Mahrashtra Elections 2009 – A response to Rahul Gandhi

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Rahul Gandhi campaigning in Raigadh for the Maharashtra Assembly elections on behalf of Congress-NCP combine had this to say:

“Two Indias exist today. One is the ‘Shining India’ and the other is the ‘Backward India’. There is a need to connect the two Indias,”

Below is a response from Offstumped in response to Rahul Gandhi in the form a speech that we dont expect any BJP leader to ever give.

Friends

It has become fashionable these days for leaders of the Manmohan Singh Sonia Gandhi lead Congress to be in awe of all things American. This affliction has become particularly acute since the ascent of the messiah to the American Presidency. Now the pandemic has infected Rahul Gandhi as well.

Let me explain this with a little story from American politics.

Most of you may not have heard of John Edwards, I dont blame you for it. John Edwards was one of the many challengers to Barack Obama for his party’s nomination for Presidency and he shot to fame with his rhetoric of “Two Americas”.

When one hears Rahul Gandhi plagiarise this formulation to talk of “Two Indias” one cannot but help but wonder if its similar to the “Two Americas” that finally sank John Edward’s political career – one legitimate and the other mired in clandestine affairs and illegitimate progeny.

Be that as it may, Rahul Gandhi’s rhetoric of “Two Indias” needs a coherent and incisive political response.

Let me take this opportunity to remind Rahul Gandhi of what this nation had to suffer the last time we heard such rhetoric of “Two Indias” – one Muslim and the other Hindu. 

No Rahul, this nation shall not countenance this divisive rhetoric that pits Indian against Indian. Your family excelled quite well at this rhetoric to script India’s partition, 6 decades ago, we will not let you do the same a second time.

Make no mistake my countrymen, this rhetoric of “Two Indias” is exactly same the rhetoric of those who thrive outside the ambit of law and go by the name Maoists. By lending credibility to this divisive theme of “Two Indias” Rahul Gandhi is rationalizing their anti-India activities.

Be that as it may, Rahul Gandhi’s political naivety is of little consequence to your everyday life and the core issues of this election. However the flawed policies of his Party’s Government in Maharashtra and in New Delhi have been of grave consequence to your everyday life.

Yes Rahul Gandhi is right there are two distinct political ideologies here. On the one hand there is the ideology of the “aam admi” that thinks very little of you or your abilities.

This ideology thinks so poorly of you that it would like you to remain poor if you are already poor and create incentives for you to declare yourself as poor if you are not already poor.

This ideology thinks so little of you that it sees your abilities as being only “banal’ and “common”, nothing special/

This ideology thinks you are so ignorant and naive that it has the arrogance to conclude that all wisdom lies in Delhi rather than in Raigadh so it can make choices for you sitting in Delhi.

This ideology is so ignorant of how different every one of you is that it is stupid to believe that a one size fit all solution designed in Delhi will work for all of your problems.

One such one-size-fit-all solution is this 5 letter word called NREGA that Rahul Gandhi never loses an opportunity to throw at you. But then Rahul Gandhi forgets to tell you what every one of you told the government during the 2002 BPL Census.

Rahul Gandhi who never forgets to tout NREGA as a panacea to all the rural poor’s problems has no clue that a majority of Rural Poor when asked what kind of assistance they would like from the Government had screamed in one voice that

they would like “Self Employment” over “Government provided wages”

they would like “Skill development” over “Subsidized food via PDS”

It is in that earthy rural wisdom that is inherent in every one of you is the second ideology that is exactly opposed to what Rahul Gandhi is preaching to you.

This ideology was not scripted in New Delhi by armchair intellectuals.

This ideology does not need 5 letter words to be understood and appreciated.

This ideology does not need the benevolence of Sonia Gandhi’s family to deliver benefits to you.

This ideology does not need you to depend on Government and Bureaucrats to make a difference to your everyday life.

This ideology my friends is what comes naturally to every one of you.

It is what makes every one of you unique and special.

It is the wisdom that was passed on to you by your parents and their parents before them.

It is the wisdom to be self reliant and self sufficient.

This ideology my friends is of freedom so you can become masters of your own destiny. This ideology my friends is that innately native spirit of India that saw each village and town, each trade and craft be masters of their own destiny with the autonomy and economic independence they desire. This ideology is the Dharma of how we used to do things when there was no sultanate in Delhi dictating how you should conduct your life.

I would be guilty of high sounding rhetoric and no substance at all my friends if I fail to explain to you how this ideology will make a difference to every one of you to meet your unique needs, understanding your special capabilities.

But before I do that I would urge every one of you to reject this divisive rhetoric that treats you as common and banal and to spread this infection called optimism that the answer to your problems lies in your hands through self reliance and enterprise.

If elected my party will ………………………………

Postscript: NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain rips apart Rahul Gandhi’s claims on Congress-NCP governance in Maharashtra

Perhaps the most emblematic example of squandered greatness is Maharashtra’s employment guarantee scheme, conceived in the famine years of the early seventies and subsequently the template for the UPA’s national flagship. The EGS was, quite apart from its intent, a remarkable attempt to bridge wealthy, highly urbanised Maharashtra and its impoverished rural interior : the funds for the scheme were raised through professional tax.

About 3 decades on, Maharashtra’s EGS has come to represent much of the failed promise of one of India’s most progressive states: corruption, unspent funds, unpaid labour, incomplete works. Almost every CAG report is a familiar indictment: a  2006 report finds that ‘registration of labour is incomplete’, ’scheme has not met targets’, ‘of the 10,000 crores collected for the scheme, only 4677 crores have been spent’ and so on. In 2005 , a whistle-blowing collector in Solapur who unearthed massive rigging in the local EGS rolls faced an escalating level of official aggression that culminated in the chief minister’s office.

Filed under: Assembly Polls 2009, DesiPundit, Local Governance, Maharashtra Polls 2009, Offstumped, Offstumped Community, Offstumped Community Posts, Shveta Chhatra, UPA-II Critical Appraisal

ABIDe Bengaluru – Reforming Local Governance

OFFSTUMPED is taking a break from its self imposed hiatus from the blogosphere to highlight a significant initiative for the Center Right movement to differentiate itself from the psuedo-progressive Left of Center agenda of the Congress.

The ABIDe initiative in Bangalore under the leadership of long time South Bangalore MP and former Minister Anantha Kumar and entrepreneur and fellow twitterer Rajeev Chandrashekhar must be supported, highlighted and enhanced by all those sympathetic to the Center Right cause.

The psuedo-progressive approach of the Congress Party to force down from Delhi one-size-fit all solutions from education to development offers the BJP its best opportunity to differentiate itself as a Center Right party.

The joint initiative by Anantha Kumar and Rajeev Chandrashekhar is daunting as this report from the first public consultation reveals, but it cannot be allowed to fail.

It is surprising that for a City that is home to perhaps the highest concentration of Technology savy residents, there has been barely any discussion on ABIDe’s agenda on its website.

Offstumped urges its readers, community members and twitter followers many of who are from Bangalore ,  to take this debate further on with greater engagement.

• ABIDE Task Force Agenda
• Plan Bengaluru 2020
• Secure Bengalauru
• Govern Bengaluru
• Urban Poor
• Roads, Traffic Management, Transportation
• Namma Bengaluru Action Plan
• ABIDE Heritage Plan

The new Big Tent will not be a reality till the vision of Shveta Chhatra in heralding Freedom to Local Communities in governance is pursued with a missionary zeal.

By differentiating itself on Urban Local Governance the BJP could script its come back with the cosmopolitan Urban  voter who has been disenchanted with it over the last two elections.  Bangalore rightly reposed its faith in the BJP  and the BJP would do well to follow through with this initiative till it transforms everyday urban life in Bangalore to become a showcase for Delhi, Mumbai and other major cities, towns.

Offstumped wishes Mr. Anantha Kumar and Mr. Rajeev Chandrashekhar all the very best on what will likely be a herculean task.

NOTE: Twitter compilations and guest posts from Offstumped Community will continue to appear as Offstumped continues with its break from active blogging.

More from Offstumped archives on Local Governance.

Nithari

Burra Bazaar

The Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project

Delhi BRT mess

Vadodara CDP

Mumbai BMC

Filed under: ABIDE Bangalore, DesiPundit, Local Governance, Offstumped, Shveta Chhatra, Uncategorized

India Elections 2009 Results – Live Blogging

With the votes set to be counted for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, here is what Offstumped is looking forward to today.

#1 Will the BJP overtake the Congress as the single largest party and if so by what margin ?

#2 Will Andhra turn in a hung assembly and if so how will the power equations be re-writtent by the voters. Specifically can the TDP manage the numbers with TRS and others or does the Congress have an outside chance by roping in Chiranjeevi’s PRP ?

#3 Will Orissa turn out a hung assembly. Specifically can Naveen Patnaik’s BJD manage the numbers with others or will he be compelled to a suicidal embrace of the Congress. Will Orissa become the next Karnataka for the BJP ?

#4 Will Maharashtra continue to deliver a split verdict or has the BJP-Shiv Sena combine turned the corner in this key large state ?

#5 Will Tamil Nadu’s unusually high turnout mean a AIADMK sweep or will it be a split verdict for Tamil Nadu’s revolving door politics ?

Specific bellwhether seats of interest are

#1 Mandi in Himachal Pradesh which has voted for the party that has formed the government last 6 elections. A BJP loss here would be ominous

#2 Will Dumka in Jharkhand vote against JMM/Congress/RJD

#3 Will Mayurbhanj in Orissa vote against BJP ?

#4 Will Nandyal in Andhra vote against Congress ?

#5 Will Mahabubnagar in Andhra surprise the TRS by dumping KCR ?

#6 Will Peddapalle in Andhra vote against the Congress ?

#7 Will the BJP sweep Rajmahal, Godda, Jamshedpur and Giridih in Jharkhand ?

#8 Which of these 3 Gujarat bellwhether seats will BJP wrest or retain – Anand, Bulsar, Banaskantha ?

#9 Which way will Kangra in Himachal Pradesh go ?

#10 What about bellwhether seats in Chattisgarh (Mahasamund), Maharashtra (Ahmednagar), Punjab (Jalandher), Rajasthan (Sikar), West Bengal (Dum-dum)

#11 How many of the bellwhether seats in Orissa of Aska, Phulbani, Bolangir, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Sundargarh will go to BJP ?

#12 Finally will any of the 4 bellwhether seats of Tamil Nadu Vellore, Chidambaram, Coimbatore, Nagappatnam fall to the AIADMK lead alliance ?

Also catch all the action via Offstumped on

- Twitter

- Live analysis and debate on this Internet Panel

PS: As this goes to press, a short email exchange with reliable quarters in the BJP reveals fairly high confidence, fingers crossed.

Filed under: CNN-IBN Boycott, Chattisgarh Polls 2008, Chhattisgarh Polls 2008, Delhi Polls 2008, DesiPundit, Dharma-debates, Dharmayudh-2009, Gujarat Polls 2007, India Elections 2009, India Lok Sabha Elections 2009, Karnataka Polls 2008, Lok Sabha Polls 2008-2009, Madhya Pradesh Polls 2008, Madhya Pradesh Polls 2008, Manmohan Confidence Vote, Offstumped, Offstumped on Twitter, Pratibha Patil, Rajasthan Polls 2008, War on Terror, betrayal of aam admi, jeetega-bharat

Open Letter to Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Eminent Delhi based public intellectual and former member of the National Knowledge Commission Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta today wrote a curious op-ed in the Indian Express titled “The Politics of Hurt“.

This open letter is addressed to him with the intention of obtaining some answers from him.

Dear Dr. Mehta

It was interesting to note that public intellectuals such as yourself can take a political stance in public 48 hours before the nation goes to polls.

But then your political stance reflected in this op-ed in the Indian Express is curious for a couple of reasons.

It is clear that you definitely dont want to vote for the BJP. It is also clear that you definitely do want to vote for the Congress.

But then Sir where you are emphatic in your rejection of the BJP you betray no conviction at all in your endorsement of the Congress. In fact you dont even hazard to say in as many words that you support the Congress despite betraying your sentiments towards it.

Why Sir this intellectual timidity ?

Why Sir do you need to dedicate 95% of your column for the case against the BJP and leave only a few sentences to make a less than convincing case for the Congress ?

Why Sir do you need the BJP excuse to make your case for the Congress ?

In fact less troubling than your critique of the BJP is your curious case for the Congress.

What “idea” exactly Sir are you referring to when you say

They attack the Congress in the name of an idea of what the Congress should be.

Your hopes for the so called “ideal” the Congress represents would have carried far greater credibility and conviction if you had dedicated your column to describing that “ideal”, rather than dedicate the entire column to venting out your disgust towards the BJP and Mr. Advani.

In fact doing so you seem to betray emotions that suggest the exact opposite. You Sir seem to be more hurt and disappointed with the BJP than you are motivated and excited for the Congress.

I dont propose to make a case for the BJP in this letter but I find this suggestion by you even more curious

longevity of the Congress is a sign that there is something about it that is worth salvaging

If memory serves me right, the only occassion when this nation saw you take a public stance on principle and convictions was when you resigned from the National Knowledge Commission on the issue of OBC Reservations in Institutions of Higher Education.

The practice of Reservations in India is about as long as the post Independence Congress Party. So should we take it that your objections to OBC Reservations are at odds with this notion that longevity is somehow the yardstick for the worthiness of an idea.

If one were to extend the same longevity yardstick to just about every social ill from Dowry to Caste based identity politics that continue to survive in India, does their long life make them ideas worth salvaging ?

I dont want to even go into your selective defense of election time rhetoric from Sonia Gandhi, its less than honest and you know it. It would have been ok if you were transparent about your partisanship for one would have taken it as all is fair in war and elections.

But then Sir you purport to give intellectual cover to Sonia Gandhi’s partisanship while being less than forthright about it.

In doing so you Sir have diminished your standing as a Public Intellectual.

I am not troubled by your dismissal of the BJP’s next tier of leadership. But I am extremely troubled by your seeking hope in the next generation of the Congress’ leadership based on its age while leaving unstated your implicit endorsement of Rahul Gandhi as successor to Manmohan Singh.

It stumps me what idea and ideal you hope to salvage by taking comfort in the prospect that the heir apparent’s only claim to the top office are his last name and genes, is younger than his political rivals.

In closing let me just say that the danger to India is not from its illiterate masses in remote villages who may choose the BJP  out of their own wisdom of lack of. 

But the real danger Sir is from public intellectuals in New Delhi who lack the courage and conviction to be forthright in their partisanship and from those who seek to provide intellectual cover to sycophancy and subversion of the original intent of the Constitution.

Yours Sincerely

An Aam Admi who admires your occassional intellectual brilliance but is deeply disappointed with your lack of conviction.

Filed under: Chattisgarh Polls 2008, Chhattisgarh Polls 2008, Delhi Polls 2008, Dharmayudh-2009, Gujarat Polls 2007, India Elections 2009, Karnataka Polls 2008, Lok Sabha Polls 2008-2009, Madhya Pradesh Polls 2008, Manmohan Confidence Vote, Offstumped, Pratibha Patil, Rajasthan Polls 2008, betrayal of aam admi, jeetega-bharat

India Elections 2009 – Manmohan Singh must release medical records

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who will go down in history for reducing himself to an electile dysfunctional surrogate of the mother and son duo of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, today had this to claim on his health:

I have got a clean bill of good health from my doctors. I just had a meeting with them a few minutes ago and there is no need to worry,” Singh told reporters here when asked if his health would affect his functioning as Prime Minister, in case the UPA is voted to power.

A team of five doctors from the Asian Heart Institute in suburban Bandra Kurla, who had performed the surgery, conducted the over-half-an-hour check up on the Prime Minister and his condition was found to be stable, sources said.

It is interesting that Dr. Manmohan Singh should claim a clean bill of good health to bolster his ability to function as Prime Minister while at the same time making his ill health an excuse to not contest the Lok Sabha elections.

This duplicity on the part of Dr. Manmohan Singh lends credence to Priyanka Gandhi’s remarks on Rahul Gandhi succeeding Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister.

It is imperative to remember that Sonia Gandhi despite making up her mind on mind on Manmohan Singh being her party’s Prime Ministerial candidate never bothered to go public with it in the 2004 elections.

We are perhaps witnessing a repeat of the same sleight of hand by the Congress on the aam admi, with a reluctant to contest Nightwatchman in Manmohan Singh preparing the ground for Rahul Gandhi without actually saying so in the election campaign.

In the interest of transparency and honesty it is imperative that Dr. Manmohan Singh should release his medical records so the public at large can make an independent assessment of his claims of fitness to perform as Prime Minister while making excuses on health grounds to avoid contesting Lok Sabha elections.

Filed under: Chattisgarh Polls 2008, Chhattisgarh Polls 2008, Delhi Polls 2008, DesiPundit, Dharmayudh-2009, Gujarat Polls 2007, India Elections 2009, India Lok Sabha Elections 2009, Karnataka Polls 2008, Lok Sabha Polls 2008-2009, Madhya Pradesh Polls 2008, Madhya Pradesh Polls 2008, Manmohan Confidence Vote, Offstumped, Offstumped on Twitter, Rajasthan Polls 2008, betrayal of aam admi

India Elections 2009 – EC out of bounds on Varun Gandhi

The Election Commission last night issued an advisory to the BJP not to nominate Varun Gandhi as its candidate for Pilibhit while holding him guilty on charges of making hateful and communal remarks in his speeches.

At the outset let it be clear that Offstumped is holding no brief for Varun Gandhi and comments attributed to him from multiple speeches are despicable and un-Hindu.

However it must also be said that:

#1 Varun Gandhi has the freedom to practice his his bigotry howsoever disagreeable it may be to our sensibilities, as long as he has not broken a law of the land

#2 If Varun Gandhi’s bigotry is in violation of the Law, exemplary punishment is in order so a message goes out to every bigoted Politician that they cannot court controversy to make headlines and conduct whisper campaigns.

#3 If Varun Gandhi’s bigotry is not in violation of the Law, then the matter must be judged in the Court of Public Opinion.

The Election Commission is neither a court of law nor does it represent the court of public opinion.

There in lies the problem with the Election Commission’s “holding Varun Gandhi” guilty and issuing an advisory especially in a scenario where the electoral process has not even been notified and the Election Commission has no role to play.

The matter of whether Varun Gandhi’s bigotry is acceptable or not and whether he should be the BJP’s candidate or not should have been left to the BJP and the court of public opinion by the Election Commission till until a legal case was made.

Former Election Commissioner GVG Krishnamurthy explains why

The Election Commission has no jurisdiction to take action against Gandhi” for his alleged inflammatory speeches

The model code of conduct comes into effect only after President Pratibha Patil notifies the elections in the official gazette. Till then Gandhi cannot be considered an Election Commission recognized candidate

the commission has acted in haste in moving against Gandhi for violation of the model code of conduct under the provisions of the Representation of Peoples Act 1951.

Only the police can move against him under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for inciting communal passions

As of now Varun is only a probable candidate and an ordinary citizen against whom action can be taken only under the IPC if he makes inflammatory statements.

The Election Commission has no role to play till the notification of elections by the president

In fact to allow a bunch of unelected Bureaucrats who enjoy their office at the pleasure of the Political Party in Government to sit in judgement even over probable candidates is highly debatable and there ought to be a rethink on the Model Code of Conduct.

While Offstumped has serious reservations on Varun Gandhi’s candidacy, finds his bigotry unacceptable and the BJP’s indulgence of him unfathomable, the Election Commission in this case stands guilty of the same sensationalism it accuses Varun Gandhi of, for he is yet to be convicted in a Court of Law.

Voice you opinion on the Election Commission’s move by posting your comments on the Offstumped Campaign 2009 site here.

Filed under: Chattisgarh Polls 2008, Chhattisgarh Polls 2008, Delhi Polls 2008, Dharmayudh-2009, Gujarat Polls 2007, India Elections 2009, Karnataka Polls 2008, Lok Sabha Polls 2008-2009, Madhya Pradesh Polls 2008, Offstumped, Rajasthan Polls 2008, betrayal of aam admi, jeetega-bharat

India Elections 2009 – BJP’s I.T. Vision

While the Congress is busy spinning Rahul Gandhi’s middle-age as youth the BJP seems to have stolen a march over the Congress as far as the GenNext Young Voter goes.

 With the release of an ambitious and forward looking Information Technology Vision the BJP has elevated the otherwise moribund public debate with its focus on the calculus of caste and the arithmetic of wannabe Prime Ministers.

The 40 page Vision Document can be found here.

So how must we judge this ambitious vision of the BJP which it believes is a key enabler to its promise of Good Governance, Development and Security ?

Offstumped has applied the below 5 principles to form a view on this Vision Statement.

#1 – Is the Vision high on rhetoric or does it get into specifics ?

#2 – Does the Vision view Government as the answer to all questions or Does it see the Government’s role merely as a catalyst ?

#3 – Will the Vision further the deepen the all pervasive Culture of Entitlement or will it mark a shift away towards a Culture of Responsibility ?

#4 – Will the Vision spur even greater dependency on Government or will it foster the Spirit of Enterprise ?

#5 – Will the Vision create Institutional Solutions that will enhance the capacity of Local Governance and make it responsive and accountable for the Last Mile of Service Delivery ?

Goal #1 – Creating one new Non-Farming job for every rural household.

On the face of it this goal of targetting 1.2 crore new rural jobs through new skills has an echo in BPL Rural Census Data with a plurality of rural households screaming for new skills over other entitlements.

With its emphasis on “Non-Farm” employment this goal could also be a first small step towards a roadmap away from a dead-end future in farming for many a rural youth.

The devil is of course in the detail on how exactly will 20 new IT-enabled jobs be created in every village.

Page 11 of the vision document attempts to answer this question at a very high level.

While it maybe lacking in specifics, the guiding principles should bring some cheer with its emphasis on local Entrepreneurship Opportunities rather than Government created jobs.

Goal #2 – A Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC)

The vision document sets itself up for a challenging goal of setting this up in 3 years. integrating Ration Card, PAN Card, EPIC etc..

What stands out is the centrality of the MNIC as the “pivot for enabling I.T. Vision”.

This is a fundamental shift in thinking for it recognizes the primacy of accounting for every individual through a Digital Identity.

It proposes to do so by eliminating redundancy between the Census Bureau and the UIAI to create a National Registry of Citizenship, NRC to be administered by a Citizenship Regulatory Authority of India, CRAI.

The way the BJP has envisioned the role of CRAI underlines National Security considerations and concerns around Illegal Immigation by making Citizenship Identification Numbers mandatory by law.

It would be interesting to see how the BJP will build consensus for such a mandatory national identification.

While the Vision document is silent on that, Offstumped would like to suggest that the BJP must go one step ahead and create incentives for State Governments to buy-into this concept as a pre-emptive step towards building National Consensus.

Goal#3 Digital Highways

Some lofty goals around affordable broadband internet, increased Mobile penetration. The Vision document rightly recognizes that the usability and usefulness of MNIC is depends on ubiquitous access to the Internet.

Goal #4 E-Governance

A notable feature is the extension of RTI to include a DTI or Duty to Inform by which Government agencies are mandated to inform citizens by default without requiring them to seek information. This is key for we have seen the UPA’s lip service to RTI where key agencies like the NHRC have not bothered to publish annual reports or key metrics in over 2 years on their website.

The other notable aspect is the notion of a “Leaky Service Delivery Pipeline”. The Vision document promises to increase transparency and reduce leakages of welfare funds.

Page 17 lists about 10 specific assurances on Good Governance through E-Governance. An interesting nugget is a 24×7 tollfree phone number to contact a Member of Parliament.

Page 18 goes into great detail of Gujarat’s E-Vishwa Gram initiative launched by Narendra Modi.

An area dear to this blogger’s heart finds mention here of technology enabling Retail Operations of Small and Medium Businessmen, especially the Kirana Shopkeeper through IIT Bombay’s e-Galla.

The emphasis on making the Local Panchayat the primary center for last mile service delivery and using technology to minimize or eliminate corruption stands out.

Another IIT incubated initiative around using technology for Weather forecasting and Expert advisory services for Farmers and electronic land records finds mention.

The Vision document is silent on how exactly these initiatives will be championed by the Federal Government and to what degree will last mile implementation be left to the State Governments.

The challenge as always will be in creating the right incentives for the States to follow through on these initiatives with the Federal Government’s support.

The Vision document is also silent on how it will leverage Private agencies to enable these initiatives, this needs to be elucidated further to highlight enterpreneurship opportunities and employment generation in the private sector through all this federal and state level spend.

Page 20 spells out E-Banking and how it can be used to “Directly Transfer Financial Benefits accruing from various Welfare schemes” to the intended beneficiary. Recently there was much debate on a proposal by Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam in Andhra on Direct Cash Transfer as a more efficient and corruption welfare alternative. More public debate on this is very much in order to take corruption out of welfare distribution.

Another goal that stands out in the area of Development is enhacing the skilled worker base from 8% to 20% over a 5 year period.

An entitlement that has slipped its way through into the Vision Document is spelled out on Page 21 of giving a Free Smart Mobile Phone to every BPL Rural Family.

It sounds like a great idea to stimulate the Technology Sector which is reeling from a global recession but this entitlement begs the question of why the Tax Payer must foot the bill of this free mobile smart phone which will most likely be used for private purposes beyond the intended use of better access to NREGS and other welfare schemes.

The I.T. Vision could have been bolder in spelling that it would incentivize innovation in the Smart Mobile Phone sector to come up with smart business models that take the cost of Device ownership out of the equation for the BPL Family by getting a rapidly expanding Consumer Goods and Organized Retail Industry to pay for it through direct consumer marketing and other schemes. Such a bold synergy will have the twin benefits of spurring Consumption by Rural BPL Families to stimulate the overall economy.

More ideas galore around cheaper laptops for students, which once again rather be a subsidy drain on the tax payer could be facilitated by incentives to innovative Technology start-ups and smarter Business Models that can get the market forces to pay for Device Ownership costs by exploiting the Life Time Consumption Value of a Student.

Extensive use of Private Sector in Skill Development finds mention on page 23 along with other ideas around Telemedicine and Localization of I.T. to include more Indian Lanugaues.

A simple, practical idea of Online Payments for Court Fees and Penalties alone should justify technology investments in the area of Justice Delivery.

A centrally funded and managed National Emergency Service, NES, with Public Safety Answering Points, PSAPs signals perhaps the most significant expansion of Federal Government by this I.T. Vision. While such a service is long overdue and an acute need the BJP must reflect on whether this must be centrally managed. A better alternative would be to enlist Local Governments to invest in PSAPs with Central Funds contingent upon Federally mandated Service Level benchmarks.

The most important part of the Vision Document finds mention in page 34 around National Cyber Security with concrete proposals for a Digital Security Bureau with responsibility for Cyber Warfare, Counter-Terrorism and Cyber Security of National Digital Assets.

Rather than propose a standalone Cyber Security initiative the BJP must ensure that this proposal is part of a comprehensive National Security Architecture to eliminate redundancy and Inter Agency barriers to information dissemination, analysis and response to avoid a repeat of pre-26/11 failures.

More ideas around spurring the domestic Hardware and Hosting Industries and greater sovereign control over the Internet find mention.

In closing it must be said that the BJP’s I.T. Vision is bold and ambitious in its goals and aggressive in its timelines. It is however silent on how this vision will be achieved and funded. It can definitely do better with a focus on innovative models to spur the creativity of the private sector in realising some of these goals while paying  for them with smarter business models.

This I.T. Vision of the BJP raises the bar on the Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi lead Congress. The Congress must explain its lackadaisical 5 year record in all of these areas including the Rs 7000 crore drain on NREGS which has resulted in more Rural Entitlements while doing little to nothing in the area of Rural Skill Development or in creating Opportunities for Rural Enterprise.

Filed under: Chattisgarh Polls 2008, Chhattisgarh Polls 2008, Delhi Polls 2008, DesiPundit, Dharmayudh-2009, Gujarat Polls 2007, India Elections 2009, Karnataka Polls 2008, Lok Sabha Polls 2008-2009, Madhya Pradesh Polls 2008, Offstumped, Offstumped on Twitter, Rajasthan Polls 2008, betrayal of aam admi, jeetega-bharat

India Elections 2009 – BJP must not compromise on ethics

When the schedule for elections was announced earlier in March, Offstumped had said this about what this election must come to mean.

We may debate endlessly on whether either of the parties has an economic model or a sound approach for security.

But there is one issue on which there is no ambiguity and the distinction is stark.

Over the past 5 Congress has neither cared for the “Truth” nor for “Respect for the rule of Law”.

 Pratibha Patil, Navin Chawla, Cash for Votes,  Governor’s actions in Goa, Meghalaya and Jharkhand to name a few

The Congress has repeatedly demonstrate that it lacks basic values when it comes to ethics or Constitutionality.

It is on this fundamental distinction that the Congress must be voted out if not anything else.

This blogger has made his choice on this fundamental issue of values and Dharma.

While this blogger is no more privy to the internal intrigues and conflicts within the top echelons of the BJP, there is one message this blogger would like to convey to the BJP as the voice of the “Aam Admi”

Please do not compromise on “ethics”.

Please dont blur the distinction that exists between the BJP and the Congress on the fundamental issue of “Values”.

Filed under: Chattisgarh Polls 2008, Chhattisgarh Polls 2008, Delhi Polls 2008, DesiPundit, Dharmayudh-2009, Gujarat Polls 2007, India Elections 2009, Karnataka Polls 2008, Lok Sabha Polls 2008-2009, Madhya Pradesh Polls 2008, Manmohan Confidence Vote, Offstumped, Rajasthan Polls 2008, betrayal of aam admi, jeetega-bharat

India General Elections 2009 – UPA versus NDA revisited

It appears that the Sonia Gandhi lead Congress is reluctant to make this election about “nightwatchman” Manmohan Singh’s performance but rather about the “NDA’s performance”.

An Offstumped re-rerun on the “Mood of the Nation” ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections in stark contrast to the “Mood of the Nation” ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Perhaps it can be safely said that political stability is the only thing Vajpayee and Manmohan regimes had in common.? It is useful to contrast the mood of the nation in the last 6 months of the Vajpayee regime with the Manmohan regime.

For the purpose of this exercise Offstumped examined the editorial pages of The Hindu between November of 2003 and March of 2004 with the editorial pages in the last 30 days.

It is striking that period between Nov 2003 and March 2004 was one of relative political calm across the nation. As latest as March 2004 the Vajpayee regime was firmly focused on Governance with initiatives like revamping the National Security Council to Urban reforms. There was some concern on lack of job growth but nothing of alarming proportions.

If optimistic editorials on the economy spelled the mood back in 2004, here is what Offstumped found striking over a two month period between Feb and March 2004 after the Lok Sabha was dissolved.

There was not a single divisive issue dominating the public debate to make its way to the editorial pages. In fact the majority of the editorials in The Hindu were on the state of the economy or foreign affairs.

Neither Divisive Identity Politics, nor Terrorism nor Caste or Class conflicts find any mention in the public debate during that period with the Gujarat riots of 2002 a faint and distant echo.

It is also striking that the Communal Socialist rhetoric by the usual suspects that is so common these days makes no appearance during that entire period.

The most dominant topics – Kashmir, peace talks with Pakistan, the economy and the U.S. elections.

Now contrast this with how the mood of the nation has soured over the past 5 years with the Manmohan Singh Sonia Gandhi duo presiding over the nation’s affairs.

From North to South and East to West if there is one sentiment in common it is the manne in which social conflicts have been allowed to fester and dominate the public debate. The legacy of the Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi duo is not just the utter mismanagement of the economy but a litany of conflicts that have driven deep fissures into the social fabric in areas where none existed just 4 years back.

We went from a period of successful elections in Kashmir to deep conflict over Jammu, from a period where the wounds from Gujarat Riots were forgotten to a period where no debate would begin without invoking the Gujarat riots

 We went from a period where class entitlements were given the short shrift as the nation looked forward to a positive economic environement to a period where dark economic prospects loom and entitlements have become the political mantra of the day.

If Terrorism was not even a footnote in the period leading up to the last election we are now faced with not just Terrorism threatening our way of life post 26/11 but with a collapsing State next door and the Taliban a few hundred miles away from the Indian border.

How pray did the Mood of the Nation sour from one of Optimism fuelled by limitless possibilities to one of bitterness and myopic politics ?

The answer to that question friends lies the criminal irresponsibility of the Congress Party on two counts

- the first was in the foisting on this nation a political arrangement first with the Communists and then with the Samajwadi Party that thrived on Social Conflicts from communal issues in Uttar Pradesh to caste and class issues across the country

- the second was in the foisting on this nation another political arrangement of “Power without Accountability” that saw an electile dysfunctional bureaucrat in Manmohan Singh pushing the Communal Socialist agenda of a political leader in Sonia Gandhi who sees herself as being above any kind of public scrutiny.

It is ironic that the Congress Party wants to make this election about the “Aam Admi’s badhte kadam” when in fact the “Aam Admi’s” story for the past 5 years  has been “Ek Kadam aage Do Kadam peeche” on every issue from Economy to Terrorism.

Filed under: Chattisgarh Polls 2008, Chhattisgarh Polls 2008, Delhi Polls 2008, Dharma-debates, Dharmayudh-2009, Gujarat Polls 2007, India Elections 2009, Karnataka Polls 2008, Lok Sabha Polls 2008-2009, Madhya Pradesh Polls 2008, Manmohan Confidence Vote, Offstumped, Rajasthan Polls 2008, betrayal of aam admi, jeetega-bharat

India Elections 2009 – Here come the Modi baiters

It is clear that the man the Congress spin meisters in the media fear the most on the campaign trail is Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

In what is a highly questionable opinion piece Ashok Desai, who this blogger used to respect for his intellectual acumen, has made a cheap attempt at Modi baiting. Being the managing editor at Telegraph this cheap attempt should come as no surprise for the Telegraph has become the Congress’ primary media vehicle for spin.

The piece titled “What made Narendra Modi what he is makes a bold tell-you-all claim, but is really shallow on facts and highly subjective in its opinions.

For someone who probably has never met or never spoken to Narendra Modi, Mr. Desai claims have to be taken with deep skepticism. His only source being a book Mr. Modi wrote on his experiences during Emergency.

It is a reflection of the lopsided morality practised by intellectuals like Ashok Desai that a Narendra Modi who has taken the hard path of contesting and winning democratic elections should be called an “autocrat”. One doesnt remember Mr. Ashok Desai expressing outrage over electile dysfunctional surrogates like Manmohan Singh getting “selected” to the office of Prime Minister.

Be that as it may, here is where Mr. Desai’s piece is really shallow and subjective.

Mr. Desai first claims that Mr. Modi’s prejudices were acquired during Emergency and then goes on to charge that his book on Emergency in Gujarat was bereft of any thought or reflection.

So how pray did Mr. Desai conclude that Mr. Modi’s prejudices were acquired during Emergency if as Mr. Desai claims Mr. Modi does not reflect any thoughts not even the stereotype prejudices of an RSS man ?

Mr. Desai exposes himself as being trapped in the same petty prejudices that he accuses Mr. Modi of when he tries to malign Mr. Modi for having made tasteless and vulgar remarks on Sonia Gandhi.

While Mr. Narendra Modi is known to be one not to hold back his punches, there is no record of him ever having made any vulgar remarks on Sonia Gandhi. But that doesnt stop Mr. Desai from his below the belt assault on Mr. Modi.

Mr. Desai’s lack of moral certitude becomes even more clear when one observes that while he is troubled by Mr. Modi’s visceral hatred against followers of Indira Gandhi for her having imposed Emergency and deprived the nation of Democratic freedom he has no compunctions in repeatedly calling Mr. Modi an autocrat despite his being a democratically elected leader.

Mr. Desai’s piece stands out less for its intellectual worth and more for its petty, shallow and subjective opinions making it rather ironic for Mr. Desai concludes his piece calling Mr. Modi’s “intellectual equipment” limited.  

In closing, the following question must be posed

If the Congress spin meisters in the media like Ashok Desai want to have a debate on “limited intellectual equipment” of  Narendra Modi

then

perhaps a public debate on “the electile dysfunctional political equipment” of the Congress’ candidate for Prime Minister is fair game ?

Filed under: Chattisgarh Polls 2008, Delhi Polls 2008, DesiPundit, Dharmayudh-2009, Gujarat Polls 2007, India Elections 2009, Karnataka Polls 2008, Lok Sabha Polls 2008-2009, Madhya Pradesh Polls 2008, Offstumped, Rajasthan Polls 2008, betrayal of aam admi, jeetega-bharat