Wednesday, February 07, 2007

All in the game of Politics


Democracy thrives on the strength of the opposition party, they say. No doubt, the largest opposition party of the present time, has its own bizarre way of displaying its strength to pit against the weakness or anything else, that they fancy, of its arch rival, congress. Take this case. When the country went for the general election in May 2004, BJP’s star studded campaign, along with its India Shining theme, was: would you like to be ruled by a Non-Indian? It was a personal attack against the Italy-born Indian bahu, Sonia Gandhi. But in the end, BJP was dethroned, as its previous regime disillusioned the people for whom life never shines, although “ No rule by a Non-Indian “ won support among the Indian middle class.

But the whole country, including the Hindutva party, gasped in astonishment when Sonia Gandhi renounced the post of Prime minister, nation’s highest office and, placed Dr. Manmohan Singh on the throne. She subtly proved that she has seen the power too close to her for too long. But BJP, for the sake of opposition, started to show tantrum by describing Sonia Gandhi as the “Super Prime Minister” and called Dr.Singh puppet in her hands. Also claimed that it is Sonia who calls the shots and makes the important decisions. Don’t they know that Manmohan Singh is world-renowned economist and spearheaded the country into the era of globalized world?

It’s a three yearlong story. But, now when the country is grappling with up surging inflation due to rise in price of essential commodities, amongst the already-a –culprit oil price, SEZ policy that astutely nurturing the skepticism about the food security and the threat of foreign investment in retail sector, BJP has given a new twist in the story, like we saw in Fardeen khan’s Don.

I was intrigued when my eyes caught the headlines “ UPA DOES NOT LISTEN TO SONIA: BJP” in today’s (7th Feb,2007)The Hindu (Pg.12). Of course, we agree that there is room for opposition in democracy. But it has got to be constructive opposition based on ideologies and public welfare. BJP realized, but not very early, that Dr. Singh makes policies on his own terms. But BJP reserved some degree of sarcasm here when it said that letter written by Sonia Gandhi advising PM on FDI policies, inflation and SEZ policy had not yielded results. They explain further: Sonia asked PM to curtail inflation but was not done. She spoke about SEZ but government did not protect farmer from being thrown out of their land. And conclusively, they have said UPA does not listen to Sonia.

Why is that BJP’s opposition strategy always, if not, most of the times revolve around Sonia? Are they showing the country here that congress chief is interested in public welfare whereas the people at the helm of affairs are not? Or is it a cheap strategy to create an internal rift between Sonia and Singh in the party politics?

Its high time BJP involves in constructive opposition keeping in mind the greater interest of the nation.

And please do not brand me as a supporter of congress nor am I an admirer of Sonia Gandhi. I am only pointing out the way today’s opposition party has stooped down. And of course, congress is replete with dramas of this kind in this big game of politics.

1 comment:

  1. that is because the congress revolves around sonia.... the layman on the street is obsessed with sonia... and so the opposition is attacking sonia... simple.... the congress involved in more dirty politics when in opposition, and i find bjp more sensible/functional as a opposition party.

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