An Indian view on history, current affairs and politics

March 27, 2023

Content Tagged "BJP"

Congress Party – The Sore Losers

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The much awaited results on 16 May 2014 are now out. For the nation the results have brought a lot of hope. For the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) the results have brought fulfillment of a dream beyond their expectations but with loads of responsibilities. The Congress party feels it has been hit with a ton of bricks and their very existence seems to have been reduced to a laughable presence in the parliament where they cannot even claim to be the main opposition. Some regional political parties have been shown the door by the electorate while a few parties have …continue reading

16 May 2014 – Day of Hope or Despair

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16 May 2014 is likely to be a watershed day in the modern History of India. This is the day that will decide the fate and future of not only the major political parties in India but also of a lot of current and potential political leaders of the nation. The long drawn out election period has seen many an intense battles among prominent political leaders as also the emergence of a new political force and its leaders in the form of Aam Admi Party (AAP). The rhetoric has ranged from the sublime to absolutely low down gutter induced expressions …continue reading

The Modi Impact

Narendra Modi

The war of words between the Congress and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) is going from bad to worse. Other regional parties like SP, TMC, BSP, AIDMK and National Conference too have joined the Congress in the BJP, read Modi, bashing act. It is BJP versus all others since not only Congress but nearly every political party in the country has only one aim – how to keep Mr. Modi away from New Delhi. Day in and day out one can see the tired and crest fallen faces of the Congress leaders on various news channels trying to put Mr. Modi …continue reading

Social Media Khaps

social media

If Calvin the comic character could affix a halo to the back of his head and say this ‘the season to be jolly’, then many of us who are getting ink on our fingers should proclaim that tis the season to be politically pithy. We raise banners and call ourselves nationalists without knowing what our MPs and MLAs are doing in our area. We claim ourselves politically astute because our values tend to match with those of political parties (I have no idea how that happens). We again, care for our country and want a certain political party to come …continue reading

TsuNamo sweeps Varanasi

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Even the most die hard of Modi supporters wouldn’t have anticipated the kind of response Modi received from Varanasi on his nomination day today. it was a stunning and awe inspiring show of support from the city for BJP’s PM nominee Narendra Modi. Just a day back, media’s blue eyed boy, Arvind Kejriwal filed his nomination from this seat. In a show of strength, his party AAP, managed to converge a lot of its volunteers from different parts of country, mostly Delhi NCR and U.P for the road show that preceded his nomination. Around 5-10 thousand people, mostly AAP volunteers from outside, local Muslims and …continue reading

Who is the real liberal?

Wendy

The recent controversy over Penguin India’s decision to withdraw and pulp Wendy Doniger’s book “The Hindus: An alternate history” has once again sparked the debate about freedom of expression issues in India. The decision to withdraw the book was taken by publisher following a legal battle with a group of Hindus led by President of Sanatan Dharma foundation, Dinanath Batra. The objection raised by this group relates not only to the factual inaccuracies in the content which for the most part shows shoddy research and poor translation of Hindu texts on the authors part but more importantly the author uses outlandish …continue reading

Story of a Narendra Modi rally

NamoInGkp

Manbela, Gorakhpur: If you’re afraid of crowded places, you should avoid Modi rallies. I’ve covered Modi’s Delhi and U.P rallies. The crowd has consistently been above 3-4 Lakhs. I’m sure congress will be willing to pay a fortune to get such an audience for Rahul’s rally. The overwhelming public participation in a state where BJP was lagging at the fourth place is a testimony enough of a strong Modi wave. Till six months back Mulayam, Mayawati and a host of other UP leaders were dismissing Modi citing the complexities of UP electorate. Their arrogance has given way to panic as ground reports indicate a …continue reading

I see hope in Narendra Modi

Modi KP

[This article has been submitted by Praveen Koul, a Kashmiri Pandit. Born in Budgam, his family moved to a refugee camp in Jammu, he grew up listening to stories of his home in Budgam and the atrocities that forced his family to flee. He hopes of going back to his ancestral home one day] Today, twenty four years after the day mass exodus of Kashmiri pandits began in valley, a delegation of Pandits met Narendra Modi with memorandum. It said,“Challenge to the idea of Indian Nation state continues in Kashmir in one or the other form. Extirpation of entire Kashmiri …continue reading

The Monk who sold aam aadmi’s ferrari

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There is no doubt upcoming 2014 parliamentary election is going to be a historic one. For the first time positive agendas like development and effective governance are dominating the political discourse. Anti corruption agenda has got a major fillip with entry of AAP. Countless elections were fought with corruption as the main electoral plank. Rise of VP Singh post Bofors scandal is still the best example of electoral reversals driven solely by anti corruption agenda. Despite the cynicism prevalent since then, Arvind Kejriwal has successfully managed to rake this issue up once more. There are stark similarities between both situations. The anti corruption campaign led by VP …continue reading

Kerala: BJP’s southern conquest

NamoInKerala

While the overzealous media is busy propping up AAP in an apparent attempt to pit Kejriwal’s party against BJP in order to contain Modi, BJP is busy not only consolidating it’s strongholds but breaking new grounds. The glee with which congress is willing to endorse Kejriwal betrays the animosity displayed by AAP towards congress and hints towards a tacit understanding between both. If the assumption is that such a plan would succeed against Modi then probably they fail to recognize the genius of Modi. He is not just a master strategist and a skilled orator but a genius in organizational skills. It’s no …continue reading

The failed opposition

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Recent assembly election results threw up an anomaly. An aberration in what was supposed to be a 4-0 clean sweep for BJP. The anomaly was Delhi. The result was surprising in many ways. The BJP which won 2/3rd majority in Rajasthan and M.P stopped just 4 short of majority. Congress was decimated and went down from 43 to 8. AAP the underdog rose from Nil to 28. Result was interpreted in a million different ways. The group generally termed as LIMP (liberal, intellectual, media and politicians) used it to dismiss the Modi wave. AAP on the other hand viewed it …continue reading

It’s time to hang your boots Advaniji !

advani

That, most of us don’t know when to stop, is a known fact. We work hard, struggle, survive, succeed and then relax hoping to reap the well deserved benefits of our struggle. Time flies and we remain cocooned refusing to sense the changing winds. The resulting conflict leads to a lot of emotional turbulence and gives birth to a sobbing and sore old man living in his past. Pictures of a weeping Advani at recent book launch function is an example of this conflict. Frankly, Advani has wept too often in public for it to be a news anymore. For …continue reading

How Anna outfoxed Kejriwal in his own game

ANNA_SUPPORTERS

So we finally saw a rare consensus among parties in parliament. After a decade of commotion, squabbling and stalled work, what the Indian parliament did on Lokpal bill was refreshing and a welcome sight. A Bill envisaged 46 years ago and deliberately allowed to gather dust by successive governments finally got life. It’s one of those occasions when the MP’s deserve accolades and i’m glad Anna thanked them. The struggle for this bill isn’t without its share of controversies. The Janlokpal movement that exploded on national scene spearheaded by an unlikely octogenarian Gandhian Anna seemed fizzled out once Arvind Kejriwal …continue reading

AAP The road ahead

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This article was submitted by Rakam Singh Bhati, an AAP volunteer from Trilokpuri Delhi. Published after minor semantic changes approved by the author. The underdog has performed. David Kejriwal has slayed the mighty Goliath Sheila. The work that started under Anna three years back, blossomed into a political movement last year. The blood and sweat of thousands of volunteers over last one year has paid off. Based on the reactions we got from public, we knew AAP has a chance but to see it trump the congress and stop the BJP is a real achievement. For the first time people have a …continue reading

Burning with Jealousy, the sad case of Nitish Kumar

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“Ye sirf blower ki hawa hai (blower’s wind), koi leher nahi hai (not a [Modi] wave)” screamed the headlines of national dailies, quoting Bihar’s Chief Minister and JDU Chief Nitish Kumar taking a jibe at Mr. Modi after results of Delhi elections were out. These days his only claim to media space is a comment on Modi. He conveniently missed out the fact that despite his massive rallies, only one of his 27 candidates won in Delhi. The one who won had joined JDU just before elections and had earlier won on JD, JDS and LJP tickets. It is a …continue reading

The obsession with dismissing the Modi wave

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By Sunday evening, the results of elections in the states of Rajasthan, MP, Chattisgarh and Delhi were out. The results were nothing short of spectacular for BJP. Yet, predictably the Indian media was churning out stories by dozens as to how the so called Modi effect failed. Political pundits, journalists, even congress spokespersons were at pains trying to prove how a Modi wave did not exist. Newspapers the next day were littered with same stories. Media space was mostly shared between singing paeans on AAP and Kejriwal and disproving a Modi effect. While this partiality is baffling, it is not …continue reading

The 2013 Delhi election stalemate

Delhi Elections

So the final tally in Delhi stands at BJP 32, AAP 28, Congress 8, Others 2. What are the options for government formation in Delhi. Two clear messages that have come out do not elicit any hopes. AAP has, understandably, denied either taking or offering support to either congress or BJP. AAP has recieved the mandate based on Anti Congress BJP plank and it would be political harakiri if they attempted that. AAP also hopes that the current results will help it gain more votes in case of a reelection. The non BJP votes and those who have voted for …continue reading

Why AAP’s brinkmanship maybe it’s Achilles heel

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“Sheila gone, Modi next”, screamed headlines of a national daily quoting AAP leaders. Buoyed by their unexpected success, the exuberance of AAP leaders is understandable, however going by their utterances on news channels, seems they’re taking this seriously. AAP’s debut in Delhi is spectacular given that they’re just a year old party. A party made up entirely of volunteers, although a sting earlier by media-sarkar showed this may not be true, campaign driven by nukkad sabhas, concerts and massive social media propaganda seems to have conveyed the message to their targeted audience. They need to be congratulated for this performance. …continue reading

The Magnificent failure of Rahul Gandhi

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To an external observer, the obscene amount of time, money and effort spent by the massive congress propaganda machinery in propping up, praising and defending Rahul Gandhi was more than enough to turn your street corner paanwallah into Tom Cruise. Yet, the Shahzada, as lovingly called by Modi, appears as dry, as lame as ever. There is absolutely nothing in his personality that appeals to the common Indian. The only claim to fame Rahul has is increasing congress tally in 2009 elections in UP to 21, however with the benefit of hindsight it can very well be called a fluke. …continue reading

Narendra Modi magic works wonders for BJP in elections 2013

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While the results of the provincial elections in 4 states of Delhi, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are still coming in, the trend that is clearly evident is that congress is getting routed everywhere. Narendra Modi’s message of “congress mukt” Bharat is getting realized. BJP has got more than 2/3rd majority in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Way beyond anyone’s predictions. There were voices both within and outside BJP that Modi’s elevation as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate will hurt party’s prospects in assembly elections. Political pundits, media and political parties were unanimous is stating how this would tun into a referendum …continue reading

Narendra Modi and a billion aspirations

Narendra Modi

What is it about Narendra Modi that makes him invincible against seemingly impossible odds? Never before in the history of independent India has a man, let alone a politician, been attacked, slandered, maligned, abused and insulted the way he has been. An extremely hostile central government with all its might, so called secular parties, a largely biased mainstream media, civil society members and NGOs with vested interests and ulterior motives colluded to unleash decade long Gobblesian propaganda full of hatred, misinformation and disinformation to discredit the beleaguered man. The hate campaign wasn’t just limited to India but had international reach. …continue reading

Sting for hire !

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Last week an interesting sting titled #operationbluevirus was presented before Indian media by an investigative portal named cobrapost in an elaborate press conference covered live by few channels. The sting through a series of secretly filmed discussions tried to build up a case that social media in India was being controlled and manipulated by select IT firms and it wasn’t really as independent as it seemed. From fake followers, fake likes to running online propaganda in favor of or against political parties or their candidates, IT firms seem to do all that for a fixed sum as per the sting. …continue reading