This New Year ushers a hope for BJP.
There is a new chief, Mr.Nitin Gadkari, who can turn around things for BJP by implementing novel ideas. He has risen from the humble post of party worker to occupy the senior most position in BJP. His desk is full of – to do things & there are several issues of priority but these are some of the points which we feel are very important and must be addressed at the earliest:
1. Better Media Management
Indian Media & News channels in particular have played a major role in projecting BJP as a pariah and making it untouchable. Unlike in the past, media used to take on the government and expose its misdeeds; today most journalists are in the pockets of congress party. They are working on a single point agenda to somehow discredit BJP. So BJP needs to be smart & setup its own media network.
2. Zero tolerance for indiscipline
A loss is never easy to digest especially if it is a second consecutive one. After the disastrous lok sabha election results, the knives where out in the open and everybody was at each other’s throat. Now there is certain degree calmness maybe because of RSS diktat. The disciple message needs to percolate right across the organization especially at the top & those with feudal background.
3. Focus on winning elections
People are clever than we think. They have generalised that all politicians are same & will decide on whom to vote on the basis of – direct benefits provided by the respective party. Good governance comes after winning an election & for that BJP has to induce voters. The party must launch a series of measures that alleviate the problems faced by its core constituency i.e middle class voters.
Today the country is facing several serious challenges that affect its basic integrity. Governance has become nothing but – divide & rule. It is imperative that BJP strengthen itself and offer an alternate system of governance that focuses on twin pillars of nationalism & economic growth.
Indian politics is witnessing a slow but steady transition. BJP is replacing the Congress as the single largest party. However it is not an easy phase for the Indian polity. The communists, pseudo secularists, media & missionaries will try their best to avert BJP’s quest to power. Recently they have started the bogey called the Third Front.
Since they are quite sure that congress will fail to win even 100 seats on its own they are projecting a rag tag of political parties as a front which the congress party will be forced to support. Just to keep the BJP from coming to power.
The process has already begun in Orissa.
The reason why BJD withdrew from NDA is because it realized that congress, its principal enemy is no longer a force in the state. Congress is decimated in Orissa and the BJD & BJP is growing. So the anti congress compulsion & the need to stay in NDA is not there anymore.
Left front hogs limelight in Orissa even though it has only 1% of the vote back. The BJD has taken a calculated gamble. While the BJP needs only about 40 assembly seats to bring Biju Patnaik back on the negotiating table.
However the results in Karnataka have shown how quickly the table were turned when the alliance partner of BJP ditched them after completing their term. Kumaraswamy & JD(S) got wiped out in the subsequent elections.
The third front may actually hasten the nemesis of Congress and help BJP in the long run.
Moreover there are many fence sitters in this election like Jayalalitha, Sharad Pawar, Mayawati, Chiranjivi, Chandra Babu Naidu & Biju Patnaik who will play their cards only after the results are declared. And the left front would be left with empty sack since their own tally is expected to reduce drastically this time.
Just few days back TV channels were playing the No1 Haryana ad campaign. While the ad is OK, it is inexplicable why the ad was being played 5 times in a row! Have the politicians not learnt anything from the “shining India” campaign. Similarly there were several full page ads about foundation laying ceremonies for Airport buildings all across India.
Will people vote for a political party just because mobile connections have increased or a slew of launch of foundation stones?
It is election time in the largest democracy of the world. The contest is very tough and all political parties will fight aggressively for every seat. However the campaign managers must realize that they have to attract voters and not just launch a barrage of disinformation.
In the run up to elections it is very important that the political parties maintain some standards during campaigning. The following must be avoided by all political parties:
1. Loud blaring speakers
Nothing is more disturbing than a constant barrage of noisy sermons and speeches using old loudspeakers. E.g. rickshaws going around blaring patriotic songs aimlessly.
2. Distorted secularism
There is absolute revulsion when religious leaders stoop down to the level of being agents for political parties and recommend their flock which way to vote.
3. Defacing walls with posters
As it is India is a very dirty country where the municipal authorities are just not functioning. There must be a fine of minimum of Rs 10,000/- per poster on a defaced wall.
4. Justifying Dynastic politics
By definition democracy means “by the people” but Indian politicians have converted it to “By the family”. All parties are guilty of converting their organizations to a Family Inc.
5. Media manipulations
Mass Media in India is today, just a business. There is no ethics or journalism involved. Each and every media report, analysis, story, debate or interview the media adopts a very biased approach. In fact most psephologists appear jokers because of their continuous wrong predictions & and an anti- BJP bias.
6. Buying voters
This new trend of using liquor, free food and even cash to woo voters has spread to all political parties. The politicians are so rich that this practise if implemented uniformly may even remove poverty from India.
7. Swearing
Election campaigning is telecast in prime time TV and for family viewing. It is therefore necessary that all politicians must maintain a sense of decency in their speeches.
8. Show Off’s
India is a poor country with most people struggling to make a decent living. However the assets of politics would rival those of the richest of businessmen in the world. Driving around in a cavalcade of luxury cars to visit a poor village appears nothing but sheer revulsion.
9. Booth Capturing
Most political parities used to employ local henchmen, criminals and mafia dons to intimidate voters, now these men have themselves graduated to being politicians and are adept at stuffing ballot boxes.
10. Lies, lies & damned lies
Political parties must not promise in their manifesto, anything they cannot deliver. It will come back to haunt them later, like Ram Temple for BJP. They must honour their commitment however stupid the election promise was, like colour TV scheme of the DMK government.
In a country rattled by terrorist attacks, absolute poverty, corruption – the success of parliamentary democracy is a miracle. Let’s sustain it for future generations and have a clean election this time. Let the games begin and most important – let the best person win.
It is very easy to observe, even for a layman that the media in general and news channels in particular are becoming more and more pro government. In each and every media report, analysis, story, debate or interview it is found the media is adopting a very partial response against the BJP.
For e.g. if we take up two issues that affected the nation last week:
1. Chief Election Commisioner, N Gopalaswami, recommended the removal of his colleague, Navin Chawla. He has thoroughly documented the “partisan” functioning of Chawla.
But the news channels have started a criticism of Gopalaswami without taking into account the merit of the document. There was no mention of the charges – What are the contents of the letter submitted to the President of India? Did the CEC’s NGO did actually take money from the Congress party MP’s?
2. Recently a group of activists barged into a pub, assaulted women. On the same day Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers went on the rampage disrupting Republic Day celebrations at a school in Nashik. The workers assaulted parents and beat up participants. They didn’t even spare posters of the martyrs of 26/11.
The media completely ignored the later issue .Whereas the former was sensationalized as an assault on women’s independence. They even said it was an attempt to Talibanize India.
For the incident it directly involved the BJP government in Karnatka. But in a similar issue coincidentally happening the same day involving the attack on North Indians by MNS, it did not criticize the Congress government in Maharashtara.
There are numerous instances where the Indian media has taken a partial stance.
What is the agenda?
Why are there double standards?
Why are all news channels behaving the same way?
Is it because of the contract for pro government advertisements like “Bharat Nirman” or “Minority scholarship” that are likely to barge us before the general elections.
Maybe but the credibility of fair journalism in India has certainly taken a backseat.
In 2008 we all suffered from poor governance in India by the UPA government. Now they have gone step further and removed “governance”. The prime minister will be out of action for a minimum of 4 weeks. How can a nation as complex as India be governed without a prime minister? But as Supreme Court said – even god cannot save India.
First there was no home minister, then they shifted finance minister and now there is no Prime Minister. Can’t we even select a prime minister from 1.2 billion people? As it is there are very few elected representatives occupying higher posts in cabinet.
Or does the decision making power lie else where and it doesn’t make a difference whether we have a prime minister or not.
As usual the mainstream media will not cover any lapse of UPA government and be a good prompter for the ruling congress government. Elections are approaching fast and the media will try its best to embarrass the BJP. Instead of focussing on this issue of national importance they are busy covering frivolous stories of some boys beating girls in a bar.
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