Just in Time

     If there is someone that the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government should worry about, that someone is Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Modi who became the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001; has since then transformed the face of Gujarat, making it one of the most popular industrial hub of India. His popularity as a Chief Minister grew after the Godhra riots in 2002. His critics say that he is the main accused behind the riots, though, the evidence provided by them couldn't make any difference. After winning the elections twice in Gujarat, he has become the most appropriate candidate in the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) for the Prime Minister's post. However, he has a long way to go.

     The 2012 Gujarat election is seen as a Semi-Final to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The election is important in many ways since it will highlight the fate of two major parties of the country- INC (Indian National Congress) and the BJP. While the ruling UPA-II government led by INC is experiencing set-back because of the exposed corruption in the recent times, the BJP led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) is facing internal grudges for the Prime Minister's post. 

     One of the main reason behind UPA's second term in the government was the fast economic growth at an average of 8.04% that it reported during its tenure between 2004-2009. Despite the great recession in September 2008, the growth rate of India was 7.4% in FY 2008 which was a very healthy figure comparatively to the situations prevailing during that time. And yes, who can forget the Indo-US nuclear deal? This was the second main reason for UPA's return to the centre. The deal was very crucial to the country since it will provide India with nuclear power necessary for power generation. This deal was also important because it displayed Congress's power to continue at the centre after Left parties withdrew its support from the government. All was going well in the government until the end of the decade, when the first expose came out as 2G spectrum scam resulting in the creation of a blot over UPA-II's governance. Thereafter, the expose continued and the UPA-II government's popularity gradually reduced. The 18 month long campaign against corruption led by Anna Hazare against the UPA-II government and the subsequent failure of the government in getting a strong Lokpal bill passed in the parliament further reduced its popularity. 

     On the other hand the BJP led NDA is just another side of the coin. If Congress is surrounded by corruption the BJP too is not spared by it. The recent expose by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Chief Arvind Kejriwal about BJP President Nitin Gadkari has shaken the party from within. Many senior leaders from the party are seen sidelining the BJP President for his alleged role in the Poorti scam. Another major issue that has troubled the party in recent times is regarding the right candidate for the Prime Minister's Office. While many in the party are viewing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the right candidate for the post, rumors are that Janata Dal United will withdraw its support from the NDA since it considers Narendra Modi a religious fundamentalist. Apart from this, many in the party also view L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari as a potential Prime Ministerial candidate resulting in a rift inside the party. As a major setback to BJP recently, two senior leaders of the party, Keshubhai Patel from Gujarat and B.S. Yedyurappa from Karnataka quit BJP and started their own party to counter the ruling BJP governments in these states. 

     Now, with both the Congress and BJP on the backfoot they have started appeasing the public with their movements. On one hand where the government has started introducing its reform measure to boost the economic growth in the country the main opposition party has also taken its stance well by attacking the government on various fronts. As part of the reform measures; the government has passed the most opposed bill of FDI in multi brand retail recently. Similarly, the introduction of the Cabinet Committee on Investment and amendments to the Land Acquisition Bill has received lauds from both the opposition as well as the business class. The Cabinet Committee on Investment will fast track the implementation of the infrastructure projects with a value of more than 1,000 crore rupees. On the other hand the Land Acquisition Bill will benefit the land owners where compensation will be double the market price in urban areas and four times in rural areas. 

     There is an old saying, "Strike when the iron is hot". This proverb goes very well with the strategies of the government. It is so because the government has passed the bill on FDI in multi brand retail "Just in Time" when the Gujarat elections are on head. Though FDI in retail was opposed by majority of parties in the country, the government managed to pass the act with the external support from SP (Samajwadi Party) and BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party). With the bill getting the nod of the parliamentarians the government has definitely attracted the business community of Gujarat as well as the nation. The second game that the government played was the implementation of the Direct Cash Transfer Scheme just before the Gujarat elections. With the implementation of this scheme, it has mainly attracted Gujarat's rural audiences. Of course, another benefit of the scheme would be reduction in the cases of corruption. The third move was raising the cap on LPG cylinders to 9 from the earlier announced 6. This move, however, is a flop show by the government since the audience is already affected by the pseudo environment created by our "Indian Media."
     More or less, the opposition can only wait and watch until 2014 elections because the UPA government has proved its might as and when required; be it the Nuclear Deal or FDI in multi brand retail.

FDI: Necessary or a new way to avert Janlokpal or a sure defeat?

     Since the commencement of the winter session of Parliament on 22nd of November, 2011 the Parliament was debating on the FDI in India. In the midst of rising inflation the government has seen FDI as a lender of its last resort. The concept of FDI though very simple has a very big advantage and also a disadvantage of its own. The government has proposed 51% investment in retail sector claiming that this is the only option to bring inflation under control.
     With "Walmart" the megastore entering the market, retailers from all over the country started opposing it saying that this will lead to shut down of their business. And the retailers are right at their place. If the history of the megastore is seen we can see that in whichever country Walmart has opened its store they have attracted a lot of consumers and the retailers in those countries had to forcefully shut down their business to avoid losses. The concept behind Walmart is so that it purchases the goods directly to avoid transportation and other costs. True that through this inflation will come under control. On questioning Finance Minister about Walmart after the protests started he said that this will bring down the inflation rate and will provide employment opportunities to people across the country. Now has anyone thought how much employees will work in a particular mall of Walmart? It is only 272. Yes, only 272 workers will work in a particular mall of Walmart creating hundreds and thousands of jobless people around the country. Though this concept of Walmart will benefit a larger group of buyers but what about those people who have business or who are likely to start a business very soon. Soon there will be a huge group of educated unemployed but this group won't be more than the larger group of buyers in the market who are likely to benefit from this megastore. Since the buyer group is larger than the business group they are in a condition to get attracted by this concept of Walmart and they can even vote for UPA government in the upcoming election of 2014.

     There is still time for the 2014 General Elections which is seeing the NDA government as the ruling party in the centre. So making complete use of the available time the UPA government has come up with the idea of 51% investment of FDI in retail business so that they can lure voters during the time of elections in 2014. However, there is no guarantee whether they will be able to lure voters or not, but if the concept of FDI is successful in the coming the years there is a chance of UPA remaining at the centre.

     After the FDI entered India all the opposition parties started opposing it including UPA's alliance parties as well. Due to this the parliament has not functioned properly and has seen back to back 9 days adjournment with the adjournment motion now extending till 7th December, 2011. It is to be noted that 7/12/2011 is the proposed day for the introduction of the much awaited "Janlokpal Bill". Now question here arises that after resuming of the Parliament whether there will be discussion on Janlokpal Bill or whether a debate will go on the current FDI issue. If the debate continues on FDI one can't expect Janlokpal Bill to be passed before 22nd of December, 2011 which is the last functioning day of the winter session of the Parliament. If the bill doesn't gets passed in the winter session of the Parliament the country will again see the same situation which it has seen a few months ago. If the bill is not passed the whole country will blame the UPA government for not passing the bill within the prescribed time and during that time the UPA government will start blaming the opposition for not letting them introduce the bill in the house.

     What next??? Well, the same blame game will start again between the opposition and the government blaming each other for the failure of the Janlokpal Bill. To think on it one can say that the UPA government is the sole benefiter of this FDI with taking the right step to lure voters, averting a sure defeat in the upcoming elections, hiding its incapability in framing a strong Janlokpal bill and taking a right step to bring down inflation.

Divide and rule

     In the wake of Rahul Gandhi's start of political campaign in Uttar Pradesh (UP) for the upcoming assembly elections in the state; Mayawati the current chief minister of UP on tuesday introduced a new resolution to divide the state into four parts. She said that such division of the state will result in effective administration. Currently the state has 70 districts and Mayawati government is unable to control administration of such huge number of districts.

     Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that the UP government is unable to run the state and that is the reason people from here go to Maharashtra and Punjab and start begging for jobs. In response to the statement made by Rahul Gandhi, ShivSena executive president Uddhav Thakrey quoted, "When we say it hurts and when they say it is fine". MNS chief Raj Thakrey also added, "Gandhi family is responsible behind such condition of UP and that Rahul Gandhi needs a tution". 

     The next day Mayawati government which has so far been unable to handle the administration in the state has proposed the division of UP into four parts with new states namely Paschim Pradesh, Awadh Pradesh, Bundelkhand and Poorvanchal. With the introduction of this resolution some parties opposed the resolution while some parties were in favor of the new decision. The resolution is yet to receive a green signal from the Central government. 

     The divide and rule policy is not a new thing in India. It has been followed since the British times. The British unable to stop the rising movement in Bengal against them decided to divide Bengal with two provinces with the eastern part known as East Bengal (now Bangladesh) and the western part known as West Bengal. It was not the only divide and rule policy applied by the British. They even created a rift between Hindus and Muslims; the effect of which can still be seen today. It had cost us the divide of India creating a new nation state Pakistan.

    Now that time has changed, this decision taken by Mayawati is very intelligent.Firstly intelligent in terms of the forthcoming assembly elections gaining support of few parties for this decision who are currently against the Mayawati government. Secondly intelligent in terms of an effective administrator which she hasn't been so far. The division of Uttar Pradesh in real sense is a step towards welfare and development of the people living in that constituency. With this there can be individual attention on the states after division which will see more 

urbanization; which in turn will benefit the people by providing them more employment opportunities. Not only this smaller areas to rule will help the people gain confidence in their government which is not possible with bigger areas. For example: currently Uttar Pradesh is the second largest state of India. But if we talk about the  developed cities of Uttar Pradesh we see hardly 2 to 3 names in the list with Lucknow, Noida and Kanpur. In contradiction if we consider Maharashtra we can find many developed cities like Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Pune and Nagpur.

     A simple point to explain whether this division is justified or not is peeping in your own lives. Nowadays, most of the families prefer to stay in nuclear family rather than joint family. The reason is very simple: If you stay in nuclear family you will have less expenses and you'll concentrate only on you, your partner's and your heir's expenditure rather than contributing on the expenses which is not related with your family. Moreover you will have a peaceful life and not have the tensions of a joint family.

Is it justified?

        Last week Team Anna's member Prashant Bhusan was attacked by members of Bhagat singh Kranti Sena which led the whole nation to a political tension. The attack was made after Prashant Bhusan's remarks on Kashmir that he made in an interview. According to Mr. Bhushan; Kashmir should be separated from India and be given to Pakistan because he feels that people of Kashmir don't feel that they are a part of India. In the interview he said following this statement that this was only a personal view of his. Later Mr. Anna Hazare said that such statements will obviously create political tension and this will hamper the anti corruption movement.
        Now it is hardly a week and Arvind Kejriwal a core committe member of team Anna was attacked by a person while Kejriwal was on his way to attend a program dedicated to enlight students of Uttar Pradesh against corruption. The attacker threw a slipper on Mr. Kejriwal who was caught later. It was later revealed that the attacker was former member of Congress and was disturbed by Team Anna's campaign against Congress government in Hisar, Haryana. He later said that he was an active supporter of the anti corruption movement which was led by team Anna, but now he points that the same team Anna has turned political asking the people not to vote for Congress government in Hisar; Haryana for the upcoming elections. The next day saw a big problem for team Anna as Rajendra singh and PB Rajgopal quitted from the post of core committe member of team Anna leaving behind only 20 members saying that team Anna's movemnet has turned political and that they will not support their movement anymore.
        The next day was a bad day for another team member of team Anna and this time the member was no other than former IPS officer Kiran Bedi. A report published in "The Indian Express" says that: Kiran Bedi is the next one who is caught in corruption. The report gives an account of Kiran Bedi's travel by air where she has taken more money from institutes to travel to their progaram. It says that the institutes gives her money to travel by business class but Kiran travels by economy class and uses her privilege of 75% discount in air travel for further discounts in economy class and the money which is saved by Kiran Bedia in this process is used by her for her personal expenses. Later on this matter Kiran Bedi called a press conference where she said that the money which is saved by her goes to the account of an NGO where Kiran Bedi works. The saved money is used when some institutes cannot pay me (Ms. Bedi) my travel money to attend their program.
       Personally even I feel that yes the movement is now having a political turn as team Anna is now more focused on blaming the government. I personally have attended the rallies held in Mumbai's Azad Maidan from 16th of August to 28th of August. During that time when my rally team was shouting slogans against the Congress government we were asked not to give any anti government slogans by members of INDIA AGAINST CORRUPTION as our fight is not against the government instead it is a fight against the corrupt system. So that time I found them correct. So now why is team Anna focused on hampering the image of Congress. The whole nation saw the list of scams in the year 2010 done by the Congress government.
      I am saying so because the government has said that a strong Lokpal Bill will be introduced in the Winter Session of Parliament to which even team Anna has agreed. The winter session is supposed to begin on November 9, 2011. But team Anna has started its campaign against the government before November. So now the question is pointed towards team Anna. Now I feel that team Anna has broken its promise though it hasn't made any. Mr. Anna Hazare broke his fast on the condition that the bill would be introduced in the winter session of Parliament. So, it is a general understanding that team Anna should have atleast waited till the winter session of Parliament.
     Firstly, above all such happenings now I see that even Mr. Anna Hazare has started behaving like politicians. For eg: recently he has announced that he is going on an indefinite silent fast (Maun Vrat) giving account of his degrading health like every politicians do for publicity. Now those who are followers of Mr. Anna Hazare they clearly know that Mr. Anna Hazare goes on silent fast for two days every month for self purification (Aatma Shudhi). So why is he now announcing that he is going on silent fast for indefinite period of time?
     Secondly, I feel that the recent attacks on team Anna whether it is Arvind Kejriwal or Kiran Bedi except Prashant Bhushan are the aftermaths of the election campaign against Congress government in Hisar, Haryana. I feel the attacks on Prashant Bhushan were not a gameplan of the Congress government. The statement which he made though personal has hurted the sentiments of the citizens of India and I feel the attack on him is justified. But the attack on the other two members is not justified as both team Anna and the government has made mistakes; with the government trying to redirect people's attention from corruption and team Anna getting more into politics and here both of them stand out to be guilty.
     Personally, I am always against everything that is wrong. Few months back when the whole nation was fighting against corruption I had extended my full support to it. But now I feel that team Anna's going against the government before the government could introduce the bill in the winter session of the Parliament is not correct on team Anna's part.

GAME

A big deed always has a big result. You study for your examination and you will score good marks. You practice for a match and you can perform well.

          Same is the case with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. After the 2001 earthquakes in Gujarat when he became the Chief Minister; Gujarat was in financial crisis. But when Modi came to power he started working hard to bring Gujarat back to track. He started rehabilitation work for those people whose home and family were destroyed because of the earthquake. And within three years Gujarat was back on track. But before coming back to track Modi had to pay a huge cost.

          The Godhra riots where more than 1000 people died leaving widows and orphans back post riots is the biggest spot on Modi's character. Main accused Modi post events said that "Every action has a reaction". This clearly states that he was behind the riots. 

           Moving ahead Modi still was people's favorite as he promoted developments in the state. He allowed foreign investors to come and expand their business in Gujarat. The Tata Nano which faced many controversies in West Bengal saw its first factory in Gujarat because of Narendra Modi.

           Then came the most awaited state elections in Gujarat which was feared to be Modi's end because of his involvement in 2002 Godhra riot case. But this time again he gave the oppositions a big defeat and held his seat again for the second time. So far Narendra Modi is the longest serving Chief Minister of Gujarat. 

            And why should he not be the Chief Minister of Gujarat? After all, Gujarat cannot forget what Modi has done done for them. He became the Chief Minister when Gujarat was in the most terrible times, from there he brought Gujarat to such a position in India that it is now the fastest developing state of India. It has left behind big cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai and now is considered to be the most profitable place to invest in with large no. of investors from India and abroad investing in Gujarat. Reliance and Tata two major companies of India selected Gujarat for their business to prosper. So just one mark is not enough to spoil ones image is correctly proved by Modi.

         Now again came the general elections, this time a big challenge for Modi to keep the image of his party  and Gujarat positive at the national level. The elections saw a win for the United Progresive Alliance (UPA) by defeating National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for two times in a row. Modi's government BJP was the major party of the NDA government. Though NDA lost at the centre Modi was still able to keep his power stable in the state.

        However, Modi's problem didn't end even after bringing his state to a respectable position. He was internationally criticised for his involvement in the Godhra riot case. His visit to the USA got cancelled because he is considered as a “Danger to humanity" by America and so they didn’t grant him the visa.

        Currently Mr. Modi is on his Sadbhaavna Mission that he ended yesterday.This was done to end vote banks. But even here he has to face a challenge from the opposition who also did a fast for 3 days just like Mr. Narendra Modi.

Now the actual Game starts:

        Mr. Modi who was continously saying that his government doesn’t support communalism got a break yesterday morning when he refused to wear a cap presented to him by an IMAM of the mosque. Despite having worn all kind of caps during the Sadbhaavna Mission presented to him he didn’t wear the Islam religion’s cap showing his disrespect towards the religion.

          Mr. Modi is mainly accused in the Godhra case of killing Muslims brutally but here he didn’t bother to wear the caps. Now what will this indicate? Will this not be an insult to Islam? He did wear other caps but he opposed it? So here a big question mark arises on his identity. What he did was not just an insult to their religion but was also a remembrance of the black day where both Hindu and Muslims died. This can again give rise to a big riot which will be in the favour of neither Hindus nor Muslims and not even Narendra Modi. Because after American reports came a day before Narendra Modi started his fast his race for the post of Prime Minister has increased. The reports said that, “Mr. Narendra Modi has worked towards the development of Gujarat and is the right candidate for the Prime Minister of the country.”

          Now Mr. Modi on one side is saying that they support all religions in their state but on the other side he is playing GAME with the sentiments of the people which can have bad consequences. On the other hand America which was initially neglecting Modi and not granting him the visa has started appreciating Mr. Modi because they knew it very well that it is next to impossible for the UPA government to win the forthcoming elections as their image is very much disturbed these days in India because of the scams coming out.

          As America knew it very well that Modi is a man of development who allows foreign investors to invest in his state, they thought that if he becomes the Prime Minister of the country he will prove as a gateway for them to interfere in India’s economy and politics. The only main reason behind supporting Modi is the own interest of USA. Otherwise they wouldn’t have even said a word about Mr. Modi. They waited for the right opportunity to comment on Modi and use him as they are 100% sure that NDA is going to win the next election. Modi is now seen to compete against Lal Krishna Adavani for the Prime Ministers’s post who also is a part of the same NDA government and was the right candidate for PM post as per NDA government till the American’s poked their nose in.

          Few know that when Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan it was America who used Osama Bin Laden to fight against Soviet Union as Laden knew local languages and was expert in guerrilla warfare. And when the Soviets retreated from Afghanistan, America went after Laden to kill him and that was the main reason why the 9/11 attacks took place.

          Now this GAME can even be fatal for India if the NDA government doesn’t realise the main motive behind this conspiracy of USA.