In the most blatant example of vote bank politics under the UPA, for the first time in the history of our country we are witnessing communal planning, communal budgeting, communal banking and communal employment.
There is not the slightest doubt that under the three years rule of the UPA, India as an entity has suffered erosion on nearly all the fronts. Not only in terms of its prestige and status, or the security and welfare of its people and polity but there is a very steep decline in the institutional prestige as well, all of which are very important for a democratic country like India having a population of more than one billion people.
The decline began the day when the Congress party president Smt. Sonia Gandhi nominated Dr. Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister. He is on the post more by accident than by design and as a consequence he is in office but not in authority. Nothing can be more glaring to demonstrate the stark decline in the prestige of the high office of the Prime Minister than the fact that even after remaining on the post for the last more than three years, Dr. Manmohan Singh chose not to contest any direct election but managed to have a nomination in the Rajya Sabha. A country of more than one billion people has therefore a Prime Minister having no popular legitimacy and the person having real authority?Smt. Sonia Gandhi?has no accountability.
If the decay begins at the top, it has a cascading effect where constitutional norms are flouted with impunity. Three instances are sufficient to demonstrate this. In 2005 in spite of a clear majority the NDA was denied a chance to form the government in Jharkhand and when the matter came in the Supreme Court it was constrained to observe that patent fraud has been committed by not allowing the Vidhan Sabha to test the majority of an illegal government of UPA foisted arbitrarily. The case of Bihar is all the more glaring. The then Governor of Bihar Shri Buta Singh, when it became evident that NDA would have to be asked to form the government, under patent pressure of Shri Lalu Prasad arbitrarily dissolved Bihar Vidhan Sabha. The entire decision came for a serious reprimand by the Supreme Court and the dissolution order was quashed. Even the decision of the Government of India was seriously criticised. The people of Bihar gave a fitting reply to this subversion of Constitution and gave a very conclusive majority to the BJP-JD(U) combine and Shri Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister. The most glaring is the recent events in Goa. When the Congress government there came in a minority, the Speaker Shri Pratap Singh Rane disallowed two MLAs of the MGP, which consisted of the total membership of the party in the Vidhan Sabha from exercising their vote. This decision he took on a complain filed by a Congressman whose copy was never given nor noticed, nor hearing was given to the affected MLAs, who were denied their right to vote in the grossest abuse of power by the Speaker. He disregarded even the direction of the Governor, who had directed that the only agenda on July 30 would be to test the majority.
The glaring fact to note is the conspicuous silence of both Smt. Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Manmohan Singh in all these cases of flagrant violation of constitutional norms. Dr. Manmohan Singh maintains a complete silence over the killings of innocent by the CPM government and its goons in Nandigram and Singur in West Bengal and never even bothers to visit these areas. However, he rushes to Hyderabad because the CPM is demanding the head of Shri Rajshekhar Reddy for the deplorable killings of people in Khammam.
It would be fair to call UPA the ?Ulta Pulta Alliance?, which is currently in power. Ministers are continuously fighting in public and they don'trecognise the authority of the Prime Minister. Those whose place should be in jail are occupying high offices. India under UPA has become the only country among democracies whose sitting ministers are going and coming out of jails like ordinary criminals and that too with serious offences like murders, kidnappings, corruption and loot of public money. Even the allies keep on fighting among themselves. Supporting Congress in Delhi and opposing in Kolkata, Mumbai and Kerala has become the order of the day. The most ominous legacy of the UPA government is the compromise on issues of national security for patent vote bank politics. Repeated signals are being given to the terrorists and their patrons in India and abroad that action against terrorism is tradable for votes. POTA was repealed without any alternative instrument to curb the menace of terrorism. The Prime Minister publicly declares his loss of sleep over the arrest of some Indians abroad in terror-related offence. However, his sleep is never disturbed when innocent Indians in hundreds are killed in terrorist bomb blasts in Delhi, Mumbai and other places.
It is significant to note that under the UPA the terrorists have struck at Delhi, the political capital of India, Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, Bangalore, the scientific capital of India, and Varanasi, the spiritual capital of India. Now under pressure of coalition politics the Prime Minister has agreed to reduce security forces in Kashmir by disregarding the views of the armed forces and that too when tourists and devotees are being killed in Pahelgaon and Srinagar. India indeed has become a soft state under the UPA. Now Abdul Nasir Madhani, the principal conspirator in the 1998 Coimbatore blasts has been acquitted on grounds, which are fit to be challenged under law. It was the biggest terrorist attack in south India, about 60 people died and two hundred were injured. Shri L.K. Advani, the then Home Minister, was saved because his plane was late even though he was the main target. Now, as earlier, Madhani has become the poster boy of the Left, the Congress and the DMK. What message is being given in the country? On the contrary in the history books prepared by leftist historians for the NCERT to be taught to the school students, great freedom fighters like Tilak, Aurobindo Ghosh, Veer Savarkar, Khudiram Bose, Bhagat Singh and Rasbihari Bose were described as terrorist revolutionaries, which was strongly protested by the BJP in Parliament. What an irony, respected freedom fighters are described as terrorists and those who kill innocent are becoming the poster boys for vote bank politics!
In the most blatant example of vote bank politics under the UPA, for the first time in the history of our country we are witnessing communal planning, communal budgeting, communal banking and communal employment. We want all India to progress including minorities but for UPA the interest of minorities alone is important and that too for the sake of vote bank only. Under the Constitution, religion-based reservation is not permissible. Yet there is competition among UPA chief ministers to give reservation to Muslims in government jobs in spite of court orders setting it aside.
The UPA government came to power on the claim of being the saviour of aam adaami. However, the common man has been the biggest sufferer. Ever rising prices has made the life miserable, while there is rampant corruption in the import of pulses, wheat and sugar. India'sfood security is under threat. Let us ask a question: why the prices rise whenever Congress comes to power? Obviously there is something terribly wrong because during the NDA rule prices never rose for the whole of six years. It is not without reasons that the people of India after witnessing the all-round decline crave for the good government of BJP-led NDA headed by Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee.
(The writer is spokesperson of BJP and Member of Parliament. He can be contacted at ravis@sansad.nic.in)
