Two articles by NV Subramanian and John MacLithon.
Ramdev eviction: Entering an era of semi-dictatorship
John MacLithon
Many of the events of the past — Emergency, Operation Bluestar, Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Kashmir insurgency, Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, the crowning of Sonia Gandhi — were unfortunate. Some were avoidable. For instance, Indira Gandhi imposing the Emergency showed that democracy was fragile and could easily be hijacked.
But what happened on Sunday, June 5, 2011, in the early morning at the Ramlila grounds tops even the imposition of Emergency. The police, armed with teargas and lathis, swooped down on women, children, and old men, all led by a yoga guru who had never harmed anybody in his life but, on the contrary, brought happiness to hundreds of thousands of people.
There is no doubt that nobody in the Congress, not even the prime minister, would have dared to take such a drastic decision, without the express consent of Sonia Gandhi. In fact, only she would have been capable of taking that decision. Thus, she will have to bear the consequences, the karma, of her hostile act against the very core of this country: the millions of peaceful, tolerant Hindus, who were represented at the Ramlila grounds by a hundred thousand of them.
Congress loses the plot; Anna Hazare, BJP gain
NV Subramanian
..in striking back harshly, in full glare of news TV cameras, in the heart of the capital, and in a place — the Ramlila maidan — which is loaded with political significance and memories, the Manmohan Singh government lost the plot. Typically, after Digvijay Singh called Baba Ramdev a “thug” and a “cheat”, the Congress party has been furiously back-pedalling following countrywide revulsion against the brutal police assault on his peaceful followers, including women, children, and the elderly. There has also been a devious attempt to blame the assault on the government, thereby insulating the Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
Ramdev has pointedly targeted Sonia Gandhi for the police action, and called her the “remote-controller” of the Manmohan Singh government, as did Anna Hazare (although allusively) a little earlier. Significantly, both men refrained from speaking harshly of the PM. And now, PMO officials are disclaiming responsibility for the police assault.
The insinuation that an extra-constitutional authority forced the police brutality has been beamed across India repeatedly by the news channels. A two-minute clip is enough to get your blood boiling; the Supreme Court has taken suo moto cognizance of the police violence.
From now, there is no redemption for the Manmohan Singh government. The parallels with the situation that lead to the imposition of Emergency are striking. A mother’s ambitions for her son are at the core of the present and the past crises. The only difference is that a decent prime minister has served as a cover so far, but no longer. Manmohan Singh is too weak and frayed to be able to retrieve the situation. And the Congress allies commencing with the DMK to the NCP are baying for its blood. Anti-Congressism is peaking.
While the Congress may suppress and blackmail its allies and try to manipulate the image of the opposition and dilute any issue-based politics, it has had, historically, no solutions to a single-agenda based election which revolves around a mass wave of Anti-Congressim. When the electorate is lulled by a false sense of well being, it may not identify with various problems such as terrorism, fake secularism and manipulative distortions of democracy. However, if the same electorate is gripped by a strong sense of not identifying itself with the Congress, then the Party is in trouble.
History seems to repeat itself when the Congress gets a major boost in the Lok Sabha elections. After getting huge increments in seats, they tend to chart a self destructive course. At 352 and 404 Lok Sabha seats, Indira's government in the 5th Lok Sabha and Rajiv's government in the 8th Lok Sabha were more stronger than the current strength of 205. Of course, in the time of coalition politics, the Congress has a strong grip on its allies by following politics of blackmail. It is an open secret that Mayawati, Mulayam and such secular parties do not wish to turn the heat on themselves and hence support the Congress at the Centre. It is a perfect Mughal setup in which the Dilli Darbar is supported by the states, to which it has divested responsibility.
However, if the Darbar itself does not manage itself, its allies cannot propel the Sultanate. The claim that the opposition is in shambles in acceptable and true. However, an electorate with a strong sense of dis-satisfaction with the Centre bodes no good for it.
If you have good hair, you may think of oiling it with herbal oil, washing it with Shikakai powder and conditioning it with the choicest conditioner. However, when you got lice, it does not matter what brand of toothy-comb or lice-removal shampoo is used.
The figure he quotes is something like 40 or 50 lac crores...For a more reasoned estimate, read Surjit Bhalla (again, no friend of the Congress) here..
