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Recent
polls brought some unique revelations. Old men
of all political parties are keeping themselves
strong and effective to reign. Temptation and
greed are still at high.
VS Achuthanandan of CPM becomes the Chief
Minister of the most developed state of Kerala
for the first time at his age of 83 years. CPM
Politburo couldn’t bypass him in favour of his
younger opponent, P. Vijayan, because of his
huge mass base even today.
Jyoti Basu in his late 90s still matters in West
Bengal. Buddha might have been key to win
election. His investment friendly image has
already made him an icon of reform and darling
of industry - of both manufacturing as well as
IT sector. Tatas celebrated his installation as
CM with an announcement of locating its Rs
1-lakh-car plant in West Bengal. But Buddha
couldn’t manage to remove some old comrades from
his ministry, particularly, the unscrupulous (to
some) Subhash Chakroborty, because of Jyoti
Basu. So a report captioned ‘Buddha Gets Basu
Team’.
And Mthuvel Karunanidhi, at 83 starts his fifth
term as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu with a bang
of offerings as promised during campaign: rice
for the poor at Rs 2 per kg, waiver of loans for
the cooperative sector, and an extra egg in the
midday meal-scheme for school children. Stalin,
the dynasty’s heir, though a cabinet minister,
will have to wait for another 5 years, if
Karunanidhi survives.
But it is not only here. VP Singh, the former
Prime Minister for a short-term and Arjun Singh,
the present HRD Minister, hardly even think for
a moment that they have aged and must be out of
the mean politics.
V.P. Singh living regularly on state-financed
dialysis doesn’t wish to quit politics. He is
now patron of Jan Morcha with film
star-MP-cum-SP-rebel Raj Babbar as its public
face. This Jan Morcha has come up only to
embarrass Mulayam Singh Yadav by chipping away
some votes in the UP polls slated for February
2007. As reported, V.P. Singh says, "A purely
political front, the Jan Morcha will raise
issues of that section which has remained
unattended. Then there will be focus on law and
order and problems of farmers, weavers and
youth.” And further what can be his next move to
be in limelight? He says, “The state government
is snatching away farmers’ land in a big way.
See what is happening in the Dadri power
project, high-tech cities project, the
Lucknow-Kanpur corridor.” Noida thus will have
to wait for some more years to get uninterrupted
power. Is there no one left to carry on these
movements if these are pro-poor? Being a poet
and painter, why can’t he enjoy life with those
activities and die in piece?
Arjun Singh has gone old and sick, and so is his
worth. Why should he keep on troubling his own
Prime Minister? Why should he talk fowl of
Knowledge Commission? Was his latest Mandal-II
for OBC so essential? When the whole country is
basking in the economy boom, he has come up with
his brilliant (to him?) idea that has already
divided the young men and women of the whole
nation.
And the list does not end there. You look to the
old men of BJP - Vajpayeeji and then Advani.
While Vajpayeeji keeps on creating confusion
sometimes by calling someone a Laxman and
sometimes something else, Mr. Advani can’t
conceal his aspiration to become the Prime
Minister. They hardly bother about the younger
generation.
While there is no way to ensure politicians
relinquish power, we need mechanisms to ensure
they leave.
I sometimes wonder why the younger generation
allows these obsolete junks to create nuisances.
They must be content with whatever they have
achieved and must leave for the younger leaders
to carry on.
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Comments: |
Good and timely article...
The old fools are not at all
concerned about the future of
India.. they are just trying to show
their power as Advani calls for rath
yatra, Arjun Singh calls for 27%
reservation...
This hopeless hapless country has no
future really... Here the full
faculty of AIIMS is of less
importance to the PM than some old
fool like Arjun Singh who doesn't
even know how to argue (see the
interview with Karan Thapar). -
Ritwik Layek - May 23, 2006
The old generation is ruling the
political map of India now a days.
All the old fellows have reached and
retained the powers. Youth has been
left behind in the race of power.
They know the business rules,
business that is politics, much
better than their younger
counterparts. They know how to fool
the same people again and again
using the same false promises. They
know that the public has a dynamic
memory which gets erased at the drop
of a hat. They know better, how
non-issues can be converted and
presented as the national issues.
They know how to calculate the vote
percentage available at every
emotional issue and know very well
how to encash those. They have gone
through all those trainings in their
respective lives where they have
been thought about the basic
principle of politics, that is
corruption, false promises,
cheating, betraying, arms, muscles,
money etc. etc. etc. They have
produced a big crowd of mindless
followers who will die or kill for
them, especially in elections.
How can the younger generation fight
these super-heavyweight players of
politics? They lack the talent
required to beat them. By the time,
they would learn all the tricks of
politics, they would reach the same
age group. Being an young generation
member, I have already forfeited my
credentials for these games. I would
rather like to play far simpler
games like jobs, social service,
meditation, entertainment, parties,
boozing. Let them play the lethal
and dirty game of politics
themselves. We are happy playing our
own games. - Ravish Kumar, Hyderabad
- May 23, 2006
I think we should not despair. Old
adage still holds true 'old order
changeth yielding place to new'. The
problem is not with the oldies. They
will be dead and gone before we
write their obituaries. No one will
remember them. Look for yourself
what respect has V. P. Singh earned
in his lifetime. His own
constituencies abandoned him. He is
now opposing the same self
proclaimed socialists like Mulayam.
Lalu confined VP to a hotel room in
Patna a decade ago and rendered him
redundant. Similarly there has never
been any respect for Arjun Singh,
right from his lottery days.
Vajpayeeji still loves limelight.
Advani has virtually destroyed his
party for his ego. In my opinion
what is concerning is the behaviour
of younger politicians. Amar Singh.
Lalu, Jaylalitha etc are so blatant
about their immoral, unethical
conduct. What has Rahul Gandhi got
to lose? Still he has got no opinion
for or against vis a vis burning
issues. He takes no stand. We must
remember this guy is going to be our
PM very soon. The youngsters we have
in good positions today are by the
virtue of their lineage. Most of
them are inherently corrupt having
seen their elders' machinations when
they were growing up. Give them a
chance they will make Chautalas look
miniscule. There is not one person
who has worked his way up the
ladder. That is worrying. Despair
for this. But again you could
comfort yourself by saying that we
have had the worst and better is
due. Good luck to us all. - Dr S
Kumar, UK - May 25, 2006 |
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