Tuesday, February 2, 2010

We gave them a second term, that is our mistake

Ever since the UPA government won the no confidence motion in Parliament, despite the Left giving it a cold shoulder over the heavily debated Indo US nuclear deal, Singh has truly remained the KING. Mr. Manmohan Singh has taken the Indian public into confidence, given the thumping victory Congress enjoyed in the general elections.

We brought them to power in true democratic spirit hoping to give them more time so that they can do a better job. We hoped against hope that anti incumbency will not help and felt UPA deserved a second term. May be that is a mistake we committed. There have been many gaffes and blunders, the government has committed quite easily, leaving us to suffer and ponder.

First, the faux pas at Sharam-el-sheikh in July 2009, right after the second term began, where the Prime Minister shook hands vigorously with our foe and made baseless, preposterous statements on Baluchistan. With a nation like Pakistan that plays with words and consistently nods a NO NO on its role in 26/11 attacks in India, despite our providing well prepared/organized dossiers of information revealing their role, we as Indians, expected our PM to be bolder, more ruthless and utmost careful with any dialogue with this elusive neighbor.

Gaffes continued. At Copenhagen, again, wrong hands shook together. This time it was environment minister Jairam Ramesh who without a second thought campaigned along with China against legally binding emission cuts. For the GDP percentage, we contribute; we as a nation are very well within our limits. China’s statistics speak of big breaches and severe action on them is mandatory to save Asia and the world overall. Where we should have stood alone without dirtying our hands, we joined with our enemy and managed to bring the Copenhagen summit to a total failure.

Not to forget, the birthday gift from Sonia Gandhi, this year, to Andhra people - the official affirmation to start the process of separate statehood for Telengana without even working out the logistics on Hyderabad which is the current capital. The past few weeks have exposed even more blunders.

We all know that the Pakistani players did not participate in IPL 2; the PCB instructed them not to. So why such outcry this time when they were not sold in IPL 3? The franchises made decisions on their own accord not to buy some members of the T20 world champion’s team. When the Union Home Minister was interviewed on whether the government had any influence on this decision, he must have just maintained an unusual calm and nodded a NO NO, the way Pakistan did and continues to do on the 26/11 issue. Why did he have to address the media on the disservice shown to Cricket by IPL organizers?

Why did Lalit Modi have to retract from his earlier stand and think of making an offering to the Pakistani players? Why did Deccan Chargers think of roping in Abdul Razzaq and then deny any such reports the next day? For a week, this news of IPL3 made rounds in media, all forgot that the Pakistani cricketers did not participate with true sportsman spirit in IPL 2 and therefore they have no right to clamor this time for getting snubbed.
I feel that the Union Home Minister must answer more serious concerns. The midnight announcement of liberation of Telengana, he made in haste, has spiraled into such a cataclysm that the IPL matches cannot be held in Hyderabad despite the city being the home ground of Deccan Chargers. Disservice to nation and people who voted for his party is of more serious concern than disservice to cricket.

What is this with the BT brinjal? On Feb 10, the nation must gear itself to meet the biggest gaucherie by the UPA. The Union Environment Minister has taken 10 days time to make a decision on deployment of BT Brinjal.
May we ask who this Mr. Jairam Ramesh is?
Can we not decide what we eat in a democratic nation?
Will Jairam Ramesh do that job for us and thrust his mercenary decisions on us?
Is the interest of corporations like Monsanto and Mahyco so important that it towers over the interests/concerns of multitude of environmentalists, scientists, farmers and most importantly, the consumers?
From Chandigarh to Hyderabad, the whole nation is protesting against BT brinjal, what more does the Union Minister want?
If he is going to say a NO, why take 10 days to speak in favor of the nations’ people?
If he decides to say YES, how can he decide on such a sensitive and complicated bioengineering/genetic issue which has profound and unfathomable effects on forthcoming generations within just 10 days?
Is India a democracy or a constitutional monarchy?
People from Northeast have clamored for more attention from the Centre for decades. However, the UPA has grossly misunderstood their requirement. It has performed a ridiculous act of providing a state like Meghalaya with 4 CM s. After committing such a wayward and silly error, an unimaginable violation of the constitutional propriety, they justify it saying there is effectively only one CM who is vested with decision-making powers, but three others with the rank of a CM who share all emoluments, security and privileges of that of a CM. We gave Congress/UPA a second term to provide basic amenities to common public (aam aadmi), to ameliorate our living standards, not to satiate the ego of politicians fighting for supremacy and power. When Pranab Mukherjee talked of cost cutting measures within the government asking Ministers to adopt frugal conduct, how does the same party perform such an ungracious act of anchoring 4 CM s in a state machinery? They quote the Constitution; we are forced to believe that our ancestors who drafted this constitution would not have foreseen such senseless behavior from future generations of politicians.
We gave the UPA a second term, it definitely appears a mistake now. But what do we do and whom do we turn our heads to? To BJP? The problems faced by Non Marathis in Maharashtra state has proliferated over time. The BJP did nothing to speak against its ally, Shiv sena which is perpetrating such acts all along. Suddenly, the RSS provides unconditional support to Non Marathis in Maharashtra and speaks openly about it. Just as we thought we did appreciate such a noble and bold act, we realize that there are elections round the corner in Bihar and it is just an act of votebank politics.
May be, we Indians, like our politicians, have become experts at committing blunders. We just have NO CHOICE.