An Offstumped bhajan for 10 Janpath in these torrid times, it can be recited to Jagjit Singh’s tune for comfort and solace.
just when the polls were looking up
Karat’s goose all cooked up
we had no inkling of this impending storm
that sinking feeling … Hey Raam Hey Raam
Yogendra had it all sewn up, this election
all I had to was make people believe his fiction
I am now left all at sea with SethuSamudraam
that sinking feeling … Hey Raam Hey Raam
here I was doling out freebies, thanks to my man Manmohaan
Sachar doing an item number I was assured of the Musalmaan
but along came Dorjee with his blasphemous excavatiaaan
that sinking feeling … Hey Raam Hey Raam
she betrayed my trust, Ambika, how be-imaaan
deliver us this one election, Rahul is still naadaan
save us from the people’s wrath, even Lalu is pareshaan
that sinking feeling … Hey Raam Hey Raam
Filed under: Poetry, Uncategorized
That somehow sounds gleeful
I am convinced of one thing. It was ONLY because of the uproar on the streets (which many media channels as usual focussed on a stray incident of a woman having to delivery her baby on the road because of the traffic block) that Sonia “stepped in” to retract the affidavit.
Had there been no such strong reaction and had there been no impending elections (both General and Gujarat), the UPA govt had enough gall to go ahead retaining those objectionable sentences in the affidavit.
And after all this, all that the TV anchors are asking is “Will the BJP continue to make this a political issue?” There are the usual SMS polls with questions appropriately framed to confuse the respondent – “Is a statement in an affidavit enough to shake people’s faith in Ram?” and so on. For such a poser, staunch Hindus will be undecided which way to vote and hence the result will not be clearcut!
The media seems to be more concerned with any political benefits that might have accrued to the BJP on account of this glaring faux pas of the Govt, rather than the seriousness of the issue itself!
The ‘Bhajan’ is superb!
I agree with Ravindra above,’Sonia’s’ intervention!? really! What do the ‘MSM’ think? All viewers and readers are stupid or idiots?
Any body with the ‘elementary’ knowledge know that the affidavit filed was well ‘intended’ one,it might have been miscalculation on congress’s managers part,but it was very well ‘INTENDED’.PERIOD.
This ‘drama’ being enacted by congress is an afterthought and fire fighting effort,only.
Unwittingly congress has delivered an emotional issue to BJP and if this party has any sense (which I doubt-nowadays) they should grab it with both hands and take the issue to people. I always held this opinion that BJP failed to muster nos. last time not because it was seen as a Hindu party but failed because it was not seen as HINDU ENOUGH party. Of course poor performance of it’s allies in last elections were a major contributing factors,nonetheless poor performance of BJP in major middle class constituencies are indicative of that.
PI
(I humbly seek you’re kind permission to reproduce this Bhajan on my another blog with all due credit to you)
PI.
BJP has once again proved that we can count on it, when it comes to the “real” national interest issues.
Religion may be an emotive issue, but it (all of them including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc) is the root cause of all problems today ! It is exploited by Religious and Political leaders for their own petty gains. Do not be under any illusion that this matter is anything more than a political issue for BJP.
BJP has been grabbing every opportunity with both hands (whether handed over by Congress or cooked up out of no where) and make a political issues out of them – but have failed to take any political milage out of them (in some cases they have ended up embarrasing themselves).
Congress has just embarked on a course-correction exercise on the “Ram Setu” issue – driven by political reasons ! This will prevent BJP from taking much political mileage out it again..
RoW, that’s right. Again your family has come to rescue us from religion. Just have to read the agencies report – Sonia, this time it’s Ms. Gandhi, jumping right in to reverse course to deal with stupid ASI (which it gave a go ahead just days earlier).
According to your communalists, religion is cause for all ills, especially Hinduism. But what would Congress I do without its appeasement policies based on religion and castes.
UPA can’t manage the economy very well. (we have 60 years plus the last three years to prove that). I am afraid, Congress I really has nothing to offer without religion and exploiting the religion to keep going decade after decade grandfather to great grandson…
Don’t get too angry at the only thing that keeps your family party alive.
Chandra – Congress has indeed rescued this country from communal tensions and possible riots & bloodletting, which could have followed BJP’s attempt to polarise the Indian society on religious sentiments (for petty political gains).
BJP feels Ram will fast track their path to power once more. But I am sure Ram is also getting sick with BJP for abusing its name…
There must be a compelling reason why the people of this country (with more than 70% Hindu population) keep sending the Congress party back to power again and again !
People have rejected Indira and Rajiv at the hastings. This Congress I is no Congress of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Morarji Desai, et al. If the affidavits were in order, why withdraw them from court? If there was no uproar against affidavits, this govt. would have gone further to demolish India’s past traditions? If Taj Mahal, 400 years old is a national heritage, Babri Masjid was a national heritage, what prevented this govt. to declare Ram Setu as national heritage? The faith that sustains a community, has to be revered even by a so-called secular govt. Akali Shiromani Party, Hurriyat are on record to condemn this Congress I led UPA govt. for filing such notorious affidavits and later withdrawing them, for flirting with the religious sentiments of a community. Only a naive would think that people would bring this government back bang with a majority, a government which has no courage of its convictions. ASI officials are now sacked, what about Ms.Soni, who is Minister for Cultural affairs? She should be sacked first. This is no Congress of Lal Bahadur Shastri who had resigned as a Railway Minister on moral grounds. This is a brazen Congress I party whose Sonia and Manmohansingh are refusing to apologize to the nation for this deliberate mischief.
Right of Wrong, the reason they send the Congress back time and time again. There was no formidable opposition until the 70’s…Rajeev rode in on a sympathy vote, and the Congress largely got a sympathy vote in 91′, and even then, they didn’t garner a majority…and as for this latest verdict, I would hardly call winning less than ten seats over your next largest party a mandate of any type…despite what the media spin doctors wanted…
KPS Gill’s take on this controversy is a must read:
“There is a new and escalating insensitivity in Indian secular thought, which not only insistently neglects the sensibilities of the majority community, but, worse, appears eager to cause injury to such sentiments. India’s opportunistic political secularists – as distinct from those who are, in fact and practice, actually wedded to the secular ideology – feel that they cannot sufficiently proclaim their secularism without displaying at least a measure of contempt for Hindu beliefs and practices.
By contrast, the most extraordinary sensitivity – often transgressing not only the limits of good sense, but even considerations of national interest – is prominently displayed towards the Muslim minority vote-bank (though other minorities – with their smaller shares in electoral contests – are ironically treated with the same contempt that is directed against the majority community). These tendencies appear to be getting worse with the passage of time, and a precipitous decline in the quality of political debate and intelligence is manifest.
These tendencies are, nevertheless, deep rooted in Indian – and particularly Congress – politics, and the tallest of our leaders have not escaped susceptibility to this perversity of perspective.”
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=EDITS&file_name=edit3%2Etxt&counter_img=3
“Chandra – Congress has indeed rescued this country from communal tensions and possible riots & bloodletting”
Righto Wrongo, your bhajan is far superior to that of Offstumped. Moreover, while offstumped publishes a bhajan only once in a while, you’re emitting nothing but bhajans all the time. I should grudgingly admit that the Congress party is fortunate to have a devout worshipper like you.
The people of the nation have always been taken for a ride.Except KPS GILL everyone is taken in by propaganda. Why this ramar setu bridge issue is being raked up now.It was conceived way back in 1870 by British and revived by NDA and implemented now by UPA.
We in India also believe Mount kailas as Lord Shivas abode and Holy Ganges flows from his head. that doesnot mean we cannot construct dam across Ganges or roads to Mount kailas.
Also people forget that Indian Navys easter fllet in bay of Bengal and Wstern fleet in Arabian sea cannot link up without using COLOMBO. this is the nation which is covertly helping all to scuttle this project as colombo will loose its strategic importance to India.In 1971 it is SriLanka which gave all fascilities to Pakistan when India stopped overflights.China and Pakistan may be covertly using the majority sentiments to scuttle this strategic project.
If Taj Mahal is a National Heritage, there were protests and govt. ordered not to build new factories around Taj to preserve and protect monument from pollution. Even the infamous Taj Corridor project had to be shelved back. If China’s great wall can be preserved and protected as their Heritage, why so uproar, hue and cry
from secularists in not protecting this Heritage known as Ram Setu. Adam’s Bridge is the later name. Only DMK govt. is interested in non-recognising Hindu community’s interests and instigating UPA govt. to go ahead with the project. NDA could not be absolved from its responsibility of once approving the Sethu Samudram Project. But Gandhiji is known to have said that if he changed his position on a given matter and there was conflict between his new and old belief, his new belief should be considered rejecting his old belief. This UPA govt. is in a soup now. For 123 nuclear deal, with Left parties. For Ram Setu project, with DMK. Jaye to jaye kanha?
The Governments finds itself once again in an identity crisis between the Communists and Leftist Regionalists (Namely MK) and those are more centered. What to do this time? Give in to pressure again? Just one more indication mid-term polls are indeed on the fast-track, with early 2008 as my guessing point.
Both the Indo-US nuclear deal and the Ram Setu project were initiated by the BJP-led NDA government.
BJP’s opposition to both the initiatives now – is not driven by any fundamental change of position but more by tactical opportunism. It will be interesting to see if BJP can derive any electoral mileage out of theses issues. Left parties have already pulled the rug below BJP’s feet and high jacked the Indo-US Nuclear deal issue. On the other hand, Congress has started the exercise to dilute the affidavit to neutralize BJP’s opposition on the Ram Setu project. They may even keep the Ram Setu project on temporary hold till the Mid-term elections!
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