Let’s shop for a political party.

Since BJP is performing Ghatashraddha, and Nehru-Gandhi clan is against my upbringing. I’m at a lurch, who do I back,particularly at the post dinner conversations in the departmental dinners .
Okay so all those who are disappointed in BJP can help me here and help themselves.
Let’s shop for a political party.
The first hurdle arose— I’ve decided to follow fellow blogger and friend of youthful follies rlakshman’s advice—( his advice was how to buy a laptop) ( he always was a good guy to be around when you contemplate mischief) so let—me—make a list of what I’m looking for. Sitting down to make a list of what I would like in a political party. Since I’m at it, I decided to make the list in earnest. Here is my criteria.
· How active would I like the govt. to be in people’s life? should they take care of basic needs? Should people be responsible for their behavior? Or is it somewhere in between.
· We probably need to make our minds up about issues that are important and not let political parties push their views.
Coming to choosing the parties, I discovered that most parties fell into some “isms” or the other. So the ism could be
ü Capitalism—an economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.
ü Communism—capitalism is viewed as exploitation and oppression that would eventually lead to imperialism and monopoly.
ü Socialism – freedom, equality, production for use and not profit, employment, worker and community control(?) and ecological harmony ---sounds impressive
ü Environmentalism desperately needed in India, can’t find anyone, and am too lazy to float a party.
ü Conservatism – A political philosophy or attitude emphasizing respect for traditional institutions, distrust of government activism, and opposition to sudden change in the established order
ü Libertinism--One who defies established religious precepts; a freethinker.
Let’s look at our available options:
Indian National Congress (INC, led by Party President: Sonia Gandhi)
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, led by Party President: led by Rajnath Singh)
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP, led by Party President:Mayawati)
Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM, led by Party General Secretary:Prakash Karat)
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP, led by Party President:Sharad Pawar)
Communist Party of India (CPI, led by Party General Secretary:AB Bardhan
With so many parties it did make sense to check the manifestos, that’s where I was stumped. nobody had any vision, goal or concrete “to do” plans. the congress manifesto was mudslinging BJP and visaversa, at least the above parties had some stuff that they could pass off as manifestos-but superstar chiranjeevi’s party is a no manifesto party.
Some individuals from academics are slowly foraying into the political arena,trying to tap the hip urban middle class voters. Professional people’s party from Pune, Shiva Khera’s bharatiya rashtravadi Samantha party and jago party are a few. These are definitely trying to do the Lokasatta. They do have interesting manifestos though how practical I don’t know.
One interesting party was Jago party. You can check the details out at www.jago.in
The top 5 points in their policies are as follows:
1. Reservation for none, job for everyone through free English education.
2. Hang terrorists, murderers, rapists & corrupts; Judgments in 3 months.
3. All voters will get Rs 800 p.m. in lieu of subsidies.
4. 24 hrs electricity & comfortable train journey through privatization; less government activities & more private enterprises.5. No Income Tax up to Rs 4 lakh; Reduction in the number and rates of taxes.
Here’s what Shiva Khera has to offer,through his Bharatiya Rashtravadi Samata Party
What we stand for
VISION
:
To bring respect and dignity for every citizen by making India physically, mentally, morally and economically strong.
MISSION
:
Freedom through Education and Justice by eradication of corruption, crime, injustice and poverty and bring equal opportunity for every citizen.
What we stand against
This party is formed to fight against:
Corruption & InjusticePoverty & HungerIlliteracy & UnemploymentTerrorism & Social Crime

With all this no one talks of the things that really concern me. (These could be quirks to others)
ü Environment
ü Health – focus on preventive health, and not drug therapy, prophylactic or otherwise.
ü Import restriction on global garbage like diaper, instant food, etc.
ü Education—not literacy
ü Employment—not creating jobs for the engineers, doctors, and MBA but finding the right people for the jobs we have to offer.,in professions that we need people in.
ü The Indian identity—again goes back to education.
May be I need to shop some more. I need expert help so may be my super shopper sister in law Mona can help. She will be thrilled that I considered shopping at least here. Her grouse against me is I hate shopping.
Still better, I here by resolve to excavate my buried voter’s card, make a personal wish list of what I would want my representative to do, and hand it to the candidate if and when they land at my door step.
Here I rest in peace.

what ails BJP?

BJP are you into Harakiri?
· Raje, proves her royalty by digging heels and resisting what she thinks is not right.
· Arun shourie exhibits his English exposure calling the party Alice in Blunderland and Humpty Dumpty
Just been reading an excerpts’ from a conversation with Prof. Dwijendra Tripathi, of IIM-A
The start point is of course Jaswant Singh being Just-not-wanted, the cause being cited is his insult of Sardar Patel in his book on Jinnah. Fine we’ll give that. What we learnt was Sardar Patel was a Congressman, a man who put Gandhi’s word over the countries interest.( He stepped aside for Nehru to become prime minister at Gandhi’s request)
Question is why does BJP need Sardar Patel? Is it because they need an iconic figure. After all the congress has patented the Gandhi-Nehru brigade. While Savarkar, or Deendayal Upadhyaya or Madhav Golwalkar are interred in the annals of history. Even when referred to they do not whip up that glitz that excites—I’m not talking about inspire here. While Dasharath Nandan Ram could be a myth.
Again why Sardar Patel?—was he not the man who banned RSS post Gandhi assassination. Well Prof.Tripathi says that Sardar would bow to no one’s pressure not even Gandhi let alone Nehru. He did bow down to the public pressure which held the RSS responsible for the assassination.
No matter how much I dislike Bachi karkaria and writing she is right when she says, BJP is like Alice, when asked who are you it can only say ” This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. I - I hardly know, sir I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then."
So where does Sardar Patel gel with BJP. Interestingly what does BJP represent now? May be it is time that they whipped up their manifesto, and built a vision board. If it does gel with our visions the avam will support them no doubt. Its dicey now as we don’t even know what we are supporting. The vision is enticing enough we shall even vote them to power, icons or no icons.

Nothing much ado about.

A monocle, and a suit, to me Jinnah is the visual created by PG Wodehouse as Lord Emsworth. This was then brought to life by snippets narrated by my Nehru-baiting grandmother.
But my actual realization of Jinnah as an individual with romance and family tree came with an article on Jinnah and his Bombay roots in the Illustrated Weekly. That’s when I discovered his Wadia connection too.
Being born a Ismaili Khoja, nurtured in Britain, if he were addressed as Maulana Jinnah he would have found it an absurdity himself. Yet he was not beyond donning the sherwani to demand for Pakistan.
From Mrs. Sarojini Naidu’s chronicles, Jinnah was idealistic and aimed to be a Muslim Gokhale, (it would be educative to my generation and generations after me, to know what gokhale stood for after all we are been flushed down with Nehru-Gandhi)
One thing that struck to me then too, was Jinnah’s view keeping politics and religion separate. That would be great for after religion and sex are personal. Equanimity and equality is just a point of view, of the same base reaction. This would stop all this segregation, and religion based politics and it would also recognize people beyond their religion. People would stop quoting that nonsense where a catholic party president( that’s mrs. Gandhi’s only claim--), steps aside for a Sikh Prime minister who was sworn in by a Muslim President to rule a Hindu majority country. This according to me is the ultimate insult to both Dr.Kalam and Dr.Manmohan singh after they are stalwarts academically. Their religion is an incidental affair.
To quote Jinnah during the moments of partition from Quaid-e-Azam, he had become Quatil-e-Azam.
Coming back to my rambling. I was looking at the title
· Mohandas Karmchand Gandhi was called the Mahatma, he never once protested its use. Which given the image that he built he should have.
· Pundit Nehru, was not a man of religion but a British educated WOG,
· Interestingly Maulanaji was a man of religion. He was a Maulvi.

Jinnah the boogie man

Democracy is freedom after speech.
Taking away the boogie man or the dream is a crime, and crime does not go unpunished. Which is what Mr.Jaswant Singh has done, he has laid to rest the Boogie man Jinnah and exposed the another view of Nehru which is very obvious when you read books of the era, particularly ones dealing with Nehru’s family written by his own family.
These opinions have been expressed by a lot of people of the generation that was involved in the freedom struggle. Of course the people who stayed back with the congress refuse to acknowledge this.
It was never Gandhi Vs Jinnah; it was always Nehru vs. rest of the real leaders.
Its not that Nehru did not have his aura, he was perfect poster boy, a WOG who learnt his Indian heritage at Oxford/Cambridge (this is something I never get right) knew his French and wines. He did not come from an established Royal family that made him aam-aadmi most important both Gandhi and the British were enamored by him.
What is surprising is the congress is keeping quite over this while BJP is the one creating the fuss, is it because Jinnah is Muslim while Nehru was a Hindu?
Mr. Singh it is really brave of you to take on such a risk and let the younger generation know the some aspects the Raj ridden India.
After all judgments’ are made only after hearing both sides. And History is always documented by the winner of war, kyon ki battle to abh bhi baaki hai.