The Great "PARTY" Time
It
is that time of the year(s) when Politics is literally in the air. You can feel
it, you can breathe it & you can touch it. It is everywhere. Right from the
daily newspaper to the news channels, from talks to walks, from youngsters to
senior citizens. Everybody just talks politics. Mobile company’s launch
applications revolving around politics- be it games or applications’ keeping you
up to date about the present political scenario.
While
all the people are busy chitchatting over who will come to power this time, I
am wondering how does everybody know so much about politics. I am surprised
that my ghar-ki-kaamwaali so easily
talks about Modi-Sarkar & RaGa.
I
was never fond of politics. Rather I would prefer saying, I was far far away
from politics. Who is who, who is who’s son, which political party has what
ideology & which leader is involved in which scam- I had absolutely no
idea.
Until this year. This year, when it was my First Time to cast my Valuable Vote.
Please do not think of me as a boisterous person when I say my “Valuable” Vote.
Because I believe, everybody’s vote is very much valuable. Be it anybody’s.
Though in such National level Elections, nobody loses by a fraction of a vote,
like say a five or a ten votes. However still, every single person’s vote is
equally important. Even if the result is predictable, & you support the
other party, your vote still will not go waste if that party does not come into
power.
So, I was wondering about how everybody knows so much about politics, &
feeling that I know nothing. However, as I ponder a bit more over it, I realize
I am not that big a fool, neither do I know nothing. I surely know a lot.
Total Registered Parties
|
1616
|
National Parties
|
6
|
State Parties
|
47
|
Unrecognized Parties
|
1563
|
I
would not really expand the details of all of the parties. That would take up a
lot of time & many pages.
So,
let me directly hop to the Main Contesting Parties this year.
1) THE INDIAN
NATIONAL CONGRESS
2) THE
BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY
3) THE AAM
AADMI PARTY
(DISCLAIMER:
Not mentioning the names of any of the other parties, or mentioning the names
of only these three parties, is not intended in any way, to harm anybody’s
sentiments, nor to reflect any political ideology. Nor is this list presented
by me for any other reason which may or will or might or shall herein after
arise, for any person, dead or living, neither is it intended for any other
planned or biased purpose. The mentions & the article which herein above
& further appears, is a thought process of the writer, & no second
meaning need to be concluded from the same)
OK,
so having made myself clear now let me proceed further. The only reason for the
above disclaimer was, these days; people’s feelings get hurt over iny-miny
things. Like, one person did an “ouch” instead of an “arreeree... “ & their
religious sentiments get hurt. Better to be safe than….
So,
back to the Politics. The main
parties for this time’s elections are three. The Indian National Congress (INC
or Congress), The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) & the new bee, The Aam Aadmi
Party (AAP).
Let
me present here, a short briefing about all the three parties:
1) THE INDIAN
NATIONAL CONGRESS:
It is the
largest & the oldest democratically operating poltical party in the world.
After independence in 1947, it became the nation’s dominant political party. In
the 15 general elections since 1947, the Congress has won an outright majority
on six occasions, & has led the ruling coalition further four times,
heading the central government for a total of 49 years of the 67 years since
independence.
Ideology
& Policies:
Social policy
of INC is based on the Gandhian principle of Sarvodaya. In particular, INC
emphasizes upon the principles to improve the lives of the economically underprivileged & socially underprivileged sections of the society. It has
adopted economically liberal policies & free market policies.
Controversies during its rule:
State of Emergency
Anti-Sikh
Riots
Corruption
Scandal
Bofors Scam
2G Spectrum
Scam
Coal Block
allocation Scam.
Party
Details:
Chairperson:
Sonia Gandhi
Founded: 28th
December 1885
Election
Symbol:
2) THE
BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY:
Established in 1980, it Is India Gujarat , whose chief minister Narendra Modi is the NDA’s
prime-ministerial candidate in the upcoming 2014 general election.
Ideology:
The economic
policy of the BJP has changed considerably since its founding in 1980, &
there remains a significant range of economic ideologies within the party. It
supported Swadeshi, & a protectionist export policy. However, the government
under Narendra Modi, which has been in power since 2002, has pursued a strongly
neo-liberal agenda, presenting a drive towards development. Its policies have
included extensive privatization of infrastructure & services.
The BJP
defines its ideology as based on “integral humanism” & its constitution states that the party is committed to “nationalism & national integration,
democracy, Gandhian Socialism, Positive Secularism & value based politics.”
Controversies during its rule:
The rise of
Hindutva movement- Ram Janmabhoomi movement
Kargil Scam
2002 Gujarat Violence
Bakho Scam
Centurian
Scam
Party
Details:
Chairperson: Rajnath Singh
Founded:
December 1980
Election
Symbol:
3) THE AAM
AADMI PARTY:
Aam Aadmi
Party is an Indian political party, formally launched on 26 November 2012. it
came into existence following the differences between the activists Arvind
Kejriwal & Anna Hazare regarding whether or not to politicize the popular
India Against Corruption movement that had been demanding a Jan Lokpal Bill since 2011.
Ideology:
The AAP says
that the promise of equality & justice that forms a part of the
constitution of India India
Agenda:
Jan LOkapal
Legislation
Right to
Reject
Right to
Recall
Polticial
Decentralization
Controverises:
Protests:
Urged Delhi
Delshi
Assembley election 2013- sting operation
Fall of the Delhi
Party Details:
Leader: Arvind Kejriwal
Founded: 26
November 2012
Election Symbol:
Election Symbol:
Now
that it is very clear as to the ideologies, the controversies, & other
material details of all the three parties, there is a huge chaos in my mind. I
am more confused than ever. There is total disturbance in my mind,
& my brain is shouting out, “Whom will you vote?”
A
million dollar question. A billion dollar answer.
Let
us consider the question at length.
The Indian National Congress
Congress
has been in rule since a long time. A very very long time I would say. Since I
started understanding a bit of politics, I have seen only Congress in power.
However, these days, everywhere I go, people are saying just one thing, “No
Congress this time. They didn’t do anything in these last years.” Listening to
that I am forced to think if they really did not do anything in the last few
years when they were in power? Of course they must have done something!
It’s
been 67 years since independence & look where India stands today.
We
have progressed in means of Infrastructure,
Connectivity, Foreign Relations, Economic Policies, Health, Life Expectancy,
and Education. Not only this, it is the Congress that has stood by the
embedded provisions of our Constitution which promises equality to all religions & provides freedom to adopt &
practice any religion. It is the Congress that launched massive anti-poverty & rural upliftment programs,
going upto the very roots of the Indian villages by introducing various plans
& policies- Gramin rojgar yojna,
to name one.
It
is in the rule of Congress that 33%
reservation for women in Lok Sabha, was introduced & the Right
to Information Act was passed. The stringent
rape-laws, the death penalty for rapists has been introduced in the
Congress rule.
In
the rule of the Congress, India
It
has always looked after the empowerment
of the women & equal opportunities to the minorities.
Then
why not Congress again?
Maybe
because people have seen Congress getting involved in a lot of scandals as
well. Offences, which the common people could not ignore.
The
Satyam case: This cannot be forgotten by any person. the scam in Satyam Computer Services is the biggest scam in the corporate world. it is upto the tune of Rs.14000 crore.
2G Spectrum: Congress was also involved in the 2G spectrum scam which involved ministers & officials illegally undercharging mobile telephone companies for frequency allocation licenses. according to the C&AG the loss was 1.76 lakh crores. A very huge sum indeed!
IPL: Even cricket was not left unturned by
the ghotaalas, when the gentle man’s game, turned into a betting man’s game. The extent of money laundering makes us wonder how
much of pre-planning was involved in the same!
The MHADA Flats scam is another story. The Congress Government in Maharashtra constructed posh flats in Mumbai using public
money & gave away the same flats to its memebers, breaking N number of
rules.
The Adarsh Scam: Housing, which was
originally meant to be only 6-storey building to house Kargil heroes & widows, got converted into a 31-storey building & the fats were allotted to
top bureaucrats & top officers. The main
contender being Mr. Ashok Chavan- A Congress man.
The
Coal Mines Scam- It is popularly known as the
Coalgate Scam- in which coal blocks upto reserves of Rs.21.69 billion tons was
given away free to private companies & middlemen.
After so many of frauds, & cheating the common man, obviously nobody would want a repeat telecast of the same.
After so many of frauds, & cheating the common man,
obviously nobody would want a repeat telecast of the same.
It reminds me of a dialogue by Salman Khan, “Aam Addmi sota hua sher hai, ungli mat
karma, jag gaya
Maybe that is what happened here. The Congress tried the wits
of people to every possible extent. & now that the common man has woken up,
he definitely is not in his slumber now to bring the same party to power again.
The Bhartiya Janta Party
What
to say about them? They have not been in power in the last 10 years, so a
proper comparison cannot be drawn here. I mean, c’mon, you cannot compare 10
years (in the recent) with a 5 years one!
We
can however, compare Gujarat here. As we all
have seen, Gujarat has tremendously progressed
in the last few years. From being a mediocre city, it has now gone up to being
counted as one of the best cities & a great tourist attraction. The growth
of the city has been tremendous & laudable. Its has tremendously progressed in certain fields such as the Infrastructure, Industry, & Power. The state's economy has boosted a way lot in the recent years under the leadership of Mr.Narendra Modi.
Also,
the Gujarat model is what every living person looks up to- every person who has
seen the reformation, at present, innocently believes that just like the state
tremendously developed, so will their country.
However,
why has the BJP never come to power in the last two elections? Probably because
it was involved in many frauds too. Maybe because then, people had again woken
up from their slumber & decided to change the constituency. To change who rules
them. Maybe it was the scam or the ideologies.
Let us go by the same view here & say Let bygones be
bygones.
What about the other scams it was involved in? (We will have
to compare older scams here as compared to recent ones of Congress, as the
party hasn’t been in rule for long.)
Kargil Coffin
Scam: The Kargil war took place in 1999 between India
& Pakistan , there were
allegations of corruption in the purchase of coffins by the then BJP led
government of India India
BALCO SCAM: –Complete erosion of
public money in the name of “disinvestment”. The aluminum giant where missiles
such as “agni” & “prithvi” were shaped & sold off to Sterlite company
for a measelt sum of Rs.551 crore at a time when the assets alone were worth
Rs.5000-6000 crore.
Tehelka
Scam: The Tehelka.com, a website that showed BJP’s then
president Bangaru Laxman taking bundles of cash as bribe.
Centaur Hotel Scam: – In June 2002, the
288-room Centaur Hotel near Mumbai’s domestic airport was sold by the Hotel
Corporation on India to Batra Hospitality for Rs.83 crore & within four
months, Batra Hospitality sold off the same to the Sahara Group for Rs.115
crore, raking in 35% profit. This leads to the inescapable conclusion that the building process of the hotel was preceded in favor of AL Batra, an industrialist
having close ties with the RSS.
Belekeri port scam: This relates to
3.5 million tones of confiscated iron ore that was exported illegally
from Belekeri port near Karwar in Karnataka. After persistent protests &
public pressure, Karnataka CM Yedyurappa admitted to an illegal iron-ore export
racket at Belekeri port involving 35 lakh metric tones of iron ore. It is said
that the scam was worth an estimated 60000 core rupees.
UTI SCAM: The Unit Trust of India, lost its money putting investors to the verge of losing their money. Though the funds was managed well in UTI-64, scam hit during NDA regime which created the loss. The US-64 scheme had 2 crore investors, most of whom were small savers, retired people, widows and pensioners. In 1998, the UTI crashed, and the BJP-led NDA government scrambled to organize Rs. 3,500 crore bail-outs to UTI. The capital of UTI fell by 33% from 75,000 crores to 50,000 crores, making this a 25,000 crores scam.
Also,
the Pukhan Commission scam & 2G scam
of which certain BJP leaders were a part of as well. (no elaboration needed. For
the details, refer above)
So,
has everybody forgotten that BJP when in power had been acting in a similar
manner as well? & even then everybody wants BJP to come to power?
The last contender: Aam Aadmi Party
All
I would say here is- a lot of hope & expectations, always leads to disappointment.
The
ideology of AAP (as assumed, as it does not have a fix ideology) is about
making India Corruption free. The party is a really strong contender, as it
includes the highest of the educated people as its candidates. However, when
the party head was given Power to prove himself, he did not live upto the mark
& resigned (consciously not used the word-fled away) form the post of the
CM.
Besides, it
has not been a completely clean chit performance too, as some of its officials
were seen/ exposed taking bribes. In
Novemeber 2013, in a sting operation several AAP leaders, including Kumar
Vishwas & Shazia Ilmi had agreed to extend their support to some people
seeking assisatence with land deals &other financial arrangements in return
for donations in cash to AAP,
So,
can we really keep faith on a party led by a person who resigned from power,
instead of living upto it & bringing in the change that he talked about?
All
this leads to more chaos. Doesn’t it?
Who
is the right candidate & who is the right party.
All
I would say here is think logically. There is a party who has strong ideology;
there is a party who has progressive philosophies’. There is a party who is
educated.
There is a party who has been involved in blunders. There is a party
who promises to have no fidelities.
There
is a party who was in power for a long. There is a party who wants to come into
power since long.
There is a party who made progress. There is a party who made
progress. (People, who understand politics, will understand the pun here).
Whomever you choose, choose wisely.
Do
not get carried away by the party advertisements or the high assurances. Do not
think illogically that just a party coming to power will erase all the problems
that our country faces.
Keep
in mind that it is not just the powerful that do corruption. It is the
ordinary, who let them do the corruption.
It
is not only the powerful that commit crimes, it is the commoners too, who have
inner demons that make them commit heinous offences.
It
is not only the parties who get involved in huge scams, the commoners too
initiate scams at times, which lead to huge ghotaalas
later.
When
we include the Scams that take place during a party’s tenure, shouldn't we also
include the developments/ changes that happened during their being in power?
Think
to yourself; think what your ideologies are. Think if you are happy or do you
want a change. & if you want that change, then think in what direction do you
want that change.
&
only when you have a definite answer to all these questions, you will know
where to place your finger.
So,
all in all, it is all in the hands of the commoners to Make India or Break India
JAI HIND!
(Source
for Technical/ Material/ Informative Details of the Parties: (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki )
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