NATIONAL POLITICS                                                                       

Growth Profile of Major Political Parties (1986-1996)

Janata Party figures in 1986

New Trends in National Problems D.L. Sheth in the India Today, 31 August, 1996

With the idea of political representation undergoing change, political parties are assuming the character of unidimensional interest groups. They are increasingly shedding their ideological and programmatic form which could reconcile different interests and identities in society.

The Congress, which until recently enjoyed broad-based support, continues to maintain its form but has lost the substance.

Every other party is chasing its respective limits of caste-communal and regional support, which even when fully realised cannot amount to a majority support in the electorate. Thus, the prospect of any one party, or even a coalition, commanding a political majority at the national level is getting dimmer with every parliamentary election since 1989. The parties, instead of being the interface among the state and the society, are increasingly becoming political fronts of caste, communal and regional forces. Along with representation, the idea of accountability is also changing. Parties are becoming directly accountable to the regions/castes/communities they are supposed to represent than to any system of norms, democratic or otherwise.

The challenge crystallised by the change of 1996 is, thus, to rearrange the national political space in a synergic but rooted way. Failure to create national politics in which all roots have a common stake can lead to a vacuous’ cultural nationalism' of the Hindutva variety. That can

create a false political majority sooner than we think; the system will not allow the void that has been created at its apex for too long.

SC on Electoral Misuse of Religion

Kalamata Mohan Rao, Appellant vs Narayana Rao Dharmana and others, Respondents.

J.S. VERMA AND K.S. PARIPOORNAN, JJ.

Corrupt Practice - Representation of the People Act, 1951, Section 123(3) - Appeal on ground of religion Posters pasted (with) top a sloka from Bhagwad Gita and below depicting the appellant-candidate's party chief in the role of Lord Krishna. Posters got pasted by the appellant himself - Held, the posters constituted an appeal by the appellant for votes on ground of his religion -Corrupt practice proved.

Held:

The contents of the poster (pleaded in the election petition) amount to an appeal by the candidate (appellant) for votes on the ground of his religion. The clear meaning of its contents is that the party chief is an incarnation of God worshipped by the Hindus who is seeking votes for his candidates, the appellant, who is a Hindu, at the election to conquer the evil in the form of the rival political party; and for the sake of Hindu religion to which the appellant belongs, the voters should vote for the appellant, a candidate of the party which is led by an incarnation of God worshipped by the Hindus. This is how it was understood by the voters. The act of canvassing through the medium of these posters pasted on the walls at different places in the constituency has been attributed directly to the appellant himself by the PWs whose testimony has been rightly accepted by the High Court. The unrebutted evidence led in support of the election petition is sufficient to prove that the act of putting up these posters at different places in the constituency as alleged has been duly proved. Thus the corrupt practice under Section 123(1) of the R.P. Act alleged against the appellant stands proved.

Nehru on Secular India

The freedom we had envisaged and for which we had laboured through generations of trial and suffering was for all the people of India, and not for one group or class or the followers of one religion. We aimed at a cooperative commonwealth in which all would be equal sharers inopportunity and in all the things that give meaning and value to life. Why then this strife, this fear and suspicion of each other?

BJP:National Executive Political Resolution,

Jaipur, 17 November 1996

The BIP considers the United Front's subversion of the Constitution and abuse of power in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh as nothing short of Machiavellian politics at its worst.

The BJP holds that the reimposition of President’s rule through a fresh Presidential Ordinance on the strength of the fiction that the Governor has” explored" all avenues of Government formation but failed in his endeavour is a glaring example of an unscrupulous Government committing a fraud on the Constitution.

The collaborative role of two political organisations in the anti-people and anti-democratic actions of the United Front Government cannot be over emphasised. The Congress, which entered into a compact with the United Front as a strategy to stop the law from catching up with the misdeeds of its leaders, has lived up to its reputation of exhibiting depthless cowardice before power and limitless insolence before justice.

Going by the overzealousness of the CBI and the Government to protect the former Congress president, it is more than likely that all attempts will be made to suppress the truth.

The BJP regrets this debasement of polity by the in action and worse of the United Front. The Deve Gowda Government, of course, has its reasons for not including fighting corruption on Its agenda. Had it done so, it would have had to prosecute the Janata Dal president and Bihar Chief Minister, Shri Laloo Prasad Yadav, for his leading role in the fodder scam which has left the scamsters richer by more than Rs.2, 000 crores. That. In turn, would have jeopardised Shri Deve Gowda's prime ministership as a substantial number of Janata Dal MPs owe their allegiance to Shri Yadav.

The collaborative role of the Left in propping up the morally bankrupt United Front has been no less despicable than that of the Congress. Over the past six months the Left has shown its true colours and the BJP shall expose it further.

The BIP shares the nation's relief over the installation of an elected Government in Jammu and Kashmir after six years and congratulates the people and the security forces [or enabling elections to the State Assembly despite attempts by the terrorists’ organisations and their mentors in Pakistan to stall the electoral process. We demand that the security forces should continue to be deployed and allowed a free hand to deal with terrorism without any interference either by the Centre or the State Government. We also demand that the defence committees should not be disbanded. The BJP is concerned over Dr. Abdullah's recent utterances about restoring Jammu &Kashmir's pre-1952 status and the scrapping of Article 249, as well as theUnited Front Government's eagerness to give in to these demands. There can be no bilateral deal between the United Front and the National Conference, which is a constituent of the former, on the issue of autonomy and the BJP pledges to protect the nation’s interests from being sacrificed at the altar of political expediency. The BJP cautions Dr.Abdullah from indulging in political irredentism. The Chief Minister must also ensure regional autonomy for Jammu and Ladakh.

The BJP also demands the immediate scrapping of the Illegal Migrants Determination Act which has proved to be a hindrance in identifying illegal immigrants in Assam. This Act needs to be replaced with a law that is more effective and puts the onus on the state to detect and deport aliens.

The purpose that cements together these practitioners of opportunist politics is to somehow keep the BJP away from power and thus ensure their survival. It is the survival instinct which has brought them together on a common platform. To hide this truth, they have raised the bogey of "communalism" and how they stand for "secularism" -a stand reflected in the recent Government submission before the Supreme Court that it has no intention of fulfilling the constitutional mandate and legal responsibility of introducing a Uniform Civil Code, and the shameless attempt to secure minority votes during the Uttar Pradesh elections by recruiting the services of Imams.

The BJP's unwavering commitment to uncompromising nationalism, be it Hindutva or Swadeshi, and its relentless crusade against minorityism have contributed in no small measure to bringing the debate on secularism into sharp focus, thus exposing the pseudo- secularists and their fake ideology. The increasing acceptance of our ideology from Kanyakumari to Kashmir is directly proportionate to the marginalisation of the pseudo-secularists who, faced with the reality of more and more people rejecting the politics of appeasement, are compelled to make a last stand against the powerful and overwhelming forces of nationalism which the BJP has unleashed. Indeed, in many ways the United Front represents the last obstacle in the path of the BIP which has to be overcome to fulfil the party's destined task of leading the nation intothe21stcentury. The BJP resolves to overcome this obstacle. For, the' tide of history is working for the BJP in the long run. The BJP considers the United Front's subversion of the Constitution and abuse of power in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh as nothing short of Machiavellian politics at its worst.

The BJP holds that there imposition of President's rule through afresh Presidential Ordinance on the strength of the fiction that the Governor has" explored" all avenues of Government formation but failed in his endeavour is a glaring example of an unscrupulous Government committing a fraud on the Constitution.

The collaborative role of two political organisations in the anti-people and anti-democratic actions of the United Front Government cannot be over emphasised. The Congress, which entered into a compact with the United Front as strategy to stop the law from catching up with the misdeeds of its leaders, has lived up to its reputation of exhibiting depthless cowardice before power and limitless in silence before justice.

Going by the overzealousness of the CBI and the Government to protect the former Congress president, it is more than likely that all attempts will be made to suppress the truth.

The BJP regrets this debasement of polity by the inaction and worse of the United Front. The Deve Gowda Government, of course, has its reasons for not including fighting corruption on its agenda. Had it done so, it would have had to prosecute the Janata Dal president and Bihar Chief Minister, Shri Laloo Prasad Yadav, for his leading role in the fodder scam which has left the scamsters richer by more than Rs.2, 000 crores. That, in turn, would have jeopardised Shri Deve Gowda's primeministership as a substantial number of Janata Dal MPs owe their allegiance to Shri Yadav.

The collaborative role of the Left in propping up the morally bankrupt United Front has been no less despicable than that of the Congress. Over the past six months the Left has shown its true colours and the BJP shall expose it further.

The BJP shares the nation’s relief over the installation of an elected Government in Jammu and Kashmir after six years and congratulates the people and the security forces for enabling elections to the State Assembly despite attempts by the terrorists’ organisations and their mentors in Pakistan to stall the electoral process. We demand that the security forces should continue to be deployed and allowed a free hand to deal with terrorism without any interference either by the Centre or the State Government. We also demand that the defence committees should not be disbanded. The BIP is concerned over Dr. Abdullah's recent utterances about restoring Jammu &Kashmir's pre-19.52 status and the scrapping of Article 249, as well as the United Front Government's eagerness to give in to these demands. There can be no bilateral deal between the United Front and the National Conference, which is a constituent of the former, on' the issue of autonomy and the BIP pledges to protect the nation's interests from being sacrificed at the altar of political expediency. The BIP cautions Dr. Abdullah from indulging in political irredentism. The Chief Minister must also ensure regional autonomy for Jammu and Ladakh.

The BIP also demands the immediate scrapping of the Illegal Migrants Determination Act which has proved to be a hindrance in identifying illegal immigrants in Assam.This Act needs to be replaced with a law that is moreeffective and puts the onus on the state to detect and deport aliens.

The purpose that cements together these practitioners of opportunist politics is to somehow keep the BJP away from power and thus ensure their survival. It is the survival instinct which has brought them together on a common platform. To hide this truth, they have raised the bogey of "communalism" and how they stand for "secularism" -a stand reflected in the recent Government submission before the Supreme Court that it has no intention of fulfilling the constitutional mandate and legal responsibility of introducing a Uniform Civil Code, and the shameless attempt to secure minority votes during the Uttar Pradesh elections by recruiting the services of Imams.

The BJP's unwavering commitment to uncompromising nationalism, be it Hindutva or Swadeshi, and its relentless crusade against minorityism have contributed in no small measure to bringing the debate on secularism into sharp focus, thus exposing the pseudo- secularists and their fake ideology.· The increasing acceptance of our ideology from Kanyakumari to Kashmir is directly proportionate to the marginalisation of the pseudo-secularists who, faced with the reality of more and more people rejecting the politics of appeasement, are compelled to make a last stand against the powerful and overwhelming forces of nationalism which the BIP has unleashed. Indeed, in many ways the United Front represents the last obstacle in the path of the BJP which has to be overcome to fulfil the party's destined task of leading the nation into the 21stcentury,.The BJP resolves to overcome this obstacle. For, the tide of history is working for the BIP in the long run.

M.D. Nalapat On Impact on BJP of Development in Gujarat and UP

Both by conceding the opposition space entirely to it and by the over kill witnessed in Gujarat and UP, the UF- Congress alliance may be building up a popular backlash of support for the saffron party. UF policies are clearly being driven by the ideologies of the Left-the same individuals who attacked the President of India for first calling upon A.B. Vajpayee to from the government. According to the Left, the BJP is today an untouchable that has to be driven away from power by any means.

If the BJP is prevented from coming to office -or is sought to be toppled by undemocratic means - the influence of the fanatics within that party will grow. As a result, the party may focus not on" the legislatures but on the streets, whipping up agitations and provoking confrontations. With the BJP on the streets and the Left parties calling for fiscal anarchy, the Deve Gowda government is likely to lose public support. Given the Congress policy of tailing the UF, most of the benefit from loss of public support to the Gowda government is likely to go to the BJP and putative allies such as Lakshmi Parvathy in A.P.and RK. Hegde in Karnataka.

While the conventional wisdom is that a BSP-BJP alliance in UP will suit the UF in that it will prise the Congress loose from the Dalits party, the fact is that a BSP- BJP government may open up enquiries in to the Mulayam Singh regime's decisions and provide sufficient dirt for prosecution. This may result in a shrink age of the Samajwadi Party base, in the same way as Rao's travails have hit the Congress or Laloo Prasad Yadav's links to the fodder mafia have hit the Janata Dal.

Ofcourse, a BSP-BJP government in UP can follow the policy of the Manohar Joshi government in Maharashtra and let sleeping scandals lie. While Mr. Gopinath Munde used to emote about the links of the Congress with gangsters while in opposition as home minister, he has shown little inclination to follow up. However, Mr.Kanshi Ram may not be as accommodating as Mr.Joshi and Mr. Munde.

Thus far Mr. Kalyan Singh has succeeded in preventing a BSP-BJP alliance. However, the knowledge that the MLA soft he two parties are vulnerable to the siren call of Mr. Yadav and the desire to pay back the UF- Congress for Gujarat. may in the coming weeks result in BJP backing the BSP in UP.

Time is running out for all the principals. Mr.Kanshi Ram's support base is vulnerable to intimidation and Mr. Yadav may be calculating that in a fresh poll, governor Bhandari. Mr.Tikait and as sorted musclemen will be able to prevent enough Dalits voting to give SP the upper hand. Thus. The BSP supremo may have to either agree to a coalition government (instead of one without side support) orb ready to face afresh poll under adverse conditions. The BJP needs Mr. Kanshi Ram's support base in order to edge past the 220-mark in Parliament; so it may have to decide on holding on to the Kalyan Singh thesis or coming to terms with the BSP.

As predicted, UP is emerging as a decisive factor in national politics. In the next few weeks, two questions may come up for an answer: will the Congress swallow its hurt and support the proclamation of Central government rule in UP? If so, a formal alliance with the UF appears near. Second, will the BSP and the BJP stake acclaim in UP, and if so, will the governor dissolve the assembly rather than allow the majority group to come to power? If the answer to the first question is" no" and that to the second "yes", the country appears headed for a return to 1990. The constitutional contortions designed to keep away the BJP may then build up enough popular support for that party to have affair chance at power.

Triumph of the Forked Tongue Editorial, The Pioneer, 25October, 1996

No tears are being shedby the self-professed champions of secularism now the Congress has climbed from its much-touted pedestal of anti-RSSism to facilitate the elevation of Shankersinh Vaghela as the Chief Minister of Gujarat despite his categorical assertion that he will keep alive his association with the Sangh. Sooner or later, given its perfection in the art of double speak, Congress may take delight in having killed two birds with one stone -having used an RSS man to prevent the return of the BJP to power, much to the peril of Vaghela himself.

Politics is fast becoming a dirty word and all politicians morally suspect. Largely on account of the mounting mismatch between their rhetoric and actions. Gujarat is the latest manifestation of this alarming trend.

Following BJP's inability to hold its flock together, the UF and Congress may have scored a tactical victory, never mind the methods. But in the long run history will judge them in the same light for having subverted the role of the legislature as past Congress Governments.

I was always a somewhat hypocritical Christian:' so I wanted no hypocrisy when I accepted Islam. If I was going to become a Muslim, I wanted to be a good Muslim - Masooma,

(nee Mcgan) Ali, wife of pop singer Lucky Ali, on why she decided to adopt the purdah after converting to Islam.

Ajay K. Mehraon Jharkhand Politics

Since the demand for Jharkhand, a separate State comprising thirteen districts of the Chhota nagpur plateau of Bihar, three districts of south-west West Bengal, three districts of east Orissa and two districts of west Madhya Pradesh, has been in existence for some decades now, it cannot be wished away. Apart from the JMM, it now has the support of the local Congress unit and also the BJP. Little wonder, a better organised BJP has attempted to fill the vacuum left by the JMM. It is also putting forth the argument that it has better credentials than any other political formation or leader to take over the mantle as apart from the JMM it alone has campaigned for the Jharkhand State, albeit with a different name-Vananchal.

It is not surprising that leaderless, splintered and discredited JMM could not take advantage of Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda's Independence Day promise of statehood to Uttarakhand, a relatively nascent claim. The JMM did make a few statements regarding launching an armed struggle, it was left to the BJP to launch a blockade of the mineral resources transported from the Ruhr of India.

Even though Chhotanagpur plateau was marked by sporadic uprising by different tribes against the dikus (outsiders) and the British since the late 18^th century, the Jharkhandis trace their autonomist demands to the Santhal rebellion of 1855 and Birsa Munda’s ulugulan (revolution in Mundari dialect) in 1895.

Birsa's ulugulan had targeted the Christian missionaries as well, but the renaissance amongst the tribal sin the region 1910 onwards was led by Christian tribal’s. Still lacking a dynamic and charismatic leader, they made representations to the Simon Commission and the Cripps

Mission for a separate State for the Adivasis. The formation of the Jharkhand Party, a party of the Chhotanagpur tribals, in1949 under the leadership of Jaipal Singh, an Oxford educated

tribal Christian was a turning point in the history of the Jharkhand Movement.

The party which won 33 seats in the Bihar Legislative Assembly and three Lok Sabha seats in 1952 submitted a memorandum to the States Reorganisation Commission for a separate Jharkhand State. The party emerged as a force to reckon within Bihar under the leadership of Jaipal Singh. He was, however, wooed and finally persuaded to join the Congress along with his party's legislators in 1963. This was the beginning of betrayals and splintering of the Jharkhand movement.

In recent years, the Jharkhand leaders had shown plenty of foresight in dropping their demand for the ouster of the dikus and widening the scope of their claim. But the wranglings within the movement about the Jharkhand Area Autonomous Council and its splintering since the creation of the JAAC by the Bihar Govt. considerably weakened the leadership. The Jharkhand leaders like Shibu Soren. Were reduced to a laughing stock. since he took over as a head of the JAAC. The bribery case, by all accounts the darkest chapter in the history of the tribal urge for autonomy in Chhotanagpur, has come as a bolt from the blue.

A quest for an identity and development were the two core issues that guided the movement ever since the early days when the Jharkhand movement was born. The leaders’ of the movement realised lately the fragility of the demand as they constituted only 30 per cent of the population. Looking at the widening support for statehood to the region, they wisely transformed it into a regional demand.

It is too early to say whether the BJP with its different orientation would be able to take the movement for "Vananchal" to the emotional level and pitch to which the JMM could. Even if it does and succeeds in having a State carved out for the tribals of Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, the question of tribal identity is likely to remain a live and volatile issue in the region.

Insaf  Morcha Proposes Separation of Gorkhaland from West Bengal And Union of Sikkim and Gorkhaland into a Nepali-Speaing State Shahabuddin's Statement, 3 October, 1996

"The CPM's stand on the formation of a separate State of Gorkhaland is not surprising because the CPM, as the political party in power in West Bengal, must cater to the interests of the Bengali-speaking people.

Secondly, the question of employment and other opportunities all over West Bengal is totally irrelevant for under the Constitution, the whole country is a common field of opportunity for all citizens.

Thirdly, West Bengal's record in treatment of linguistic and ethnic minorities and even the backward classes is far from glorious.

On the other hand, the creation of yet another mini State in the region will be a factor of destabilisation. Objectively speaking, States must have an optimum size for installation of the political and administrative infrastructure and for planned economic and social development.

Nepali is now one of our national languages and the Nepalis constitute the majority of the people of the neighbouring state of Sikkim. At the time of the reorganisation of states in 1956-57, both Nepal and Sikkim had a different status. Now there is every reason to constitute a state which brings together all the Nepali-speaking people in adjacent area of Sikkim and West Bengal.

This is the only way to protect the interest of the Nepali-speaking people and to fulfil the aspirations of the ethnic Nepalis who form a majority of the population in this area. The

Darjeeling Gorkha Hill area should, therefore, be separated from West Bengal and joined with Sikkim and the boundary between West Bengal and the new State should be delimited on the basis of contiguity and with Nepali majority revenue village as the unit."