Change Is on Its Way January 5, 2014 S
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Established 1946 Price : Rupees Five Vol. 68 No. 52 Change is on its way January 5, 2014 S. Viswam The first task for all of us here already formed a government in in Janata, a pleasant one, is to wish Profligate legislators Delhi. It has announced that it intends all our readers a happy 2014. In the Kuldip Nayar to go national and field a substantial context of national politics, the year number of candidates for Parliament. we have just ushered in is a crucial The party is not lacking in public Apartheid of the world unite! one for the polity and the country. support for its unconventional style K. S. Chalam We begin 2014, as we have done of politics. The people at large are with earlier new year arrivals, with funding it in a surprisingly big way. hope laced with abundant optimism. Its anti-corruption crusade, initially No roadblocks for AAP agenda The year we have just rung out did launched under Hazare’s inspiration Nitish Chakravarty not meet with all our expectations. and leadership, has caught popular Indeed, it left us highly dissatisfied, imagination, which has been further displeased and even angry. But it has fortified by the welfare measures set gone. Let it go. Why I am not in AAP? in by the Kejriwal government. In Sandeep Pandey short, the ground has been laid, and But in its own way, it gave some now exists, in many states of India, for shape and substance to its successor by a pan-Indian entry into the national Communal violence in 2013 ushering in some important changes mainstream politics by the AAP. Irfan Engineer in national politics. To those of us who had anticipated the 2014 Lok Sabha The AAP may not make as much polls to be a direct contest between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata difference to the outcome of 2014 Party (and their respective allies), Lok Sabha polls to the Congress the political events of 2013 came as and the BJP as the Delhi polls did to Editor : an eye-opener. Till the elections to them. The AAP arrived on the scene G. G. Parikh five state assemblies in November- as a spoiler of the BJP’s hopes of capturing the state from Sheila Dixit, Managing Editor : Guddi December, we had assumed that a dress rehearsal was being held for and a killer of the Congress hopes of D-15, Ganesh Prasad, the bigger round in the offing. But retaining Delhi for another term. It Naushir Bharucha Marg, the emergence and consolidation can’t repeat this on a national scale Mumbai - 400 007. of the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) has and, if it snatches votes from the introduced a new element in the scene two major parties, as also from some Email : [email protected] and a new dimension and dynamic regional outfits, it can be a crucial to national politics. The AAP has player overall in Parliament. 2 JANATA, January 5, 2014 Narendra Modi has remained a Between the lines serious contender for the top post as a BJP candidate. He has the powerful Profligate legislators backing of the RSS, and this assures him the Hindu vote, although not in Kuldip Nayar all states. Rahul Gandhi is formally entering the prime ministerial race soon. While the Modi-Rahul fight is Despite the moral edge that trip abroad. Nearer home, the Akali to be formally joined, the AAP will the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Dal government sent the legislators come in with its own band, baaja movement has given to politics, to Scotland to see how the scotch and baraat. The BSP and the SP have a 16-member team of legislators whiskey was brewed. been dominating regional politics from the Congress-ruled Karnataka with just less than 30 seats, selling in the south were determined All such trips are considered study their allegiances for a share in power to tour a few South American tours. Since the reports following to the ruling coalition. The AAP countries at government expense. the tours are not published, it may not indulge in that game, but It is the intervention of Congress- is anybody’s guess whether the play another kind of interventionist vice-president Rahul Gandhi, a legislators submit anything in politics in the name of the common reinvigorated person after the writing at all. In fact, they are man. Kejriwal as CM has become drubbing the party received in all paid holidays for pleasure, reality. Maybe, by 2019, Kejriwal Rajasthan and Delhi elections, that something which the government as PM may also come true. In India, they finally buried the trip, which uses to placate its own members 2013 witnessed the politics of the was a joy ride, from the tax payers’ and those in the opposition. And this improbable. In 2014, politics is money. favour is not confined to legislators bound to change under any scenario alone. Members of the committee of in the sense that the Congress The most shocking aspect, the Scheduled Caste and Minorities may have a UPA 3 (anything is however, is that the members in Karnataka have just returned possible), the NDA may rule or going abroad were from the State from a 16-day trip abroad. Their the AAP may be sitting in the Lok Estimates Committee, entrusted itinerary showed that they were Sabha as the principal opposition. with the task of saving superfluous visiting beaches, posh restaurants That is why we said earlier that expenditure. Representatives of and pleasure resorts. 2014 will be a momentuous year of both the Congress and the Bhartiya change for Indian polity and country. Janata Party (BJP) constituted a I found the same craze of going Democracy zindabad! team for the proposed tour. The BJP abroad among our parliamentarians. members developed sudden cold feet Since I was a nominated member when some in the media criticized of the Rajya Sabha, I was never the junkets. The Congressmen caved included in any such trip. Because Janata Subscription in after Rahul Gandhi pointed out of the media, an ethics committee that the expense of Rs. 16 crore was was sought to be set up to stop Annual Rs. : 260/- a waste when 60 districts of the state extravagant expenses. The political faced drought and when more than parties normally distributed the Three Years : 750/- 200 farmers had committed suicide. “study tours” among themselves. It is flabbergasting that the Language Demand Draft / Cheque on The members were technically Committee members, including Mumbai Bank justified because the state assembly persons other than MPs, go to has laid down that the legislators England and America every year to in favour of could tour foreign countries assess the spread of Hindi. JANATA TRUST twice in their five-year tenure. D-15, Ganesh Prasad, Naushir Probably, the same provision is In fact, a phoren trip is as much Bharucha Marg, Mumbai 400 007 offered to members in most other a craze in India as in Pakistan and states as well. The Andhra Pradesh Bangladesh. The legislators there legislators are reportedly planning a also go abroad on one pretext or JANATA, January 5, 2014 3 the other. Whether it is a hangover of the 150-year colonial rule of The real face of politics the British or part of thoughtless expenditure of the burgeoning Rajindar Sachar middle class is difficult to say. Probably, both assumptions are Lok Sabha elections are due in Chief Justice Chagla as far back correct. Yet, it cannot be denied that four or five months. But instead as 1958, when it warned that “any a free foreign tour is the best “bribe” of parties putting forth ideological attempt on the part of business any government can offer. issues such as human rights or houses to finance a political party right to equitable development, is likely to contaminate the very Foreign countries in the West the only test being applied is the spring of democracy”. All this, know this. Missions of the United marketability of the party, even however, fell on deaf ears of Kingdom and the United States though it may flout the ideal laid politicians and political donations utilize this way to have the best of down in our Constitution or the were permitted after some time concessions. Top bureaucrats fall vision of the freedom struggle. during Indira Gandhi’s rule. These for “invitations” from abroad. It have now been continued under would be revealing to find out how Though the Lokpal Bill has the Companies Act, 2013. So much many children of secretaries to the been passed under the shadow for the campaign against politics government have gone abroad on of forthcoming elections, both messed by money power! That scholarships or fully paid studies. parties made adjustments they is why corporate funding of the Foreign missions see to it that the previously proclaimed not possible. new Aam Aadmi Party, which is children of highly-placed people are But two other legislations — the forming the government in Delhi, given pre-travel and full expenses Whistleblowers Protection Bill and is a matter of concern, especially on board and lodging in schools, the Public Grievances Bill — which when it claims to be different. The colleges or other educational have been pending for so long danger of corporate involvement in institutions. and would have given great relief politics is not lessened by receiving against bureaucrats’ angularities, contributions through a website or Unfortunately, bureaucrats were not even given the courtesy cheques from the corporate sector, are falling prey to the generous of being discussed, much less being which in any case finds mention in hospitality of foreign missions.