A rare moment of triumph for India’s democracy!
A rare assertion of Indian patriotism!
A vote for India’s unity of spirit and resolve!
A demonstration of the collective consciousness of the people
Cutting across regions and religions and over-coming the many divisions and small-mindedness of small-time politicians and the conspirators!
Who gains and who loses?
What gains and what losses?
The USA, the world’ most powerful democracy, is moving closer to the world’s largest democracy, India. The world is sure to sit up and take note of India’s many strengths and its potential for a more stable world.
The July 22 trust vote saw the standing of the Prime Minister soar high. He became, as many tend to say, a man of his own and a man in his own right. The trust vote certainly gave Dr.Singh an aura of some new stature which he was lacking before the vote. The PM was, as he himself admitted, a bonded labour at least in the hands of the Left allies and after the vote he had not only become stronger, he also became a far more a man of his own at least he can be expected to express more clearly what his own thinking is on many of the crucial political and economic issues are for the party and the government in the days ahead.
So, there are very clear gains for Dr.Singh and for the Congress party and also in a sense for the many players who in the months before the next general elections might expect to firm up their own political goals and targets..
The real winner and the real gainer in this new situation are ,one can see. Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh. They have become not only a bi freer, the cases against Mulayam Singh would go now and also they would get their electoral alliance in UP with the Congress firmed up. What remains to be seen is the hard bargaining the Samajwadi Party might make against the Congress hopes for a better deal.
This is unlikely to come ,given the UP political arithmetic is firmly staked against the Congress getting an upper hand in the foreseeable future.
So, who would control the maximum number of MPs from the politically crucial state? More likely, it is Mayawati and then followed by Samajwadi party. The BJP already weak and the Congress weakened further by the new alliance.
So, the real gainers after the trust vote are the Samajwadi leaders and their followers. And what is unsaid so far is the more important fact that the Samajwadi party is also aligned with the country’s powerful industrialists and also with the Bollywood icons, the Bachans and therefore Amar Singh & co is likely to strike hard bargains by way of industrial policy changes, economic reforms through the prism of the Samajwadi party is in a way would acquire more political overtones and partisanship and also political glamour would acquire new dimensions, besides Indian politics being just Sonia Gandhi and son focused activity and public attention. To that extent, the very dull and drab bureaucratic style of politics we see in Dr.Singh and his team might also change for the good, we believe.
The other and even much more greater gain, as noted by many observers, is that for the first after a long time we see a new sense of maturity displayed by the hon’ble Members of Parliament. We or the entire country watched the proceedings of the trust vote debate, it was very engrossing, with all its usual interruptions and shoutings, Parliament at the moment of voting for a deal of which not many MPs really understood the very many stakes at issue, voted for an overwhelming strengthening of the country. National interest prevailed over any other partisan and narrow interests. This was the most decisive gain for the country at large. Any other voting pattern, either for the parties and their whips or for the defeat of the motion would have certainly sent a wrong message to the outside world.
After all, the nuclear deal, at the end of the day, didn’t originate with the Congress party, strictly speaking. It originated with the Vajpayee government and a friendship with the USA also started and matured during the Vajpayee regime, the visit of Bill Clinton to India saw a new turn in the American policy and in fact Clinton himself saw the immensity of India and when he visited the neighbouring Pakistan, he became more blunt and almost warned the neighbour about entertaining any illusion of parity with India. From that moment onwards American policy towards India became more principled, based on mutual sharing of a joint vision for the world and at home. Indian democracy started to impact the American imagination and it should be said to George Bush’s honour he at least and at last saw virtues in building up close relations with India. This was a real breakthrough and seen in this light what Dr.Singh did in concluding the deal with the USA is only a natural process of keeping our word and this is India’s word, not as the Left and in particular the guileless Prakash Karat’s charge of keeping the promise made by Dr.Singh to Bush, as a person to person promise.
This is simple non-sense and needs to be dismissed as such.
Now, the real losers are many. First, it is the BJP which now stands exposed as a party with no discipline, too weak to hold its ranks, supposed to be a highly disciplined party and also a party with no real commitment. The BJP messed up matters on many fronts.
For a party that is given to garrulous speakers and meaningless orators and even sensational writers of many hues, the party when it came to the debating table was found to be dumb-founded almost wonder-struck by the noisy debates and the various speakers, we didn’t see Advani at his best. He was almost without any arguments except to attack the Prime Minister personally on many counts. This in fact, disappointed even Advani’s many admirers in other parties. The Leader of the Opposition didn’t make a strong case for opposing the deal.
Perhaps, everyone knows that the BJP in fact believed in the deal and hence was weak in its attack. Where were the other speakers, inside and outside? Sushma Swaraj and others. Arun Jaitley or Arun Shourie, supposed to be the brain trust of the party. Or, the others we used to see on the TV screens, the various spokesmen? No, they were all nowhere or not noticed by the TV viewing public.
So, the BJP not only gave up the fight midway as it were and also it almost let the momentum pass on to other players in the dram of the day.
The real and almost heavy losers are the Left.
They blundered from one step to the other.
They antagonised the Lok Sabha Speaker and thus exposed themselves as immature leaders and their parties seemed to have any substantial ideological case against the nuclear deal. They seemed to be one-agenda party, they didn’t have anything substantial to say on inflation or price rice.
The Left is either foolish or totally blind. What is big deal about the price rise and the inflation. Everyone is concerned about price rise and inflation and also fuel prices. This is common talk everywhere. And also, even the aam adhmi know that these are caused by extraordinary forces, by forces outside the country, these are world-wide issues and just India alone cant do much about it and also India is not sitting idle either. So, to make a song and dance about the not so unusual developments, as the Left did, is to leave a very poor impression on the imagination of the common man. That is what the Left did and what the Left had achieved.
The Left’s case became a non-starter, the withdrawal of support didn’t produce the expected crisis, we saw the Samajwadi party almost ready waiting in the wings to jump into the national scene like a true saviour of the nation and national interest.
That is why Amar Singh, almost alone, single-handedly, handled the ciris and emerged as a hero of sorts.
Yes, give the devil the due, mar Singh has emerged as a savvy politician and we can see more of him from now onwards.
The other gainers were many. Even the other allies of the Congress conducted themselves with great dignity and the speeches, even by Lalu Yadav had its own merit.
It is the smaller parties and the younger leaders, namely, Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Asaduddin Owaisi and Sangeethan Singh emerged as the new generation leaders and hopes of the future. Abdullah’s speech was rated the best by the TV channels and rightly so, we heard from the ringing words of the young leader all the articulations of the new generation, a strong emphasis on secularism, one India and a strong and united India and where everyone, the majority and the minority communities found a unifying force.
The other smaller, one party MPs, from North Eastern India rose up to the occasion and captured the attention and imagination of the people.
So, India, it seems ,seems to have come of age, Rahul Gandhi was also heard for the first time and he made an impression.
All the interruptions, all the noise and din and the unruly behaviour on the part of MPs, and the final irony and the comic drama, of bring in currency notes in bundles all lost their relevance.
The very many antics that followed didn’t impress the country and the government won the day handsomely.
Yes, the negative symbols were also there. One, the rise of Mayawati and the hastily formed Third Front with Karat, Naidu and Deve Gowda and others and the prospect of Mayawati as the real alternative to the BJP is predicted by many. Given the number of SC/ST MPs in the Lok Sabha something like 120 now and 130 after the elections, one cant say how the caste consciousness among the SC/ST voters and MPs would lead to a new alignment.
Deve Gowda, Ajit Singh, even Congress allies like the DMK and the PMK became irrelevant. They have nothing to offer to the country, except their own selfishness! What a fall for a former Prime Minister, son of another Prime Minister! The two ironically symbolised the kisan issues, shame on their part to tag with the brave kisans of the country whose interests and the two leaders didn’t tally at all!
So, the country after the trust vote gives rise to lots of optimism and it is optimism that matters for a country like India ,given the democratic pulls and counter-pulls.
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