Politics again: Current affairs update!

1. Now Pratibha Patil is our President. She is one of the charged by the court in the case of Co-operative bank that she was running years ago. Charges are that lot of money invested by the poor in this bank was misused or disinvested during the term of few directors appointed by her. Hugh sums of loans were given to close relatives of her that were never recovered. In one of my earlier blog I have opined that she has prior administration capabilities that former President Kalam did not had when he became president, and that would be a positive point for her. While I still maintain the same opinion, I seriously oppose a person with this kind of back ground becoming a president. But it’s over. She is now sitting in the top seat. Again, thanks to our constitutional structure, a president does not possess any prowess that she can do to affect nation’s interest. But the person sitting there typically represents our country. There is still a lot to come as long as we have that party with power at the center that is often known for its politics without ethics.

2. Andhra Pradesh chief minister Rajashekhar Reddy and the opposition party leader Chandrababu Naidu were in the news. The CM had made some controversial statement in the assembly against the TDP leader. The statement can be considered as a cheap talk that one would not expect from a politician and being a CM of a state. There were protests in AP, later the CM has apologized to him and clarified what he meant. This is again some cheap Politics.

3. Rains lashed the Bangalore city last few days making up for the poor start of monsoon. While most of the rivers are running full in the state, Bangalore did not receive good rains in June. But looks like its catching up. Go Bangalore Go!!!

PS: I have been writing excess politics stuff of late, I will have to write some thing else also. But, what to do, these are some of the incidents that make me think where our country is headed.

Pathetic state of BJP in Karnataka

Two years ago, congress government fell in Karnataka and a new opportunist alliance was formed between JD(S) and BJP. Same old formula, JD(S) will get to rule the first half and BJP the second half. This was a desperate attempt by BJP to get a piece of ruling in Karnataka. BJP has so much experience in this kind of issues in Uttar Pradesh earlier. They gotten in to agreement with BSP, and when it was their turn, the alliance collapsed for obvious reasons of crooked politics. I am not supporting BJP here, for they should have expected this situation earlier. Time and again it happened in Karnataka, and when their time is approaching for their share of power, already lot of chaos is building up.

Last week there were several political incidents that clearly alarmed the future. Dissidents in BJP against its candidate for the highest post, constant expressing of disagreements for this change-over by JD(S) members and high level political movements by the father of the current chief minister.

I am sorry for the BJP’s situation. For they, will have to just sit and watch how all of this is going to turn out. BJP does not have a strong leader who is either popular to masses or favorable among its own party. Unlike at the center level where BJP’s strength is its most talented, charismatic and knowledgeable leaders, Karnataka BJP has numerous problems like internal fighting. BJP lacks administrative capabilities too, as none of the leaders have any experience in governance. That is not a great hindrance after all because Vajpayee himself did not hold any ministerial post in long time before he became prime minister.

As the days goes by things are going wrong in every aspect for BJP in Karnataka. Two things might happen. JD(S) might continue to rule with the support of some dissident BJP MLA’s or due to lack of majority to any group, assembly might get dissolved, calling early elections. In either case one thing is for sure: BJP can not ask the voters to elect them in the next election because they neither did anything to the people nor they were disciplined and united.

Presidential elections

It’s not every time the country wants to elect a new president that such mess takes place. You probably have to blame these numerous news channels that mushroomed in recent years for making this a big issue. But that is a different topic. There were several smooth presidential elections in the history. While we skip the importance of a president and his role to the nation, let’s see what is happening today. All of you know that Mr. Kalam did not wanted a second term, candidate of UPA (Congress mainly), BJP stand etc. What is crucial here is not who is going to win, but the opinion of the common people. Several websites have published that most of the Indian citizens support Kalam for second term. People want qualified, knowledgeable person as president.
How many of you have heard or known Pratibha Patil before this? If you want to know her, she too is not that bad wrt the qualification and knowledge. Kalam was popular with his high posts he held, prior to becoming a president, Pratibha Patil is no less. I think she has an edge over Kalam (if he were running for the first time) because she is governor of a state. So, what makes the difference? It’s the political nexus. She is a politician and Kalam is not. Common man in India has developed so much aversion to politicians that they don’t want to see them in any higher posts where ever possible.
Remember the drama when Manmohan Singh became prime minister? A sigh of relief for everyone because they didn't wanted to see some hard core politician in that seat. Inspite of his several years of political association he is still remembered as governer of RBI and and as a fine economist. The truth is: honest, corruption less, educated people are choices for everyone. But politics has its own criteria.

How Politics work

It was news time on the Kannada channel when I turned on TV this morning. The gorgeous news reader read that a farmer has committed suicide because of debts.
This was third or fourth such incident in the past three days. I could not believe the chief minister was not really doing anything about this. Contrary to my belief, in the same news broadcast she read that he held an open house with all the farmers and listened to their woes. There were other ministers and even the opposition party leaders too. I really appreciated this for a moment. But there was more in the news. It was held in Bangalore. What a choice for the location! How can farmers travel all the way to the capital just to tell the issues to the government? Still there was a large farmer turnout, and several were denied entry to the ‘open house’ (not an open house any more). Most of these so called leaders who wanted to listen to the woes if not ‘solve’ the problems of them were found taking good naps. All in front of camera! Honorable chief minister too was found taking a bold nap for he kept his palms to support his sagging head.
Expectations would be different. But what any one wishes their government to be doing in these kind of situations? The moment a genuine case of suicide (if at all) of a farmer due to debts comes to light, rush to that village. Take a stock of the situation. What actually was the problem? Was it a crop failure? Is there a drought condition or crops failed for different reasons? Is it a one-off case or most of the farmers are facing similar situation? If drought, why district administration failed to alarm the situation? What are the next steps that can be taken to solve the problems of others in the neighborhood? Etc
This would go a long way in rebuilding the confidence among several hundreds of farmers across the state. At least they will be assured of that this government is caring for them.
Chief minister himself cant do this all the time. Agreed. What about the various officials in the heirarchy? Agriculture minister, ministry officials so on.
Get the reports. Brain storm with experts, assess drought conditions if any, get hints from previous such instances and evolve a strategy for the current situation. The strategy can be immediately distributed to all over the state where like conditions exist. District administrative authorities can use a customized strategy suitable for their province. Think of short solutions to avoid/minimize the imminent damage, and thrive for a long term plan to mitigate these kinds of situations in future. We all know that there are lots of parameters to consider that would act opposite to each other, and there may not be a single solution for this. It’s not about solving the problem but committment towards it. OK, now lets see why you dont see these things happening.
This approach would not work, because of several reasons:
By visiting the farmer’s place you are accepting the responsibility. You are accepting that you ‘created’ this situation.
Suppose even after giving the assurance, and implementing a plan for them, if you fail, you may not recover from that political impact at all.
Mostly you may not be able to come to a strategy because your goverment is not stable and you are a dummy head.
So, by politics, the best approach for this situation is to just listen to farmers, listen to media and assure of actions (don’t even do anything immediately). Follow the popular note: Everyone forgets over the time!