Sardar Patel: Legacy Not Property of Congress

Legacy of a nation and its history are not commodities, money or properties that can be appropriated by anyone. I pity at the wisdom of some Congress leaders including some Congress Ministers who used this word ‘appropriated’ for BJP in genera and Narendra Modi in particular for showing respect and praising India’s first home minister and deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel. He was a great son of India, a great freedom fighter no less than Jawahar Lal Nehru and a great visionary. It was Patel’s vision and decisions that united India as one nation. To say that Sardar Patel’s legacy belongs to the Congress and the ruling party at the Centre which has the copyright over him is ridiculous proposition.

For decades, the Congress Party and the successive government headed by it at the Centre in many States ignored Sardar Patel and for that matter all tall leaders. Post independent it is only Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and now Sonia and Rahul Gandhi who matter for the Congress and nobody else.

If Narendra Modi or for that matter the BJP is trying to revive the legacy of Sardar Patel why this heart burning amongst the Congress leaders? The Congress has been harping on only one thing that Sardar Patel as Home Minister had put a ban on the RSS and hence the BJP’s praise of the Sardar is nothing but a paradox and hypocrisy. The Congress leaders forget to tell the ban on the RSS was lifted in a year by no else than Sardar Patel.

Why the Congress went to suppress the legacy of Sardar Patel? The reason being on many matters Sardar Patel and Jawahar Lal Nehru disagreed and held diametrically opposite view. Things reached such a passé that Patel went to Mahatma Gandhi after a few months of Independence to tell the Mahatma that it was getting increasingly difficult for him to work under Nehru. He wanted to resign from the government. Nehru then said if that is the case then why Patel “I should resign”. Mahatma Gandhi counseled the two leaders to bury the hatched and work together for the betterment of the country.

It is a well known fact but just to refresh the point when the Somnath Mandir was rebuilt, Sardar Patel invited the first President of India Dr. Rajendra Prasad to come on the occasion of the opening of the temple. Nehru did not like it and in fact asked the President not to attend the function since India was a secular country. Dr Rajendra Prasad ignored Nehru’s advice and went ahead to be present at the function at the Somnath Mandir.

It was here that differences between Dr Rajendra Prasad and Nehru. Dr Prasad also had returned the Hindu code bill that was not liked by Nehru and the then Prime Minister opposed the majority view of his cabinet for a second term for Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Nehru was overruled and Dr Prasad was elected President of India for the second term.

I remember, I was a student, a school student then when Dr Rajdnera Prasad died on 28 February 1963 in Patna’s Sadaqat Ashram. Nehru as Prime Minister did not attend the funeral of Dr Prasad. Instead he went to Jaipur that day and did not allow even the governor to attend the funeral of the first President of India. With what face the Congress claims the legacy of all great leaders who fought for freedom.

Lal Bahadur Shastri too has been  totally ignored by the Congress government since the days of Indira Gandhi who did not like Shastri to succeed her father Nehru in 1964.

~R. K. Sinha

PATNA BLASTS: People of Bihar Saved the Day

Shri Lalit Narayan Mishra, Former Rail Minister

Gandhi Maidan of Patna

It is the people of Bihar who saved the day in Patna on Sunday October 27,2013. The atmosphere was surcharged at Gandhi Maidan as more than 5 lakhs people had gathered from all parts of Bihar to listen to Narendra Modi, the BJP, Prime Ministerial candidate. Despite the serial blasts the audience did not panic; there was no commotion and stampede. There was no backlash of the blasts carried out by anti-national elements. In any other place under the identical situation, the crowd might have gone berserk ad turned violent. Fortunately, Patna displayed perseverance of not reacting to the provocation of violence. It was also prudent on part of the chief speaker Narendra Modi and other leaders like the Party President Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley to avoid any mention of the blasts in their speeches. At the conclusion of his speech Modi appealed to the people to maintain peace and calm and go home peacefully.

The blasts at Gandhi Maidan should not be seen purely in the perspective of current political situation or from the election point of view. It is a grim reminder and warning of political violence in the country that may inflict a severe blow to our democracy.

It was January 3, 1975 when Bihar witnessed first major political violence at Balua Bazar in North Bihar. Lalit Narain Mishra, then Railway Minister in the Indira Gandhi cabinet suffered fatal injuries in a bomb blast. Lalit Babu as he was popularly called had gone to attend a function of Railways when a bomb planted beneath the dais exploded killing a few on the spot. Lalit Narain was ss ceriously injured and taken to Patna but he died. Till date, despite a commission of inquiry and investigations nobody knows who was actually behind the political murder of Lalit Babu; only conjectures are made for this first political murder.

The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi on the night of May 21, 1991 at Sripendur in Tamil Nadu was second political murder but the killers were not Indian but were from Sri Lanka although some Indians were part of the international conspiracy to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi in the midst of electioneering during the 1991 Lok Sabha elections.

It is unfortunate that some Congress leaders and some leaders of other political parties hostile and opposed to the BJP are giving new twist to the Patna explosions by suggesting indirectly that the BJP might have engineered the blasts at the venue to gain political mileage. Nothing could be more wicked and sinister than spreading the canard of this kind. It is to vitiate the atmosphere further in run up to the elections in 2014. Already the Congress leaders who are finding it difficult to defend the corruption and scams and who are unable to meet the challenges from across the border have resorted to spreading hatred in the name of secularism. Such tendency is going to pose a serious threat to our deomocracy. Think twice before spitting venom.

It made me sad to note that in the midst of volley of criticism and blames, commentators and writers failed to come out with few words of praise for the people of Bihar who showed ultimate maturity in maintaining peace in the city.

~R. K. Sinha

Omar Talks Tough: Pakistan Remains Hostile After Regime Change

It is high time people of Jammu & Kashmir realize the fact that Pakistan is enemy and not a friend. In the name of ‘jehad’ for Kshmir Pakistan has harmed the people of the state by abetting terrorism in the region that has taken a heavy toll. Hundreds of civilians, army and Para military forces’ jawans and officers laid their life in the violence of terror from across the border.

National Conference Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday has come out with strong statement against ceasefire violations by Pakistan on International Border and along the Line of Control. Unprovoked firing by Pakistan army has made hundreds of people living near the LoC flee their homes. Omar who has been seen as taking critical stand against the Army and the Para Military forces for using force  to quell civilian violence in the valley has come to realize that it is Pakistan which is the real villain of the peace.

Omar has called for tough action against Pakistan and asked the Centre to give a befitting reply to the aggressor. But the UPA government appears to have taken refuse in the passive chamber where ‘no-action is the best action’. The government headed by Manmohan Singh is like an Ostrich.

It did nothing in the past nine years of its rule at the Centre so far India’s relations with Pakistan is concerned. Despite repeated provocation at the border and continued terror violence, Indian Government chose to play down every attack in the name of peace.

Nobody advocates war. But to defend our territorial and national integrity is our prime duty. Any country worth its name has to show some strength to tell the aggressor that the country exists. Here, the government is mired in defending its corrupt regime and has little time to defend the country. The government has failed to stem growing frustrations in the rank and file of the Indian Army. There are increasing number of suicide and fight between officers and jawans of the Army which is dangerous for any regimented force. The government has allowed corrupt IAS officers in the South Block to interfere and meddle into defence matters that has serious negative impact on the moral of our armed forces.

The Government has little time to expedite procurement of arms and ammunition for the Army but it has enough has time to bend the rules for facilitating select corporate and business houses to make billions at the cost of the nation. Though we have an honest Defence Minister in A K Antony but he has no free hand in takin decisions. Antony has many unsolicited advisors on policy matters that include the likes of Salman Khursheed, Kapil Sibal and some notorious bureaucrats in the PMO.

Coming back to the situation in Kashmir, the Government is dithering on taking a firm decision on the constant firing from across the border. Diplomatically, nothing could be more disturbing than Pakistan asking the US to act as a mediator to resolve the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. Though Washington has turned down the request from Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, it should be an eye opener for India. Sharif should not be trusted.

~ R K Sinha

Naming Kumarmangalam Birla in Coal FIR Unfortuante

It is unfortunate that Kumarmangalam Birla has been named in the FIR of the CBI in the coal block allocation case for coal blocks allocated to Hindustan Aluminum or HINDALCO owned by him. If any irregularities were committed in allocation of the coal blocks, it is the government which is solely responsible for the allocation and not the beneficiary. As an industry, the company Hindalco was within its legitimate right to apply for the allocation of captive coal mines for its Aluminum plant since it was the government that invited applications from parties. Even if one assumes that there were infirmities in the application for allotment of coal blocks, why the screening committee of the government did not reject the application of Hindalco in first place?

The statement of former coal secretary P C Parakh who has also been named in the FIR along with Birla by the CBI that if the investigating agency has found a case of criminal conspiracy in the allotment of coal blocks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too should be named as an accused in the case and an FIR should be lodged against Prime Minister, for law does not give any immunity to Prime Minister of India. After all, it was the Prime Minister who signed the allotment order.

The CBI Director Ranjit Sinha has said in a newspaper interview that the agency acted without any prejudice or bias. Sinha also rubbished criticism and said that Birla would be given full opportunity to defend his case and he may even be acquitted if no charge is found against him. Sinha further clarified that the agency was investigating the coal case under direct supervision of the Supreme Court of India and was answerable to it only. He was responding to criticism by some lawyers for naming Birla in the FIR.

The corporate world is disturbed. The government must evolve policy to end the atmosphere of distrust and witch hunting.

~R K Sinha   

Intimidating Muslims in the name of Modi

Jamat-e-Ulema-e-Hind Syed Mehmood Madani

The Congress and its leaders have nothing against Narendra Modi except resurrecting the ghost of Gujrat riots and trying to inflict a sense of insecurity amongst the Muslims. The ruling party at the Centre received a befitting condemnation from no less than the chief of Jamat-e-Ulema-e-Hind Syed Mehmood Madani. In a statement Madani has accused the Congress of “raising the Modi bogey to spook the Muslim voters in backing the Party in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections”. He appealed to the Muslims not to be scared of the prospect of Gujrat chief minister Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister in the event of BJP victory”.

I would like to suggest that the Congress leaders should turn the pages of the Constitution of India and read the relevant articles and the Preamble before crying wolf over end of secularism in the country with the advent of Modi at the Centre. The secular fabric of India is too strong to be broken by any individual. Ours is a vibrant democracy. At no stage Modi or for that matter the BJP has ever said that secular character of the country and of the government would change in case the BJP comes back to power at the Centre again. The BJP led NDA government under the stewardship of Atal Behari Vajpayee is rated as the best government in the recent past.

Ever since Narendra Modi has been declared the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP, he has been soliciting the support of the Muslims for the BJP. In a pluralistic society, no community or group of people can live in isolation in totality. True, the minority community of India has been supporting the political parties in the elections other than the BJP but not in entirety.  The BJP has been getting Muslim votes though in smaller number. In Gujrat, the BJP received more than 15 % of the minority votes.

As I write this piece, I have not received any reaction of Congress leaders over Madani’s charge against the Party. But I shall not be surprised if some Congress leaders come out with statement that Jamat chief was bribed to make the statement against the Congress Party by Narendra Modi as the UPA Government recently charged former chief of the Army Gen. V K Singh of bribing a National Conference Minister in the Jammu & Kashmir Government to topple the Omar Abdullah government for just a little over one crore of rupees.

No government worth its salt would make such unfounded and politically motivated charge against its former Army chief just because Gen V K Singh shared the dais with Narendra Modi at a rally in Rewari, Harayana. The UPA Government did not stop at that. Suffering from paranoid, the Government feared a coup by the Indian Army early in January this year when two columns of the Army moved on a routine exercise. Some corrupt and treacherous Congress leaders and even a few Ministers saw the movement of the army as reaching Rashtrapati Bhawan to stage a coup. Can two columns of the Army or for that matter any Army chief even dream such act? Only Congress can do this.

~R. K. Sinha

Moily Metro Ride: Stunt or Campaign to Save Fuel

On the face of it, Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily’s Metro ride on Wednesday appears to be a good attempt to make people, particularly ministers and bureaucrats, aware of importance of fuel and how to conserve energy. He walked to the nearest Metro Station from his Tughlak Lane residence to take Metro for Shastri Bhavan. Moily has announced that he would make it a weekly habit of taking Metro and shunning official car to reach his office.

Unless other Ministers in the government and the bureaucrats emulate Moily by taking to public transport even once a week to reach place of work, this exercise of the Petroleum Minister would prove nothing more than a publicity stunt. I am told majority of Moily’s colleagues in the Union Council of Ministers are uncomfortable with the example set by the Petroleum Minister. Ministers and Bureaucrats are not ready to follow suit and take Metro or Bus ride to reach office even once a week.

The Government is not serious about launching campaign to conserve energy and reduce consumption of fossil fuel. The Government should issue an appeal to ask people including those in power to select one day in a week to take public transport.

In the past there has been campaign by general public to pool in transport. For instance if from an area, four people go to same destination for work, they can use one car in rotation instead of four cars. But people in Delhi are different from people in Calcutta or Mumbai. In Mumbai, one can see many senior executives in private sectors drawing more than one lakh rupees a month using local train to commute. Most of the executives use cars to reach nearest station and take local to reach office.

In sharp contrast, Delhi people don’t like to take bus or metro if they have cars. A friend commented that left to themselves most of Delhites would take their cars right at the dining table of restaurants if that facility is made available to them. It is a common sight to see that many healthy people in Delhi take lift even to climb down one or two floors.

The second most important thing is for the government to take a policy decision to curb or put a cap on consumption of petrol for all Ministers and Bureaucrats. It is common to abuse official cars by the rulers for private purposes. It is a common sight again in Delhi to see government cars parked at up markets like Connaught Place, South Extension and Greater Kailash. The government should after due calculations allow limited quantity of fuel be it Minister or Officer. In case of  consumption in excess of the cap  the user should bear the cost. Also, there is blatant abuse of buying more fuel than actually required. Say, for instance, if a particular model of car gives 10 km a liter, government vehicles show that the car runs only 6 km a liter, huge theft of petrol and diesel.

Ministers should also avoid using government planes, be it of Indian Air Force, Border Security Force or other units where commercial flights are available. Except for Prime Minister and President, all Ministers should use commercial flight that would save millions of liters of petrol.

The tragedy is no leader who can inspire people. There is lack of credibility. Ministers lead a life style that matches opulent class of the society and the bureaucrats are not far behind though their known source of income does not allow them to lead a five star life style, officers are in the habit of abusing government perks or take benefits from private industrial and business houses.

~R K Sinha

Cong-JMM Alliance on Rocks: JMM To Contest All 14 LS Seats, says Shibu Soren

Sibu Soren, President, JMM

Subodh Kant Sahay, MP, Ranchi

The understanding and pact that led to formation of the JMM led coalition government in Jharkhand with the support of the Congress Party is under threat of breaking down. Hemant Soren, son of Shibu Soren was installed as the chief minister only a few months back by the Congress though many leaders of the Congress were opposed to striking deal with the JMM in Ranchi. But the Party managers went ahead saying that in lieu of supporting Soren, the JMM will spare 10 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand. This was the understanding between the two parties that led to the formation of the coalition government in Ranchi in which Congress shares power in Jharkhand. The deal was struck.

In a sudden change of stance, Shibu Soren, the JMM chief has come out with a statement in Ranchi that no undertaking was given to the Congress about leaving 10 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats. Shibu Soren says that his Party has already indentified 7 seats to put up candidates and will also contest in the remaining 7 seats. This means a break of the ties. But the Congress leaders hope that Shibu Soren is in the habit of rocking the boat of alliance and that in no case the Congress would climb down on its claim to contest 10 of the 14 seats in Jharkhand.

I am of the view that the JMM would keep the Congress leaders on the Tenterhooks so that in the end the two parties share fifty-fifty of the total seats, that is Congress and JMM would contest 7 seats each. Earlier it was expected that the Congress would spare at least one seat to Lalu Yadav’s RJD in the Lok Sabha elections. But with little or no hope of a tie between the Congress and the RJD following withdrawal of the Ordinance to protect convicted MPs/MLAs leading to Lalu landing in jail and losing his Lok Sabha seat as per the verdict of the Supreme Court, the Congress will contest all the ten seats even in the face of some so called ‘friendly’ contest with its partner JMM in select constituencies.

In the 2009 general elections, the Congress was able to win only one seat of Ranchi and the BJP had won 7 of the 14 seats. In the next elections, the BJP is trying to placate Babulal Marandi, first BJP chief minister of Jharkhand who broke away from the Party after he was replaced by Arjun Munda. Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikas Manch had won two LS seats in 2009. This time around, Marandi who had won Kodarma seat is said to be not keen to contest Lok Sabha elections. The BJP has opened dialogue with Marandi but the latter would budge only when he is given the command of the BJP in Jharkhand. Now it is for the Central leadership of the Party to decide whether to accede to Marandi’s demand or go alone in the polls.

For now the Congress is again in the catch 22 position. If JMM denies to spare 10 seats as promised, the Congress may pull out of the coalition that will bring down  Hemant Soren Government in Ranchi that appears unlikely since JMM’s stakes are in Jharkhand and not in the Central Government.

~R. K. Sinha

Lalu Held Guilty in Fodder Scam: New Political Equation in Bihar

Bihar politics will never be the same again. In all likelihood, the CBI court would sentence Lalu Yadav for more than two years of imprisonment on 3^rd October. This means Lalu would lose his Lok Sabha seat and would be barred from contesting elections till he is exonerated of the charges by a higher court. Bihar Politics has changed for now.

It is likely that in absence of Lalu from electoral politics, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejasivi would run the affairs of the RJD. The statement of Rabri Devi is significant in this regard. She said yesterday that like Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul run the affairs of the Congress Party she and her son- mother son combine- would run the RJD. Now that Lalu Yadav has been held guilty of embezzlement of funds from the state treasury, neither Sonia Gandhi nor Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is in a position to press for the promulgation of the Ordinance pending before the President.  Pranab Mukherjee has raised certain queries about the justifiability of promulgating the ordinance that goes against the July 10 verdict of the Supreme Court on convicted MPs/MLAs. However, under the Constitutional provisions the President is bound to sign the ordinance if the same is sent to him for the second time. The President so far has not returned the ordinance but has raised certain questions on its validity.

In Bihar, if Rahul Gandhi has his way, he would like to align with Nitish Kumar rather than remain in the company of Lalu Yadav.

This is for the first time in the history of Independent Indian that a sitting Member of Parliament will lose his seat on being convicted of crime by the trial court.

Will this be any deterrent to the criminals in politics from committing crime while being a Member of Parliament or State Legislature? Perhaps, yes.

Here I would like to explain that the Supreme Court judgment delivered on July 10, 2913 is not from retrospective effect. That is, any MP or MLA/MLC who was convicted for crime and sentenced for two years or more imprisonment and if an appeal is pending in higher court, prior to July 10,2013 will not lose his or her seat of the House he or she is elected to. But all the sitting MPs/MLAs/MLCs who are  facing trial in courts and if and when they are sentenced by the trial court for two years or more imprisonment, these Members would lose their seats.

Now where the political base of Lalu Yadav shifts in Bihar? The Yadavas, by and large would remain with the RJD but many of this group of voters may shift to the BJP but not to the Congress or the JD(U). The Muslims also face dilemma. The minority votes in Bihar would swing away from RJD benefit of which will go to the Congress and the JD(U). Lalu’s another alliance partner Lok Janshakti Party of Ram Vilas Paswan may break away from the RJD and try to join any front led by the Congress in Bihar.

Now let us recall some of the charges established by the prosecution in the fodder scam. Buffaloes were transported in vehicles with registration numbers that were found to be scooters, oil tankers and auto rickshaws. Similarly hundreds of goats and buffaloes bought from Punjab were shown to have died on way to their destination in undivided Bihar. Hundreds of liters of mustard oil were shown to have been bought and used for sharpening the horns of the animals. More than 900 crores rupees were looted by the politicians and a handful of bureaucrats in Bihar for several years. After the long and winding trial, the law has finally proved that it has a long arm indeed.

~R. K. Sinha