For the second time in less than a month, the Bharatiya Janata Party has had to speak up on behalf of its president Nitin Gadkari. The first was when anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania alleged that he refused to take a stand on the irrigation scam in Maharashtra citing business relations with Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party. Even before she had named Mr. Gadkari, the BJP jumped in to say that the party president and Ms Damania had never met. It was Ms Damania’s word against the BJP leader and few will believe such a nexus is impossible. The BJP admittedly goofed up in its eagerness to issue a denial because documents the party later released showed that Mr Gadkari had indeed met Ms Damania. This time round, a relieved BJP pantheon dismissed the disclosures by India Against Corruption which showed the NCP’s Ajit Pawar had granted Mr. Gadkari’s NGO favours while allotting land plots acquired from farmers in Vidarbha.
Mr. Gadkari is contesting the next Lok Sabha polls and there is reason to believe he is keen on becoming Prime Minister. At a time when a clean image could help, the Damanias and Kejriwals have come along with a sheaf of documents. Even if the BJP brushes aside the latest allegations, there is a perception created in the public mind about an unholy nexus and quid pro quo. Mr. Gadkari’s detractors within the BJP too had to defend him sotto voce. It is significant that two new entrants from the BJP into politics in Maharashtra are Mitesh Bhangdia, MLC and Ajay Sancheti, Rajya Sabha MP. Both are leading contractors from Vidarbha and both are said to be close to Mr. Gadkari. Mr. Bhangdia had NCP support too in his election triumph. The old cliché — in politics there are no permanent enemies — is operative here and the rightwing parties and the Congress-NCP have been rather chummy by all accounts in Maharashtra. So the Shiv Sena supports Pratibha Patil and later Pranab Mukherjee for President, while the NCP has teamed up with the BJP to control corporations and local bodies. It may be difficult to prove a nexus between political parties in a court of law but the insinuation is enough to a weary public that has long suspected it. Mr. Kejriwal’s exposé may not have been the bombshell the BJP expected but it is damaging to the party that aims to make a difference. The question is whether these sporadic allegations and exposures can sustain themselves in the public mind till the next general elections. In any case, no party can afford to ignore them, especially in the age of the Right to Information when documentary evidence of impropriety and wrongdoing abounds.
Keywords: Arvind Kejriwal, Nitin Gadkari, BJP, India Against Corruption
INDIAN POLITICS NEEDS A PARDIGM SHIFT.
Irrespective of whether the exposures lead to conviction or not, they
ARE awakening the masses, who may have acquiesced as fait accompli, so
far.
The party which has ruled the country most of the years since
independence may feel it has a right to rule forever! Some regional
parties may run themselves like fiefdoms emulating their monarch! But,
why copy them?
Is it not high time to replace people who have looted/fooled the
people best, or won votes by any means, by patriots of high
intelligence, vision & probity in public life?
Is there any doubt that the Opposition has the biggest potential to
benefit IF it gets its strategy & actions right, and IF NOT has the
greatest risk of being written off as irrelevant?
IS IT TIME TO ADAPT OR DIE?
The BJP President Mr.Gadkari is said to be keen on becoming Prime Minister. Who in the BJP is not keen to be PM? There is just one celebrity in the Congress who is deemed to be the next PM material the rest being always content with paying second fiddles. So no problem there. In the BJP,however, there are as of now some half a dozen PM aspirants the latest to join the 'Q' being Mr.Gadkari. No harm in one nurturing wishes in a democracy!There are several eminent leaders in the BJP.If the party comes to power, the PM's post can be rotated among the leaders once in a year or two.
Timely reminder for BJP to set its house in order after the shame caused by Yeddiyurappa. Unless they mend their ways people will dismiss them as another copy of congress.
However, your idea of he becoming a PM candidate is far fetched and nobody, even within BJP, will be open to such suicide. There are tall leaders in BJP and bringing his name may be a mischief by the media to create confusion.
The Congress and BJP are the ruling or opposition party in almost all the major States in the country. Not a day passes without one scam or the other surfacing. The leaders of these two parties have to spend their time and energy in grappling with the never ending accusations and counter accusations. They will have little time or inclination to constructively give thought to people's basic problems of health,education,employment, price rise,increasing instances of violence let loose on society by criminal elements etc. There is thus little time for them for effective governance of the country.
Gadkari is a person who is neither honest nor sincere. His take over of farmers' lands shows that he is self-minded and that he is not committed to the welfare of the poor of India -- anybody who is not committed to the welfare of the poor cannot become the Prime Minister of this nation.
It is only the people in the lower rungs of a political party who totally identify themselves with their leaders and conduct themselves as loyal party people even as the leaders tacitly keep the channels of closeness to their rivals as besides politics, they have other mundane interests to care for. Only the gullible down below get hoodwinked
contemporary politics has indeed thickened in contrast to the politics of independence. in the past, ideological asymmetry was manifested in separation of parties; where as today, all sorts of permutation & combination is applied based on opportunistic political ideologies. What matters is not if the public shall remember it till the polls, but whether is it indeed a surprise?
The revelations exposing unholy nexus among politicians of all hues
for favours,pecuniary advantage and siphoning of national wealth
through ingenuous ways speaks volumes of the Indian political
class'utter disregard for probity in public life and is an affront to
the voters who voted for these people in good faith that they would
maintain high level of political honesty.Political Corruption in India
has totally eroded the system.This malaise can find no easy remedy
since there is no party whether right,left or centre and bureaucracy
from low paid employee to top level one and lower level judiciary to
higher level one is free from corrupt practices.It is time drastic
changes are brought in the Constitution so as to restrict the number
of parties to avoid unprincipled alliances coming to power and looting
the country and also political offices becoming family business.
Who is stopping Maharashtra Government from conducting a judicial investigating on Mr. Nitin Gadkari? Let be investigated to bring the truth out. Otherwise, the random allegation will serve the purpose temporarily and will not withstand the judicial scrutiny.
All our political parties, except perhaps the leftist parties, are no
different as far as making money through contracts, etc. The
revelations of Mr. Arvind Kejriwal are just underscoring this fact.
Time and again it has been proved that no party, not even BJP with all
its ‘high’ moral standards, can claim to be a party with positive
features as far as dealing with corruption is concerned. Of course,
many of us have also to share the blame as we have helplessly watched
the continuous fall in governance and also standard of debate whether
in the Parliament or outside.
More than economic and many other social reforms, electoral reforms
are the urgent need of the hour.The present electoral system, despite
its many strong plus points pales into insignificance if we see that
Lok Sabha seats, by and large, are cornered by those with tonnes of
money through a unique formula of 'seat fixing', by diverting the
attention of a vast majority of voters with empty promises and
innovative material allurements, for looting the nation at will for
five years in rotation and in opportunistic collaborations for five
years. The anti- corruption crusaders should tackle this menace with
utmost urgency. A win on this front will make the job of the yet to
be born Lokpal, a lot easier.
I don't think Mr. Gadkari is a suitable candidate for the post of Prime Minister. Firstly, he doesn't have any mass base in Maharashtra politics and cannot on his own win elections for his party in Maharashtra. Mr. Munde is far more senior to him, comes from OBC community and has a mass base. Mr. Gadkari, on the other hand, has been imposed on the party by RSS. It wasn't prudent for BJP to extend his term by a further period of 3 years. This would not help the party to get more votes at least in Maharashtra.
The editorial "How the plots thicken" excels in revealing how and to what extent some corrupt politicians who, outwardly, appear to be enemical towards each other, have got some sort of unholy nexus between them - privately -on a quid pro quo basis. As, in the prevailing situation wherein corruption has become a way of life for many and allegations against people in positions of power are tending to become a dime a dozen, it has become difficult for the common man to judge whether a particular person is having a skeleton in his cupboard or not. We have to accept the fact that appearances often deceive us. Every political party seems to be giving safe refuge to some corrupt individuals.
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