MODI—THE ANSWER OF BJP

 Bikash Choudhury

 Bharatia Janata Party now resembles a house in complete mess and rudderless unlike its time in 1980 when it was being driven by twin leadership of Vajpayee Ji & Advani Ji who otherwise have the distinction of having half a century long political partnership and personal friendship. Pramod Mahajan, who could have filled the big shoes vacated by the twin leadership tragically passed away in his prime. Arun Jeteley and Shushama Swaraj, while former remain at best master strategist behind the scene and the latter a skillful campaigner with oratorial prowess; both lack charisma, acumen for top political leadership and administrative experience. More importantly they do not any shelf life. Advaniji not in a position to call off his pre-retirement political predicament; one of his own making (la Jihna episode) and other because of his advancing age and health. If by chance BJP repeats Nitin Gadakari as President of the party the second time; UPA would happily go all the way to bank to encash as Gadakari does not have what it takes to lead the party from the front in an election season. Under Gadakari’s leadership party could wipe out half its numbers in the lower house in 2014. BJP is ready for a cyanide pill bite moment if it does not call Narendra Modi lock stock and barrel and that with complete unanimity and backing of RSS. Modi is the only leader in BJP with charisma and aggression and acumen of an ace leader and his administrative abilities-- that socio economic progress of Gujurat under his leadership remains the testimony for the country and more specifically to the younger generation. His Sadabhavana campaign was well timed and would help bury any residual negativity. Ideally, Narendra Modi should be anointed as the next president of BJP in the impending National executive meeting of the party and let him move to Delhi to select a brand new team that would eventually take the party into 2014 general election; the stakes are high for the BJP, as a third straight loss could be catastrophic for the party and could also bring it to its moments of existential crisis.

BJP currently needs a leader with his own mind but having the ability to take the dissenter along. Modi remains the best bait for the party for his towering personality and unwavering leadership in face of challenges. Modi has also been successful in making niche among younger voters in the country for his unambiguous approach and powerful but simple technique of mass communication. His long organizational experience could put system in place that could convert the dissatisfaction with the incumbent govt. into votes for the party. If India were to become a powerful Nation; then, we should encourage and promote leaders like Modi into the next orbit.

Maoist End Game

Bikash Choudhury

People of Odisha heaved a sigh of relief on safe release of Jhina Hikaka, BJD M.L.A of Laxmipur in Koraput District and earlier two Italian Nationals taken hostage by the Moist. Govt. of Odisha did a commendable job of securing the release of all hostages unharmed; after 32 days of uninterrupted and at times tortuous negotiatiation. Close on the hills of hostage drama in Odisha; another high profile hostage situation took place in the neighboring State of Chhatisgarh; where the Sukma district collector, Alex Paul Menon was taken hostage from a Gramasabha meeting and continue to be under Maoist control despite his ill health till the last report came in. Though such hostage incidents puts a heavy toll on the immediate family and the Govt. which is equally or more shared by the public at large and put the State administration under severe strain; however, this phenomena testifies one thing and that is: “Maoist forces are in the run” at last. Govt. both at the centre and states should pat them a little and prepare for the end game of the Maoist both militarily and ideologically just the way Sri Lankan Govt. did with LTTE.

                                               Maoist forces have in recent past have been weakened severely due to elimination and capture of many senior leaders and busting of their supply lines & manufacturing facility of arms and ammunition. On top of it the publicity of their ill treatment to their cadres and sexual abuse of their own women followers has created huge anti Maoist sentiment among the people making their fresh recruitment of cadres that much more difficult. As the current trend suggest the ideology of Maoist from Maoism has gone and has turned the organization into a criminal syndicate that stinks of sex, sleaze, extortion money racket and lucrative trade in drugs making it a thriving business for Maoist leaders and handlers who enjoy five star comforts often in the cities and towns; while their cadres suffer from over work and disease and eventually fall victim to the bullets of security forces. Now, it will be easier for the Govt. to completely eliminate Maoist menace from the country. Since, it is easier to deal with a criminal syndicate than an Ideological outfit. However, Maoist are trying to change their strategy and beginning to infiltrate the political space which could be very dangerous for Indian state. As already, Maoist has 24 hours intelligence advantage; which is confirmed by the kidnapping of Sukma DM. Civilian space has fallen to Maoist as equal number of their activist operate in the guise of politician, police, businessman, drivers, couriers and many others. They are the people who run the supply chain of arms, ammunition, cash, groceries and logistics for Maoist. There is an immediate need to identify such operatives in advance and neutralize them from civilian space for the success of anti Maoist operation. Further, political opportunism has been mainly responsible for the growth of Maoist forces in the country and therefore our political parties should learn from the events in our neighboring country like Nepal.

                                     First of all the Congress Party leadership take an initiative to hold an all party meeting to discuss and finalize the ‘Maoist end game’ by concluding the meeting with a resolution “ Country would use all its resources in its command to eliminate the Maoist forces completely either by peaceful dialogue or military offensive or both”. Which should be followed by a meeting of CM of Maoist affected states under the leadership of Prime Minister to ratify the resolution of all party meeting and put the administrative action in motion without losing any time & money.

                      Initially Govt. would do well to start a propaganda offensive against the Maoist forces by highlighting their brutal methods against innocent people and atrocities committed on their own cadres and more specifically on their women cadres. Govt. could also announce the reward for surrender and elimination of Maoist leadership in cash and kind. In the sideline anti Maoist security forces must map out Naxal infested areas with all the arts and science available to the country. Subsequently, Govt. could declare a specific window of one month for peaceful dialogue to resolve the issue making it very clear in the outset that, should the negotiated settlement fail; country would use all its forces in its command (euphemism for Army and Air Force) to root out the criminal syndicate of Maoist forces in lock stock and barrel; in one swipe across the country without caring for loss of lives or resources. This should be “Maoist end game” for good.   

BIJU BABU-UNFINSHED AGENDA

Bikash Choudhury


Ideas have long self life. Powerful Ideas have survived for thousands of years. As Ideas on religions of Hinduism, Christianity and Judaism have influenced millions of people and have lived for thousands of years and would continue to influence people and the world we live in for years to come by. Though, Ideas on Jihad is extremely powerful; however, it has consumed millions of human lives. The architect of modern Odisha Biju Babu has also left behind a powerful Idea for his motherland in his speech at Binod Kanoongo memorial lecture in 1992; “In my dream of the 21st century for the state. I would have young men and women who put the interest of the state before them. They will have pride in them, confidence in themselves. They will not be at anybody’s mercy, except their own selves. By their brain, intelligence and capacity, they will recapture the history of Kalinga. I would like my Odisha of the 21st century to have excellent artisans, superb craftsmen and sculptors, greatest musicians and poets”. Biju Babu apparently had confirmed that young men of Odisha would make his dream a reality, one day in twenty first century. It goes without saying that the thought of Biju Babu must have been living in the minds of people that springs into prominence now and then. If we analyze the vision of Biju Babu; we will find that Biju Babu put a lot of importance on youth energy and individuals with ability to sacrifice personal well being for the state and he also stressed on individual qualities like personal pride, self confidence and human intelligence which are all by products of education, training, skill development and personal grooming. Further, his idea of recapturing the history of Kalinga was symbolic of extra ordinary social progress, economic growth and political influence in National & International affairs with flourishing art, craft and literature. Those Ideas of Biju Babu remains still valid even after twenty long years and inspiring young and old alike; is testimony of his deeper understanding of his land and people by this visionary states man, passionate nationalist, incorrigible optimist and a human being par excellence; born on the soils of Odisha.On the eve of 76th Odisha Divas our leadership ideally should revisit the vision of Biju Babu and leverage current level of governance arrangement and success in political mobilization with ambitious goal in social & economic progress; taking cue from China which multiplied its GDP ten times in less than thirty years with the help of free market economy. We could restructure our Agriculture sector with the help of Co-operatives, let loose private enterprise in education and health care to post cascading growth. Propagate innovation-excellence-enterprise and a sense of cleanliness in all walks of life to see “the decade of destiny” take shape as conceived and pursued by Biju Babu in his life time. This should also help our leaders to fill the vacuum in National leadership.

MOTHER- WITH A DIFFERENCE

BIKASH CHOUDHURY


My mother born 73 years ago in a little hamlet was a beautiful woman with a golden heart; her personality in a family photograph that adorns our home with my father and three senior siblings was no less of any current Bollywood diva; but, she was also, a woman-man with extra ordinary courage, strength, fortitude and an epitome of sacrifice as she pulled herself to support her husband to look after the children and widows of her husband’s two deceased brothers without any complain. She willingly shared all her meager resources and a small two bed room home. Single handedly fed fifteen hungry stomachs at home for years while many times skipped her launch or dinner. She had a very brief honey moon period when her husband was doing exceedingly well in his career and the commitments to the extended family was at minimum as they were all on their own doing good for themselves. But, as bad luck or misfortune would have it; she was struck again; as she lost her husband to a freak motor accident all of a sudden. Within a few days she lost half her weight and lost her moorings for a few months; but, soon she collected herself and gained composure to rebuild the broken pieces of her life and to take care of her three minor children and two grown up. She left no stones unturned to give a good life to her children; in such crisis like time in her own life she did not hesitate to help a neighbor with the finances or helping a tenant’s wife in baby sitting. All these she used to do with conviction and derive immense pleasure. Her belief in spiritual guru must have given her strength to face insurmountable challenges that life brought on the way. Now as she counts her last few breaths having inflicted with gull bladder cancer with an emaciated body in stark contrast to her beauty in her youth reminds about the transitory nature of life. However, she would go down as a valiant woman with rare resilience and be remembered as a benevolent woman who touched many human lives in a very sensitive way.

PORIBORTAN MAMATA STYLE

Bikash Choudhury


‘Chief Minister barging into a police station to release one of her party cadres caught the news paper headline’ a few months back. It was non other than Ms. Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister at Kolkata. The entire nation got shocked; forcing the Governor Mr. Narayanan to disapprove such an act. But, Bangali Babus who know ‘Didi Bhai’ closely were not surprised. Later on the hooliganism of student’s wing of Trinamool Congress in college campuses and manhandling of Principal of a college was caught on camera; but, ignored by the chief minister and her party. Subsequently Mamata embarrassed the Prime Minister and the Country by declining to join the delegation of PM in his Bangladesh visit; all of sudden, on the Tessta water sharing issue with Bangladesh though she was consulted earlier by Shiv Shankar Menon, National Security Adviosr. And, now her strident opposition of her own Railway Minister of her own party Sri Dinesh Trivedi shows complete surrender to competitive populism quite contrast to her own election manifesto which promised “poribortan”. Is this the change she wishes to usher into long neglected state of West Bengal after a long and hard struggle against the red brigade that includes Singur agitation? Is there any method to her madness? She is actually a veteran of agitational politics and finds it very difficult to adjust with developmental politics as playing into gallery has become her second nature. May be her toils and tribulation against left front has made her completely negative whereas in victory mass leaders and states men court a large heart-forget & forgive to make a constructive beginning; it is strange and surprising to see Mamata a prolific author and poet succumbing to gross populism which will cause her more harm than any good. Already she would have lost a chunk of her mandate in West Bengal and earned a negative perception with the younger population across the country.
Those who have gone through the Trinamool Congress manifesto before the assembly election would have certainly hoped for a developmental agenda of Mamata led West Bengal Government and not a confrontational menu against central govt. in lock stock and barrel. Mamata needs to learn a thing or two from Odisha Chief Minister, Sri Naveen Patnaik and Bihar Chief Minister, Sri Nitish Kumar who perform with quite efficiency within their meager resources of their respective state while fighting with centre (biased & politically motivated policies & politics) on issues of resources allocation and devolution of powers which has earned them a stature on political management across the country.

Mamata should not follow in the foot steps of her predecessor who in thirty years brought down an industrially developed state to the mercy of agrarian economy on a false pretext of labor class. She should rather follow her own manifesto where in she had promised to develop the city of Kolakata into London, international standard infrastructure and Maa, Matee & Manus. Otherwise her opponents would happily go to the bank to encash peoples mandate in next available opportunity.

Vote Bank Politics Bombed

Bikash Choudhury



Rahul Gandhi came out of his residence with three weeks of stubbles on
face and gracefully conceded defeat and took the responsibility for
the debacle before any more sycophant Congress leaders could belittle
him with their inexplicable defense of their leader which is uncalled
for and inappropriate. Rahul admitted that he was heading the Congress
campaign and the victory or defeat; he will take both on his stride.
While returning after meeting the press; Mrs. Gandhi Jr. was there to
receive him with affection and hand around the shoulders; this was a
sisterly consolation or a political collaboration to follow, camera
lenses failed to capture. Nobody or none would disagree with Rahul’s
contribution for bringing down invincible Maya (only a perception)
from her high pedestal; but, completely failed to capture the votes;
in spite of clocking over 200 rallies during election campaigning and
over five years of ground work and public contact programs, padayatras
and camp fires at Dalit’s homes. A neutral observer would know that
Rahul’s efforts in UP was over shadowed by a poor, extremely corrupt,
inefficient and in effective UPA 2 Govt. at the centre with
questionable track record in Governance; which eventually did the
tricks for Congress not only in UP but also in Punjab where Congress
failed to capture the benefits of anti incumbency against the Badals
and in Uttarakhand where Congress failed to capture a simple majority.
Actually, Congress game plan of vote bank politics exploded on their
face; as smart electorate could see through the unnecessary
controversy around Batala House encounter, 4.5% minority reservation
and at the end Presidents rule threat; and, came out in large numbers
to vote for their party of choice; and Congress was not one among
them-the so called money power, muscle power and the power over CBI
came to naught. The count down for
general election 2014 truly begins here and now; as it adds fresh
challenges for the Congress party to retain power for the third time
which may prove to be a Herculean task. Congress party could at least
save the initiative to keep a fighting chance for 2014; by removing
their Hitler Didi attitude and adopting a collaborative frame work for
Governance while lifting the inertia to faster decision making and by
taking bold steps to alter the structural and systemic epidemics in
Governance by focusing once again on issues like Bijli, Sadak & Pani
and Roti, Kapada & Makan.

WHAT NEXT?

Bikash Choudhury



After sweeping the three tier panchayata election in the State, winning seventy five percent of Zila parisada seats and over eighty percent of Zilaparisad i.e., 26 out of 30 districts; Biju Janata Dal has eventually attained an unassailable lead in the body polity of the State in just over ten years from the formation of the party on the name and ideals of legendary Sri Biju Patnaik. Now, what next? Repeating the numbers in assembly election in 2014 election would be a cake walk for BJD; knowing the political mobilization at the grass roots; and, therefore, could not be a goal to look forward to. Recent victory is a huge opportunity and also could pose a threat if complacency sets in with the rank and file and economic surge does not match with political mobilization over a period of time. This should be a good time for Biju Janata Dal to reinvent itself once again as it is easier done at the peak of electoral achievement than the other way round. With three fourth of seat in State assembly; party should and must go for a faster economic transformation in the State and also look forward to greener pastures.
Economic transformation with reduction in income disparity among people and across the different regions must now be targeted with reasonable exception like KBK-which needs an altogether different treatment to catch up with the rest of the State in terms of development. With low per capita income of less than 500 USD; surplus budget may not be the right prescription according to famous economist John Maynard Keynes; however, blind deficit financing for a faster turn around of the State economy also may not bring desired result. What is needed is targeted Deficit Financing to invest in the drivers of the State Economy could make all the difference in medium to long term; but, before attempting one would recommend the State to bring substantial improvement in the efficiency of public expenditure and explore possibility of harvesting tax & non-tax revenue to the tune of 20-30% of collection by suitable methods.Once that is done, it is ideal to borrow and invest in the drivers of economy if need be; in Higher Education & Research, Agriculture sector (in the domain of value addition only), Agriculture supply chain, Tourism and Infrastructure sectors
Biju Janata Dal could replicate the successful formula in grass root political mobilization in neighboring states; apart from taking the initiative for an alternative to UPA & NDA; a third front, to fill an apparent leadership vacuum in National political scene. This will require empowerment of young Turks like Jay Panda, Kalikesh Singhdeo, Mahatab and Tatagata Satapathy; while making provisions for home coming for old Biju loyalist to increase the bench strength of senior and experience leaders who could independently craft coalition across the country under the BJD banner for an eventual push for Delhi durbar. With little imagination Biju Janata Dal could bring about an impact & epoch making changes in the State, in the country and in the World we live in by pursuing a political line “prosperous Odisha, Developed India and Peaceful World”.