General Elections 2014 – Day 60

General Elections 2014

Politicians in their speeches always claim to be sensitive and sympathetic to grieve of common man. But all those claims sound vacuous when petty politics is played over killings of innocent civilians by extremist forces. It makes one wonder if the leaders are losing their humanity for the sake of earning few extra votes.

In Assam, death toll in ethnic clashes has risen to 32. Increasingly the situation looks grim and horrific with suspected Boro militants (NDFB) killing hapless civilians. Reports suggest commoners mostly migrants belonging to minority community have been mostly targeted. Most violence has been reported from the districts of Baksa and Kokrajhar which come under Boroland Territorial Council. Now army has been called in to control the situation as thousands are reportedly fleeing the area fearing further violence.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has refused to resign saying that terrorists can’t deter him from his duties. He has asked NIA to carry out the probe. But the usual game of political blame game has started. Congress leader and Union Minister Kapil Sibal today accused BJP of fanning violence in Assam. He alleged that BJP supporters and leaders are spreading communal violence in the social media by using morphed pictures.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has also blamed BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for stoking violence. Incidentally Modi in recent times have mentioned that people who have migrated from Bangladesh illegally should start packing their bags. Omar alluded to that statement saying, “”Three days earlier, he (Modi) went there and branded all Muslims as Bangladeshis and today 30 Muslims have been put to sleep in the grave”.

However these ethnic clashes are not new. As late as in 2012 similar incidents occurred. BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad tried to put the blame squarely on Central government. He said that vote bank politics of Congress party has led to this situation. He attempted to drag Prime Minister Manmohan Singh into this controversy saying that P.M has been Rajya Sabha member from Assam for last 25 years but has done very little to address these thorny issues.

As Assam continues to burn, political activities have reached near crescendo in the 100 odd constituencies yet to be voted. Also talks have started about possible post poll equations. Congress leaders had initially floated a possibility that they may give support to a third front government to keep Narendra Modi at bay. But their plan has been virtually vetoed by party Vice President Rahul Gandhi. He categorically ruled out any such possibility today. Rahul expressed hopes that UPA alone will get the requisite numbers to form the next government. He further added that the party would rather seat in the opposition than join hands with other forces.

Soon Narendra Modi jibed at Rahul saying that the Congress leader has been forced to change stance after realising its ill effect on poll prospects. He said that Congress could never anticipate that their house of cards would collapse in this way. Earlier in the day Modi took to Twitter to hit out at government over lack of professionalism of Doordarshan.

He rued dearth of press freedom even invoking the memories of Emergency period. Controversy had erupted over DD editing out parts of Narendra Modi’s interview.

Meanwhile poll fervour in Amethi has reached its peak. Modi’s closest aide Amit Shah today arrived there to help Smriti Irani defeat Rahul Gandhi. Reports suggest that he plans to rope in LJP leader Chirag Paswan to mobilize the backward class votes. Top BJP leaders including Narendra Modi are slated to campaign in this Gandhi bastion next week.

Amit Shah today slammed UPA’s decision to assign a judge to investigate the Snoopgate incident at this fag-end of its tenure. He said that they do not have any moral or constitutional rights to assign a judge and blamed Congress’s dirty trick department of trying desperate measures. Incidentally, the judge will probe whether a young techie was followed by Gujarat police on behest of Modi. Amit Shah’s name had also been earlier dragged into the controversy.

Senior BJP leader Venkaih Naidu today said that NDA will review all the panels formed by the present government after announcement of LokSabha polls. Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley chided the Congress leaders asking why they are afraid of sitting in the opposition. He added salt to their injury saying in a democracy; even opposition has a constructive role to play. The senior politician said that leaders of the grand old party would do well to reconcile to the fact that they will not get the mandate to govern.

One party which has been widely projected to perform miserably in this election is Janata Dal United (JDU). Seems like even JDU leaders have read the writings in the wall and now all the internal squabbling are coming out in public. Senior JDU leader Sharad Yadav today slammed his party colleague and Bihar C.M Nitish Kumar for playing caste politics. He even equated Kumar to Lalu saying both have played divisive politics. Incidentally Yadav belonged to that faction of the party which was against severing ties with BJP.

CPIM general secretary said that the huge anti Congress wave in the country is being misinterpreted as Modi wave. He expressed hope that regional parties will also benefit from the apathy of people towards Congress.

Leaders of two prominent regional parties though are at present busy sniping at each other. BSP leader Mayawati said that SP chief Mulayam is contesting from the second seat of Azamgarh to please his second wife!! She said that it is to pave the way for Mulayam’s son Prateek to contest by elections from here. Some days earlier U.P C.M Akhilesh Yadav had called Mayawati as aunt. BSP supremo today deemed Akhilesh as a Dalit hater saying that it would be an insult to consider him as brother.

The BSP leader, hugged by a man who set himself on fire during a TV show has passed away. The politician died late on Friday in hospital after suffering severe burns.

The local leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Kamruzzama Fauji, and his attacker were engulfed in flames during recording of a TV show. The motive of the attack is yet to be ascertained though the family claims political conspiracy behind it.

Staying with U.P, FIR has been lodged against Congress leader Beni Prasad Verma for his objectionable comments against Narendra Modi. Last night while campaigning for his party candidate, Beni called Modi a “monster” for his alleged involvement in 2002 riots. Two days ago EC had warned Beni against giving vitriolic speeches. Clearly he didn’t pay any attention to EC’s advice.

Finally everyday one learns something new courtesy gems delivered by our politicians. Today it was turn of Subramanian Swamy, who taught that there are several degrees of being Indian!!

Swamy said that Nobel winning Economist Amartya Sen is not a proper Indian, technically a visitor. He alleged Sen to be a foot soldier of Indian culture and said that he will not get a single headline in America. Sen has been openly critical of Narendra Modi thus attracting so much ire and venom.

Wish you all a great Sunday. We will be back with the top news.

Related Information:

Kokrajhar Election Result
Azamgarh Election Result
Amethi Election Result
Assam Election Results 2014
Gujarat Election Result
Jammu and Kashmir Election Result
Result of Election 2014