a population of more than 200 million. Muslims form around 19pc of the population.

Showing astonishing performance, the BJP got 312 seats in the 403-member UP Assembly. Its allies Apna Dal(S) and SBSP bagged nine seats and four seats, respectively, taking the total tally of the combine to 325. On the other hand, the SP won 47 seats while its ally the Congress got pathetic 7 seats. The BSP won just 19 seats, finishing a dismal third. BJP emerged victorious in an unprecedented showing in UP winning 312 seats with almost 40% of the vote share. The Congress-Samajwadi combine with about 54 seats and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samawadi Party reduced to an insignificant 19 seats. Sify’s Satish Acharya depicted the win rightly in this cartoon – no one expected the victory would be so big.

After a long delay, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leader PM Modi decided to make a Hindu/tva cleric to be the CM of restive Uttar Pradesh where the Supreme Court, under tremendous pressure to announce a pro-Hindutva judgment on the ghastly destruction of Babri Mosque , is on its way to pronounce its final judgment as the appointment of Saffron man Yogi could terrorize the judges of Apex court to deliver a pro Hindutva judgment in support of Hindu criminals who pulled won the historic Mosque as national heritage.

BJP named fanatic Hindu radical Yogi Adityanath as the new chief minister of Uttar Pradesh a week after the poll results were announced. Spreading hatred against Muslims and Islam in order to get Hindu votes, Adityanath is known for his hardline Hindutva ideology and making anti-Muslim statements. He is popular among his supporters for his fiery speeches against minorities. The chief minister-designate also runs an extremist organisation, Hindu Yuva Vahini, which has been accused of instigating communal tension, said The Hindu. During the recent elections in the highly-polarized state, he had stirred controversy by making claims of discrimination against Hindus and stoked anti-Muslim sentiments. He had criticized allocation of land for graveyards for Muslim community. Adityanath has also been accused of spearheading a forced conversion initiative, called Ghar Wapsi, which targeted Muslims and Christians.

In appointing Yogi, an unelected member of UP assembly, the Chief Minister of the state when 312 of elected MLAs of BJP are available for the top job is indeed strange. BJP and PPM Modi has ignored the valued of mandate given by the people. Why a saffron cleric has been chosen to head the government is a myth. Not even one among 322 MLAs is suited for governance and that is the truth about BJP and RSS.

During the recent deterioration of relations between India and Pakistan, Yogi passed statements against Bollywood actors who supported the continuation of cultural ties between the two countries.

UP elections were expected to be indeed a litmus test for PM Modi’s post demonetisation from which entire nation suffered for months. Unfortunately the issue was not raised by the opposition in the campaign as seriously as it deserved. BJP and Modi had a cake walk almost everywhere. Fanatically extreme right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which grew and expanded its Hindu vote bank by targeting Muslims, Islam, mosques, Pakistan, China, etc, has come out in flying colors. UP has revealed that the ruling BJP with huge money packets directly from banks and a worst ever split politics in the state has made full use of anti-incumbency to its advantage.

People seem to have voted for BJP not for what Modi said or did not say, because they are disillusioned with corrupt parties like Congress, BSP and SP etc that have looted nation’s resources and ruined nation’s image. The local BJP people have clean image because they don’t enjoy power and money.

UP has taught the SP for its divisive bickering and self projection of son Yadav and its essentially anti-Muslim politics. People hate Congress party and punished Sp for opting to play politics by alliance with Congress. Son Yadav refused to distribute tickets to father’s candidates. Akhilesh misread the people’s minds. Narendra Modi‏’s assistants tweeted: ” I salute the hardwork of BJP Karyakartas. They have tirelessly worked hard at the grassroots level & won the confidence of the people”. That means work at grassroots and media management by which PM Modi’s campaign speeches were relayed directly and he dominated TV channel reports. Rahul or any other leader did not find similar space in media.

Modi and Amit Shah have played the social engineering arithmetic very well and that helped the party in winning big in UP elections. The BJP campaign strategy in UP benefited it in neighbouring Uttarakhand as well. However, in Punjab, the BJP and Akalis bit the dust. It has even failed to win 15 seats in Goa, despite having a leader like Manohar Parrikar,” said the editorial. “Manipur too has not given a strong mandate to BJP.

Shiv Sena attributed BJP’s big win of BJP in Uttar Pradesh to the “carrot” of loan waiver dangled to farmers by Modi ahead of polls and said it was not a vote on demonetization. The ties between the two allies, who fought the recent civic elections in Maharashtra separately, have been strained and Sena has often needled the BJP and Modi. “The Uttar Pradesh mandate is because of the loan waiver promise made by Prime Minister Modi to farmers during his election campaigning. It is not a reflection of demonetization decision,” an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamna said today. The editorial also invoked the issue of Ram temple in Ayodhya and wondered whether BJP would initiate its construction.

Modi succeeded in polarization of votes by making “shamshan-kabristan” remarks and playing the Hindutva card during the UP campaign. “It would have been better, had he (Modi) played the cards of uniform civil code and Ram Mandir during the campaign,” said the editorial.

As compared to the strong and genuine leadership of Nitish Kumar in Bihar and Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, the childish leadership of Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi was rejected by the people of UP. Apparently, “Yadavs and Dalits as well as Muslims, have voted for BJP to teach a lesson to Akhilesh Yadav.

Nitish pointed out that the Congress-Samajwadi alliance was not successful in Uttar Pradesh like the grand alliance in Bihar. Congratulating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its splendid victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said the opposing parties ignored the fact that demonetisation gave satisfaction to the poor. Nitish pointed out that the Congress-Samajwadi alliance was not successful in Uttar Pradesh like the grand alliance in Bihar. He also stated that there was no need to oppose demonetisation in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls as the poor felt contentment that this move has hurt the rich. Nitish added that several parties ignored this fact.

A day after the so-called ‘Modi wave’ helped BJP storm to power in Uttar Pradesh after 14 years, securing an astounding three-fourths majority in a keenly-contested Assembly polls, senior Congress leader and former finance & home minister P Chidambaram said that Narendra Modi was the most dominant political leader in the country at present. He also said that the scale of the BJP’s victory in UP and Uttarakhand was unprecedented and mind-boggling. He further wrote, among other things, “The man of the moment is Narendra Modi. He has convincingly demonstrated that his appeal is pan-Indian. It extends from Gujarat and Goa to Assam and Manipur. After slipping badly in Bihar, Modi has regained his prime position as a master of communication and show and make entire media network to telecast live. The text of his message in 2014 was development, in 2017, he has cleverly altered the text to development+ and the debate has to now focus on that elusive and indefinable element that he has added to the text of his message. The sab in ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ has been subtly altered to include certain sections of the people and exclude others.”

The anti-Islamic and anti-secular process by targeting historic Babri Mosque started by PM Nehru and continued by Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao and Kalyan Singh would be expected now to be completed by the Yogi. That would help the ailing corrupt Congress party to get back to political business once again.

Tampering of voting machines (EVMs)

 

Apart from effective media management, consolidation of caste votes of Hindus, taking over the Congress party’s Hindu vote banks, money distribution, door to door campaigns, targeting corruption of Congress regime and absence befitting reply form Congress and others, the BJP seems to have resorted to illegal tampering of voting machines (EVMs) to make BJP candidates emerge victories in most seats. Election commission’s implicit role in the ghastly operations should be investigated..

It is not merely an exercise in imagination that the BSP leader and former CM Mayawati raised the issue of polling mischief by way of voting machine tampering in UP and other places during the poll that gave an all round advantage to the ruling BJP. Voting machines are made and controlled by people concerned and possibly any maneuvering can be exercised to benefit a particular party or candidate. Earlier, Tamil nadu CM Jayalalithaa also raised the issue seriously but no action was forthcoming from the central government. Indian government should assure the people there were no tampering incidents in the polls.

That BJP got such a historic mandate in UP and Uttarakhand while a social worker who fasted for 16 years against the special military power that causes human right problem.

Victory of BJP in UP would signal a cake walk for that party in the next parliamentary poll as well. But the people keep shuffling the governments and readily offer alternative mandates. They also, like cricketers do, opt for draws or hung parliament and assemblies.

 

AAP’s disappointment

A new concept of Indian politics, Aam Admi party is trying extend its influence in select states and quietly without having national forum to devise strategies as its founder leader Kejriwal decides everything singlehandedly mainly to retain the image of the party as being non-corrupt and pro-people in content.

Aam Admi party and its founder Arvind Kejriwal are very dear to Delhiites for the immense services they have done to Delhi even before the AAP came into being. Delhiites trust them and treat them as their own. However, that is not the case in other states where the AAP leaders have not served them. Two years ago, Aam Admi party (AAP) had scored a sensational victory in Delhi, decimating rivals BJP and Congress. It also debuted in parliament by winning four seats in Punjab in 2014 – the equivalent of 33 seats.

People of India hear a lot about AAP and its leader but they have no firsthand experience with them and hence they have no trust of them. Only exception is Punjab where AAP miraculously won 4 MPs even while it could not get even one in Delhi as Kejriwal went all the way to UP to contest against PM Modi and lost there.

AAP’s entry in poll scene of Goa and Punjab and hectic campaigns made the both BJP and Congress run for shelter and shade and for this reason, both national parties want to end the party. This could be the reason why BJP could not retain the government in both states by not been able to secure majority of seats.

AAP contested Goa with high hopes, but could not open its account. In Goa, they believed that AAP might replace the Congress. So one can ask, what has gone wrong for the party? Was it a bubble? Or is AAP just a one-state party?

Thought AAP failed miserably in Goa, it did manage seats in Punjab. Goa did not elect any AAP candidate, but Punjab has elected many MLAs for the first time in the state assembly. The agrarian state witnessed a big shake-up, throwing the ruling SAD-BJP alliance out of power. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had made a big pre-poll buzz, came in second place with 20 seats.

The exit polls predicted an AAP victory; others claimed a photo finish between AAP and the Congress. During the campaign, every analyst who visited Punjab vowed that AAP had a very strong presence. It was universally acclaimed that AAP had a massive wave in the Malwa region which commands more than half the seats in the state, though there were weaknesses in the Manjha and Doab areas. One channel wanted to know if Arvind Kejriwal would go to Punjab and leave Delhi, which I denied in the strongest possible terms. In fact there was a time when trends showed on TV that AAP was trailing even the Akali-BJP alliance at third position. But finally it is the Number Two Party.

The popular mandate of Punjab was with Congress, as the party received 38.5 percent (59,24,995) votes in the election followed by SAD at 25.3 percent (38,98,161) while AAP came third in terms of votes polled at 23.8 percent (36,59,266). BJP received a meagre 5.3 percent (8,19,927) votes. There were 1,145 candidates in the fray with all the top-three contenders — Congress, SAD-BJP and AAP — fielding 117 candidates. d AAP won 20 seats. Congress’ chief ministerial candidate Captain Amarinder Singh won from Patiala. Even though he lost Lambi to Parkash Singh Badal, he has much to be happy about. There are, however, a few clear trends that have emerged in the elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and to a lesser extent, in Goa.

It is a disappointment for AAP in Goa because Delhi’s massive mandate raised the hopes of the people that AAP would emerge as a principle party at the national level. After that historic verdict, AAP had decided to contest elections in Punjab. AAP started focusing on the organisation and the idea was to consolidate the gains of the parliamentary elections of 2014 when the party had won four seats. At that time, the party had lost every seat outside Punjab, including in Delhi. As the party got to work in Punjab, it was enthused to see the energy and empathy for the party at the grassroot level. Soon enough the media also assumed that AAP could win more than 80 seats (of 117); the same was predicted by Huffington Post which said that AAP would be the new king of Punjab politics.

What really happened in Punjab where AAP could not get a simple majority? This is not the first time that AAP has suffered a rather humiliating defeat. After the 2014 parliamentary elections, AAP was carpet-bombed with criticism. It contested more than 400 seats, but could win only 4. But it bounced back with a thundering margin in the Delhi election and re-wrote electoral politics. AAP won with a historic mandate. It was nothing less than a revolution because it humbled two very powerful political parties who had a wealth of experience in fighting innumerable elections.

Punjab elections have proved that AAP has the potential for a bigger political outpost. No other regional party has this distinction. AAP is better off even in defeat than the Samajawadi Party, the BSP, Shiv Sena, the Trinmool Congress, the DMK, the AIADMK, the BJD, NCP etc. AAP’s opponents shouldn’t commit the mistake of taking it lightly. Arvind Kejriwal addressed big rallies in MP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, UP, Jharkhand in the month of December, just after the announcement of demonetization by the Prime Minister Modi. The response was very encouraging. The lesson for the party is to work hard to build the organisation, convert sympathy among people into votes. It has to build a cadre and keep the morale of the organisation up which is another challenge for the party.

AAP has shown the path in Delhi, and in Punjab too, that clean candidates with honest money can also contest, win and become the member of the legislature. AAP candidates did not distribute money and liquor to bribe voters and yet they came out victorious. It’s a huge leap in Indian politics.

In 1984, the BJP could win only two seats. It was also pronounced dead and buried. Today, the BJP has replaced the Congress and it is the most dominant political force. There is more to come from AAP.

The silver lining for AAP in these elections is that it today is the main opposition party in Punjab which is no mean achievement. Let’s not forget the fact that AAP is only a four-year-old party. And it was fighting assembly elections in this state for the first time. For a first-timer, it is a great beginning. Many political parties took years and many elections to achieve what AAP has accomplished in its first attempt. In four years’ time, AAP has a government in one state, which is doing path-breaking work in the areas of education, health and drinking water; AAP has set the benchmark in honest and transparent governance in Delhi and now in another state, it is in the opposition.

Kejriwal is a romantic leader who thinks people just elect him for what he is. He possibly refuses to admit the fact that literally every India is disillusioned with growth of corruption in the country and they all want fight this economic menace through anti-corruption movement but he refuses to tour the nation or appoint a national committee to spread the message of AAP. He behaves like Zamindar (rural lord) runs the party like a company and autocratically. he needs to change if AAP to take roots in the nation.

AAP is here to stay in Indian politics. Those who think that AAP’s future is bleak are going to be proven wrong again.

__________

 

Indian regional polls 2017: Anti-incumbency, Congress-SP and media management cause big win for BJP! -Dr. Abdul Ruff _________

Part-3

 

Beyond the polls, Indian regime and political parties secretly and in concerted efforts work towards taking away the Babri Mosque from Muslim ownership and save the Hindu criminal gangs that demolished historic Babri Mosque. Hindutva leaders and regime want the judges to treat the anti-mosque Hindu criminals as patriots.

The issue of reconstruction of historic Babri Mosque is being decided by the Supreme Court for delivering the final judgment on the crucial issue while the government and major political parties, particularly the Hindutva ones, Hindutva media lords, apparently apply pressure on the judges not to punish the Hindu criminals who demolished the Mosque on the strength of their majority and not to hand over the mosque and property to Muslims who they consider being under Hindu control.

Anti-incumbency factor continues to dictate its terms to poll outcomes in India, allowing opposition parties to win polls very easily. BJP and Congress outsmart each other on that basis only. The regional polls this year saw people rejecting the ruling parties everywhere and opting for other parties as a transit solution. People seek a genuine party to rule the country of Mahatma Gandhi.

Of course, BJP is the winner of the regional trophy this time as Indians have not yet found a genuine and credible alternative to both corrupt Congress and hate BJP alliances. BJP-Congress secret nexus especially targeting Muslims, Islam and Babri Mosque is explicitly known to the public.

Major parties like Congress and BJP and SP wanted to cut their common foes to size and: AAP in Delhi, Goa and Punjab, Sharmila in Manipur, demolish Muslim vote bank in UP, making it irrelevant for the poll outcomes, etc. They have fairly achieved their objectives. However, Delhi remains the fort of AAP. Delhiites represent the AAP more than Kejriwal. Punjabis have imbibed the Delhi’s new values by voting it to get large number of seats. .

This is a personal victory for Modi who has thrown himself hard in to the UP’s poll battle scene, especially in the last leg of the campaign and tells an observer that people have ignored the demonetization pain. The big takeaway from the assembly poll outcome in Uttar Pradesh is that, according BJP, Modi has cleared his big political test on demonetisation—one of the key factors in this round of polls—in grand style. If demonetization is ‘no problem’ for Modi in UP, a state where informal sector plays a dominant role, demonetization is not likely to cause troubles for the party elsewhere in future.

Narendra Modi- Man of (fixed) match

 

Undoubtedly, PM Narendra Modi has managed the poll show, and emerged from the polls the tallest politician of India, notwithstanding the political gimmicks e employed to outsmart the Congress party, as he misused his position as PM, to get wide publicity for his campaign. In UP, former Defence minister Mulayam Singh and his lovely son CM Yadav apparently played mischief by a fake fight to divide the SP votes and to let BJP shine. Congress also joined the party to deny Muslims their place and help BJP get UP state so that Supreme Court would grant “relief” to the winning fanatics and Hindutva criminal leaders who conspired to destroy the Babri Mosque.

PM Narendra Modi single handedly could claim all credits for the party’s achievements in a sustained and systematic manner. If Congress over night became the only national party upon Indian independence, BJP has done so by employing hatred as the chief political tool. Indian state extends its support and appreciation keeping in view Indian anti-Islamic goals.

Modi’s BJP having learned the trade tricks of Congress and cricket to win elections, has replaced the Congress party as the most important and largest political outfit of the nation. BJP and its Hindutva allies have comfortably spread its communal tentacles across the country from North to South to from West to East and almost everywhere it defeated the Congress party.

By using the Congress and other parties that are sympathetic to Hindutva ideology, the RSS-BJP duo planned to capture power at centre and states. In 2014, the BJP projected then Gujarat CM Modi who became extreme favorite of Hindutva minded people and parties as parliamentary poll was approaching. BJP and India core media called Modi the “developmental guru” to steer India to greater economic and financial heights, thereby making India a super power to take on both USA and Russia, leave alone a pathetic looking Pakistan or jobless Bangladesh – both had come out of Indian Union to develop strong Muslim nations to outsmart big brother Hindu India. Modi with vigorous rhetoric could not only easily challenge a mild spoken Congress PM Manmohan Singh who tolerated corruption in the party and government but also removed the Congress party domination in national politics in two as it was reeling under the impact of anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal

It appears shrewd Narendra Modi has only gained on his political capital after the 8 November televised announcement to scrap Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes. He said his move will make black money disappear and guilty in jails. As the trends seen in various surveys and certain civic poll results suggested, the PM continued to enjoy ground support of people in the immediate months post the note ban despite heavy criticism from many economists and political rivals on the move.

More importantly, the tally would silent his rivals, who have been projecting the ‘disastrous effects’ of demonetisation on all walks of life and larger economy. This will give a psychological upper hand for the government in Parliament to face the opposition on crucial reform process. But all the confusion and lack of correlation in numbers and statistics have obviously did not have any impact on people’s sentiment on the ground, so is the absence of tangible results on the stated goals of the exercise so far.

If one looks at the economy as a whole, the impact of demonetisation has played out much more in the informal sector, not in India’s organised formal sector. This is because informal economy is where cash is the king. About 40-45 per cent of Indian economy is estimated to be in the informal sector, which also contributes almost 80 percent of the total employment. UP poll outcome is even more surprising given that this one state that is heavily dependent on informal sector and has had adverse impacts of demonetisation in the form of job losses especially in regions like Varanasi. But, all these negatives failed to stand between Modi and his victory in the state, for whatever reason.

According to certain estimates, 78 percent of transactions in the economy are conducted in cash. But since segment is poorly captured in official data, the impact here never showed up in the GDP numbers. This is the reason why the 7 per cent October-December quarter GDP figure was seen with suspicion. The flaws in the way noteban was implemented, prompted even former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to use phrases such as ‘mammoth tragedy’ and ‘organised loot, legalized plunder’ to describe Modi’s drastic move. Almost all of his political rivals used demonetisation as a tool to attack Modi since the day the drive was launched.

The voters who are fed up corruption in all walks of life have judged demonetisation as a positive political step on those in the society having possession of ill-gotten wealth, a long pending political step. Interestingly, the economics of the move never really mattered as Modi is seen as media hero and the “energetic “ leader who finally made the political change happen, precisely how he sold the idea of note ban to 125 crore Indians. In this fight of economics Vs politics, politics have clearly won.

Though the outcomes of local body polls and surveys suggested continuation of Modi wave post demonetisation, the UP polls, arguably, was the first major test for him and he has won the test. Not only that, the outcome would have surprised even the most optimistic supporter of the BJP. The evidence of big victory over black money and fake currencies is yet to emerge and the shift to digital payments—another objective of demonetisation—still hasn’t taken a firm hold. But, none of these factors seem to have worked against Modi, giving rise to suspicion about voting.

 

Modi trades in profitable ideas

Success of Modi includes the ability sell profitable ideas to get political mileage as other leaders are bankrupt in ideas.

The RSS-BJP duo swears by divisive politics to deny Muslims their share, use mosques, beef, etc as bully tool to get Hindu votes. PM Modi deliberately avoid the issues, though he never asks the party leaders not to target or threaten Muslims.

Fresh from BJP’s landslide win in UP and Uttarakhand after a bitter and often divisive campaign, PM Modi talked about inclusivity and pitched for building a ‘new India’ by 2022 that would have made the nation’s founding fathers proud. Accepting felicitations from party leaders and supporters at BJP headquarters, Modi said he saw the election results, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, as the “foundation of the new India”. Modi declared: “A new India, where the poor do not want anything by way of charity, but seek opportunity to chart out their own course. I see this change happening”. Later, Modi tweeted, “India is emerging, which is being powered by the strength & skills of 125 crore Indians.

Modi, who was accused by his rivals of playing caste and religion politics during the campaign, said the BJP-led dispensation will take everybody along as “in democracy governments are formed with a majority but run with consensus”. Noting that the government has no right to discriminate against anybody, Modi said, “This government is of those who have voted for it and also those who have not”.

Modi said India stands for development, India is transforming, powered by the strength of each and every citizen of India but his ‘crematorium and graveyard’ remark at an election rally in UP was seen as intended to polarize voters along communal lines.  “An India that is driven by innovation, hard work and creativity; an India characterized by peace, unity and brotherhood; and an India free from corruption, terrorism, black money and dirt.” Development is a difficult subject dealing with transition towards creation of a new India, he said.

Demonetisation, besides being a bold, unprecedented economic policy, also carried significant weight as a big strategic move for Modi, for whom fight against black money has always been at the top of his poll agenda since 2014.

The UP outcome temporarily ends the debate on the impact of demonetisation on Modi’s political fortunes. PM Modi has passed his first big demonetisation test in style, silencing his political rivals and proving decisively that Modi wave has negated the demonetisation card flashed by his political rivals all along.

BJP’s media management strategy

 

Not even the senior most corrupt Congress could match the tricks of controlling media a BJP has been for quit sometime even during the Congress rule era. In fact, Congress let RSS/BJP take full control over the state media, especially the Doordarshan – the only TV available then in India- by starting with presenting Hindutva ideas like Ramayana and Mahabharata. In fact, BJP should thank the Congress and Babri Mosque and Muslims for their phenomenon rise.

If India had only Hindus, obviously BJP and RSS would have no place and could not have won elections. Whom would they have targeted to get Hindu votes?

Apart from voting machine tempering, money supply, Modi’s regular rhetoric, BJP’s media management strategy, as usual, greatly helped BJP to win polls without any credible substance in campaigns. The voters on the ground also grasp intuitively as they do not want to waste their vote. A voter always wants to claim that he/she gave his vote to the winning candidate. Media focused on BJP.

Modi tried to make the poll “vote for Modi” poll. The media — broadcast television, at least — prefers to lump in every bit of coverage based on what the president or leaders of political parties are saying at various rallies. PM Modi occupied top slot in both print and non-print media. The cameras pan over huge crowds and they capture the choicest sound bites from his speeches almost 24 hours. The voters cannot seek any fresh information from the English language dailies either as they are also obsessed with leaders. Indian language dailies also no better but they go into the details of each candidate at the constituency-level. The debate and discussion is at candidate-level and not about the parties. While political parties will try to create or build a wave of momentum, it is not happening across the state.

The trend that is clear now is that there is an anti-incumbency factor at work against the Samajwadi Party in UP, while its alliance partner, the Congress is hobbled by the lack of a ground network.

The BJP seems to be the party that every other party is fighting against for its communal and divisive agenda. Division in SP is the reason people have begun predicting a victory for BJP in UP state.

 

Fate of corrupt Congress party

 

After independence Mahatma Gandhi had advised senior Congress party leaders to disband Congress party which has accomplished its historic mission of achieving freedom from British raj and launch a new political party to carry forward the work of the government. But most of the top Congress party members opposed the idea as they want to exploit the freedom struggle to win polls. Congress party was not disbanded nor was a new party launched by leaders. Now the Congress party is the most corrupt party and that is an insult to independence for which Gandhiji fought. It is high time to consider what Gandhiji has suggested long ago. .

The position of Congress party, the oldest national party, is the most pathetic outfit in Indian politics. Now it is not clear about what exactly it seeks in India after a series of crushing debacles, including the latest ones, by the Hindutva party like BJP which it, along with the state and military establishment, promoted by using state and private media outlets.

 

Not many expected the 100 year old senior party Congress as the major ruling party in India for years after Independence, with huge hidden cash bags (made illegally) would fall so deep in Indian scene, pushed mainly by its secret ally BJP. Indian voters have discarded Congress and its allies. However, unfortunately, they had to replace it with a communal party BJP.

Congress is in death bed and the political doctors have ruled out any chance for its survival. Congress leaders are literally limping, perhaps ready to jump the bogies. In spite of huge wealth, Congress party is slowly disappearing from the national scene being replaced mostly by BJP -and winning a seat here and there is not a matter at all. Significantly, in UP the Congress lost all the four assembly seats in Amethi district, the pocket borough of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, with BJP bagging three of them. The BJP-led alliance also swept all the eight assembly segments falling under PM Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi.

BJP also scored a massive victory in Uttarakhand winning 56 of the 70 seats in the state to storm to power, reducing Congress to minuscule minority in the state Assembly with a poor tally of 11 seats.

 

Is there Congress-BJP nexus over Presidential candidate?

 

Thanks to the tacit support of Congress and the Indian state, the Hindu communal BJP has now emerged as a truly national party this time by gradually ousting Congress party from most states, with its intrusion into the North eastern region by forming a government in Manipur state and already it’s the government in Assam.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has failed the party and his mother Sonia by not been able to become popular vote puller for the party. He canvassed for the regional polls but without any visible success. Whatever his party got in Punjab and elsewhere was only on account of anti-incumbency factor- just as BJP got in UP and Uttarakhand.

Disappointed by the poll results, Rahul suggested rebuilding the party. But the party has already lost vote banks to BJP while it has lost Muslim votes. People don’t trust the party and leaders. Congress has reached the end point of existence as all its tracks failed to work. Congress has played vital role in building up of BJP and other RSS umbrella parties and now they have replaced Congress party itself and that leaves no hopes for the largest and oldest national party. Congress should now try to merge with BJP and pursue its hidden anti-Muslim agenda openly.

Apparently, many senior Congress men are toying with the idea of joining the RSS-BJP duo openly for regular financial favors. Some leaders have already begun praising PM Modi. Getting a feel of end of Congress raj and possibly receiving a positive signal from PM Modi to consider him for enjoyment at the Presidential palace along with a eye catching Mogul Garden for a full term after Pranab retires in months, former foreign minister, governor and former Karnataka CM SM Krishna, has quit Congress party just by criticizing Rahul Gandhi’s weak leadership.

It is strange Modi has not found a suitable leader in BJP to be made President now, including Amit Shah that the BJP has the necessary majority o elect the president. Other senior members also would follow the footsteps of Krishna but for the fact there is only one post of President.

It is a crude joke that SM Krishna says he would be humble BJP/RSS worker hereafter and very tactfully hides the promised “package” of Modi, including post of President. Krishna m behavior exposes all Hindu leaders who are essentially communalized Hindutva leaders.

Maybe both BJP and Congress have converged to make Krishna the next president. One can get the truth right away.

Congress party can call its politics a day by safely retiring from polls after getting Bharatratna for its services like Indian independence and promoting corruption and black money, etc in the post independent India. .Alternatively, Congress party could merge with BJP and assist it in further terrorizing Muslims.

Having achieved its hidden agenda of keeping Muslim population under Hindutva control by terrorization by using issues like Babri Mosque, Pakistan and terrorism etc at will, Congress party now could claim Bharatratna as a special case.

Father-son drama in UP to help BJP and betray Muslims

 

It appeasers, Congress, BJP and regional parties like SP have a secret conspiracy against Muslims and Babri Mosque.

All Congress efforts to get government back UP by alliance with SP have failed again. Breaking all previous records, the BJP bagged two-third majority in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

RSS-BJP media strategy is amazing. Poll strategy and networking electioneering helped them. It is for the first time in the 16-year history of Uttarakhand that a party has emerged with an impressive tally like this. PM Modi’s image has been packaged systematically with a lot of home work and no other leader could emerge an equal or at least a strong leader to appeal to masses of their sincere intent. Unlike Congress, SP, BSP, etc, PM Modi does not need money to be given to his family members

Muslims have been strong contingent of vote bank for the continued success of Congress and SP, etc.

After along time of sustained bitter experience of betrayal by Congress party, Muslims have now stopped promoting that party both at national and regional levels. Now Muslims know Congress and BJP have got a common anti-Muslim agenda. Now SP has also proved to anti-Muslim party as it played a big drama of fight and split only to deny Muslims opportunity to represent Muslim community in the UP assembly. BJP wants the hon. Supreme Court of deliver an RSS judgment to appease Hindutva forces including the Congress and SP. May be the Modi regime has already submitted the judgment for the Supreme Court to deliver as its own. That is the RSS agenda.

Like fanatic Hindus many Muslims also wants only India to win fake cricket matches with many batboys enjoying 100s, and 200s etc. So, the Indian regime consider Muslims as supporters’ gimmicks of Hindutva. These Muslims obviously betray their religious faith by indulging in corrupt, gambling.

There is no strong ground for father – son fight over no real issues. It appears SP whose leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, former defence minister, was forced by military and Congress party to lose the elections in UP in favor of BJP which can then deal with Babri Mosque as it would decide and could use the Supreme Court to get final judgment in its favor. This is clearly a continuation of Congress-BJP conspiracy against Babri Mosque and Muslims now being supported by Mulayam of SP. Hence BJP has won in historic manner.

Father and former CM and defence minister of India, Mulayam Yadav defended his son Yadav and the outgoing CM of UP, saying that his alone cannot be blamed for the historic poll defeat as all are possible for this. Mulayam has played mischief and betrayed the Muslims who voted almost entirely for the SP last time. He joined the Congress and BJP to protect the Hindu criminal who pulled down historic Babri Mosque. The father – son fight was an eye wash to divide the party votes so that BJP wins maximum seats to support the RSS-BJP criminals.

Equating sycophancy with patriotism, and independence with anti-nationalism is only one of the alternate realities the BJP and its trolls have manufactured. So deeply are these alternate realities ingrained that the Indian Science Congress of 2015 turned into a joke, with vedic aeroplanes and time travel and what-have-you. The next year, the general secretary of the Indian Science Congress Association acknowledged that there had been some pressure from ministers. When even facts are forced to accede to the will of the government, can the people matter? The outcome of the elections is not universal popularity, but a churlish determination to claim power by force.

Many members of Congress, SP, and BSP are pro-Hindutva. The nuance that is lost is that this time around in Uttar Pradesh particularly, there has been a cross-fertilization of candidates from the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). There are at least 38 former or current MLAs from the BSP who are fighting on a BJP ticket. There are 14 such former or current Congress MLAs again fighting on BJP tickets, in addition to eight from the Samajwadi Party and seven from the Rashtriya Lok Dal. In all, there are 75 constituencies where tickets have been given to a person who did not contest the elections on a BJP ticket in the past. The rationale for handing out these tickets is that these candidates have a higher chance of winning as they have won this seat earlier. This is ostensibly based on a series of four surveys conducted by the BJP in every constituency. Some of these surveys were carried out by RSS functionary in the areas.

In May 2014, the people’s choice was clear – a combination of anti-incumbency and what was dubbed “the Modi wave” had unseated the Congress and brought the BJP in with a majority of its own, 282 seats out of the NDA’s 336. It was a landslide.

Since its victory in 2014, the BJP has hurried Bill after Bill through the two houses, without much thought to the rights each violates – instances are the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016, and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2015.

In the last election, the Samajwadi Party won 224 seats with a vote share of 29.15 percent, while the BSP got 80 seats with a vote share of 25.91 percent. A difference of 3.36 percent between the first and second party made a difference of 144 seats. This was at a time when the BJP got 47 seats with a 15 percent vote share and the Congress got 27 seats with a vote share of 11.63 percent.

Due to recent fissures, the Samajwadi Party depended on the cohort or caucus around Akhilesh Yadav and older members of the party were not engaged. In the BSP, it is the decision of Mayawati, who is ably supported by a team and has the largest number of Muslim candidates in the fray.

Muslims feel betrayed by Congress and other pseudo-secular outfits.

 

Plight of Muslim vote bank: Time to float a national party for Muslims!

Muslims, who depend on Hindu parties and leaders for their existence and sustenance, are being betrayed by the pseudo-secular parties led by Congress party that they support and vote for, while the RSS and BJP etc threaten Muslims directly, threaten to destroy Muslim mosques. That is the game plan of Congress-BJP duo. .

Apparently, not only RSS and BJP and other communal outfits but also the so-called secular parties like Congress jointly oppose reconstruction of historic Babri Mosque, dismantled by Hindu criminals in 1992. Though then Congress PM Narasimha Rao, a former RSS operative, had, after allowing the fall of independent Babri Mosque, pledged to the nation that the Babri Mosque would be rebuilt at the vey sight where it stood for centuries, the BJP led conspiratorial Hindu criminal elements obviously backed by the state happily destroyed it in broad day light as the mosque fell as a hapless national monument.

Indian TV media, ill-focused on Islam and Muslims in India and abroad, engaged fully in anti-Muslim anti-Islamic themes to insult Islam and injure Muslims by parading all anti-Islamic elements on TV debates to inform the world that Hindus are great people and Muslim are a problem for India and world at large. Now the anti-Islamic elements gather young Muslims to defame Islami and Indian Muslim community to talks and sing songs ill of Islam. The Congress party with its own hidden agenda against Muslims and Islam but claims to be secular and pro-Muslims to defend Muslim against Hindutva mischief, just keep their dirty mouths shut on the issue. Of course, Congress is dying party as a punishment for betraying Muslims. But other parties also are doing the same anti-Muslim gimmicks.

The BJP projects Muslims as a monolith to consolidate the Hindu votes by targeting Muslims. That was so for years until recently when Muslims voted enmasse for the Congress party thinking the Hindu Congress men are genuine secular people. But now contrary to general perception, Muslims do not vote en masse for any party.

Advice of Supreme Court to Muslims and Hindus to find amicable solution to the issue of reconstruction of Babri Mosque as pledged by the government of India could be a big joke as the majority Hindus/Hindutva and BJP government can only impose their “united” will on helpless Muslim minority in the country who are already badly crushed by Sept-11 and similar hoaxes in India, cannot be expected to be a genuine party to have talks with the confused Muslim leaders. The issue of reconstruction of Babri Mosque is in the Indian apex court precisely because Hindu parties want not only to save the criminals who pulled down the historic monument on fake pretext as part of their anti-Muslim conspiracy but also confiscate the Mosque property because they are in majority and want the courts to parrot what the RSS tells them.

It appears, the poll outcomes in UP where the Hindutva forces have a clear upper hand as Congress and SP played foul politics in favor of BJP in order to target Muslims and Babri Mosque, has been manipulated to let the RSS-BJP duo get everything they want from Indian judiciary.

Shame on Indian democracy and secularism!

One looks forward to genuine justice for the Mosque.

Muslims are being exploited and terrorized by the government-state and Hindu parties for their votes and they are also insulted and bullied the so-called secular parties while Hindutva communal parties threaten Muslims and their mosques. The Congress-BJP-SP manipulations have resulted in dwindling of Muslim MLAs in the s new assembly. This time there are only about 30% of the outgoing MLAs in the UP assembly.

Clearly, Muslims in India are trapped by most national and many regional parties and get their votes and also project them as a problem. BJP targets them, insult and injure their thoughts in order to gain Hindu votes. Not only Congress but even many other parties like SP have taken the Muslims for granted for votes and use BJP and other Hindutva communal parties to bully Muslims for their votes. .

How come BJP has made a landslide in UP when the opinion polls did not find that way? Apparently, so-called secular Congress and SP betrayed the faith of Muslims by joint operations with BJP to reduce the Muslim MLAs from 89 in the last assembly to meager 24 MLAs now. Muslim leaders on their part also betrayed the Muslim community.

Generally, the voting patterns of Muslims, the largest minority in India influence, impact on the politics and poll outcomes. Since Independence, Muslims have voted for the Congress party on their own or under pressure from Muslim leaders, who work as paid private poll agents for major national and regional parties. Rise of BJP forced Muslims to support Congress and other so-called secular parties who are in fact pro-Hindu people.

Over years of disappointments and feeling of betrayal by Congress and other so-called secular parties, seeing the nexus between Congress and BJP, Muslims have shifted their allegiance to other parties, like SP, AAP, BSP, DMK, etc resulting in the defeat of Congress and allies. However, though that strategy worked against Congress party’s poll fortunes, Muslims have not benefited anything from that. All parties work together to squeeze Muslim rights.

Muslims continue to be attacked, insulted because basically every political outfits work agonist the interest of Muslims and they have secret deals to work against Muslims, Islam and Babri Mosques. Number of MPs and MLAs representing Muslim community has dwindled over time and this poll have further reduced their number in assemblies.

Even states where Muslims are in large numbers, Congress used them to gain votes but no more. Muslims no more vote for the Congress party anywhere in India, resulting in the crash of Congress party. In Kerala where most Muslims vote for Muslim League but the party is interested only in the supply votes for the Congress party and it becomes a part of Congress UDF government for the party leaders to mint money and wealth. It uses criminal-fraudulent elements to get money for the party leaders. Similarly, a party of Muslims MIM in Hyderabad. Every Muslim League leader is now rich by using Muslims as vote bank stuff. It seems corruption is part of their understating of Islamic faith.

A number of Muslim leaders conceded that a few seats did fall into the BJP lap because of the division of Muslim votes. But given the scale of victory the BJP got, it would not have mattered much had Muslims rallied behind any single party. Kamal Farooqui, a former member of Samajwadi Party, said the “division of the Muslim votes per se” is somewhat an abstract concept. Last time Muslims voted for SP n UP. “It is simply not possible that all the Muslims in Uttar Pradesh vote for any one party. Muslim votes do matter… but they seldom go to a single candidate en masse in any constituency.” Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, National President of Welfare Party of India, said the BJP’s strategy had “successfully rendered the Muslim factor in elections ineffective”. Ilyas said the BJP as per the RSS pan to get every Hindu vote in the country, “succeeded in getting votes of Hindu backward castes minus Yadavs and Scheduled Castes minus Jatavs.

Apparently, the BJP’s success in consolidating Hindu votes of various castes has rendered any division of Muslim votes redundant and helped Modi lead it to an unprecedented landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh, according to some Muslim leaders. This new type of social engineering is being seen after the emergence of Narendra Modi and (BJP President) Amit Shah on the scene. Modi and Shah were selling the promise of Hindu-rashtra where other religions would treated like slaves under the garb of ‘achhe din’ which actually helps the BJP turn Hindu votes into a single more effective whole.

India is moving towards a Hindu majoritarian democracy where nationalism is blended with Hindutva. Although the Modi government does not have any visible achievement in its last three years, still people seemed to have voted for Modi- is it not an illusion created by the central government agencies? In Modi, do people see the hope of Hindu-rashtra which he is propagating as the ‘achche din’?

In UP, Congress and SP have joined the BJP to cut Muslim representation to size so that their voice won’t be heard over the rebuilding of historic Babri Mosque issue. UP, where Muslims are a strong population share of about 30%, is the right state where such a national party for Muslims to take birth. Position of Muslims in the country has been weakening year after year. In UP alone the number MLAs from Muslim community has come down to meager 24 from 89 in 2012. This is because of secret deal among political parties led by BJP but ably supported by Congress, SP and other national and regional parties. Muslim leaders want money from politics as they betray the community.

While Hindu votes got consolidated in favor of BJP, Muslim votes are badly divided and cast for different parties as per the instructions from their local leaders who, having got no committed and sincere leaders to promote the interests of poor Muslims, operate as agents of parties controlled by Hindus.

Hindu parties and leaders want Muslim also to be corrupt so that they could be bullied to get their votes. Although ML has helped Kerala Muslims to have e some prestige in the society, they are corrupt too as part of Indian system and as part of Congress polity. .

Muslims should change their mindset and think only about pathetic existence in India. .

Muslims need a national political party to advance their genuine interests

If Muslims continue to think that Congress or Sp or any other national or regional party would take care of their interests, they are mistaken. Pas experience would tell them that only selfless Muslim party at national level alone can save and serve them honesty.

So much of over-dependence on Hindu parties like Congress and SP etc has made the Muslim community suffer badly. Even Muslims parties like Muslim league and MIM are helping the Congress party to come back to power to   so that BJP is out. That is exactly what the Congress, which has lost the Hindu votes as well as the trust of Muslims, expects from Muslims after poll crash. Congress and allies would force Muslims to support Congress to save the Muslims- the usual gimmick. .

It is time Muslims float their own national party with regional branches allover India, while every Muslims party and organization is brought under that national party to serve the cause of Muslims, Mosques and Islam in India. All regional and local parties of Muslims should be made a part of the national party.

In order for that objective to be achieved, Muslim community should have honest, intelligent and sensible leaders- visionaries- not those who use politics as business or Muslims as vote bank to make money to mint money and increase wealth by illegal and immoral means. These leaders should sincerely work for the community and not for their own families. They should not promote dynasties to take over the leadership after the demise of one or more leaders.

Observations: Perform or perish!

PM Modi and BJP still win polls mainly due to the presence of a corrupt Congress party without any real performance or visible positive outcomes for the people of India. May be BJP-RSS would consider the phenomenon as weakness of the voters and would believe the trend to go on forever.

Today is indeed a setback for honest and innovative politics, but to write an obit of AAP will be reading the results the wrong way. I must admit that AAP’s performance is a huge disappointment for our supporters and well-wishers, especially in Punjab, where the party was expected to form the government with an absolute majority. But we are far from that, while the Congress has crossed the magic figure of 58 seats and is all set to take charge of the state. AAP has emerged as the main opposition party in the assembly.

Indian politics, like cricket, is also a profitable business and is indeed highly profitable gamble, though the politicians are not given national awards like the cricketers manage through corporate lords, shielded by ruling politicians. Politicians like cricketers enjoy the financial privileges m as their prerogative, birth right without any worry about legal problems.

Modi and many BJP and Congress leaders have participated in concluding sessions of matches to give away medals. Many of these party members work as mafia members as well. Modi gave a cricketer who made bogus records by mutual understanding between teams, a prestigious national award this year, showing that his government, like Congress one, cannot but promote fake sports like cricket.

Indian system, infested with corrupt politicians and really anti-people parties to help the leaders make illegal wealth endlessly cannot be honest enough. Hindutva BJP and allies have made steadily inroads into all Congress forts by a meticulous plan as RSS agenda through strenuous efforts and clearly they mean business.

Basically Congress as well as BJP is two-sides of same coin, a cricket party, promoting and making it the most important “thing” in Indian politics. The corporate lords who sponsor cricket matches also fund the elections each time there is a poll. As Gujarat CM Modi promoted cricket and even

It seems the BJP cannot give up its hatred politics because without that it simply cannot survive as it cannot package and sell its home made poison as vitamin. It has to talk about dangers India is facing all the time. For each state BJP has its own method of expanding vote banks but by and large hatred for “perceived enemies” liked Muslims, remains the backbone.

The continued presence of corrupt Congress party would only make the BJP more bold, aggressive, stronger. No party, possibly except AAP, can take on a monstrously grown up BJP. But Congress and BJP have same agenda against rising AAP.

The complaints by AAP and BSP about voting machine tempering to benefit BJP especially in UP and Manipur are of serious nature. Apparently, the results of two states, UP and Manipur have been tempered, manipulated and pre-conceived by Congress, BJP and other anti-Muslim and arrogance policy dealers. If a re-poll is held in these states, truth about the poll would come out.

These elections must be evaluated as people have voted heavily for BJP despite the absence of any emotional issue. Sharmila’s defeat opens a Pandora box without any clarity to comprehend the real reason for a joint conspiracy by Indian regime, Congress and BJP, military establishment, etc to see she does not win and loses the worst manner so that none would ever support her or fight against state laws, especially the draconian military lows. Had Sharmila won, that would have been a slap on these elements. That would become unbearable for all of them.

UP poll clearly reveal the hidden agenda of all big political outfits working against Muslims, Islam and Babri Mosque. Like Indian state, political regime and intelligence-military apparatus, corporate media, every national party with military links target Muslims and Islam. Now they want to somehow force the Supreme Court to deny Muslims the right to worship inside their historic Babri Mosque when it is rebuilt by the state.

It is indeed disappointing that demonetization has not affected the poll results, though the common people suffered a lot. Whether or not that is truly valid, many people think something could have gone wrong with voting machines. India should ramp up spending on rural areas, infrastructure and fighting poverty, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley says as he unveils his annual budget, adding the impact on growth from the government’s cash crackdown would wear off soon.

In the absence of honest political parties in India where politicians do business in politics to make wealth by immoral and illegal means including illegal mining, forced bribery, etc, to serve the people with dedication, Indians are being repeatedly forced to drink Hindutva poison as medicine. BJP leaders are becoming increasingly fate by cheating the public with false gimmicks. While it wants Muslims to vote for Hindus, the BJP-RSS duo does not want Hindus to vote for Muslims candidates and hence decided not to field any Muslim candidates so that there not many Muslim MLAs to support the Babri Mosque issue.

The secret nexus between Congress and BJP in their targeting Muslim populations in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, is well known. Congress is responsible for the arrival and thriving of communally inflammable RSS and its umbrella parties like BJP. Congress party, fallen so badly in the eyes of public, has just one program: not about people of India but to make Rahul Gandhi acceptable to the people of India. That has not at all worked .Strenuous efforts by the Congress party to get Rahul Gandhi accepted by Indians as their top leader have failed because people no longer trust the party and its leaders who are corrupt.

Many Congress leaders and CMs, like bowlers congratulate the batboys whom they offered 100s and 200s, etc, have congratulated PM Modi on his personal charismatic success in UP, possibly expressing indirectly their desire to cross the floor to the known saffron flag. After all, there is hardly any difference between the town Hindu parties.

Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal and Narendra Modi have sufficiently weakened the Congress party and blocked its efforts to come back to power and the anti-corruption movement has struck with people’s imagination to know how tall frauds are Congress leaders. . In order to keep the Congress out of power, people opt for BJP though they are pro-Hindutva.

Perhaps the regional polls 2017 is just a quarter finals and with proper match fixings, next round of polls w at semifinal would signal the possible scene of next parliamentary poll.

India is at a crossroads as it is passing through a period o uncertainty. What is the hidden agenda of RSS/BJP particularly in Babri UP remains to be seen!

Fingers crossed!!!

Meanwhile, the Modi government has no options other than performing to the full satisfaction of the people who have suffered enough under the weight of demonetization.

Image credit: Kashmir Watch