Established 1946 Price : Rupees Five Vol. 67 No. 23 The focus shifts July 1, 2012 S. Viswam Hindutava versus regionalism The candidature of Pranab The objective was to push the BJP, Kuldip Nayar Mukherjee for the presidency as the largest partner in the NDA, to the the UPA nominee has unexpectedly good books of Tamil Nadu AIADMK resulted in a shift in the national Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and An Opportunity Lost political focus. Circumstances have the Odisha Biju Janata Dal Chief so conspired as to make Pranabda’s Minister Navin Patnaik with a view Mastram Kapoor election as president a foregone to firming up their participation in the conclusion. One would have expected NDA as its constituents for the 2014 this development to induce a change Lok Sabha polls. Thus, even though Ideology in Indian Politics in the focus from the presidential Sangma has no chance of defeating D. K. Giri to the vice-presidential election. Mukherjee, the BJP is propping him Not so surprisingly, the focus has up as an “Opposition consensus instead shifted to the 2014 Lok Sabha candidate” for the presidency. There European crisis and India poll and the identity of the prime is nothing the BJP will not do for K. S. Chalam ministerial candidates of the varios snatching a political advantage from major political groupings. Thus, any developing situation! today greater public and political Why Socialism? interest is centred on the Lok Sabha However, apart from the BJP’s role in choosing a candidate to oppose Thoughts from South Africa polls two years ahead of the event. How did this happen? The BJP, which Mukherjee, another factor that has was the first party to take an interest in contributed to the shift in the national the presidential election, had rejected political focus is the unexpected the name of Pranab Mukherjee because opposition to the RSS-BJP strategy he was the Congress candidate. It also to project Gujarat Chief Minister Editor : dismissed the name of vice-president Naredra Modi as the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 G. G. Parikh Hamid Ansari on the specious ground that he lacked stature. The same poll. Narendra Modi himself has Managing Editor : Guddi BJP, found itself unable to locate been behaving as if he has already a candidate within its own ranks, been named the NDA candidate. He D-15, Ganesh Prasad, and after failing to persuade former not only blackmailed the BJP into Naushir Bharucha Marg, President Abdul Kalam has had to ousting Sajay Joshi from the party Mumbai - 400 007. fall back on P.A. Sangma. It hastened but he chose to attend the Mumbai to adopt Sangma’s candidature not BJP session only after Joshi had Email : [email protected] with an eye on the presidential poll been eased out. Sanjay Joshi has but on the Lok Sabha poll in 2014. since quit all the party posts he held. 2 JANATA, July 1, 2012 But opposition to Narendra Modi’s Between the lines prime ministerial ambitions came from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Hindutava versus regionalism Kumar who insisted that the NDA prime ministerial candidate should be named immediately, that he Kuldip Nayar should be a secular-minded person with a liberal face and without any The Bhartiya Janata Party seems the ethos which the nation adopted “rough edges” and that Narendra to have tryst with doom. In the during the independence struggle Modi was obviously not such a wake of scams and scandals in the and after freedom as a pole star candidate. Much to the surprise of Congress-run government, the BJP under the leadership of Mahatama the BJP itself, RSS supremo Mohan was gaining ground. Its performance Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Bhagwat rushed to add his little in Parliament was comparatively and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. bit to the Modi-Nitish stand-off better and its younger leadership by endorsing Modi’s candidature. assertive and more meaningful. But True, regional chauvinism, Since Nitish has served notice that once again old RSS men who have which is co-terminus with caste the JD(U) would break away from been riding the party have brought and community in certain states, the NDA in case Modi is named it back to square one. is rearing its ugly head. This is as the prime ministerial candidate, because the Centre looks confused the RSS-BJP combine is perhaps First Gujarat Chief Minister and equivocal when it comes to ready to risk a break-up in the NDA Narender Modi joined issued with enunciate policies which demand alliance. It also means that the RSS Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar secular credentials. reposes so much confidence in on the concept of secularism and Modi’s political clout that it does then RSS played the Hindutava Having little feedback from not mind the complete rejection of card. Both have scotched even the the field, New Delhi continues the NDA by the minorities at the remotest chance of BJP returning to to monopolise power and fails to pan-Indian level. An off-shoot of power. A person who has his hands appreciate that the decentralization all these developments is that Nitish tainted with the blood of Muslims would infuse life among the people Kumar has emerged as a likely cannot be projected as India’s next in a state. Regional aspirations have candidate for 2014 as the choice of Prime Minister. Nor can the false got a new edge in the past years and the “secular” components (non-BJP, clothes of culture hide the real the locals are fired with confidence non-saffron elements) of the NDA. face of adherents to Hindu Rashtra that they can sort out their problems concept. themselves and find a consensus quicker than the remote New Delhi While the NDA has already The BJP has, by and large, does. involved itself in the run-up to the remained quiet. One of its leaders has 2014 polls, there is uncertainty spoken out of turn and questioned This is the reason why Trinamul over the choice of the UPA’s prime the very concept of secularism. Congress won in West Bengal and ministerial candidate. The Congress, But he was hushed up quickly. It Samajwadi Party in UP. The voters as usual, thinks that the talk of seems that the party did delude itself found the parties closer to them and a prime ministerial candidate is with the idea that the Hindu voters more sympathetic to their problems. premature. Sonia Gandhi has said were beginning to own the RSS Even if these regional parties do not that there is still plenty of time, philosophy. The BJP should have give them a better administration even for speculation! Will she name learnt the lesson in 2009 when it was the people are not likely to go back Rahul Gandhi? Is Rahul Gandni all set to win but lost to the Congress. to all India parties which they have ready to assume the responsibility found failing them again and again. of the high office? Is he prime Political parties, including the They may try another party within ministerial material? Can he deliver Congress, do not understand the the region because they are getting the nation for the Congress when he new electorate, mostly young. It convinced that all India parties are failed to deliver even the Congress is liberal in outlook and hates to not an answer to their problems of (Continued on Page 3) mix religion with politics. This was appalling living conditions. JANATA, July 1, 2012 3 The idea of India may be pushed Leave Modi apart - he is a bull in the secular India. For the BJP, already further into the background. There China shop - the Chief Ministers in a divided house, the confusion is may be insurgents and separatists Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and more confounded. It realises that the in certain areas to assert the identity Karnataka are too tall to tame. They country can never be ruled through a of their caste or community, are leaders of their own communities communal agenda. Even the former believing that in the affairs of all and command wide influence. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee India politics they may get lost. realized this and always put his Much would depend on how New Both parties would have great liberal foot forward. He refused Delhi handles the situation. The difficulty for 2014 election, first to oust his Principal Secretary Sarkaria Commission on Centre- in choosing the top person and Brijesh Mishra despite the pressure State relations has become outdated. then tackling him or her. Take of RSS. But then the BJP’s problem Had its recommendations been for example the BJP, it is already is that it does not have a tall person implemented when the report came wooing Vasundheraraje Scindhia, like Vajpayee to withstand the out more than two decades ago, the former Chief Minister, who thumbed pressure of RSS. demand by the states to have more the party and stayed in the wilderness powers might not have arisen. The because she was sure that the Central (Continued from Page 2) Centre has to curtail the subjects it BJP would one day come to her and strongholds in Uttar Pradesh? These has, either voluntarily or through a accept her authoritarian leadership. are all questions that are being raised Constitutional amendment. Apart in political circles. from Defence, Foreign Affairs, Problems of the Congress on this Currency and overall financial count are negligible. Sonia Gandhi National politics is in a state planning, New Delhi should has all the authority. That Rahul of flux right now.