Dear Opposition, India remembers the hara kiri of 1996; SICKULARISM may not.
In the Covid-hit year 2020; there was a mixed bag in governance in India.
People were trying to come out of the pandemic impact. Economy was in shambles and there was joblessness. On the other hand, Muslims were demonized, Christians’ charity and philanthropic works were liberally linked to the 'forced conversion' debate and quite often sedition laws or even the controversial Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) were used to silence dissent.
Yet, the opposition parties did not go for the kill vis-a-vis Modi government, or to be precise, they could not. It is possible yet again people have complaints against PM Narendra Modi and his government.
Then there is the latent anguish of the middle class. The Opposition has played up the Manipur card well, but this is where precise their fault line lies. They changed the goalposts from an adjournment motion debate to No Confidence Motion.
Parliamentary debates and questioning was replaced by a trip to Imphal !
In the meanwhile, Imphal is now a virtual Conflict-Tourism Capital. In 2002, Ahmedabad was India's riot tourism capital. The Congress and other 'sickular' parties burned their fingers and yet again they are doing the same mistake. Over emphasis on Manipur has on the other side of the room brought entire focus on states such as West Bengal - ruled by PM aspirant Mamata Banerjee - or Rajasthan where the percentage of crime against women is the largest in the country.
They forgot all Congress Chief Ministers had lined up in Ahmedabad ....and the rest is post-2002 history !!
The new and old narrative is hence out in the town and not without good reason -why neglect/ignore Bengal and Rajasthan ? ---Because the victims are Hindus and Dalits.
The gang of 26 -- calling themselves somewhat hilariously 'I.N.D.I.A'. The full form is more puzzling must redraw their strategies.
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| Sachdeva and blogger |
In 2020, Virendra Sachdeva was with the BJP's 'good governance cell'. He had countered some of the intellectual or left-liberal contention very well.
"People take elections very seriously in India. In the 2017 assembly elections in Gujarat, though we managed to retain power, it is true our tally had gone down from 122 in 2012 to 99. And people in rural Gujarat did vote against us," he had said.
“But people also admire Modi's leadership and thus when it came to the 2019 general elections, we won all 26 seats in Gujarat. Ultimately, people decide, and not English media and opinion pieces written in Western magazines," remarked Sachdeva, who is at present president of Delhi BJP.
This is precisely a point India's opposition parties have not tried to understand or analyse.
Are they already 'creating' or on the way of creation of a 'mini Modi' in Biren Singh for Meiteis and Hindus in Manipur?
Let's move to 2021 when Covid impact was further devastating and in more ways than one Modi and his government were cornered. Hospitals were not well equipped and patients and their relatives did not have oxygen.
But during the monsoon session of Parliament (2021) the opposition flagged off the Pegasus snooping row and disabled parliamentary functioning.
It was a case of changing goalpost? Pegasus brought in other issues on table, one being -- national security etc and this is 'Modi's strong point' and not opposition's.
Yet again, goalpost has been changed !
Modi now has Rajasthan and West Bengal and perhaps Gen (Retd) Naravane has given a big hint about China angle and support to insurgents in the past. This can bring in many things the likes of Twitter friendly Jairam Ramesh or Kolkata's quiz master club may not realise.
This is one instance where the communist Home Minister Indrajit Gupta and the then United Front regime under Deve Gowda and I K Gujral could be exposed. Mind you yet again, the UF existed solely to deny 'prime ministership' to Atal Bihari Vajpayee with the support of Congress.
In 1998-99, when the Vajpayee government was in power, senior officials used to often say that one big demerit of the 1997 Naga ceasefire as announced by Gujral government was that it "lacked clear definition".
One senior official had said: "There were no written terms and conditions and it was merely an understanding." Today, that confusion has actually opened a Pandora's Box.
The NSCN-IM militants are negotiating for peace and at the same time they want a separate flag and a Naga Constitution.
On October 17, 2020, former Mizoram Governor Swaraj Kaushal had said, "The symbols of sovereignty namely, separate constitution, flag, currency, defence and foreign affairs are sacrosanct and never negotiable." Kaushal was the first official interlocutor in Naga peace matters around 1998 when Vajpayee became the Prime Minister for the second term.
Gujral never met NSCN-IM leaders but announced the ceasefire in July 1997 to be effective from August 1, 1997. Both PMs - Deve Gowda and Gujral must have got their hands in so many other challenges and hence the Naga peace talks were left to the Home Ministry and some senior officials.
As the in-charge of the Home Ministry (MHA), in retrospect, it is being argued today that Indrajit Gupta should have done his part well.
When members in the Parliament and outside it sought 'more details' on the ceasefire from Prime Minister Gujral, they were requested not to press for it.
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| India remembers: Democracy's biggest joke of 1996 |
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