Love-tokens, not ballots

Girdhari lal bhargava,BJP MP, Rajasthan

“Our party contests only 24 Lok Sabha seats from Rajasthan. We do field a candidate for the 25th seat – Jaipur – but only as tokenism,” says Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Mumtaz Masih. It needs chutzpah for a Congress leader to say that about a BJP MP, but Girdhari Lal Bhargava has no enemy, nor political rivals. His first rival in 1989 was the erstwhile ruler of Jaipur estate, Col Bhawani Singh – and the two were, and are, great pals. “The 1989 election was unique, because both candidates would praise each other, often refusing to address public meetings if somebody raised slogans against the other,” says CL Gupta, a foundry owner and Bhargava’s neighbour since the past 54 years.

Winning six times on the trot is no mean achievement for any politician. But, 72-year-old Bhargava thinks nothing of that: “The entire city is like family. Don’t you take care of your family?” Sounds easy, but takes a lot of integrity! Jaipur denizens bear him out. Bhargava makes it a point to attend all city wedding receptions and more importantly, all funerals, often skipping Parliament sessions to meet such commitments. He has also endeared the Jaipur masses by personally taking the ashes of the demised from poor families from city crematoria to Hardwar to be immersed in River Ganga. “Now with old age, my frequency has reduced from one visit every month to one every two months,” laments Bhargava......Continue

Even our youngest parliamentarians are old enough to be youthful ''uncles''.

So well! While nearly 40 per cent of voters in India are in the 18-year-old age group, many Indian politicians are doddering old men. Many of the country's topmost positions are held by people aged 60-plus. Of the 31 Cabinet ministers, nine are in their seventies, 15 in their late sixties and three in their eighties. Only four ministers are in their forties and fifties. They do have wide experience. But what good is that when it cannot be made use of?


This is not to say that politicians need to have a retirement age; just that they should be able to function while they are in saddle. According to one survey, the average age of Lok Sabha is 53.

Barack Obama is America's President elect, and he is just 47. He is right now busy picking his team. And the man he has chosen to run the US treasury, Timothy Geithner, is his own age and heads the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. But to tackle the worst economic crisis in 80 years, Obama has recalled Paul Volcker (81), who, a full generation ago, had tackled the mid-80s' economic crisis in the US.

And the media has welcomed the choice, with SunTribune.com commenting: "Nobody knew whether his strategy would work. It certainly caused widespread pain. But by 1986, double-digit inflation was gone… Now Volcker is back… and if the president-elect follows his advice, there could be pain again and no doubt many protests but also the possibility of long-term benefits."

Indians have voted for the same thing: young dynamic leaders at the forefront, mature advisers to back them with wise counsel and the patience that comes only with age. As the TSI-ICMR survey shows, while 87 per cent believe experience plays a vital role in making a successful politician, 82 per cent still think that younger leaders would run the country a whole lot more efficiently. (See box). ....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

“BJP played politics with martyrs’ blood and lost”

Perhaps the most stunning verdict in the five-state polls – described as the ‘semis’ to the General Elections – was Sheila Dikshit’s Congress return to power a third time. She explained the whys and hows to TSI's Anil Pandey

Congress has created history by coming to power thrice in succession. Who do you credit this with?
The love and affection of the people and the skilful leadership of Sonia Gandhi is what has together made this possible.

Given the problems you had is this Sheila Dikshit’s victory or Congress'?
This is Congress’ victory. I am grateful to the people of Delhi and the party workers for this. I thank them for this win.

Did you ever sense you'd win?
I had full confidence over the achievements of my government. The massive scale of development spread over the past 10 years are evident to people. Which is why I knew always that we would win.

What are the major factors behind this win?
Citizens of Delhi want development. They are happy with our work. We have pushed developmental projects even in areas under opposition MLAs. We are moving heaven and earth to make Delhi into an international city. And the people have voted us to power a third time primarily to keep up the pace of development.

So would you say that people ignored BJP’s campaign against terror and price rise just because of development?
The BJP is playing politics with terrorism, and the people of Delhi know this. But Congress had gone to the people with development as the agenda, and they voted us back to power. The results are clear.

What are your new ministry's priorities after this victory?
To pace up the developmental works, and get ready for the Commonwealth Games. The prestige of the nation depends on how well we pull of the Games. Besides, we are still on the move to make Delhi the international city it deserves to be. And there are miles to go yet.

People talked about infighting in the Congress, about how your chances were going to get stymied.
That is what the BJP said, but we never had the kind of dissidence they did. Infighting in BJP almost led to sabotage during the BJP campaign. That never happened to the Congress. I had the support of my entire team and workers.....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

PRP-trs or tdp-trs-left?

A grand anti-Congress alliance is taking shape in Andhra Pradesh, with both Communist Party of India and Communist Party (Marxist) joining hands with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the combine has now invited Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to join them to dethrone the Congress. The communists have been spearheading the Telangana struggle even in British times and have a major base there. TDP has proved its prowess in Telangana by winning one-third of the seats during the by-elections, conducted due to mass-resignations of TRS legislators. The TDP-Left combine is surely going to influence the Telangana voters. Film star Chiranjeevi-led Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) has announced its willingness to have a pre-poll alliance with any opposition party.....Continue

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The Sunday Indian

Reluctant negotiator

Days after the stunning cycle of events, it became clear that India’s response to the deadliest ever strike on its soil by suspected Pakistan-backed terrorists in Mumbai, has been caught in a time warp. Apart from summoning the Pakistani High Commissioner, Shahid Malik, and putting up an old list of its most wanted, including the likes of Dawood Ibrahim and Azhar Mahmood, India’s reaction has been weak kneed. A mild-mannered Manmohan Singh has refrained from directly naming Pakistan but investigators probing the multi-layered case say they have come up with concrete connections with the neighbouring country, including phone numbers, addresses, telephonic intercepts, products with labels, all pointing to a 'Made in Pakistan' tag.

The prevailing view in New Delhi is that the attack could not have emanated on President Asif Zardari's orders but the ISI and the Army which are out of his control.

Most important for India is the account of captured terrorist Mohammed Amir Qasab, who after indulging in an orgy of killing, was arrested on the night of November 26. The demarche served to the Pakistani envoy was not different from what Pakistani diplomats in Delhi are used to receiving: the charge of their country’s complicity in the numerous bomb blasts, which have claimed thousands of lives in India, demand that top terrorists and criminals stationed on Pakistani soil be returned, and terror camps like that of the Lashkar-e-Taiyaba (LeT) be closed forthwith....Continue

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The Sunday Indian