A comment on G.K.Gandhi's open letter to Modi!

Gopal Krishna Gandhi is afraid of Mod’s ascending to power at center. To him perhaps Modi means riot and communal disharmony.Modi means rule by RSS in disguise.Modi means Hindutva.Modi means dismantling the secular fabric of India. No, his fear seems unfounded and imaginary.Modi’s is a man with vision and mission. He’s a man with courage and conviction. He’s practical and workaholic as well. He’s not swayed by emotion only. Nor Modi is a man to play communal card seated at the highest echelon of power that would lead to ethnic violence. In fact, Modi is made of sterner stuff. His rising to power despite stiff opposition by none other than many of his very powerful party colleagues is a phenomenon in itself. It’s the rarest of the rare instances a man born in a very poor family, who even acted as a tea vendor in his boyhood, has become the Prime minister of the largest democracy on earth with massive mandate.Modi knows the plight of the poor than any body else.Mr.Gandhi, I do hope, he’ll not disappoint us as you apprehend. Nevertheless let us wait and watch before we pass any remark on him.

Vote bank politics!

It’s the best of times for Mamata Banerjee.She’s bagged 34 seats in LS polls. It’s the worst of time for her too. Her arch rival Narendra Modi’s party BJP has clenched whopping 282 seats alone and NDA reached a mind boggling number 332.It’s absolutely gone contrary to her expectation of ‘hung parliament’ which could help her play a pivotal role in national politics. She’s been rather marginalized in stead. However, her anti-Modi stance has paid her dividend. She’s reaped electoral benefit out of her minority vote bank in a big way. She seems to continue the same stance even now with an eye to 2016 Assembly polls. She’s reportedly contemplating to boycott swearing-in ceremony of NDA govt albeit she has not taken final decision on this count. Unlike Jaylalitha who’s already patched up her frayed relation with Modi perhaps considering the ground reality that strained relation with center stands in the way of developmental activities of the state.But Mamata still sticks to anti-Modi pitch. However, Modi has invited her to Delhi for discussion on problems of her state but Mamata is yet to respond. Her govt is encumbered with huge loan and cash starved. So she needs special financial assistance from center to overcome this stringent situation. Unless she tries to improve her relation with Modi,it’s our state that would suffer most.So the sooner she relent and soften her anti-Modi stance, the better.

BJP Upsurge!

Post LS Polls(2014)Scenario in West Bengal: Once BJP was a rare political species in our state. It was almost a non-entity. Over the last few years it’s, however, gained strength, thanks to the down fall of the Left empire and morbid condition of the state congress.TMC’s misrule, attempts to ignore or marginalize democratic institutions and gag dissenting voices which have alienated the urban upper and lower middle classes from the party have also helped BJP improve its position in the state. Now BJP has made a quantum jump at one go by doubling its strength riding on Modi wave. Although BJP has bagged only 2 seats, its vote share has gone from 9% to almost 19%.BJP is expected to go from strength to strength with the passage of time. Now the party is a formidable force to reckon with.TMC is very much concerned with BJP upsurge. The Left is now a sagging force and its unabated downslide in vote share (nearly 30% in the present polls) since long makes the party bordering on losing its relevance in national politics.Nor are there serious efforts to arrest this trend or make a turn- around. Now the party faces the leadership crisis that it ever did. Most of the leaders have grown sufficiently old to spend time and energy for revival of the party. Now what the party badly needs is infusion of young blood. But the way party activists and even supporters and sympathizers are mercilessly attacked by the TMC over- enthusiasts with none to protect them and the leadership washing their hands off after issuing statement only does not encourage the new young faces to enlist their names in the party, nor do people dare extend their support to the party openly. On the contrary, BJP siphon off the Left workers and swell its rank and file. However, the committed Left workers prefer maintaining low profile to joining BJP.After each debacle in polls, the Left leaders review the causes of dismal performance of the party and prescribe some measures but without any tangible result. If the things are allowed to drift this way the Left would lose much of its relevance in the state politics too. In the 2016 Assembly polls the Left might finish fourth after TMC,BJP and Congress. BJP now fills the vacuum created by the Left. They’re likely to fare well in Calcutta Corporation election which TMC like to dodge now considering BJP’s impressive performance in many assembly segments in Kolkata and freshness of Modi wave. In fact, BJP now posses a great challenge to TMC and this challenge might intensify if NDA can deliver goods at center.