© 2006-2017 Kasturi & Sons Ltd. -vijay kumar [email protected] - EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
CHENNAI THE HINDU 8 EDITORIAL MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE The saron breeze in the Northeast Most regional parties prefer the BJP as their national partner, but managing contradictions won’t be easy connect to the separatist National contradictions. It now seems those merged nearly four decades ago . Liberation Front of Tripura who swear by Kautilya seem to While IT investments would ap (NLFT), and the CPI(M) cadre is no handle it better than those who peal to the young, both tribals and Small arena, big win match for the armed guerrillas preach Marx and Engels, at least in Bengalis, the dam decommission For the BJP, the import of its victory who back the IPFT’s young mili India. ing may open the path for ethnic tant cadres in the remote hill inte reconciliation which the Marxists in Tripura goes beyond numbers Subir Bhaumik riors. But by not endorsing the A bid for all three overlooked at their own peril by here is a reason that the Bharatiya Janata Party is Twipraland demand and by not The BJP parliamentary board has trying to play the wild card of Ben disproportionately pleased with its performance giving the IPFT the majority of the expressed the hope that despite gali chauvinism. in Tripura, which sends only two members to the f the three States whose As ST reserved seats (11 contested by not getting a clear majority in Na In Nagaland, the BJP has to de T sembly election results the BJP, nine by the IPFT), the BJP galand and also the Congress liver a nal settlement in a way Lok Sabha. From zero to 35 seats in the 60member As Owere declared on March 3, sent a clear message it would not emerging as the single largest par that pleases most, if not all, rebel sembly in ve years is unarguably no mean electoral ac Tripura’s was doubtlessly the most be a junior partner to its ally, as in ty in Meghalaya, the BJP will form and political factions. This is no complishment. But having done this by beating the Left stunning. Tripura has been the saf Jammu and Kashmir. That got the the government in both these easy task in a very divided tribal Front, its strongest ideological opponent, even if not est Left bastion since the Commu BJP much of the tribal backing , Christianmajority States. Again, society. the biggest political threat nationally, has given P rime nist Party of India (Marxist)led and also of Bengalis in rural re the BJP seems to have managed In Meghalaya, where the BJP ap Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah a Left Front rst swept to power in mote interiors who saw support to the National Socialist Council of pears to have managed to deth special satisfaction. Mr. Modi wanted a victory in T rip 1978. Only once since then, in the BJP as their safest security op Nagalim (IsakMuivah) — NSCN rone Chief Minister Mukul Sangma 1988, did the Left Front lose to the tion. (IM) — to back its bid for power (who led the Congress to emerge ura to be celebrated as much as the victory in Uttar Pra CongressTUJS (Tripura Upajati Ju Then by absorbing almost the with its new found ally and the Na as the single largest party), it desh, which sends the largest number of members to ba Samity) alliance, but it returned entire Congressturned Trinamool RITU RAJ KONWAR ga People’s Front (NPF) may join would have to hold together a coa the Lok Sabha. Mr. Shah saw in Tripura a reason for his to power in 1993. Since then it has Congress leadership in its fold, the That explains the BJP sweep in in as well, all apparently to pave lition of disparate regional players; party workers in West Bengal and Kerala to be extreme been in power, with Manik Sarkar BJP ensured that it ran away with Agartala and other urban areas. So the way for a nal settlement of ensuring the survival of such a coa ly happy. The BJP likes to imagine that the Left has as Chief Minister since 1998. So for the 30% Congress votebank. In with the tribal vote and the middle the Naga imbroglio. Failure to de lition will not be easy in Megha wielded a disproportionate inuence on political dis the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to Tripura, the ght has always tend class urban Bengali vote swinging liver a nal settlement more than laya’s ‘aya ram gaya ram’ politics. course, resulting in pushing the entire Sangh Parivar in emerge out of nowhere and score ed to be between the Left and the its way, all that the BJP needed was two years after signing the Frame a spectacular victory by getting a antiLeft. With the Congress deci a small swing in the rural Bengali work Agreement would have nor Message for West Bengal to a place of political isolation and unacceptability. It is majority in the Assembly on its mated and seen as the Bteam of vote. mally jeopardised the poll pros Most regional parties in Northeast true that the BJP’s diculties in nding allies for much own is nothing short of a miracle. the Left, with Congress president While much of that remained pects of the BJP, especially after it now prefer the BJP as their nation of the eighties and the nineties had a lot to do with the Beneath this surprise lies a cob Rahul Gandhi avoiding any attack with the Left (which is marginally fell out with the ruling NPF, but al partner, and not the Congress Left, particularly the Communist Party of India (Mar web of contradictions that the against Mr. Sarkar, the antiLeft vo behind the BJP in overall vote party general secretary Ram Mad which has a tribal base, but ma xist), which propped up an eective secular platform BJP’s election managers, especial ter had no option but to go with share), in the deep interiors domi hav’s political engineering in trig naging the contradictions will be a for regional parties opposed to the Congress. If the BJP ly Sunil Deodhar, Prime Minister the BJP as it was seen as the only nated by the IPFT’s militant cadre, gering a successful split and then a fulltime task. Meanwhile, the kept its core Hindutva issues on the back burner during Narendra Modi’s poll manager in viable option to dethrone the Left. the Bengali settlers seem to have taming the main NPF and the Tripura results will denitely wor Varanasi, seem to have managed The middle class Bengali vote voted against the Left, as it was NSCN is something that would ry one Chief Minister in particular the Vajpayee years in government, then it was in no so well. swung the saron way because of seen to be no longer capable of de have done Kautilya proud. — Mamata Banerjee in West Ben small measure due to pressure from its allies who were the Left’s poor track record in em fending them in the event of a re But now the challenges. In Trip gal. It is easy to see why she spoke earlier part of a Leftbacked grouping that treated the The Tripura manoeuvre ployment generation, forcing Trip surgent tribal insurgency. ura, the BJP has to deliver on its of Left arrogance and Congress Congress as the biggest enemy and the BJP as beyond By striking an alliance with the tri ura’s best brains to seek jobs in Fear of the unknown always development promise — the new missteps in not aligning with her the pale. The real story in Tripura is of course the col bal Indigenous People’s Front of Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. haunts the rural Bengalis who Chief Minister may do well to go party in Tripura. She seems to lapse of the Congress votebank. Clearly, the antiL eft, Tripura (IPFT) which demands a Mr. Sarkar’s refusal to meet the have borne the brunt of tribal in for roadshows to attract big ticket know that she will be the next to antiincumbency vote, which includes the tribal vote, separate tribal State of Twipraland captains of IT industry during a surgency since the violence of investments to leverage the IT ga face the saron re. has moved completely to the BJP. A tieup with the Con it wants carved out of the autono 2015 Tripura Conclave organised 1980 — and a dominant BJP with a teway and may consider, for in mous district council of the S tate, to leverage Agartala’s emergence majority of its own was their best stance, decommissioning the Subir Bhaumik, a former BBC bureau gress, therefore, would not have been the answer to the the BJP assured itself of a sweep in as India’s third Internet gateway bet to tame the IPFT and nip the 10MW Gumti hydel project to re chief for East and Northeast India, is Left’s loss in Tripura, where it ruled for 25 years. What the 20 seats reserved for Sche did not go down well with Gen Twipraland demand in the bud. claim thousands of acres of fertile editorial consultant with Myanmar’s it needs to do is win back some of the tribal votes that duled Tribes. The IPFT has close Next, tribals and Bengalis alike. Politics is the art of managing the tribal land that the project sub Mizzima Media the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura spirited away to the BJP. The BJP has something to cheer about in Nagaland as well: it won 11 seats and is in a position to form a govern New star in a crowded sky? ment with the support of its ally, the Nationalist Demo cratic Progressive Party, a breakaway group of a former For all his challenges, Kamal Haasan appears to be in tune with Tamil Nadu’s historical preoccupation with welfarism ally, the Naga Peoples Front. The smaller northeastern States, heavily dependent on the Centre for funds, have haps but one who has never be women who, in 1967, uprooted not unlike Jayalalithaa herself. fore occupied the Chief Minister’s and overawed the Congress p ar Finally, being equally comforta a tendency to back the party ruling at the Centre. Like seat. ty’s political networks that were ble in Tamil and English, he has the Congress earlier, the BJP is currently the beneci In this regard, Mr. Haasan has based relatively more on patron left open the option to straddle the ary. In Meghalaya, the Congress managed to emerge as timed his entry well, as he stood age allocation through local elites. worlds of the elites and the masses the single largest party, but the BJP, with two members, virtually no chance of winning in this State, an important asset for is helping the National People’s Party form the govern Narayan Lakshman while these titans of the Dravidian#2 1 6 5 9 Dravidianism redux an aspiring leader. ment. After being denied in Manipur and Goa last year, movement reigned. Had he de Mr. Haasan lacks a living, histori Between these countervailing when it could not form the government despite being layed his entry further, however, cal connection to this movement, forces that could either boost Mr. the single largest party, the Congress actively purs ued he timing of cinema super he would have risked losing unlike some of his potential rivals. Haasan’s bid for power or bring it star Kamal Haasan’s entry in ground to another inimitable chal KRISHNAMOORTHY S. It is true that Dravidianism no lon crashing down , the ultimate out alliances, but with little luck. The Northeast is in no po Tto politics can be considered lenger, fellow actor and the mega ected in the failure of the ruling ger exists in its prior radical form. come would hinge upon his ability sition to help any party win the battle for the Lok Sab brilliant or too little too late, de superstar, Rajinikanth. Mr. Rajini party to execute government pro It has, at least since the 1990s, to answer this: what are the most ha, but the winner of the battle for the Lok Sabha is in pending on the prognosis for Ta kanth, who announced his politi grammes eciently and deliver re shed its antiBrahmin, antiHindu, urgent needs of the common Ta the best position to win the Northeast. mil Nadu’s troubled polity. cal entry at the turn of the New lief to a State that has suered mul antiHindi and antiNorthIndia milian today, and how can he sig The death of former Chief Mi Year, carries the hopes of millions tiple natural and manmade undertones in favour of a broad, nal that he is the best candidate to nister and head of the All India An of his fans but may have ceded a calamities, has been driven in inclusive strand of political accom deliver on that need? Secondary na Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam palpable advantage to Mr. Haasan large part by a patronclient rela modationism for all Tamils. Yet, questions that he will have to Avoid trade wars (AIADMK), Jayalalithaa, in Decem by not outlining a concrete policy tionship that governing elites en there is a residual feeling of Tamil answer revolve around the nature Throwing free trade out of the window will ber 2016, on the one hand and the agenda, identifying party mem joy with the governed. The result exceptionalism which motivates of the party organisation that he make Americans and everyone else poorer stepping back from active politics bers or charting a political strategy of last December’s byelection in voting behaviour, and continues to will build up to make such political orld leaders did well to avoid protectionist of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in terms of alliances. the R.K. Nagar Assembly consti present an opportunity to politi action a reality — in particular , (DMK) supremo, M. Karunanidhi tuency, which is acknowledged to cally mobilise. whether it will have sucient ca trade policies in the aftermath of the Great on the other have produced a lea Reforming governance have turned entirely on cash pay Despite this lacuna, Mr. Haasan pacity in terms of resource alloca WRecession of 2008. After all, they had learned dership vacuum that has shaken While this much is in Mr. Haasan’s ments made to its electorate, is on does enjoy one inherent advan tion and if he will be able to esta their lessons from the global trade war of the 1930s the very foundations of gover favour, the secular decline in go ly one recent and disturbing illus tage that could yet help him pro blish an organisational culture which deepened and prolonged the Great Depression, nance in the State. vernance quality that began at tration of how the polity has ject a close tie to the needs of the that eschews rentseeking. or so it was thought. American President Donald This has been manifested in the least as far back in time as the eectively been marketised. Tamil person: his worldview ap From Mr. Haasan’s perspective, Trump last week announced that his administration meltdown of the AIADMK into bit 1990s has accelerated. This places Yet, while Jayalalithaa was alive pears to be in sync with those of Tamil Nadu must appear to be im would soon impose taris on the import of steel and ter factionalism and in the un limits on how much transforma and Mr. Karunanidhi was in the forbears of the Dravidian bued with a Dickensian hue — the leashing of a cycle of power strug tion his potential campaign could charge, the two Dravidian parties movement such as Periyar. First , best of times and the worst of aluminium into the U.S. for an indenite period of time. gles to control the reins of the aspire for. Essentially, the past few had little trouble securing the he considers himself an atheist times — for political entry and as The European Union, one of the largest trading partn party. At one point, three separate decades have witnessed the rise of mandate of the people in election and a rationalist, which is the cor piration. Yet, if he can adroitly ma ers of the U.S., has since vowed to return the favour vectors of power vied for the party a massive rentseeking and extor after election. In part this was rect philosophical leaning for Ta noeuvre through the inescapable through retaliatory measures targeting American ex crown, led by Edappadi K. Palanis tion network built on a culture of achieved through the sheer mo mil Nadu. obstructionism that the Dravidian porters. The EU is expected to come out with a list of ov wami, O. Panneerselvam, and goonda politics. This has permeat neymuscle combination. To a Second, his apparent leaning to incumbents will thrust onto his er 100 items imported from the U.S. that will be subject T.T.V. Dinakaran, respectively. Si ed every corner of the government considerable extent the weight of ward leftofcentre politics and a path, he may yet turn out to be the to scrutiny. For his part, Mr. Trump has justied the de multaneously, the fortunes of the and led to capital ight, with 20th century history has been the distaste for Hindutva suggests that jolt of political uprightness that DMK have slipped into uncharted numerous foreign companies wind beneath these parties’ wings. he is in tune with Tamil Nadu’s his the Tamil Nadu ecosystem so des cision to impose protective taris by citing the U.S.’ s territory, with the party’s mantle choosing neighbouring States for The Dravidian movement was torical preoccupation with mass perately requires. huge trade decit with the rest of the world. He ex going to Mr. Karunanidhi’s son, their ventures. quintessentially an ethnic mobili welfarism and that he has moved plained his logic in a tweet on Friday which exposed a M.K. Stalin, a capable leader per This collapse in governance, re sation of common Tamil m en and past his own Brahmin origins — [email protected] shocking ignorance of basic economics. He likened his country’s trade decit to a loss that would be set r ight LETTERS TO THE EDITOR by simply stopping trade with the rest of the world. In Letters emailed to [email protected] must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials. ternational trade, like trade within the boundaries of any country, however, is not a zerosum game. So the Setting foot in the NE him with his basic needs ideology and practices are no about Left Front there are also sporadic support forms of sport where trade decit does not represent a country’s loss either, For a party that continues and aspirations. The longer relevant. To start “corruption” to generalised reports of women elsewhere there is potential. High jump but merely the ip side of a capital account surplus. to ride on the unabated resentment against the Left with, it should learn to “allegations.” in India who are ghting is one. popularity of Prime Front government was support peoplefriendly Madhura Swaminathan, back (‘Ground Zero’ page – Vidhya B. Ragunath, This is not to deny that there are denitely some losers Minister Narendra Modi, mainly because of rising policies. For the BJP, the Bengaluru “Voting against alcohol”, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu — for example, the U.S. manufacturing industry which together with its focus on unemployment. Both the party must not assume the March 3). One does not need lost out to competition from countries such as China the development agenda, Congress and the Left need victories to be the “people’s Adivasi lynching to be a scientist to know the Food for thought due to increasing globalisation. But throwing free trade the election results from to strengthen themselves at mandate for anything and The lynching of an Adivasi illeects of alcohol and As data in the Global Hunger out of the window would only make Americans and northeast India are bound the grassroot level if they everything”. youth, Madhu, in Kerala, alcoholism and the ruin it Index show, our country has everyone else poorer. to be a shot in the arm for are to remain politically P.R.V. Raja, dees parallel in terms of its causes. It is disturbing that ‘a serious hunger problem’ Pandalam, Kerala Despite the global backlash, it is unlikely that Mr. the BJP, especially as it has relevant; castigating the BJP savagery and crudity many in the middle classes and ranks 100 out of 119 now extended its on ‘secularcommunal’ (Editorial page, “The Adivasi are now drinking. countries. Many young Trump will walk back on his decision, especially given dominance into hitherto lines has outlived its utility. I In the front page report, in the mirror”, March 3). In Celebrations on the imsiest children die as there is its populist resonance. Steelworkers in key States in the new territory (“BJP stuns B. Suresh Kumar, “BJP stuns Left in Tripura” Kerala, the Adivasis are not grounds where alcohol is inadequate food available to U.S. played a signicant role in Mr. Trump’s election Left in Tripura”, March 4). Coimbatore (March 4, 2018), the last treated as human beings but served have become a social them. Given such a situation, win in 2016. In fact, these are the only people who will The results will also end the paragraph reads: “Among as a lesser species. They norm. it was upsetting that benet from the steel and aluminium taris while politics of negativity I The Left appears not to the factors that worked in would have been selfreliant Pushpa Dorai, thousands of litres of milk American consumers as a whole will pay higher prices engaged in by political have learnt any lessons from favour of the BJPIPFT by now had the thousands of Nurani, Kerala were used in rituals around for their goods. Mr. Trump’s desire to appeal to populist adversaries of the BJP, as it experience. The use of alliance were anti crores spent on their uplift the Gomateshwara statue at is now clearly a panIndian phrases such as “money and incumbency, alleged since Independence been Still a height the Mahamastakabhisheka sentiment also explains why his protectionist turn party. Instead of engaging muscle power” and “fascist corruption by the Left front distributed to them directly. Our country is so obsessed Mahotsav, in Karnataka comes in the midst of steadily improving economic itself in thorough self communal Hindutva” show government, and allegations The discourse around with cricket that we are recently. Perhaps the milk growth. With Mr. Trump’s taris not going down well introspection over its that those in the Left have that the CPI(M) worked for Adivasis needs a sea change turning a blind eye to other could have been distributed with the EU, it will be important to see how China and failure, the Left’s not stopped repeating the the benet of only its especially from the one sports (‘Weekend Sport’ page to poor children rather than other major trading partners respond to his opening statements attributing the same argument, election workers and leaders.” To my about holding out alms to – “Leap of faith”, March 3). being allowed to ow away. salvo. They can take a leaf out of the books of major glo BJP’s victory to “money and after election. People cannot knowledge, during its them. Recently, much of India was My intention is not to hurt bal central banks which have shown enough maturity muscle power” and “foul be fooled always by the claim coverage of the election, The Ayyasseri Raveendranath, cheering its U19 cricket religious sentiments. Certain play by the BJP and RSS” that all except the BJP are Hindu has not provided any Aranmula, Kerala team. But did anyone spare a traditional customs and to avoid using currency wars as a means to settle dis are most unfortunate. The saints, free of corruption, evidence of corruption. thought for our equally rituals need to be looked at putes. Instead of retaliating with more taris, which underlying lesson of the criminalisation and Readers expect the daily to Being liquor-free talented jumpers? They too again. could cause the current dispute to spiral into a full verdict is that in the end, communalism. The Left adhere to fair and even Like the enlightened women deserve a chance. If India Himanshu Gaur, edged global trade war, the U.S.’s trading partners what matters to the should ponder over why it handed reportage. The in villages in Rajasthan who wants to emerge as a Faridabad, Haryana must try to achieve peace through negotiations. common man is the ability has been relegated to the correspondent cannot are bravely leading the battle sporting nation, it should more letters online: of political parties to help present position; perhaps its simply source his statements against liquor consumption, encourage and nancially www.hindu.com/opinion/letters/
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