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Promising dream house: NDA in tight spot; fails to include job creation in Presidential speech
- Published on 21 June 2014
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Image courtesy: phanlop88/freedigitalphotos.net
President Pranab Mukherjee’s address to Parliament, coupled with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s subsequent, allied speech, constitutes a daunting agenda for the new Government.
Bereft of any cost estimates and implementation strategy, the agenda can at best be called a charter of dreams, redeemable promises and redundant resolutions. It is easy to spin a web of dreams. It is, however, extremely difficult to turn dreams into realities because it costs a fortune to implement welfare projects, in addition to carrying the welfare legacy load of the UPA Government. To get the projects off the drawing board, the new Government would require exceptional skill to resolve NGOs-engineered conflicts among various stakeholders of the resource-constrained, heterogeneous society. The agenda does not suggest any holistic conflict resolution mechanism to realize collective dream of providing work, basic amenities, peace and prosperity for all.
The ruling alliance requires political acumen to facilitate efficient legislative work, which is a pre-requisite for fulfillment of certain promises. The agenda has not spelt out priorities and timelines on the law-making front.
To realize the collective dream, the political Executive should have the courage to restrain judiciary from dabbling in formulation of policies and governance of certain segments of economy such as mining. The agenda is silent on this issue.
When would Dr. Manmohan Singh shed his Modi phobia?
- Published on 18 May 2014
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Image courtesy: PIB
The outgoing Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has been found wanting on many occasions. And he was found wanting too in his last address to the Nation that he delivered on 17th May 2014 before submitting his resignation to the President.
He today avoided mentioning Mr. Narendra Modi, who as Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP brought about a paradigm shift in the Indian polity. He lacked the courage to either acknowledge Mr. Modi’s achievement as a global marvel or to reiterate his outrageous perception about Mr. Modi as prospective Prime Minister.
On 3rd January 2014 at the televised national press conference, Dr. Singh had stated: “I have full confidence that the next Prime Minister will be from the UPA coalition, and that without discussing the merits of Mr. Narendra Modi, it will be disastrous for the country to have Shri Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister.”
Answering a question on BJP’s allegation that he was the weakest PM, Dr. Singh had stated: “I do not believe that I have been a weak Prime Minister. That is for historians to judge. The BJP and its associates may say whatever they like. But if by “strong Prime Minister”, you mean that you preside over a mass massacre of innocent citizens on the streets of Ahmedabad, that is the measure of strength, I do not believe that sort of strength this country needs, least of all, in its Prime Minister.” (http://nareshminocha.com/index.php/polity/1613-pm-should-cast-off-modi-phobia-answer-his-failure-on-federalism)
Pawar gives credence to Jairam’s charge that Political Sherpas failed to communicate
- Published on 10 May 2014
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Sharad Pawar Image Courtesy: NCP
The Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar or rather his Ministry has unintentionally substantiated the allegation that UPA top brass did not communicate effectively its achievements and this, in turn, has harmed its electoral prospects.
Before discussing Agriculture Ministry’s belated disclosure that justifies the charge of UPA leadership was uncommunicative, recall what Union Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh recently stated while bemoaning that top Congress leaders (effectively UPA top brass) were found lacking in political communication.
Mr. Ramesh reportedly told PTI on 4th May: “I always believed that one of the foundations of politics is communication and communication from the very top...by the ‘sherpas’ alone. So, political communication is very, very important but unfortunately we were found lacking.”
Last month, the prime minister's communications adviser, Pankaj Pachauri stated: “The government is working. Its achievements are not reaching you. As for the media, the priorities are different.”
And now consider the proof of UPA sherpas being uncommunicative. Mr. Pawar/Agriculture Ministry sat on two major overseas communications hailing India’s achievements for more than two years. These should have been flaunted as global certification of India’s sterling attainments on the farm front under the UPA Government. The impact of communicating what reputed, independent entities say about the success is far more important than blowing one's own trumpet in the form of UPA's report to the people.
Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the most crooked of all?
- Published on 15 April 2014
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Crooked trunk Image courtesy: commons.wikimedia.org
It is a classical case of the pot calling the kettle black. The Congress has accused BJP of copying ideas from its manifesto and other documents. The former has also charged the latter with selective amnesia by stating that BJP has promised certain initiatives in its manifesto that are already under implementation.
The Congress Party has reportedly trashed the BJP manifesto as “laundry list of disconnected ideas.” Congress Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi accused BJP of being a “copycat”. Mr. Singhvi said the manifesto was “not even a cut-and-paste job”. He even went to the extent of claiming that BJP can be sued for copyright violation. Mr. Singhvi does not perhaps realize that his legal acumen might backfire on this issue.
If one puts laundry list and copy cat allegations together, the inference one gets is that laundry list of ideas has originated from the Congress documents or rather from its dirty linen!
Take another case of double-edged nature of Congress Party’s dig at BJP Manifesto.
Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said that BJP's manifesto is a hastily prepared “high school essay” prepared by “lifting” some of the portions from his own speeches and writings. Citing mention about Rurban India in BJP manifesto, he said this is subject on which he wrote 10 years ago.
What Mr. Ramesh forgot to tell the reporters or perhaps does not know that the word and concept Rurban has been in the existence much before he was born! The term was first used in 1918! Any Congress whiz kid can check this fact and also download voluminous literature on Rurban from the cyberspace.
Mr. Ramesh also labeled BJP as a “party of Kumbhkarnas” and said it promises programmes that are already underway over the past 10 years.
Any knowledgeable analyst would agree with Mr. Ramesh that some promises listed in the BJP manifesto are already under implementation. The promises should have been properly paraphrased to avoid the risk of sounding ignorant.
Notwithstanding this, the appellation of Kumbhkarans applies more to the Congress whose manifesto also reeks with ignorance and oversight. A case in point is the party’s promises about administrative reforms.
Polity