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- Created on 15 April 2014
Crooked trunk Image courtesy: commons.wikimedia.org
It is a classical case of the pot calling the kettle black. The Congress has accused BJP of copying ideas from its manifesto and other documents. The former has also charged the latter with selective amnesia by stating that BJP has promised certain initiatives in its manifesto that are already under implementation.
The Congress Party has reportedly trashed the BJP manifesto as “laundry list of disconnected ideas.” Congress Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi accused BJP of being a “copycat”. Mr. Singhvi said the manifesto was “not even a cut-and-paste job”. He even went to the extent of claiming that BJP can be sued for copyright violation. Mr. Singhvi does not perhaps realize that his legal acumen might backfire on this issue.
If one puts laundry list and copy cat allegations together, the inference one gets is that laundry list of ideas has originated from the Congress documents or rather from its dirty linen!
Take another case of double-edged nature of Congress Party’s dig at BJP Manifesto.
Union Minister Jairam Ramesh said that BJP's manifesto is a hastily prepared “high school essay” prepared by “lifting” some of the portions from his own speeches and writings. Citing mention about Rurban India in BJP manifesto, he said this is subject on which he wrote 10 years ago.
What Mr. Ramesh forgot to tell the reporters or perhaps does not know that the word and concept Rurban has been in the existence much before he was born! The term was first used in 1918! Any Congress whiz kid can check this fact and also download voluminous literature on Rurban from the cyberspace.
Mr. Ramesh also labeled BJP as a “party of Kumbhkarnas” and said it promises programmes that are already underway over the past 10 years.
Any knowledgeable analyst would agree with Mr. Ramesh that some promises listed in the BJP manifesto are already under implementation. The promises should have been properly paraphrased to avoid the risk of sounding ignorant.
Notwithstanding this, the appellation of Kumbhkarans applies more to the Congress whose manifesto also reeks with ignorance and oversight. A case in point is the party’s promises about administrative reforms.
Read more: Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the most crooked of all?
- Created on 01 April 2014
Manifesto image: courtesy Congress
A Right for Everybody; A Commission for every issue. This is the key message of the Congress Party’s manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls.
The implied message is indeed a survival kit for the Congress that once dreamt of big-leap victory in the 2014 and 2019 elections on the strength of aadhar card-enabled delivery of services.
The nursery rhyme ‘Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…’ appears to be now reverberating at Congress offices across the Nation. The Congress, the country’s most Machiavellian Party, is now realizing that an average Indian cherishes dignified work.
The electorate cannot be won (or rather bought) with freebies, notwithstanding rationalization of this practice by the Supreme Court. The apex court last year observed that electoral promises fall under the domain of Directive Principles of the Constitution and do not constitute corrupt practices. It, however, directed the Election Commission (EC) to frame guidelines on drafting of manifestos and EC recently acted accordingly.
EC should give verdict promptly on manifesto of each major party to show the extent of non-compliance with SC-mandated guidelines.
Except for the realization that dole-outs have lost the sheen, there is no other plausible explanation for the Congress bigwigs’ failure to orchestrate their claims on Aadhar.
Read more: Aadhar’s pure magic gone; Congress banks on rights & commissions gimmickry
- Created on 15 March 2014
Arvind Kejriwal is finally getting caught in his own web of lies, half-truths and self-defined ethical norms.
(Image courtesy arvindkejriwal.net.in)
The other day he hid more than what he disclosed when the TV channels caught him flying on a chartered plane from Jaipur to Delhi. Kejriwal rationalized this compromise by stating: “As no other plane was available, I took the chartered plane. India Today group has invited me. They bore the cost of the chartered plane.”
What he did not disclose is that the sponsor of the India Today Conclave is Aditya Birla group (ABG) which includes Hindalco, a company this is under the Coalgate scam probe. What he also failed to disclose was that India Today’s parent company Living Media India Limited (LMIL) is ABG’s affiliated company. An ABG investment company has the right to hike stake in LMIL from 27.5% to 49%!
He failed to disclose how loss-incurring LMIL can splurge lakhs of rupees on a single chartered flight!! More of this later. Kejriwal, who mostly makes unsubstantiated charges of corruption against select corporates and his critics, has maintained silence over the ABG’s affairs. He, for instance, kept mum on the unearthing of Rs 25-crore cash by CBI in Hindalco’s Delhi office on 16th October 2013.
Read more: Kejriwal, why this double standard for Ambani & Birla money and bribery probes?
- Created on 16 February 2014
The Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly ducked the issue of debating directly the national issues with BJP’s prime ministerial prospect Narendra Modi.
Mr. Gandhi, take it easy. You can debate without sharing the podium with Mr. Modi. Both of them can give their considered opinion on the core issues, which they have so far largely avoided in their speeches.
They deserve a break from competitive populism which they practice in abundance. For a change, they can shift gears from peddling dreams to meeting grave challenges faced by the country.
They should not shy away from taking a forthright stand on issues that remain unresolved even 67 years after the Independence. They must suggest specific means to resolve these issues.
Certain core issues that have so far not figured in the political babble are: 1) population control - an issue on which there has been 101% consensus in Parliament and which had even frightened eminent healthcare experts even under the British rule; 2) advocacy, enlargement and enforcement of 11 fundamental duties of the citizens listed in the Indian Constitution; 3) ushering in civil code as proposed by the Constitution instead of deepening the religious and caste divides through vote-bank politics including caste census; 4) implementation of reforms recommended by The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC) and 5) colossal deficit in the implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act in the domain of public welfare.
In this column, a serious attempt has been made to set the eternal agenda for peace and development by drafting questions for both the prime ministerial prospects. Certain questions are specifically addressed either to Mr. Gandhi or to Mr. Modi. Other questions are common for both of them.
