THE POLITICIANS AND THE POLITICS OF INDIA

I have been wanting to write about our country’s political system for quite some times but could not bring myself to do it until I got an email just the other day which was like a slap in my face, and would be a slap on every Indian’s face. That email made me think that we as a population, we as citizens of this huge country are just as much a stooge as the politicians are. We are absolutely responsible for the despicable life that we lead. Then came the decision of the ruling Congress government to break Andhra Pradesh into two naming the other state as Telangana. By doing this the government actually opened the Pandora’s Box and now as of date the Mayavati government of Uttarpradesh wants a separate state by the name of Poorvanchal. The Gorkha Mukti morcha in the north West Bengal has renewed their demand for a separate state, and God only knows how many will follow suit. It seems that all the problems of our country has been solved and now only such things are left to handle and spend upon whereas the basic amenities like food clothing and shelter are yet to reach the masses. I thought I should pen my thoughts now.

The email is about the Last assembly election that was held in the month of April 2009 and went on to the month of May 2009 The details of the dates and the phases I reproduce below just to impress upon my readers that this process of conducting the assembly election is a gargantuan task undertaken every five years and to conduct this process yours and my hard earned money is spent. Crores and crores of money is spent, taxpayers money is spent to elect a representative who will sit in the highest office of the country and promulgate decisions and law that will see the effective functioning of our huge country. They will represent you and me in the parliament .

The election schedule of the 16th assembly election 2009

1st phase: April 16, 2009 (124 seats)

2nd phase: April 23, 2009(141 seats)

3rd phase: April 30, 2009 (107 seats)

4th Phase: May 7, 2009 (85 seats)

5th phase: May 13, 2009 (86 seats

1st phase: April16 :

Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshwadeep. March 23: Issue of notification. March 30: Last date of filing nominations. March 31: Scrutiny of nomination. April 2: Last date of withdrawal of nomination

2nd phase: (A) April 22 :

Manipur. March 28: Issue of notification. April 4: Last date of filing of nomination. April 6: Scrutiny of nomination. April 8: Last date of withdrawal of nomination.

2nd phase: (B) April 23 :

Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand. March 28: Issue of notification. April 4: Last date of filing of nomination. April 6: Scrutiny of nomination. April 8: Last date of withdrawal of nomination

3rd phase: April 30 :

Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, Sikkim, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu.

4th Phase: May 7 :

Bihar, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi. April 11: Issue of notification. April 18: Last date of filing of nomination. April 20: Scrutiny of nomination. April 22: Last date of withdrawal of nomination

5th phase: May 13 :

Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttaranchal, Chandigarh, Pondicherry, Uttar Pradesh.

Such grueling was the schedule of this election. That email therefore was a slap on my face. The email, “Can one imagine working for the following company?

It has a little over 500 employees with the following statistics

29 have been accused of spouse abuse.

7 have been arrested for fraud.

19 have more than three criminal cases pending against them .

117 have been charged and are being investigated for Murder, Rape, Assault, Extortion and Robbery.

71 cannot get credit or loans due to bad credit histories.

21 are current defendants on various lawsuits..

84 have been involved in offenses and have paid fines.

Can you guess what mighty Organization this is?

It is the 545 members of the Lower House of Parliament of India that works for you and me. The same group cranks out hundreds upon hundreds of Laws design , takes decisions that changes our lives in a second,to keep the rest of us in line……”

India is the world’s largest democracy. When the constitution was made, all that was put forth as the qualification to become a member of the parliament, was just the basic three things 1.should be a citizen of India 2.should be at least 25 years of age 3. Should be a registered voter. All Indian citizens above the age of 18 have the right to vote. May 2009 the world largest Democracy concluded the gigantic exercise of electing their leaders to the 16th Lok sabha term.

The difficulty in conducting this gargantuan exercise was compounded by the fact that just few months before this election in the late hours of 26th November Mumbai was attacked by terrorists and it was a nightmare for all of the residents of Mumbai. There were intelligent bureau inputs that terrorists from Pakistan would try their utmost to disrupt this election process at various locations. Nearly hundreds of terrorists from SWAT valley in the North Western frontier Province of Pakistan actually crossed the borders braving the snow and the adverse weather conditions that were prevailing during that period to give shape to their evil design. BUT the election process went on smoothly with no incidence of violence being reported from anywhere.

New York Times came out with an excellent observation which I reproduce here bellow: “True this is the place where Gandhi, Buddha, Mahavir, Guru Govind Singh were born and preached their religion. True India has the second largest population of Muslim. India truly is a picture of Unity in Diversity. India truly is a picture of the bouquet of colored flowers. In such a backdrop one would expect all the citizens to come out in force and vote for their next leaders to lead. The disappointing fact remains that there has been a very low turnout of voters, about 41% which conversely means that 59% did not cast their votes. 59% of the eligible voters stayed away from this gigantic process.”

Six months before the start of the election process campaigns were launched. There were umpteen numbers of television commercials urging each and every eligible voter to come out and vote. Famous personalities urged everyone to come out and vote. The voters ignored the commercials and the famous personalities and they did not come out to vote.

I have been delving into the psyche of each of the voters trying to think in the way they would have thought before going to cast their valuable vote, just to find an explanation for such apathy towards this huge process. The reasons that I have are not many but each of them are very pertinent.

Few years before we got the Independence, in the year 1947, the National movement had gathered a lot of steam all the political parties in India namely Congress led By Jawarharlal Nehru, The communist Party led by one of the stalwart of the freedom movement Sri Harkishen Singh surjeet, The Muslim league led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah all these leaders and the Parties had but one agenda and that was to free India from the bloody clutches of the British. The British government then realized that they will not be able to rule India further. Just before granting India the Independence the politics of separatism started and the then Stalwarts of Indian politics failed to see the implications. They failed to perceive the dubious politics of divide and rule injected by the British. The riots between Hindus and Muslim took place on both sides. Thousands and thousands of innocent people were killed on both sides. Families were separated, loved ones had to reconcile to the fate of leaving each other, and thousands were maimed. This was only because the two pillars of the then political system Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammed Ali Jinnah The two stooges both wanted power to rule free India, neither wanting to reconcile. Mahatma Gandhi could not broker peace between them; he went on a fast but to no avail and ultimately Pakistan was created and Mohammed Ali Jinnah was its premier where as Jawarharlal Nehru became the prime minister of free India.

From then till today the politics of separatism has continued and we the gullible and not so intelligent citizens of India time and again fell into the traps of this politics of separatism. We have always failed to realized that these politicians have but one agenda in todays free India and that is to seat in the chair of power by hook or by crook, mainly by crook. We are used as pawn in the game of numbers where we are the vote bank and to garner our support the bloody politicians can go to any extent. Look at the latest inclusion in the history of politics of separatism. Raj Thakare. His MNS, Maharashtra Nirman Sena. The word nirman is synonymous with progress and here he is brutally attacking the youngsters who came to give entrance examination of the railway recruitment board. Constitution of India has given the right to every citizen of India to go anywhere in India in search of job ,a citizen can work anywhere in India and here Mr Raj thakare is used his political clout to stop Indians ,who had come from Uttarpradesh and Bihar, from sitting in this exams. Supreme court guarantees the freedoms as prescribed in the constitution. Raj Thakare’s men and goons assaulted the candidates and vandalized the exam center forcing the authorities to cancel the exam. For such dastardly act Raj Thakare should have been behind bars but today he is free man and on the contrary he is at times a guest of honor in some stupid functions. Seeing this, the citizens of India will have a total aversion to go in the hot April sun to vote for someone like a goon named Raj Thakare . Politicians try to divide us on the basis of Language, on the basis of caste, on the basis of class and on the basis of Religion only to garner a sufficient number of voters by virtue of which they might come to power. In doing so none of the Political leader in this country has actually thought about the country and its people. Crores and Crores of rupees were spent in changing the names of the cities like Mumbai from Bombay, like Kolkata from Calcutta, Like Bangaluru from Bangalore. Question is what is the need to do these changes? Have the politicians solved every problem that the country is facing? Even after sixty two years of Independence the election manifesto is the same. Housing for all, Food for all and medical for all. There is no change in the manifesto of any political party in India because the root problems have never been dealt with. Every Party that was in the fray for this election had their agenda printed in glossy prints and each party promised electricity to the rural India, water good road etc etc. Come to think of it, from 1947 till date 2009 the agenda is the same which means that any party that comes to the power does practically nothing for the masses once they come in power. Before election they are epitome of humbleness but soon after they come in power they forget whatever they promised to the masses and the agenda that they printed on the glossy pages remains in the glossy pages for ever. Hence we find that even after 62 years of independence good roads, electricity to the rural areas, water, shelter and illiteracy still finds place in the agendas after agenda and the population has to fend for themselves for the basics. Year after Year funds are allocated to implement the agenda and the funds mysteriously disappear.

Politicians like Raj Thakare should have been punished in the strongest possible manner but the lackadaisical attitude of our judiciary when it comes to the question of punishing the politicians raise lots of doubt in the psyche of the common Indians. Nothing is going to happen to these goons. The law, the police, The judiciary is all for the common Man. The law of the land does not apply to people like Raj Thakare, like Papu Yadav and the likes who blatantly defile the Constitution of India. Such politicians are actually the terrorist that India as a country should be aware of, as these breeds of politicians are breaking the country from within. We do not need a foreign hand our own hand is doing the work of the foreign hand.

Therefore the psyche of the voters is that all the politicians are the same , they are basically the opposite sides of the same coin, anybody and everybody is the same and nothing is going to change. The low turnout in the election shows resignation among the voters.

Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar when he made the constitution he basically compiled the constitution from the various constitution of the world. He took the best points from various constitutions and made into one. No doubt this was a mountainous job and very well executed, but this constitution has one basic flaw. There is no restriction to the number of political parties that can be formed in this country. Anybody who is a citizen of India can launch a political party of his own with even a handful of supporters. There is no cap on the minimum qualification of the political aspirant. With the constitutional right and with no cap on qualification any criminal today is a political aspirant and he or she is accepted in the political system without any question. Politics therefore in India has become a haven of criminals of all types. From rapist to smugglers, from murderers to petty crimes the political parties cutting across all ideology has only them as their candidates. Such people only join the political system to escape from the law as they very well know that as long as they are in power or once they are in power they will get immunity from all the crimes that they have committed and will have total sanction of the government to perpetrate more crimes. We the people of India have to caste our votes to bring one of them in power. Why should we? The statistics of the parliament profile which I stated in the beginning of this article precisely shows that.

Again the psyche of the voters refrains them from going out in the April sun to cast their vote. Whom to vote for? Every politician irrespective of the Party is a goon, a rapist, a criminal, a murderer and cutting across every political party the politician is the most corrupt person in India and No law can do anything to them.

There is a phrase very common in India, “A politician can even sell his mother if he can get some money out of it”. If all the black money that these politicians have stashed away is brought to the country there would be no deficit financing. All the loans that India has taken would be mitigated, all the projects that are stuck due to paucity of funds would be completed, and even after this there would be surplus which would then be utilized in the R & D in all scientific fields. That would be UTOPIA. So whom do we vote for? We don’t want a stupid, illiterate, murderer, rapist, burglar and a corrupt person to be our leader and sit in the highest office –THE PARLIAMENT. This is the general sentiment among all Indians. This shows that by far the most the population of India has resigned to its fate of being ruled by a bunch of idiots and criminals.

Is there any answer to all these? When I was in my school way back in 1977 I was given a topic of debate which was, “Dictatorship is the only answer to India’s misery” and I spoke for the topic. Today I feel that it is the answer to India’s misery. During Indira Gandhi’s time when she was the prime minister of our country she had declared emergency in the country. During that period the country showed tremendous growth, crime rates came down, corruption came down drastically and everything seemed to be running smoothly.

We as country we are not ready for democracy. We still do not understand the value of democracy. Pre Independence we all had but one issue and that was to drive away the British. Then one midnight in the year 1947 India was declared independent and we from then on have not understood the value of independence and democracy. Some say that India is heading towards civil war but violence is not the answer to India’s misery. Violence begets violence. The answer lies in the Total overhaul of the system.

Let me enumerate the steps that should be taken to bring about a radical change in the lives of us Indians.

1. The minimum qualification for all political aspirants should be at least a master’s degree in any field as this will bring about an analytical approach to all the issues.

2. There should be a cap on the total number of political parties that India can have.

3. No political aspirant who has any brush with the law should be allowed to stand in the election. The maximum age of all the politicians serving the country should be 65 year only. Post 65 they should retire and make way for younger and more dynamic persons to come in. today most of our politicians are septuagenarians who cannot even take care of themselves how will they take care of the nation and its aspiration?

4. There should be total accountability in the functioning of the government. A step in this direction has begun recently with the RTI act which is note worthy.

5. The law order situation should go under the knife and have a total overhaul. Police should be autonomous delinked from the political parties and the politicians. Judiciary should be able to discharge justice in the shortest possible time, it is a common adage, “justice delayed is Justice denied” Law and order should be same for everybody irrespective of their position. Politicians should have no control on the Police.

6. Every citizen from the age of 18 to the age of 20 should have compulsory military training as this will instill a sense of discipline and a love for our country.

We as a power can make the government act according to our requirement and make them implement the above we can at least give our future generation a better India of which they can be proud of.

Author has a masters degree in Anthropology from Calcutta university

he was on a daylong visit to the city to start his campaign ‘Aam Aadmi Ka Sipahi’ (AAKS – ‘common man’s soldier’) in Assam. The campaign aims to popularise the flagship programmes of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

“Rahul Gandhi interacted with the students for about 90 minutes and drove home two pertinent points — that people of the northeast should not feel alienated and that people from this region should go outside and get maximum exposure,” V.M. Thomas of the institute told IANS.
Speaking at a party meeting to launch the campaign, Gandhi highlighted the role of panchayats in listening to people and finding out problems they face.
“The sipahis should make people at the grassroots level aware of various flagship programmes of the UPA government. The idea is to bring about transparency in the functioning of the government,” Gandhi said.
There will be a group of three AAKS in each panchayat and they would work with the common people to ensure that the masses are able to derive the benefits of the policies launched by the Congress-led UPA Government.
“In particular, the Youth Congress through AAKS will focus on the NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), and ensure that the programme benefits, which have now been extended to the entire country, can reach the common man,” Gandhi said.

With focus on stability, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has largely relied on experience and ability in the 19 Cabinet ministers who were sworn-in on Friday by bringing in former Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna and retaining trouble-shooter Pranab Mukherjee.

Senior ministers in the outgoing Cabinet P Chidambaram, A K Antony, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Kamal Nath and Murli Deora and leader of Congress ally Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress will all head important ministries.

Pranab Mukherjee: A man for all seasons, Mukherjee has carved a niche for himself steering key ministries like Finance and External Affairs besides heading a number of GoMs in the outgoing ministry.

The eternal 'number two', Mukherjee, 73, was a trusted lieutenant of late Indira Gandhi under whom he was the powerful Minister of State for Revenue during the emergency and later became a full-fledged Finance Minister between 1982 and 1984.

In the outgoing government, Mukherjee as External Affairs Minister played a crucial role in negotiating the nuclear deal with the US besides mobilising world opinion against Pakistan after the terrorist strike in Mumbai. He also functioned as the leader of 14th Lok Sabha.

S M Krishna: A suave and articulate leader, S M Krishna brings with him vast experience in the state and at the Centre and is credited with efforts to transform Bangalore as the Information Technology capital of India.

Krishna, 77, a Fulbright Scholar educated in George Washington and Southern Methodist Universities in the US, has had a roller coaster ride in politics that has seen him occupy positions of power as Union Minister, Speaker, Chief Minister and Governor.

Handpicked by the late P V Narasimha Rao as the chief ministerial candidate in Karnataka in the 1994 Assembly elections, he lost to H D Deve Gowda in the race for power and to had overcome the image of "elitist" politician he had come to acquire.

P Chidambaram: Both during his stint as Finance Minister and later as Home Minister in the Manmohan Singh ministry, P Chidambaram has earned the reputation of being a hard task master and a good economic administrator.

Acknowledging his ability to handle any job being given to him efficiently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had shifted the 64-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer to the Home Ministry following the Mumbai terror attack which led to the resignation of Shivraj Patil from the Union Cabinet.

During his short tenure, Chidambaram has successfully strengthened the security apparatus across the country. He re-organised the intelligence network, tightened the provisions in the anti-terror laws and amended the CISF Act to enable the security force to guard vital private installations.

Mamata Banerjee: From just one seat in Lok Sabha polls five years ago, when many had written her political obituary, to the portals of power in Delhi, the wheel has turned a full circle for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, the stormy petrel of West Bengal politics.

The 54-year-old former teacher shot into prominence when she defeated veteran CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee in Lok Sabha elections in Jadavpore constituency in 1984 and was subsequently elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998, and in 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004 from Kolkata South.

A relentless fighter against CPM, she bided her time to bounce back and her opportunity came when Nandigram and Singur exploded on the national scene.

Ambika Soni: One of Congress' vibrant faces, Ambika Soni, 65, has risen to the occasion many a time and in the process earned herself goodwill of the party leadership.

The recent controversy over auctioning of Mahatma Gandhi's articles and the handling of the issue on her part as the tourism minister brought out her political acumen inherited over the years.

A close confidante of the Gandhi family, Soni has been at the helm of several parliamentary committees. An art lover, she is also widely acknowledged as a social worker.

S Jaipal Reddy: Sixty seven-year-old Sudini Jaipal Reddy brings with him rich experience in public life. He was a member of the state legislative assembly from 1969 to 1984 for four terms.

Reddy got elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984 on Janata Party ticket and has been a member of lower house for four terms. He was also a member of Rajya Sabha on two occasions.

Kamal Nath: Kamal Nath, who has won eight elections from the backward and predominantly tribal constituency of Chhindwara, has been instrumental in effectively projecting the country's free-market image to the world.

Nath has been an advocate of special economic zones to boost manufacturing. SEZ, a designated duty free enclave that is treated as foreign territory for trade operations, has been a bone of contention between the Finance and Commerce Ministries over revenue flows, while it has given ruling parties headaches over land acquisition.

Murli Deora: Murli Deora has created a record of sorts. No one has ever completed a full five year term as Petroleum Minister and none have ever been repeated. BJP's Ram Naik is the longest serving Oil Minister serving at Shastri Bhawan for good four-and-half years.

Deora, 72, who has been named part of the Union Cabinet, is most likely to break that jinx and return as Petroleum Minister.

Widely considered pro-US and pro-business, Deora was for long the Congress' principal interface with the industry.

Kapil Sibal: A lawyer by profession and a politician by accident, Kapil Sibal, 60, is one of the most recognizable public faces of Congress, who managed to turn the ministry of
Science and Technology, considered by many as a non-happening place, into a high-profile one during his five-tenure from 2004.

Besides his achievements in the ministry, the Lok Sabha MP from Delhi's Chandni Chowk handled the tough negotiations at international fora on global response to climate change.

A former Additional Solicitor General of India between December 1989-1990, Sibal shot into fame when he mounted a defence in Parliament of Supreme Court Justice V Ramasamy, the only judge who has been sought to be impeached.

M Veerappa Moily: 69-year-old M Veerappa Moily is a prominent backward community leader of Congress from Karnataka, who made his way into the Union ministry with considerable administrative experience acquired during his stint as the Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Moily was instrumental in spreading the benefits of OBC reservation in Karnataka as also the rest of the country.

As a loyal Congressman, he has been the chairman of the party's media department, chairman of the department of policy planning and coordination and Congress Working Committee member in charge of Andhra Pradesh and Assam.

Anand Sharma: For Anand Sharma elevation to Cabinet rank is a long-awaited reward for his services to the Congress particularly his election campaign strategies.

The 56-year-old Union Minister of State in the previous government was part of Congress' 'War Room', which had been set up to spearhead the party's election campaign.

It was his idea of using the 'Jai Ho' song from Oscar winning movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' during campaigning to strike a chord with the masses. It apparently served the purpose, even though rival BJP tried to counter it with 'Bhay Ho' slogan.

B K Handique: For 74-year-old Bijoy Krishna Handique, elevation to Cabinet rank came after a long wait. Six-term MP from Jorhat in Assam, Handique is a known Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist and a non-controversial leader who served as the minister of state for parliamentary affairs in the outgoing government.

The only representative from the northeast in the new Cabinet, he was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991 and reelected in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls.

C P Joshi: For the Rajasthan PCC chief, who lost in Assembly polls from Nathdwara by a solitary vote six months ago, it has been a remarkable comeback for C P Joshi (59) who won the Lok Sabha polls and made it to the Union Cabinet - a reward for the key role he played in the party's revival in the state.

Known to be close to Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, the MP from Bhilwara is considered an astute politician, who steered his party to wrest power from the BJP.

Ghulam Nabi Azad: Known for his crisis managerial skills, Ghulam Nabi Azad's inclusion in the Union Cabinet marks his comeback to the Central government after a brief gap of three and a half years.

Hailing from Baderwah area of Jammu and Kashmir, the 60-year-old leader has risen from being a block secretary of the Congress in 1973 to being one of the key members of the party whose services are in much demand at all the times.

He returns to the Union ministry after his three-year stint in Jammu and Kashmir as chief minister of a Congress-PDP coalition government.

Sharad Pawar: A known organiser, 68-year old Sharad Pawar is among the few leaders who has been able to retain his influence even after leaving Congress.

In the Lok Sabha elections, his NCP projected him as the PM candidate in Maharashtra maintaining that Manmohan Singh was the PM candidate of the Congress and not of the
UPA.

A K Antony: Antony has always been regarded highly across the political spectrum and handled the delicate assignments in the government, especially the Defence ministry as also in the Congress with equal ease.

Known as 'Mr Clean' due to his image and simplicity, the 68-year-old former Kerala chief minister is one of the most trusted associates of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Vyalar Ravi: Ravi held the Overseas Indian Affairs and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs portfolio in the outgoing Cabinet.

Ravi (72), currently a Rajya Sabha member, was the Founder President of the Kerala Students' Union (KSU), the students' wing of Indian National Congress in Kerala. He has been a Lok Sabha member twice before.

Sushilkumar Shinde: Shinde (68) is the first backward caste person to have become the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He served as Chief Minister from January 18, 2003 to November 1, 2004.

He was born into a very poor Hindu "Kakkaya-Dhor" family. The Kakkaya cast was a Maratha caste formed after the 13th century. His first job was sub-inspector of police. He also studied law.

Encouraged by Sharad Pawar, then a rising Congress politician, he quit his sub-inspector's job to enter politics in 1971.

Meira Kumar: Kumar is the daughter of Deputy Prime Minister and prominent dalit leader, Babu Jagjivan Ram.

Kumar (64) joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1973 and served at embassies in Spain, United Kingdom and Mauritius.

Kumar entered electoral politics in 1985 and was elected from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh. She was a member of the eleventh and twelfth Lok Sabha's from Karol Bagh in Delhi. She lost her seat in the BJP wave of 1999, but was able to get reelected with a record majority from her father's former constituency of Sasaram in Bihar.

Dr Abdul Waheed, reader in the department of sociology and social work at the Aligarh Muslim University, is an authority on socio-political issues related to the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh [Images].

He has done his MPhil on 'The Phenomenon of Dowry among Muslims in India' and his PhD thesis was on the 'Social Structure and Economy of an Urban Muslim Community: A Case Study of Muslim Banjaras of Baheri, District Bareilly, UP.'

His two books -- Muslim Artisans, Craftsmen and Traders: Issues in Entrepreneurship and Muslims of Uttar Pradesh provides good reference material for serious studies.

In his gloomy office at AMU, Dr Waheed spoke to rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt:

Uttar Pradesh has more than 3 crore (30 million)Muslims. That amounts for around 23 percent of Indian Muslims. According to the 2001 census, UP's population was 16 crore (160 million) and Muslims are 18.5 percent of the population.

In UP, according to the 2001 census, out of 70 districts (UP now has 71 districts) 21 districts have a sizable population of Muslims and are recognised by the government as districts having 'minority concentration'.

Ghaziabad, Meerut, Muzzafarnagar, Bijnore, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Pilibhit [Images], Bulandshahr, Badaon, Lucknow [Images] and Bahraich districts have more than 25 percent but not more than 50 percent Muslim population. Rampur has the highest concentration of Muslims in UP along with Bijnore and Moradabad.

I belong to Bareilly, so I have observed the politics of neighbouring areas like Rampur, Pilibhit and Moradabad quite closely.

Muslims of western UP are in a precarious position this election.

Why?

Because they believe that no secular party -- whether it is the Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party or the Congress -- has done anything for them. They thought the Bharatiya Janata Party [Images] is their enemy party. Now, they are confused what to do? Whether to defeat the BJP or not? To do so, they are forced to vote for candidates and parties whom they don't like.

That is why I say the Muslim voters are in a very precarious position. They are not supporting any party or candidate of their choice. They are under compulsion and they know that the secular parties for whom they cast their votes have not done anything for them. But what is the choice? The BJP? They tend to think the BJP is the greater evil amongst these choices.

Invariably, Muslims are not voting for Muslim candidates either. In Bareilly district, Praveen Aron is the Congress candidate. Muslims are going to vote for Aron. The BSP candidate, Islam Sabir, is not confident of getting Muslim votes.

In Pilibhit, Maneka Gandhi was always supported by Muslims. Even in Sanjay Gandhi's time Muslims received the couple well. I don't know who provoked Varun to make those (anti-Muslim) statements. Sanjay and Maneka used to stay in (BSP MP) Akbar Ahmed 'Dumpy's farmhouse.

Muslims were shocked when their son Varun Gandhi [Images] made those statements. Neoriya Hussainpur town, which is located on the Pilibhit-Almora highway, has a 90 percent Muslim population. Maneka Gandhi used to get 90 percent of their votes. From the same town, Haiji Riyaz, an MLA, is contesting on a Samwajwadi Party ticket against Varun.

Riyaz belongs to the Banzara caste; it is a trading community who have 60,000 votes. After Varun Gandhi's speech many Banzaras will not vote for Riyaz. They realise if they vote for him, then Varun Gandhi will win the election so they are shifting their votes to the BSP or V M Singh of the Congress, whoever they think can defeat Varun.

Muslims think now no Hindu will cast their vote for the Samajwadi Party because of the communal polarisation brought in by Varun. The Samajwadi Party candidate is dependent on Muslim votes. Precisely for that reason Muslims don't find him good enough and winnable.

Yadav voters are few in this area so Riyaz can't bank on their votes. Pilibhit has got many Lodhs, so the BSP gave a ticket to Budhsen Varma. It seems that the division of Muslim votes between the BSP and Congress will help Varun win.

Muslim voters are intelligent; they know (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister) Mayawati [Images] put Varun in jail to get their votes. No political logic will apply across the board in UP. BSP or no BSP, Muslims will not cast their votes for a candidate they feel will lose. Unless there is an issue like the Babri Masjid, Muslims do not vote en masse. Like Hindus they are also divided into castes.

If they think that the BJP will win a seat, generally, not specifically, they vote negatively. If they have a choice, then they may vote undivided.

I think the Brahmins of UP vote tactically, not Muslims.

Brahmins number 9 percent of Hindus in UP. They are more organised because they are literate, have been in power, are cautious and well-informed. Muslims in UP are illiterate and poor, they are difficult to organise. They are generally concentrated in ghettos where they actually compete with each other. Do you know that?

Their everyday life revolves within ghettos. In eastern UP there are many constituencies where Brahmins number around 20 percent or so. Mayawati's social engineering worked well there. Her formula works if she attracts Brahmin, Dalits and Muslim votes in her candidate's favour.

When Brahmin votes are present, her combination works better because Brahmins vote for Brahmins, but Muslims don't vote for Muslims candidates as a rule.

In this part of India religion comes second after caste. Caste is the most important factor amongst Muslims and Hindus during an election.

Rampur has the largest concentration of Muslims in UP, but they know that actress and current Samajwadi Party MP Jayaprada has done something for them. Congress candidate Noor Banoo's family has lived in Rampur since Independence, but her family has not done enough development work in the district.

Muslims have the lowest literacy rate of 33 percent in Rampur (the literacy rate of Muslims in UP is 48 percent).

Now, the view has gone around that the Samajwadi Party has collaborated with Kalyan Singh [Images], the destroyer of the Babri mosque. So Muslims may not vote for Jayaprada despite having a soft corner for her. She is likely to lose the election due to the polarisation set in by Kalyan Singh joining the Samajwadi Party.

I think the Jats, Lodhs and Kurmis, the middle-class in UP, has been indoctrinated to a great extent by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Because of the Arya Samaj and BJP influence, their minds have changed. So, Mulayam Singh does not have control over the Yadavs as he did before. All Dalits will support Mayawati but not all Yadavs support Mulayam Singh.

No other caste, barring the Dalits, can be taken for granted.

I believe the highest number of seats in UP, in spite of incumbency, will go to Mayawati. The Samajwadi Party will come second. The Congress will get just 8 to 12 seats. Day by day, I see that a large population is indoctrinated by the RSS in the urban areas of UP. The BJP will increase its tally in UP. It will get anything between 15 to 20 seats.

The BJP has an alliance with Ajit Singh's party which has won so far because of Jat and Muslim votes. But in western UP, there is social tension between the Dalits and Jats. Muslims are not likely to back Ajit Singh this time because of his partnership with the BJP.

The scheduled castes and Muslims, who constitute almost 40 percent of the votes, will move towards the Congress or BSP here.

In UP, I don't see any uniform trend. In western UP, the Samajwadi Party will lose to the BSP -- Moradabad, Rampur, Pilibhit, Badaon and Bareily. The BSP and Congress are in a direct fight to win over Dalit and Muslim votes to contain the BJP.

The biggest problem with the Congress is that it is not a political party. It is a party of political bureaucrats, especially in case of Muslims. They never allow a Muslim leader to emerge from below. They impose Muslim leaders from above. Noor Banoo, Mohsina Kidwai and Salman Khurshid are Muslim leaders in UP who have been imposed from above.

Muslims are the football of three players, namely the Samajwadi Party, the BSP and the Congress.

Muslims want to cast positive votes, but where is the opportunity?

In the given circumstances, Muslims would like to vote for a winning candidate and not for one who will defeat the BJP, but since the Samajwadi Party, BSP and Congress are insensitive to their basic demands they don't have the option of positive voting.

Time and again it is proved that maulvis and madrassas are unable to influence Muslim votes. I can tell you that on most Indian issues there are vertical and horizontal divides amongst Muslims. It is a stereotype to say that Muslims are one bloc. Yes, some rare times emotional unity emerges. In 99 percent of events, caste, class and sectarian tensions keeps Indian Muslims divided.

To begin with, there is a deep divide between the Shia and Sunnis, Barelvis and Deobandis and then it goes on and on. Sufis are so different from others. Barelvis are popular people who validate the folk and devotional traditions of Islam. But amongst them saints like Shadi Mohammad Sheikh and Cha Madar have different followers. You call all of them merely Muslims.

Whenever some worthy leader tries to organise Muslims, the forces against him crop up to take the lot in another direction and the entire attempt fails.

What is more worrying is that in spite of the drop in the number of communal riots, we see that communalism has increased in our cities and towns. The RSS kind of idea of exclusion of Muslims is spreading. I think terrorism in Kashmir has affected the psyche of Hindus towards Muslims in India.

Indian Muslims understand that whatever is happening in Pakistan is not Islamic nor it is good for humanity. We believe that if the Taliban [Images] was not fighting with America then they would not have got any kind of support whatsoever in the Islamic world.

By Ben Arnoldy

New Delhi - All politics may be local, but India is taking the notion to an extreme: Voters this week head into national elections with no national issues dominating campaigns. In the world's largest democracy, many will choose members of parliament more for their attention to potholes down the street than to Pakistan.

That's surprising given recent events here. A major terrorist attack on Mumbai exposed police and intelligence failures less than half a year ago. Neighboring Pakistan is caught in an Islamist insurgency. And a global recession is clipping India's economic growth.

Yet none of this appears to have galvanized voters. Even the jailing of a scion of the prominent Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty for a Muslim-baiting speech has failed to generate much Hindu-nationalist energy. Pollsters say voters seem more concerned with local development, such as the condition of a school, the expansion of a nearby road, or more continuous electricity.

What does it mean for the world's largest democracy that voters care more about local than national issues? For starters, the election, which ends on May 13, could result in a weak – and perhaps short-lived – coalition government.

"It's like a ship without a rudder. There is no one guiding the country as a whole in its relations with other countries, or with problems that transcend national boundaries of India, or come from outside," says Prem Shankar Jha, a senior political analyst senior political analyst and a columnist for the Deccan Herald.

What matters? New bridges, buses


Yet he and others also see a positive move by voters toward holding politicians accountable and away from appeals to jingoism or communal politics – even if that muddies any national mandate for the central government.

"What's changed in the last five years is we've had it up to our noses with [politicians] demanding loyalty for who they are – we want them to perform," says Mr. Jha.

"Performance" means being accessible and taking action on local affairs, according to polling done by the Hindustan Times, a leading English-language daily. Nearly half of voters polled listed development and area-specific issues as top issues, with only 21 percent citing the economic downturn and 14 percent saying terrorism.

In a country so immense and diverse, and with so many people struggling for basic needs, local concerns can be very narrow indeed. Yashwant Deshmukh, a pollster with the CVoter Foundation, puts it this way: A voter in New Delhi may notice some new bridges and mass transit around the city and decide to reward the party in local power – or, if the new metro causes his dwelling to shake, punish that party.

These local-issue votes – pouring in from a 714 million person electorate spanning seven major religions and 20 official languages – are not expected to add up to an outright majority for one party. Though the ruling Congress Party may win a plurality of votes, it's not guaranteed to keep its top spot. The fractured electorate means many small parties and politicians could secure enough votes to become coalition kingmakers.
One possible kingmaker is Kumari Mayawati, who's added spice to the election in her outsider's bid to become the nation's first Dalit – or bottom-rung caste – prime minister.

Otherwise, the campaigns have failed to generate much excitement. Manmohan Singh and LK Advani – the elderly prime ministerial candidates from the ruling Congress party and the BJP, respectively – have spent decades on the Indian political scene.

"Other than that, what's happening? Nothing. Two very old people are battling it out," says Mr. Deshmukh.
He's not alone in his lack of enthusiasm. More Indians are expected to tune into an upcoming cricket championship than the election coverage, including the night that votes are counted on May 16, according to studies by two media buying companies.

Voters have even given low priority to terrorism and national security despite suffering an attack in Mumbai that some have called "India's 9/11."

Analysts point out that India has borne terrorist attacks for decades and tends not to see one party as more competent in responding. Fatigue with communal religious struggles also seems to be high, dampening the domestic aftershocks from Mumbai. Deshmukh suggests this had to do with the response of the Muslim community in Mumbai – it clearly denounced the attacks and refused to bury the terrorists in local Muslim cemeteries.


Attempts by the major parties to reach outside politics to galvanize voters haven't garnered much mileage, either. Congress have latched on to the child actors in the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, while the BJP churned out pen-holders in the shape of the Nano – the new $2,000 car that's the pride of India.
The weakness of top-down, imposed notions of what should bind the nation together doesn't bother Rajeev Bhargava, director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi.

The fact that no single party can take charge and different coalitions must come together does reflect how India is becoming a "fractured society," he says. But that doesn't mean secession, just a more bottom-up approach to national participation.

"What we are witnessing is a change in the way that the whole nation is conceived," says Mr. Bhargava. "In the past it's something that's been largely imagined by a small group of people in the hope it will percolate downwards. What is happening now is a nationalism that is developing from multiple regions and multiple centers."

April 16th Thursday
Andhra Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh
Assam
Bihar
Jammu & Kashmir
Kerala
Maharashtra
Manipur
Meghalaya
Mizoram
Nagaland
Orissa
Uttar Pradesh
Chhattisgarh
Jharkhand
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Chandigarh
Lakshadweep
April 23rd Thursday
Andhra Pradesh
Assam
Bihar
Goa
Jammu & Kashmir
Karnataka
Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra
Manipur
Orissa
Tripura
Uttar Pradesh
Jharkhand
April 23rd Thursday
Bihar
Haryana
Jammu & Kashmir
Punjab
Rajasthan
Uttar Pradesh
West Bengal
NCT of Delhi
May 07 Thursday

Himachal Pradesh
Jammu & Kashmir
Punjab
Tamil Nadu
Uttar Pradesh
West Bengal
Uttarakhand
Pondicherry
May 13 Wednesday
Himachal Pradesh
Jammu & Kashmir
Punjab
Tamil Nadu
Uttar Pradesh
West Bengal
Uttarakhand
Pondicherry

While previous general elections in India have been fought over national issues, this time around coalition mathematics seems more important than campaigns over economic growth, terrorism or inflation.

With both the major national parties, the Congress and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), being shunned by their regional allies across the country, the likelihood of a coalition of disparate parties coming to power after the April-May general elections looms large.

Not that India is new to coalitions. The Congress has ruled for most of the last five years through a stable coalition, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). So did the BJP before that between 1999 and 2004 with its National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The worry is that a coalition without a strong Congress or BJP to lead and hold it together will not last the full five-year term. It happened in 1996 when 13 parties came together to rule and fell two years, and two prime ministers, later.

Special report
It was not always like this. The Congress, which led India's freedom struggle, won the absolute majority of votes for decades after independence in 1947 - somewhat akin to the African National Congress's hold over politics in post-apartheid South Africa.

But a gradual erosion of support for the Congress, beginning in the mid-1970s, saw mainly national opposition parties, including the BJP, make steady gains and come to power in the 1990s.

And now in 2009, it may be the turn of regional parties who have already tasted power in the states, to come together and rule the country.

This motley group is called the Third Front and they have positioned themselves as the alternative to the UPA and NDA.

For their detractors, the Third Front is just an umbrella that could be folded away for parties that are not with the main coalitions.

PATNA, Apr 7 : Proverbially, the crows and elephants might be having wisdom talks in the state's jungles of Bhim Bandh and other terrains of Munger and Jamui, where Maoists have also been greasing their guns, but voters in the vast countryside straggling 40 parliamentary constituencies are utterly confused in reading the "line and length" of political leaders and various candidates in fray, as a local cartoonist showed it in his recent strip.

However, the "line and length" of the NDA, particularly the BJP, appears to be clear: Attack UPA, vilify, discredit and blast RJD-LJP combine, ignore the Congress as poor damsel in distress, and refuse to take notice of the United Left Bloc (ULB), which has fielded 33 candidates and has also been hoping to win quite a few seats. It was palpably apparent on Saturday.

State NDA convener Nand Kishore Yadav, who has whirlwind electioneering tour, including in Nawada and Rohtas districts, under his belt, said, "The UPA is neither intact, nor united, nor progressive, and nor does it have any form of alliance. Its constituents have disintegrated into three groups -- Congress, RJD-LJP, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)."

Indeed, parting of ways by the RJD-LJP combine and the decision of the Congress to contest most of the 40 seats have left both the observers and the NDA leaders guessing as to whose stakes it will ultimately burn or harm, of the NDA or of the RJD. Even though the Congress is still in the process of announcing its candidates, it has definitely raised alarm bells in the NDA camp, forcing the BJP to make concerted attack on the performance of the UPA government, Congress and the RJD-LJP.

Yadav, appearing to give proper sound bytes, said that the leaders of the UPA were making baseless statements out of nervousness. "We don't understand what they (Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan) mean. They are contesting against the Congress, and yet would accept Congress' candidate as PM," Yadav said, adding: "We are seeking votes on the basis of the performance of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government at the Centre and also for the work delivered by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar."

The state NDA convener also said that Lalu has been rattled by the dispersal of the Yadav caste votes from his party, and, therefore, he has allied with Mulayam Singh Yadav to give the impression that Yadavs were united.

Nand Kishore insisted that the Bihar NDA was not banking on caste combination. Asked to elaborate if the splitting of Dalit into Dalit and Mahadalit sections would lead to any advantage to the NDA candidates, he said, "We have launched developmental activities to bring Mahadalit sections into the mainstream."

The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, L.K. Advani, said the party desired a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya and axing of article 370 of the constitution giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state.

But in a sign of the BJP’s limitations, he told reporters after releasing the manifesto here that an agenda of governance would be framed in consultation with all members of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Advani underlined that the manifesto reflected the BJP’s thinking. “We will send it to (the allies) and ask (them what) they agree with and then jointly prepare a NDA agenda.”

Advani’s comments follow a public declaration by BJP ally and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) that a government of the multi-party NDA would never embrace Hindutva, come what may.

Also in New Delhi, the Congress seemed pleased after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar gave a slip to a rally of the Communists as well as Orissa’s ruling BJD at Bhubaneswar although his party’s state unit was in full attendance.

A day after the Congress said it would be better if Pawar did not share a platform with those opposed to the Congress, the Maratha leader chose to give a telephonic message instead.

“I would have liked to address the rally but could not because of a technical snag in the aircraft,” he said before the telephone line snapped suddenly.

Even as pundits wondered if Pawar had taken a U-turn, the NCP leader maintained in Mumbai, his power base, that his party had the right to have understanding with regional parties since the Congress had turned down its appeal for a nationwide seat-sharing pact with its allies.

The Bhubaneswar rally brought together the BJD, which last month ended a 11-year-long relationship with the BJP, and its new friends, the Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and NCP.

BJD leader and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik blasted the BJP for allegedly fomenting communal divide. “Orissa is a peaceful state but the BJP and its affiliates are trying to destroy communal harmony,” he said.

But Advani insisted in New Delhi that the so-called Third Front did not stand a chance in the April-May elections and that any government in India would be linked either to the Congress or his party.

In Lucknow, Lalu Prasad of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) joined hands with Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav to declare that their newly forged friendship would last beyond the Lok Sabha elections.

But Railway Minister Lalu Prasad quickly added that he and Paswan were still with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and Manmohan Singh was their choice for prime minister. The RJD and LJP have however dumped the Congress in the fight for Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabhs seats after quarreling over a seat-sharing pact.

Between them, the RJD, LJP and Samajwadi Party are influential in Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, three populous states in the crucial Hindi heartland that together account for 134 Lok Sabha seats.

According to analysts, by coming together, the three parties hope to expand their vote bank and strengthen their bargaining power vis-a-vis the Congress in a widely expected hung parliament.

By Rajinder Puri

This is for all you dummies who will perform your duty as conscientious citizens and vote. For whom will you vote? You may as most people treat this general election as a municipal poll and vote for the candidate most likely to help your son get admission, or get the authorities to remove jhuggis behind your house. If as a serious voter you are concerned with national policy, forget it.

Politicians themselves have given up all pretence about concern with policy. Even poor Prakash Karat (general secretary of the Communist Party of India) after vain attempts to forge a Common Minimum Programme has been reduced instead to preparing a Vision Document. If policy is not the issue, what is? Well, there will be an election and there will be a future prime minister. So why not vote for the best PM?

In the absence of policy how might you make a choice? Well, think about the qualities of leadership. Obviously one who shows such qualities best deserves a chance. The most basic quality of leadership is his or her ability to protect the interests of followers. On this criterion, who is best?

Certainly not Dr Manmohan Singh! He doesn't want followers. He is content to remain a follower himself of Sonia Gandhi.

Certainly not LK Advani (prime ministerial candidate of the Bhartiya Janata Party and the National Democratic Alliance )! The Rajnath-Jaitley spat thoroughly exposed him. It is inconceivable that Sudanshu Mittal could have been appointed to oversee the Northeast states without Advani's consent. When Jaitley objected, Advani did not defend Mittal. When Rajnath Singh refused to oblige Jaitley, Advani did not defend Jaitley. He could neither promote nor defend any follower. What kind of leadership is that?

Certainly not Mayawati (current chief minister of Uttar Pradesh)! She dumped her loyalists to give election tickets to newcomers who joined her weeks ago. She used her followers to collect money on her behalf and failed to protect them when they were caught. There was no question, of course, of her sharing any money with her followers.

Certainly not Sharad Pawar (Maharashtra legislative assembly)! Look how he betrayed his senior party colleague, P Sangma! He agreed that the Congress dismissed the Meghalaya government unconstitutionally. Yet he refused to back Sangma against the Congress in order to further his interests in his own home state.

Certainly not Lalu Yadav (minister of railways)! He promoted his wife as chief minister. He refused to promote her protesting brother who joined Congress. Or is it that Sadhu Yadav joined Congress with Lalu's secret blessing? Remember, all the Lalu dissidents who have joined the Congress will cut the votes of his newfound ally, Ram Vilas Paswan. So either Lalu is betraying his followers or conspiring against his ally. Is he fit to lead?

Certainly not Naveen Patnaik! With hopes of becoming PM supported by the CPI-M he scrapped his decade old alliance with the NDA. Without batting an eye he endorsed all the policies of the CPI-M which he had opposed throughout his political career.

Certainly not Nitish Kumar! He refused to accommodate his former leader George Fernandes who as a sitting MP wanted to contest. What kind of loyalty is that?

Certainly not Jayalalithaa (ex-chief minister of Tamil Nadu)! For five years she abused Congress. She then attempted to team up with Congress to isolate Karunanidhi. After that failed, she went to the Third Front. Meanwhile Karat promoted Mayawati. Jayalalithaa refused to attend Mayawati's dinner. Now she is edging away from the Third Front. Can a leader who does not know where to stand help the nation take a stand?

Enough! There's no point criticising all the hopefuls for the top job. Some new dark horse could spring a surprise. The prevalent political culture and confusion are stoking ambition in unexpected places. Anything can happen.

For the present, isn't it best to keep an open mind about the next PM? --The Statesman/Asia News Network

India is abuzz with political activity as general elections approach. India will hold general elections between April 16 and May 13, a mammoth process in which 714 million people will cast their votes. Main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani who made a whistle-stop tour of Thiruvananthapuram termed the ruling coalition as a failure on all fronts.

By M H Ahssan

Nearly Every State Has Religious Leaders Telling Their Flock Which Way To Vote

The church and state have assiduously been kept apart in India, but a similar firewall between religion and politics has been repeatedly breached to the point where using the religion card is now accepted as part of the desi system of vote garnering.

Gurus, mahants and maulvis existed around the periphery of power structures during the Nehru era. But the growth of Congress’s perceived minorityism under Indira Gandhi, when the term ‘vote-block’ (read Muslim votes) first gained currency, probably triggered the mushrooming of similar mechanisms across religious platforms.

Hindu religious organisations got a fillip with the dilution of the Supreme Court’s secular judgement in 1985 on Shah Bano when Parliament — under a brute Congress majority — overturned the SC verdict by passing the Muslim Women’s Bill that made it legally tenable for Muslim men to skip paying alimony to their divorced wives.

Today, whether it’s Gujarat with its dominant Hindu sects, or Punjab, home to hundreds of ‘Deras’ of localised gurus, or UP with its mahants and madrassas, or even Jharkhand, Orissa and Northeast with their Christian evangelists, nearly every state in the country has religious organisations and sects exhorting their flock to go out and vote. At times, they tell them who to vote for and, at others, make the choice implicit.

In Kerala, the Muslim League, which is a critical ally of the Congress-led LDF, has at its helm Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal, a spiritual leader with a following of his own. ‘Thangal’ is an honorific title that traces its lineage to the Prophet no less. Kerala Muslims flock to his meetings.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, with Uttar Pradesh seeing a spurt in madrassas which has taken Muslims away from modern education towards fundamentalism, Hindu ‘sansthan’ and ‘dharma raksha manch’ sprouted. Gorakhpur, which has Azamgarh in its neighbourhood, became a militant Hindu hub. The mahants and acharyas led by Yogi Adityanath, who calls for strident Hindutva, regularly clash with Muslim activists who they accuse of being ISI agents and worse. In 2005, riots broke out in Mau between supporters of Yogi and SP’s Mukhtar Ansari. But Hindu sects at times cut both ways: Just before the 2002 assembly elections in Gujarat in the aftermath of the riots, a high priest from Puri, Swami Adhoksjanand, camped with Congress’s CM candidate Shankersinh Vaghela and ran a surrogate anti-Narendra Modi campaign by telling religious gatherings to defeat the forces of Hindutva.

Mufti Shabbir Alam of Ahmedabad’s Jama Masjid issued a fatwa on the day of the Assembly elections in 2002, urging Muslims to come out and vote. Congress leaders believe the fatwa helped BJP because Hindu organisations decided to counter it. Mufti’s subsequent denials about never having issued the fatwa were of no use. In Punjab, the Dera followers, who number more than a crore, are an important consideration for non-Akali politicians. In the last assembly election, the Dera Sacha Sauda of Gurmeet Singh Ram Raheem, who faces multiple criminal charges (trumped up by Akalis, according to his followers), helped Congress get 25 out of 65 seats in Malwa, a traditional Akali stronghold.

In Jharkhand, Orissa and Northeast, Christian missions play a significant role in mobilising voters. But while in Mizoram the Christian missions involve the people in the democratic process — former CEC J M Lyngdoh once described Mizoram as a model state for elections — the ones in Jharkhand are known to harbour political preferences towards which they egg their supporters on. Christian missions in Orissa are unlikely to remain impervious to taking a pro-Congress and anti-BJP/BJD stand.

In Goa, Joaquim Loiola, secretary to Archbishop, said, ‘‘The Archbishop will be signing and publicising the message of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India on the elections.’’ While it’s unlikely to be a direct endorsement of any political party, the circular will tell its flock ‘‘how to vote’’. Though it’s anybody’s guess which way the religious heads will ask their flocks to vote.

Even the Reds seek blessings in Kerala
Given Kerala’s large minority votebank, both the Church and Muslim leaders have traditionally exerted considerable influence on the state’s politics, so much so that atheist Communists and ‘secular’ Congress leading the two coalitions have courted them with abandon.

Apart from Kerala Muslim League’s spiritual leader Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal, another Muslim leader who has carved out space for himself is the general secretary of Sunni Jum Iyyathul Ulema, Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliyar. He attracts the state’s Sunni Muslims in droves.

The influence of the Church on Kerala’s politics is no less significant. Although fewer in number than the Muslims, the Church has the advantage of its followers spread evenly and backed by numerous institutions. The influential Catholic Church makes no secret of its political stakes. ‘‘We have discussed our position for Kerala and will soon declare it,’’ says Stephen Aalathara of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council. Asked what would be the moving factor, Aalathara said, ‘‘There are a lot of problems we face from the Communist government especially in the social and educational sectors.’’

‘‘The Church has always been an invisible factor in determining candidates in at least seven LS seats in Central Kerala,’’ says C P John, a veteran political commentator.

In UP, parties petition mahants and maulvis
For two years now, the army of mahants and dharmacharyas in Ayodhya has stood silent. Last fortnight things changed when the mighty mahant of Hanuman Garhi, Gyan Das, launched the ‘dharma raksha manch’ for Hindu re-awakening. Around the same time, former CM Mulayam Singh Yadav met the 102-year-old rector of Deoband’s Darulul Uoom seeking to explain his party’s cosying up to Kalyan Singh, who was at UP’s helm when Babri Masjid was razed.

Polls have galvanised the akharas and madrassas as much as political parties. The bigshot maulvis and mahants will be petitioned, and they will then condescend to ‘bless’ this party and that candidate.

Das made headlines in 2003 when he went door-to-door to ensure participation of Ayodhya’s Muslims. Mahant Aditya Nath accused him of polluting the mandir and demanded his ouster.

The matter was settled after Faizabad civil court stayed all such future events. Meanwhile, Maulana Amir Rashdi Madni, who founded the Ulema Council, is in politics after the arrest of his son, Talha Amir.

NEW DELHI, Mar 7 : The church and state have assiduously been kept apart in India, but a similar firewall between religion and politics has been repeatedly breached to the point where using the religion card is now accepted as part of the desi system of vote garnering.

Gurus, mahants and maulvis existed around the periphery of power structures during the Nehru era. But the growth of Congress's perceived minorityism under Indira Gandhi, when the term 'vote-block' (read Muslim votes) first gained currency, probably triggered the mushrooming of similar mechanisms across religious platforms.

Hindu religious organisations got a fillip with the dilution of the Supreme Court's secular judgement in 1985 on Shah Bano when Parliament — under a brute Congress majority — overturned the SC verdict by passing the Muslim Women's Bill that made it legally tenable for Muslim men to skip paying alimony to their divorced wives.

Today, whether it's Gujarat with its dominant Hindu sects, or Punjab, home to hundreds of 'Deras' of localised gurus, or UP with its mahants and madrassas, or even Jharkhand, Orissa and Northeast with their Christian evangelists, nearly every state in the country has religious organisations and sects exhorting their flock to go out and vote. At times, they tell them who to vote for and, at others, make the choice implicit.

In Kerala, the Muslim League, which is a critical ally of the Congress-led LDF, has at its helm Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal, a spiritual leader with a following of his own. 'Thangal' is an honorific title that traces its lineage to the Prophet no less. Kerala Muslims flock to his meetings.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, with Uttar Pradesh seeing a spurt in madrassas which has taken Muslims away from modern education towards fundamentalism, Hindu 'sansthan' and 'dharma raksha manch' sprouted.

Gorakhpur, which has Azamgarh in its neighbourhood, became a militant Hindu hub. The mahants and acharyas led by Yogi Adityanath, who calls for strident Hindutva, regularly clash with Muslim activists who they accuse of being ISI agents and worse. In 2005, riots broke out in Mau between supporters of Yogi and SP's Mukhtar Ansari.

But Hindu sects at times cut both ways: Just before the 2002 assembly elections in Gujarat in the aftermath of the riots, a high priest from Puri, Swami Adhoksjanand, camped with Congress's CM candidate Shankersinh Vaghela and ran a surrogate anti-Narendra Modi campaign by telling religious gatherings to defeat the forces of Hindutva.

Mufti Shabbir Alam of Ahmedabad's Jama Masjid issued a fatwa on the day of the Assembly elections in 2002, urging Muslims to come out and vote. Congress leaders believe the fatwa helped BJP because Hindu organisations decided to counter it. Mufti's subsequent denials about never having issued the fatwa were of no use.

In Punjab, the Dera followers, who number more than a crore, are an important consideration for non-Akali politicians. In the last assembly election, the Dera Sacha Sauda of Gurmeet Singh Ram Raheem, who faces multiple criminal charges (trumped up by Akalis, according to his followers), helped Congress get 25 out of 65 seats in Malwa, a traditional Akali stronghold.

In Jharkhand, Orissa and Northeast, Christian missions play a significant role in mobilising voters. But while in Mizoram the Christian missions involve the people in the democratic process — former CEC J M Lyngdoh once described Mizoram as a model state for elections — the ones in Jharkhand are known to harbour political preferences towards which they egg their supporters on. Christian missions in Orissa are unlikely to remain impervious to taking a pro-Congress and anti-BJP/BJD stand.

In Goa, Joaquim Loiola, secretary to Archbishop, said, "The Archbishop will be signing and publicising the message of Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on the elections." While it's unlikely to be a direct endorsement of any political party, the circular will tell its flock "how to vote". Though it's anybody's guess which way the religious heads will ask their flocks to vote.

(With inputs from Leena Misra in Ahmedabad, Yudhvir Rana in Chandigarh, Oinam Sunil in Guwahati, Rajaram Satpathy in Bhubaneswar, Sonali Das in Ranchi)

India, the world's largest democracy, has announced it will hold a general election between 16 April and 13 May.

The move kicks off the mammoth process of getting up to 714m people to vote.

The chief of the Election Commission said counting of ballots will take place on 16 May.

The election comes just a few months after the Mumbai attacks and at a time when stability in neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is declining.

The main battle will be between the Congress-led coalition and the leading opposition bloc, headed by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami told reporters voting would be held in five phases.

'The process of finalising the election schedule takes into account the school examinations... the local holidays... festivals, the harvest season and so on,' he said.

The staggered voting is to allow security forces to move around the country to curb any attempt to coerce the huge electorate.

Analysts so far see no party emerging with a clear majority from the election, which could mean weeks or even months of political uncertainty as parties negotiate for power.

If the alliances headed by the national parties - the Congress and BJP - fail to win power, pollsters and analysts say, a loose coalition of smaller parties known as the Third Front could come to office.

Chief among these are the communists, who thwarted pro-reform policies while supporting the incumbent Congress-led coalition.

While the financial crisis and security are seen as national issues, many experts say the vote could be dominated by a myriad of caste and regional alliances and local issues.

Despite the global recession, India's economy continues to grow. However, its 7.1% increase for fiscal year 2008/09 is the slowest pace in six years as domestic demand slumps and exports dip sharply.

It is still unclear how the slowdown will play out with the majority voters in the countryside where government financial help to the farm sector and a landmark jobs scheme have lifted millions out of poverty. Inflation has also fallen.

Analysts say the Congress has been able to checkmate opposition criticism over poor security after the Mumbai attacks by introducing a new terror law, improving security, changing the country's home minister and raising defence spending by nearly a quarter this year.

But another militant strike before the election could put terrorism on the top of the voter agenda.

India Election Scenarios
Here are the three most likely outcomes of the election which will determine who will head the next government, according to pollsters and political analysts.

Congress-led alliance
The incumbent United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by the Congress party wins the biggest number of seats. It may also have to rely on support outside the coalition, such as the communist parties that propped up the government from 2004 to 2008.

This time, its former leftist allies, who quit the coalition over a civilian nuclear deal with the United States, may be hesitant about joining the government once again.

This means smaller regional parties, like the Dalit-based Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by the controversial Mayawati, could become power brokers.

BJP-led alliance
The National Democratic Alliance, led by the Hindu-nationalist BJP, wins the biggest number of votes. Again, it could have more than 50% of seats or be dependent on a tie up with a regional party.


Third Front
If the UPA and the NDA fail to cobble together a coalition - or between them win less than half the total number of parliamentary seats - then a loose alliance of smaller parties could win power.
In India, these parties are known as the Third Front.

Chief among them are the communists, who thwarted several pro-reform policies of the UPA and pulled support over the nuclear deal. They have strongholds in three Indian states where they usually win enough seats to hold the balance of power in a hung parliament.

The Mayawati-led BSP or the Samajwadi Party, based in populous Uttar Pradesh state, could also play a major role in this government. The parties would choose a prime minister after post-poll negotiations.

Rohtas, Feb. 10 : UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday accused the BJP of trying to divide the nation on communal lines by raising the issue of Ram Temple at Ayodhya the time and again.

Addressing a meeting at Dalmiya Nagar in Rohtas district in Bihar, Sonia said that the BJP is trying to capture power in the name of the God and it clearly shows that communal forces has no other issue to raise in the coming general elections.

While urging the people of India to defeat the nefarious designs of the BJP, Sonia said that the UPA would leave no stone unturned in maintaining its tradition of social harmony.

Speaking on the occasion, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav said that the construction of Freight Corridors would go a long way in ushering-in all around development of the country.

By Serena Menon

First they shut down dance bars as it was against our culture; then they insisted that smoking be banned, agreeable though it was.

Then MNS tried to evict ‘north Indians’ from ‘their land’ and now they must decide whether we can visit the local pub!.

So Pub culture should be checked or eliminated in a country full of people who are familiar with only one aspect of their politicians, viz, corruption. Corruption and alcohol go hand in hand I presume?

Going back to the basics or the barbarian times, correct me if courtesans were not a part of our culture; so was sati or child marriage or mistress. Surprising, we aren’t reviving our culture fully; otherwise our politicians would have bigger issues to worry about. Moments like these always silence the pen or the keyboard (just in case).

Mumbai’s timings changed and new deadlines brought all activity to a halt at 1.30 am. This changed a lot; it did indeed; but useful things that can be done by taking advantage of the said deadlines don’t strike our politicians. Environmental cleansing can never be implemented with as much vigour as a ban on alcohol.

Hammered by the ethics that rattle those empty heads, soon masses will believe that alcohol is bad; select communities already say so anyway; all we need now is for the government to follow suit.

Now, how exactly is it bad is not something that can be left to the people to decide because they far too naïve but never too naïve to elect their own government and the last time I checked, our country was still a democracy.

The answer to why and what it must achieve is yet to come about. If only for once the government did not take decisions based on our culture, which unanimously has come to mean something subjective, we might be able to see logic and ensure people’s well-being.

How banning pubs and not leaving the youth to do anything on a weekend, will bring peace to our government that is generally least concerned with the micro picture is something I fail to fathom.

The banning of anything that has a great demand will only engender a third route to acquire what is needed, through illegal means and create more trouble instead of providing relief.

Politicians will still get what they want, as they generally do but for the common man, his decisions are no longer his own, whether it is of how he should drink, how he should behave while drinking and where he should.

Most of the youth still find the concept of a dry day rather odd and taking away something that does not intrude into the daily affairs and functioning of a state or a country only seems like an empty measure.

So now we wait patiently for any opportunity leading to further waste of time, until the next great idea of going back to wearing only dhotis and kurtas pops up.

After all, clothing too represents the face of what our politicians believe to be Indian culture.

New Delhi

A day after External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that Congress heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi would follow in the footsteps of his father who became the Prime Minister at 40, the Congress said that Rahul had all the qualifications to lead the country but it was for him to decide when to take on a leadership role.

Speaking to reporters at the party’s official Press briefing here on Friday, Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said, “It is correct that Rahul Gandhi has all the qualifications that are required in a person to lead a country.

Everyone feels that way. But it is for him to decide on it (when to take on the leadership mantle).”

He was replying to a volley of questions on the implications of Pranab’s statement on Thursday in Chennai.

While on one hand, Ahmed said that it is for Rahul to decide, on the other, he said that the party stood by what Congress president Sonia Gandhi had earlier said.

Asked whether there was a “war” in the party to declare the Amethi MP as the future PM, Ahmed said, “There is no war. What Congress President Sonia Gandhi has said, the party stands by that.”

On Independence Day last year at a function in Congress headquarters, Sonia had scotched speculation on the issue, saying, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will unfurl the national flag at the Red Fort if the party was voted back to power.

Though accepting that Rahul has attracted the younger generation to the party and has the capability, the party spokesman said, “But this does not mean that you (media) misinterpret it and create a dispute.”

Claiming that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has done so well on every front in the last four-and-a-half years, he said, “It (leadership issue) should not be projected in a way as if people are unhappy with the Prime Minister.”

Describing Sonia Gandhi as the guardian of the party, he said, “She has already spoken on the issue on August 15 last year. It remains the stand of the Congress.”

Swapan Dasgupta

Where are the young people?” a 34-year-old Canadian MP of Indian origin attending the Pravasi Bharatiya jamboree is said to have asked the veterans, prompting the sycophantic brigade to resurrect the ‘Rahul Gandhi for Prime Minister’ campaign. In terms of political positioning, External Affairs Minister Pranab Munkherjee did the right thing by signalling that the Congress had its youth heir-apparent waiting in the wings. He did not suggest that the Regency period was approaching its final days and that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is on his way to enjoying retirement. But he did what has become drearily obligatory in the post-Obama world: Pay ritual obeisance at the altar of the energetic new world of the under-40s.

Contrast the Congress’ awareness of the restiveness in a section of the population that feels excluded from the political decision-making process with the bloody-mindedness that was on display in the BJP last week. The decision of the octogenarian Bhairon Singh Shekhawat to claim that seniority is the basis of leadership has been met by both incredulity and ill-concealed ridicule. Whether Shekhawat was driven by a visceral hatred of his former protégé Vasundhara Raje or was beguiled by his own unwillingness to be content with just being an elder statesman, is of academic interest. What should worry the BJP is that the media’s gleeful interest in the party’s old-age fissures has strengthened the impression of its growing detachment from demographic realities.

It didn’t help matters that, at the same time, Shekhawat was pitching his claim to be considered as a possible leader of the NDA — egged on by the same worthies who had conjured up visions of large-scale cross-voting during the presidential election — the BJP was undertaking a simultaneous act of hara-kiri. I have nothing against the veteran Om Prakash Kohli who was nominated by the BJP Central leadership to succeed Harshvardhan as president of the Delhi unit. From all accounts, Kohli was not even a contender for the job but emerged as a consensus candidate after a stalemate. He has not featured in the popular consciousness for as long as anyone cares to remember.

Settling for a consensus candidate to resolve a stalemate is often the preferred course of committee-based politics; the more democratic path involving wider consultations is somehow always given a go-by. However, a political party that has just emerged from an unexpected electoral drubbing and needs to recoup its forces for a Lok Sabha election that is just 100 or so days away needs to be more sensitive to its shortcomings.

Last month’s Assembly election in Delhi suggested that the BJP was burdened by its inability to cope with the profound demographic changes in the city. Like the erstwhile Jana Sangh (which ceased to exist in 1977), the BJP continues to proceed on the broad assumption that a network built around Punjabis, the Vaishya community and a sprinkling of Jats in the urban villages can win it Delhi. The cosmopolitanism that is necessary to appeal to the vast number of migrants from all over India, who have made Delhi their home since the 1980s, is singularly absent from the Delhi BJP. Rather than attend to this problem frontally, the party settled for a shoddy compromise because its leadership was unwilling to disturb entrenched interests in the party. The party’s behaviour was reminiscent of seminary (mutt) intrigues where the focus is on an insular, self-contained campus of believers rather than on an outside world inhabited by sceptics. The rules governing sects don’t work for political parties operating in a competitive environment.

The argument that the Shekhawat episode and the muddle in its Delhi unit are just storms in a teacup that will be forgotten once the General Election campaign gets under way may only be right up to a point. Indian elections are only partially presidential and most voters are likely to choose on the strength of local preferences. Yet, the overall appeal of rival parties will also be shaped by the attraction of their respective captains. In the past week, the BJP has scored self-goals because they have drawn attention to a cussed gerontocracy in the party.

The willingness of the NDA to go with LK Advani at the helm is not based on the leader’s date of birth. Advani’s acceptability is centred on his track record, his political skills, his outlook and his ability to handle difficult challenges.

At this moment, he is the only one in the BJP able to balance acceptability in the political class with popular appeal. His age is incidental to his position. However, if the party goes out of its way to convey an impression that seniority is at a premium and that outmoded thinking will prevail because some leaders can’t be bothered to think, it will be forcing people’s attention to a generational divide.

This is something the Congress would love. The party, backed by a mindless section of the media, has been hinting at a so-called 3G leadership and putting a premium on recent vintages as a diversion from the decrepit dynastic principle that governs its conduct. It is a travesty to believe that a New India and a Young India will be created by replacing ability and meritocracy with pedigree and inheritance. Where would that have left Obama? Yet, this is precisely what is being suggested through the unseemly deification of Rahul Gandhi and Omar Abdullah.

But, instead of positing a meaningful alternative, the BJP seems hellbent on building up an equally exclusionary principle centred on age and outmoded thought. India’s political parties, it would seem, are often their own worst enemies.