Celebrating Independence Day

 

LET US REMEMBER HOW IT ALL STARTED

 

This year the celebrated of Indian’s Independence Day on 15th of August will not be the most pleasant celebration.  We are living in difficult times.  The Manipur situation had made international headlines and even the Europeans Parliament has expressed their concern about it.  I will not be exaggerating is I say that Manipur is being used as a laboratory for implementing Hindutva Rashtra by launching violence against the minority.  Since the Muslim population in Manipur is insignificant the Christians become the soft target.    We Are in such a situation in our country that we need to bring to our mind the history of independence. The history of independence is probably most aptly narrated as the history of India’s struggle for independence. What we look for in our society what we can pass on to a younger generation about a country is this story namely the struggle for independence. The narration of the history of the struggle for independence contains in it the vision for India, the kind of nation that the founding fathers of our nation wanted to build.  We have already completed 75 years of our independence. Looking back to it, we will discover that here are many things that we will be proud of and there are many more things that we have to be aware of and protect ourselves from.

 

The history of India’s struggle for independence was also the struggle between different ideologies and different visions for the nation. There was a major struggle between theory called two nations theory, and there was another theory called one nation theory. The Two Nation theory was propagated by the Muslim league under the leadership of Mohammed Jinnah and the Hindutva people, represented by Mr. Golwalkar.  Both these conflicting movements proposed that India should be based on the religious ideas, Islamic State and Hindu nation. This theory is entailed in the idea that religion should be defining characteristic of the nation. Mohammed Jinnah propose that the religion of the state should be Islam and it is on this ground that he demanded the formation of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The Hindutva propagators wanted India to be a Hindu nation.  According to the propagators of Hindutva nation, India belongs to the Hindu people.

 

There was a third idea of India propagated by Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, Nehru, Subhash Candra Bose, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and many other great leaders and members of the Indian National Congress freedom movement. These leaders believed that India should be a a secular country, democratic and socialist state.  State should be independent of any religion. Neither religion should interfere in the state affairs nor the state should give direction to the practice of religion by the people.

 

 There has been a history of struggle (communal conflicts) between the Hindus and Muslims.  This was propagated and promoted by the colonial rulers.  It was the policy of the British Raj to divide and rule. This attitude of the British saw India not from the point of view of the welfare of the people, citizens of India, but the benefit the Britishers can gain from India. The peace, harmony and well-being of the people of India was not the concerns of the colonizers.

 

Mahatma Gandhi ji, Vallabhbhai Patel, Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad mobilized people to fight against the divisive forces of communalism.  Gandhi ji and the founding fathers had understood that if we have to succeed in gaining independence and build a prosperous and peaceful nation, communalism would be the greatest evil that would make the job impossible. Apart from the two major religious groups India also had many religious groups.  Buddhist had been there from 300 BC.  Christians have been there from year 50 AD, the Sikh, Jain, and even Jews have been there for centuries.  The Adivasis have their own religion.  India comprises of people belonging to different cultures and religions.

 

Keeping in mind the diversities in the Indian people the founding fathers fought for India as a secular state. Keeping religion and state apart from each other Mahatma Gandhi ji was Hindu. He was deeply religious Hindu.

 

Four personalities on the horizon of freedom struggle:

 

Mohammad Jinnah. Mahatma Gandhi, V. D. Savarkar/ Golwalkar and M. N. Roy represented different visions and ideologies and wanted India according to their visions.

 

1.     Mohammed Jinnah came to India in 1906. He had finished his degree as barrister and returned to India. He was hard core secular, liberal nationalist, follower of Dadabhai Naoroji, who was a co-founder and president of the Indian National congress (1886-1887; 1893-1894 and 1906-1907. He was also a member of the second Communist International). Initially as a staunch secular person, he was a strong opponent of the Muslim league.  But gradually he began to change towards Muslim communal person. When there was a demand for separate electorate for the Muslims, he did not support the move.  But as time passed as the demand for the separate electorate gathered momentum, he began to support this move. In 1924 he fully supported it. He became so convinced that the rights of the Muslims could be violated by the majority Hindus that he demanded for the separate electorate for the Muslims. He had noticed the rise of Hindu Maha Sabha and demand for Hindu nation. He began to believe that the Muslim community will not be safe in India with the majorities Hindus. He had stated that in the majority Hindu state the Muslims will not enjoy any rights and hands he propounded his two-nation theory and was for separate statehood for the Muslims, the Islamic State of Pakistan. When we talk about the theory of two-nation which was propagated by Mohammed Jinnah. He claimed that the independent India would contain in itself two states based on religion, Muslim state or Islamic State of Pakistan and Hindutva state of India.

 

By the way there was also an element of the ambition of Jinnah to become a Prime Minister of India and going by the climate, Gandhiji did not support this idea.  Instead, he wanted Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, given his strong secular credentials and clarity of vision.  

 

2.     V.D. Savarkar and Mr. Golwalkar: In the light of the Islamic communalism the Hindu communal leaders advanced their communal agenda.  Madan Mohan Malviya along with others founded the Hindu Maha Sabha.  While initially it was a liberal communal movement it had gradually taken a turn into a fascist force under V. D. Savarkar. He was of the opinion that Hindus would become humiliated and dominated by the Muslims.  They believed that their principal enemies were the Muslims and only then came second d the British Colonial rule. Mr. Golwalkar the main ideologue of Hindutva codified the RSS doctrine.  In 1939 declared “we have allowed ourselves to be duped into believing our old and bitter enemies and foes (the Muslims and other minorities) to be our friends.  He demanded that the minorities must adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of glorification of Hindu race and culture. They must live fully subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment, not even citizens’ right.  Mr. Golwalkar propagated the idea of Unitary form of the state, where all governing power resides in a centralized government.  One nation, one party, one language, one religion.

 

In this context, there was clear support for the apprehension of Mohammed Jinnah.

While Mohamed Jinnah demanded separate state for the Muslims, Islamic State of Pakistan, the proponents of the Hindutva demanded that India should be a Hindutva state, leaving second class citizen ship to the man or T, Muslims and Christians. The proponents of the Hindutva ideology demanded to implement two nation theory, the nation state of Hindutva, as against the Islamic State of Pakistan.

 

3.     The socialist group led by M.N. Roy: There was another group of people under the leadership of MN Roy, who won the India to follow the socialist path of development. M.N. Roy was the member of the third international of the Communist. He had known Lenin and was educated, socialist idea and a Bolshevik leadership in Russia, their idea was opposed capitalism.  They wanted to socialize the means of production and equitable distribution of wealth among all the citizens. The moment for the socialist form of society would be led by the working class in alliance with the peasants. Communist movement was totally opposed to the role for religion in the formation and functioning of the state

 

4.     The fourth group was the leaders of the Indian national congress. The main leaders of this party were Mahatma Gandhi ji, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Muhammad Abdul Kalam, Subhas Chandra Bose:  Mahatma Gandhiji advocated the path of nonviolence satyagraha through which India should gain independence from the British rule, Indian national congress Was united in their resolve to drive out the colonial British rule from India.  Along with the anti-colonial world view, an ideological element constituted the broad socio-economic-political vision of the Indian National Movement. It was capitalist (bourgeois) independent economic development and a secular republican, democratic, civil libertarian political order, both the economic and political order based on principles of social equality.  The national movement was fully committed to Parliamentary democracy, representative form of government on the basis of popular elections, civil liberty and freedom of association respecting even the assemblies of people who want to discuss revolutionary projects. Civil liberty consisting of non-violence.

 

 

 

At the beginning all these different factions Mohammad Jinnah’s Muslim League, Hindu Maha Sabha, the Communist party were part of the congress party.  The communist party did not question the major tenets of the National movement.  The Communists did not believe in Gandhi’s Concept of Swaraj and the capitalist character of economic order. They wanted to have a socialist state led by the working class and the peasants. The Congress party did not treat the Communist party on par with the Hindu Maha Sabha and the Hindutva.  Nehru believed that the greatest danger to the country was not from the communists but the people from Hindutva group.  Nehru had the dream of building socialist, democratic and secular country.

 

The Communist party was a secular party. The Communist party wanted to abolish capitalism and establish socialism. The idea of socialization of wealth was staunchly opposed by the capitalist members of the Congress party.  The congress party believed that the path for the development of India should not be the communist path of development.  While Mahatma Gandhi ji believed development should start from the rural Gramin Swaraj. Nehru believed that industrialization is the only path that will help India to develop and abolish massive poverty that was found in almost all parts of the country.  Nehru was very much influenced by the socialist ideas of the Soviet Union. He had visited Soviet Union under Stalin and was interested to introduce socialist path of development in India.  He wanted to adopt the ‘five years plans’ for achieving the development. While believing in socialist path of development Nehru believed that the capitalist class which has emerged as a strong force in India was very much essential for the growth and development of the country. Nehru proposed a mixed economy, Private sector and Public sector.  Mixed economy means while there will be the capitalist class running their private capital. There will also be a strong role for the state which run the public sector. He had demarcated the areas where the private sector should not enter into the public sector economy. He also believed that the public sector should create foundation for the growth of private sector industry. He believed that infrastructure, roads, railways, minerals and natural resources should be in the hands of the state.

 

 

The Consensus:  When India gained independence the British handed over the power to the representatives of the people of India.  It was the achievement of the Indian National movement.  “It was the one of the best example of the creation of extremely wide movement with a common aim in which diverse political and ideological currents could co-exist and work and simultaneously continue to content for overall ideological and political hegemony.  While intense debate on all basic issues was allowed, the diversity and tension did not weaken the cohesion and striking power of the movement. On the contrary, this diversity and atmosphere of freedom and debate became a major source of its strength.”(Bhipan Chandra and his team)

 

The consensus under which India stands united was built in the constitution of India.  Every citizen, every political leader, judiciary, members of bureaucracy, military will adhere to and protect this constitution.  The parliament is guided by and is protector of the constitution.  I think the weakness of our society is that the tenets of the constitution have not sufficiently percolator down to the last citizen of the country.  This is a task of all education institutions and actors in the name of the state.

 

Difficult Times

 

 

The Present situation in India:

                 

I hear from all around people saying, we are living in difficult times.  There is a spectrum of fear among many people.

The sings of the difficult times.[1] 

 

ONE: “Tod phod ki Sarkar”:  Elections being undermined: People may elect any party with majority seats but it is BJP that will form the government.

 

In 2008 BJP did not get clear majority in the state assembly.  To make good Yeddyurappa got the legislators from other parties who resigned from their respective parties and through byelections got elected under BJP banner to consolidate his majority in the assembly.  This was the beginning of what is called “Operation Lotus”.

 

In Goa Congress was the largest party elected to the assembly.  But BJP brought the legislators from the Congress Party and formed the Government.

 

In Manipur too BJP followed the similar tactics formed the government.

 

The present government in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are again the governments with stolen mandate. 

 

In Karnataka the congress party in alliance with JDS formed a government with clear majority and Mr. Kumaraswamy became the chief minister.  But soon after the BJP managed to get several legislators from the Congress party and Janata Dal Secular party and brought down the government elected by the people and installed the present BJP government.

 

In Madhya Pradesh BJP managed to make Jyotiraditya Scindia to cross over from the congress party to BJP.  He came out with thirty legislators and brought down Kamal Nath’s government and put in place BJP government with discredited Mama, Shivraj Singh Chouhan as the chief minister.

 

There were some feeble attempts made by the BJP to sponsor the discontent of Sachin Pilot’s revolt to bring down the Rajasthan government.  But Ashok Gehlot’s political skill and Farooque Abdullah’s advise to Pilot this did not happen.

 

 

In Maharashtra BJP and Shiv Sena was in alliance in the state election.  BJP had promised that Uddhav Thakare would be made the chief Minister.  But after the results were out BJP refused to make a Shiv Sena person (Uddhav Thakar) the chief minister.  Uddhav Thakare, then aligned with the Nationalist Congress Party and Indian National congress and formed the government. Uddhav Thakare was made the chief minister.

 

BJP spit the Shivsena party with the help of Eknath Shinde and brought down the Maharastra Vikas Aghadi government.  Eknath Shinde was given the chief ministership and Devendra Fadnavis was made a deputy chief minister. 

 

 

Today this government is under the threat of Supreme Court’s possible judgement declaring the Shinde’s vote of confidence null and void.  If this happens then Eknath Shinde’s government could come crashing down.  Eknath Shinde not only broke Shiva sena party he also went against the anti-defection law.  The anti  defection law that mandates trust vote cannot be taken with the disqualified legislators and no government can be formed with the disqualified legislator.

 

In the three big states, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra BJP did not form the government by winning elections.. Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are the only two governments wherethe BJP had clear mandate and formed the governments.

 

In the rest of India Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Orissa, Bhihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh there are non-BJP governments.

 

TWO: The spectrum of Hindutva is looming large. 

 

There is a talk of amending the constitution to bring in line with One religion, one government.  The government wants to decide what its citizens should eat and wear.  Education is also attacked in the name of Hindutwa.  There are sections of the syllabus are removed from the school and college text books.

 

Minorities are targeted:

 

Since BJP has come to power directly or indirectly the minorities such as Muslim and Christians are persecuted.  The cow vigilantes have attacked number of people with the suspicion of either carrying or possessing beef.  Just because they are Muslims without making any enquiry, they are attacked and killed.  In many cases they did not possess beef.

 

A dairy farmers had bought dairy animals and was transporting these to their homes.  They were intercepted, attacked and killed.

 

Many places of worship of the Christians were vandalized and desecrated in many parts of the country.  In the name of ‘Ghar vapasi’ huge number of Dalit and Adivasi Christians were attacked and forcefully converted to Hindu religion.

 

 

 

An attempt to eliminate the opposition:

 

Earlier Narendra Modi gave a slogan, “Congress Mukt Bharat”. This was quite a mighty slogan.  The implication of the slogan goes long and deep.  India won freedom from the British under the leadership of Congress Party.  Congress initiated the process of formed a constituent assembly by bringing together all sections of the people of India to draft the constitution of India.  It is Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar’s leadership the draft document of the constitution was present in the constituent assembly.  In the freedom struggle and in the constitution of Indian state the Hindu fundamentalists (Hindutwas proponents) did not figure.  Rashtriya Swayam Seveks (RSS) and their leaders  (Golwalkar, Heggadegar, Shama Prasad Mukhergi) did not agree with the secular nature of the state and they opposed it vehemently.  Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in the process as he was seen as soft on the Muslims.

 

When Modi gives a call for “Congress mukht Bharat” he would like to eliminate not only the congress party but also the entire history of freedom struggle and the formation of democratic, secular and socialist state of India.

 

Now from “Congress Mukt Bharat” Modi is moving towards “Opposition Mukt Bharat”.  This is clearly visible from the way Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation is chasing after the members of the opposition parties.  Manish Sisodia, Satyendra Jain of the APP are in jail over the excise policy.  They are languishing in jail.  They tried to target Sanjay Raut of Shiv sena. But finally they had to release him for lack of evidence of any wrong doing.  They have targeting Tejaswi Yadav of RJD party and deputy chief minister of Bihar.  They even tried to get Sharad Pawar of NCP.  Mr. D.K. Shivkumar, the president of Karnataka Pradesh president, had to experience the torture of ED for several years.

 

But on the contrary the politicians of the BJP are not the target of the ED or CBI.  In Karnataka one minister and his son was found with huge amount of bribe money. No enquiry was made.  Mr. Eshwarappa of the BJP was accused of 40% commission on the government work given to the contractors.  This issue came out after one contractor committed suicide citing Eshwarappa’s demand for 40% commission to be the cause of his extreme step.

 

But if the tented politicians join BJP then all their cases would be swashed.   Suvendu Adhikari, Mamata Bannerji’s right hand person, while in the Trinamool party was accused of corruption. But moment he joined BJP his charges were dismissed.  BJP was hoping to win West Bengal with his help.  He defeated Mamata with a margin of one digit number votes but BJP could not shake the Trinamool Congress from the power in West Bengal.  Mukul Roy is another person who has been under the scanner of CBI and ED.  He joined BJP.  After Mamata won the election he returned to Trinamool Congress.  But he takes turns to be in BJP and in Trinamool party.

 

BJP tried to catch Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi under the National Herald case.  After repeated attempts neither ED nor CBI were to find any wrong doing.

 

Finally, Modi and BJP has succeeded in getting at Rahul Gandhi.   After his massively successful Bharat Jodi Yatra during which he gave innumerable press conferences.  During the Yatra, he raised the people’s issues like unemployment, price rise, social inequality favouring Gowtham Adani and his favours to him.  Rahul had become a source of anxiety to Modi’s government.  They tried to disrupt the Yatra by compromising the security arrangements.  When he reached Kashmir the security for the Yatra had almost disappeared.  Only when the congress party raised this issue that the security was restored.  “His Yatra has been getting next to no attention on electronic media, which are almost entirely beholden to the BJP, an extremely rich entity that also commands a vast IT cell, and it is getting title print media attention.”(N. Jayaram)

 

In the Parliament Rahul Gandhi gave a historic speech.  He asked Modi questions on his relationship with Gowtham Adani.  Every time Modi went on his foreign tour he was accompanied by Adani or soon after Modi returned from his foreign tour Gowtham Adani was visiting that country.  Shri Lanka government has stated that it was under the pressure from Mr. Modi they had to give its electricity generation project to Gowtham Adani.  Bangladesh electricity project was also given to Adani.  Adani would mine coal from Jharkhand Adivasi area by displacing the Adivasis with little or no rehabilitation package. 

 

There was a direct response from the Modi government to Rahul Gandhi, in the form of reviving a defamation case filed in Surat.  In 2019 Rahul Gandhi had given a speech in Kolar of Karnataka. He had said Lalit Modi is a thief, Nirav Modi is a thief, Narendra Modi is a thief.  How come all the thieves have Modi as a common surname?  And if you search you may find some more who will have Modi after their names.

 

One Purnesh Modi filed a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi.  Parvesh was not in a most remotely connected to this remark.  Since Rahul Gandhi did not appear before the court and Purnesh had to regularly attend the case, he decided to get a stay on this case from Gujarat high court.  The matter came to rest there.  But as soon as Rahul Gandhi gave his speech in the Parliament Purnesh Modi was asked to go to the Gujarat high court to restart the case against Rahul Gandhi.  The case went on under a new judge with supersonic speed and Rahul Gandhi was convicted.  He was fined with Rs. 15,000.00 and two years’ imprisonment. Two years jail in such case is the maximum sentence to be given.  No one in the history of India was served such a strong sentence for defamation.  He was also given thirty days to file an appeal. As soon as he received the sentence with a lightning speed he ws disqualified from the Parliament and he was asked to vacate the bungalow he was staying for past eighteen years before 21^st of April.  When Rahul went to the session court his plea was dismissed by a judge who was a lawyer of Amit Shah.

 

Modi is in no way a name of any backward class.  There are many people, Parsis, Muslims and traders by name Modi.

 

The dismissal of Rahul Gandhi from the Parliament, (through a process of law) has not only shut the mouth of Rahul Gandhi but also the opposition at large.

 

The hind side of this is that the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the Parliament has brought together the opposition parties, such as AAP, Trinamool Congress who were not inclined to do business with Congress party, in the fold of Opposition Unity.

 

There is still a demand from the opposition parties for a joint Parliamentary enquiry into the affairs of Adani and the Hindenburg report. The Second half of the budget session was washed out by non-other that the members of the treasury benches who are actually responsible to see that the house runs smoothly.

 

Rahul Gandhi throughout his Bharat Jodo Yatra was giving a call to the people “Daro mat”.  Probably following this line people are becoming outspoken.

 

Satyapal Milk’s revelation:

 

Satyapal Malik is a member of Bhartiya Janaka Dal Party.  He was the governor of Kashmir from August 2018 to October 2019.  During his tenure the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked on 5th August, 2019.  In his recent interview to the Wire, with Karan Thapar, had made several interesting revelations. 

 

1.        Phulwama attack where forty javans were martyred.  A convoy of vehicles were carrying Indian security personnel on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway was attacked by a vehicle borne suicide bomber at Lethapora in Phulwama district. Forty CRPF Jawan were killed.   The CRPF had requested for four jet planes to transfer the Javans to Srinagar.  But this request was denied by the then Home minister Rajnath Singh.  Secondly the vehicle involved in the suicide attack was making rounds in the area for three days loaded with 350 kg of RDX exploitive.

2.       In conversation with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi Satya Pal Malik pointed out that “it was a mistake on our part not to have provided the jet planes to carry the Javan to Srinagar.  Secondly it was a gross intelligence failure not to have anticipated this attack, inspite of the vehicle with RDX was making rounds in the area of attack.  To this, Satyapal Malik says, Modi told him to keep his mouth shut.  Similarly, Ajit Doval, National Security adviser, too phoned him up to say he should keep his mouth shut.  By this way Narender Modi could use this incident in his 2019 election campaign, which he did and got a name for a true defender of the nation against Pakistan.

3.       Another important revelation he made was from his experience he has seen that Narendra Modi is not too much concerned about corruption.  It is proved by one incident in Goa and another incident in Jammu and Kashmir related to the Reliance Insurance, where Ram Madhav and Modi would give Rs. 300 crores to Satyapal Malik to implement the project.

4.       The third thing he revealed was that his access to the president of India Mrs. Droupadi Murmu was blocked by the Prime minister’s office.

 

After these revelations by Satya Pal Malik the youth have come on the Delhi Road demanding security to him as his life is in danger.  This was responded only by CBI calling Satya Pal Malik for enquiry.

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 [1]

 

Preparing for the Election 2024

 

PREPARING FOR 2024

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All the eyes are fixed on the coming election. What will the Parliament look like on 2024. Till recently there was no hope that the Congress Party and the rest of the opposition parties would pose any challenge to the ruling BJP. The BJP party was confident that it would sweep the elections.

 

There were several attempts by the opposition parties to forge an alliance against the BJP.  But this did not see any tangible results. There were contradictions among the regional parties. It was believed that the Congress Party was not willing to give space for the opposition parties and form an alliance. Aam Aadmi Party wanted to finish off the Congress Party.  In UP. Samajwadi Party did not believe that it could forming alliance with the Congress. In earlier attempt for alliance between Samajwadi Party and the Congress Party did not bear any positive results.  In West Bengal. Trinamool Congress Party did not want to have any understanding with the Congress Party. Though the Trinamool Party was an offshoot of the Congress party and probably because it was an offshoot of the Congress party, they were at war with each other. This animosity had heightened when Congress Party formed an alliance with CPM to fight during the last Assembly Election in West Bengal.

 

During the last assembly elections in Bihar, JDU was in alliance with the BJP. They did not believe that they could do any business with the Congress party. Congress Party is also in alliance with RJD which had opposed JDU. But this alliance did not help the Congress party to improve its position in Bihar.  The Congress Party had demanded a big share of seats, which they could not win in the end. According to some this alliance led to a kind of weakening of RJD Party. In Telangana, Telangana Rastra Samity (TRS) was determined not to have any understanding with the Congress Party.

 

Since the Congress Party has a national Presence with the biggest vote share, no formidable alliance would be formed against the BJP by ignoring the Congress Party.  Despite this, Trinamool, Congress, Samajwadi Party, and TRS were uncompromising in their opposition to the comgress party.

 

But today we have seen the emergence of the “Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).” The Chief Minister of Bihar had broken his alliance with the BJP because he realized that the BJP was planning to destroy JDU and become a single largest party in Bihar. Nitish Kumar once again came out of alliance with BJP and formed an alliance with RJD and remained the Chief Minister.  It was a magnanimous gesture on the part of RJD to agree to this alliance with Nithish Kumar and give him the chief ministership and form the government. I say it was a magnanimous gesture on the part of RJD because RJD had experienced a betrayal from JDS; RJD had bigger number of MLAs and further it did not insist on leading the alliance.

 

Nithish Kumar slowly develops a conviction that opposition should come together and defeat the BJP in 2024. He went out of his way and meet Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, Chandrasekar Rao (TRS) and Arvind Kejriwal (Aam Aadmi Party) who responded positively to the suggestion of Nithish Kumar. It is very likely that Nithish Kumar also saw a possibility of becoming a prime minister if the opposition alliance gain power at the centre.

 

The Congress Party came to the lime light and showed itself to be a powerful force, probably more powerful than the rest of the opposition parties put together. Rahul Gandhi ventured into a Padayatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. His objective was to bring unity and solidarity among the citizens of the country. He wanted to oppose the polarizing and divisive politics of BJP. He called this Yatra Bharat Jodo Yatra. There had been some apprehensions other political parties about the ability of Rahul Gandhi to complete this ambitious yatra. But Rahul Gandhi proved everybody wrong.  When he started his yatra from Kanyakumari, DMK and the civil society in Tamil Nadu came in big numbers and supported his yatra and walked with him. In Kerala too, he got a very warm welcome everywhere. Wherever he went people welcomed him and he was able to meet youth, women, farmers and had conversation with them. All the people from different walks of life showed great appreciation for the Yatra. They spoke to him about their disillusion with the present BJP government, about the price rise, unemployment. Rahul Gandhi met women who poured out their sufferings. The people showed such a great interest in what Rahul had to say they stood in pouring rain and listened to him till the end of his speech. The heavy rain did not deter them. Again, in Kashmir he stood in the heavy snow fall and spoke to the people of Kashmir. Congress party does now have a strong following in Kashmir.  Inspite of thid the people attended his public speech in the heavy snow fall. Rahul Gandhi achieved a great success in his Bharat Jodo Yatra, reaching out to the people and learning from them. 

 

The nation saw, a different Rahul Gandhi throughout his journey to Kashmir in Bharat Jodo Yatra. He stood out the tallest leader of the congress party. The BJP had spent huge amount of money to destroy his image and had succeeded in making the general public to believe that Rahul Gandhi was immature, impulsive, and eccentric person, not fit for any political role.  They nick named him ‘PAPPU’. Rahul Gandhi proved them wrong. He destroyed the image that BJP had created of him in the minds of the nation. In all his meeting with the people, his press conferences, and his speeches, he expressed a great concern for the Nafrat that BJP had spread in the country. He promise that he would like to build “Nafrat Ki Bazar Me Mohabbat Ku Dukan.” This iconic slogan appealed to the large population of the country.

 

Another very important development that happened in the life of Mr. Rahul Gandhi was his disqualification from the Parliament and dismissal from his house. In the budget session of the Parliament, Rahul Gandhi gave a spirited speech and raised the number of issues and made the BJP Government and Modi in particular accountable. One of the most important issues was Mr. Modi’s relationship with Adani. Why did Modi take Adani with him to his foreign tours. He also questioned where Adani got 2000 crores which was invested in his shell companies. These questions frightened Modi and wanted to find a way to shut the mouth of Rahul Gandhi.

2019 election Rahul Gandi had given a speech in Kolar where he expressed his surprise to several people who had looted the country seem to have common surname Modi,  Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and now Narendra Modi. There was an insignificant MLA in Gujarat Assembly, Purnesh Modi. He had filed a defamation case in Surat court. After getting frustrated with nothing coming from this case, he went to the high court in Gujrat and brought a stay on the case. But when Narendra Modi was cornered by Rahul Gandhi he asked Purnesh Modi to revive that case immediately. P. Modi went to the High Court and opened the case. It was with a lightning speed, the trial court in Surat gave two years maximum punishment for Rahul Gandhi, which would eventually make him lose his Parliament membership. As soon as the verdict reached Delhi within a matter of few hours, Rahul Gandhi’s membership to the Parliament was cancelled and he was asked to vacate the house he lived it. Rahul Gandhi fought for stay on the conviction and went right up to the Gujarat High Court. Gujarat judiciary refused to give him any relief. It was like Gujarat mafia trying to corner and teach a lesson to Rahul Gandhi whereby he would be jailed for two years. His membership to be parliament would be cancelled and he would not be able to contest election for another six years. The case was very simple. Purnesh Modi wasn’t really a Modi. He had changed his name into Modi. Secondly Modi is not a generic name for a backward caste. Hence insulting the backward caste by Rahul Gandhi did not happen. Lalit Modi & Nirav Modi, the names he had mentioned in his speech were not the people belonging to backward class. However, Rahul Gandhi did not attend the parliament and he vacated the house with equally the lightning speed. Rahul Gandhi showed tremendous amount of courage and statesmanship. He was not deterred by the consequences of the action of Gujarat mafia.  He was getting ready to go to jail. The manner in which he responded to these developments gave Rahul Gandhi tremendous sympathy from the entire country. The Supreme Court finally gave him the relief and he was reinstated in the parliament. This prooved that Rahul Gandhi is a politician with outstanding qualities.

 

The Bharat Jodo Yatra made the other regional opposition parties realized the extend of support Rahul personally and the Congress Party in general received from the citizens of the country. Those who were not willing to do any business with the Congress party, realised that the Congress Party should lead the opposition alliance. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party did not claim Prime Minister Ship for the party. The newly elected Congress President with his outstanding leadership, also assured the nation that congress Party was not in the race for the Prime Minister ship of the country.

 

Congress party is recognised as a leader of the alliance because the spectacular victory in Karnataka election. Karnataka victroy was a game changer in Indian politics. It changed the entire scenario of politics in the country. It gave new hope for the opposition that together they could defeat the BJP and they are willing to repose their faith in the leadership of the Congress party.

 

The INDIA alliance had shown its strength during the monsoon session. Even the Aam Aadmi Party had been very cooperative and showed faith in Rahul Gandhi. There will be another meeting in Mumbai where the INDIA alliance will meet and trash out seats sharing issues and there is a possibility that the INDIA alliance will put up a spectacular show and defeat the NDA alliance.

 

 

One should say that the puzzle of the united opposition has fallen in its place. There is no doubt in the minds of anybody that Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance will pose a serious challenge for the BJP. It is an alliance of 28 parties. In this respect we can safely conclude the preparation of the opposition parties for the 2024 parliament election in the right direction. 

 

But the BJP is not complacent about their winning possibility. There is a palpable fear in Narendra Modi and the BJP party. Modi did not lose any time in forming a new NDA with 36 parties. The new NDA consist of parties who had deserted NDA, or found no place in NDA. Most of them have no MLAS or MPs in the present state and central government.

 

The body language of the INDIA alliance is very different from the NDA alliance. Indian alliance shows far more respect for their partners and their comradeship. What is noteworthy is there was jostling for the prominent seats on the days when NDA leaders met in Delhi. The NDA alliance projected Modi to be the god who will guarantee a victory to NDA. While all the other people stood at a distance. Modi alone stood in the centre with a big garland for the photo.

 

The one very spectacular aspect of NDA preparation for 2024 election is seen in the attempt of the BJP Party to dilute the position of the election commission. BJP in general and Modi in particular is indeed very frightened of the defeat that they see in the air during the fag end of the monsoon session. BJP has introduced a new bill which will alter the committee that will choose and appoint the election commission. The test of democracy lies in the neutrality of the election commission. This means that if we want the neutral election commission, then the committee that appoints the election commission is constituted by the Prime Minister, the Leader of the opposition and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The Chief justice of the Supreme Court has shown himself to be a fearless man with a strong backbone in his pronouncement of several judgements. He has come out without fear or favour. He being on the committee to appoint election commission would ring the dangerous bells for the BJP. Therefore, BJP has introduced a Bill in the Rajya Shabha to reconstitute the committee that would appoint the election commission.  The bill aims at removing the Supreme Court Chief Justice from the committee and instead include a minister of the Parliament of Modi Government. If this bill is passed, then effectively, BJP will have a complete control on making an appointment of the CEC and election commission. This also means BJP will ensure that the opposition alliance will be handicapped and probably be defeated through the role of the Chief Election Commission. In other word, there will be no fair and free elections, the parliament of 2024.

 

 

 

Manipur was one of the latest laboratory experiments for the BJP government to prepare for the 2024 election. The plot was very simple. It is one of the smallest states in India. The majority  community living in this world is Meethi living in the valleys. Nagas and Kukis are in minority, but not so small in numbers.  Majority of them are Christians. It has been proved beyond doubt that BJP use its chief Minister and its RSS army to spread fear among the minority community of the Christian Kukies and Nagas. They declared them as people who have migrated from Myanmar. They created doubts in the minds of the Meithi group that these Kukies and Nagaras have occupied the most advantageous hilltops. They are declared as adivasis and they hold the best properties on the hilltop. Therefore, it was essential that these people should be driven out. This false propaganda starts the war between the Kukies and Meithis. There seem to be no end this conflict. If this state was ruled by any opposition party the BJP at the Centre would have lost no time in dismissing the chief minister of Manipur and imposing President’s rule. In spite of large-scale killing and violence, burning down the properties the central government does not think that Manipur has totally failed in maintaining law and order. They have continued to keep him in the post of chief ministership because he is the best agent to carry out the plan of the Sangh Parivar.

 

We have seen in many other states where there had been absolutely no problems, no law and order situation and still BJP had changed their chief ministers several times. Amit Shah, the home minister had visited once and spent two or three days and promised the world that he has managed to control the violence. But it was only a promise and the reality was that he could not stop the violence. They say the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had enough time to travel across the world to attend to the minor and small inauguration functions but he did not have time and inclination to visit Manipur.   during. He did not come to the Parliament for the monsoon session because he did not want the issue of Manipur to be discussed in the Parliament. opposition parties had to call no-confidence motion to force Modi to come to the Parliament And in spite of his coming to the Parliament in his one and half hour of reply Speech, he did not come to the point of Manipur violence. Opposition felt being insulted and they walked out of the Parliament. It is only after they had walked out that Modi spoke very briefly on the need to end violence in Manipur. But he did not come up with any concrete plan. It is evident from now that he was the perpetrator of this violence in Manipur, in order to spread fear among the minorities and come to power

 

Another example of this kind of plan was being implemented in the Muslim dominated place called Nuh In Haryana, where RSS and Bajrang Dal took out a religious procession through the areas which was thickly populated by the Muslims. We have not heard of any religious procession where people carry guns, swords and sticks. But these religious people in their religious procession, waved out guns, swords and sticks and challenged the Muslim majority of people living there. Any small throwing of a stone could easily spark violence and this is exactly what happened. It is not important who threw the first stone. What is important is, why did the right-wing people create the situation of intimidation??

 

So for the BJP preparation for the Parliamentary election is to spread Nafrat, create fear in the minds of the minority. Propagate the notion of Hindu khatre Mein Hai and force people to vote for BJP.

 

This is how BJP is preparing for 2024 election. There are serious doubts in the mind of some Modi may indulge into a huge action to attract votes from the people, even the action of sending the army into Pakistan occupied Kashmir.  Indulging in a small scale warfare with the Chinese in Ladak is not ruled out. We have listened to Satpal Malik, the former governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

 

In this scenario how do the civil society members will prepare for the 2024 election.  We must realise that if the BJP comes to power for the third term, our constitution will be changed and Manu Smriti will be our constitution. Bibek Debroy, the adviser of Modi has been given the task of floating an idea that India needs a New constitution.  Our present constitution is too old. He is spreading misinformation that many countries change their constitutions periodically.  If you hear the names of the nations who change their constitutions then you will be ashamed of putting India in the company of these nations.  Under the possible new constitution the people belonging to the minorities, daliths and adivasis will not be full citizens of the country.  They will not have rights the normal citizens enjoy. Shree Golwalkar has already explicated the norms for Indian who are not Hindus.  India will be a Hindu Rashtra.

 

We need to be active in our social discourse and explode the many myths the Hindutva forces are spreading in the country and make people understand the idea of India as secular, democratic and socialist India.

 

 

The war between Russia and NATO?

Alex Tuscano

On February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine.  The world’s eyes were fixed on this war.  In 21^st century no war is good news to anyone.  Everybody would condemn any war in any part of the world.  But to hear about Russia invading Ukraine is definitely not good news at all.  Ukraine is the biggest country among all the countries who dissociated from the Soviet Union.  the biggest weapons of the Soviet Union were installed in Ukraine.  The Chernobyl nuclear plant was the biggest installation of Soviet Union.

It may be a crazy dream of Putin to get Ukraine back into Russia.  But the issue is different in the war with Ukraine.  But the present war on Ukraine is not an idea of making Ukraine to join with Russia nor is it for change of government in Ukraine.

This war is to ensure that Ukraine does not join with the NATO.  To get a better idea of about the problem behind Ukraine’s joining with the NATO we need to go a little bit in the history of NATO.  War on Ukraine has to be understood in the context of history dating back to 1990-1991.  Finally, we will realize that it is not a war with Ukraine but with NATO.

 

How and why of the emergence of NATO:

·       After World War II in 1949 NATO was constituted to protect the capitalist block from the Soviet Socialist block. We saw in the World War II a situation where Hitler and his allies waged war on the western countries.  Hitler also attacked Soviet Union.  US, the British Empire, France, entered into alliance with the Soviet Union and defeated the Fascist forces of Hitler and his allies like, Italy, Spain and Japan.  Before entering into alliance with USSR US and others it was demanded that USSR dissolved the Communist International organization which had members of the communist parties all over the world.  There were communist parties all over the world who were taking command from the Soviet Union.  To do this Stalin fabricated a theory called “Socialism in one country”.  In reality the Second World War against Fascist forces were defeated on the soil of Soviet Union.

·       After the war the situation changed.  Apart from Germany and its allies the greater part of European countries (western Allies) were left weak due to the war.  The Soviet Union had emerged strong with its armies dominating all the states of central and eastern Europe.  The Soviet Union was perceived as a threat to the western Europe.

Warsaw Pact: 

·       Germany was the main enemy against which the World War II took place. But it was taken into NATO on 6^th May 1955. Its membership eventually translated into a very substantial contribution to the Alliance’s military strength in Europe.  Germany was the front line of the Cold War in Europe for 40 years. Warsaw pact was created on 14^th May 1955, in reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO. It was a kind of balance of power or counterweight to NATO. It was officially called “the treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance”, commonly known as Warsaw Pact was a collective defence treaty signed between Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics of Central and eastern Europe on 14th My 1955.  This was a complementary organization of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance for the socialist states of the central and eastern Europe.  

The developments around the disarmament:

 Mikhail Gorbachev initiated and worked hard to bring the ‘arms race’ under control.  Both America and USSR were in competition in creating more and more sophisticated nuclear arms.  It was said that the nuclear arms piled up in the armouries of US and USSR to such an extent that using these the world would have been destroyed twelve times over.  Arms race had put the economy of USSR under tremendous strain. Through several negotiations between America and Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev tried to get the cooperation of US and drastically reduced the nuclear arms and ensured the possibilities of world peace. In this negotiation Mikhail Gorbachev was promised that NATO will not expand itself to the East European countries.

 

·       In 1989, popular civil and political public discontent toppled the communist government of the Warsaw Treaty countries. From 1989 to 1991 the communist governments were defeated.  The introduction economic reforms (Perestroika) and civil reform, democratisation (Glasnost), led to the collapsed of the Soviet Union itself.

·       After the collapsed of the Soviet Union the socialist block collapsed. All the nations who were drawn into the Soviet Block separated themselves and become independent Nations. The famous breaking down of the Berlin Wall epitomized the collapse of the Soviet Union.

·       Former socialist countries who had broken from the Soviet Union were eager to join the European union and participate in the glorious democracy and capitalist prosperity.  Eventually, they became part of NATO.

·       At the end Russia too was contemplating joining NATO.  But their attempts failed. Russia’s chances to join NATO was blocked by the major powers, like Germany from the West.

·       Ukraine is the biggest country among others who parted company with the Socialist Soviet Union.  It had the major installations of strategic weapons of the Soviet Union.  Ukraine was loyal to Russia and did not join EU and the least of all, NATO. But the present dispensation under the president, Volodymyr Zelensky Ukraine is open to join EU and NATO.

·       NATO has been extending its arms to all the states which have come out of Soviet Union. Indirectly It is an extension of US forces on the borders of Russia.

·       But in spite of the promise to Mikhail Gorbachev to not to extend NATO to the socialist countries, in 1999 NATO launched a military operation against Yugoslavia without UN sanction. NATO bombed Yugoslavia for several days killing several thousand people, mostly civilian and caused a massive damage to the country’s infrastructure. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (the Kosovo War).  The air strike lasted from 24^th March 1999 to 10^th June 1999

·       The breach of Promise to the Soviet Union (Gorbachev) and the aggression against Yugoslavia has contributed to the attitude of Russia towards NATO. NATO was created against the Soviet Union.  When its relevance was over after the end of cold war there was a need to disband the NATO.  The Soviet Union had already abandoned the Warsaw Pack.  But US and its allied nations continue to expand in the direction of Russia.  This raises great security concerns for Russia.

·       America and the NATO forces continue to exist with its prime objective to position themselves against Russia.  Russia has not been a threat to any of the NATO member countries and much less to US, Great Briton and West Europe.    In this scenario Russia is isolated and does not enjoy the good will from the NATO countries.  If NATO comes to the boarders of Russia, it will definitely make Russia very vulnerable.  Hence to prevent Ukraine from entering into NATO is a legitimate demand Russia can have.  Most of the developments, including defence machinery in Ukraine is part of the development from USSR.  War on Ukraine is in reality war on NATO and its expansion policies.  If US could carry out 10 years of war against the North Vietnam to prevent the expansion of Socialism should Russia not prevent Ukraine from joining the NATO? 

America’s role in the international affairs:

·       The use of nuclear weapon: On July 16, 1945 the United States detonated in the New Mexico desert, to carry out the world’s first nuclear weapons test explosion. Three weeks later, at 8.15 in the morning on August 6, the US bombers threw the uranium-based atomic a bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, a home of approximately 320,000 people.  In minutes half of the city vanished.  Three days later, the US leaders ordered “Fat Man” a plutonium-based bomb with an explosive yield of 21 kilo tons, dropped on Nagasaki, home to over 260,000 people.

·       Example of the Vietnam War. If we recall the Vietnam war, we will realise that it war was fought on the wrong assumption. North Vietnam was a socialist country strongly aligned to the Soviet Union and Communist China. South Vietnam was not a socialist country. South Vietnam was made to believe that it was facing a threat from North Vietnam and the Soviet Union. American believed that they were morally bound to defend South Vietnam.  Further, American wanted to prevent the spread of communist regime to come down further to south in Asia.  America fought ten years of most unsuccessful war. A small country like North Vietnam brutally defeated the world’s mighty military power like America.  It took just a few years for both south Vietnam and North Vietnam to become one united country

·       War on Afghanistan: In 1978 People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) gained power.  This party was pro-Soviet Union.  The fundamentalist Muslim, Mujahideen waged a ward against the PDPA and civil war broke out in Afghanistan.  PDPA requested the Soviet Union to intervene and save the PDPA government against the fundamentalist Mujahideen.  In December 24, 1979 Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan under the pretext of upholding the Soviet-Afghan Friendship Treaty 1978.  America came to the aid of Mujahideen and used Osama Bin Ladin to fight against the Soviet Union’s aggression.  The Soviet Union withdrew its forces from Afghanistan and the fundamentalist Taliban came to power.  US used Osama Bin Ladin to organize war against the Soviet Union.  They funded him to the teeth.  Later Osama Bin Ladin attacked the twin trade Tower in America.  America in vengeance against this terrorist act attacked Afghanistan.  America occupied Afghanistan for 20 years.  Once they withdrew their forces Afghanistan is back to square one of Taliban rule.

·       War on Iraq: When Saddam Hussain attacked and captured Kuwait, the American forces marched towards Iraq.  Falsehood and lies were used to make sure that Saddam Husain was ousted and killed.  America had used Saddam Husain to wage war against Iran to settle the score with Iran who had ousted the America supported Shah of Iran.  America had supplied chemical weapons of mass destruction to Iraq to be used against Iran.  America and Great Briton wanted to search for the chemical weapons.  Under this pretext America and Great Britain went ahead with the war against Iraq and made sure that Saddam Husain was unseated unceremoniously and hang.

      Was war on Ukraine necessary?

·       The issue of Ukraine not joining NATO could have been settled through negotiation and the war could have been avoided.  Since 2014 the mood in Ukraine was changing against Russia.  America and the Western media had already started Media War against Ukraine who had fortified its western border.  We would like to state equivocally that War is evil and nobody should support the present war in Ukraine.  But Russia is not the only country that should be blamed for the war.  NATO supporting indirectly and even by supplying arms to Ukraine makes the war to continue.  The NATO alliance and principally the Unite States of America should not get into the war, even indirectly and encourage Ukraine to sort out the dispute amicably.  NATO should not harbour ambition to bring Ukraine in its fold.  This will continue the arms race and the security of the nations will be at stake at the expense of peace and development of the people.