The
next parliament election is round the corner, the two main political
dispositions in India, namely INC and BJP is on poll mode. INC as usual refuses
to name their PM candidate, citing it is unconstitutional, while BJP was forced
to declare Mr Modi as its candidate. Who might have thought that till 2011 that
Mr Modi will be the candidate when only names of Mr Advani, Ms Sushma Swaraj,
and Mr Arun Jaitley were going the rounds? It is believed that the situation
changed midway in 2012 with the help of vested interests and now Mr Modi has
taken full control of the party.
Mr.
LK Advani was the person boosted the prospects of BJP to become the rulers in
New Delhi from a position of just two seats and nonentity over a decade. Now he
and his supports like Ms Sushma Swaraj and Mr Ananth Kumar are pushed to the
margins, isolated, and forced to toe the line of Mr Modi. They did protest during
Mr Modi’s appointment and even boycotted the ceremony, but returned to the center
stage for fear of oblivion from Indian polity. That is inner party democracy and
openness in the party.
In
the case of INC, the party with 80% of the people in Government and AICC above 65
years of age have elected Mr Rahul Gandhi as the Vice President and most
probably the PM candidate. Mr Rahul Gandhi believes in the youth and women
power and has been working on this area for the past 5 years.
As a
true leader of the party Mr Rahul Gandhi is only following the footsteps of his
predecessors of the age old Congress Party. The party survived more than a century
only because of progressive thinking by leaders from time to time.
Founded
in the year 1885 the Congress Party, the leader of Indian Independence Movement,
had luminaries like of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Lala Lajpat
Rai, Sardar Vallabhabhai Patel, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, C Rajgopalachari, and
the father of the nation Shri Mahatma Gandhi.
After
independence the leaders who were at the helm like Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur
Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Narasimha Rao, and Manmohan Singh was
engaged in the nation building process using their own style and conviction.
They
were visionaries and statesmen who believed on non-violence and non-alignment
foreign policy. All of them envisioned a prosperous and developed country
status for India in the twenty-first century. The result was that the entire
world is talking about India becoming a super power in the year 2020.
The
party under its leaders as PM has adopted national and international
progressive, economic, and political policies after the independence. To name a
few they included the Five Year Plans, Land Redistribution Plans, AIIMS, IITs,
IIMs, UGC, Non Aligned Movement, Added Sikkim State to India, Nationalization
of Bank, coal, steel, copper, refining, cotton textiles, and insurance
industries, formation of BPCL, IOL, and ONGC, Green Revolution, Dismantling of
Licence and Quota Raj, Economic liberalisation, Duty and tax tariff reduction,
Computerization, Mobile Phones to all, Panchayati Raj, Right to Education Act,
Right to Information Act, Minimum Support Prices for the farmers, The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act, Aadhaar card for direct transfer of Subsidies, Protection of
Children from Sexual Offences Act, Lokpal Bill, Whistle Blowers Protection
Bill, Grievance Redress Bill, and Amendment to Prevention of Corruption Act.
Now
it is the turn of Mr Rahul Gandhi, who is in politics more than 10 years, to
continue the thought process and keep the Congress relevant in Indian political
space. He wishes to think, talk, debate and discuss only about new progressive
plans to improve the socio-economical status of all Indians. The pet subjects he is concentrating are:
1. Empowering the women: Mr Rahul Gandhi says “50 percent of India is
women. India can only be half strong, half proud, and half powerful if we don't
empower this 50 per cent. It can be only a half super power.
2. Empowering the youth: The Congress Pradhan says that as per the
statistics 60% of the Indian population is young. If India cannot offer jobs to
the crores of youth in a systematic way lifting the living standards to a
respectable level is not possible as we becoming the world’s super power will
remain only a dream.
3. Decentralisation of Power: Pradhan, not the PM will take India forward
anymore. The Panchayati Raj institutions have to be strengthened. Financial
resources for execution of local projects should be available at panchayat,
block and municipality level. The affected people will decide and execute the
projects the best suited for them. There should not be any interference by MLA
or MP.
4. Reforms in Political parties: All registered political parties have to
undergo reforms and should have elections at every level. Mr Rahul Gandhi has
taken time and pain to ensure that the students and youth wing of the INC
conduct elections at all levels and succeeded.
5. Access to knowledge by all: Mr Rahul Gandhi thinks that
through a Knowledge Network of connected panchayats through optical fibre
disseminating information to remote areas can be achieved.
6. Skill development:
Mr Rahul Gandhi thinks that training and development of skills has to improve
to reach developed countries standards. This is possible only if we change the
outdated training methods involving participation from the curriculum framing
by the employers.
7. Education for all:
Free education for all, irrespective of his religion, cast and place of staying
8. A roof over the head for every Indian: Housing scheme for all
Indians especially for the downtrodden.
9. Direct election to party’s MLA and MP candidates: To democratize the
selection process Mr Rahul Gandhi wants the congress to select the party
candidates to contest election through an election process in the constituency.
He has made the INC try this concept in 15 constituencies for 2014 general
election.
10. Fresh, young and non-corrupt PCC Heads: He has succeeded in
appointing educated and young Sachin Pilot, Rajasthan, Arvinder Singh Lovely in
Delhi, Bhupesh Baghel Chhattisgarh, John F. Fernandes in Goa, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury
in WB, Ashok Tanwar in Haryana, and VM Sudheeran in Kerala as PCC chiefs.
Mr
Rahul Gandhi prefers to work than dance to the media as he disclosed in a
recent TV interview. Many unbiased people watched the interview thought that he
is decent, open, have a good young heart, and think for the future of India. He
was not interested in controversies like the scams, 1982 riots, and who will
become the PM Etc., on a TV debate.
Likewise
he is not interested to waste time on 20/30 years old riots cases discussed
only during election time. Every intelligent Indian knows that after the 82
riots there was non-congress government for nearly 7 years in India. He did not
say in as many words, but intelligent and patriotic Indians understood that if
there is anything to be done for the 1982 riots and INC was blocking, BJP rule
of five years from 1998 to 2004 should have unearthed it. They had Akali Dhal
as partner and ministers in central cabinet?
It
is known to all Indians that in 5 years rule, if there is an iota of proof BJP
should have exploited it then. In other words, if the law enforcing departments
reporting to central government did not listen to Mr Vajpayee, the PM for 5
years and supported INC what is the need of electing now again? If nothing was
proved or established during that time nothing is going to be done in future
also. If people are found guilty, they would have been punished. But nothing
happened! Why then rake up the issue only during election time?
Instead
of answering questions on such non-productive issues, Mr Rahul Gandhi ignored answering
it and reiterated his commitment to change the systems by introducing many
progressive bills in parliament. As he is does not believe in brooding over the
mistakes happened earlier, but wish to think for what can be done in future for
not repeating the same, he continued replying only about his convictions to
reach there. Many people did not understand this new innovative and intelligent
tactics.
He bounced
such irrelevant questions which will only create controversies and talked about
the empowerment of women, dalits and other backward class for a better and
bright India. “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and there is the need for time to
create great things. Mr Rahul Gandhi the leader of INC wishes to discuss about
only pragmatic issues and strongly believes that whatever is possible to be
done for the good of people should be initiated immediately for the benefit of
the future generation of Indians. Mr Rahul Gandhi is a difficult phenomenon for
some cynics to understand.
I
believe that Indian Politics need ‘CHANGE’ and Mr Rahul Gandhi is the answer.
MVR Menon
Date: 12.02.14
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