he Moving Finger Writes Are these the men who rule India?

T
By M.V. Kamath

The Sonia Gandhi government?for that is what it is?has begun well. It has taken Laloo Prasad Yadav into its open arms. But what sort of a gentleman is he? And what sort of a gentleman is his loyalist Taslimuddin?

On May 23, The Indian Express carried a front page report that said that ?while Rashtriya Janata Dal leader, Laloo Prasad Yadav faces six criminal cases and one disproportionate assets case, his loyalist Taslimuddin has nine criminal cases against him? and that ?both had to quit official posts because of chargesheets in these cases?.

There are more things said about Taslimuddin but let that go; what is said about Laloo Prasad is more to the point. Said the Express: ?Laloo Prasad Yadav, who is worth more than Rs 60 lakhs ?excluding the cost of vehicles and jewellery? according to the affidavit filed before the Election Commission, is facing a CBI case for possessing over Rs 46 lakhs beyond known sources of income.? Also, reported the paper ?there are six criminal cases pending against him in various courts in Ranchi and Patna related to the multi-crore rupee ?fodder scam?.? The CBI, it seems has charged Laloo?under different sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act with ?conspiracy to protect scamsters and providing them protective umbrellas and the misuse of power as a public servant.?

When the violence?mainly confined to Kolkata?did not succeed, the CPI general secretary, Ajoy Ghosh rushed to Moscow to get Stalin'sadvice. There is more about this. But who is the source of all this revelation.

The paper said that ?in 1997 he (Laloo Prasad) handed over the Chief Minister'schair to the safe hands of wife Rabri Devi before going to jail. He is now on bail in all the cases.? How very nice. What a shine will he give to the Sonia government.

The theory is that a man is innocent till he is proved otherwise. If the Bihar courts clear him, will the Supreme Court then cast aspersions on the former and demand that Laloo Prasad be tried in an Orissa court? That would stand to reason. And who are the other ?supporters? of the Sonia government? The communists. The Reds. Very nice people. In 1948 the Communist Party of India started a violent militant campaign in Kolkata. The objective was to establish communism in India, discarding the false freedom (jhuti azadi) given to India by the British. Nehru was derided.

When the violence?mainly confined to Kolkata? did not succeed, the CPI general secretary, Ajoy Ghosh rushed to Moscow to get Stalin'sadvice. There is more about this. But who is the source of all this revelation? It is Ranjit Gupta, former Inspector General of Police, West Bengal, as reported by The Asian Age.

The Sonia government has such nice friends. In 1942, P.C. Joshi, according to K.K. Chaudhuri in his seminal work Quit India Resolution, was calling all opponents of the CPI, including the Congress as ?fascist elements and fifth columnists?. That, one supposes, includes Jawaharlal Nehru, grandfather of Sonia'shusband, Rajiv.

And what other things does Chauduri have to say? According to him, P.C. Joshi ? was optimistic and felt compelled to support the (Muslim) League in its demand for the vivisection of India.One of the objectives of the propaganda was to stimulate a lively interest in the demand for Pakistan so as to recruit Muslims in their (communist) ranks.? More, the communists proclaimed India as NOT one nation but ?as collection of several separate nationalities? and that ?the demand for Pakistan is a just and democratic one because Hindus would oppress them in future.? How very, very patriotic.

If Srimati Sonia wants to get communist support to run her weak government, she is most welcome to do so. But the citizens of India should know the real face of communists. One day, when the opportunity arises, they will ditch her government and then the BJP will have its last laugh. And what about the DMK? Lest this writer is called prejudiced, it is better to quote the highly respectable The Statesman (May 22). Said the paper: ?Karunanidhi said at the beginning that the DMK would support Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister from outside the government and not join it. The moment Manmohan Singh is elected Prime Minister, the DMK turns around and says they have changed their mind and would join the government.? Noble fellows. Always true to their words. Their latest words, that is.

The less said about Sharad Pawar'sNational Congress Party (NCP), which was willing to serve the Sonia government even if she was to be the Prime Minister, the better it is. The nomination of Dr Manmohan Singh saved the NCP from total shame.

We are told that the Congress has universal support. Does it? According to an assistant editor of The Statesman (May 21): ?It is entirely possible, of course, that a Congress-Left government collapses due to its internal contradictions?nothing really unites them except that they have a common enemy, the BJP.? Says Swagato Ganguly: ?Whatever one might think of the BJP or the Left, they do have a political orientation. The Congress just has individually ambitious leaders with ruthless egos and dynasty, rather than a political programme as the uniting force. The fear is that once this uniting factor is eroded, the Congress will implode.?

There are still people in the Congress who want Rahul Gandhi to be Prime Minister: that is the level of political sophistication in the Congress. Ganguly is honest. He writes: ?How long before their (Congress leaders) ambitions burst out on the political arena and how will it affect governance? There doesn'tseem much reason to be terribly optimistic.?

?The moment Manmohan Singh is elected Prime Minister, the DMK turns around and says they have changed their mind and would join the government.? Noble fellows. Always true to their words. Their latest words, that is.

Besides, there are more members in the Sonia cabinet from the south than from the north. Soon the north is going to explode. The plain truth is that the Congress represents a meagre fraction of the country's people. The BJP, for instance, rules in more states than the Congress. The Congress speaks for no more than 35 per cent of the voters, which means that 65 per cent are against it.

Sonia Gandhi has performed no miracles as is claimed. She is made by the media. The Congress blames Vajpayee for not pulling up Narendra Modi. Did Sonia pull up Ram Jethmalani who was more foul-mouthed in his attacks on Vajpayee? The entire tamasha prior to Sonia declining prime ministership was stage-managed and sickening. And the syco-phancy shown by Congress leaders in Parliament Hall has been described by a writer (Indrajit Hazra) in Hindustan Times as ?full and obscene evidence? of Congress being a party of Nehru-Gandhi chaprasis.

And are these the men who rule India? Already the party has indicated its desire to raise income-tax, no doubt to tell rural India that all those urban voters with money will not go unpunished. This is called governance with a human face. Give rich farmers free electricity and free water and don'ttax them. Tax the rich urban voter. This is Congress philosophy. Welcome, Dr Manmohan Singh! God bless you!