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Time to Stand up & Crave for the good side of 1975 Emergency!
- Published on 25 June 2015
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Chant India First; Duties First
(Indira Gandhi-Edited Image Courtesy: inc.in)
June is the month when rights-obsessed democrats start bemoaning infamous Internal Emergency imposed by Mrs. Indira Gandhi on 25th June 1975. They write columns and give interviews, criticizing the ‘darkest chapter’ in India’s post-Independence history. They want to periodically refresh an aura around themselves for having gone to jail just like the freedom fighters during the British Raj.
This June is no different. While berating the Emergency, BJP mentor L.K. Advani, has voiced apprehensions about the unnamed forces that have the potential to impose emergency in the future. The Opposition interpreted it as a veiled attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Modi has so far been over-cautious in taking a stand on contentious political issues and has thus harmed his image as a tough taskmaster.
Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley found time during his on-going visit to the US to chip in his comment on the issue. Mr. Jaitley, who had last year too blogged on the issue, had dubbed emergency as “the worst post independence chapter of the Indian democracy.”
Such repeated, scathing criticism of Emergency and selective recall of developments during that 19-month period is distorting history. It is giving a wrong impression to the people who were too young or were not born at that time.
Unlike visionary PM late Rajiv Gandhi, neither his wife nor his progeny nor the Congress Party have the courage to put 1975 Emergency in perspective.
The timing for imposition of Internal Emergency was horribly wrong. It coincided with the adverse outcome of electoral litigation that left Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s survival as PM & as parliamentarian hanging by thread.
No one can dispute the well-known facts that fundamental rights were suspended. The Judiciary, the Press and other institutions were maimed or made pliable or simply acquiesced in to diktats. Without contesting such sordid happenings, this column would focus on the good developments that happened during the Emergency. It would also give certain background of the Emergency that jailed leaders don’t talk as that would puncture their sacrifice balloon.
With Dismal Report Card, NDA Should Redefine its Agenda as Growth +Jobs
- Published on 15 May 2015
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(Waiting for Jobs- Image Courtesy: jharkhandemployment.nic.in)
The report card is out with the NDA Government set to complete its first year in office on 25th May. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has himself implicitly given a perfect 10 to his Government. He did so the other day by claiming that his Government has achieved more in 10 months than what UPA regime attained in 10 years.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a sworn Modi critic, has, on the other hand, given Modi Sarkar a big zero.
Mr. Kumar reportedly stated the government ‘wasted’ almost one year as it has failed to fulfill even a single promise made in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls last year.
Neither 24-carat self-praise nor rabid criticism can stand scrutiny before an objective assessment of the Government of the day.
Any independent analyst would accept the conclusion drawn by celebrated author Arun Shourie that Modi Government’s performance has been “good in parts”. He singled out Mr. Modi’s success in putting India on the centre-stage of global diplomacy and discourse for appreciation.
One may add three initiatives to the list of NDA’s good work: 1) big policy thrust to inland waterways, coastal shipping and the shipping sector as a whole and 2) Reforms in the defence and industrial manufacturing licensing arena, excluding the UPA legacy of policy paralysis in the field of small arms manufacture and 3) restoration of the business confidence, which had touched all-time low under UPA.
Modi Govt Should not let Credibility deficit Build up from the word go
- Published on 11 September 2014
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Image courtesy narendramodi.in
The Mainstream media has churned out tonnes of information ranging from special pages to opinion polls on completion of 100 days by NDA Government. As expected, most industrialists and analysts have largely appreciated the Government’s efforts to stabilize the economy and nudge growth rate. It is a fact that NDA Government has the potential to perform better than UPA or any other previous regime.
To ensure that this potential is not frittered away, the Government should focus on two initiatives, which if implemented wholeheartedly, can help NDA usher in sterling governance. The initiatives are: transparency & accountability and a mechanism to ensure that the policies, laws and administrative orders are implemented in letter and spirit by different appendages at various levels right from the PMO to the village panchayat.
If one were to judge NDA solely on these two parameters, it would have to be clubbed with the UPA, if not rated one or two notches below.
The Modi Governance at present is the business as usual mode, a fact that can be established by counting the backlog of issues created/left by the UPA. In certain cases, the bureaucracy has aggravated the mess under the NDA. It would, however, be appropriate to remain glued to the two crucial factors in this column.
Let us start with Prime Minister’s website that flaunted Narendra Modi’s “Quest for Transparency” shortly after he assumed charge as PM.
Mr. Modi, don’t go the Abhimanyu way; Shear UPA’s Chains to Untie Growth Genie
- Published on 21 August 2014
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Image courtesy: pmindia.nic.in
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maiden Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort suggests that he is slipping into the political cast of legendry Abhimanyu. He must avoid that as the Nation has great expectations from him.
Like the awe-inspiring warrior son of Arjun in epic Mahabharta, Mr. Modi wielded development weapon to pierce through multiple barriers erected by UPA and its pseudo-secular supporters to enter the Lok Sabha with an absolute majority that stunned the whole world.
Abhimanyu, however, didn’t know how to exit through the Chakravyūha (security rings) created by Kaurvas and ultimately went down fighting.
Mr. Modi finds himself in a similar situation. Having got the robust mandate to usher in Achche Din for all, Mr. Modi is now struggling to conceive his strategy to implement the nebulous development agenda. He could not even give peek view of the eagerly awaited 100-day agenda, whose formulation is a modest job by any standard.
His Cabinet is still in the baby steps mode on the development terra firma that bristles with too many barriers, many of which were cobbled together by UPA.
Before suggesting an innovative, 12-point strategy for him to avoid going down in history as the political Abhimanyu, one needs to first applaud him for the straight talk on selected issues and the statesmanship. His resort to populism and evangelism is understandable. Many commentators have rightly appreciated Modi’s break from his predecessors’ practice of speech reading. He spoke extempore and communicated and connected well with the masses.
In his speech, Mr. Modi did not announce any concrete strategy to create work opportunities for all especially jobs for the unemployed youth. He avoided making any reference to the twin related issues of black money and corruption.
Polity