When Narendra Modi takes a sweet revenge on Nitish Kumar.

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         When Narendra Modi takes a sweet revenge on Nitish Kumar—The syndrome of Alexander and  Porus revisits India yet again.

 

The 2020 election of Bihar was nothing short of referendum on Nitish Kumar’s performance for the last five years. Coupled with this, the foisting of the albatross of Chirag Paswan around the neck of Nitish Kumar by the Prime Minister, was a definitive step to cripple Nitish Kumar politically so that the latter will be at the mercy of the former for returning to power. No wonder then, Narendra Modi has wonderfully succeeded in his objective to pin Nitish Kumar down to ensure that the Sushashan Babu continues to remain at 1 Aney Marg, not as the representative of the people of the state, but as the representative of the Prime Minister to do his bidding. Incidentally, both the gubernatorial offices –which of late has been reduced to that of the spokespersons of the BJP, as West Bengal governor has so unimpeachably vindicated–and now, the office of a lameduck chief minister who stays in 1 Aney Marg as the dummy of the Prime Minister. Willy -nilly Narendra Modi has taken the sweet revenge on Nitish Kumar for an open humiliation meted out to him way back in 2013, when the chief minister of Bihar had not only condescendingly refunded the cheque of rupees five crore donated by his Gujarat counterpart for the flood victims of Bihar, but had impertinently cancelled the  banquet dinner that he was destined to host for Modi. Small wonder then, Modi’s current gifting of chief minister’s post to Nitish Kumar is anything other than the Alexander like exhibition of large heartedness to gracefully concede the post of the chief minister to the vanquished Porus-like- Nitish Kumar.

As I already wrote in my last article: Is it the time for Nitish Kuamr to pack up from 1 Aney Marg?’–visited by scores of people from India and USA—I had prophesied that it was the time for the chief minister of Bihar to gracefully move away from the official residence of the chief minister, because he is no longer the darling of the masses as he used to be once upon a time. On the contrary, Nitish Kumar had lost the trust of the people of Bihar, as the latest outcome of the electoral extravaganza so prima facie signifies. Interestingly, the crucial countdown that began yesterday, was a prolonged affair, with the vicissitudes of fortunes of Tejaswi, Nitish and Narendra Modi—because BJP had sought votes in his name–continued to fluctuate as the pendulum of the electoral wheels oscillated between one end to that of the other. At the initial phase, with the kickstarting of the counting of the postal ballot boxes, it became imminent that RJD was going for a sweep; however, the situation soon began to brighten up for BJP, not for Nitish Kumar’s JDU. Worse still, as the counting advanced, and BJP was going gung ho, the party leaders soon trained their guns on Nitish Kumar for bringing NDA to this pathetic state. In fact, the political analysts and the BJP leaders so bluntly alleged that it was JDU which did an immense damage to the NDA’s overall prospect of a comfortable win: It was the laggard JDU, which proved to be liability for BJP, as Congress had proved to be for RJD. Significantly, Nitish Kumar was the whipping boy for one and all for dragging NDA backward. Coupled with this, the speculation galore had kick-started that Nitish Kumar should be dumped in favour of some leader of BJP for the position of a chief minister. 

Significantly, Nitish Kumar was afflicted with the anti-incumbency factor. Added to his owes, was his insensitive handling of the Covid 19 crissi when, far from applying the balms to the bruised Bihari ego, the so- called palanquin bearer of the pride of being ‘Yes, I am Bihari’ tag, Nitish Kumar had played a cruel joke upon the people of the state by putting the barricades on the borders of Bihar, thereby prohibiting the tens of thousands of Biharis from entering their homes. Such  a cruel gesture coming from the chief minister of the state, was unprecedented in independent India. Contrast Nitish’ aberration with that of the approach of Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal,  who, notwithstanding her lapses galore, she stood up to proclaim that, ‘So  long as I am alive, no a single Bengali, living outside West Bengal, will suffer’. Bravo Mamata! who dared to pick up the gauntlet against the avalanche of odds that were stacked against her, while the chief Minister of Bihar goes bonkers with his jittery fulminations for his own people. Whereas the severe limitation of the health infrastructure had influenced Nitish Kumar to express his strong resentment against the return of migrant labourers in droves towards their homes, the sheer zeal of providing solace to hapless lots of victims of the state apathy, should have been the sufficient reason for him to rise to the occasion. But that was the test of the leadership of Nitish Kumar; in fact, the test of leadership comes only in such adversarial situations when a leader is faced with   severe hardships, exhibits his leadership vision, foresightedness to overcome the insurmountable difficulties. Nitish Kumar, the man who proved to be the man Friday in the past, has lost his glow and salience in the evening of his career. .

Incidentally, this historic election which was all set for a change in the leadership, is sadly being alleged to have been rigged. In fact, there is a substantive reason to believe so: It is marred by the series of accusations and allegations that the election was rigged, for the margin of victory for some of the candidates by barely a margin of 12 votes, while one of the candidates of the Congress Party, who was declared a winner, when he went to collect his certificate, he was declared as the loser, lends credence to the allegations of RJD foing rounds. No wonder then, the Machiavellian efforts were on to make NDA winners by fair or foul means. In their sheer jest and enthusiasm to ensure victories for the NDA candidates, the chief minister’s office was accused of orchestrating the plot to ensure victory for the defeated candidates from the precipice of defeat, a victory, indicts Nitish Kumar more than anyone else. Significantly, if the allegations, as made by the RJD leadership which, given the situations as appears on the ground, does vindicate that the foul game was played to enact a sordid drama to ensure the victory for NDA, will go down as the saddest chapter of democracy where, the parties in power went all out to ensure the victory of their candidates, notwithstanding the fact that, in the process of doing so, all the democratic principles and values were blown into the smithereens by those presiding over the destinies of the state and the nation. Why blame Laloo Yadav for his Jungle Raj when you all are bent upon doing the same malpractices which you so vociferously accuse Laloo Yadav of perpetrating when he presided over the destiny of Bihar’, people of Bihar appear to ask. Regrettably, is it the same Nitish Kumar who had resigned from the post of a chief minister in the year 2,000 when he failed to mobilise a majority but bluntly refused to follow the path of unfair means and take recourse to unprincipled stand to secure the majority to win power? Obviously, the difference becomes self- explicit: In 2,000, Nitish Kumar was influenced by Vajpayee’s lofty principles to relinquish power if it doesn’t come through fair means–‘Chimta say bhi main power ko chuna nahi pasand karunga jo anaitikta kay adhar par ho’–In 2020, Narendra Modi  and Amit Shah believe in capturing power by hook or by crook. .

Irrespective of the consequence of the outcome of the legal dispute pertaining to the large scale rigging of Bihar’s election, the roads to Nitish Kumar’s next innings at 1 Aney Marg is going to be anything but a smooth sailing. He will be dancing to the tune of Narendra Modi who is the happiest man today. In fact, Narendra Modi and his party colleagues would be exultant as never before: ‘Ab aaya utt pahar kay nichay’, Modi and his cohorts would be gloating with the apparent contempt that they continue to harbour for Nitish Kumar, for Narendra Modi could never ever forgive his insulty or humiliation. The living evidence of the same is, Sanjay Joshi, languishing in the periphery of Sangh Parivar’s pyramid. Narendra Modi, a master of real politicking, has so fastidiously, yet definitively laid a trap for Nitish Kumar: He had serendipitously stumbled upon a living albatross for Nitish Kumar: Chirag Paswan, much like his father, proved to be a pinprick for Nitish Kumar by proving a nemesis for him right from the kick- starting of the campaign. The Hanuman of his Ram- Modi, Chirag was planted by Modi and Shah to be the albatross around the neck of Nitish Kumar, which he did to his hilt–spoiled the applecart of Nitish’ party at several places. Although he had dealt a cruel blow to Nitish Kuamr at the bidding of his master, he had not done anything good for his party, other than getting himself incorporated in the good book of Narendra Modi, who may reward him with ministerial post in the coming months in place of his  deceased father. 

History repeats itself in abundance. Today, the syndrome of Alexander and Porus revisits India in different costumes. Narendra Modi, in the garb of Alexander the great, has taken a compassionate view  of the pitiable condition that Nitish Kumar is in today like Porus in the ancient India—neither he can forge an alliance with Tejaswi, seeking the chief ministerial position with just 39 seats, nor can he claim back his pre-eminent position before in the pre- election phase. Nitish Kumar, whose love for the chair is an open secret, like a limpet, has been attaching to the chair and consequently he will continue to do so, for there is hardly any road visible for him from the cul de sac. Also, BJP, fully aware of his obsession with the chair, is all set to exploit him, for the fact remains clear to one and all: He will seldom be allowed to be his own man in exercising the decision making power. No wonder Narendra Modi, like Alexander, had returned him the  throne of the chief minister and even his residence at 1 Aney Marg, but what he had snatched from him is, the freedom to remain his own man. Much like Porus when he sought to discuss with Alexander as a king would with other king, Nitish today is representing Porusby seeking the restoration of his throne–his continued occupation of 1 Aney Marg. Hence in this backdrop, the best option for the chief minister would be to quit, yet he cannot do it, for his party members would not allow him to do so, lest  moving away from 1 Aney Marg risks JDU’s even further marginalisation in the  area of governance and decision making. Today, Nitish is left tottering on the precipice of an engulfing dilemma: to play second fiddle to Narendra Modi in Delhi and Sushil Modi in Bihar. Nitish should ask himself just one question: Where his political opportunism has so mercilessly brought him today: oscillating from one end of pendulum to the other. First in the lap of Laloo Yadav, and now in the lap of Narendra Modi, self- styled Sushashan Babu is the prisoner of his own politics of opportunism. 

Vivekanand Jha is an author of ‘Yes, I am Bihari’ and an upcoming book The People’s leader.     

Is it the time for Nitish Kumar to pack up from 1 Aney Marg?

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Is it the time for Nitish Kumar to pack up from 1 Aney Marg?

 
Notwithstanding the sense of optimism prevailing on the surface in the JDU camp, there is an underlying sense of despondency brought about by the exit polls which give a clear verdict in favour of Tejaswi Yadav, a  prospective occupant of 1 Aney Marg. Worryingly enough, if Chanakya Today’s exit poll prediction comes to be true, which unambiguously allocates JDU winning just 11 seats, and given the fact that it has already established its robust credibility, it would be the biggest debacle for the Sushashan Babu, for, despite all his orchestrated claims of having brought Bihar onto the trajectory of an upward mobility, the ground reality fails to inspire any confidence. No wonder if Nitish is handed out the resounding defeat as the exit poll predicts, it would be the ghosts of millions of Bihari migrant workers who will collectively come to haunt him tomorrow for their being treated so disdainfully by the chief minister that no politicians in the recent history ever did.

Has the political innings of the chief minister who gave direction to the Bihar’s polity for decades, come to an abrupt end, as the exit polls have come to predict, is the moot question that the common men and women of Bihar are purportedly asking  themselves? Significantly, it was Nitish Kumar who was exulting when the Election Commission had announced the dates for the election, presuming that the divided house of opposition presented a little challenge for him. Coupled with the emasculated opposition hardly in a position to confront him , Nitish Kumar’s own invincible image was sufficient reason for all hubris that reflected in the attitude of Bihar’s chief minister and his coalition partner BJP when, relegating the genuine problems confronted by the people of Bihar—while Covid 19 engulfed them in its octopus like grip, the perennial flood problem enmeshed them as usual–but all these hardly deterred the chief minister from taking cognizance of the genuinie catastrophe that afflicted the benighted people of his state. However, his pivotal agenda was that, in the event of election being held, he will unequivocally return to power. Alas, Nitish would have reflected on the fact that there is a supreme power influencing the course of events where men, whatever the level of their intelligence or ability to foresee the things, inevitably reduced to pygmies. Paradoxically, while Nitish Kumar was gung ho on his impending victory at the hutings, that he intended the election to be held in time, in no condition to be postponed, Tejaswi Yadav and the Congress Party, sceptical and apprehensive of their surer rot, if election was held in time, even went to the Supreme Court to persude the apex court to postpone it in view of the natural calamity and Covid 19 hitting the people of the state terribly hard. Unequivocally then, even though masquerading their own vulnerability in the garb of the public interest, to getting the election postponed, Tejaswi Yadav and Congress Party had successfully projected themselves as pro- people, whereas Nitish and the BJP had purportedly proved themselves as the opportunists who, sensing their clear victory if the election was held quickly in time, were seeking its conduct while being condescending, if not disdainful, to the humongous woes of the people. This was the first victory of RJD and Congress combine in the eyes of the people, and the eviction of Nitish Kumar and the BJP from the hearts of the people of Bihar. 

Nevertheless, neither Nitish Kumar nor BJP had foreseen any such propect where the situation would be exactly the opposite of what they had perceived. Further, BJP and even Nitish Kumar, had the Brhmashtra in their quiver: ‘Har Har Modi, ghar ghar Modi’ was already there to ensure them the victory, even if all their plans went topsy turvy. They believed that, with the entry of Narendra Modi, in campaigning for Bihar election, will change the overall mood of the people, even if  far lesser mortals like Tejaswi Yadav may have successfully drawn the large gathering of crows in their public rallies. And rising to the occasion, Modi took the charge with his counter slogan: ‘Yuvraj, Jungle raj’, a clarion call to intimidate Biharis to comulsively veer around Nitish and BJP, even if they had nothing else to showcase. Narendra Modi knew that he had doled out the biggest injustice to the people of Bihar by forcing them to flee in millions from their adopted states, without any respite at sight. Added to this back breaking ordeal was the display of step motherly treatment of their very own chief minister who never tired in showcasing the Bihari Asmita, by celbrating Bihar Diwas, squandering crores of the public money for his own publicity stunt. Ironically, Nitish Kumar, who not too, in the distant past, had taken the pioneering initiative to forge a pan Bihari identity, by invoking ‘Han, Ham Bihari Hain’, had no compunction in closing the borders of the state for the unfortunate tens of thousands who, feeling all sorts of persecutions, were desperately seeking to come back to their homes. Unequivocally, Nitish Kumar had done a grave injustice to the millions of migrants during the botched lockdown plan, even though he tried to make up for the same by tending to them at the later stage. But, by then the maximum damage to his image was done. 

The election of 2020 will go down in history as the one where both Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi had used a single ammunition to inject dread in the hears of 14 crores of the people of Bihar by telling them: ‘ Either vote for us or invite the Jungle raj to return under the Yuvraj, indicating Tejaswi Yadav as the Yuvraj whose parents, decades ago, were indicted by the Patna High Court, for presiding over the Jungle raj. Ironically, if the Prime Minister took recourse to intimidating the people by dangling the prospect of Jungle raj to return, if Nitish Kumar was not voted to power, was the vindication of the fact that the NDA government, in the last five years, had simply failed to live up to the expectations of the people, had done no tangible work against which it might seek the people’s mandate. No wonder Modi and Nitish had only an abhorrent invocation to inject a dread in the people so that they would somehow be conviced to vote for them, even if they had drastically failed on all other fronts. But then Tejaswi  had delivered a googly that became simply unplayable for both Modi and Nitish Kumar: announded 10 lacs jobs, which brought the real issue on the centre: What did Nitish do for the last five years when no tangible employment  openings took place? Small wonder then all so-called braggadocio of Modi and Nitish simply failed to resonate with the milions of youths suffering from the chronic unemployment and corresponding rising of cost of living. Fair enough, Amit Shah’s absence from rallies where, if he were present, his cogent suggestion for the youths to take up ‘selling Pakodas’, would have been repelled with the youth of Bihar posing a counter question: Apna beta ko BCCI ka secretary aur dusron ka beta pakoda bikreta’, surely would have forced him to withdraw himself from the rallies, for Bihari youths are very prompt in throwing questions at their leaders. 

Tomorrow, 10th of November, 2020, a red- lettered day for Bihar, as well as for the nation’s upcoming likeliest evolving scenario. With the victory of Tejaswi Yadav and Congress, has  a surer recipe for the strengthening of India’s opposition. Also, it will vindicate the  fact that Narendra Modi’s invincibility was a bubble that had inevitably burst. Significantly, it will bring a new sense of confidence in the unity of the opposition that Modi is beatable and, therefore, the divided and scattered opposition can be brought together on a single platform. In fact, Saryu Roy had already proved the fact in the last assembly election in 2019 in Jamshedpur that Narendra Modi was not invincible; however, the victory of Tejaswi will further lend credence to the fact that Modi and BJP are a bubble which have burst. On the other hand, if Nitish Kumar secures a victory, it will surely be a refrendum on him as well as that of Narendra Modi, for the latter had condcted no less than eighteen rallies across Bihar to seek votes for NDA under Nitish Kumar, in this election. Further, this election is a greater test for Tejaswi; in fact, it is an ordeal by fire for him to refute the allegations that his forming the government invites the Jungle Raj in Bihar to return. He has to wash the sins and stigma that attaches his parents, because the providence does not give more than one opportunity to anyone to prove or disporove the allegations levelled against him and his family. Tejaswi appears cautious on this front as he has already issued a warning to his supporters not to burst crackers or engage in acts of lawlessness in the wake of his party’s victory. He has also proven the fact that he is inclined towards moving beyond caste permutation and combination, when he had given tickets to all the castes, including Brahmins and Rajputs. Let him don the mantle of being the palanquin bearer of ‘Yes, I am Bihari’ tag, by being truly a  Bihari who identifies himself as a  Bihari, without any caste as this writer had so overwhelmingly wished in his pioneer book Yes, I am Bihari—‘Na, Main Brahmin , na Solkhan, na main forward hun na hi backward, main keval aur keval aek Bihari hun’.  All said and done, tomorrow ie 10th of November will decide whether Nitish Kumar stays in 1 Ane Marg or he will have to bid good bye to it forever. On the other hand if else if Tejaswi wins, as he is most likely to, he is all the more welcome as the new resident of 1 Ane Marg.

 
Vivekanand Jha is an author of Yes, I am Bihari( Han, Main Bihari Hoon), the book which showcases the glory of being a Bihari at the global forum. He is also the author of an upcoming book The People’s leader. 

America does it again.

 America does it again.

The indubitable rise of raucous jingoism, and the consequential  relegation of ‘utilitarianism’ in politics is down with the sunset on the political innings of the maverick Donald Trump.

With the curtain down on the maverick, erstwhile president Donald Trump, the global community which came under the suffocating stress with the unpredictability of the world’s most celebrated democracy, has something  to celebrate at last: The darkening cloud gathered over the horizon of world wide democracy, has begun dispersing. No wonder then the return of Joe Biden to the Oval office, is definitively an august occasion for the democracies across the world that had begun experiencing a hovering cloud over their horizons for the last several years. With the dark lengthening shadow of fascism, having already stretched its menacing tentacles to engulf the democracies world wide, the departure of the iconoclast Trump had an embedded lesson for all democracies across the world, especially for India too: With the brand of politics followed by his comrade in arms, already falling casualty to the people’s ire, will Narendra Modi, determined to undo the institutional values of democracy in India, be chastened with the outcome of the presidential election, and consequently become democratic in his style of governance, or remain reconciled to embrace political hara- kiri for his refusal to draw lessons from Donald’ s humongous monstrosity of political profligacy brought about by his temperamental incongruities with cherished democratic ideals and institutional values, is a million dollars question?

Having been an avowed worshipper of democracy, especially the ones as espoused by the world’s great democrats like Jayaprakash Narayan and Martin Luther King 2, I, one of the Indians today, who stand thoroughly disillusioned with the present situation not only within India, but across the world. Invariably at times, a deluge of foreboding has  come to haunt me with the menacing thoughts criss- crossing my mind that, ‘ How could the universe conspire so mischievously to herald the galaxy of such leaders who, despite presiding over the time tested institutions of democracies, have so pathetically contributed to their degeneration, itself appeared an enigma to me? Significantly, my riddle became further complicated with the rise of like minded leaders from across the world, as if the universe has conspired against humanity to keep it under the pall of expanding gloom. In fact, by way of an endorsement of the famous novelist, Paulo Coehello’s world class novel, Alchemist, where he made a famous observation: ‘When you sincerely  aspire for something, the entire universe conspires to enable you to attain your desire’. It purportedly appeared that the universe has been so ardently aspiring to enable the fascists world wide to enable them to attain their common objective: to seamlessly transform  thriving democracies into the subtly manifest, fascism. The finesse with which it is  engendered, has its own skillful ways of orchestrating, where the vast populace remains immersed in singing panegyrics for the rulers of the day, with media brazenly being terrorised into submission, so much so that, abdicating its constitutional role of being the watchdog of the democracies, it exuberantly loves to perform the role of the government’s spokesperson. But then, far from being a recent phenomenon in India, it had reared its ugly head in the immediate wake of India liberating Bangladesh, way back in 1971.

In a democracy, the biggest fallout is, when its ruler triumphantly claims his or her ownsupremacy and promotes his/ her image as invincible as well as indispensable  leader for the country. No wonder such a ruler targets the three important pillars of democracy: Opposition, Judiciary and media, the emasculation of all these three in conjunction with each other, is the precursor to the onset of fascim. Also, such a ruler is always in the quest for cultivating some imaginery enemies to perpetuate his own hold over the power. Adolf Hitler, for that matter, had discovered in Jews his potential enemy and consequently polarised the Germans on the fictitious but, purportedly, a lofty ideal of so- called ‘superiority of Aryan race’. Inevitably, Goebbelsian propaganda followed to strengthen this concept of so- called supremacy of Aryan race, and the consequential vilification of Jews as the heathen populace. Naturally, Germans were deluded into believing themselves as the superior race which, sooner than later, will take over the leadership of the world under the stewardship of Fuhrer Adolf Hitler. Apparently, Indira Gandhi, taking the cue from historic rise of dictators world wide, sought to destabilise India’s democracy by all means at her command. Incidentally, as Lal  Krishna Advani writes in his unique autobiography: My Country My Life—perhaps one of the finest political autobiographies ever written–that how Indira, even in the wake of her historic defeat in 1977, was extremely reluctant to shed power and, therefore, had held a secret parleys with the three military chiefs for their support to remain in power by proclaiming another emergency on the republic. Imagine the consequence of such fallouts: Would not India have degenerated onto the path of dictatorship with its much vaunted democracy having been given a decent burial once and for all? Would not such lofty ideals of our being an established democracy have  been eluding us, if Indira Gandhi ,whose progenies are laying their birthright claim over the prime ministership, had succeeded in her diabolical mission to turn the clock back to India’s pre- independence days?

Regrettably, the ongoing trend, as was manifest for quite sometimes, even in the USA, it appeared that someone far withdrawn from democratic characteristics, had suddenly seized power from some different planet. Perhaps in decades, the USA, hardly would have witnessed someone so boorish and disdainful of democracy, having been elevated to lead the nation. Gone was the civility of Barack Obama, the statesmanship of Bill Clinton, instead what the nation had someone who, in the garb of making America great again, was seeking his own supremacy as the fascist who dictated the terms to the world, which the world should dutifully bow to accept them obsequiously. Donald Trump perceived himself not as the democratically elected president of the USA, but the emperor of the USA and the world, who was born to order at the first place, and for the world to obey his stentorian commands.  No wonder such boorishness is adequately manifest when, despite America and the whole world erupting in celebration, Trump is threatening to challenge the people’s verdict and put whatever obstacles he can on the way to Joe Biden’s entry into the White House. What will be the fate of Trump’s antics, only time will tell, but one thing is apparent from his conduct: He is anything but a democrat. He can go to any extent to foil the people’s mandate. No wonder had America been an African country or any of the third world nations, Donald Trump would have obstinately stood his ground and denied vacating the position that he had so convincingly lost. For instance, Hilary Clinton had so gracefully ceded power to Donald when she knew that she was rejected by the people of  the United States. Interestingly, in the primaries during 2008 election when there was a conflict between Obama and Hilary clinton, it was Bill Clinton who came forward to call the end of the contest and asked Hilary Clinton not to unnecessarily prolong the battle. Likewise in 2000 Presidential election between George Bush Junior and Al Gore, the Vice- President when Bill Clinton was the President, was finally settled after the recounting of Florida electoral colleges. Though there was the speculation that the dispute as to who had won, would be prolonged in the court battle, but finally Al Gore conceded defeat, in the strict tradition of an institutionalised democracy where the people’s verdict is accepted with the head bowed down.

The lesson of Donald Trump’s defeat has an inherent lesson for India: As America had refused to accept the authoritarianism of Donald Trump, India too, as it rejected Indira Gandhi’s fascism lock, stock and barrel, it should have no compunction in rejecting Narendra Modi’s authoritarianism too, if the situation refuses to show a change for the better, the likelihood of which appears remote. During Indira’s time, notwithstanding the hosannas being sung for her,  India, already being relegated to the back burner, had begun to be sidelined, with an overwelming personal interest of Indira Gandhi assuming precedence . Much similar to ‘Indira is India and India is Indira’, the slogans like ‘ Modi hai to mumkin hai’, Har Har Modi, Ghar, ghar Modi’, are renting the air. Much like Indira, Modi’s contempt for democratic institutions is becoming obvious: As Indira had subjugated the media, transforming them as her spokespersons, Modi era too, is increasingly witnessing the pulverisation of media as an instrument of his image promotion. Significantly, India today, is invariably moving towards the era of 1975 when Indira Gandhi had invited an apocalypse upon the nation by putting forth her own personal interest over and above the nation. Hence in this backdrop, the presidential elction of USA has come as a major relief as well as the new emerging paradigm for the world to follow. No wonder the world surrounded from all sides by the emerging fascism–be it Jingping OF China, Erdogan of Turkey, Jong un of North Korea,  Vladimir Putin of Russia, Benjamin Nitanyahu of Israel and, of course, Narendra Modi of India–all are strong men with authoritarian streaks to censure press and tower over their respective polities as their unquestioned leaders. Therefore, the current election in the USA imparts a mesage to the world community: Show the doors to the leaders flourishing in the name of democracy, yet doing everything to erode its credibility from within. Will Indians follow in the footsteps of its American counterparts, only 2024 will prove the same?In the meanwhile, it is for Narendra Modi to draw a lesson from his friend’s ouster from White House and take corrections so that he too does not follow in the footsteps of his friend Donald in 2024. However, it is the time now to celebrate the expulsion of an authoritarian president from White House and welcome a democrat in his place: President Joe bidden. Americans deserve kudos from all democracy loving  people from across the world. America has proved it yet again: Being the pioneer in ushering in a true democracy, it has sent into exile the man who failed to live upto the democratic credentials.
Vivekanand Jha, author of the upcoming book The People’s leader. 

Why ‘never a yes man’ Saryu poses a daunting challenge to Modi.

Why ‘never a yes man’ Saryu poses a daunting challenge to Modi.

Modi is secure in his cocoon so long as none from Hindutava background challenges him. 

‘Chhatriya tau dhari samar sakana, kul kalank tahi pavar ana, kahau dubhav na kulahi prashansi kalahu darhi na ran Raghuvnai’: Tulsidasjee, in Ramcharitra Manas when Lord Shri Ram introduces himself to Shri Parasuramjee. 
( Possessing the body of a Kschatriya and running away from the battlefield, brings disgrace to the whole clan for generations together. I am describing my characteristics not blowing the trumpet of my clan, we, the Kschatriyas do not fear even the Lord of Death’). How Saryu Roy exemplifies the characteristics of Lord Rama in today’s contemporary times.

Nothing else could have secured Narendra Modi more than Rahul Gandhi being pitted as his national rival. Obviously, the gap between the both is that of sky and earth, where the self- styled Kamdar, being the Hindu mascot, has so strategically dubbed Rahul as the Namdar with a Muslim face so that he remains an unacceptable face among the larger section of Hindus middle class. No wonder however much Rahul may try, his appeal remains impermeable to the vast majority of Hindu youths who look upon Modi as their saviour. Hence in this backdrop, Modi will remain invincible so long a man from Hindutava background, with an impeccable image and  an immaculate credentials, fails to extend him a daunting challenge. Saryu Roy is that phenomenon today whose ‘never a yes man’ image and a strong resolve never to compromise is the pre- requisites for the potential face of a challenger who can blow into smithereens the so called invincible image of Narendra Modi. 

In the last assembly election in Jharkhand in 2019, Saryu Roy had directly extended a challenge to Narendra Modi, by laying siege to the official chief ministerial candidate of BJP, was tantamount to extending the direct challenge to the top BJP leadership at one go. Even in the game of chess, if the king is captured or eliminated from his perched citadel, the consequence is the defeat of the whole army. This practice was prevalent in the real battleground for millennia where the defeat or capture of the king resulted in the defeat of the whole army. Apt it is to quote the episode of Dahir, one of the most valiant kings of Sindh, millenia ago, and how he kept the Afghans and foreign aggression completely under check till he was betrayed by his own loyalists. Later, Prithviraj Chouhan, the valiant king of Indraprasth, the present Delhi, fell an inevitable casualty to the legendary betrayal of his own cousin, Jaichand and consequently was defeated and blindfolded, taken to Afghanistan in the most humiliating condition. Incidentally, the examples quoted here is to show that how, with the defeat of the kings, the entire kingdom and, by the extension of the same logic, the entire nation, bore the brunt of such loss of the faces of kings in the battlefield. BJP, by virtue of its legendary betrayal to one of its own valiant soldiers who was one of the palanquin bearers for bringing the party to its current position, had humiliated him so disdainfully that even shriveled the common men and women of this republic, especially in the state of Bihar and Jharkhand. No wonder the prompt response shown by Nitish Kumar in extending his support for Saryu and the consequential upsurge of support among the local people with the Sangh Parivar too standing in solidarity with him, promoted even Narendra Modi to walk the talk with utmost caution. Such was Narendra Modi’s circumspection in treating the valiant challenger to BJP, that in course of his  historic rally in Jamshedpur, for mobilising support for the official candidate Raghubar Das, he did not utter a single world of criticism for Saryu–not even he dared to say that his was an act of betrayal, for he knew that how his party had betrayed and publicly humiliated one of its most devoted soldier for decades–just dropped the hint of his own insuperable image when he said, ‘ Jahan Kamal hai wahan Modi hai( Where there is lotus, Modi is there).Significantly, Modi was testing his own popularity vis a vis an inconsequential rebel who was denied the ticket because the chief minister and the Home Minister conspired to deprive him of the same. 

But then the invincible Modi had hardly imagined that all his hitherto invincibility will prove casualty to the image of the People’s leader who was not fighting the election in his individual capacity, but the People of Jamshedpur in microcosm, and the nation in macrocosmic form, were fighting the election where Saryu was just a candidate. Significantly, the denizens of Jamshedpur, by defeating Raghubar Das, had sounded the message candidly to the nation: Yadi kamal kichar mein khilega to ham kichar mein to nahi jayengay( If lotus blooms in the mud, we need not have to go to mud) In other words, Jamshedpur was the precursor for the events to unfold at the national level: Only a leader with Hindutava upbringing, whose mooring too rested with the same background, if challenges Narendra Modi at the national level, surely it will be the clash of titans where all so- called inevitability of invincible image of Modi will prove inconsequential. Incidentally, when India stands so overwhelmingly crippled by the absence of any credible opposition, especially the man who can take on Modi at the national level, when those who are in the reckoning for the same, have already been painted with secular colour, it is the most opportune time that someone from within rises to challenge Modi in his own turf. Especially when BJP has so strategically turned the whole debate between Hindus and Mulsims, it is the need of the hour that someone from within Sangh comes on the forefront to take Modi head on. 

In fact, never ever in the history of the nation, India stands so starkly divided along the line of religions. Worse still, the towering image of an individual has long eclipsed the image of the nation, for the interest of the nation has begun to be viewed from the prism of an individual and his party. In other words, even if one is a nationalist or not, it depends upon the opinion of the BJP to certify someone as a patriot or a traitor. In other words, those who are the cheerleaders of Modi brigade, they invariably are the nationalists and the patriots, whereas those who are questioning the government’s actions and omissions, outright become anti- nationals for raising the uncomfortable questions. For instance, the notorious attempts of BJP’s spokesperson Sambit Patra to contend that Rahul is more popular in China and Pakistan, is the exemplification of the shrewd strategy that BJP has been adopting to keep its image as the sole representative of national interest, undermining all those who are seeking to raise the legitimate questions in the national interest. Paradoxically, while the Prime Minister himself claimed in the press conference that there had been no Chinese intrusion into the Indian territory, his own Defence and Foreign ministers contradicted him in no time. Seemingly enough, China lapped up his comment to refute the Indian stand that China had intruded upon Indian space. Worse still, if China had not intruded upon Indian territory, what was the Galwan massacre all about? Ironically, with the gaffes galore, Narendra Modi still continues to enjoy the reputation of being the man who lives and dies for the nation, especially in the eyes of  the vast number of youths tracing their genesis from the majority community. 

But then it is not only the spokespersons and the notorious BJP IT cell which blow the trumpet of Modi and his government day in and day out, the biggest culprit of this sordid episode is the godi media, the extended spokesperson of Modi government. The onerous responsibility this godi media has assumed upon itself is to instantly float an alternative narrative to counter and nip in the bud the genuine version of events happening in the polity. For instance, how the traumatised nation witnessed the tragedy in Hatrash being given an altogether a different colour, endeavouring to discredit the real incident by superimposing the alternate narrative that suited the government and the BJP. Regrettably, when the entire nation is afflicted with the severest of crises to have ever bedevilled the republic–with the severity of pandemic already unleashed havoc, loss of crores of employment, economy hitting the rock bottom–the godi media continued to play the tune of ‘Hip hip hurray’, everything is fine, ‘Acchay Din’ as Modi has promised, has arrived. Worse still, none of the predecessors of Modi ever showed such an inordinate  lust for narcissism, an insatiable urge for being in the limelight, in the media, that at the mere drop of hat, it has become customary for the Prime Minister to address the nation. As if this is not enough, Man ki baat, an unilateral, one way communication, has been so staunchly institutionalised in the polity to appease Modi’s aspiration to be communicating to the people of India once in a while. All this shows that the Prime Ministerial gravitas was never compromised for keeping one man satiated for his whims and fancy.

Importantly, while the government has been profligate in its dealings with Corona Virus, especially its dereliction of duty towards the people of India—Should not Modi have shut the international flights after the UN had declared it as a pandemic?–it so unabashedly has been drumbeating about its having set 124 Corona hospitals ever since its outbreak, speaks the complete absence of its guilt for having made India a Corona infested nation. Worse still, the humongous botch up of lockdown that resulted in the millions of our citizens walking hundred of kilometers on foot, barely finds a mention in BJP’s media blitzkrieg. Further, the war on India’s economy is raging between the government on the one hand and the professionals on the other. Notwithstanding what is visible to the fellow citizens, the government managers are hiring such economists like Arvind Panagaria to refute the facts available in the public domain that India is economically broke. While economists of such calibre like Kausik Basu are being excoriated for being Congress agents when he shows mirror to the government that how India has been pushed behind even Bangladesh in GDP, the exuberant economic report card produced by the pro- government economists like Arvind Panagaria are being tom- tommed. While everyone knows that the sun rises from the east, the government is striving hard to show that all is well if the sun rises from the west.. Is the nation prepared to buy the theory of the government that the so- called ‘Acchay Din’, as promised, is already at our doorstep? 

Unequivocally, India needs an alternative leadership. That leadership has to come from someone from Hindutava stable who can claim to have the sufficient ammunition to fire from his cyliner, because today’s BJP is not the same of Atal Bihari Vajpayee days; it, in fact, trusts the man who believes that he is the nation unto himself. No wonder when India is in desperate quest for an alternative leadership, there is a single man who has the potential at this juncture to fulfill the national aspiration, is ‘ never a yes man’ Saryu Roy. Saryu had already handed over a symbolic defeat to Narendra Modi when he defeated his official candidate; however that episode needed to be extrapolated at the national level now, when India so longingly looks up to him to replicate his experience at the national level. Saryu, in his noble mission, has the blessings of the fellow compatriots, even the support of the section of Sangh Parivar that too desperately wishes that some genuine alternative should emerge that can take on the mighty Prime Minister of India, the bubble of whose invincibility, Saryu alone is capable of bursting. Destiny has already set Saryu now on his national mission, in the same manners as it catapulted Jayaprakash Narayan way back in 1974 to take on the then mighty prime minister, the then fascist ruler, Indira Gandhi. No wonder Saryu, even before he has entered the national scene, poses a daunting challenge to the incumbent demi-god of the republic. He, doubtless remains the perfect amalgam of Jayaprakash and Atal Bihari Vajpayee in such trying times as this.

Vivekanand Jha is an author of Yes, I am Bihari, The Living Legends of Mithila and  the upcoming book  The People’s leader. 

Why my vote is for Mamata Banerjee—-To vote for Mamata is to save the last vestiges of India’s sinking democracy.

 OM

Why my vote is for Mamata Banerjee—-To vote for Mamata is to save the last vestiges of India’s sinking space of democracy. 

Notwithstanding Mamata’s overwhelming omissions and commission, she is the flag bearer of the remnants of the opposition voice in the polity and, therefore, her defeat is the defeat of Indian democracy, for a democracy without opposition, tantamounts to the degeneration of a republic into the living testimony of that of the monster of ‘fascism’. India today stands on the cusp of the radicalisation of the nation which is the surer recipe for its impending catastrophe. Hence in this backdrop, when the nation is passing through the severest crises brought about by the pandemic on the one hand, and the lackadaisical political management complemented by poor political vision, it is the most opportune time that nation extends its moral support to the street revolutionary whose claims to fame comes from her revolutionary image and avowedly taking up the causes of the people at the bottom of the pyramid. 

In the last Parliamentary election of 2019, I stood solidly by BJP and Narendra Modi. In fact, I have never voted for any political party apart from BJP thus far. My staunch loyalty to BJP, apart from its being so called espousing of Hindutava cause, was attributed to its being the party of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India’s Yug Purush Prime Minister, whose statesmanship vision had ensured India’s myriad achievements on different parameters. Interestingly, Ataljee’s vision of an ‘inclusive’ India, where Hindus and Muslims are like two sons of Mother India, much in conformity with that of the vision of Swami Vivekananda, when the exponent of Hinduism had so gloriously encapsulated the vision of Sanatan civilisation, calling for ‘Vedantist mind and Islamic body’ shall henceforth define the national characteristics. No wonder then it has been the hitherto trigger of keeping me beholden to BJP. Interestingly, in his historic foreword that he wrote for his long time friend Lal Krishna Advani’s book My Country  My Life, the statesman Prime Minister had put to shreds the flawed version of secularism which was so mischievously flaunted as the nation’s summum  bonum, also is in compatibility with my own understanding of India’s lopsided practice of secularism that was deliberately institutionalised to perpetuate the rule of the Congress Party in the polity in the name of spurious secularism. The minority appeasement, where the Muslims were simply kept in good humour, without bringing any tangible improvement in their living standard, is the vindication of how the decades of Congress’ misrule had dealt the bloody blow to the nation’s psyche. No wonder my automatic support for BJP and Narendra Modi, was attributed to my staunch loyalty to Shri Vajapyee’s inclusive vision of India, which was peddled by India’s greatest icon in the last two centuries, Swami Vivekananda too. 

In the last Parliamentary election, I voted from Kolkata, since I trace my descent to that great intellectual citadel from where the greatest of human brains have emanated over the last few centuries–from  Swami Vivekananda to Dr Amartys Sen –all these intellectual giants who swayed the world, at some point of time, and taught the finest lessons to humanity. While voting, I was astonished to see the names of many voters—mostly Biharis –did not figure in the voters list. I immediately made the video of one of such voters whose name did not figure in the list, who gave a small interview to me that how his name, along with that of many of his Bihari friends, did not appear in the voters list, and that many of whom despite having voted for the last time, did not find their place in the voters list of the general election of 2019. Some of whom came rushing to me knowing that I was in Kolkata and expressed their sorrow and disgust at their deprivation of their rights to cast their votes.  While I could not do much at the eleventh hour, what I did was to prepare a video and send it to Mukul Roy and Dr Swapan Dasgupta. Mukul, instantly took cognizance of the same and announced it in the press conference and in press releases—he had received such complaints from other sources too. Incidentally, when I went to cast my own vote, I did not not even take a few seconds, as I cast my vote on the very first symbol of lotus. When I stepped out of the booth, I could see the faces of the partymen manning the booths that many of them could make out that whom I had voted for. Incidentally, while visiting Dhakuria Lake, for my early morning walk, I had a bitter argument with a Congress candidate who contested from South Kolkata when she sought her vote in the name of Rahul Gandhi. While a motley crowd of cheerleaders had gathered there to cheer me as I was putting Rahul to shreds through my unimpeachable arguments.

 
In fact, a lot of water had flown into the Ganges between 2019 and 2020. In 2020, India stands fragile, with communal discord at the culminating point. Delhi riot, where the Hindutava goons supported by their rogue leaders had openly threatened the nation’s communal fabric by peddling such slogan: ‘ Desh kay gaddaron ko goli maro Salon ko’, ( Shot dead the traitors) with an implicit reference to that of the Muslims, especially when Lal Krishna Advani had so eulogically showered ppraise on Indian Muslims that they hardly ever participated in the global list of terrorists. It just struck me, much like Ashoka’s realisation in the aftermath of the Kalinga war, that this sordid peddling of thuggish Hindu nationalism, was a surer recipe of inviting another vivisection of the republic; for an idea like a thunderbolt too struck me that, while Jinnah was the main culprit for the creation of Pakistan and the consequential partition of India, it would be the RSS -BJP combine, through its so- called poisonous Hindutava agenda, will ensure the partition of India yet again. For the misguided Hindus, if Modi is their saviour, it would be the equivalent of Owaisi for the Muslims. Significantly, if such a frenzied communal polarisation is to be stopped forthwith, the nation must return to inclusive nationalism as espoused by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which accommodated both Hindus and Muslims to its bosom. Paradoxically, to continue to clap and cheer Modi’s Hindu nationalism, is to fall in the impending trap of bringing the nation apart, carving out another partition of our beloved Motherland. 

Mamata Banerjee is no saint. What Communists had done in the past, Mamata is increasingly has been capitalising on the same. Her minority appeasement policy, along with imposing her own dynastic succession on the people of West Bengal, is in no way a sign of  democratic progressivism; on the other hand it is nothing short of taking the whole Bengali intelligentsia class for a massive ride–Bengal has hitherto never experienced the dynastic politics–Communists, despite all its pitfalls, must be commended for its strong aversion to promoting dynasty in politics. In other words, West Bengal is closely on its way to follow Bihar by accepting the dynastic succession which itself is a big democratic transgression. But then the moot point is, whether the people should choose Mamata, a far lesser evil than the one that is rearing its head and challenging the people of West Bengal to accept it with an open heart. BJP’s entry into West Bengal politics in the last General Election with a bang, surprised many political pundits, for none could believe that the Hindutava brigade will gatecrash into that of solidified Mamata’s bastion, if not her fiefdom. But then Mamata herself has been guilty for allowing BJP to dance on her head today, for her marginalisation of Communist in West Bengal, has triggered the rise of BJP, which found the empty space of opposition to grab for itself. Had Mamata not unleashed her vengeance on Left the way she did, today the monster that knocks at her door could have been easily kept at bay. BJP’s exponential rise in the last general election and its gung ho mood for the upcoming assembly election, is going to prove to be the daunting challenge for Didi, for BJP, having tested blood in 2019, will go all out to clean bowl Mamata Banerjee and to ensure that her political obituary is written for sure. 

The upcoming assembly election in 2021 is expected to be the bloodiest ever, for BJP, far superior in money and muscle power, will leave no stone unturned to demolish Mamata and capture power. Also, decimating Mamata, will ensure the emasculation of opposition to a substantial extent. Mamta, thus far, has been the vocal critic of the Modi government–even going to the extent of dubbing BJP as the deadlier pandemic than that of Covid 19. No wonder BJP has the score to settle: It will ensure that Mamata is silenced, for her impending defeat will result in the weakening of the voice that roared across the political firmament of the nation. The departure of Mamata, from Nabana, will substantially shrink the space of the opposition while contributing to the widening of the space of authoritarianism and fascism. Small wonder then the defeat of Mamata Banerjee is the defeat of Indian democracy, for the weakening of the existing feeble voice of the opposition and consequently the ever expanding space of approaching fascism in the country. Hence in this backdrop, while Didi has the moral support of the nation, the people of West Bengal too should rise to the occasion to extend their whole hearted support for the preservation of democracy. For this purpose, both Bengalese and non- Benglaese should rise in defence of democracy to vote for Mamata to save India’s democracy from further moving towards the fast approaching fascism in the country.  Naturally, to save democracy from its further infringement, I, in the capacity of an author and Public intellectual, am reconciled to shed my past baggage and vote for the strengthening of Indian democracy. My vote for 2021 is reserved for Mamata Banerjee, the tigress of West Bengal and the nation.  

Vivekanand Jha is an author of Yes, I am Bihari and The Living Legends of Mithila. He is also an author of an upcoming book The People’s leader based on the life of Mr Saryu Roy.

A crusade for the new dawn–Her resolution of ‘Aakla cholo ray’ will usher in a new political dynamics in the national politcs?

OM

                               A crusade for the new dawn

Her resolution of ‘Aakla cholo ray’ will usher in a new political dynamics in the national politcs?

Irrespective of the consequences, Pushpam Priya, an alumnus of London School of Economics, who is fighting Bihar election under the aegis of her own founded party ‘Plurals’, has, unequivocally set the new paradigms in Indian politics where there was hardly any scope for the professionals to join poliitcs as their first career choice, barring few earstwhile princes and the dynasts. Worse still, being a girl, she has picked up the gauntlet to take on the high and mighty in their own political turfs which the latter consider as their personal fiefdoms. No wonder then Pushpam is the flag bearer of a new hope and aspirations for the young professionals to make a foray into politics and cleanse it from the avalanche of filth that  continued to accumulate over decades on account of criminals and rogues making politics as their safe haven. In this backdrop, Pushpam’s crusade, much in line with Gurudev’s Tagore’s vision of ‘Jodi tor dak sunay kyou na asay taholay aekla cholo ray’, in quest for a new dawn for the people of Bihar and the nation, deserves thumbs up from one and all.  

Pushpam Priya Choudhary, a girl with an ancestry from Mithila, Bihar, has suddenly stormed in Indian politics like a blitzkrieg; in the process, sending many well established politicians into frenziedly looking for her connections and contacts. The only question that took the tangible shape then in the minds of who is who in Bihar as to who this new phenomenon Pushpam is? No wonder when the fact was established that this girl is a daughter of Vinod Choudhary, not much known leader of JDU from Darbhanga, the next hectic search began to find the source of her funding. But then the legitimate quetion that arouse in the minds of the people was absolutely justified against the backdrop when Pushpam gatecrashed into poliitcs—the mushrooming posters everywhere in Patna, announcing the arrival of Priya Pushpam of Plurals, who intends to change the face of Bihar and insulate it from hitherto its accumulated burden of corruption and vices, appeared surrealistic, much like Bollywood potboilers or the latest South Indian movies dubbed in Hindi. Naturally, it provided fodder for the media gossips, which is always on the lookout for some sensation, and here this new sensation girl is providing the basketful of it. Nonetheless, everything appeared pretty soothing to the minds of Biharis, for someone, at such a young age, was reconciled to take the bulls by both its horns, going gung ho with her ambitions to bring changes in poliitcs, added fuel to the fire of the collective excitement of Biharis in partuicualr and Indians in general. As the established politicians began to unravel about this young phenomenon, their pivotal concern was: Whether it was BJP’s another stratagem to play a hard ball with Nitish Kumar, so much so that it was opening a new front to harass him. In the midst of flurry of speculation, one thing became crystal clear to one and all, that this girl, notwithstanding who funded her or whose patronage she enjoys, this girl is the audacious enough to stay and not to vanish from the political firmament as few days or few months wonder—though it is yet to be seen that how far she stays reconciled to carry on her political battles against the high and mighty if Plurals gets the drubbing at the hustings.

Interestingly, she is viewed more with excitement than with any amount of seriousness when she begins canvassing for votes –for herself as well as for her party–in such a polarised scenario when the society is so starkly divided between voting for Modi or against Modi. Further, when BJP is going to unleash the Modi blitzkrieg across Bihar–12 rallies, he is set to conduct–where Pushpam and her Plurals will stand, is anybody’s guess. Worse still, in a society which is so much divided along the caste lines, being a Brahmin, whatever the level of intelligence, is not considered as much a USP as being from a backward community with no intelligence. Regressively enough, the state where the poliitcal system is so delicately and precariously premised along the caste lines, how Pushpam Priya’s poignant argument will convince the voters, majority of whom are known to vote along their caste loyalties, is another factor that will prove to be the biggest stumbling block for her when she is stepping into the poliitcal arena which is earmarked for Bahubalis of different castes. Also, when the muscle and money power is a sine qua non for winning  elections, the determination to go ahead without any of the pre-requisites, is itself a sign of robustness to withstand and negotiate with the volatility that has all the ingrediants to sweep the players aside into the sidelines much before the game has even started. But then Pushpam, a young girl with an inculcated democratic values and egalitarian vision, is bent upon ushering change and consequently prepared for being instrumental to bring such a change, she canvasses for voting for her as well as for her party. 

But then Pushpam, notwithstanding all her dynamism and accompanying enthusism, has neither political credentials nor any credibility to induce the voters to vote for her or for her party; all she has, is the vision to peddle to the voters to make them believe in her; repose their collective trust in her and consequently vote for her. In fact, much like Rahul Gandhi, she is coming from nowhere to seek votes from the people of Bihar. Significantly, Rahul Gandhi was in politics for almost a decade, although he never held any political position, to claim for the Prime Ministerial position. He had the credentials of hailing from the first Congress family, which Pushpam so conspicuously lacks. Barely a year ago, before the assembly election was announced, she appeared from nowhere to lay her claim for the position of the chief minister of the state. For anyone it would appear to be funny, a laughable proposition, yet it honestly proclaims her honesty of belief that she feels eligible for the post and consequently believes that she should be outright voted for the post. Unfortuantely, the people need to have something to showcase other than their vision. Here Pushpam is awfully short of producing anything tangible. All her lofty vision aside, she has nothing tangible to prove about her creedentials, apart from proving her own academic background, which could be sufficient for claiming a job, but not for claiming the chief miniserial chair and, that too, in one straight go. \
Notwithstanding the credible absence of the pre- requisites that are needed to win the election, Pushpam has the tenacity to go ahead with her mission, even though if it meant going all alone seeking votes for her as well as for her party. All her candidates contesting from almost all constituencies, have to seek their votes without any paraphernalia that are associated with those who canvass for votes. She, in fact, walks all alone, descending from her car, walks alone, poses for photo ops in a smiling gesture, engages her fans in Twitter and facebook. This is her innovative method of campaigning, where she is striivng to send the messages to the voters of Bihar that how she sincerely endeavours to bring changes in the system, if she were voted to power. While the voters too watch her with amusement, it remains uncertain whether they will vote for her. Because she is neither crusader like  Mr Saryu Roy whose clarion call to the voters of the constituency of East Jamshedpur against the sitting chief minister, was so seriously accepted by the people. While Mr Saryu Roy had a strong credentials which so strongly resonated with the people of East Jamshedpur, who fought for him; Pushpam, being the new entrant, has nothing for the time being to showcae other than peddle her vision before the electorate to repose their faith in her. 

Significantly, Pushpam Priya Choudhary should not remain an election wonder, disappearing from the scene once the result is out and  her party gaining no electoral traction; she, on the other hand, will have to march ahead with greater vigour and the corresponding level of enthusiasm to continue to struggle in politics and prove the point that she means business, and she and her Plurals have come to stay in this hustle and bustle of politics without the least of equivocation. She, being a student of Political Science, should change the definition of politics as given by Sir Stafford Cripps when the architect of Cabinet Mission plan had said, ‘ Politics is the means of getting money from the rich and vote from the poor while promising to protect each from the other’. When she is is determined to change the politics of Bihar, she should remain robust in her stand and consequently should not allow herself to be swayed by the outcome of the electoral battle. Also, her political manoeuvrings like writing a letter to the president of India for dissolving the Bihar Assembly, will evoke some reaction here and there, but in the long run all this will prove infructuous; what will prove effective and tangible, is the long term determination to change the polity of Bihar, which desperately is crying for change since long time. Unequivocally then, when she has picked up the gauntlet to don the mantle of a ‘change agent’ and is reconciled to adopt Tagore’s invocation to wallk all alone in the mode of ‘ Jodi tor dak sunay kyou na asay taholay aekla cholo ray'( Hearing your cries of agony, none comes, you walk alone). Further, if she has conceptualised the vision of Bihar being the land of millions minds without fear, she should be prepared to face all sorts of short term hostilities to usher in the long term dividends to the people. As of now, Bihar awaits a new dawn with little expectation.  

Vivekanand Jha is an author of Yes, I am Bihari  and the upcoming book The People’s leader based on the political exploits of Mr Saryu Roy.

A crusade for the new dawn-

 A crusade for the new dawn
Irrespective of the consequences, Pushpam Priya, an alumnus of London School of Economics, who is fighting Bihar election under the aegis of her own founded party ‘Plurals’, has, unequivocally set the new paradigms in Indian politics where there was hardly any scope for the professionals to join poliitcs as their first career choice, barring few earstwhile princes and the dyasts. Worse still, being a girl, she has picked up the gauntlet to take on the high and mighty in their political turfs which the latter consider as their personal fiefdoms. No wonder then Pushpam is the flag bearer of a new hope and aspirations for the young professionals to take a foray into politics and cleanse it from the avalanche of filth that  continued to accumulate over decades on account of criminals and rogues making politics as their haven. In this backdrop, Pushpam’s crusade, much in line with Gurudev’s Tagore’s vision of ‘Jodi tor dak sunay kyou na asay talay aekla cholo ray’, in quest for a new dawn for the people of Bihar and the nation, deserves thumbs up from one and all.  

Pushpam Priya Choudhary, a girl with an ancestry from Mithila, had suddenly stormed in Indian politics like a blitzkrieg; in the process, sending many well established politicians into looking for her connections and contacts. The only question that took the tangible shape then in the minds of who is who in Bihar as to who this new phenomenon Pushpam is? No wonder when the fact was established that this girl is a daughter of Vinod Choudhary, not much known leader of JDU from Darbhanga. But then the legitimate quetion that arouse in the minds of the people was absolutely justified agaisnt the backdrop Pushpam gatecrashed into poliitcs—the mushrooming posters everywhere in Patna, announcing the arrival of Priya Pushpam of Plurals, who intends to change Bihar and insulate it from hitherto its sccumulated burden of corruption and vices, appeared surrealistic, much like Bollywood potboilers or the latest South Indian movies dubbed in Hindi. Naturally it provided fodder for the media gossip which is always on the lookout for some sensation, and here this new sensation girl is providing the, the basketful of it. Nonetheless, everything appeared pretty soothing to the minds of Biharis, for someone, at such a young age, was reconciled to take the bulls by both its horns, added fuel to the fire of the collective excitement of Biharis in partuicualr and Indians in general. As the established politicians began to unravel about this young phenomenon, their pivotal concern was: Whether it was BJP’s another stratagem to play a hard ball with Nitish Kumar so much so that it was opening a new front to harass him. in the midst of flurry of speculation, one thing became crystal clear to one and all that this girl, notwithstnading who funded her or whose patronage she enjoys, this girl is the audacious enough to stay and not to vanish as few days or few months wonder—though it is yet to be seen that how far she stays reconciled to carry on her political battles against the high and mighty. 

Interestingly, she is viewed more with excitement than with any amount of seriousness when she begins canvassing for votes –for herself as well as for her party–in such a polarised scenario when the society is so starkly divided between voting for Modi or against Modi. Further, when BJP is going to unleash the Modi blitzkrieg across Bihar–12 rallies he is set to conduct–where Pushpam and her Plurals will stand, is anybody’s guess. Worse still, in a society which is so much divided along the caste lines, being a Brahmin, whatever the level of intelligence, is not considered as much a USP as being from a backward community. Regreeively enough, the state where the poliitcal system is so delicately and precariously premised along the caste lines, how Pushpam Priya’s pignant argument will convince the voters, majority of whom are known to vote along their caste loyalties, is another factor that will prove to be the biggest stumbling block for her when she is stepping into the poliitcal arena which is earmarked for Bahubalis of different castes. Also, when the muscle and money power is a sine qua non for winning  elections, the determination to go ahead without any of the pre-requisites, is itself a sign of robustness to withstand and negotiate with the volatility that has all the ingrediants to sweep the players aside into the sidelines much before the game has already started. But then Pushpam, a young girl with an inculcated democratic values and egalitarian vision, is bent upon ushering change and consequently for being an instrumental for such a change, she canvasses for voting her as well as for her party. 

But then Pushpam, notwithstanding all her dynamism and accompanying enthusism, has neither political credentials nor any credibility to induce the voters to vote for her or for her party; all she has, is the vision to peddle to the voters to make them believe in her; repose theri collective trust in her and consequently vote for her. In fact, much like Rahul Gandhi, she is coming from nowhere to seek votes from the people of Bihar. In fact, Rahul Gandhi was in politics for almost a decade, although he never held any political position, to claim for the Prime Ministerial position. He had the credentials of hailing from the first Congress family, which Pushpam so remarkably lacks. Barely a year ago, before the assembly election was announced, she appeared from nowhere to lay her claim for the position of the chief minister of the state. For anyone it would be funny, a laughable proposition yet it honestly proclaims her honesty of beleif that she feels eligible for the post and consequently believes that she should be straightway voted for the post. Unfortuantely, the people need to have something to showcase other than the vision. Here Pushpam is awfully short of producing anything tangible. All her lofty vision aside, she has nothing tangible to prove about her creedentials, apart from proving her own academic credentails, which can be sufficient for claiming a job, but not for claiming the chief miniserial chair and, that too, in one straight go. \
Notwithstanding the credible absence of the pre- requisites that are needed to win the election, Pushpam has the tenacity to go ahead with her mission, even though if it meant going all alone seeking votes for her as well as for her party. All her candidates contesting from almost all constituencies, have to seek their votes without any paraphernalia that are associated with those who canvass for votes. She, in fact, walks all alone, descnding from her cars, walks alone, poses for photo ops in a smiling gesture, engages her fans in Twitter and facebook. This is her innovative method of campaigning, where she is striivng to send the messages to the voters of Bihar that how she sincerely endeavours to bring changes in the system, if she were voted to power. While the voters too watch her with amusement, it remains uncertain whether they will vote for her. Because she is neither crusader like  Mr Saryu Roy whose clarion call to the voters of the constituency of East Jamshedpur against the sitting chief minister, was so seriously accepted by the people. While Mr Saryu Roy had a strong credentials which so strongly resonated with the people of East Jamshedpur, who fought for him; Pushpam, being the new entrant, has nothing for the time being to showcae other than peddle her vision before the electorate to repose their faith in her. 

Significantly, Pushpam Priya Choudhary should not remain an election wonder, disappearing from the scene once the result is out and  her party gaining no electoral traction; she, on the other hand, will have to march ahead with greater vigour and the corresponding level of enthusiasm to continue to struggle in politics and prove the point that she means business, and she and her Plurals have come to stay in this hustle and bustle of poliitcs. She, being a student of Political Science, should change the definition of politics as given by Sir Stafford Cripps when the architect of Cabinet Mission plan had said, ‘ Politics is the means of getting mney from the rich and vote from the poor while promising to protect each from the other’. When she is is determined to change the politics of Bihar, she should remain robust in her stand and consequently will not allow herself to be swayed by the outcome of the eelctoral battle. Also, her political manoeuvrings like wriitng a letter to the president for dissolving the Bihar Assembly, will evoke some reaction here and there, but in the long run all this will prove infructuous; what will prove effective and substantive is the long term determination to change the polity of Bihar, which desperately is crying for change since long time. Unequivocally then, when she has picked up the gauntlet to don the mantle of a change agent and is reconciled to adopt Tagore’s invocation to wallk all alone in the mode of ‘ Jodi tor dak sunay kyou na asay taholay aekla cholo ray'( Hearing your cries of agony, none comes, you walk alone). Further, if she has conceptualised the vision of Bihar being the land of minds without fear, she should be prepared to face all sort of short term hostilities to usher in the long term dividends to the people. As of now, Bihar awaits a new dawn. 

Vivekanand Jha is an author of Yes, I am Bihari  and the upcoming book The People’s leader. 

The Dark Horse for 2024

The Dark Horse for 2024

  OM

Note: The trigger for writing this piece have been the two coveted comments coming from two different sources: First, from a venerable school principal, a revered village sister; and second, from a  young doctor who is an aspirant for civil services. These two comments as reproduced below were the trigger for my incumbent piece.

Comment of the venerable school Principal, my village sister.

‘Not being  political, who is the substitute of Modi:
Rahul Baba or Mamta di or RJD supremo Lalu jee?
We have simply  no option. Beggars can’t be choosers’.

The comment of a young doctor and an aspirant of the Civil Services.

”Saryu Roy, truly has an enchanting personality. Just went through his work, and I was amazed by his immense dedication shown towards them. He is legit a man of his words or one can say that his actions do speak louder than his words. He has the qualities to be the flag bearer of this nation, which is steadying towards impending catastrophe. The only thing that is required is his National Recognition, in which the intelligentsia  class can act as a catalyst”   
My article is an answer to both the people whose quotations have appeared above. .

                       The dark horse for 2024
The microcosmic outcome of 2019 Assembly Election of East Jamshedpur will be the precursor for the macrocosmic general election of 2024.

In 1983 World Cup, none but Kim Hughes, the then Australian captain, had the discerning pair of eyes to predict, before the world cup had even kick-started and India had lost the trial match, yet the then captain of Australia, had the foresightedness to predict with so much audacity and conviction that India was a dark horse in this whole tournament. While everyone laughed off Kim Hughes and dubbed his statement as motivational to galvanise the underdog Indian cricket team, which had not long in the distant past, was only meant for fulfilling the required formality: to make up for the eighth team to fulfill the procedure that required eight world teams to participate in the tournament.  Much in the similar fashion, this writer does intrinsically believe and unequivocally predict that, in the upcoming General Election of 2024, if someone who can show Narendra Modi the door is none but Saryu Roy, ‘Never the yes man’, Saryu Roy is  the only figure in the country whose determination has shown BJP running for cover in the last Assembly Election in Jharkhand in 2019, and if his irrevocable resolution to show the BJP its rightful place does not waver, Narendra Modi will know who this unique phenomenon Saryu Roy is, if he has not known him already in 2019 Assembly Election of Jamshedpur East, in the upcoming General Election of 2024. 

Tulsidasjee writes in Ramayana, in the context when Lord Ram so benignly, in a worshipful adoration, implored the Sea to pave the path for him as well as his army to go to Lanka. But then the rogue Sea, hell bent upon his inexplicable admanacy, bluntly refused to concede to His request. No wonder feeling peeved at this intransigence, Sri Ram says as Tulsidasjee writes: ‘ Sath san binay kutil sang preeti, Sahaj kripan san sundar niti'( To pray to the rogues for some generosity tantamounts to expecting the misers to show leniency in the terms of some concessions in loan settlement) . Saryu Roy’s situation, much of that of Lord Shri Ram, was of grave magnitude: Having been a disciplined lieutenant of RSS and BJP–though he had the remarkable distinction of working with other two Prime Ministers of India, Chandrasekhar and V.P.Singh, along with that of India’s greatest figure in the post- independence phase, Jayprakash Narayan–Saryu exhibited the highest level of etiquette required of a disciplined worker. Such was the level of his devotion for the BJP, that he had sought to know from the senior leadership about their decision to allot him the ticket in the upcoming assembly election. Regrettable, the hubris that has come to define today’s BJP leadership, was evident in abundance when, far from reciprocating the genuine feelings of a man who built BJP from scratch in Bihar and Jharkhand, the senior leadership of the Party humiliated him the way they are habituated to do to others–affronted him by denying him the ticket at the eleventh hour and, that too, when Saryu, based on the assurance of senior leadership, had already made an announcement in the constituency of his contesting the election and had already opened his office there. Worse still, when J.P. Nadda, the BJP chief called him  to say, ” Bhaisahab, apko ticket nahi milega, kyonki apnay bare admi  ko naaraz kar diya hai'( Bhaisahab, ticket will not be given to you because you have angered many big people). Roy Sahab replied, ‘ Naraj kar diya to theek hai wo apnay ghar aur main apnay ghar'( If I have angered then, it’s okay, they will stay at their homes whereas i will stay at mine). 

In view of BJP’s humiliation, which the party is so capable of meting out to its own party leaders, it was the general perception that Roy Sahab, like sundry others, will toe the party line, obsequiously surrender to the Party’s whims and fancy and then wait for the party leadership, if it so pleases, to hand out the dole in the later time—a position in Rajya Sabha or be shunted in some gubernatorial positions. But like Lord Shri Ram, Saryu is made of different stuffs: He is not the one to obsequiously take Pary’s humiliation lying down; he is not the one like mutiple others for whom personal humiliation matters little when there is an expectation of some rewards to come in the future even if humiliaion is meted out in front of the whole world. No wonder like Shri Ram, Saryu–he too is Kschatriya by birth and by deeds—immediately picked up the arrow from his quiver and much like what Shri Krishna says in Bhagvad Gita—took to the battlefield of Jamshedpur East without bothering about the consequence of his fight. And it was not that Saryu fought; it was, in fact, the people of East Jamshedpur fought the battle for him, on his behalf. Only the People’s leader could have taken the risk in such situation when his decades of political credibility was at stake. Interestingly, the BJP leadership too, hell bent on teaching the rebel Saryu a lesson of lifetime, did not take to his decision kindly; in fact,  they did everything to foil his attempts–the public rally of Narendra Modi, camping of Amit Shah, J.P.Nadda and other leaders in Jamshedpur to see the rout of Saryu Roy for the obvious reason: their own chief minister was under siege. Modi, picking up the gauntlet to invoke the general public to vote for his candidate, too drew blank when much like Netajee Subhash Chandra Bose, who was opposed tooth and nail by Mahatma, the former went on to defeat his candidate; Saryu Roy the new rising phenomenon in the country, defeated the official chief minsiterial candidate of the BJP and, thereby, proved to the nation that honesty and truthfulness in serving the people without any quid pro quo has no substitute in politics.   

Significantly, the victory of Saryu Roy in 2019, was only the microcosm of the macrocosmic picture that is yet to evolve: The nation awaits Saryu Roy to replicate the same situation that had evolved in Jamshedpur at the pan India level. Importantly, Saryu Roy is the only politician in the country who has the doubtless credibility and the immaculate credentials to take on Narendra Modi at the national level in one to one battle, for Rahul is too light a figure when it comes to take a demi-god like Narendra Modi and to puncture the hypes and hooplas that surrounds him today. Further, Saryu Roy as the doer, has a far greater weightage in the public eyes, for he is known for his matured comments and not for misleading the public by promising to show them the moon during the day time. Plausible enough, Saryu, unlike the politicians of the contemporary times, has never hankered after the power, but on the other hand, had been the king maker in many situation keeping in view the larger public interest in mind. Seldom we have such men in the country, far less in politics, who have shown such a remarkable trait in showing no opportunism for  grabbing any political position, never ever he lobbied for any political position in his life. Interestingly, when Modi is overwhelmingly promoting his own image as a a Kamdar, Saryu Roy’s own image as a Kamdar is more eloquent than the Prime Minister’s braggadocio characteristics. Nonetheless, there is one serious handicap that hitherto has kept Saryu Roy confined to Jharkahnd and Bihar, for a contented man he is, he never had any national aspiration; he never ever remoely imagined that India will so earnestly beckon him towards the national duty. Saryu Roy is the need of the nation today, for none in poliitcs has the stature and the credentials to take on the demi god of the republic: Narendra Modi; only Saryu, with all his honesty and forthrightness, has the potential and impaccable character to take on Narendra Modi in national poliitcs. 

But the journey of Thousand miles begins from the first step: Saryu has already taken the first step by initiating the formation of new political party at the pan India  level, yet what he sincerely needs is, the coming together of India’s topmost intellectuals to endorse him as the leader with an alernative vision, for Saryu has a vision —a vision that is neither right, nor left, but the centrist that takes Hindus and Muslims together as one entity. What India needs utmose today is: The national integration, for Hindu nationalism has brought India on the precipice of an impending disaster. Saryu’s visison is to implement the dream of Sawmi Vivekananda’s India—India of ‘Vedantist mind and Islamic body’, for  inclusive India is the vision and misison of Saryu Roy to take India forward. Nevertheless, Saryu needs the unity of opposition parties to take on the might of the BJP in the coming years. The entire opposition, including Congress, must stand behind the People’s leader to provide an alternative leadership vision to the nation. It is easier said than done, for the oneupmanship in the opposition will be the hindrance to declaring someone, however honest and people oriented, to be the face of the opposition, especially when he hails from Bihar and chose Jharkhand as his Karmabhoomie. But then who believed that Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead India, despite there being so many worthies hailing from metropolises of this country. Dhoni stood out as an exception. Saryu Roy too stands out as an exception in Indian poliitcs. It is just like a new Dhoni to emerge in the political arena of this country. 

On the occasion of 2016 Bihar Diwas, on stage for the launch of my book Yes, I am Bihari–a book that gave Nitish Kumar a template to float his own vision of a pan Bihari identity–I had confided in Nitish Kuamr that I wrote a piece ‘A Bihari Prime Minister in 2019’, Unfortuantley that was not to be, for Nitish Kuamr failed to live up to the national expectation. However, if Nitish had failed, another Bihari, his very close freind, a nationalist to the core, Saryu Roy, has the goden opportunity to fulfill the dream of 1,30 billion Indians to see some honest face like that of Atal Bihari Vajpayee returns to guide the national polity. Saryu, unequivocally, is one such man in politics today who, notwithstanding his hitherto confinement in Bihar and Jharkhand politics, is the blend of Jayaprakash Naryan and Atal Bihari Vajpayee to provide an alternative national vision to the nation in such trying times as this when Modi’s invivnibility and BJP’s humongous hubris are so unpleasantly raring their ugly heads to take the nation towards its unprecedented mess. No wonder the situation of Saryu Roy today is exactly like the Indian Cricket Team of 1983 when none could say that India would be the world champion. Nonetheless, the captain Kapil Dev believed in his team, including his own capataincy vision, that he can achieve a hitherto unachievable goal, and he finally did it: India became the world champion. Kim Hughe was the man who predicted it when other ridiculed him; similarly, this writer too predicts that Saryu Roy may not be today in the people’s imagination as the national alternative for Narendra Modi, but as the time will pass, the people of India will doubtless see the rise of the phenomenon called Saryu Roy as the new challenger to Narendra Modi, with the new equation the nation will soon discover is: Saryu Roy versus Narendra Modi.  

Vivekanand Jha is the author of a famous book Yes, I am Bihari( Han, Main Bihari Hoon) and an upcoming book  The People’s leader. 

Beyond the Rahul-Modi fixation

                              Beyond the Rahul-Modi fixation

How the binary of Rahul- Modi fixation is keeping the nation hostage to their respective idiosyncrasies.

Notwithstanding the  ongoing whataboutery between the Congress and the BJP, the ostensible bipartisanship at the highest level of their political leaderships is starkly visible to one and all. The theatrics of sharp exchanges between the two, including the formulation of of that of ‘Feku versus Papu’ shenanigans, is a clever stratagem to keep the nation engrossed in their subterfuges so that the people of India are perpetually deluded into believing that nation has no choice beyond that of Modi or Rahu. Significantly, by keeping the nation singularly obsessed with these fixation, the underlying intention is to put a full stop for the nation to reflect beyond these two alternative viable options that alone can offer the cure for the nation’s humongous maladies that afflict it today. Interestingly, as this fixation helps both Congress and BJP to sell its respective brands as the only remedies for the nation’s woes, what it so comprehensively inhibits is the national thought process that may even remotely contemplate a refreshing window to look beyond this crippling national obsession.

As a Political commentator who increasingly has been facing hostility at the social networking sites for his columns, especially those which are dubbed as hostile to Modi, I am being randomly pooh-poohed by the gangs of Modi admirers who, in my justifiable, constructive criticisms of Modi government, have so regressively though, despicably designated me as a Rahul sympathiser. And, based on their faulty presumption, continually abuse me for being a Papu’s admirer. Paradoxically, any article or write ups that the Modi brigade or trolls that BJP unleashes on Social Networking sites, have a preconceived notion: Those who oppose Modi or, for that matter, BJP or Union government or any state government ruled by BJP’s policies, are, unequivocally, dubbed as the sympathisers of Rahul Gandhi. Initially, in the wake of such flurry of reactions, so unerringly to paint me with Congress’ hue and colour, I suspected innocently that that it could be a judgmental error, a bonafide misreading of my intention. However when such Machiavellian attempts continued unabated, despite sharing of my backgrounds, the realisation suddenly dawned on me that everything is mischievously conceptualised: the binary of viewing everything in Modi- Rahul prism is the consequence of a deep rooted conspiracy at the top; a bipartisanship to ensure that none gains an ascendancy in the public eyes apart from these two worthies who alone have the license to salvage the national pride, to redress the nation’s grievances, to continually strive for national rejuvenation. In my deep state of contemplation, it just struck me that this is a malicious propaganda tool designed by both the parties meticulously to keep the nation focussed on them as the competing voices of leaderships for the whole nation. 

But then why would a nation of 1,30 billion of people so helplessly bank upon only these two faces as the representatives of the people’s urges and aspirations when the truth inevitably remains this: while the Papu remains hitherto an untested man who has not yet held any government position, the other one has simply failed the nation by his series of gaffes and goof ups that have put us all in a state of inextricable mess? A Prime Minister who is master of real politicking, has taken the nation for a ride at every drop of hat, still remains invincible within his party as well as outside of it. Seemingly, his Himalayan blunder in botching up the lockdown plans that had already triggered the nation toward the path of an impending catastrophe, callously remains unrepentant —not even once did he publicly express his apology for the severe hardships that his series of actions had inflicted upon the nation. Regrettably, his one error in judgment of not shutting the international flights or quarantining the passengers arriving from foreign countries, have so depressingly resulted in the widespread spread of pandemic Corona across the length and breadth of India. Worse still, with Indian economy going tailsspin with severe loss of jobs amounting to more than 16 crores, starvation of acute order knocking at our doors today, yet Modi is blissfully enjoying the arrival of his personal plane from the USA worth more than Rupees 4,222 crore. Now, the moot question: How could a democratically elected Prime Minister be so  blatantly insensitive to the nation’s woes so much so that he still thinks it worthwhile to go ahead with such an acquisition of such an expensive plane that insulates him from any probable missiles’ attacks when the nation is in its biggest turmoil in decades? But then BJP may have an irrefutable logic to offer: With the national security degenerating, Chinese forces are stationed at our border, even moved inside our territory in Ladakh, in Pongong Tsu and Depsang, India’s head of the state needed to be secured against all odds. 

But then the government spokesperson should have justified the reasons behind investing so heavily in buying a plane for Indian Prime Minister on the pattern of American Presidents’ F1 Plane. Yes, they have a justifiable cause for the same: India, being the largest democracy in the world, had every right to provide its Prime Minister with the modern, sophisticated plane like the one his friend Donald Trump enjoys. After all, Trump is Modi’s friend and, if his friend enjoys such facilities, why not his friend in orient would? Unfortunately, Modi has failed to take notice of the significant differences in two democracies: America, despite its many flaws, still remains world’s richest country, whereas India, despite all its hypes and hooplas, remains mired in poverty where, if the situation persists as it does today, it severely runs the risks of the entire nation degenerating in an impending chaos. But how does it matter to a prime minister whose only bravado is that he hails from the bottom of the pyramid, determined to rule over the 1.30 billion people as a tea vendor whose overwhelming interest lay in serving the people as its Pradhan Mukhiya. Alas, someone could remind him that Prashan Mukhiya cannot dream of riding a chopper, far less a sophisticated plane worth about  4,222 crore of rupees! Significantly, Modi has a readymade explanation for the same: Just because he is a tea vendor, all these conspiracies are afoot to target him; instead had there been some Namdar, Papu in his place, who would have dared to raise any question? The entire nation is silenced by this befitting repartee: After all, the tea vendor has bought the distinguished right to splurge the national resources the way he deems fit, he has the inherent right to do so because he is a Kamdar and all this right he has brought with his entry into the 7 Lok Kalyan Marg, the erstwhile Race Course Road
. 

While the Namdar never let go of an opportunity to remind the nation that whereas he has the birthright to inherit what the tea vendor has usurped. Based on his congenital ineritance and the birth right, the Namdar leaves no chances to go when he does not remind the nation that what his ancestors had preserved for him for decades, the tea vendor had illegitimately grabbed it in seconds. Therefore, Namdar feels vexed that what should have been his legitimate inheritance, was being so illegitimately denied to him. No wonder the thetrics of highest level is being played between this so- called Namdar versus Kamdar where there is no place for anyone else. Expectedly, the 23 rebels who dared to write a letter challenging Sonia Gandhi’s lopsided and ineffective leadership are cooling their heels, for the dynastic seeds so strongly entrenched within the Congress Party is not showing any sign of wavering, far less any disintegration. No wonder then the leadership of both BJP and Congress are in some sort of wedlock where no one is allowed to peep, far less gatecrash into this subterranean equation so collusively worked out. In the meanwhile, the gullible nation too is so delightfully watching this spectacle of bizarre magnitude when Namdar and Kamdar are the players in the field while 1.30 billion Indians are their cheerleaders. The show has the potential to go on and on without any intervals in between.  

Nonetheless, this show of  purported antagonism, has an undercurrent of camaraderie embedded in it in the surface. Both Modi and Rahul are in the win- win situation if the show goes on uninterrupted, yet the nation is all set to be the biggest loser if the immediate full stop is not put on to the same. While Rahul brigade by bracketing Rahul with Modi, secures his future in Congress as any of his detractors, if ever tried to upset the applecart, will feel isolated. As was the recent case when 23 rebels, justifiably so, tried to bring Sonia Gandhi to accountability, faced the axe in no time, for Sonia too as a stakeholder in keeping Rahul in wedlock till he can take on Modi with full might. Only then Sonia will call the divorce of the existing Rahul-Modi fixation. So far as Modi is concerned, his supporters are blissfully engrossed in prolonging this equation which suits Modi as much as it does to Rahul, for that so exuberantly keeps Modi unchallenged within his own party and also an invincible at the national level. Hence, Rahul -Modi fixation has its endorsement from the both sides of the political  divides. 

However with both BJP and Congress bipartisanship for this Rahul- Modi fixation,  the nation is invariably paying a grave price. It is the appropriate time for the nation to break this jinx; it is the time that the nation should move beyond this binary of Rahul- Modi as the only political options to choose from. It is the time that political choice should move beyond this binary and unfold many other important options before the nation. Such an option has to come from within the polity; it has to come from within the existing political system. Further, it has to come from the politicians who have proved their mettle, their performance through decades of honest service to the public. Saryu Roy is the one of such politicians in the country whose politics is hitherto based on the public service without any quid pro quo being involved in it. He is the trusted face who has a clean image that is trusted by both Hindus and Muslims, alike. This apart, he is the one who was instrumental behind the defeat of BJP in the last assembly election in Jharkhand. Also, his decades of political career is the testimony and credentials of his being a man of impeccable character. The upcoming party of Saryu Roy, with intellectuals from all hues and colour rising in support for his ideology, the nation will have a credible choice. The nation, albeit for the first time in decades, will have a genuine man –neither so called Namdar or Kamdar–but the Karmayogi whose summum bonum has been to serve the larger public interest. This will be a welcome sign for the nation in 2024. The rise of the People’s leader Saryu Roy will be a new beginning for the nation where the democracy hitherto been taken for a ride by the bipartisanship of both Congress and the BJP will witness a much needed reprieve with the advent of a very trusted face at the national level. Hence in this backdrop, Saryu Roy’s foray into the national politics was long overdue.

When India should re-discover Jayaprakash within it.

OM

 When India should re-discover Jayaprakash Narayan within it.

The glowing tribute to the Loknayak, on his birth anniversary, will be to rekindle the spirit of triumphalism in all of us. When his soul  beckons the nation as never before

The glowing tribute to the Loknayak, on his birth anniversary, will be to rekindle the spirit of triumphalism in all of us. Perhaps never in its independent history, India stared at  the vacuum, with its democracy looking absolutely fragile; with institutional values having  been suspended at the altar of individual whims and fancy; with the public interest being sought to be usurped by superimposing of the whims of the rulers of the day which is so craftily, yet deftly being masqueraded as the nation’s summum bonum; when judiciary, instead of guarding its turf zealously, had long reconciled to pay a subservient role, with some of the judges have so delightfully taken to singing panegyrics for the ruler of the day for their own individual gratification; when  media, long jettisoning its responsibility of playing the role of the 4th pillar of the constitution, has so disgracefully donned the arbitrary role of being the government’s spokesperson to intoxicate the masses in singing the praise of their ruler forgetting their own pressing needs of Roti, Kapda aur Makan ; when  bureaucrats, ever in compliance mode of what executive wants, have mastered the art of crawling even before their masters have asked them to bend; when to make the nation 1,30 people fall in line with the narrative that government so evocatively espouses, the Brahmastra of ‘Sedition’ law is so poignantly being used to muzzle the dissenting public voice; When the time worse than ‘Indira is India, and India is  Indir’, has degenerated to a worsening monstrous proportion with a counter slogan: ‘Har har Modi Ghar ghar ghar Modi’,  it is the time the re-awakening the spirit of ‘Sampoorna Kranti ‘ in the heart of every Indian has arrived.  In other words, we have to rediscover Jayaprakash Narayan within all of us.

It was in 1974, Loknayak Jyaprakash Narayan had given a clarion call to encirlce Bihar Vidhan Sabha, the entire area was cordoned off, with police manning every single street of Patna leading to Bihar Vidhan Sabha. The focus of the entir enation, albeit for the first time, was Patna, not Delhi, despite the fascist Indira and her son had seized the nation’s attention with their flurry of anti- national activities. But then as there was a total silence with police force, hell bent upon taking recourse to draconian measures to thwart the attempts of Jayaprakash Narayan to mobilise the public opinion against the fascist rulers of the day. While the graveyard silence prevailed in the streets of Patna on that red lettered day, the police manning the streets were euphoric that none could dare to venture out of their homes, lest the lathis they were so menacingly wielding, were, in fact, awaiting to break the heads of any such gullible who could dare defy their common sense to end up as the casualty to the naked brutality unleashed by the despot to browbeat the nation into submission. Alas, those police forces manning the streets and their bosses so comfortably perched in their A.C Chambers so conveniently forgot that those who so proudly wear the badge of revolutionaries up their sleeves, seldom care for brutal physical coercion: ‘ Sar katane ki tamanna aaj hamare dil mein hai, dekhna hai jor kitna bahuaen katil mein hai'( When we are prepared to scarifice our heads, let us see how much strength the enemies’ shoulder posseess). Suddenly like a lightening, barged out the revolutionary of the century, Jayaprakash Narayan with Nanaji Deshmukh and others to take on the might of the despot rulers of the day. But then Indira Gandhi, the fascist, had not given up her determination to weaken her resolve at the mere clarion call of Jayaprakash to encircle Bihar Vidhan Sabha.  But, as Jayaprakash with Nanaji Deshmukh emerged with few more people, there was a sudden surge of people from all sides. When the procession went near Income ax Golambar( boulevard)  There was an isntant police lathicharge resulting in Nanaji Seshmukh’s serious injury of his arm and the lathi that was attempted on the head of Jayaprakash, was deliberately borne by his body guard whose arm too was severely injured. Nation saw the resolve of the mass leader whose call for the Sampoorna Kranti was later subverted by those who had sworn to live and die by it.

Interestingly, almost a decade ago, before  Jayaprakash rose with his voice of rebellion, Martin Luther King 2,  a civil activist, in USA, in course of his historic speech: ‘I have a dream’, unfolded a holistic vision for the mankind. transcending the limitations placed on the path of human liberation, by the forces inimical to human emencipation, Martin uther King sought a unity in the humanity transcending the physical boundary and geographical barrier, the mode of governments and the modus opernadi of the system. No wonder the ‘Sampoorna Kranti’, a holistic vision of Jayaprakash Narayan, has a close affinity with that of the vision of Martin Luther King, when the former too visualised the individual freedom and liberty taking a precedence over that of draconian state regulation and the power that state concentrate to enrich itself at the expense of the individual freedom. No wonder the fascist Indira and her son Sanjay Gandhi, were determined to infringe upon the individual freedom and liberty by encroaching upon the same through their coercive means of suppressing the dissent and the uproar of protests that rose in rebellion against an indigenous rulers seeking to subjugate their people as the second class citizens singing to her tunes; in the process, sacrifiicng their individual rights and liberties at the altar of their personal whims and fancy. But this authoritarianism of Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay met with a vehement resistance from one of the visionaries, who was also one of the freedom fighters to have fought against the colonial power and had seen through the vicissitudes of the decades of the arduous struggles being waged against the brute repression unleashed by the colonial masters to retain the supremacy of the raj. No wonder beholding such a prized freedom, ending up as a casulaty to the dictatorial whims of a leader whose father was a crusader for a hard earned freedom of the nation, pained Jayaprakash enormously when he shot a letter to Indira Gandhi to give her obstinacy and restore the individual rights and liberties of the individual citizen of the republic. But, where do we have a precedent of the fascist giivng up the power without a fight? Indira too fought till she was defeated and indiviual rights and freedom were restored.

Twenty first century India, reflects the situation analogous to that of during the emergency era; in fact, it is even more stark, for the world today is far more integrated than what it was in the 20thth century. Significantly, the ruler of today, appears far more sophisticated: National crises are ever deeper than what it was in 1974: Today, India is negotiating with the multiple crises bedeviling it from all sides. While the nature is teting the humanity by afflciitng the human race with the pandemic Corona, the political, economic and societal situations look frighteningly fragile. Worse still, with men dying like flies, India’s economy going for a toss, the social divide overwhelmingly starker as never before, with Hindu- Muslim divide all time high, nation’s confidence is an all time low. Regrettably, when the nation is being pumelled from all sides, the media, so obsequioulsy reconciled to play the role of governemnt spokesperson, continues to sing hosannas for the Prime Minister, making the nation believe that ‘all is well’. Even if China has increasingly been nibbling our territory, the media wants nation to believe that with the ubiquitous presence of 56 inch, who else can dare browbeat India? Significantly, unlike Indira Gandhi’s era, the nation is infested with the communal poison, where the religious polarisation is all all time high. Intriguingly, such is the magnitude of this malady that even the sense of patriotism has come to be measured in the religious terms, with the dominant Hindu nationalism, having overtaken the decades old secular perfidy that the nation had witnessed for several decades, has proved even a greater spoiler than the vision of making Indian a lop sided secular republic. Hindu nationalism, despite its majority tag, has contributed to the nation’s unprecedented division along the religious lines as never before.

 The incident at Hatrash, in Uttarpradesh, is the microcosm of the national degeneration that has engulfed the polity in its octopus like grip in the contemporary times. Hatrash, depicts what India is today, with multiple maladies afflicteing it from all sides: How Dalits, despite being crucial for  the permutaion and combination of all electoral calculous, continues to be the fodder for all poliitcal parties. With an episode young Dalit woman, subjected to multiple crimes–murdered after a physical assault–is sought to be given a decent burial, with the last vestiges of the evidence being eliminated to exonerate the murderers and the rapists. Worse still, as is the evolving trend, the ruling party, hell bent upon manufacturing its own narratives, has fabricated its own version that suits the ruling dispensation. Reprehensible enough, the journalist from Kerala, who was paying a visit to the spot on Hatrash, is being slapped with the acts of ‘treason’, is the vindication of even a greater danger than what the nation had witnessed during the emergency era when people knew that their constitutional rights stood suspended; however, in this ongoing times of undeclared emergency, the peope are rigorously being punsihed with the fundamental rights purportedly remaining in force. Besides, the remarkable aphorisms being evolved for slapping charges like that of ‘Naxal Urbans’ to silence the critics, is the exemplification of the most dreaded times that we are in–While Indira Gandhi had used the draconial powers to crush dissents, Narendra Modi uses sophisticated techniques to send his detractors and dissenters in prisons by levelling such charges as being ‘Unrban Naxal’. Worse still, the voice of genuine dissent and criticisms are being drowned in the melee of engineered cacophony that so overhwelmingly subsumes the voice of dissent and criticisms.

But the biggest problem that bedevils the republic today that India neither has Jayaprakash Narayan, nor does it have Nani A Palkhivala to salvage the nation from this critical phase of destiny, where corporates have taken over the polity in their overwhelming grip. In true sense, an oligarchy has come to grab the power where the voice of the vested interest is being so seamlessly paraded to represent the vox populi. With the corporate stranglehold over power is an all time high, the separate wings of governemnt–exceutive, legislative and judiciary–all doing a bidding for them, the nation never stood as enervative as it appears today. But the ludicrous irony of all this is, that the rulers are so pretending that what they are doing, are being done in the name of Ma Bharti—kindly recall, Indira too had ridiculously declared Jayaprakash Narayan as the fascist. Ironically, when all these transgressions have become quotidian, the nation is blissfully awaiting that some Jayaprakah will surely emerge from somewhere within the country; after all, they say, ‘ India is a big country and consequently from some corner Jayaprakash will appear’. It is something proverbial like: ‘We all want Bhagat Singh but not in our homes but definitively in our neighbourhood. Jayaprakash, we should note, was not an individual, but was an ideology, a belief; Sampoorna Kranti, was not an individual phenomenon which went along with Jayaprakash Narayan, but his was an ideology, a belief, a doctrine that he sought to institutionalise in all our hearts, in the hearts of millions of his progenies and the posterity that were yet unborn when he lived and towered over the republic.

Significantly, when Saryu Roy, the man who truly deserves the mantle of Jayaprakash Narayan, for taking the initiative to immortalise his ideology and beliefs when he locked horns with General S.K.Sinha, Bindeshwari Dubey and others who intended Jyaprakash Narayan’s statue to be installed at Gandhi Maidan, in Patna, for Saryu, all along believed that Jayaprakash Narayan was not an individual born in flesh and bones, but an ideology and beliefs that were to stay much after he was gone. Consequently, he chose the Income Tax Chauraha in Patna, where Loknayak was arreasted after giivng a historic call for encircling Bihar Vidhan Sabha, ( boulevard) for installing his statue by way of a memorial for the generations to follow his holistic vision of Sampoorna Kranti for safeguarding the individual rights and freedom. Saryu Roy, the flag bearer of Sampoorna Kranti of Jayaprakash, also was instrumental in installing the statue of Loknayak in Parliament( details of the same in the upcoming book The People’s leader) had a singlemost thought in is mind: Nation will rise up to the occasion as and when any such fascist like Indira Gandhi will ever rear their ugly heads. Today we have the fascism, in its ugliest form, seeking to rear its ugly head. Nation will have to resist it with full might. It is desirable to note that Jayaprakash will not descend from the sky nor will he emerge from the underground; he, in  fact, is in each of us and consequently we have to re-discover him within. This is the legacy that he had bequeated to all of us, the fellow citizens of this country. We all have to rise to the occasion to resist the might of the state as each one of us is Jayaprakash Narayan in our own myriad ways. This is what Jayaprakash represents to us today. His soul beckons the nation as never before. nation need to rekindle the spirit of triumphalism that goes with the vision of Sampoorna Kranti as envisaged by the greatest Indian in the post- independent phase—Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan, more an ideology than an individual born in flesh and bones.