If you are pro-Congress Party of India (Indira), you must read this post and comment. I love a good fight sometimes.
The voters are talking anyway, but like people touched by the moon drops, our Congress leadership is wondering in delusion as to why this is happening. Madam, this is your coffee beans service. Smell the coffee.
1. Take the 9% growth rate statistic to the farmers committing suicide, to the small shop owners losing their livelihood to retail giants, to the small entrepreneur for whom things kept getting difficult till the recent budget; for the urban unorganised sector that still does not get easy loans and is therefore in the grip of the unorganised credit sector; the rural unorganised sector that is heavily in the grip of goons. Ask them what they think of your statistic. Income disparity in this country is today much higher than what it was when the BJP lost power. What is your hope?
2. VP Singh implemented the Mandal Commission- literally, on the corpses of hundreds of students. But neither he, nor his party was ever seen in power again. MMJ got into a similar tiff with the IIMs, and the BJP has not seen power since. Now you have Mr. Arjun Singh. Moral of the story: it is a bad idea to antagonise the students and their parents, and to play with the futures of meritorious students because they were not born into a certain caste.
3. For 50 years, this country has tried to rid its people of their labels of caste, religion and region. You might remember the old patriotic songs sung by your elders in the same party - Hind Desh ke niwasi, sabhi jan ek hain.. ?
Now, suddenly, the administration appears hell bent on pasting these same labels on people, with a vendetta। To get an admission, you need to indicate your caste. To get a bank account, you have to indicate your religion. To get a job, you must indicate your mother tongue. Whatever happened to merit?
4 It has been a long time since the 1984 riots, the Babri masjid, Operation Blue Star et al. Yet the congress has not been able to win back the "vote banks" that it lost then. There is a reason for that. A Sachar Committee and compensations for 1984 riot victims will not bring back those votes. Ever. Quit trying.
5. Interest rates are almost at the pre-reform levels. So is inflation. What is the difference between then and now?
6. Under the congress regime, there is never any explanation. EVER. Inflation rises within a matter of months. No explanation. Madam comes up with a quote like "Retail FDI on hold". No explanations(don't worry, the whole country knows the names of companies that benefit from this. There are very few Indian retail companies that are going it alone). Interest rates continue to rise because the RBI thinks that liquidity = inflation. No explanation. What are economists like Singh and Chidambaram doing in the cabinet if a Lalu prasad Yadav can come up with a better budget?
So, let's see the report card.
1. Economic Reform: Interest rates high. No direction plan on h0w we want to use FDI and FII. Inflation rising and economic disparity rising even faster.
2. Social Reform: Zilch. Even the population control program has gone for a toss.
3. Politics: No accountability for politicians. Lok Sabha members can skip the house and still get paid. No Control on keeping out criminals.
4. Infrastructure: No master plan. Even the Golden Quadrilateral project has been sidelined. SEZs are a hazy concept.
5. Human Resources: Nothing even remotely forward looking in the areas of education, incubation of sports talent, Research facilities.. anything!!
And to end, the PJ: Why is it that in spite of a think tank like Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram etc., the Congress party has failed to come out with any bright idea in all this while?
Ans: Because only one person is allowed to think in the Congress party.
The voters are talking anyway, but like people touched by the moon drops, our Congress leadership is wondering in delusion as to why this is happening. Madam, this is your coffee beans service. Smell the coffee.
1. Take the 9% growth rate statistic to the farmers committing suicide, to the small shop owners losing their livelihood to retail giants, to the small entrepreneur for whom things kept getting difficult till the recent budget; for the urban unorganised sector that still does not get easy loans and is therefore in the grip of the unorganised credit sector; the rural unorganised sector that is heavily in the grip of goons. Ask them what they think of your statistic. Income disparity in this country is today much higher than what it was when the BJP lost power. What is your hope?
2. VP Singh implemented the Mandal Commission- literally, on the corpses of hundreds of students. But neither he, nor his party was ever seen in power again. MMJ got into a similar tiff with the IIMs, and the BJP has not seen power since. Now you have Mr. Arjun Singh. Moral of the story: it is a bad idea to antagonise the students and their parents, and to play with the futures of meritorious students because they were not born into a certain caste.
3. For 50 years, this country has tried to rid its people of their labels of caste, religion and region. You might remember the old patriotic songs sung by your elders in the same party - Hind Desh ke niwasi, sabhi jan ek hain.. ?
Now, suddenly, the administration appears hell bent on pasting these same labels on people, with a vendetta। To get an admission, you need to indicate your caste. To get a bank account, you have to indicate your religion. To get a job, you must indicate your mother tongue. Whatever happened to merit?
4 It has been a long time since the 1984 riots, the Babri masjid, Operation Blue Star et al. Yet the congress has not been able to win back the "vote banks" that it lost then. There is a reason for that. A Sachar Committee and compensations for 1984 riot victims will not bring back those votes. Ever. Quit trying.
5. Interest rates are almost at the pre-reform levels. So is inflation. What is the difference between then and now?
6. Under the congress regime, there is never any explanation. EVER. Inflation rises within a matter of months. No explanation. Madam comes up with a quote like "Retail FDI on hold". No explanations(don't worry, the whole country knows the names of companies that benefit from this. There are very few Indian retail companies that are going it alone). Interest rates continue to rise because the RBI thinks that liquidity = inflation. No explanation. What are economists like Singh and Chidambaram doing in the cabinet if a Lalu prasad Yadav can come up with a better budget?
So, let's see the report card.
1. Economic Reform: Interest rates high. No direction plan on h0w we want to use FDI and FII. Inflation rising and economic disparity rising even faster.
2. Social Reform: Zilch. Even the population control program has gone for a toss.
3. Politics: No accountability for politicians. Lok Sabha members can skip the house and still get paid. No Control on keeping out criminals.
4. Infrastructure: No master plan. Even the Golden Quadrilateral project has been sidelined. SEZs are a hazy concept.
5. Human Resources: Nothing even remotely forward looking in the areas of education, incubation of sports talent, Research facilities.. anything!!
And to end, the PJ: Why is it that in spite of a think tank like Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram etc., the Congress party has failed to come out with any bright idea in all this while?
Ans: Because only one person is allowed to think in the Congress party.
10 comments:
whom do you support then?
BJP?
you gotta agree that congress is the best option tht we have got.
and while its really easy to be sarcastic at most of the issues, finding a solution and then implementing them cud be a real headache.
And you kind of lose your credibility wen you try to mock manmohan and chidambaram.
but then you can write a similar post when any other party is in power. it makes me sad to see M M Singh . I have great respect for that man.
As for Mrs Gandhi.... well there is hardly anything to blame or commend...in that lady... I would not hold her responsible for things you say... We as voters made that choice...and didnt we know how this party works.
It is easier to sit and analyse and nothing wrong with that actually...
but I wish I knew how we could set things straight. :(
hi Satish:
I wrote a long comment to respond to yours, but then deleted it, bcs you are right about one thing- we do not have a solution. But if the Congress Party is the best that we've got, we are a very poor country indeed.
My personal solution is to vote for anything EXCEPT Congress till they get more transparent about their working and why they have dragged the country to this abyss.
Re. the mocking of MM Singh and PC, as a taxpayer, i am really not paying for their salaries based on what their previous academic laurels are. What are they doing now, as the PM and the FM of this country, respectively? And the answer to that is well known.
Hi Neihal:
What saddens me about the Congress is that each time they are in power, they come up with further divisive policies that lead to long term harm to the social fabric.
The Sachar and the Moily Committee reports are examples of this tenure. The emergency and the Bhindrawale episode are the earlier examples. Somehow, at the end of each tenure of this party, one is left with a more fragile social fabric and long term harm.
I could write a separate post on why the Sachar Committee is sooo misplaced when it comes to addressing the real need of the community, but more importantly, what is the objective of a committee for only one community?
Why is it that the policy makers did not think of a simple hurdle like land acquisition while doling out licenses for airports, SEZs etc.?
Nandigram will not be easily forgotten. It has created a socio-economic rift that will be difficult to manage.
Moily Committee recommendations have the potential to create another constitutional issue, and that was largely unnecessary.
It is the long term harm this party causes, that scares me. They sow the seeds of discord and then quietly enjoy the show.
I agree with all that you have to say. I understand too. But how does that make this party any better or worse than others. do you mean to say that the past governments like the third front or NDA had better tenures. I would disagree.
We may vote this party out, and most probably it will be, but the next one is going to do the same and we will again have Congress....its a vicious circle...its dismal :(
Hi Neihal:
Probably, the others did not have a better tenure in terms of things like social reform and immediate metrics(Incidentally, the BJP's statistics were better, but that could have been an accident, so will not harp on that).
The BJP's crimes in the direction of long term damage to the social fibre are limited to Godhra in one state during the last tenure. But what was remarkable was, that once they came to power at the center, they did not create policies that were discriminatory. They did not incite a certain section of society at the cost of the others. That was surprising because i really did expect them to.
I am not saying that the BJP is better. All I am saying is that every single tenure of the Congress Party gives us something to worry about. That is remarkably consistent performance.
Add to that the fact that we now know how that party works, and as you yourself indicated, if we vote them to power with this knowledge, we only have ourselves to blame.
hmmm...I was actually debating my ownself, and I was thinking exactly what you wrote.
my point is
The longer a party remains in power the worse it seems to get with each tenure... statewise whether its the Communist in Bengal, Thr RJD in Bihar, The BJP in Gujrat, Congress in Kerela...UP in different case, all parties equally bad.
i have to admit that i have strong rightist leanings (damn, can't believe i actually said it on a public forum) so i completely agree with what you've written. i'd vote for ANYTHING except for the congress.
actually, come to think of it, i'm more anti-left than pro-right.
weird.
thanks dear :))
HI Neihal: Let's just agree to disagree on this. I still believe that it will be criminal to vote that party to power esp. since we now know how it runs.
Hi memyself_n_i: Hmm... I really like that line.. more anti left than right.. its rare to find someone aware of the difference!
Hi Tell me no more: Anytime.. it really was hilarious!
I am not sure why we are shy to state the truth when we see it from an unbiased perspective, not coloured by media reports and neo-liberal tyranny of what is fashionable to say. The fact of the matter is that 2004 BJP did a far better job than the subsequent Congress governments. So why shy away from saying that BJP is better than congress ?
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