With the Pawars and the Gandhis humiliated where must the BJP go?

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]S[/dropcap]harad Pawar must now eat crow – lots of it. On 5th February, 2017, after the recent marathon elections had started in five States, he had publicly predicted in “The Indian Express” that the “The BJP will taste defeat in all the poll-bound States” because “The country’s landscape is changing” and “There is visible unrest against the BJP in all nooks and corners of the country”, he said.

Rahul Gandhi is another who must have his face plastered with at least half a dozen stinking eggs.

Now, after the BJP triumphed with unbelievable strength in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Uttarakhand, and cobbled up enough strength to form two additional State governments, what does Sharad Pawar have to say? Nothing, so far. He need not. All that the man who has been in politics for half a century and who was once the Defence and Food & Agricultural Minister of the country, the Chief Minister of the industrially advanced Maharashtra must do is simply hang his head in shame. Often known as the wizard of politics and who had the renowned Yeshwantrao Chavan as his mentor, must at least retire from politics and go back to Baramati town in Maharashtra from where he began his career as “Pawar sahib”.

Rahul Gandhi is another who must have his face plastered with at least half a dozen stinking eggs. Though born in a famous political family, the man has revealed such naiveté in matters of politics that even a 10-year-old boy today calls him by the pet name of “Pappu” that’s now stuck to him like the adhesive Fevicol. What’s worse, this Pappu has displayed a terribly gross impudence towards the country’s Prime Minister by inflicting all kinds of insults and abuses on him for the last four years. Considering that he descends from a waitress mother whose father was a soldier of Mussolini before going over to the KGB, the question comes to mind as to whether the upbringing of Congress’s “Rahul Baba” is a case of “the blood will tell”.

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]S[/dropcap]adly, with perhaps the exception of Nitish Kumar and Naveen Patnaik, there seems no sign of any change coming in the mindset and thought process of our Pawar Sahebs and Rahul Babas, of our Behenjis and Lalus, of Akhileshs and Mamatas, of the Karats and the Rajas, of the Dravidians and Muslims and the Reservationists of all kinds. They are all still stuck in the quagmire of their own narrow, outdated webs. They simply cannot think of exiting their “secular” versus “communal” mindset; they still believe that the “mai baap sarkar” must do everything for the needy — from loan waivers to farmers and homes, hospitals, security to the nation as well as to women, etc etc — all must be done by the sarkar an precious little by the initiative and hard work of the citizens. And yes, I forgot that they all want freedom of speech and expression to demand azadi that breaks the Indian nation into segments for dominance of the old or new kind, damn the consequences and the Constitution of India.

Fortunately, there is the BJP under Narendra Modi which is seeking out a New India wherein the poor are first served and then enabled to bear the burden a little so that the middle class is less burdened than it now is.

Even within the BJP, there are clusters which tend to close the windows to a pan-India picture. There are those who believe that, with the BJP riding high and mighty in the country, now is the time for PM Modi to stride quickly into constructing the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, enact a uniform civil code and abrogate Article 370. This thought appears a suicidal step for the BJP.

It is suicidal for the following reasons.

• The Ram Temple case is in the Supreme Court. Any step to construct the Temple through legislation will therefore result in the charge of communalism being revived with fury by the “secularists” against the BJP. In any case, the Temple construction law is unlikely to be passed in Parliament; even with the law coming about, the Supreme Court could justifiably strike it down as being illegal as long as the appeal against the Allahabad High Court’s verdict is pending. And the resultant disharmony created in the entire country will be devastating and put the breaks on India surging forward in any way, socially, economically and politically.

• Ditto with any attempt to enact a uniform civil code that will particularly arouse the emotion and equanimity of our largest minority community which, in the recent UP elections, had large numbers voting for BJP’s development agenda rather than for Hindutva. Besides, the Law Commission has already initiated a Questionnaire on the subject a few months ago. Let’s see what the response is, of what happens. In short, let the people at large decide without the BJP government fishing for trouble.

• There is a huge running debate on the possible constitutional way to abrogate Article 370, considering that. as that Article now stand, the abrogation process requires the concurrence of the dead Constituent Assembly of J&K State that stood dissolved after it finished its assigned work of enacting the State Constitution in November 1956. It therefore seems advisable to this writer for the Modi Government to work silently on it instead of crossing swords publicly with the “secularists” and the vicious Kashmiri “separatists” on that subject.

Fortunately, there is the BJP under Narendra Modi which is seeking out a New India wherein the poor are first served and then enabled to bear the burden a little so that the middle class is less burdened than it now is. It’s truly a restructuring of ideas rather than the “organizational restructuring” talked about ad nauseam by the Rahul Baba folks.

And, even as one waits for the Prime Minister’s plans for a New India to be spelt out, one cannot but resist making some suggestions for what both Old India and New India always needed. So, here goes as what the Modi-led government must tackle on an urgent mission mode to make large contributions to the Prime Minister’s New India vision.

1. Judicial Reforms to be undertaken for faster delivery of justice by curtailing the various existing layers, abolishing frivolous litigation, reducing the number of adjournments via various means like fines. A Commission under ex-Chief Justice, H.S.Dattu seems ideal in view of Justice Dattu’s openly expressed warnings on pending court cases.

2. Creating special Police Force to act as vigilantes for crimes against women and minor children. Aid and advice can be taken from the Rashtriya Sevika Dal which has a very large number of women already trained in police work, including use of arms.

3. Creating a large and comfortable public transport system to reduce road congestion all across urban India.

4. Subsidy towards bail bonds to those thousands stagnating in jails because of their inability to pay for bail bonds. Creation, simultaneously, of a large number of budding young lawyers to provide legal aid at highly subsidized rates.

5. Assigning “Swachh Bharat” work to prisoners in jail all across the country. This work to include removal stones from all lanes and roads so that “stone pelting” activity will also be curbed in Jammu and Kashmir.

6. Huge additions to the construction of schools AND provision of adequate teachers at all levels of schooling. Close monitoring of such teachers is essential.

7. Huge addition to public/private medical centre as well as affordable housing in rural India.

8. Resume Boy Scouts/Girl Guides and NCC activities on a big scale to inculcate patriotic as well as combat qualities. This will also aid recruitment of suitable people to our armed services.

The above are schemes which can be shared financially with the States that are willing.

The above schemes are apart from the several financial and entrepreneurial activities already being undertaken by the Modi government.

They all could give the New India which we are all looking for.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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Arvind Lavakare

Arvind Lavakare has been a freelance writer since 1957. He has written and spoken on sports on radio and TV. He currently writes on political issues regularly. His writings include a book on Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

His freelancing career began in "The Times of India" with a sports article published when he was a month shy of 20 years of age. He was also a regular political affairs columnist first for rediff.com for five years or so and then shifted to sify.com. He also wrote extensively for niticentral.com "till it stopped publication."

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