Ms. Raje shows the way

I have always held that Raje is a much better role model to women than Ms. Pratibha Patil or Ms. Sonia Gandhi. Trying times are the real test of a person, and Raje has handled and is handling the trying times in Rajasthan exceptionally well.

She was quick to act when the terror strikes happened, she restored calm and asked action from the centre. She reassured the people and did not hinder the investigations. It was for having asked the centre for action that she was reprimanded, albeit wrongly. Misogynist Mr. Patil who tried to hit her by irony, saying, may be she was shaken, there were no such directions from the centre, must have faced immense embarrassment when the evidence about the home ministry’s order was made public by the media. She was relentless and she has been looking into her states interest all along.

Ms. Raje who handled the post terror strike situation very well, was posed another challenge. That of the Gujjar agitation. Mr. Bhainsala crossed all lines of decent protests and still compared his right to protest to that of Gandhiji’s satyagraha. And the centre was fueling the whole incident through Mr. Pilot instead of pacifying it. Instead of giving any directions on the issue the centre sought to play petty politics.

The allegations that she had promised the ST status to the Gujjars in order to come to power is actually not true, she had promised to look into the matter and take care of the welfare of the Gujjars. And in that aspect she has been more than fair to the Gujjar communinty. After coming to power she set up a commission to look into the matter of ST status – Chopra commission. The findings of the commission were that the status of the group were far from those necessary for ST status and that the status should not be awarded. In the report that was submitted in December 2007, the commission also observed that the Gujjars were indeed a backward caste and some relief packages should be given to them. The report was forwarded to the centre and Raje has alo set up a board under the leadership of Ramdas Agarwal and a relief package of Rs. 282 crores for their welfare. The recommendations of the commission were also carried out. The Gujjars were given their fair share.

Recently the media has been at its negative best. While some say that the move is only symbolic and time buying technique others have written whole articles saying that she is not committed to the issue because she wrote to the PM and not the tribal ministry! It would be hard to say what motivates such articles but they are definitely false. Even when Mr. Bhainsla called for a strike and after the strike, Ms. Raje has called him to have peace talks. Mr. Bhainsla has refused to talk until a letter was sent to the centre. Ms. Raje has done just that the very next day and asked for the centre to intervene. This was required as the state was pretty much burning. About 50 km of railway track has been uprooted, police was attacked with stones and an officer was beaten to death. At this point Raje did the right thing and took the immediate possible solution by asking the centre to intervene.

And it is not as if the ball was thrown in centre’s court, the ST status can be provided or refused by the centre alone. Moreover the matter concerns more than one state and in such a case the onus is on the centre to take a call on the issue. So as far as political commitment to the issue is concerned Raje has done well by doing her part completely.

Other problem is with the deaths, it would be interesting to pay attention to the reason why these deaths have happened. When you examine the articles you notice that the police had to open fire when people started beating up police and when a police officer was beaten to death. It is not as if Raje has been spearheading the violence on the Gujjars or a certain personal vendetta was being vented. If the movement is now peaceful then it is because of the number of forces that have been deployed.

It is left to be seen what Mr. Sachin Pilot would do at this time, with it apparent in front of him that the status can be awarded only unfairly. In either way the Congress stands to lose the trust of the people. By awarding the status they would be going against the principles of reservation and falling to unfair demands and if they do not, they should control the protesters. Mr. Sachin pilot or some one from the centre should put the protesters down and explain why it should not come up.

The caste based politics in the age of reservation can only be destructive.

Jhoot bole kauvva nahin kaate!

Jhoot bole kauvva kaate is their tag-line. Even that is a jhoot; otherwise, people at Tehelka would have died many times by now due to crow attacks!

You can read a lot of anti-national and insane news in this ‘mainstream’ weekly. The latest one is a report on the Jaipur blasts condemning its politicisation. But it is basically condemning action against the illegal Banglasdeshi migrants whom it calls hapless. We know how hapless these Bangladeshis are. They have ration cards,voter ids and all the documents that a true citizen of India should have. They were provided with these by the Congress. When V P Singh was prime minister, it is told by the Rajasthan Governor, the congress man himself, that many such ration cards were promised to the Bangladeshis. The Tehelka report is so well articled that any one upon reading it will feel bad for the detained Bangladeshis. But let us not forget the innocent lives lost in the blasts. And the blasts did not happen without the support of Bangladeshis.

While nothing has been written till now on Jaipur blasts, Tehelka already is bearing flag for these Bangladeshis. Really, what is important to us? The magazine has made Rahul baba the cover story twice, but nothing on Jaipur blasts till now! What is the reason to rally behind those illegal migrants? In parallel, the publication is carrying a series on Pokhran tests, naturally, condemning them. One of the ‘greatest secular intellectual of our time’ –- Praful Bidwai continuing the tirade launched long back against the Pokhran tests.

Why should there be a dilemma between supporting action against illegal migrants and their human rights? I remember reading Mukul Sharma in The Hindu arguing that the human rights of illegal Bangladeshis be protected and respected. The human rights crusaders present a contradicting dichotomy of preferences. While they would claim to be immensely sympathetic to the terror victims, they oppose every move to counter terrorism or maintain law and order. We should rather send such ‘intellects’ to Bangladesh along with those illegal immigrants.

While it is true that all humans deserve human rights, it still does not justify the silence over the sheer number of illegal immigrants (about 25% of population in Assam) and the inconvenience caused. The government suggests moves like rounding them up and putting them in transit camps, later backtracks and criticises these moves and intellectuals make a hue and cry. Shouldn’t the centre rather identify moves according to foreigners act and give requisite directions to the states for that? It was due to inaction that the HC rapped the Delhi state government and set very big targets of deportation to them. The Delhi government has been striving to comply by the court order. The fact that the centre has not accepted the problem as a problem is a signal for the problem escalating in the times to come.

Coming back to Tehelka, a part of  Indian media is under the delusion that they will remain secular as long as they keep bashing BJP and critise its decisions –- be it good or bad. Added to that, Tehelka is carrying out a vicious false campaign against IITM, AIIMS and other reputed institutions also on similar fictitious lines. The fourth estate has really failed the people to say in the least.

Now expect the weekly to carry an item on BJP’s win in Karnataka and attribute the reason to politics of ‘communalism’. Also, expect self proclaimed intellectual, naxallite sympathiser and all time big BJP basher Ms. Gauri Lankesh to shed tears on the ‘death of secularism’ in the state. Bah!