The Pioneer is furiously asking in today’s editorial if the incidents of the past two weeks in Jharkhand and Bihar do not remind one of 1975 and Indira Gandhi’s shenanigans during emergency?
(http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=EDITS&file_name=edit1%2Etxt&counter_img=1)
I am not sure if they do and frankly, I don’t give a damn. Why? Well imposition of emergency lead to a mass movement against Indira Gandhi and her coterie. It was a real mass grass roots movement with people from all walks of life participating in it. But when you consider the fact that leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav are the by products of JP movement you do not feel very hopeful, do you? So even if what is going is similar to the emergency in 1975 and even if it leads to another mass movement against the current Congress government-what are the alternatives? Frankly speaking-barring a few leaders I do not find BJP to be any different than Congress.
So now Shibu Soren has been forced to resign and Arjun Munda will be sworn in as Chief Minister of Jharkhand. But who was the winner? Not the people of Jharkhand. Yes there will be huge parties and dances to the rhythm of drumbeats at the party office of Munda-but I doubt anyone else in Jharkhand or for that matter in the country is feeling that it will make any difference on the ground.
It would have been almost comical were the consequences for the country had not been so serious. Yes, I am talking about the great Indian secular media posturing.
After the sordid power plays in the galleries of Goa, Bihar and Jharkhand were played out and it was hard to hide that the scriptwriter, producer and director were handymen from the Congress, the secular media scrambled to action. After all, during the past few months, they have praised Sonia Gandhi’s “sacrifice” to the hilt, hailed Manmohan Singh’s moral credentials and have tried to sell the “New Congress” to a skeptical populace. If they could not somehow explain away the shenanigans of the Congressmen and someone were to actually proclaim that the King has no clothes (that is, Congress is still corrupt and a party of power grabbers) – the house of Cards that Sonia has built will be shattered in no time.
Thus, we have the spectacle of columnists in the secular media trying to see the big picture and attempting to blame the old Congress mindset rather than saying anything directly against the dynasty. Like I said-it would have been comical were it not so pathetic.
There is a great editorial in today’s Pioneer. Please do yourself a favor and read it:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=EDITS&file_name=edit1%2Etxt&counter_img=1
I wonder what it will take for the secular media in India to ever come up with something like this? Probably never, because Outlook is too busy to plug in Sonia Gandhi, Times of India is too busy to plug in its own products and Indian Express and Hindustan Times are too busy trying to sell a few more copies so that they don’t become totally irrelevant. Sigh!
I am not too sure if everyone has been following the charade going on in India after the recently held state elections. Same old drama, same old script and same old actors and no one even pretends anymore that they are doing it for the sake of country. It is pure power grab just for the sake of grabbing power.
Shibu Soren, Chautala, Lalu, Rabri – same characters play the role of kingmaker, king and martyrs and take turns doing that. In Jharkhand, there is BJP parading its MLAs against Shibu Soren but the very same Shibu Soren used to be part of BJP’s coalition. So what difference will it make to the people of Jharkhand if someone replaces Soren? Will the tribals see their lives improve? Will there be less exploitation of the poor in the state? No one knows because these issues are not even on the table. Advani is shouting that democracy is being subverted in the state while Rahul Gandhi is on a “dharna” outside the Parliament claiming that democracy is in danger.
While India has ambitions to be a global player, it is sad to see that we do not have a single leader of stature who has the vision to lead India to where it needs to be. We’ve been sold short by the leaders of our society.
