MAYAWATI'S NSA RAJ

Has Mayawati begun to show signs of panic?

First, it was Varun Gandhi's hate speech and his arrest drama that got her gut. That was somewhat understandable because she feared that he would take away her voters. So, in a huff, she booked him under the draconian National Security Act (NSA) and sent him to jail, much to the relief of his political opponenents. The net result was that those who had decided to desert her, and more, did not go to Varun but walked over to the party of his cousin. That unexpected reaction poured polluted Ganga jal over Mayawati's dreams of becoming the PM or something close to that.

Then Munnabhai Sanjay Dutt rattled her by offering to give her a "jaadu ki jhappi"! One does not know what she might have felt inside as a person, but as the untouchable - out of fear and awe, not caste - CM-dying-to-become-PM, she was appalled at this unacceptable offer made in full public view, and threatened to send him to jail too. Munnabhai quickly apologised and the matter ended. Or so we thought.

News has now come in that Mayawati's police in Kanpur has slapped the NSA on three young men who, after a few drinks, teased a girl. They were caught and beaten by bystanders before being handed over to the police. You and I may think that these guys should have been dealt with under normal laws, particularly after the corporal punishment that was given to them on the spot by 'vigilant' citizens without any trial. But no, they too seem to have become a grave threat to national security, and may languish in jail without trial for a year.

Amazing isn't it? Just a few months back, Mayawati had deliberately handpicked goondas and criminals, some with multiple murder charges against them, to fight the Lok Sabha elections as her party's candidates, and become India's law makers. And now, she is putting petty eve-teasers behind bars under the NSA!

Is Mayawati's misuse of the NSA a reflection of her anger and frustration at being cut to size in the elections? Are her pangs of insecurity becoming irrational? Are they also an indication of what she is going to do across the nation if and when she does become the PM?

Imagine what might happen if she starts using the NSA so liberally as PM too.

Political opponents will find themselves heading straight from Parliament House to Tihar jail under the NSA for saying something to TV reporters that she finds unpalatable. Auto drivers tampering with their meters will also join them, as will speeding bus drivers and petty thieves. Use your imagination to add to the list which can become very long indeed.

Even as across the country, petty criminals and offenders get booked in their thousands under the NSA for posing grave danger to the security of India, inside Parliament law makers will still be stoutly opposed to having and invoking any special laws to deal with terrorists who blow up and pump bullets into innocent Indians. Mayawati, like most other secular politicians, will know that it is impossible to come to power without "minority" votes; the majority can be kicked around without worry. So, every conceivable reason will continue be found to apply old toothless laws to terrorists. Since it is virtually impossible to get a conviction under these laws, the only guys roaming fearlessly in the country will be terrorists. And we will be told by Mayawati that we should try to understand with compassion these poor, misguided souls whose human rights we must never violate, failing which we will land up in jail under the NSA.

Prepare yourself for Maya raj. And till she becomes the PM, avoid going to UP; you just might find yourself in exalted company there for one full year! Unless of course you are rich enough to hire lawyers who can get you out via the Supreme Court.

PRIYANKA'S POLITICAL PLUNGE: NEVER SAY NEVER

John Abraham thinks she is "the sexiest woman in India by eons and light years" and believes that she is "going to be the real power centre in future". For the last 20 years, she has been asked about her joining politics but she has always said that she will not. Ever since she hit the campaign trail in Amethi and Rae Bareilly a few days back to seek votes for her mother and brother, she has impressed almost everybody with the manner in which she communicates and the connect that she seems to establish with ordinary people easily. Her "budiya" and "gudiya" spat with BJP's charismatic speaker Narendra Modi has also caught the imagination of many who see that spark of charisma in her too.

As a result, the calls for her to join politics are only getting louder with every passing day. On her own part, after consistently maintaining that she will never join politics, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra finally said a few days back said that although she was still not interested in joining politics, as she has grown older she has learnt one must never say never. As if on cue, her husband, Robert Vadra, is now saying that she will enter the arena at the right time.

It is thus only a question of time before Priyanka takes the political plunge. Making the task easy for her is the indisputable fact that her brother, Rahul Gandhi, has failed to make the kind of impact that he was expected to, to turn the sinking fortunes of the Congress around. He might be sincere and hard working, as Priyanka says, but he clearly lacks that charisma, that magic that can sway and charge people. When he speaks to the public, it is almost as if he is mechanically reading out a script that has been given to him.

When Priyanka speaks, she gives you a feeling as if she is speaking to you, person to person. Her fresh, fetching looks, her ready and genuine smile, and her easy, natural charm make it appear as if she is perfectly at home in a saree or salwar kameez in the house of a poor dalit, or in trousers and tucked-in shirts in Lutyen's Delhi. Indeed, as fashion designer Rina Dhaka says, she will fit on even a fashion runway anywhere in the world "from here to Sao Paulo".

This power combination, which has energised John Abraham enough to make him risk the wrath of his girl friend Bipasha Basu, adds up to a political dynamite that can explode through many of the limitations that the Congress faces today. And John is not the only one who thinks so. There are many others out there searching for her pictures on the net, often of the "Carla Bruni" variety that someone bought last year for $ 91,000. Whichever way you look at it, it cannot be denied that Priyanka will do to Indian politics what Sania Mirza has done to Indian tennis. Add to that the multiplier effect of her pedigree and you have the dream leader that every political party wants. Move over Varun Gandhi.

It is perhaps too late for Priyanka to take on the task of rejuvenating the Congress party and attracting voters to make any difference to the outcome of these elections. People have woken up too late to the realisation that there is a crying need for a charismatic leader in the Congress. I wrote about it almost a year back, when the Congress was cozying up to the Samajwadi Party(SP) in UP. Then itself I had said that the real SP that Rahul Gandhi needed was Sister Priyanka, and not the party of Mulayam Yadav.

Had the Congress realised then itself that it had the winner it was looking for and got Priyanka to get into active politics, perhaps the outcome of these elections would have been quite different. The way things are unfolding, it is now only a question of time before she gives in to popular demand and takes the political plunge. Her recent statement that she must never say never, and her husband's public support should leave no one in any doubt that the announcement might be made soon after the elections, particularly if the Congress performs below expectations. Sooner the better.
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Readers may also read:
1. Better than Bruni
2. The real SP that Rahul needs
3. Rahul, Varun and the politics of hate

TEESTA, AJMAL, VARUN AND THE SECULAR BRIGADE

If there is one Indian who has made the worst type of "hate speeches" and used all kinds of falsehoods to inflame Muslims against Hindus, and that too for years, it is the so-called social activist Teesta Setalvad. Yet despite all the venom that she has been spewing in a voice that seems to come from the grated gut of a bitter person who has never known love, she has been the darling of India's mainstream media and like-minded "secularists".

For her ceaseless efforts to fraudulently portray Hindus at large as cold-blooded rapists and murderers, Teesta has been praised, feted, quoted and admired by the rootless variety of Indians who are ever ready to pounce at the smallest of incidents that show Hindus to be the most intolerant and communal minded of all communities in India. Indeed, if one were to believe this lot which has a vice-like grip over the media, secularism survives in India only because of the unending sacrifices and unbreakable secular beliefs of Muslims and other religious minorities; given even a sliver of a chance, Hindus will make the Taliban look like angels.

Look at the awards this secular brigade and a grateful Congress government have heaped on Teesta:

• Padma Shri
• M.A.Thomas National Human Rights Award from the Vigil India Movement.
• Parliamentarians for Global Action 'Defender of Democracy' award, jointly with Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand.
• The Nuernberg Human Rights Award
• The Nani A Palkhivala Award

Teesta, much like the violent river she is named after, might well have continued on her path of hate and falsehood and been awarded the Padma Bhushan next, had the SIT led by former CBI Director RK Raghavan not exposed the fact that she cooked up tales of macabre and wanton killings, tutored and threatened false witnesses and levelled false charges against Police Chief Pandey.

Remember that horrifying and unbelievable story about a mob gang raping a pregnant Muslim woman, Kausar Banu, and then gouging out her foetus with sharp weapons? That is an example of the utterly sick level to which Teesta descended in her campaign of brutal, unforgiving hate for which recourse to falsehood was not something that shamed her at all.

I am not able to determine whether it is Ms Setalvad who has done more harm to the nation with her sustained and bitter vitriol or it is the secular media which is responsible, first for promoting her campaign ad nauseum most irresponsibly because she spoke their secular language of hate and now by virtually shielding her from the public fury and wrath that she deserves.

Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving Pakistani terrorist responsible for the Mumbai 26/11 terror attack was supposed to be the trump card that India had to expose Pakistan's hand in the blasts. Remember that thick dossier that India sent to Pakistan as "proof" based on his confessional statement? Remember Narendra Modi bringing out that when, thanks to the doing away of POTA, his confessional statement was not admissible as evidence even in India, how was Pakistan expected to accept it as nothing but the truth? Remember how everyone has been shouting that he should be give a "fair" trial and saying that it was an open and shut case that would be over in six months?

Kasab has killed many people in full glare of CCTV cameras in the only "secular" nation in the world where he can get away lightly. Not only is he going to get a "fair" trial, he is not going to convicted in a hurry, if at all. For all you know, he might even be released in a hostage situation, like we saw in the the case of the kidnapping of Rubiya Sayed and the Kandahar hijack. Although he is a foreign national who has waged war on India, he is being tried by a benign Indian judicial system designed to give him many years to live as a VIP prisoner.

SG Abbas Kazmi, the lawyer appointed to defend Ajmal, made it clear on the very first day of the trial that this is not a case which is going to get over in a hurry, all the evidence against him notwithstanding. First, he pleaded that Kasab was under 17 and, therefore should be tried by a juvenile court. When the court rejected that argument on the basis of the statement given by Kasab where he had said that he was 21 years old, Kazmi retracted that confession saying that it was made under duress. Kazmi is in no mood to "co-operate" with the prosecution to ensure that justice is done swiftly in this most straightforward and horrifying of cases that had the whole nation enraged. A protracted legal battle is certain.

What is Pakistan going to do now? It will throw Kasab's statement into the Arabian Sea and stop further investigation because this statement is not only not evidence under India law but has been denied by Kasab himself. There is more. Don’t be surprised if Pakistan sends across some proof that Kasab is 17 indeed. His mother may even come down to Mumbai and give such a statement. The way things are shaping in this case which Ram Jethmalani had boasted would be over in five minutes, Ajmal Kasab will probably never be hanged.

Is this what we call a "fair" trial when on the very first day of the trial it is beginning to look that he actually might get away despite all the evidence against him? Why is there no TV studio outrage at a defence lawyer for whom shameless use of utter falsehoods to protect the murderer of innocent Indians takes precedence over truth and the pain of the entire nation? Is Kazmi interested in justice or is he more than keen to help the foreign killer of many Indians get away by using unfair means? Where is his conscience as a citizen of India?

Will there be calls for re-introduction of the clause to include confessions made before a police officer as evidence? Will there be a demand for trying foreign nationals who wage war against India by a military or similar court expeditiously? You know the answer. What, in fact, is most likely to happen is that the secular media is soon going to start hounding the government for being unduly harsh on a delicate young boy who was led astray by the LeT that exploited his poverty. Human Rights activists will soon be made to appear on every TV channel to complain about the violation of Kasab's human rights and lecture India on how it needs to treat him fairly as a civilised nation. Similar views of "secular" Indian citizens will also be aired, to make the whole nation feel as if it is the real sinner harassing an innocent kid.

Cut to Varun Gandhi about whom I have written in detail in a few other posts. What is the verdict of the secular brigade in his case? He is guilty and "must not be allowed to get away". In fact he is so dangerous that he must be locked up under the draconian NSA which has not been used even to put behind bars terrorists-without-religion and their abettors responsible for killing faceless, expendable Indians. He says the CDs of his speech are doctored; of course he is lying. Why has he not proved that they are? Why should we even bother to ask those who did the sting to prove that their CDs are authentic, or take the trouble to do it ourselves? They appear to us to be authentic; we have seen and heard them. Nothing more is needed to pronounce him guilty and extremely dangerous for the secular fabric of this nation. A court decision will take years to come. We canot wait till then. Justice has to be administered instantly in this case which is even more water tight than Ajmal's. Varun must not be allowed to make political speeches and even contest elections. His guilt has already been established.

Why should a greenhorn politician like Varun Gandhi be declared guilty without trial? He has spoken "against" Muslims; that is just not acceptable. You are a secular hero only if you make hate speeches and do worse against Hindus, not for them. He has done the exact opposite, so what if it is only in one unverified speech. His is an unpardonable crime for which he deserves no mercy, no sympathy. Jail is the only place for him. Straightaway. In the secular India of our dreams, there is no place for communal politicians or parties who ask for the "Hindu" vote. We accept only secular parties who ask for the Muslim vote and/or those who ask for the vote of Hindus not as a whole but in fragments like Yadavs, Dalits, Reddys, Vokkaligas etc

Why should a dangerous hate-driven, communal monster like Teesta Setalvad be loaded with awards? This champion of secularism had no choice but to cook up ghastly incidents and tell all sorts of horrendous lies. That was the only way she could drive home the "truth" that Modi is a mass murderer and Hindus are cold-hearted barbarians who hate and kill peace-loving Muslims for no reason at all. She has done great service to the cause of a secular India. She is the great protector of helpless minorities. Forget punishment or condemnation, she, in fact, deserves many more awards.

Why should a Pakistani terrorist like Ajmal who killed scores of people in cold blood, be allowed to dishonestly exploit the big gaps in India's lax legal system? India must be seen as being "fair" to its Muslims; it should not appear to them that Kasab is being disadvantaged in any manner because he is a Muslim. So what if he is a Pakistani? He is a Muslim first. Secular India cannot be seen to be treating any Muslim with even the whiff of vendetta. That is why we did notask for a ban on SIMI, till it started indulging in violence. We know that it has been saying since 1977 that it does not believe in secularism or democracy, is waiting for another Ghaznavi and wants to establish the rule of Islam in India. You can't put people from the minority community into jail only because they say that their aim is to turn the whole of secular India into a theocratic Pakistan.
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Teesta, Ajmal and Varun. All of them are experiencing the might of India's very powerful secular and "liberal" activists who are completely and ruthlessly intolerant of any view that clashes with theirs. While Teesta and Ajmal are basking in their support, Varun is being singed by their fury. Teesta Setalvad is their ugly, dishonest, hate-filled face; Ajmal is the poster boy who they will use to show to the world how "fair" India is to its minorities who are reeling under the imaginary oppression of Hindus. Varun, a Gandhi, is the unexpected red rag who can ruin their party. They are not going to allow him or anyone else to do that. Come what may. Even if in the process, truth and morality have to be sacrificed with a cold, "Teesta"ease that can send shudders down your spine.
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Readers may also read:
1. Teesta's house in disarray
2. Teesta Setalvad and spicy cooking
3. You can fool all of the people, all of the time
4. This is about Gujarat, not Teesta
5. Gilani, Durrani, Kiyani, Biryani and the butcher!
6. The Varun sting: who is not playing the communal card?
7. Varun Gandhi: Wounded tiger on the prowl

VARUN GANDHI: WOUNDED TIGER ON THE PROWL

Varun Gandhi is going to get out of Etah jail on parole any moment, on orders of the Supreme Court. The Congress and the Samajwadi Party have both been saying that Mayawati had booked him under the NSA as part of an "understanding" with the BJP. As per them, by acting tough on him, she wanted to poach Mulayam Yadav's Muslim votes while the BJP thought that the Hindu vote would consolidate in its favour. But is that really what they actually believe?

It may be recalled that the sting done on Varun Gandhi had earlier taken a turn completely unexpected by the media and opponents of the BJP who had gone bonkers thinking that they had got a real issue to beat the BJP with. Thanks to the almost hysterical reactions of analysts and journalists who did not want him to "get away", Varun Gandhi actually became a star almost overnight in a manner that no had had thought he would. And, when his surrender in Pilibhit turned into a show that surprised even the BJP, with a sea of people turning up to cheer him, it appeared that the BJP had found a rallying point to make a dramatic comeback at least in UP.

Mayawati's decision to slap the draconian NSA on him while he was still in jail was greeted with silent approval and relief by all those who were alarmed by the turn of events. No one of note opposed this blatant misuse of the NSA only because it suited their political biases, just as their staunch opposition to a separate terror law had earlier. Everyone was thankful that he was out of the election campaign that they had foolishly electrified for him, and would be fighting the elections in total silence from behind the bars. It was taken for granted that Mayawati's advisory committee that was to review his arrest was not going to let him out till the election were over, at least.

No one had then thought that he would approach the Supreme Court and that the apex court would set him free. But it has, even though with a few conditions which effectively don't really matter. Suddenly, there is anger in TV studios born out of worry, even panic. No one will ever be caught admitting, but they all know better than most of us, that Varun on the loose, making even "sanitised" speeches, is going to be the force multiplier that can tilt the balance in favour of the BJP, even though the first phase of voting for 124 seats will be over today. No wonder some of them are not able to keep themselves from criticising the Supreme Court for releasing him and allowing him to make political speeches.

People out there know only too well that while everyone, including the Election Commission, had gone ballistic with Varun's hate speech that he still disputes, a string of speeches that have followed have hardly been covered in the media or given such air by politicians. The Railway Minister of India says that he would have crushed Varun Gandhi under a road roller; someone says that he will cut the hands that are raised against Muslims, another says that Muslims who vote for the BJP should be declared infidels. Does any one go to jail? Does the Election Commission ask their parties to not field them in the elections? The worst perhaps is that Sanjay Dutt tells Barkha Dutt in an exclusive interview that the was beaten by the police when he was in jail because his mother was a Muslim, and NDTV just buries that statement! It is only later when he repeats this elsewhere that cognisance is taken, but the media still glosses over it.

Prabhu Chawla, one of the few respected media stars who is known for his "Seedhi Baat" (Straight Talk), hit the nail on the head when he said in a discussion on Headlines Today a short while back that the BJP in UP was an "issueless, leaderless, rudderless" outfit till Varun Gandhi was thrust into the limelight and put on centre stage, if I may add, by an overenthusiastic media that is seen by many people as identifying with the Congress. He is the first Gandhi after Mrs Indira Gandhi to go to jail for political reasons. His grandmother was locked up by her political opponents after she was defeated in 1977; more than three decades later, her grandson has been put put him in jail by his political opponents by invoking a draconian provision of law that has not been used even against terrorists.

If indeed Mayawati had put Varun behind bars to damage the prospects of the Congress and the the SP, then both these parties and the media would have been crying hoarse about the shameless misuse of the NSA by her. And now that he is about to walk out of jail, all of them should pleased that the Supreme Court has spoiled her plans by dexterously ensuring that the rule of law prevails. But are they? Watch TV debates in the evening today. You will get the answer.

An unwise political incarceration has made Varun Gandhi a real leader, whether you and I like it or not. The wounded tiger, now much more dangerous than he was before he went to jail, is on the prowl again.

In two earlier posts, I had highlighted that the real, decisive IPL T20 tournament of these elections was being played in UP. With Varun Gandhi hitting the campaign trail again and the media trapped into analysing every twitch on his face, expect the atmosphere to be electrified in more ways than one. Will his presence lead to some sort of a swing in favour of the BJP in a sufficient number of constituencies yet to go to the polls? If it does and if the party increases its tally in UP by 20 seats to hit the 30 mark, a lot of smart alecs will have serious egg on their faces. And Advani might find that he is no longer the PM in waiting. At last.

UPDATE

Varun has been released. Here the video of him walking out of Etah jail.



Varun - a picture of defiance
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Readers may also read:
1. Say sorry to India Varun
2. The Varun Sting: who is not playing the communal card?
3. Rahul, Varun and the politics of hate
4. The Varun Fiasco:Congress scores another self goal
5. The real IPL T20 is on in UP!

VOTE BANKS AND MOTHERS' WARS

A war of words has broken out between UP CM Mayawati and Maneka Gandhi over Mayawati's unexpected decision to put Varun Gandhi behind the bars under the NSA. Maneka Gandhi, stung at being denied a meeting with her son currently in Etah jail, started this war to which Mayawati responded with her characteristic aggression. This is now snowballing into a typical "tu-tu main-main" slugfest that has turned the election scene in UP into a family drama, a war of mothers, as it were. This is a first in India's political history and promises to get nastier in the coming days.

As luck would have it, Mayawati and Maneka came face to face in Rae Bareilly where both had gone to canvass for votes. Not surprisingly, the moment they met, they started to take pot shots at each other. When Sonia Gandhi, who also camping in the area, came to know that the two "Mas", Ma-neka and Ma-yawati had gotten together for a motherly chat, she hurried to the spot to find out what was cooking between her two political opponents. This is how this imaginary "war" between the three mothers went:

Maneka: How can you know what the pain of a mother is?

Mayawati: You are crying about just one kid?

Maneka: Yes, I am. For my good son Varun Gandhi.

Mayawati: Ha! I cry for crores of sons. You can never know how painful it is to be mother to so many kids.

Maneka: You think you are Bharat Mata or something?

Mayawati: Heard of Mother Teresa?

Maneka: She was a saint who selflessly served the poor.

Mayawati: What do you you think I am doing?

Maneka: You are thoroughly corrupt.

Mayawati: You are jealous. My crores have all being made by contributions of the grateful poor who were moved by my poverty.

Maneka: You even get people killed for money.

Mayawati: If the corrupt and rich, like that engineer, are not moved like the poor are to help me financially, then how can you blame my well wishers for trying to "move" them?

Maneka: By murdering them?

Mayawati: My people did not murder him; he died of "shock".

Maneka: Like you are going to after the election results come out.

Mayawati: It is you who is going to get shocked. Why do you think I slapped NSA on Varun? You think I am a fool to let him walk away my hard-earned upper caste vote bank?

Maneka: You are a horrible woman.

Mayawati: Looks like not only have you not imparted good "sanskars"(values) to that son of yours but you haven't any yourself. If you don't shut up, then you too will face the NSA of Mayawati.

Maneka: You should be ashamed of yourself.

Mayawati: You should be ashamed of your son.

Maneka: You are the one who has spread the "hate" culture in UP; you should be the one who should behind bars, not my brave son.

Mayawati: Don't make baseless allegations. I am for the benefit of "sarvjan", all citizens.

Maneka: Forgotten that war cry "Tilak tarazu aur talwar, inko maaro jootey chaar?" (Beat brahmins, kshatriyas and vaishyas with shoes)

Mayawati: What is wrong with that? Some of my supporters rightly feel that upper caste people need to be thrashed for discriminating against dalits.

Maneka: Varun felt the same way about Muslims who are threatening Hindus in Pilibhit. But he is behind bars and, of all the people, you have put him there!

Mayawati: I am so happy he said that he will cut the hand that is raised against Hindus. Now that I have put him in jail, Muslims will come running to me, deserting Mulayam Yadav, that horrible man I can never forgive.

Maneka: So you are giving me pain only to get Muslim votes?

Mayawati: Can I beat Mulayam Yadav and become PM without his Muslim vote bank?

Maneka: But this is gross misuse of NSA.

Mayawati: Says who? I am the CM here, not you.

Maneka: You have no scruples.

Mayawati: You better mind your acidic tongue or I will not let you meet your son at all.

Sonia Gandhi reaches the spot and is worried on hearing Mayawati's threats.

Sonia : Rahul's caravan has started moving at long last. It is not going to pass through UP, so please don't touch him.

Mayawati: I don't touch people who can't move even a twig with their speeches.

Sonia: He's not so bad now. He has now learnt how to move Congress workers at least. In due course, he will make people also move to him.

Mayawati: Or move away from him...

Sonia: I hope you will not use NSA against Rahul for spending nights in dalit homes with his foreign friends. It is good for tourism you know.

Mayawati: Not till he keeps having a bath with a special soap to cleanse himself after such condescending, maharaja-type visits.

Sonia: Thank God. I was about to ask him to stay away from dalits completely to avoid Varun's fate.

Mayawati: I am glad you have given him good "sanskars". He does exactly what helps and pleases Mayawati. But for him and the Congress party, I would never have become the CM.

Sonia: Do we have a choice of "sanskars", whatever that means? We cannot afford to antagonise you or Mulayam or Laloo or Paswan or Karat or Karunanidhi or Jayalalitha or Nitish or Raj Thakre or...actually anyone other than the BJP and Shiv Sena.

Mayawati: Everyone knows how "strong" you are.

Sonia: The Congress party is a national party with a glorious history.

Mayawati: And no future.

Sonia: Don't say that. Please. It hurts. We are confident of coming back to power on our own.

Mayawati: Really? Look, I don't care whether anyone is from the Gandhi family or a raja or maharaja. If you or your son threaten my vote bank in any manner, I will put you both behind bars.

Sonia: I know, I know. We will keep our mouths firmly shut in UP. In any case there is little to open them for in this state.

Mayawati: Thank God you have seen the real picture at last with your own eyes.

Sonia: I will go to Gujarat and call Modi "maut ka saudagar" (merchant of death). At least he will not send me to jail under the NSA.

Mayawati: Now you are talking sense.

Sonia: I am going to need your sisterly help to get back to power after the elections.

Mayawati: I really can't believe that you are that dumb.

Sonia: What do you mean?

Mayawati: Do you think I have put poor Varun in jail just to see you back in power?

Sonia: Then?

Mayawati: Get this straight. I will expect you to support me to become the PM.

Sonia: This is preposterous. How can you even think of being PM with just 30-40 MPs?

Mayawati: Don't forget that Rae Bareilly and Amethi are in UP.

Sonia: So?

Mayawati: Do you know how easy it is for me to get some people to throw stones at the police when you and Rahul are around? That will be enough for me to book you both under the NSA for attempt to murder.

Sonia: You can't do that to me or Rahul baba.

Mayawati: Not only will I do that, I will ensure that jail rules are followed strictly.

Sonia: What rules?

Mayawati: You will be allowed visitors only twice a week.

Sonia: No problem.

Mayawati: And you will have to eat jail food.

Sonia: No! No! I may have become an Indian citizen but I can't stand Indian food.

Mayawati: The choice before you is clear: support me as PM or face NSA.

Sonia: Of course Behen Mayawati ji, cool down. I will make sure you are our next PM. I am all for empowerment of women.

Mayawati: Now you are seeing the logic. If only that engineer had seen it in time...

Maneka: (aside to Mayawati) Don't trust Sonia. She will get you thrown you out without warning. That is what she did to me.

Mayawati: (aside to Maneka) Do you think I don't know that? After I become PM, I will put her and her son in jail and takeover the Congress party!

Maneka: (under her breath)You are worse than even my mother-in-law!

Mayawati: I think it is time for a grand Gandhi family reunion.

Maneka: I can never patch up with Sonia and Rahul; they are pretenders. My husband was the chosen heir.

Mayawati: I know what he was. Thank God I am a woman.

Maneka: Does it make a difference? You still haven't become a mother!

Mayawati: That is because of what your husband did during the Emergency to the guy I wanted to marry.

Sonia: See, had Sanjay not launched that vasectomy campaign, Mayawati might have been just another dalit voter standing with her son a in queue to vote for you or me. That one blunder has cost us the Gandhi family heavy.

Maneka: What about the genocide of Sikhs in 1984 that Rajiv Gandhi unleashed?

Mayawati: Quiet both of you. I can see that you have a lot to talk about.

Maneka, Sonia (in unison): Yes we do.

Mayawati: Don't worry, I will arrange a long, undisturbed meeting for all four of you. You can then say all that has been lying bottled up inside for decades.

Maneka: Where?

Mayawati: 7 Race Course Road, of course! (inaudibly) Etah jail it will be.

Sonia: When?

Mayawati: After May 16, when I become the PM!
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3. Political debates: the Slumdog effect!
4. What will Raj target next to 'take out' Pakistan?
5. Gilani, Durrani, Kiyani, Biryani and the Butcher!
5. The 'BIG' war between Mukesh and Anil!

THE REAL IPL T20 IS ON IN UP!

The cricket IPL T20 tournament may have moved to South Africa. But there is an even more gripping T20 Indian Political League(IPL) tournament being played in India's biggest people's stadium that holds 116,424,101 active "spectators". Although each team theoretically has 80 "overs" to play with and take home, the ferocious battle being fought out there in the final run-up to the grand finale on May 16, 2009, is for 20 "overs". These are the ones that will most likely decide as to who will get that Big Trophy in Delhi.

During the last Lok Sabha elections in 2004, the Congress party emerged as the largest single party by a whisker with 145 seats against 138 of the BJP. That "victory" by a wafer-thin margin enabled it to cobble up a post-poll alliance called the UPA and form the government with its candidate Dr Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister.

When the elections were announced this year, it looked as if the UPA was going into the polls almost intact, the only change being that the Left had been replaced by Mulayam Yadav's SP as its ally. As a result, all surveys were predicting the return of the UPA.

Today, however, the situation stands dramatically altered. In UP, the alliance of the Congress with the SP has fallen through; in Bihar, Laloo Yadav's RJD and Ram Vias Paswan's LJP have ganged up and thrown the Congress out; in Jharakhand, the JMM has called off its alliance with the Congress leaving it lonesome; in Tamil Nadu, the PMK has crossed over to Jayalalithha's AIADMK, leaving the Congress and DMK gasping for breath; in Andhra Pradesh the Satyam scandal has damaged the Congress, as has the emergence of Chranjeevi with his new Prajarajyam Party; in West Bengal, although the Congress has got into an alliance with Mamata Banerjee's TMC and is contesting in 12 seats, it is not likely to increase its tally beyond the six seats it got last time; in Assam the coming together of the BJP and the AGP is going to hurt the Congress, as is BJP's alliance with the INLD in Haryana.

As far as the BJP led NDA is concerned, it has lost the BJD, TMC, the AIADMK, the TDP and other smaller allies, although it is the loss of the BJD that may hurt it the most, going by the last election results. It is to be seen how much benefit accrues to the party by its new alliances with the AGP, the INLD and Ajit Singh's RLD which is strong in Western UP.

The net upshot of all these developments is that the allies of the Congress are convinced that the party is going to emerge much weaker after these elections. The BJP too will struggle to improve its own tally by much. The latest survey carried out by DNA partly reflects the changed situation. It gives a tiny edge, for the first time, to the NDA over the UPA, 178 to 175. A survey commissioned by the BJP projects that the BJP will get 160 seats against 135 of the Congress, the tally for the NDA and UPA being 217 and 180 respectively; the NDA, though ahead, still remains adrift of the half-way mark by more than 50 seats.

This why the real IPL T20 tournament being played in UP assumes so much of significance.

In the last elections, the Left emerged as the largest group after the UPA and NDA with 60 seats, followed by Mulayam Yadav's SP with 36, Laloo Yadav's RJD with 24, Mayawati's BSP with 19 and Karunanidhi's DMK with 16. The Left has consistently refused to be a part of any government and, in fact, did not allow Jyoti Basu to become the PM of a United Front government in 1996. This time, however, it has indicated that it is not averse to accepting the top job, should the newly formed Third Front emerge as the leading contender after the elections; Comrade Prakash Karat is ready and eager to wear the crown. Mulayam Yadav, Laloo Yadav and Mayawati have also never concealed their Prime Ministerial ambitions and are sniffing a clear opportunity this time.

If the Congress emerges weakened after the elections, then there still might be a UPA government but its present and likely allies will not allow the PM to be from the Congress. That is the whole game-plan behind Laloo's Yadav's sudden turn and Mulayam Yadav's clever overtures to the Congress mixed with tough demands, even as he readies to take it on in UP. Thus, unless the NDA emerges with even more than the 217 seats the BJP believes that it will bag, the Prime Minister's chair is up for grabs, be it a UPA or a Third Front government that manages a post-poll victory. And the one who will get it will most likely be the one who has the highest number of MPs after the Congress and the BJP.

The Left, as per indications available now, will not be able to repeat its performance and may, therefore, may not be in the running for the crown that it should have worn in 1996. Mayawati has since the last elections managed to emerge as the biggest party in UP, thanks to some great social engineering. The Congress has been sliding badly in the state, the latest evidence being it getting just around 2000 votes to emerge seventh in the Bhadohi Assembly by-election held recently. The SP too is not as strong as it was and the BJP is also in a similar boat.

In UP, therefore, a gain of 20 seats will make Mayawati the top contender for the job with a tally of 39. A gain of 20 seats for the BJP from its previous tally of 10 will put the BJP-led NDA within striking distance of the half-way mark. A loss of 20 from the 36 seats that it got last time will destroy all of Mulayam Yadav's bargaining power and dreams of becoming the PM. For the Congress, an addition of 20 seats to its dismal last score of seven, will ensure that there will be no real challenge to it leading the UPA with Dr Manmohan Singh back in the saddle.

The stakes in UP, therefore, are so high for all the four main players there that any significant development that can dramatically alter the outcome in this state could well make or mar their aspirations at the national level.

The twists and turns of the Varun Gandhi episode, if seen in this light, begin to make a great deal of sense. His infamous speech, given to a few party workers, would have died unnoticed under normal circumstances. But, for the Congress, looking desperately for an issue to get back its Muslim vote bank that Mulayam Yadav had poached, this anti-Muslim speech was a heaven-sent, even if somewhat doctored, opportunity to tell the Muslims of UP that only the Congress was capable of protecting their interests; therefore, they had little choice but to vote for the Congress alone. Perhaps that is why the media and the Chawla-impacted Election Commission went nuts, thinking they had got the BJP's nuts and Muslim votes. Those vital 20 additional seats that were looking impossible to get seemed suddenly within reach.

The BJP, on the other hand, after the initial confusion caused by the media onslaught, thought that it too had got a issue, raked artlessly by a Gandhi and fanned recklessly by the Gandhis, that could get back its brahmin voters who had deserted it for Mayawati, plus some dalits and Yadavs voters too. All of a sudden, 20 additional seats were no longer a distant dream. So, it backed Varun "conditionally" and quietly organised the great surrender drama in Plilbhit to make him look like a great Hindu martyr. It is the BJP now, more than the Congress, that wants to keep the issue alive and the media frenzy about Varun going.

Mayawati was initially not inclined to give the Varun CDs any importance, knowing fully well what the game-plan of the Congress was. But when the issue continued to hog the limelight and it appeared that Varun Gandhi was rallying most Hindus behind him, she slapped the NSA on him. That, she thought would silence him and limit the erosion of her upper caste voters. More importantly, by acting so tough in a manner that no one else would have dared, she reckoned that she would also win over the Muslim voters of Mulayam that the Congress was looking for. That was all that was needed for her to strike those vital 20 extra seats, may be more.

Mulayam Yadav did not give any importance to Varun Gandhi to begin with, alive to the dangers he posed to his party indirectly. But when he saw that impressive "surrender ceremony" with a huge crowd turnout, he saw his 20 seats being taken away. So, he panicked and accused Mayawati of being in league with the BJP, an accusation he continued to make even after the NSA was invoked by her. Essentially, he is trying to tell his Muslim voters that they would do well to stay on with him; he is the only one they can trust, the others are just playing games to con them.

The latest is that even the D Company has joined battle. As per the police of BJP ruled Karnataka, Chhota Shakeel has given a "supari" for Varun Gandhi and Pramod Muthalik. Five of his operatives who had been told to kill Varun have been arrested. The UP police moved Varun from Pilbhit it to Etah late last night apparently for security reasons, after being informed by its Karanataka counterparts. But today, alive to the political impact that this news might have in polarising Hindu votes, it has denied that there is any threat to him.

This T20 tournament is sure heading for a great climax. At stake is the PM's Chair. The next six weeks, till the last match is played on May 13, are going to see many more dramatic twists and turns that will keep everyone on the edge of their seats 24/7. Is any team going to win or lose those vital 20 seats, or is it going to some sort of a tie? A huge audience is already hooked to what many people initially thought was going to be a dull, issue-less election.

No matter who wins or loses, the media is going to emerge a winner. And you and I are going to have a great time!

UPDATE 8:43 PM

Things are really moving. News is coming in that Sharad Pawar, who has entered into an alliance with the Congress in Maharashtra, sharing the 48 seats 22:26, is going to share a platform with Prakash Karat and Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar tomorrow. He has already said that Dr Manmohan Singh is the candidate of the Congress, not the UPA. Pawar clearly wants to see the Congress get weaker. One can be sure that his NCP voters are not going to vote for Congress in the 26 seats that the party is contesting in Maharashtra. This means that the Congress will not get the 13 seats it got last time or even the 10 projected in the TOI survey.

The slide of the Congress, at this rate, may well turn out to be some sort of an all India rout by the time elections are held. Voters sometimes do not bet on a horse that they know is going to lose. If the BJP does not benefit from this, then that T20 tournament in UP will be decisive.

The real IPL T20 is on in UP! -2
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Readers may also read:
1. The Varun fiasco: Congress scores another self goal
2. Rahul, Varun and the politcs of hate
3. Say sorry to India Varun
4. Marginalisation of the Congress gathers momentum
5. It's a two-horse race to Race Course road

MAYAWATI'S NATIONAL INSECURITY ACT

This is a strange nation. With stranger leaders. For almost five years, till 26/11 to be precise, the government argued against a stringent law to deal with terrorists who kill innocent people on the plea that ordinary laws were sufficient to deal with terrorism. No one was prepared to listen that all nations affected by terror had put in place stringent anti-terror mechanisms. Only a few individuals let out that the real reason for the stance was that such a law might be misused by the police. It was safer to allow innocent people to keep getting killed than risk losing the votes of a minority community.

Maharashtra and Delhi have their own anti terror law, the MCOCA. All the "Hindu" terrorists arrested for the Malegaon blast are being tried under this anti-terror law. But, MCOCA has not been used by the Congress government of Delhi in the case of the Indian Mujahideen terrorists involved in the September 13 serial blasts in Delhi ostensibly because such laws had become contentious for being misused against minorities.

The strangest development of all is that all those who have been crying hoarse about the human rights of terrorists and demanding that they be tried like ordinary criminals under the IPC and the CrPC etc alone, have not opened their mouth against perhaps the gravest misuse of law since the dark days of the Emergency. Mayawati has slapped the draconian Nationa Security Act (NSA) against Varun Gandhi for making that by now famous hate speech. Under the NSA, no judicial review can be sought for three months.

This means that for making a political speech, however despicable, a candidate has been silenced behind the bars for perhaps the whole duration of the election campaign by a political rival who is engaged in a ferocious electoral fight to win power in Delhi. The silence of the Congress and the Election Commission to this brazen misuse of a law that is meant to be used only when there is a threat to the nation is ominous.

This time it might be Varun Gandhi who is the victim. But, theoretically, it is now possible for anyone to lock up political opponents in the middle of their election campaigns. The slogan of Mayawati's BSP has changed now but if some of her supporters raise the BSP's original slogan at a rally that she addresses in a state ruled by her opponents, she can be put in jail under the NSA by them. "Tilak, tarazu aur talwar, inko maaro jootey chaar" (Hit Brahmins, Kshatrias and Vaishyas with shoes). Is not this original battle cry of the BSP provocative enough for the NSA to be invoked, going by the precedent that Mayawati has set?

In one hasty step taken out of political panic, Mayawati has turned the NSA into a "National Insecurity Act". Worried by the possible loss of her voters to the BJP, she has pulled the NSA out of the bag to poach Mulayam Yadav's Muslim vote bank. By locking up Varun Gandhi, she is trying to tell Muslims that they can trust her to act tough against anyone who speaks against them. This move may well backfire and prove to be just the issue that the BJP needs to reclaim the voters of UP that had deserted the party.

Notwithstanding what the political fallout is, what should concern all politicians and citizens is that this dangerous misuse of the NSA will open a Pandora's box that will make a complete mockery of the process of law. It is everyone's duty to ensure that politicians do not turn the NSA into a tool of petty political vendetta.
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Readers may also read:
1. The Varun fiasco: Congress scores another self goal
2. The Varun sting: who is not playing the communal card?
3. Rahul, Varun and the politcs of hate
4. Say sorry to India Varun

THE VARUN FIASCO: CONGRESS SCORES ANOTHER SELF GOAL

For the last one week, the media have done little other than talk about Varun Gandhi in the context of a "hate speech" that he gave in Pilibhit. After saturating the nation with visuals of those speeches, which Varun says were doctored, countless unidirectional debates in TV studios and columns by media luminaries in leading newspapers, they thought they had got Varun Gandhi by his unmentionables, the BJP on the back foot and all Muslim votes in the bag of the Congress or other "secular" parties that are pitted against the BJP. The fatal blow, everyone thought, was the Chawla-tainted Election Commission hastily issuing an unprecedented advisory to the BJP to not field Varun as its candidate.

"Varun Gandhi must not be allowed to get away". That was the shrill refrain of all who thought they had a winner for the Congress and the other Gandhis, at last.

But, the script seems to have gone horribly wrong. As always, the media and, possibly, the SWOT analysts of the Congress have forgotten that democracy involves real people and not the elite who live in Delhi and frequent TV studios. The party has for long been paying a very heavy price for getting disconnected from the people and becoming dependent on a vocal and seemingly knowledgeable few who dominate the media space and little else.

The Varun sting is further proof that the Congress in now totally dependant on communal arithmetic rather than a genuine connect with the masses to win political power. The muted and almost zero reactions of Mulayam Yadav and Mayawati to this sting operation should have woken the media and Congress to the danger that their massive campaign could backfire badly. But, they were so caught up in the excitement of having got a "brahmastra" to beat the BJP with that they never even considered that possibility.

Mulayam Yadav has been courting Muslims openly for years, going even to the extent of saying that the seditious SIMI was a secular organisation. Indeed, the "secular" Mulayam Yadav has built his party solely on the basis of Muslim and Yadav vote banks. That has necessarily involved ignoring the interests of all Hindus except Yadavs. So, he is fully alive to the electoral danger of giving too much air to what Varun Gandhi has said. Mayawati has built her party on the strength of Hindu dalits and, of late, brahmins. She too knows that she will be hit hard if she is deserted en masse by brahmins and by some dalits who get swayed by emotions based on ground reality.

The Congress, on the other hand, has lost almost all voters in UP and Bihar, and has absolutely no clue about what it needs to do win them back. With that total disconnect, is it any wonder that the party has come to rely on the opinion of the same half a dozen or so faces that are seen in all TV studios and the "voice of the people" being projected in cleverly manipulated elitist chat shows? That blunder, coupled with the killer Tehelka sting just before the Gujarat assembly elections contributed in no small measure to the decimation of the Congress in Gujarat and the rise and rise of Narendra Modi. And that is what it appears is happening with Varun Gandhi too.

A bit too late, the media and the Congress have woken up to the horror that their blitz has backfired badly. The tables have been turned on them most unexpectedly. Their "hate campaign" against the BJP and Varun Gandhi has apparently achieved the exact opposite result. So, now they are crying that the BJP is doing nothing but a "drama" by letting Varun Gandhi surrender and court arrest in Pilibhit rather than apply for extension of anticipatory bail in the Supreme Court. They are also accusing the BJP for trying to gain political mileage out of the incident and for making Varun Gandhi a hero. Conveniently forgotten is the fact that it was the Congress and a politically aligned media, not the BJP, that had been shouting hoarse for over a week to get such mileage for the Congress and make a villain of Varun!

The unending media drama has electrified the atmosphere in Pilibhit in a manner that no one in Delhi ever thought it could. Thousands of supporters of Varun Gandhi who have descended on the town gave Varun Gandhi a hero's welcome as he arrived a couple of hours back to surrender before the local court. Even though they all have violated Section 144, Mayawati has been intelligent enough to keep the police away, not wanting to make any personal contribution to Varun Gandhi's spiking popularity at her party's expense. He has quietly been remanded to judicial custody till Monday and the police have taken him into custody.

Before he surrendered, Varun Gandhi spoke briefly to his supporters. Defiant as ever, he said: "I am ready to take whatever steps are necessary to fight for the people...I believe in my principles and am willing to fight for them. I am not going to back off...If by my going to jail people get strength to fight for their rights I am ready to go to jail".

"I am not going to back off". This is not the kind of response any one of those who had planned the sting down to the last detail would have even dreamt of. Earlier too, Varun had taken everyone by surprise by saying: "I am a proud Gandhi, a proud Hindu and a proud Indian in equal measure". When was the last time a Hindu from his kind of background was heard being proud, not apologetic, of his religion? That refrain was always identified with Indians of other religions, many of whom have routinely been putting their religious identity ahead of their national one, without ever being called communal.

Varun Gandhi, whether we like it or not, has been unwittingly catapulted to national limelight by a media and a party out of tune with the India outside of Lutyen's Delhi. He has arrived, as they say, and has already carved a niche for himself. That is something that his cousin Rahul Gandhi has not been able to do at all, despite being at the very top of the heap in the Congress for seven years, with a very supportive media that have spared no efforts to project him as the energetic voice of India's youth.

Varun Gandhi's unexpectedly strident response to the sting and the support that the BJP has given him indicates that the CDs were actually tampered with in the 19 most incriminating places that Varun says they were. That will take years to prove, given our slow legal system. Knowing that, the media and the Congress had calculated that countless replays of those portions on TV along with relentless and vicious condemnation in the media would be enough to critically damage the BJP and negatively force Muslims into voting for the Congress across the country. All that they saw were two sitting ducks waiting to be killed with one stone. Only fools let such opportunities slip. Or so they thought.

The way in which the whole sting operation has been turned on its head by Varun Gandhi, now christened Saffron Gandhi by the media, is nothing less than a double whammy for the Congress, a nightmare that it would have easily foreseen had it had its ear to the ground, or learnt its lesson from Tehelka. But, like always, it remains tuned only to a supportive media living in the same bubble in Delhi and has forgotten that real democracy is quite different from designer democracy. Is it any wonder, therefore, that it has scored another avoidable self goal?

How costly this is going to prove to the party will be known only on May 16, 2009. Wait with bated breath.




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Readers may also read:
1. The Varun sting: who is not playing the communal card?
2. Can the Congress stem its slide?
3. Rahul, Varun and the politcs of hate

RAHUL, VARUN AND THE POLITICS OF HATE

Varun Gandhi has become the star attraction/repulsion of the ongoing election campaign, thanks to a couple of speeches that he made in his parliamentary constituency, inciting the "majority community" against the "minority community". That it was the London School of Economics educated great grandson of Nehru who took such a communally provocative line to garner votes is something that has stunned everyone. Not surprisingly, reactions have been extreme, forcing Varun Gandhi to go into hiding till the wind blows over.

Yesterday, however, Varun Gandhi ran into his estranged cousins and a few others at a private function. This is what transpired at that off-the-record, "mythical" gathering:

Varun: I swear on the Gita that I will cut the hand that is raised against Hindus.

RS Prasad: We dissociate ourselves from your remarks, even though many of us privately admire you for saying what we always wanted to but did not have the guts to say.

Anonymous: The Saudis will love this; this is just the kind of punishment they enjoy giving!

Abhishek Singhvi: Your association with communal BJP proves that you are a Gandhi by accidental birth; only Rahul was planned!

Amar Singh: Your statement is totally communal. BJP is a communal party that should be banned. India is a secular country. We need to protect and promote truly secular organisations like SIMI which believe that real secularism will be ushered in only when India becomes an Islamic state governed totally by the Sharia.

Bal Thackeray: I love this Gandhi; he's different!

Varun: Thank you uncle, I was beginning to feel orphaned...

RS Prasad: Don't feel so low, you will remain our candidate and are also going to be our star campaigner!

Abhishek Singhvi: BJP's double-speak and communal mindset stands exposed.

Varun: I am a proud Gandhi, a proud Hindu and a proud Indian in equal measure.

Abhishek Singhvi: A Gandhi saying that he is a proud Hindu is bad news for the Congress that has always believed in courting only minorities.

Priyanka: You should read the Gita.

Varun: Why? You think I don't know which one of us represents the Kauravs and which one the Pandavs?

Priyanka: I was actually thinking about Kandhari...

Varun: Be sure it is not my mom.

Rahul: But it was BJP's Foreign Minister who took terrorists to Kandahar. I didn't know there was a lady by that name too.

Varun: You mean you haven't read the Gita?

Rahul: I am blind to religion.

Varun: Only Hindu religion?

Rahul: You should not carry anger and hatred.

Varun: Yes I know. It was all love that drove me and my mom out of the Gandhi household after my father died.

Rajdeep Sardesai: You cannot be allowed to get away for making a hate speech. Only terrorists "who have no religion" and hardened criminals are allowed that privilege.

Varun: But the CD is doctored. I stand for Hindus. Hindutva is not against anybody. (Inaudibly) Except perhaps Muslims.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Does it matter? You are a political novice from LSE and yet you have stolen everybody's thunder.

Varun: But I was "truthfully" commenting on the atmosphere in Pilibhit...so what if I got a bit carried away? Remember Rahul also once spoke about one Kalawati and everybody thought he was taking a dig at Mayawati?

Rajdeep Sardesai: You are going to make CNN-IBN's poll predictions look even more rigged than they are. The Congress may now get no seats in UP except those of your aunt and cousin.

Varun: That is exactly what I want. I am the real Gandhi.

Rajdeep Sardesai: How dare you spoil our private party? I will not let you steal the crown of my Crown Prince. An example needs to be set to uphold the highest ideals of dynastic secularism that your great grandfather espoused.

Varun: But what about the situation in Pilibhit?

Barkha Dutt: Total freedom for minorities to say and do what they like is what defines India's secularism. Raising a voice against them is rank communalism and simply cannot be tolerated.

Varun: But you never gave that sort of freedom to that poor blogger who wrote only a couple of harmless sentences against you.

Barkha Dutt: I am Barkha Dutt. My name may sound Hindu, but I am an atheist and have no time for imaginary gods like Ram. So, I too am a minority and hence cannot be criticised. Why do you think people call me Burkha?

Varun: Jai Sri Ram! You don't believe in Ram?

Barkha Dutt: I believe that to survive in this competitive world, prayers to Ram or any such mythical character are not going to help. One has just to know how to ram one's point home. And, the only real Rahm I know is Barack Obama's brilliant Chief of Staff. I can say "Jai Ho" only to him.

Varun: Is your saying that Ram is mythical not reflective of your "hate" towards Hindu religion?

Barkha Dutt: That is what we have always been taught in our secular educational institutions; Hindu gods are mythical, they never existed. Why pick on me? Karunanidhi says your Ram was a drunkard. And he is right. Only a drunkard or the communal BJP can claim that Adam's Bridge was built by monkeys for Ram!

Naveen Chawla: It pays to remain loyal to real, living gods and goddesses who can ram their way through and put you where you want to be despite stiff opposition from Ram's followers!

Varun: Why did you not give me even a hearing before finding me guilty?

Naveen Chawla: Someone told me that you were going to take away even the remaining 1% voters still with the Congress in UP. The Election Commission, therefore, had no choice but to hastily put out the unprecedented advice that you should not be allowed to contest the elections.

Varun: But that is blatant partisanship; the EC is a constitutional body that is supposed to be neutral.

Naveen Chawla: I can't be an ungrateful backstabber like Laloo Yadav, can I?

Varun: Remember you were my father's Man Friday during the Emergency?

Naveen Chawla: I'm still with the Family. You and your mom are ones who opted out, not me.

Varun: Why did you not issue the same advisory for Mukhtar Ansari?

Rajdeep Sardesai: Err...an alert media had told him that Allahabad High Court was going to bar him from contesting.

Varun: What about Atiq Ahmed?

Amar Singh: He has only been charge sheeted for innumerable heinous crimes including murder. Nothing has been proved against him. He has not been convicted yet for any of them. How can Chawla issue an advisory against such an innocent soul till the courts give a judgment?

Abhishek Singhvi: Or the Congress High Command asks him to.

Varun: What about Sanjay Dutt, Mohd Azharuddin, Pappu Yadav...

Rahul: Chawla has been made CEC to ensure holding of "fair" elections. He is not meant to stall them or to let any party do anything that puts the Congress at a disadvantage. If he starts advising bans like you are suggesting, there will be hardly any "powerful" candidates left to fight the elections!

Varun: But that is totally unfair to me.

Rahul: Before you lost your cool and made that famous speech, you should have remembered that there are still some people who will listen to only one Gandhi. And that is clearly not you.

Varun: This is not that 'panja'(hand) of the Congress. This is the hand of the Lotus...
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Readers may also like to read the following similar type of posts:
1. Azhar, Sanjay, Crime and politics
2. Political debates: the Slumdog effect!
3. What will Raj target next to 'take out' Pakistan?
4. Gilani, Durrani, Kiyani, Biryani and the Butcher!
5. The 'BIG' war between Mukesh and Anil!

CAN THE CONGRESS STEM ITS SLIDE?

The unending media cacophony over the Varun Gandhi "hate" CDs has made it appear as if the only choice that voters have in the forthcoming elections is between voting to power a "communal" BJP that is trying to divide the country by preaching/supporting hatred against Muslims and a "secular" Congress that is fighting against it. And, the message being rammed home through every possible trick in the book is that they must reject the former because the only party that can be trusted to maintain communal harmony across the country is the Indian National Congress. "Vote for Congress" is the call being given in unison by India's mainstream media whose political agenda has never been a big secret.

The Grand Old Party is today less than one third of what it was for a very long time after India's Independence. Despite solid media support, it continues to shrink and is set to replace the Left as the perennial pan-India rump that cannot rule on its own but has enough nuisance value in a fractured political landscape. Why is the party not able to stem the decline?

Arguably, one reason for this is that the Congress has morphed into a personality based party, just like most smaller regional parties that have mushroomed in the last couple of decades. It is no longer the party of the masses with a galaxy of tall leaders closely connected to and respected by people across the country. It is now effectively a vehicle for the protection and promotion of one branch of the Nehru-Gandhi family represented by Rahul Gandhi and overseen by Sonia Gandhi. The sole objective of a powerful coterie, aided by the media, is to ensure that any challenge to the leadership of this Gandhi is crushed before it becomes even a small threat.

When the only leader of a party is unable to be make any defining personal impact on the people even after being in business for seven long years, the party has to keep sliding downhill, and is. Unfortunately, no one in the Congress is tall enough to look in the mirror and begin the process of getting the party back to it roots, and re-establish its links with the people in every village and town of India. Till that happens, if at all, no amount of favourable media coverage is going to be of any real help.

The other major reason for the party finding itself in a mess is that it has deliberately chosen to ignore "Hindus" completely. May be it has been encouraged to do so because there really is no pan-India "Hindu" identity that prevails over the more immediate identities of caste, language and region. Experience has shown that Hindus can easily be divided along innumerable dimensions that cancel each other out electorally.

That is why from the ruins of the Congress have emerged only small "Hindu" parties identifying with and promoting the cause of tiny and somewhat homogeneous blocks of Hindus like Yadavs, dalits, Telegus, Maharashtrians, Assamese etc. There is only one party that speaks of and for all Hindus, 80% of India's population, across the whole of India rather than along fragmented dimensions. This is the only party that, as of now, poses a threat to the Congress; indeed it is its only competitor.

Why have so many small "Hindu" parties come up at the expense of the Congress? The party has clearly failed to meet the aspirations of the Hindus and protect their interests. So, Hindus are increasingly gravitating towards small parties that promise to look after the interests of specific caste and classes or towards the BJP that talks of protecting them as a whole. The Congress can do business with all these parties to form some sort of a government at the centre but cannot do so with the BJP which is the only party that can challenge it nationally at present.

Therefore, the Congress has embarked upon a disastrous policy to remain in the reckoning. Its strategy has two pillars. The first is to ensure that Muslims, who cannot be electorally fragmented like Hindus, continue to view the Congress as their only real friend and vote for it. The second is to ensure that fragmented Hindu voters do not de-fragment towards the BJP. That is why the Congress has to relentlessly try and prove that being pro-Hindu is the same as being anti-Muslim.

As part of its Muslim strategy, the Congress has to ignore even the most provocative and disturbing of developments related to the Muslim community and con the nation into believing that all is well, even when there is disturbing evidence to show that it is not. That is why POTA is removed and the nation is told for five years that existing laws are sufficient to deal with terrorism and that terrorism has no religion, even when innocent people continue to die in terror attacks. That is why there are no convictions of any terrorists who know that they can easily get away after killing innocent people. That is why the Prime Minister says that minorities have a first right on the resources of this nation. That is why there is immediate capitulation to unreasonable demands made by fundamentalists. That is why the creeping Talibanisation of Muslim society is ignored.

In pursuance of the second leg of its strategy, Hindu frustration with this minority-attracting-cum-majority-marginalising strategy is countered not by doing anything for Hindus but by making them feel that anyone speaking for them as a whole is communal and divisive. And that he is actually using that call not for Hindus but against innocent Muslims and, occasionally, Christians. The media play a huge role in propagating and perpetuating this negative strategy which sometimes pays political dividends but more often than not backfires very badly.

It may be recalled that just before the Gujarat elections, an unprecedented media frenzy was unleashed against Narendra Modi. The Delhi based SWOT analysts of the Congress manifestly had even got a Tehelka sting done to prove that Narendra Modi was personally responsible for the 2002 Gujarat riots. Then itself I had warned that it would backfire because it was clear that the Congress was completely out of touch with the reality on ground. It was that very disconnect that prompted Sonia Gandhi to make the most communal statement in the whole election campaign when she called Modi a "maut ka saudagar" (merchant of death).

The general idea, as any child could understand, was to ensure that all Muslims would vote for the Congress and that a sufficiently large number of Hindus would turn to the Congress not because they were for the party but because they would be psyched into hating Modi and voting against him. In the event, Tehelka unwittingly succeeded only in killing the conspiracy theory that the train was set on fire in Godhra by Modi's men as part of pre-planned strategy to incite the subsequent riots, and Sonia Gandhi helped Modi romp home to an unprecedented victory.

Remember the Malegaon blasts? After Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit were arrested for that one blast, the media went bonkers about the danger that India faced from "Hindu terror". Thrown away were earlier chants that terror had no religion; for over a month Indians were told that the real danger that India faced was from "Hindu terror" whose roots lay in the BJP. Forgotten completely was Islamic terrorism - the proxy war that Pakistan has launched against India - that the nation had been facing for years. That one blast was all that was needed for Team Congress to discover dangerous "Hindu terror" and proclaim that Sadhvi Pragya was India's Osama Bin Laden and the BJP and the Sangh Parivar its Al Qaida!

The terror attack on Mumbai on November 26, 2008, jolted everyone rudely back to reality. There was no longer any place for the Congress to hide; "Hindu terror" vanished as dramatically as it had appeared. POTA came back within days in the form of a modified UAPA and the government had no choice but to start making empty threatening noises of war to assuage the anger of a people they had been trying to lead up the wrong terror path treacherously. Five years of shouting that a stringent law was not needed to deal with terror, only to get Muslim votes, was forgotten in a flash after the realisation dawned that the bitter truth could no longer be hidden.

Soon enough, one incident in Mangalore in which some fringe Hindu elements beat up a few girls and boys drinking in a pub was the next flimsy excuse that the Congress and the media picked to re-start its "Hate BJP" campaign and make people forget Mumbai 26/11. This time it was Tehelka again, through it reporter Nisha Susan, that launched the famous Pink Chaddi Campaign against the moral policing of the Sangh Parivar. Once again, the Congress targeted the Hindu vote through a saturated negative media campaign. No one bothered to find out what the real situation was in the city and the state and almost no one reported that there was an underlying anger at boys of one community mixing with girls of other communities while girls of their own community were strictly denied that freedom.

The Varun Gandhi episode is the latest incident in this series that the Congress has used to get the Hindu vote solely by highlighting the wrong that the BJP has done, not the right that the Congress has. There is no doubt that even the words that Varun Gandhi has himself admitted to using are unacceptable and that he needs to apologise to the country. But, as always, the media has again got into that shrill mode and is sparing no effort whatsoever to influence Hindus to vote against the BJP, by psyching them into believing that by voting for the BJP, they will be voting for only communal hatred and divide.

As always, no one wants to even mention that Varun Gandhi has not spoken in a vacuum. No one wants to acknowledge that there probably are serious communal fissures in Pilibhit that need to be addressed. No one want to even whisper that Muslims are at least partly responsible for creating the communal divide that has got the young, educated and aware Gandhi agitated enough to react, though in a manner that needs to be condemned roundly.

The "secular" brigade thinks it has got a timely winner of an issue that it can milk to death electorally. Varun Gandhi, it believes, has given it just the stick it needed beat the BJP with. It has not struck anyone that though some people in the metros and in the blogosphere are buying that line, there just might be many more out there whose fears and apprehensions about aggressive Muslim communalism might actually be re-kindled sufficiently enough to get them to the voting booth to say so.

The experience of Gujarat has been totally forgotten by Team Congress; no one has his ear to the ground. That is why, thanks to a disconnected and hypocritical media, this really young Gandhi who is fighting his first election at the age of 29, has become the star of this election, hate him for spewing poison or love him for speaking the truth. Nobody knows how this is going to impact the electoral outcome.

Notwithstanding what happens in these elections, the question that the Congress really needs to ask itself is whether its two-pronged strategy is going to help the dying party revive itself. Over the years, it has paid a very heavy price for taking India's Hindus for granted. Wherever and whenever they have got a chance, Hindus have deserted the party in favour of even rag-tag outfits that promise to look after their interests. Yet, the Congress has not realised its folly. It may sleep with all small and seemingly non-threatening, non-BJP outfits that are taking away its voters, just to remain in power, but that is not going to make it any stronger. It may unleash a negative campaign against the seemingly threatening BJP to get negative Hindu votes, but that is not going to help it get or retain many over the long run either.

Sometimes it appears that the Congress party has forgotten that there is an India beyond Lutyen's Delhi and outside of TV studios. That is probably why it has not realised that by continuing to follow the strategy that it has till now, not only is it not only not going to stem its slide but it faces a real long-term risk of being eliminated from the political landscape altogether.
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Readers may also read:
1. Tehelka unearths a Prime Minister
2. Hindu terror at last; thank God!
3. India's Osama and Al Qaida found: banish them!
4. Mumba11/26: wake up to Islamic terror, this is just the beginning
5. Valentine's Day: it's chaddi vs langot!
6. The Varun sting: who is not playing the communal card?