Lust of Throne – BJP Poaching on Politicians From Other Parties
Amit Shah, soon-to-be Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat and the President of the BJP, would like to make the BJP an invincible political party.
The BJP is out to destroy all the political parties, not a healthy sign for democracy.
The MLAs of the Congress Party in Gujarat are being targeted and about 6 of them have already defected to the BJP. The Congress party barricaded 44 MLAs in the outskirts of Bangalore to avoid further depletion in their numbers.
It is now clear that the Congress will find it difficult to return Rajya Sabha MP from the state of Gujarat, the defected Congress party member will find a berth in the Rajya Sabha. In UP, 2 MLAs of the SP and 1 MLA from the BSP have changed their faith and now they are coloured in BJP’s saffron.
It is disturbing the way the BJP is out to control everything from state assemblies and both the houses of the Parliaments. The opposition parties are as important as the ruling parties in the democracy.
If democracy is to survive, many voices and parties must thrive so that India moves towards real democracy. There is an argument that India needs dictatorship and this argument is being made with Modi in mind, but the person is no substitute for the collective voices of the people.
Democracy is also about diversity and the diverse voices must be reflected. It is true that in democratic decision making it takes the time to arrive at conclusion but this is the only the surest and the soundest way to arrive at the consensus. The consensus building is a democratic process and it is the heart of nation building.
The unholy alliance that Nitish made betraying the people of Bihar is already showing the shape of the things coming to Indian political scene.
The people of Bihar voted for the Grand Alliance and the mandate was clearly anti-RSS/BJP. However, Nitish backstabbed the Grand Alliance and it has made an unholy alliance with the BJP. These are the dangerous signs for the democracy.
If there is no opposition front, then it has to be created and it has to slowly build and it is not difficult to build it. The history becomes the rival of the present.
Most of the partners in the possible grand alliance have been at loggerheads with each other in the past. For example, SP and BSP could have ruled the state of UP forever, but they fell out because of the hunger for power.
If they have hungered for the social revolution, the political scene in India would have been different. Similarly, Lalu being so vocal an anti-Brahmin did little to build the social movement in the state of Bihar.
How would they resolve the contradiction of the past? The only way to resolve the past contradictions is to factor in the higher dimension and that higher dimension is the open and clear movement for social justice. It means going back to the roots of the parties that are on the frontline in the Grand Alliance.
Making ideology lead the Grand Alliance will make it fight against the BJP/RSS as just an anti-BJP/RSS Grand Alliance will not work.
Author – Mangesh Dahiwal, Human Rights Activist
To claim or assert that Lalu Prasad was genuinely anti-Brahman is not fully borne by facts or experience. He began with solemn determination to lead the underdogs. But by the time his first term was over, many perhaps do not know or might have forgot today, that Lalu Prasad started espousing the Brahmans and the associated castes.
He organized in October-November, 1994 Ashwamedha Yagna or horse sacrifice near Patna Airport. His downfall can be marked with this event which surprised many of his close allies and well wishers. The upper strata (castes e. g. Brahman, Bhumihar, Rajput and Kayasths) of the officialdom were ecstatic. The rest of the officialdom was sad and worried about the shape of things to come.
Within a year, i. e. by 1996 involvement and complicity of the Chief Minister Lalu Prasad in the infamous fodder scam came to be published in the media. By June 1996 CBI inquiry began. They were at his doorsteps soon.
The scam had began in Singhbhum district in Chota Nagpur, now Jharkhand. The Deputy Commissioner there should have been squarely responsible for the dereliction of duty in superintendence and control of the treasury where the scam began. But the Chief Minister was blamed for the mismanagement of the Treasury. And the rest is history.