Mamata Banerjee - India's Political Superwoman

Mamata Banerjee, once derided for her humble beginnings, just stunned her country by sweeping the entrenched communists from power in Bengal. As she prepares to take over as chief minister, Shoma Chaudhury has the story of the firebrand who broke all of India's rules.

Imagine a tiny sparrow of a woman in a crumpled white sari, in a narrow, crowded lane in Kolkata, yelling colloquially into a microphone, asking the heaving, sweating sea of people around her to go home and bathe and relax. All around her is a jubilant crescendo: conch shells blowing, drums beating, a celebratory vapor of green powder everywhere. A moment later, she shouts over the din to call out to a young girl in the crowd, urging her to bring all the children out of the scorching sun and into the modest house behind her. She is raucous, tactile, familiar. Everyone calls her Didi, elder sister.

Fifty-six-year-old Mamata Banerjee may not fit the global image of the political superstar, but she has just turned India on its head. Politics in India is no stranger to tectonic shifts, but few electoral upheavals in the country's 64-year history as an independent nation can match what Banerjee pulled off last week. On May 13, Indian democracy served up one of its most triumphal stories. With the world media jostling outside her office, she swept a seemingly invincible communist government out of Bengal after 34 years of unbroken rule. It's a feat not even the 125-year-old Congress Party could dream of. Banerjee's party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), is only 13 years old.

Banerjee's victory will have major national repercussions. The Left Front, the alliance of doctrinaire communist parties she defeated, has always led governments in only three Indian states, but its clout in Bengal gave it disproportionate teeth, making it a formidable player on the national stage. It was a bulwark against the communal politics of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party; it reined in the excesses of the Congress Party's economic policies, and it was the natural glue for any combination of parties that wished to cobble together a third political front nationally. (In 2008, in fact, the Left Front almost unseated the government when it opposed a trust vote over the Indo-U.S. Nuclear Bill.) The Front's defeat in Bengal, therefore, will open up a crucial power vacuum at the center. Banerjee will wield greater influence.

But for the moment, all the transformative exhilarations of Banerjee's story, and the incredible power of democracy, lie back in Bengal. On May 20, when she is sworn in, she will have stormed a male bastion to become Bengal's first woman chief minister. With her victory, India now has powerful women chief ministers in three of its most populous states: Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. India also has a woman president; a woman leader of the opposition in parliament, and a woman at the head of India's oldest party, the Congress. That is probably a record unmatched anywhere in the world.

In a curious twist, none of these female chief ministers is married or has children. But that's where the similarities among them end. Unlike the other two—Jayalalitha and Mayawati, who use only one name—Banerjee is a self-made woman. She has had no political godfathers; she did not inherit her party from any mentor. Banerjee started life as the daughter of poor, working-class parents in a dingy Kolkata neighborhood, close to a notorious red-light district and a putrid canal. She was 13 when her father died, and Banerjee not only brought up all six of her siblings, she put herself through college as well. They were hard years. The house was a box, and space was at a premium. At night, the family doubled up on the bed: Some lay on it, some beneath it on the floor. Banerjee still lives with her mother in that house, now only modestly improved and enlarged to accommodate the TMC party office next door.

Unlike other political leaders, she is scrupulously honest and has not used caste, class, religion, language, money, or any divisive argument to wrest power.

Article - Chaudhury Banerjee Trinamool Congress party leader Mamata Banerjee speaks to the supporters in Kolkata, India on May 13, 2011. (Photo: AP Photos)

This humble beginning is one of the high notes in the story. In a land of legendary snobberies, ruled by starched patrician elders known as the bhadralok, the firebrand Banerjee has broken all the rules. She has taken on the entrenched party machinery. She has refused to groom herself into acceptability. She has heaped abuse on foes; danced on a politician's car; threatened to commit suicide publicly from a pole; picketed inside the well of parliament; hurled her shawl at the august speaker; and grabbed political opponents by their collars. For years, the Kolkata elite derided her as a jhee—an ugly diminutive for a housemaid—and witheringly mocked her accent and clothes. Unfazed, the mercurial Banerjee blazed on, rising in the ranks of the Congress Party.

In 1993, while on a protest march with other Congress workers, Banerjee was brutally beaten by the police and communist cadres. Thirteen of her colleagues lost their lives, and her skull was cracked. This proved to be a huge turning point. Banerjee swore she would not rest till she had wiped out the Communist Party and its autocratic regime. In 1999, disillusioned with the Congress as well, she floated the Trinamool Congress, a ragtag band of rebels, disenfranchised workers, and sullen lumpen.

Political parties ask Matua community

For Karl Marx, religion was the opium of the masses. But for the political parties in West Bengal — even for the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) — it is a straw to clutch in on the do-or-die election battle.

As the state is high on poll fever, both the CPM and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are trying to woo the Matua community, which is a deciding factor in more than 74 constituencies. It has more than 1 crore followers in West Bengal and around Rs 4 crore across the country. When the Left front government tried to impress them with sops, the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had herself became a follower and became the chief patron of the All India Matua Mahasabha in 2010.

Moreover, the TMC is fielding Manjulkrishna Thakur — the son of Binapani Devi (Boroma), the 92-year-old spiritual leader of Matua Mahasabha —from Gaighata constituency in North 24 Parganas district. Gaighata has gone to polls on Wednesday. This move is supposed to swing majority of the community votes in favour of the TMC. Matuas are scheduled castes or scheduled tribes, who mainly live in eight districts of West Bengal — including Howrah, North and South 24-Parganas, Nadia, Cooch Behar, Malda, South Dinajpur and North Dinajpur.

“The votes of our community would be the deciding factor during this election. For years, political parties didn’t listen to our necessities. Now, Didi has become a part of us and is working for the overall development of Matuas. Our votes are crucial in atleast 78 assembly seats. About 50 per cent of voters in my seat are Matuas,” Thakur said. The Railways minister had even shared a dias with Boroma. She promised to upgrade the Thakurnagar railway station, build a stadium and a railway hospital.Earlier, the community was a vote bank for the left parties, but in 2008 Panchayat polls and 2009 Lok Sabha polls, those votes shifted in favour of Trinamool and it reflected in the results. The Left promised them a college and a function in the state capital to recognize the contribution of the Thakur family, the founding family of Matuas.

The state government has also offered the Matua Mahasangha 20 cottah of land to build a research oganisation and instituted a scholarship in the name of Harichand Thakur, its founder.To counter the Trinamool’s tactics, leaders of different political parties like Biman Bose and Brinda Karat of the CPM and Manas Bhunia, president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress had visited Baroma. Infact, CPM stalwart Goutam Deb and the TMC leader Mukul Roy even shared a dias together with Baroma late last year.Though tried to nullify the impact of Matuas in the elections, Manoj Kanti Biswas, the CPM candidate in Gaighata also seemed to be on defence and attacked Banerjee’s moves. As political parties are fighting for their share of votes, people hope that the promises will turn out to reality once the elections are are over.

Politicians snatch religious fervour in Damdama Sahib

Baisakhi at Damdama Sahib might signify fun, fair and devotion for the Punjabis, but the occasion, which is considered most auspicious in the region, had only one connotation for the politicians-rival bashing.  With a full-fledged political agenda, heavily-loaded with political bashing, the two main parties of Punjab, SAD and Congress, used the occasion of Baisakhi at Talwandi Sabo, as another platform to fire salvos at each other before the electoral battle actually begins. Both political parties left no stone unturned to outshine their opponents in their show of strength at their political conferences.

Private vehicles, tractor-trolleys, tempos and buses were seen transporting people from far-flung areas to the respective rallies as political hangover threatened to hijack religious fervour at this fifth temporal seat of Sikhs, Takht Damdama Sahib. Highly confident of returning to power in the next assembly elections, Congress leaders, led by Amarinder Singh, on Thursday gave a call to the party rank and file to throw Akalis out of power to ensure proper development and welfare of all people in the state.

While Congress leaders accused Akalis of "unbridled corruption" in the state, SAD patron and Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Badal, on their part, slammed Congress led UPA government for "rampant corruption in the country".  Religion figured in their speeches by way of religious hymns from Guru Granth Sahib, but that too, only to paint their opponents as "anti-social, antireligious persons''.

Seeking a return to power on the poll plank of development, SAD claimed that the state was on "fast track development and people thus need to vote for the party to maintain this tempo of development''.  Former Congress CM Amarinder, however, asserted that the Akalis "had lost the confidence of people as they had not done anything during their four years rule, except for victimizing political opponents and robbing the state of its assets''.

Chatwal ideas about politics

 

‘I have no interest in Indian politics,’ said high-profile Indian American hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal as he again denied a purported WikiLeaks report suggesting that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was trying to win Akali Dal support during the 2008 trust vote through him.  ‘I have no interest in Indian politics because I live in this country and spend most of my time here,’ said Chatwal.

The purported WikiLeaks cable from the US embassy said that Captain Satish Sharma ‘considered to be a very close family friend of Sonia Gandhi’ told the US political counsellor that the Congress party was working hard to ensure that the UPA government wins the July 22 confidence vote on the India-US nuclear deal.

‘Sharma said that PM Singh and others were trying to work on the Akali Dal (8 votes) through financier Sant Chatwal and others, but unfortunately it did not work out,’ according to the leaked cable. Chatwal said he worked day and night to get the landmark India-US nuclear deal approved by the US Congress, but played no role for its passage in India.

‘India is my passion. My heart is there’ and ‘this deal is fantastic for India and fantastic for America’, Chatwal, who is known to be close to the Clintons, told IANS in an interview in his Manhattan office. ‘So I had to work hard. I had to be in Washington every week and put up my day and night’ on the job, he said.

Because he knew members of the US Congress, Manmohan Singh asked him to work on that with planning and a proper strategy to get the deal done in the face of lobbying by China, Pakistan and ‘our enemies’ against the pact, Chatwal said. Initially ‘Hillary Clinton was not helping as she thought it could be a political issue as she was planning a presidential run,’ he said.

‘But when I put the whole package together, she also came on board.’ ‘That’s how it started on May 17, 2006,’ when he hosted a Congressional reception in support of the deal under the aegis of the US-India Friendship Council, Chatwal said recalling that as many as 18 senators and 60 members of the House attended.

After intense lobbying when the deal was finally approved by the US Congress, Chatwal received a letter of appreciation from Manmohan Singh in November 2008 congratulating him ‘for the important contribution you have made in bringing the two countries together’.  The Padma Bhushan award followed.

Manmohan Singh was ‘the only one who knew how hard I worked, spending a lot of time and money’, he said proffering a copy of the letter from the Indian prime minister. ‘In politics nothing comes free. You have to write cheques in the American political system,’ Chatwal said. ‘I know the system. I had to work very hard. So I did as much as I could.’

‘I was interested in building a relationship between India and America,’ he said. For that he cultivated US Congress members and ‘I invested a lot of money in’ Michael Dukakis, Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. ‘But he lost the election because he failed in the debate.’

‘Then I thought, let me bet on (Bill) Clinton,’ Chatwal said recalling how he went to meet the then Arkansas governor before the 1992 primaries when ‘nobody looked at Clinton and realised his potential’. Chatwal said he had been making efforts to build US-India relations since 1979. ‘But real break I got with President Clinton, whom I helped before he became president.’

‘I bet on him. He became president. Already we were good friends like a family,’ he said. ‘And really he (Clinton) was the one who opened the door for India.’ ‘Clinton said ‘what do you want? I said ‘I want to build relations between India and America. He said, ‘That’s it. I thought you were looking for a position in the White House’.’

‘No, I am not. I am a businessman. I don’t want any political position. So he promised’ to help build US-India relations, Chatwal recalled. But ‘Indian politics, I have no interest,’ he said. ‘Whether it’s BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) or Samajwadi Party’ he had helped them all in reaching out to Clinton, Chatwal said, suggesting that Clinton had invited then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his behest.

‘Our relationship is with India’. Be it BJP or United Progressive Alliance, he had looked after leaders of all partes, Chatwal said. But ‘I have nothing to do with any political party. I don’t want to get involved in Indian politics. No sense in that.’

Political agitations disturb railway service

 

A string of political agitations has virtually stopped the Indian Railways in its tracks. As Jats threaten a siege of Delhi, the damages calculated by the railways have already amounted to, on an average, 10 trains getting cancelled daily. According to the railways, 3,611 trains were cancelled and 3,100 more diverted between April 2010 and this March because of political agitations. This not only resulted in a loss of Rs 1,700 crore to the railways but dented the on-time performance of trains by 30 per cent.

The protests were spread far and wide across the country - from Rajasthan (where the Gujjars agitated) and Andhra Pradesh (where supporters are demanding a separate Telangana state) to Jharkhand and West Bengal (where the writ of Maoists run), and Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (where the Jats are agitating). The agitations affected more than 7,000 trains between April 2010 and March 2011. Not to be missed, the movement of more than 12,000 trains was also affected during the same period because of law and order problems.

With the agitating Jats threatening to block the movement of trains on the busy Delhi-Ambala route in the coming days, the number of trains affected will rise, so will the losses for the railways by the end of the current financial year. On Friday also, 80 trains were cancelled, besides 38 more being terminated midway. The Northern Railways cancelled 56 trains and have curtailed the routes of 26 more trains on Saturday.

A senior Railway Board official said: "It has not even been two months since we got over the Gujjar agitation, which made the railways bleed in the last quarter of the current fiscal year. Just a week after the Budget, the Jats were on the tracks and continue to disrupt services. About 2,600 trains have been affected since March 5, including 1,250 trains getting cancelled. We paid refunds to about eight lakh passengers and are worried about the future with the rush holiday season approaching." The Gujjar agitation, which started on December 20 and continued till January 6 this year, led to the cancellation of 394 trains. Another 516 were diverted. About 440 trains were delayed during those 17 days of protests that blocked the entire Delhi- Mumbai and Delhi- Jaipur sections.

A big chunk of the cancellations has been in the Maoist- affected areas in Jharkhand and West Bengal. "From May 2010 to March this year, about 1,656 trains were cancelled and 1,698 more were diverted. About 3,800 trains were rescheduled in the insurgency-hit areas, where rail roko protests resulted in huge losses to the railways," a senior officer said. With demands for statehood and reservation becoming intense in some parts of the country, railway officials fear such agitations would further strain the railway infrastructure.

Two days of Telangana agitation on March 1 and 10 not only led to the cancellation of 311 trains, but also disrupted local transport services between Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Ligampally and Falaknuma. The railways get worst hit due to blockade of freight movement during agitations, railway officials said.

Govt drive to 49% FDI in insurance

 

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said the government is talking to political parties to garner support required to push through a bill that allows 49% FDI in the insurance sector. Speaking on the sidelines of an event to commemorate the centenary of Central Bank of India, Mukherjee said: "We have started talking to various stakeholders which, in this case, are political parties because we do not have 272 Congress MPs. Therefore, we would require support of other political parties. I have started talking to them and I hope there will be a broad consensus in the matter."

He said the government has set up a Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC), which will have its first meeting in a few days to rewrite and clean up the financial sector laws and bring them in line with the requirements of the sector. Later, talking to industry leaders at a conference organized by industry trade body Assocham, Mukherjee said that all the tax proposals in this year's Budget were aimed at aligning them with the Goods & Services Tax (GST). The FM also said that the GST has to align with the tax rates in different states in force now.

Mukherjee pointed out that the government wanted to undertake reforms to simplify and place administrative procedures concerning taxation, trade and tariffs and subsidies on electronic interface, which would be free of discretion and bureaucratic delays. "This would also prepare the ground for the implementation of the DTC and hopefully the GST as well, from April 2012," he added. The FM said he was expecting companies to increase investments in return for higher margins that they enjoyed through Budget proposals like not going for any hike in excise duty. "Just as I have to meet your expectations to get you to scale new heights of productivity and growth, you also have to meet my hopes, in the process strengthening my hands."

He also said that he wanted corporates to help him in pursuing the government's economic reforms agenda. "I can do more, when I have the space to do more. You have to do your bit to create that space for me," Mukherjee said. On this year's Budget proposals, Mukherjee said that he had the option to roll back the central excise duty to levels prevailing in November 2008. At that time, duties were cut as a corrective measure in response to the financial crisis, with the aim of arresting the then deteriorating economic situation. "I have chosen not to do so and retain the rates at 10% for two reasons. I would like to see improved business margins translated into higher investment rates. I would also like to stay my course towards GST," he added.

Earlier, delivering the Sir Sorabji Pochkhanawala Memorial Lecture 2011, the finance minister said that although public sector banks have done a good job in their outreach, the cost of intermediation remained high. "The cost of banking intermediaries in India is high and bank penetration is limited to only a few customer segments and geographies. We are trying to address this in collaboration with the Reserve Bank of India and with the active participation of the banking and non-banking financial entities." He said that financial inclusion is a key determinant of sustainable and inclusive growth which, in turn, is essential for building an equitable society.

Mukherjee said that for fiscal year 2010-11, the Indian economy was expected to record a GDP growth of 8.6%, which will take it back on the high-growth path that the economy was traversing on in the years prior to the crisis. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was in Mumbai on Sunday, said that the government is talking to other political parties to garner support required to push through a bill that allows 49% FDI in the insurance sector. He also said that all the tax proposals in this year's Budget were aimed at aligning them with the Goods & Services Tax (GST) , a new and simplified indirect tax code that the government is trying to introduce next year. The FM also said that the GST has to align with the tax rates in different states that are in force now.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event to commemorate the centenary celebrations of Central Bank of India, Mukherjee said: "We have started talking to various stakeholders which, in this case, are political parties because we do not have 272 Congress MPs. Therefore, we would require support of other political parties. I have started talking to them and I hope there will be a broad consensus in the matter." He said the government has also set up a Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC), which will have its first meeting in a few days to rewrite and clean up the financial sector laws and bring them in line with the requirements of the sector.

Talking to industry leaders at a conference organized by industry trade body Assocham, Mukherjee pointed out that the government wanted to undertake reforms to simplify and place administrative procedures concerning taxation, trade and tariffs and subsidies on electronic interface, which would be free of discretion and bureaucratic delays. "This would also prepare the ground for the implementation of the DTC and hopefully the GST as well, from April 2012," he added. The FM said he was expecting companies to increase investments in return for higher margins that companies enjoyed through Budget proposals like not going for any hike in excise duty. "Just as I have to meet your expectations to get you to scale new heights of productivity and growth, you also have to meet my hopes, in the process strengthening my hands."

He also said that he wanted corporates to help him in pursuing the government's economic reforms agenda. "I can do more, when I have the space to do more. You have to do your bit to create that space for me," Mukherjee said. In reply to a question from one of those present about setting up a monitoring body for monetary expenditure, the FM said that could be taken up during the formulations of the 12th five year plan. On this year's Budget proposals, Mukherjee said that he had the option to roll back the central excise duty to levels prevailing in November 2008. At that time, duties were cut as a corrective measure in response to the financial crisis, with the aim of arresting the then deteriorating economic situation. "I have chosen not to do so and retain the rates at 10% for two reasons. I would like to see improved business margins translated into higher investment rates. I would also like to stay my course towards GST," he added.

The FM also said that he wanted to address some topical and emerging concerns through his budget proposals, because only then the government could hope to bring a convergence in the expectations of investors, entrepreneurs and consumers "on the macroeconomic prospects of the economy, and elicit the required response from them." Earlier, delivering the Sir Sorabji Pochkhanawala Memorial Lecture 2011, the finance minister said that although public sector banks have done a good job in their outreach, the cost of intermediation remained high. "The cost of banking intermediaries in India is high and bank penetration is limited to only a few customer segments and geographies. We are trying to address this in collaboration with the Reserve Bank of India and with the active participation of the banking and non-banking financial entities." He said that financial inclusion is a key determinant of sustainable and inclusive growth which, in turn, is essential for building an equitable society. "We have accorded high importance to financial inclusion to cover the entire gamut of financial services pertaining to savings, credit, insurance and transfers. A major unfinished, in some sense ongoing, task in this context is to promote greater financial literacy and investor protection," he said.

Mukherjee said that for fiscal year 2010-11, the Indian economy was expected to record a GDP growth of 8.6%, which will take it back on the high-growth path that the economy was traversing on in the years prior to the crisis. He added that following the global financial crisis, the government has been compelled to some of the principles of economic and financial policy making. "The global developments underscore the importance of understanding and regulating the financial markets and the innovative financial products in the interest of sustaining growth and development. We have seen how unfettered growth of financial sector can have dangerous implications for the real sector, both in the developed and the developing world," he said.

"The fact that India has not gone through any financial turbulence, as a result of the earlier phase of financial deregulation is a testimony to our consistent view that reforms in global standards have to be adapted to local conditions" he said. The FM also said he was expecting companies to increase investments in return for higher margins that companies enjoyed through budget proposals like not going for any hike in excise duty. "Just as I have to meet your expectations to get you to scale new heights of productivity and growth, you also have to meet my hopes, in the process strengthening my hands," Mukherjee told industry leaders at a conference organised by industry trade body Assocham.

The FM also said that he wanted corporates to help him in pursuing the government's economic reforms agenda. "I can do more, when I have the space to do more. You have to do your bit to create that space for me," Mukherjee said. In reply to a question from one of those present about setting up a monitoring body for monetary expenditure, the FM said that could be taken up during the formulations of the 12th five year plan.

On this year budget proposals, Mukherjee said that he had the option to roll back the central excise duty to levels prevailing in November 2008. At that time, duties were cut as a corrective measure in response to the financial crisis, with the aim of arresting the then deteriorating economic situation. "I have chosen not to do so and retain the rates at 10% for two reasons. I would like to see improved business margins translated into higher investment rates. I would also like to stay my course towards GST," he added.

The FM also said that he wanted to address some topical and emerging concerns through his budget proposals, because only then the government could hope to bring a convergence in the expectations of investors, entrepreneurs and consumers "on the macroeconomic prospects of the economy, and elicit the required response from them."

Ekta Yatra brings BJP political dividends

 

The showdown at Lal Chowk has further fuelled BJP’s ambitions which is contemplating to move the court on the one hand and also to raise the issue in Parliament on the other hand. It wants to make the debate a vigorous one.

The legal aspects of Omar Abdullah’s government’s to block and detain Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj at the Jammu airport as well as stopping of special train carrying BJP workers in Maharashtra are being assessed so as to follow the best legal line. By moving the court for confining the leaders for about six hours at the airport and then “physically abducting” them and sending out of the state; the party wants to keep the matter alive. What might be seen as an administrative ‘victory’ for Omar Abdullah will prove to be a political “triumph” for the BJP.

Muslim political party gets ready in India

 

Even as the existing Muslim parties in the country are facing worst ever crisis of their existence, a new Muslim-dominated party is all set to hit the national political arena soon.  If things go according to the plan, the new party may emerge in the second week of March. Backed by India's most prominent religious group, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, the new party would strive for equal rights of the minorities and other weaker sections in the country.

In the recently held local body polls in Kerala, Jamat e Islami had tried its luck in political battle backing several groups such as the Janakeeya Vikasana Munnani, Janapaksha Munnani and Janasevana Munnani. 13 candidates of these groups got elected in the polls while many were runners up.  It emboldened the Jamaat to make its political presence at the national level. The party strategists are even gearing up for jumping into the electoral battle in the forthcoming assembly elections in several states, particularly in Kerala, West Bengal, Assam and Tamil Nadu.

Series of hectic meetings across the country are going on to finalise the name and constitution of the new party. Though the party would have no Muslim suffix or prefix, it would largely be controlled by Muslims. However, its door would remain open for non-Muslims too. Some non-Muslims could also get a few top posts in the party.  Though several names are being considered for the new party, the 'People Welfare Party' (PWP), Justice Party of India (JPI) and Welfare and Justice Party (WJP) are strongly being debated in the inner circles of JIH extended group. However, a section is pressing for adopting some vernacular Indian name for the party.

According to sources, under the guidance of the Jamaat, the new party would strive to uphold the basic human rights, and work for the attainment of social, political and economic justice for all.  Besides promoting human brotherhood and moral values, it would also make effort to preserve democratic values and safeguard the rights of religious, linguistic and cultural minorities. The new party would also endeavour to counter all such measures and activities that are detrimental to the basic human rights and values. The Jamaat-backed party would also oppose at every level, 'the way of life based on oppression, exploitation and violence'.

The Jamaat also opposes globalization, FDI, SEZ, abolition of subsidies and the privatization of health care, education and other services. "The most distressing aspect of the present economic condition is the Government's indifference to the values of equity and justice, and its aggressive attitude to promote neo-colonialism and free economy in the country," said its policy paper.

"The new party would promote value-based politics," claimed a senior strategist of the party. When asked as To what is the need for such a party when Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) already exists, pat came the reply from a member of the proposed party, "where is the Muslim League beyond Malappuram?" He said that the new party would be a national party in true sense and would register its presence across the country.

The new party, however, is willing to have coordination with like-minded parties such as IUML and AUDF of Assam. However, sources in the IUML said that it would never go along with the Jamaat-backed party. The Jamaat had earlier supported candidates of both political fronts in Kerala, but decided to give complete support to the Left Democratic Front in the last Assembly elections. In the last general elections too, it supported the LDF in 18 of the 20 constituencies.

Though the top brass of the Jamaat denied any direct involvement in the formation of new political party, sources in the JIH said it would control the outfit as the RSS does with BJP.

Thackeray invades Congress' dynastic politics, Sonia Gandhi

 

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray Monday attacked the Congress party for practising dynastic politics and said it has ruined the country's political fabric.  In a no-holds-barred interview published in the party mouthpiece Saamna, Thackeray said: ''I am totally against this dynastic politics.' 'The Congress has ruined the country's politics. How can we accept what is thrust on us? The Nehru family has imposed its family members, now Sonia Gandhi and even Rahul Gandhi. This is a dynasty, only one family is continuing it.'

He also trained his guns on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. 'I have always said that she is useless. But there are people (Congressmen) who worship her. I refuse to accept that she is so great.' Elaborating, he said the only difference between her and the rest of the countrymen was the colour of her skin.

When reminded that he had always considered the late prime minister Indira Gandhi as the only 'man' in that party, Thackeray readily agreed and asked the interviewer to refrain from comparing her with Sonia Gandhi. 'Yes. I have differences with her, as is natural in politics. But, Indira Gandhi was Indira Gandhi. She grew up in the Nehru family and interacted with great personalities. The political training she got was very different..,' Thackeray explained.

In reply to a question on the recent developments in Egypt and the problems plaguing that country, Thackeray posed a counter question and asked how many political parties are there in Egypt and how many in India? 'There is a need to implement 'family planning' on Indian political parties... Somebody leaves a party, goes out to form his own new party. Any differences in a party and they split to form new parties... This is what is going in our country,' he said.

Thackeray also touched upon a variety of issues including corruption, decay of the political system and how linguistic division of states has created problems for the country, and the Shiv Sena's opposition to electronic voting machines.

India's future flats in its naval power

 

With the scene of global strategic rivalry slowly shifting to the Indian Ocean, India's geopolitical future lies in its naval power, contrary to the country's traditional emphasis on its army, says Parag Khanna, leading American geo-strategist, author and founding director of the Global Governance Initiative at the New America Foundation think tank.

'In terms of geopolitics, India's influence is still very limited... what underpins that is the reality that India is not going to be what initially was thought and hoped it would be - a land-based continental rival to balance China.

'Now, India is seen as much more of a naval power -- overseeing and having a strategic role with respect to the Indian Ocean and the trade routes there. That actually is the geopolitical future of India; it's a very strong future,' Khanna, who was a senior geopolitical advisor to the US Special Operations Command, told IANS in an exclusive interview.

This is reflected in India's own defence priorities. According to the Institute of Defence Studies And Analyses, while the country's union budget for 2011-12 saw a 12 percent rise in defence allocation to Rs.164,415.49 crore ($36 billion), the Indian Navy received only 15 percent of the total allocation -- Rs.25,247 crore. The army got the lion's share at 51 percent -- Rs.83,415 crore. However, the shares of the navy and air force have consistently risen over the past two decades while that of the army has declined.

'I see a geopolitical pattern that's emerging, whereby the Indian navy and the government take a more assertive role with respect to energy, oil and trade routes, counter-piracy issues and so forth in the Indian Ocean straits.

'I don't think, however, that any one power will ever be a dominant force. It's going to be a mix of players following the United States and the European navies. China will inevitably - no matter how powerful India is - seek to exert its navy there (Indian Ocean). And it's going to be a multitude of maritime powers there active.'

Referring to the various economic models available for the underdeveloped world to follow, Khanna reasserted an argument made in his second and latest book, 'How To run The World', that India, with its organic growth and development, is a much better example than 'authoritarian capitalism'.

'There has been genuine growth in India. And it has been public and private in nature and has involved a collection of actors and cooperative coalitions. There have been roles for civil society, the private sector, diasporas, wealthy industrialists, government, business community and so forth. That's neat because it is an organic form and not in an authoritarian capitalist model.'

Considered one of the world's most influential people, Khanna claims his geopolitical awakening happened when his father took him to the Berlin Wall immediately after it collapsed in the aftermath of the collapse of the communist world in the early 1990s.

From witnessing such an epoch-marking event first hand, Khanna today has reached a stage where his word on global dynamics is taken seriously by none else than US President Barack Obama, who made Khanna his foreign policy advisor during the presidential campaign.

In 'How To run The World', Khanna sees a world in post-colonial entropy and the emergence of supra-governmental forces that are fashioning a whole new global order. Does that mean international relations will lose the coherence established by formal diplomacy?

'Firstly there is no coherence (in traditional diplomacy). There is a theoretical coherence, with diplomacy being managed by a world of sovereign governments and their official representatives. But there isn't any empirical coherence. There isn't - in ground reality - any actual, serious order being provided by that set of institutions... Frankly we have a highly incompetent and incoherent set of official diplomatic institutions.

'On the other hand, I propose a model that involves and engages all actors irrespective of whether or not they are states. And I think that is much more promising, and in fact that is what is happening. And I aim to demonstrate that such public-private coalitions represent the majority of what is effective.'

Referring to the current upheaval in the Arab world, Khanna said, 'I am largely very sympathetic about what's happening. I wrote in my book The Second World that Egypt was certainly ripe for a revolution. That's because all of these post-colonial Arab societies demonstrate similar conditions of economic transition. I think they will all take their own directions.'

Indian integreties declines on rate hike, political turmoil

 

Benchmark indices of Indian equities markets closed deep in the red for the second consecutive week amid acute volatility as political uncertainty coupled with interest rates hike and the Japan crisis dampened investor sentiment. The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ended the week at 17,878.81 points, down 1.62 per cent or 295.28 points from the previous week's close of 18,174.09 points.

The benchmark Sensex had lost 1.69 percent or 312.36 points during the previous week.  Indian markets witnessed volatile trading this week. The markets opened the week on a bullish note despite global meltdown following the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. However, Indian stocks fell the next day in line with the world markets.

Hike in key policy rates by the central bank and political uncertainty following WikiLeaks' disclosures dampened sentiments at the markets during the last two sessions.  The benchmark Sensex fell 271.06 points Friday, the last trading day of the week after the opposition demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh following leaks of US diplomatic cables alleging that MPs were bribed to win a parliamentary trust vote in 2008.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty also ended the week on a negative note. The Nifty fell 1.34 percent or 72.95 points to close at 5,373.70 points Friday.  There was heavy selling pressure in interest rate-sensitive auto, consumer goods and banking stocks after the central bank hiked its short-term lending and borrowing rates by 25 basis points each for the eighth time in 15 months to tame inflation in a move that could make corporate, housing and auto loans dearer.

In its mid-quarter review of the monetary policy, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Thursday also revised upward its inflation forecast sharply to 8 percent by end-March, from 7 percent forecast in January and a lower 5.5 percent in November. On the last trading day of the week, Mahindra and Mahindra slumped 3.31 percent at Rs.632.95. Reliance Infra, down 3.87 percent at Rs.627.55; HDFC, down 2.57 percent at Rs.620.95; Hero Honda, down 2.35 percent at Rs.1,474.15; and Tata Motors, down 2.17 percent at Rs.1,117.95 were among the top Sensex losers.

Only two out of the 30 Sensex scrips closed in the green Friday: Tata Steel, up 0.26 percent at Rs.596.30 and Tata Power, up 0.17 percent at Rs.1,232. Other Asian markets ended the week on a positive note. The Japanese Nikkei average rebounded 2.72 percent to close at 9,206.75 points. Japanese stocks witnessed extremely volatile trading this week amid concerns of a nuclear meltdown in an atomic power plant in earthquake-hit Fukushima.

China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.33 percent at 2,906.89 points and Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed 0.07 percent up at 22,300.20 points Friday.

India's RLD Party Members

 

The chief of India's regional Rashtriya Lok Dal party, Ajit Singh, is denying allegations that his party was bribed to vote for the Congress-led federal government in the 2008 Confidence Vote. Indian newspaper 'The Hindu', quoting whistleblower site WikiLeaks, published details of a conversation between an aide of a senior member of the federal ruling Congress party and a U.S. Embassy official… over the payment of almost $9 million by a government facing a crucial confidence vote… to members of a regional political party to secure their support.

The cable details a conversation between an aide of Congress party lawmaker Satish Sharma, and U.S. Charge d'Affaires Steven White. Sharma states that 'four lawmakers' belonging to the RLD party had been paid more than $2 million each in order to secure their support for the government in a tight confidence vote, over the Congress party's support of a nuclear deal between India and the U.S.

Sharma is a close associate of party chief Sonia Gandhi. White, who authored the secret cable, described how the embassy staff were shown two chests containing $11-13 million that had been earmarked for (quote) "use as pay-offs." Refuting the allegation, Singh says that the three lawmakers of his party voted against the government after consulting with other parties.

[Ajit Singh, Chief, Rashtriya Lok Dal Party]: 

"Our party was against the nuclear deal and incidentally the recent events in Japan has vindicated us. We had extensive discussion with the TDP, with the Left (the Communists), with the TRS, and we decided to vote against the government and we did vote against the government." Singh, meanwhile, questions the credentials of the report.

[Ajit Singh, Chief, Rashtriya Lok Dal Party]:

"Somebody said something to somebody and he reported that that matter, this is the matter. Whosoever he may be, I don't know him. Basically it is that somebody said something and embassy reported outside." It embroils Manmohan Singh's beleaguered government in yet another corruption scandal that risks further opposition attacks on the graft-smeared coalition. While the cable could not be independently verified, its contents threaten to expose illegal practices that many fear are part and parcel of Indian politics. While the leaked cable is likely to increase pressure on Parliament to reconsider the allegations against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's party, the faith in the morality of India's political elite - both on the streets of New Delhi and in foreign ministries overseas - after a season of corruption scams, looks set to fall further.

Wikileaks Cablegate strikes Indian Parliament

 

Pleading ignorance is not usually the best defense, especially when you're  supposed to be running the show. But that's exactly what prime minister Manmohan Singh has been forced to do in the wake of Wikileaks' revelation that a US diplomat was told by a minor government functionary that legislators had been paid to drop their opposition to the US-India civilian nuclear agreement.

After the political controversy over a WikiLeaks cable that suggests that the Congress bought the support of MPs during a vote of confidence in 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said he did not authorise anyone to purchase votes, reports NDTV.

Based on recent revelations, though, one might well question whether Singh even had the power to authorize such a move.  According to NDTV's summary, a cable was sent on July 17 by the US Charge d'Affaires Steven White, in which he described a visit by the Embassy's Political Counselor to senior Congress leader Satish Sharma, known for his proximity to the Gandhi family.

The cable states: "Sharma's political aide Nachiketa Kapur mentioned to an Embassy staff member in an aside on July 16 that Ajit Singh's RLD had been paid Rupees 10 crore (about $2.5 million) for each of their four MPs to support the government. Kapur mentioned that money was not an issue at all, but the crucial thing was to ensure that those who took the money would vote for the government."

Mr White also says that "Kapur showed the Embassy employee two chests containing cash and said that around Rupees 50-60 crore (about $25 million) was lying around the house for use as pay-offs."  Egregious hearsay perhaps, and there's nothing to prove that Sharma was not just spreading hot air (if he indeed told White these things). But it's just one more nick in the torture of a thousand cuts, as far as the corruption allegations surrounding Singh's United Progressive Alliance government are concerned.

Nepal Madhesi leaders goes for a 5 day visit to India

Leaders of three key Madhesi parties in Nepal today left for a five day visit to India where they will hold political consultations with top Indian leaders. We are paying a goodwill visit to India at the invitation of government of India, Delegates from three Madhesi parties, whose grouping is known as Joint Democratic Madhesi Forum, told journalists at Tribhuvan International Airport before their departure to New Delhi today.

The team includes Mahanta Thakur, president of Terai Madhes Democratic Party, Bijaya Gachhadar, president of Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum-Democratic and Rajendra Mahato, president of Sadbhawana Party. Mahato told PTI before the departure that they will engage in high level political consultations with Indian leaders and also discuss issues including democratisation process, constitution drafting, peace process and the issues relating to the rights and welfare of the Madhesi people.

The team is expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Indian Congress party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and other senior government officials during the visit. The visit comes amid the political crisis in Nepal in which Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal has been unable to fully expand his cabinet due to the wrangling with his key ally, the Maoists. All the three Madhesi parties have declined to join the Maoist-UML alliance formed one and half month ago.

Farmers leaders gather to unveil National Body

A meeting of over twenty all India farmers organizations, which took place in New Delhi on March 14 2011, resolved to launch the Federation of Indian Farmers Organizations by end of March with the participation of all the political parties and expert groups. The group deliberated upon and decided to adopt FICCI model structure but to be guided by a presidium to represent interests of the farmers with minimum one farmers association and maximum three from each state. National leaders and former Agriculture Ministers – Sh. Ajit Singh and Sh. Rajnath Singh and eminent scientist, Prof. MS Swaminathan welcomed the idea of forming national federation and expressed their full support to the farmers leaders. The meeting was convened by Mr. M J Khan, Editor of Agriculture Today Magazine.

The stormy meeting participated by major farmers organizations also demanded CBI enquiry into the funding of a Delhi based environmental NGO by the European Union for catalysing the formation of pressure group. Dr Krishan Bir Chowdhary of Bharat Krishak Samaj stated that the funding in excess of Rs 56 crores received by this NGO has been misused against the interest of farmers and questioned if lobbying in India by foreign money is legally permitted?. He added that a part of these funds were used to generate scientifically incorrect studies against the pesticide Endosulfan. The EU has proposed the listing of Endosulfan as a persistent organic pollutant at the stockholm convention and is pushing for a global ban, which will cause huge loss to the farmers and Indian agriculture.

There are 120 million farmers’ families in India and over 75 million use Endosulfan. As there is no effective substitute for endosulfan millions of farmers will lose their right to choose an affordable and pollinator friendly insecticide said Puneet Singh Thind, President, Rashtriya Kisan Sangathan. He warned that NGOs, no matter how powerful, can not be allowed to play with the interest of farmers.

Farmers also demanded that an Income Insurance Scheme to be raised by Rs. 5,000 crore so that they could be covered by price fluctuation and crop failures. They demanded fair price to their produce and not the subsidy, which they termed is harming agriculture. Asking for MSP to be extended to more crops, particularly the horticulture crops, farmers termed the Union Budget 2011 – 12 as disappointing for farmers, as no major program launched for agriculture development. They expressed concerns that no farmers organizations are invited in pre or post budget discussions, except some MNC sponsored farmers, propped up by industry bodies. On the land acquisition issue, farmers warned that the Governments should not act as property dealers with profiteering motives, and should give farmers minimum 75% of the market rate.  And if land acquisition bill is not passed to the satisfaction of the farmers, they will launch a nationwide protest.

Major organizations who participated in today’s meet were Bhartiya Krishak Samaj, Confederation of Kisan Organisations, Rashtriya Kisan Sangathan, Gujarat Farmers Federation, All India Vegetable Growers Association, Bhartiya Kisan Union, All India Apple Growers Association, Bihar Farmers Federation, Association of Haryana Farmers Club, Kisan Cell of BJP, All India Medicinal Plants Association, UP Seed Growers Association, Kerala Organic Movement besides others

Anti-Muslim bias

When a series of bomb attacks ripped through Muslim neighborhoods, mosques and shrines in India in recent years, suspicion fell firmly on a familiar culprit: Islamist terror. After each incident, scores of Indian Muslims were rounded up, and many were tortured. Confessions were extracted, the names of various militant “masterminds” leaked to the media and links with Pakistan widely alleged.

Never mind that most of the victims were Muslims; it seemed natural to many people, from New Delhi to Washington, to assume the attacks were the work of extremist Pakistani militants and their Indian Muslim sympathizers, intent on fanning religious tensions in India and disrupting the peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals.

But those investigations, and the assumptions behind them, were turned on their head early this year by the confession of a Hindu holy man. Swami Aseemanand told a magistrate that the bomb makers were neither Pakistani nor Muslim but Hindu radicals, bent on revenge for many earlier acts of terrorism across India that had been perpetrated by Muslims.

His statement, subsequently leaked to the media, alleged that a network of radicals stretched right up to senior levels of the country’s Hindu nationalist right wing. It also exposed deep-seated prejudices within the police against the country’s minority Muslim population. Ironically, the charges may also have helped India and Pakistan to get back to the negotiating table last month after relations broke down in the wake of the 2008 attacks on Mumbai.

Like many Indians, Aseemanand was furious with terrorist attacks in the country carried out by Muslims. “We should answer bombs with bombs,” he told a small group of Hindu extremists in June 2006, only to discover a plot was already well under way. In the ensuing 18 months, bombs were placed on bicycles in a Muslim cemetery in the western town of Malegaon, hidden under a granite slab in a mosque in Hyderabad and left in a lunchbox in an important Sufi shrine in Ajmer, all targets Aseemanand said he suggested.

In another attack, 68 people, most of them Pakistanis, were killed when suitcases packed with explosives were placed next to gasoline bottles on a train headed from western India to Pakistan. Many of the victims were unable to escape the inferno because of bars on the train windows, and their bodies were burned beyond recognition.

Evidence that radical Hindus, including an army colonel who is suspected of supplying the technical expertise and the explosives, were behind several of these bombings began to surface more than two years ago, and several people were arrested, including Aseemanand. But his statement is the first clear evidence that Indian Hindu terrorists were to blame for the deaths of Pakistani Muslim travelers on the Samjhauta, or Friendship, Express.

Pakistan reacted to the news with ill-disguised glee, arguing that the botched investigations and the subsequent confession confirmed its suspicions that India “lacked the courage” to prosecute radical Hindus. In India, there was sober reflection in some quarters about prejudices against Muslims. The Hindu right’s old adage, that “while not every Muslim is a terrorist, every terrorist is a Muslim,” could no longer be trotted out with a straight face.

India had been insisting it would not restart a formal peace process with Pakistan until that country properly investigated and prosecuted state-sponsored militants blamed for the attacks on Mumbai, which left 166 people dead. Pakistan responded in kind, demanding a fuller and faster investigation into the train attack. India put on a brave face, but the revelations were an embarrassment, one official privately admitted, as Indian media judged that their government had lost some of the moral high ground.

In a sense, though, the episode provided the political cover at home for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to agree this month to do what he secretly wanted and restart the peace process with Pakistan, said Commodore Uday Bhaskar of the National Maritime Foundation, a New Delhi think tank. “Before, terrorism was projected in public opinion in black-and-white terms, that all terrorism was because of Muslims and because of Pakistan,” he said. Aseemanand’s confession “had an unintended positive kind of fallout and introduced a malleability into the India-Pakistan interaction.”

More damaging were Aseemanand’s accusations against high-ranking members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, a religious group that spreads its Hindu revivalist ideology, known as Hindutva, through a network of schools, charities and clubs. The RSS, the ideological parent of the country’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, is also engaged in a sometimes violent contest with Christian missionary groups operating in India.

According to Aseemanand, the main organizer of the attacks was an RSS worker called Sunil Joshi, in his mid-30s, from the town of Dewas in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Relatives describe Joshi as a conservative and deeply religious man of very few words. Joshi viewed Muslims as “worthless,” his niece said. In December 2007, after most of the bomb attacks had taken place, Joshi was gunned down in the street near his family home. Police say Joshi’s gang turned on him, but some investigators and family members believe he was killed because he was about to turn himself in to the police.

RSS national executive member Indresh Kumar, suspected of mentoring and financing the bomb-making gang, said in an interview that the accusations against him represented a “deep political conspiracy” by the ruling Congress party to defame him and the RSS.Certainly, some members of the secular Congress party have enjoyed and exploited the Hindu nationalist opposition’s discomfort over the allegations. Rahul Gandhi, a leading member of Parliament and heir apparent to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, even told the US ambassador in 2009 that radicalized Hindu groups were a bigger threat to India than support for Lashkar-i-Taiba, a militant group that is accused in the Mumbai attacks, according to a cable released by WikiLeaks.

Gandhi was widely criticized for that assertion, but the RSS has found itself on the defensive. In a series of conversations with The Washington Post, the group’s leaders portrayed the bomb makers as either paid agents of Pakistani military intelligence or simply as a violent splinter group of their peaceful movement. Ajai Sahni, a terrorism expert who runs the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, said the militants were just “the fringe of a fringe” within the Hindu right. But “the sympathies may be deeper within the core of Hindutva,” he said.