I have been amazed at the twist that has been given to the "Congress is a 125 years old woman" and all sorts of insinuations like disgracing womanhood and what not are being invented by the opposition. It is indeed the lowest level of destroying the normal linguistic idiom and is an assault on the language itself by the likes of Congress spokespersons. On the other hand Priyanka has made a fool of herself by asking if she looks old. thank God she did not ask whether she looks 180 years old! She was not at all in the question and there was no need to take the dialogue to that level even if the hint was at he age of some BJP leaders. Not that Congress doesn't have its share of oldies like Arjun Singh, Motilal Vora, Karunakaran to name a few. Sibal, Kamal Nath, Manmohan Singh, Digvijay Singh and many others are also not exactly our idea of youth.
However, the next counteroffensive from Narendra Modi of asking whether he should now call the Congress Guriya was indeed in bad taste and does not behove a leader of his status. He can and should ignore certain things. Also, if we rub something too hard, it loses its charm and effectiveness. I think repeated assertions by Advani regarding his offer to Manmohan for a public debate are also no longer making good hearing. The matter is over and something fresh is required. We can't keep flogging a dead horse. It won't go.
I think BJP brass has to learn to campaign in a better way. Needless to mention that they also need a pack of younger men and women in their teams. After Pramod mahajan's unfortunate and untimely demise BJP has no good propaganda manager. Sushma Swaraj must realise that she is a spent force. Arun Jaitley is the best and most well meaning second line politician but he needs to become more charismatic. But all that is BJP's problem and I am not a BJP person. Nor I belong to any party. I am just a nationalist an I am dismayed at the malfunctioning of our democracy. Nevertheless, on balance I believe that BJP leading NDA did much better than any Congress government ever but they failed to encash their achievements a they are not good at propaganda that the Congress mastered from the time of its close association with Soviets who were masters at the game. It is amazing that Congress could only produce two good prime ministers viz., Narsimha Rao and Rajiv Gandhi. It is more amazing that Vajpayee did more to realise Rajiv's dreams of IT revolution, expressway network, transparency in administration and government, reduction in red tape etc. than any Congress government did. What an interesting contradiction! But BJP couldn't make good capital of it too. They failed to show the behaviour of Congress and its basic lack of loyalty to anything except power (Kursi) to the public at large.
India may be good or bad but it never fails to surprise!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Misleading Rhetoric.
I saw Sonia Gandhi on the television shouting at the top of her voice denouncing the NDA government for exchange of the three dreaded terrorists for 200 Indian and foreign passengers on board IC 814 in Kandahar and claiming Manmohan Singh government having cleared the Mumbai terrorist attack in a jiffy (बस यूँ!).
It is pathetic to what extent our leaders including the ones of foreign origin can stoop to conquer. It is a national shame that one is trying to equate the two conditions. First of all let us see the score card of UPA. In the recent January encounters in Kashmir, the public was given various figures of the number of terrorists involved. We were told that the area had been surrounded and no one would be able to escape. Then we were told that the circle is being tightened. After several days of fighting we failed to neutralise 10 terrorists, as at the end only 2 dead from their side were found whereas we suffered serious loss of life. Just imagine nine days of fighting by the army of the emerging world power with these shameful results! And the encounter was in forests, not in a city where they could have the excuse of caution to protect the life and limb of the innocent citizens.
And was the operation completed in Mumbai in a jiffy? the commandos took 14 hous to get there. Three days of fighting compared to, for example, the Entebbe rescue by the Israelis? And nobody has as yet answered the inconvenient questions. How could the terrorist come by the sea route. There are numerous agencies such as Coast Guard, Indian Navy, Intelligence Bureau, RAW and undoubtedly many others that would be covert and lesser known. What has been done to punish them for this serious lapse? What has the Government done to investigate the matter and fix the responsibility for such serious lapses. India is so helpless? What do we need such a big navy for? And how will it help if the threat is from terror groups instead of another navy? We have a major naval base there in Mumbai at a stone's throw from the place they are supposed to have entered Mumbai. Could they blow up some of our facilities instead?
The truth is that the armed forces are in a poor state of preparedness, notwithstanding the grandstanding by Sonia and Chidambaram. India is more and more seen as a lame duck target by terror groups. Mammohan Singh has himself admitted to continuing government failure on the terror fight front and he is the man that Sonia Gandhi does not tire of deifying.
What would UPA have done in the case of hijacking of the plane to Kandahar. Everyone knows that Roopan Katyal had been killed and the enemy was not a government. They were irresponsible terrorists who could blow up the plane with 200 passengers without batting an eyelid and without any moral qualms. Would the UPA have sent the air force there? or the commandos in an Entebbe style operation? The plane was surrounded by gun toting Taliban and armoured vehicles. Is the UPA saying that the lives of 200 passengers dispensable? Is Sonia Gandhi saying that the then government should have withdrawn from the negotiations and the exchange and let the people die? I think it was very brave of Jaswant Singh to go there personally as in any case their could be betrayal and he himself could have been killed or held hostage. There was good diplomacy that this did not happen. One must also reflect on the negative role of the section of media that is loyal to congress and was so at that time too.
Nehru created the Kashmir problem. His descendants should not stand on wrong issues and mislead the nation in these difficult and dangerous times. The whole comparison is atrocious and vulgar.
It is pathetic to what extent our leaders including the ones of foreign origin can stoop to conquer. It is a national shame that one is trying to equate the two conditions. First of all let us see the score card of UPA. In the recent January encounters in Kashmir, the public was given various figures of the number of terrorists involved. We were told that the area had been surrounded and no one would be able to escape. Then we were told that the circle is being tightened. After several days of fighting we failed to neutralise 10 terrorists, as at the end only 2 dead from their side were found whereas we suffered serious loss of life. Just imagine nine days of fighting by the army of the emerging world power with these shameful results! And the encounter was in forests, not in a city where they could have the excuse of caution to protect the life and limb of the innocent citizens.
And was the operation completed in Mumbai in a jiffy? the commandos took 14 hous to get there. Three days of fighting compared to, for example, the Entebbe rescue by the Israelis? And nobody has as yet answered the inconvenient questions. How could the terrorist come by the sea route. There are numerous agencies such as Coast Guard, Indian Navy, Intelligence Bureau, RAW and undoubtedly many others that would be covert and lesser known. What has been done to punish them for this serious lapse? What has the Government done to investigate the matter and fix the responsibility for such serious lapses. India is so helpless? What do we need such a big navy for? And how will it help if the threat is from terror groups instead of another navy? We have a major naval base there in Mumbai at a stone's throw from the place they are supposed to have entered Mumbai. Could they blow up some of our facilities instead?
The truth is that the armed forces are in a poor state of preparedness, notwithstanding the grandstanding by Sonia and Chidambaram. India is more and more seen as a lame duck target by terror groups. Mammohan Singh has himself admitted to continuing government failure on the terror fight front and he is the man that Sonia Gandhi does not tire of deifying.
What would UPA have done in the case of hijacking of the plane to Kandahar. Everyone knows that Roopan Katyal had been killed and the enemy was not a government. They were irresponsible terrorists who could blow up the plane with 200 passengers without batting an eyelid and without any moral qualms. Would the UPA have sent the air force there? or the commandos in an Entebbe style operation? The plane was surrounded by gun toting Taliban and armoured vehicles. Is the UPA saying that the lives of 200 passengers dispensable? Is Sonia Gandhi saying that the then government should have withdrawn from the negotiations and the exchange and let the people die? I think it was very brave of Jaswant Singh to go there personally as in any case their could be betrayal and he himself could have been killed or held hostage. There was good diplomacy that this did not happen. One must also reflect on the negative role of the section of media that is loyal to congress and was so at that time too.
Nehru created the Kashmir problem. His descendants should not stand on wrong issues and mislead the nation in these difficult and dangerous times. The whole comparison is atrocious and vulgar.
Who is Congress?
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has lately been in hyper active mode in the political arena. After she was placed on the sidelines in order to allow the Congress Yuvraj to move in, these elections have driven her to public contact again to bolster the flagging fortunes of Congress. Aptly so, as she is far more charismatic than Rahul Gandhi who would stand no chance at all should they ever be on the opposing sides. It is not something impossible. It has happened before in the ruling family of INC. Well known spats between Indira Priyadarshini and her aunt Vijay Lakshmi Pandit, the falling from grace of Maneka, the ongoing war of words launched by Priyanka against Varun are but some samples of what can happen. Nothing is permanent, especially in politics. Besides the utterances of the British foreign Secretary Milliband during his travels in Indian desitutes's homes and the entire circus at discovering by both Rahul and Milliband what everyone with his feet on the Indian soil anyhow knows, nay, grows up knowing, are proof that not only rahul wasted his time with the foreign emissary, he also showed him the soft underbelly of India instead of putting our best foot forward, and failed miserably to influence his anti - India viewpoints. He was so inept that not only he failed in all this, he failed even to restrain Milliband till he left Indian shores. Rahul couldn't muster the courage to even counter Milliband utterances during their travels together. Priyanka decidedly would have done better. interestingly, if India is as it actually is, the rulers must accept the blame for it. Let's not forget that the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has ruled the nation for most of the period after independence, including the rule of Manmohan Sing who is widely understood to be a puppet prime minister with the real strings of power in the hands of Sonia Gandhi. Rahul certainly does not seem to be the material to run the nation. No doubt he may eventually be able to do so what with the number games and rampant horse trading that goes on in Indian Politics. One doesn't have to be popular or elected to Lok Sabha to become a prime minster. One doesn't have to have a mandate in his favour. We have had our share of Charan Singhs, Deve Gowdas et al. Mulayam Singh was once at a hair's breadth from becoming PM through the cunning machinations of the Late Harkishan Singh Surjeet.
These are merely some of the counterpoints that came to my mind while trying to look at what Priyanka is doing. Priyanka's overdrive is without much substance. She recently advised Varun to read Gita. Gita was propounded in the battle field. What does she want him to learn? Various Yogas like Bhakti, Jnana, Sankhya etc.? The sceintific theory of creation proposed by Lord Krishna? The need to destroy the 'adhrma' even if it meant to annihilate the 'adharmis' who could even be the next of kin? I think she has taken some lessons (but none on the underlying philosophy) from it and is out to annihilate Varun politically notwithstanding he is family like Duryodhan was to Yudhishthir. The stark difference however is that this time she is against Dharma and her only Dharma is power to Nehru-Gandhis. Perhaps she needs to also learn the message of love, the permanence of Karma, the true nature of spirit and spirituality from the holy book. But she is a Buddhist according to a recent issue of Outlook. It is not necessary for her to learn it all from Gita. But it is also not necessary for her to preach it to others.
More recently, she retorted Modi's "Congress is an 180 years old woman" by asking if she (Priyanka herself) looks like an old lady. She doesn't! Even when she will look like one she would get the same polite answer if she posed the same question to decent citizens - that she doesn't. But the question it raises is - Is she the Congress?
I am sadly reminded of the arrogance of the dynasty in always believing that they were above the organisation they belonged, and, in fact that they were as big as the nation. It is widely understood that Mr. Nehru felt that he alone could run the country - a very arrogant belief that only he could bask in. We all remember the infamous Congress slogan "Indira is India, India is Indira." This was extreme arrogance for any person of any stature to equate oneself with the Nation. Are we experiencing the same streak of arrogance? Is Priayanka Congress that she asked the question? Or, is the Congress just Priyanka?
These are merely some of the counterpoints that came to my mind while trying to look at what Priyanka is doing. Priyanka's overdrive is without much substance. She recently advised Varun to read Gita. Gita was propounded in the battle field. What does she want him to learn? Various Yogas like Bhakti, Jnana, Sankhya etc.? The sceintific theory of creation proposed by Lord Krishna? The need to destroy the 'adhrma' even if it meant to annihilate the 'adharmis' who could even be the next of kin? I think she has taken some lessons (but none on the underlying philosophy) from it and is out to annihilate Varun politically notwithstanding he is family like Duryodhan was to Yudhishthir. The stark difference however is that this time she is against Dharma and her only Dharma is power to Nehru-Gandhis. Perhaps she needs to also learn the message of love, the permanence of Karma, the true nature of spirit and spirituality from the holy book. But she is a Buddhist according to a recent issue of Outlook. It is not necessary for her to learn it all from Gita. But it is also not necessary for her to preach it to others.
More recently, she retorted Modi's "Congress is an 180 years old woman" by asking if she (Priyanka herself) looks like an old lady. She doesn't! Even when she will look like one she would get the same polite answer if she posed the same question to decent citizens - that she doesn't. But the question it raises is - Is she the Congress?
I am sadly reminded of the arrogance of the dynasty in always believing that they were above the organisation they belonged, and, in fact that they were as big as the nation. It is widely understood that Mr. Nehru felt that he alone could run the country - a very arrogant belief that only he could bask in. We all remember the infamous Congress slogan "Indira is India, India is Indira." This was extreme arrogance for any person of any stature to equate oneself with the Nation. Are we experiencing the same streak of arrogance? Is Priayanka Congress that she asked the question? Or, is the Congress just Priyanka?
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