STEREO TYPING HINDUS OR MUSLIMS IS DOWNRIGHT STUPIDITY
http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2014/04/muslim-vote-could-impact-outcome-in.htmlI have been screaming it
out loud for a long time, and the exact same words are repeated by Analyst
Yashwant Deshmukh, "Despite their ability to fairly impact the election outcome,
Muslims in India should not be looked at as a monolithic body because they do
not decide in unison which party to vote for." Indeed, this is the view of Most
Muslims. Muslims value individuality, I always remember - My mother and father
voted differently in the elections, and did not raise an eyebrow over the
difference, that is a value I have come to cherish and is a part of my
pluralistic being.
It is downright stupidity
for a few members of BJP and Congress to claim that Hindus or Muslims are with
them, they are not. I read non-sense like 800 Million Indians will vote for
Modi… where were these folks born? It is dead wrong to assume that Hindus,
Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Dalits are monolithic. - There
is something missing with such thinking - on an average neither BJP nor INC will
have 50% of support from either Hindus or Muslims. People vote as individuals,
but the birds of the same feather flock together creating false
impressions.
Thank you Deshmukh Saheb for beefing it up, "“Based on our research, voters, both Hindu and Muslim, vote for the candidate they think will serve them best rather than voting along the communal or ethnic lines,” Deshmukh said.
Who is not playing a vote bank? The politicians are equal opportunity cheaters! The BJP appeals to the fundamentalist Hindus about Ram Mandir to garner their votes as a vote bank, the Congress does its own game and others do theirs. It is part of the politics. Muslims do not vote en-masse exclusively, just as Hindus, Sikhs or Christians don't - they all vote for the candidate that is less flawed and perceived to be just and fair. In the US elections - 85% of Indians voted for Obama, similar trends were with most minorities or immigrants. Indians are not a vote bank, they are smart voters like Muslims in India - they vote for the best. Right now, Muslims are in a dilemma who to vote for, and as the interviews with street vendors to political analysts, they will make up their mind.
We need to grow up and accept the verdict of the people, whatever they decide we have to honor their vote, and I urge this to hard core BJP-ites and Congress-ites.
Mike Ghouse
http://www.MikeGhouseforIndia.blogspot.com
Muslim Vote Could Impact Outcome in Indian Elections
NEW DELHI — As India's multi-phase
election continues, the country’s Muslim minority could have a
significant impact on the outcome of the vote in the biggest democratic
election in world history.
Muslims are uneasy about the popularity of the prime ministerial
candidate of the Hindu nationalist, Bharatiya Janata Party, Narendra
Modi.
The Imam of New Delhi’s Grand Mosque, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, urged Muslims
to vote for the Congress Party, that currently is the ruling party in
India.
Polling began this week in the first phase of voting that will continue over the next five weeks.
Muslims make up about 13 percent of the Indian population and in some
constituencies the Muslim vote can play a key role in deciding the
winner, analysts say.
Recent interviews with Muslims near the Grand Mosque showed division among voters.
Muhammad Anis, who sells fruit on a hand-drawn cart, said he will see who he likes before deciding who to back.
Another vendor, who gave his name as Haji, said that while he has a lot
of respect for the Imam, he will – like most people – vote for the
candidate he thinks is the best.
Analyst Hilal Ahmad researches voting trends among Muslims in India.
“It is impossible to even think that 180 million people make a unanimous
decision and vote along the same lines,” said Hilal Ahmad, who
researches voting trends among Muslims in India for the Center for
Developing Societies of New Delhi.
Analyst Yashwant Deshmukh said there are about 35 constituencies where
Muslims make up approximately 30 percent of the electorate.
“Then there are another 150 constituencies where Muslim population is
close to 10 percent of the total voters,” said Deshmukh, the founder of a
company called CVoter. “Which means, in the House of 543 seats, there
are about 200 seats where Muslim vote can somewhat affect the outcome.”
But Deshmukh said that despite their ability to fairly impact the
election outcome, Muslims in India should not be looked at as a
monolithic body because they do not decide in unison which party to vote
for.
“Based on our research, voters, both Hindu and Muslim, vote for the
candidate they think will serve them best rather than voting along the
communal or ethnic lines,” Deshmukh said,
He added that surveys have proven that Muslims cannot be swayed by anyone to vote for any particular party.
Researcher Ahmad said his institute found in previous surveys that 96
percent of Muslims considered poverty, unemployment and education as
their major issues.
But experts say it is difficult to find a pattern of voting among Indian Muslims.
In the last elections in the state of Gujarat, four in 10 Muslims voted for Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi is viewed by many in India as a controversial figure because of
what happened during one of the worst sectarian riots in country’s
history in 2002, when hundreds of Muslims were killed in the state of
Gujarat. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat then and critics say he
did little or nothing to stop the violence.
Deshmukh said the fact that Modi received significant Muslim votes in
Gujarat shows however that Muslims will vote for who they think can best
serve their constituency despite the violent past.
Still, analysts say it will be hard for Modi’s party, BJP, which has
emerged as the biggest challenger to the ruling Congress Party, to woo
Muslim voters nationwide.
Throughout the campaign Modi has campaigned on the economy and development and has tried to distance himself from the riots.
http://www.voanews.com/content/muslim-vote-could-impact-outcome-in-indian-elections/1890765.html
# # #
Friday, April 11, 2014
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Rahul Gandhi failed to defend his party’s governance.
Current Indian Government is unduly criticized over growth, it is a shame that the Prime Minister and the Prime Ministerial candidates are not defending.
Yes, India's growth rate dropped from 10% to 5% in the last three years. Indeed, that is the case with all economies in the world with a few exceptions, India is interconnected with the world economies, and is going to rise and fall with the world economies.
Indeed it is the congress party that took India to 10% growth and it should defend both the rise and fall. It is predicted to recover this year to 5.7% and move up from there.
UK’s economic growth is marked at 2.9% while the US is at 2.6%
We brag about India being the world economy, but unwilling to see the effect of interconnectedness.
Blaming the Indian government should always be there, but must be reasonable. I am surprised Congress is not defending it.
I urge the economists to write about it.
URL - http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2014/04/rahul-gandhi-failed-to-defend-his.html
...............................................................................................................................
Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and a book with the same title is coming up. Mike has a strong presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes all his work through many links.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Could Modi be a development disaster? By Ashish Kothari
Modi sounds more and more like Bush, bullying others into making decisions. If he wins, the only hope to save India would be a stronger opposition, who would have the balls to oppose frivilous bills in the interests of the common good. Sadly in America, the first and supposedly mature democracy, the senators and congresspersons were cowards and betrayed America by not standing up to the bully and going to war and destroying America and its economy. Could this happen in India? I hope not.
Continued - http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2014/04/could-modi-be-development-disaster-by.html
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net
Courtesy - India Together
Could Modi be a development disaster? By Ashish Kothari
Perhaps those who will cheer most if Modi becomes PM are the corporate sector and a part of the upwardly mobile middle classes. To them, people's struggles for justice, movements by the poor to resist displacement and land acquisition, and environmental activism are all 'hurdles' to the profits and prosperity they dream of.
According to Prajapati and Shah, Gujarat today has 30 per cent of India's major "accident hazard" industries and over 4500 hazardous chemical factories. Moreover, Anklesaria and Vapi in Gujarat have topped India's 'critical polluted areas' list in 2009, 2011 and 2013.Yet, as the duo found out from information generated using the RTI Act, there is as yet no disaster emergency plan, and the Gujarat State Disaster Management Agency (which has the Chief Minister as chairman) does not even have consolidated information on the industries. So much for Modi's much-touted efficient governance!
To add to this is the evidence of the poor state of health and education in the midst of the so-called Gujarat miracle. It has abysmally high school dropout rates (58 per cent), especially amongst adivasis (78 per cent) and Dalits (65 per cent), and it scores low on a number of health indicators. That is not surprising perhaps, given that its expenditure on education and health is significantly below the national average.
Full Report:
As real as the fears of Narendra Modi being a socially divisive Prime Minister are the dangers of his brand of development. In a recent campaign speech in Goa, Modi declared that if he becomes PM, he will ensure that mining is re-opened in the state; never mind the fact that it is the Supreme Court that has stayed it, due to its severe impacts on water, environment, and people's livelihoods.
In fact, Modi's tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister has been marked by a spate of such decisions with scant regard for either nature or for the poor, and a disdain of democracy. His penchant for mega-follies, such as the Rs. 2063-crore statue of Patel that he is getting installed by the Narmada river, only make the prospects of his taking over the country's reins that much more scary.
The UPA's record is not particularly positive, what with nearly 2.5 lakh hectares of forest land having been diverted in just a decade for such projects and continued forcible acquisition of land resulting in dispossession of farmers, adivasis, fisherfolk and others. Communities, people's movements and NGOs are up in arms over the rapidity with which the Union Environment minister, Mr. Moily, has given environmental and forest clearances to mining, industrial and infrastructural projects. But even this vast scale of social and ecological disruption could be overshadowed if Modinomics is given free rein.
If anyone still has doubts that sacrificing the environment for so-called development is justified for a country like India, look no further than a recent report by that most aggressive promoter of the current model of development, the World Bank. It estimates that the environmental damages India is subjected to, such as disease caused by air pollution, knocks 5.7 percentage points off its economic growth.
Given that growth in the last few years has not been much above this, and that the Bank report accounts for only some of the many kinds of damage, it is more than likely that even by measures of conventional GDP indicators, the economy is on decline. Not to mention that hidden in these figures is the horrifying and incalculable socio-cultural impact of displacement, dispossession, disease, premature death, malnutrition, and loss of employment that such damage entails.
The Gujarat model is a classic example of all this. In a recent report, labour and environmental activists Rohit Prajapati and Trupti Shah have laid bare the ecological and social impacts of Modinomics. To be sure, they have been outspoken critics of the excesses of past regimes too. Their analysis of the government's own records show seriously inflated figures of new employment creation, chronic underpayment, deliberate dispossession of farmers to create a mass of cheap labour for industries and coercive land acquisition. Both Prajapati and Shah are based in Vadodara, Gujarat, and members of the organisation Radical Socialist.
According to Prajapati and Shah, Gujarat today has 30 per cent of India's major "accident hazard" industries and over 4500 hazardous chemical factories. Moreover, Anklesaria and Vapi in Gujarat have topped India's 'critical polluted areas' list in 2009, 2011 and 2013.Yet, as the duo found out from information generated using the RTI Act, there is as yet no disaster emergency plan, and the Gujarat State Disaster Management Agency (which has the Chief Minister as chairman) does not even have consolidated information on the industries. So much for Modi's much-touted efficient governance!
To add to this is the evidence of the poor state of health and education in the midst of the so-called Gujarat miracle. It has abysmally high school dropout rates (58 per cent), especially amongst adivasis (78 per cent) and Dalits (65 per cent), and it scores low on a number of health indicators. That is not surprising perhaps, given that its expenditure on education and health is significantly below the national average.
There is a serious neglect of the poorer or socially marginalised regions of the state (with northern Gujarat and tribal areas being the most neglected) and of already marginalised sections like Muslims. This does not even factor in the ill-health being caused by chemical and other forms of pollution. The fact that Modinomics has been particularly iniquitous and socially disruptive is laid out in great detail by a number of analysts in the book Poverty Amidst Prosperity: Essays on the Trajectory of Development in Gujarat, edited by Atul Sood.
Modi's developmental paradigm includes sidestepping all norms to make land and water available to corporates such as the Adanis, Reliance and Tatas, including environmental clearances based on flimsy impact assessment, hugely subsidised land and resource allocations, and forcible land acquisition. It also has more than a touch of megalomania.
His plans for the Patel statue are symptomatic; envisioned as the world's largest (and possibly the costliest too), the tourism associated with it will take away lands, water and other resources of 70 villages. A substantial part of this is adivasi agricultural land, and the state government has created a Kevadia Area Development Authority with special powers to acquire such land or declare it non-agricultural.
Then there is the Kalpasar project, in which Modi wants to dam the Gulf of Khambhat to create the world's largest freshwater reservoir, purportedly to fulfil the state's water needs. Apart from the colossal social and ecological costs of such a project, this completely ignores much cheaper, more sustainable, and more democratically managed alternatives to water security such as those demonstrated by civil society groups in Kachchh and Saurashtra.
It is unlikely that Modi will change his developmental outlook should he take the seat in Delhi. He will instruct the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to carry on Mr. Moily's good work of clearing every project that comes its way and if some of the environmental laws that people fought to get in the 1980s and 1990s seem to be in the way, he will initiate measures to dilute them. This has in any case been the trend since economic globalisation was introduced into India and Modi will take it much further.
It is also possible that some of the progressive rights-based legislation and programmes that the UPA brought in, largely due to civil society initiatives it was open to, will be modified. Activists in Gujarat report that there is an atmosphere of intolerance and authoritarianism that discourages ay form of dissent. A fifth of the murders of RTI activists in the country in recent times, have taken place in Gujarat; one of these was of environmental and social activist Amit Jethwa, who had exposed the links of BJP MP Dinu Solanki with illegal mining near Gir forest.
According to Prajapati and Shah, when villagers and activists announced a peaceful protest against Modi's visit to the Narmada river to 'break the ground' for the Patel statue on 31 October 2013, they were detained and told that no-one should speak out when the CM is there.
Earlier in 2013, a public hearing for a proposed nuclear power station in Bhavnagar district was held under heavy police bandobast, in an atmosphere of repression and fear. Protests by fisherfolk, farmers, adivasis, marginalised people in villages and cities who are being displaced or whose lands are being taken away to be given at a pittance to private companies have been ignored or ruthlessly quelled.
Across India, many of the struggles for rights-based laws, such as the Right to Information Act, have been driven by citizens asking for greater voice and more direct democracy. If Gujarat's record is an indication, it is likely that such struggles will be dealt with harshly by Modi as PM.
In respect of all the above, particularly the model of globalised 'development', Modi and the BJP are no different from other mainstream political leaders and parties. They perpetuate a longer history of appropriation and centralised control of land and natural resources (which saw the biggest thrust during colonial times) and build on the blind adoption of the western model of development by our leaders since independence. But Modi's combination of undemocratic functioning, megalomania, faith in big private corporations, and social divisiveness could take the destructive model to new heights.
Modi will also accentuate further the utter disregard for alternative forms of well-being that have characterised previous regimes. India has thousands of on-ground practical alternatives, such as sustainable agriculture and forestry, rural and urban small scale manufacturing, crafts-based jobs, artisanal fisheries, localised service sector employment, decentralised water harvesting and energy production in villages and cities, direct self-governance by gram sabhas and struggles for social justice for women, Dalits and others, among many more. Several of these are in Gujarat, and a small sample can be seen at www.vikalpsangam.org.
Perhaps those who will cheer most if Modi becomes PM are the corporate sector and a part of the upwardly mobile middle classes. To them, people's struggles for justice, movements by the poor to resist displacement and land acquisition, and environmental activism are all 'hurdles' to the profits and prosperity they dream of.
Some of UPA's rights-based legislations, the revision of the Land Acquisition Act, or moves by individual ministers, such as the conscientious current Minister for Tribal Affairs, have also alarmed these sections. These are seen as brakes on India's ascendance to global superpower status.
It is of little consequence to these supporters of the globalised growth model that it has created almost no net growth in employment in the formal sector, has left well over half the country's population in poverty and ill-health and that it is undermining the prospects of healthy, decent living of future generations. This has been analysed in great detail in Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India (Viking/Penguin 2012).
Unfortunately, it is possible that large parts of even other classes will vote for Modi, dreaming of reaching the same status as the 10 per cent of Indians who own 53 per cent of its wealth today. That will be a colossal folly, for in such a model of development, these dreams will only become nightmares, just as they have wherever it has been imposed by whichever party in power.
And so, the final question: who then does one vote for? The UPA has unfortunately not shown itself to be particularly respectful of ecological issues, social and economic equity, or the needs of dignified employment (though one must not deny their contribution to rights-based legislation and programmes). The Aam Aadmi Party shows some promise of a different kind of politics and economic strategies that may benefit the 'common' person, but with no policy statement or manifesto till now, it is difficult to gauge.
Separately, I have written how all this makes it imperative to make national elections far less consequential than they are now. But that's in the long run, and one needs to decide on the upcoming elections. All I can say is that most constituencies are likely to have at least one person who is known to be honest, has worked his or her way up through social causes, and is upfront in defending sustainability, social justice and secularism. Let us hope that enough such people enter Parliament, so that irrespective of which party forms the government and who becomes the Prime Minister, no one shall have the free rein to ruin the country through short-sighted policies and sell-out to corporations.
http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=30853
—(Courtesy: India Together)
Continued - http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2014/04/could-modi-be-development-disaster-by.html
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net
Courtesy - India Together
Could Modi be a development disaster? By Ashish Kothari
Perhaps those who will cheer most if Modi becomes PM are the corporate sector and a part of the upwardly mobile middle classes. To them, people's struggles for justice, movements by the poor to resist displacement and land acquisition, and environmental activism are all 'hurdles' to the profits and prosperity they dream of.
According to Prajapati and Shah, Gujarat today has 30 per cent of India's major "accident hazard" industries and over 4500 hazardous chemical factories. Moreover, Anklesaria and Vapi in Gujarat have topped India's 'critical polluted areas' list in 2009, 2011 and 2013.Yet, as the duo found out from information generated using the RTI Act, there is as yet no disaster emergency plan, and the Gujarat State Disaster Management Agency (which has the Chief Minister as chairman) does not even have consolidated information on the industries. So much for Modi's much-touted efficient governance!
To add to this is the evidence of the poor state of health and education in the midst of the so-called Gujarat miracle. It has abysmally high school dropout rates (58 per cent), especially amongst adivasis (78 per cent) and Dalits (65 per cent), and it scores low on a number of health indicators. That is not surprising perhaps, given that its expenditure on education and health is significantly below the national average.
Full Report:
As real as the fears of Narendra Modi being a socially divisive Prime Minister are the dangers of his brand of development. In a recent campaign speech in Goa, Modi declared that if he becomes PM, he will ensure that mining is re-opened in the state; never mind the fact that it is the Supreme Court that has stayed it, due to its severe impacts on water, environment, and people's livelihoods.
In fact, Modi's tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister has been marked by a spate of such decisions with scant regard for either nature or for the poor, and a disdain of democracy. His penchant for mega-follies, such as the Rs. 2063-crore statue of Patel that he is getting installed by the Narmada river, only make the prospects of his taking over the country's reins that much more scary.
The UPA's record is not particularly positive, what with nearly 2.5 lakh hectares of forest land having been diverted in just a decade for such projects and continued forcible acquisition of land resulting in dispossession of farmers, adivasis, fisherfolk and others. Communities, people's movements and NGOs are up in arms over the rapidity with which the Union Environment minister, Mr. Moily, has given environmental and forest clearances to mining, industrial and infrastructural projects. But even this vast scale of social and ecological disruption could be overshadowed if Modinomics is given free rein.
If anyone still has doubts that sacrificing the environment for so-called development is justified for a country like India, look no further than a recent report by that most aggressive promoter of the current model of development, the World Bank. It estimates that the environmental damages India is subjected to, such as disease caused by air pollution, knocks 5.7 percentage points off its economic growth.
Given that growth in the last few years has not been much above this, and that the Bank report accounts for only some of the many kinds of damage, it is more than likely that even by measures of conventional GDP indicators, the economy is on decline. Not to mention that hidden in these figures is the horrifying and incalculable socio-cultural impact of displacement, dispossession, disease, premature death, malnutrition, and loss of employment that such damage entails.
The Gujarat model is a classic example of all this. In a recent report, labour and environmental activists Rohit Prajapati and Trupti Shah have laid bare the ecological and social impacts of Modinomics. To be sure, they have been outspoken critics of the excesses of past regimes too. Their analysis of the government's own records show seriously inflated figures of new employment creation, chronic underpayment, deliberate dispossession of farmers to create a mass of cheap labour for industries and coercive land acquisition. Both Prajapati and Shah are based in Vadodara, Gujarat, and members of the organisation Radical Socialist.
According to Prajapati and Shah, Gujarat today has 30 per cent of India's major "accident hazard" industries and over 4500 hazardous chemical factories. Moreover, Anklesaria and Vapi in Gujarat have topped India's 'critical polluted areas' list in 2009, 2011 and 2013.Yet, as the duo found out from information generated using the RTI Act, there is as yet no disaster emergency plan, and the Gujarat State Disaster Management Agency (which has the Chief Minister as chairman) does not even have consolidated information on the industries. So much for Modi's much-touted efficient governance!
To add to this is the evidence of the poor state of health and education in the midst of the so-called Gujarat miracle. It has abysmally high school dropout rates (58 per cent), especially amongst adivasis (78 per cent) and Dalits (65 per cent), and it scores low on a number of health indicators. That is not surprising perhaps, given that its expenditure on education and health is significantly below the national average.
There is a serious neglect of the poorer or socially marginalised regions of the state (with northern Gujarat and tribal areas being the most neglected) and of already marginalised sections like Muslims. This does not even factor in the ill-health being caused by chemical and other forms of pollution. The fact that Modinomics has been particularly iniquitous and socially disruptive is laid out in great detail by a number of analysts in the book Poverty Amidst Prosperity: Essays on the Trajectory of Development in Gujarat, edited by Atul Sood.
Modi's developmental paradigm includes sidestepping all norms to make land and water available to corporates such as the Adanis, Reliance and Tatas, including environmental clearances based on flimsy impact assessment, hugely subsidised land and resource allocations, and forcible land acquisition. It also has more than a touch of megalomania.
His plans for the Patel statue are symptomatic; envisioned as the world's largest (and possibly the costliest too), the tourism associated with it will take away lands, water and other resources of 70 villages. A substantial part of this is adivasi agricultural land, and the state government has created a Kevadia Area Development Authority with special powers to acquire such land or declare it non-agricultural.
Then there is the Kalpasar project, in which Modi wants to dam the Gulf of Khambhat to create the world's largest freshwater reservoir, purportedly to fulfil the state's water needs. Apart from the colossal social and ecological costs of such a project, this completely ignores much cheaper, more sustainable, and more democratically managed alternatives to water security such as those demonstrated by civil society groups in Kachchh and Saurashtra.
It is unlikely that Modi will change his developmental outlook should he take the seat in Delhi. He will instruct the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to carry on Mr. Moily's good work of clearing every project that comes its way and if some of the environmental laws that people fought to get in the 1980s and 1990s seem to be in the way, he will initiate measures to dilute them. This has in any case been the trend since economic globalisation was introduced into India and Modi will take it much further.
It is also possible that some of the progressive rights-based legislation and programmes that the UPA brought in, largely due to civil society initiatives it was open to, will be modified. Activists in Gujarat report that there is an atmosphere of intolerance and authoritarianism that discourages ay form of dissent. A fifth of the murders of RTI activists in the country in recent times, have taken place in Gujarat; one of these was of environmental and social activist Amit Jethwa, who had exposed the links of BJP MP Dinu Solanki with illegal mining near Gir forest.
According to Prajapati and Shah, when villagers and activists announced a peaceful protest against Modi's visit to the Narmada river to 'break the ground' for the Patel statue on 31 October 2013, they were detained and told that no-one should speak out when the CM is there.
Earlier in 2013, a public hearing for a proposed nuclear power station in Bhavnagar district was held under heavy police bandobast, in an atmosphere of repression and fear. Protests by fisherfolk, farmers, adivasis, marginalised people in villages and cities who are being displaced or whose lands are being taken away to be given at a pittance to private companies have been ignored or ruthlessly quelled.
Across India, many of the struggles for rights-based laws, such as the Right to Information Act, have been driven by citizens asking for greater voice and more direct democracy. If Gujarat's record is an indication, it is likely that such struggles will be dealt with harshly by Modi as PM.
In respect of all the above, particularly the model of globalised 'development', Modi and the BJP are no different from other mainstream political leaders and parties. They perpetuate a longer history of appropriation and centralised control of land and natural resources (which saw the biggest thrust during colonial times) and build on the blind adoption of the western model of development by our leaders since independence. But Modi's combination of undemocratic functioning, megalomania, faith in big private corporations, and social divisiveness could take the destructive model to new heights.
Modi will also accentuate further the utter disregard for alternative forms of well-being that have characterised previous regimes. India has thousands of on-ground practical alternatives, such as sustainable agriculture and forestry, rural and urban small scale manufacturing, crafts-based jobs, artisanal fisheries, localised service sector employment, decentralised water harvesting and energy production in villages and cities, direct self-governance by gram sabhas and struggles for social justice for women, Dalits and others, among many more. Several of these are in Gujarat, and a small sample can be seen at www.vikalpsangam.org.
Perhaps those who will cheer most if Modi becomes PM are the corporate sector and a part of the upwardly mobile middle classes. To them, people's struggles for justice, movements by the poor to resist displacement and land acquisition, and environmental activism are all 'hurdles' to the profits and prosperity they dream of.
Some of UPA's rights-based legislations, the revision of the Land Acquisition Act, or moves by individual ministers, such as the conscientious current Minister for Tribal Affairs, have also alarmed these sections. These are seen as brakes on India's ascendance to global superpower status.
It is of little consequence to these supporters of the globalised growth model that it has created almost no net growth in employment in the formal sector, has left well over half the country's population in poverty and ill-health and that it is undermining the prospects of healthy, decent living of future generations. This has been analysed in great detail in Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India (Viking/Penguin 2012).
Unfortunately, it is possible that large parts of even other classes will vote for Modi, dreaming of reaching the same status as the 10 per cent of Indians who own 53 per cent of its wealth today. That will be a colossal folly, for in such a model of development, these dreams will only become nightmares, just as they have wherever it has been imposed by whichever party in power.
And so, the final question: who then does one vote for? The UPA has unfortunately not shown itself to be particularly respectful of ecological issues, social and economic equity, or the needs of dignified employment (though one must not deny their contribution to rights-based legislation and programmes). The Aam Aadmi Party shows some promise of a different kind of politics and economic strategies that may benefit the 'common' person, but with no policy statement or manifesto till now, it is difficult to gauge.
Separately, I have written how all this makes it imperative to make national elections far less consequential than they are now. But that's in the long run, and one needs to decide on the upcoming elections. All I can say is that most constituencies are likely to have at least one person who is known to be honest, has worked his or her way up through social causes, and is upfront in defending sustainability, social justice and secularism. Let us hope that enough such people enter Parliament, so that irrespective of which party forms the government and who becomes the Prime Minister, no one shall have the free rein to ruin the country through short-sighted policies and sell-out to corporations.
http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=30853
—(Courtesy: India Together)
A Primer on India’s Parliamentary Elections
This is a good piece to share with those who just want to get an outline of the election process It would be meaningful to your non-Indian friends and your kids. If I get the time, I will put together something like this with a few more details about how the Indian Government works.
Please remember - not all Americans are Democrats or Republicans, neither all Indians support Indian National congress party or Bharatiya Janata Party. The supporters of each party will accuse the other, some don't even understand democracy like our former President Bush "either you are with us or against us". Many a Indians do not understand democracy either if such non-sense comes out of their mouths when some one differs with them. If you hold grudges against the other for differing in a civil dialogue, then you really have not understood democracy. In a true democracy, we learn to respect the otherness of others without having to agree with each other. To find solutions we have to understand the otherness of others and their motivations.
Thanks to New York Times, there are more India centric articles at http://MikeGhouseforIndia.blogspot.com and on facebook at: www.facebook.com/IndiaPluralism
This article is at: http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-primer-on-indias-parliamentary.html
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net
# # #
Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press Supporters of Indian National Congress campaigning at a rally in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on Monday.
Over the next five weeks, Indians will take part in what is considered the world’s largest democratic exercise. Malavika Vyawahare, a reporter for India Ink, answers some basic questions about the election:
Please remember - not all Americans are Democrats or Republicans, neither all Indians support Indian National congress party or Bharatiya Janata Party. The supporters of each party will accuse the other, some don't even understand democracy like our former President Bush "either you are with us or against us". Many a Indians do not understand democracy either if such non-sense comes out of their mouths when some one differs with them. If you hold grudges against the other for differing in a civil dialogue, then you really have not understood democracy. In a true democracy, we learn to respect the otherness of others without having to agree with each other. To find solutions we have to understand the otherness of others and their motivations.
Thanks to New York Times, there are more India centric articles at http://MikeGhouseforIndia.blogspot.com and on facebook at: www.facebook.com/IndiaPluralism
This article is at: http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-primer-on-indias-parliamentary.html
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net
# # #
A Primer on India’s Parliamentary Elections
Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press Supporters of Indian National Congress campaigning at a rally in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on Monday.
Over the next five weeks, Indians will take part in what is considered the world’s largest democratic exercise. Malavika Vyawahare, a reporter for India Ink, answers some basic questions about the election:
Q.Who are voters electing?
A. Voters choose the representatives to India’s lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, and
the composition of that body determines which party chooses the prime
minister and governs the country for the next five years.
India Votes
News and analysis on the world’s largest election.
About 814.5 million people are eligible to
cast ballots in this election. Voters will choose 543 members of the
lower house; the president of India, a titular head of state, selects
two other members of the chamber.
Q.What are the main political parties? How have their candidates risen to power?
A. India has a multiparty system with more than 50 regional parties and
two major national parties, the Indian National Congress, which leads
the governing coalition, and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Congress party, which was formed in 1885,
when India was still under British rule, has dominated Indian politics.
The party played a leading role in the struggle against colonial rule,
giving rise to some of the most prominent national leaders, including
Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, who went on to become the first
prime minister of India.
Until the early 1990s, it had such broad
support from the public that it was capable of forming a government
without coalition partners. The descendants of Mr. Nehru dominate the
party, and three prime ministers have come from that family: Mr. Nehru;
his daughter, Indira Gandhi; and his grandson, Rajiv Gandhi.
Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984; her
son Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991. His widow, Sonia Gandhi, took
over the party and in recent years promoted their son, Rahul Gandhi, as
the heir to their political legacy. Rahul Gandhi is now the vice
president of the Congress party.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, the other leading
national party, is the main opposition in the Lok Sabha. Its roots are
in the Hindu nationalist organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh.
The Bharatiya Janata Party won the 1998
elections as a leader of the National Democratic Alliance and stayed in
power until 2004.
Narendra Modi, the party’s candidate for
prime minister in this year’s election, is a member of the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh and a self-described Hindu nationalist.
Tsering Topgyal/Associated PressNarendra
Modi, prime ministerial candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party, at the
release of the party’s election manifesto in New Delhi on Monday.
Mr. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat, a state in western India, during riots in 2002.
At least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in clashes between
Hindus and Muslims. Mr. Modi has long been accused of not doing enough
to stop the violence, although a court rejected efforts to prosecute
him. Nevertheless, he remains a divisive figure.
The Aam Aadmi Party, or the Common Man Party,
was born out of mass street protests against corruption that erupted in
2010 and 2011. Its leader is a retired civil servant named Arvind
Kejriwal.
The party surprised political analysts by
winning 28 seats in the Delhi state elections, enough to seat Mr.
Kejriwal as chief minister. But Mr. Kejriwal resigned just 49 days into his term, accusing the two main parties of failing to support an anticorruption bill.
The upstart party declared its national
ambitions early and has fielded candidates for Lok Sabha seats across
the country. But few expect it to pose a serious challenge to the
established parties in the national elections.
Q.How does the voting work?
A.The Election Commission of India has
mobilized more than 10 million polling officials and security personnel
to carry out the election. There will be about 930,000 polling
stations.
Voting is staggered. In this election, it will be done in nine phases from April 7 to May 12. Voting will be done by electronic ballot.
This is the first time that nonresident
Indians are allowed to vote. It is also the first time voters will be
able to exercise the option, “none of the above.”
The results are scheduled to be announced on May 16.
Biju Boro/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesElection officials sealing an electronic voting machine with wax after polling came to an end in Tezpur, Assam, on Monday.
Q.How is the prime minister chosen?
A.The party that wins the greatest number of
seats usually forms the government and chooses the prime minister.
Getting a majority, or 272 seats, usually requires building a coalition
with smaller parties.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has named Mr. Modi
as its prime ministerial candidate for this election, but parties are
not required to choose a candidate before elections. The Congress party
has not named a prime ministerial nominee.
The single largest party in the house usually
chooses its prime minister, who may be a member of the Lok Sabha or the
Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament.
Q.What are governing coalitions and how are they formed?
A.India’s multiparty democracy allows for the
formation of alliances between political parties. Since the mid-1990s,
coalition governments have been the norm as no party has been able to
secure a majority on its own. Alliances are fluid and can change any
time after the elections.
The two main coalitions in India are the
Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and the Bharatiya Janata
Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
Q.What are some key themes that have emerged in the election? What do voters care about?
A.Corruption: A slew of corruption scandals
involving the Congress-led government, and an anticorruption push by the
Aam Aadmi Party have left an impression on voters.
Economy: Slowing growth, persistent unemployment and high food prices have led to disenchantment with the present government.
Secularism: The ascent of Mr. Modi and his
Hindu nationalist party has raised concerns that members of minority
religious groups would face discrimination if the Bharatiya Janata Party
came to power.
Q.How will these elections influence India’s relationship with Pakistan, Asia and the West?
A.Whether foreign policy is a high priority for
the next government depends on the strength of the coalition. If it is
weak, it will be too preoccupied with domestic battles to take on big
initiatives in foreign policy.
The current administration, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the Congress party, has not made improving relations with Pakistan a priority as domestic issues have kept the government occupied.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has made it clear that it would respond firmly to any Chinese territorial aggression, but Mr. Modi is also mindful of India’s economic ties with China. No matter which party is in charge, India is likely to avoid jeopardizing economic relations with China, which has emerged as a key trading partner and potential investor.
In recent years, both European and American envoys have met with Mr. Modi as he modeled himself as an investor-friendly politician. And with his strong following among Indian-Americans, business ties between the United States and India would likely grow.
But the next prime minister, regardless of party, will face strained relations with the United States. An Indian diplomat was arrested on visa fraud charges in December and later indicted, which set off a furor in India.
# # # #
A few of my articles :
India’s foreign policy is not likely to shift
drastically, but a strong Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition would
probably make larger changes because of the party’s Hindu nationalist
streak and pro-business stand.
Adnan Abidi/ReutersLi
Keqiang, left, premier of China, with Manmohan Singh, prime minister of
India, during the former’s visit to India in May this year.
The current administration, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the Congress party, has not made improving relations with Pakistan a priority as domestic issues have kept the government occupied.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has outlined a
zero-tolerance policy toward terrorism and accused Pakistan of
infiltrating India. India under Mr. Modi would be unlikely to adopt a
confrontational stance with Pakistan, but it is doubtful it would be on
friendlier terms with its neighbor.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has made it clear that it would respond firmly to any Chinese territorial aggression, but Mr. Modi is also mindful of India’s economic ties with China. No matter which party is in charge, India is likely to avoid jeopardizing economic relations with China, which has emerged as a key trading partner and potential investor.
Though the Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto
has reiterated the party’s opposition to foreign investment in retail
chains that sell more than one brand of products, known in India as
multibrand retail, Mr. Modi has welcomed foreign investment in his home
state of Gujarat. His business-friendly reputation is likely to help
strengthen ties with the West, which had shunned him after the 2002
Gujarat riots. The United States denied him a visa.
In recent years, both European and American envoys have met with Mr. Modi as he modeled himself as an investor-friendly politician. And with his strong following among Indian-Americans, business ties between the United States and India would likely grow.
But the next prime minister, regardless of party, will face strained relations with the United States. An Indian diplomat was arrested on visa fraud charges in December and later indicted, which set off a furor in India.
# # # #
A few of my articles :
- India's future and moving forward - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/indias-future-narendra-mo_b_4177079.html
- India's experiment in clean politics - http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2014/03/indias-experiment-with-clean-politics.html
- Time for Modi to soften up - http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2014/03/its-time-modi-shows-strength-in-softness.html
- Modi's Nakshatras are not in his favor -http://www.opednews.com/articles/Narendra-Modi-s-Nakshatras-by-Mike-Ghouse-Anti-christian_Bharatiya-Janata-Party_Business_Congress-131227-999.html
Monday, April 7, 2014
Rahul Gandhi - End of the Gandhi Line
By John Elliot / April 2, 2014 12:56 PM EDT
How much does it tell you about a man if he cannot decide whether he wants to have a beard or not? What does it indicate ifhe appears clean shaven for a few days, then sports a stubble, then is clean shaven again, then appears with a full black beard till it vanishes again?
This is not a youngster hanging out with buddies or backpacking across America but instead a top member of India's leading political dynasty who is nearing his 44th birthday and is photographed and filmed every time he appears in public.
He is Rahul Gandhi, the 43-year-old heir apparent to the prime ministership of India—or so it seemed until it became apparent he did not want the job but then seemed to be working toward it, though he would never confirm his ultimate ambitions or intentions.
Confused? So are the people of India.
More: http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/04/11/gandhi-india-politics.html
--
How much does it tell you about a man if he cannot decide whether he wants to have a beard or not? What does it indicate ifhe appears clean shaven for a few days, then sports a stubble, then is clean shaven again, then appears with a full black beard till it vanishes again?
This is not a youngster hanging out with buddies or backpacking across America but instead a top member of India's leading political dynasty who is nearing his 44th birthday and is photographed and filmed every time he appears in public.
He is Rahul Gandhi, the 43-year-old heir apparent to the prime ministership of India—or so it seemed until it became apparent he did not want the job but then seemed to be working toward it, though he would never confirm his ultimate ambitions or intentions.
Confused? So are the people of India.
More: http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/04/11/gandhi-india-politics.html
--
Economist - runs 3 pieces on India's elections
India’s election
Can anyone stop Narendra Modi?
He will probably become India’s next prime minister. That does not mean he should be
Apr 5th 2014
Can anyone stop Narendra Modi?
He will probably become India’s next prime minister. That does not mean he should be
Apr 5th 2014
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21600106-he-will-probably-become-indias-next-prime-minister-does-not-mean-he-should-be-can-anyone
India’s new voters
We are connected
Rapid social change and assertive voters will improve Indian democracy
We are connected
Rapid social change and assertive voters will improve Indian democracy
Filthy India
Mucking it up
The capital’s battle with rubbish shows the recalcitrance of the informal economy
Mucking it up
The capital’s battle with rubbish shows the recalcitrance of the informal economy
Indian Hard-Liner Narendra Modi Leads in Prime Minister Race
BJP Candidate Tries to Leave Religious Politics Behind and Run on Economic Development in Election Starting Monday
By
RAYMOND ZHONG
Updated
April 4, 2014 11:23 p.m. ET
NEW
DELHI—The man leading polls to become India's next prime minister may finally be
outrunning his past.
When
thousands of terrified Muslims fled their homes during religious riots in the
state of Gujarat in 2002, the state's Hindu-nationalist chief minister opposed
setting up relief camps, saying these would be "child-making factories."
After
alluding to polygamy and high birthrates in the Muslim community, Narendra Modi
declared: "There is a need to teach a lesson to those people who are expanding
their population."
The
speech reinforced Mr. Modi's image as a Hindu hard-liner. Three years later, the
U.S. denied Mr. Modi a visa, responding to allegations that he hadn't done
enough to stop the 2002 rioting, in which mobs killed more than 1,000 people,
most of them Muslims.
Now,
in national elections that start Monday, Mr. Modi has sought to distance himself
from religious politics. Facing off against Rahul Gandhi, the 43-year-old scion
of India's powerful Nehru-Gandhi political clan, whose Congress party has
governed India since 2004, Mr. Modi has positioned himself as a champion of
economic development and no-nonsense government. He cites growth and
industrialization under his leadership in Gujarat and says all of India will
enjoy the same if he becomes premier.
"I
am known to be a Hindu-nationalist leader," Mr. Modi said in one of his first
speeches after becoming the prime ministerial candidate for the Bharatiya Janata
Party, or BJP. But "my real thought is toilets first, temples later."
That
message has resonated with voters. Despite Mr. Modi's sectarian baggage, opinion
polls show the BJP well ahead of Congress, its main rival. A survey by the Pew
Research Center found that 63% of respondents want a BJP-led government, while
just 19% favor Congress.
Mr.
Modi's critics say his hard-line affiliations make him unfit to lead a large,
profoundly diverse country such as India. Hindus make up 80% of India's
population and Muslims 13%.
Campaigning
this week in the technology hub of Gurgaon, on New Delhi's outskirts, Mr. Modi
stepped out of a helicopter and greeted thousands of cheering fans. Some wore
paper masks bearing his bearded, bespectacled likeness. Others hailed him with a
chant used to worship the Hindu god Shiva.
"Electricity
in every home, toilets in every home, education for children, hospitals for the
elderly. Brothers and sisters, can't we do this in our country?" Mr. Modi asked
the rally. "We need to make this happen together."
A
supporter uses a 'Modi Fan' to take respite from the heat in Sivasagar, last
week. Sipa
Press
India's
815 million eligible voters are going to the polls at a time of growing national
dissatisfaction. To many, corruption seems to have penetrated public life at all
levels. The economy, rocket-powered not long ago, has slowed. The rupee tumbled
more than 20% last summer, and inflation is now 8%. Since a fatal gang rape in
2012, India has become known around the world as a dangerous place for women.
Indians worry about an assertive China next door, and many feel their country
has lost influence on the world stage.
This
is an election of "anger with an element of hope," one senior BJP politician,
Arun Jaitley, said in the past week.
For
India's exasperated middle class, Mr. Modi's brawny style is a direct antidote
to a Congress party some perceive as feckless. The BJP is expected to win big
among urban professionals who believe Mr. Modi can imbue India with a new
self-confidence and ambition that matches their own.
Mr.
Modi is also the darling of Indian business. Indian stocks have been hitting
highs as investors bet on a Modi victory.
Mr.
Modi's tack to the center and the growing likelihood voters will reward him for
it are getting Washington's attention, too. In February Nancy Powell, then U.S.
ambassador to India, ended a long U.S. diplomatic freeze by meeting with Mr. Modi.
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