Brickbats are flying all across. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has lashed out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar saying, “My prospects of being the Prime Minister does not let him sleep.” This is in reply to Nitish’s allegations that Modi does not have ample qualifications to be the PM and he is better suited for the role.
Why is Nitish so angry at Modi? Because he feels he has more experience than Modi, Modi has never won a Parliamentary election, Modi did not control 2002 riots, in fact fanned it and of course, the BJP leadership favours Modi. These were enough reasons for Nitish to break his 17-year alliance with the BJP a few months ago.
But doesn’t Nitish realise politics is all about who is favoured at the opportune time, irrespective of experience or credentials. We are not talking about Modi here, but in general that is the trend in politics.
How else can one explain that out of 203 candidates declared so far, one-third of them have criminal records. What is even more interesting is that out these one-third criminal candidates, which works out to be 70, about 34 have 224 cases against them. 224!!!! Can you beat that?
The cases include serious crimes like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, electoral violations, dacoity, etc. Dacoity! Whoever hears of dacoity now-a-days except in Sholay.
Some of the candidates with criminal background include Papu Yadav (he was acquitted of murder charges last year) and A. Raja (tainted in 2G scam). Well, that is the state of affairs. This is what gives birth to parties like Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). It is said that candidates with criminal background are denied AAP tickets. Now who wouldn’t want to support a move like that?
In fact, this whole ticket-issuing business has lent BJP a new name – Bharatiya Jhagada (fight) Party. Why? Because the BJP leaders are at war with each other within the party. As if the fights outside were not sufficient.
Like for instance, in Maharashtra, BJP leaders Gopinath Munde and Nitin Gadkari are pushing their own respective nominees for tickets.
In Karnataka, it is BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar Vs former Chief Minister B.S Yeddyurappa. Their differences seem to go back 10 years.
In Bihar, Ram Vilas Paswan’s alliance with BJP is creating lot of differences within the party. The party cannot help but wonder how they can justify Paswan’s entry – he who has never left a chance to tarnish Modi’s image.
Varanasi ticket also created a stir when Murali Manohar Joshi showed his reluctance to vacate the seat.
Getting back to brickbats, no amount of complaining and whining by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) can stop Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi from reiterating that Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse belonged to the RSS. Congress leader Kapil Sibal has also come openly in support of Rahul Gandhi’s allegation. Reacting to this allegation, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, an AAP member, appeals to everyone not to use the name of the Mahatma for elections.
In a major development, Former Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Amar Singh has joined Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). Accompanying him is Jaya Pradha who has also decided to be part of RLD. Defending his move to a new party, he commented in Hindi ishtyle – “Tum karo toh rasleela, main karun toh character dheela.” He certainly has been listening to lot of Hindi songs. He also took this opportunity to express his ‘love’ towards Sonia Gandhi and apologized for the past attacks on her.
All these attacks and allegations on one another…it sometimes makes one wonder, can a normal human being survive all these without losing his or her cool and sanity? How do the politicians take it? Is this the reason that they come across as thick skinned? In that case will an aam aadmi contesting from AAP develop an armour that retains sanity, maintains cool yet is not thick skinned?
Meanwhile, another person who has to take very deep breath and maintain his cool is Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M. Karunanidhi’s son M.K. Alagiri. He has been denied a ticket in the first list released by DMK today. Someone else has been assigned his constituency – Madurai. At least he can take solace that he was not named along with tainted DMK leaders like A.Raja and Dayanithi Maran who have been given the tickets.
Infosys has come a long way. Apart from being a global IT company, it has managed to churn out not just entrepreneurs but politicians too – Nandan Nilekani (co-founder of Infosys) and V. Balakrishnan (former Chief Financial Officer of Infosys). They would be contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Congress and AAP respectively. Who next from Infosys? It will be interesting to watch.
But hey! aren’t all aam aadmis supposed to join AAP? Then why did Nilekani chose Congress? Because he felt Rahul Gandhi is a revolutionary thinker and he was in sync with his ideologies. Well, each opinion to his own! But Nilekani’s induction into politics and that too into Congress, a party that has been dominated by dynasty politics, is certainly a turning point.
Meanwhile, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari has appealed to the Congress not to give tickets to people charged of corruption. This statement comes in the wake of speculation that tainted leaders Kalmadi (charged for Commonwealth Games scam) and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan (indicted in Adarsh scam) are likely to be given tickets. Is this the result of our anhda kannon’s andhapan – innocent until proven guilty?
In all this, the Sensex crossed the 22,000 mark for the first time and the rupee hit a seven-month high and is pegged at 60.80 per dollar. That is some fantastic news after all. Are the impending polls playing a role in the recovery? Who knows?
All one can say at the moment is that General Elections 2014 will certainly act as a catalyst to generate lot of news – good as well as bad – and the whole nation, nay the whole world is watching out for each development with great interest.
We will also be tracking the developments. Do stay tuned with us.
Related Information
India Elections
Lok Sabha Elections 2014
Election Results
Bihar Election
Bihar Election Results
Gujarat Election
Gujarat Election Results
Varanasi Election Results
