Politics and its Propaganda

Ashpreet

POLITICS OR POLL TRICKS?

To begin with, 1/4th of the voters in two party states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan didn't bother to vote for the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2008 State Legislature Elections. What could be more ironical, but this that India's National Parties are dwindling and being contested by regional allies like Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (SP), Janata Dal (U), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK)?

In February 2004, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government spent around $US 20 Million to showcase the famous "India Shining" advertisements through the media. Their agenda was to boast about the high growth levels and a thriving stock exchange thus claiming credit for the economic successes. The response of opposition parties - Congress, Communist Party of India (CPI) and CPI (Marxist) was subdued. They had criticized this campaign for using the Government as a source of campaigning for elections. Congress had highlighted, in its campaign, the opening up of the Indian Economy to Foreign Investment in early 1990's. CPI (M) had similar prospects when it held power as a part of the "Left" coalition in West Bengal. In fact an in-depth study would reveal that instead of improving the state of the masses, the economic streamlining under a series of Governments has widened social disparities between the rich and the poor in India.

Sonia Gandhi declined the Prime Minister's Post and made Manmohan Singh the Prime Minister of India. It came as a shock to the opposition parties but proved to be beneficial in the long run. Rahul Gandhi was elected to the post of General Secretary of Congress taking his first step.

The prime motive while drawing up the Common Minimum Program (CMP) thus forming the UPA Government, was to keep BJP out of power. Left parties were playing an all-together different game, saying that the Congress and the BJP fall under the same category. The game became all the more interesting, as the Left parties entered into a similar kind of agreement with the BJP in 1989 to keep the Congress out of power. Secretary of the Economic Cell of the Congress, Jayaram Ramesh said that 99.99 per cent of the CMP reflects the policy of the Congress Party. Congress was a promoter of globalization on the country's requisites. Indians were opting for Jobs abroad barring the Congress from keeping markets closed to outsiders for a long span of time. Congress leaders were hauled up for negligible presence of women with there being just 12 of them among 257 delegates.

After the Uttar Pradesh fiasco with the Congress, BJP has counterfeited its rival by flipping the coin on their ground. In 2008, BJP climbed the success ladder with the Akali Dal in Punjab, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and eventually, Karnataka. Desperation for the recognition of BJP as a national party from a North Indian unit was achieved to a great extent with the success met in Karnataka. The decline of JD (S) from 58 seats in 2004 to 28 seats in 2008 gives a vivid picture that preferences were changing. It seems to be quite evident that Congress' decline and conversion of the JD (S) into a family firm because of the games played by the father-son duo of H D Deve Gowda and H D Kumaraswamy, gave way to BJP'S success story. BJP has been basking in the glory since then as they believed in counting on their candidates, unlike the Congress which gave way thinking that the name game might work wonders for them.

Congress knew that going ahead with the Nuclear Deal would mean withdrawal of support by the Left Parties and the possibilities of premature elections. But at the same time, they had to prove that to hang on to power for a couple of months, the Congress weren't ready to give up on a deal which it had allocated to be the in national interest.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that the Right To Information act, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Unorganized Worker's Social Security Act, Schedule Tribes and other Dwellers Act were path breaking radical and social steps taken during the UPA government's term in the curtain raiser ceremony of the upcoming 14th Lok Sabha Elections.

Almost all public welfare schemes implemented by this Congress government failed to execute strict laws against terrorism, defense, finance, IT, external affairs. Talking about BJP, the opposition party is suppose to oppose the Government whenever it takes decisions against citizens and supports the government whenever new welfare schemes are introduced. The Course of events suggest that personal conflicts and using government for electoral victories has been the motto for Ruling parties in India. At this hour, what is essential is the creation of a socialist party based on the political independence of the working class, to work towards its own interests, in unity with workers across the country and around the world. With L K Advani and the Congress still deciding on their candidate these elections are turning out to be dicey.

Illegal mining Controversary In Bellary

January 28,2009

Have meetings for the suspected “illegal” mining in Bellary district drawn tangible solutions?

MSPL Ltd., a mining company based in Hospet, has staged allegations against the Directorate of Mines and Geology, on the grounds that officials of the Directorate are sanctioning encroachment and illegal mining. The company has submitted a letter to Chief Minister B.S.Yedyurappa, Principal Secretary-Commerce and industries and Director of Mines and Geology saying that the matter should be resolved as it is violates orders of the Karnataka High Court.

The MSPL letter says that-“ Till date they have mined over three million tonnes of iron ore from our part of the land, valued at approximately Rs. 500 crore. Reddy brothers and officials share the spoils of this. The Government machinery has turned a blind eye to the entire episode and has also been harassing our officers and staff without a valid reason. Every day nearly 15,000 tonnes of ore is being illegally mined and transported from our lease area.”

S. Nagaraja, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests blatantly denied that his department has forwarded any reports to the State Government- Lokayukta in respect to mining irregularities which mentions about the border squabble, on leasing a land by the Obalapuram Mining Company between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Nagaraj said that a committee has been set up to dig deeper on the results of Lokayukta’s report. The question which can be raised at this point is that why was the BJP trying to avoid further investigations by the CBI if it wasn’t involved in the scandal of granting licenses or allowing mining. Mr. Ugrappa, Leader of opposition party, professes that the way these sessions were held in the Legislative Council made it clear that the BJP Government was holding this event for the Lok Sabha Polls. Senior member of Legislative Council M.C.Nanaiah suspects Chief Minister B.S.Yedyurappa’s claims that the BJP Government had not granted any license for mining ever since it came to power. But reports have a different story as it says that he has given permission for the same in eight such cases. There was a controversy as Former Minister C. Chenningappa was questioned as to why did he carry out a sting operation collecting minute details about 36 companies though the Lokayukta submitted its report. In these meetings KPCC decided to display failures of the BJP Government looking in the areas of administration, law and order and finances along with other important dimensions. On January 23^rd, 2009 the meeting to resolve this issue was adjourned by Assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar and Council Chairman Veeranna Mathikatti with the leaders of the ruling party and Opposition parties. The opposition party was adamant on the fact that their demand for a CBI Inspection should be considered. Even if prolonged meetings and talks have not been able to come up with a concrete solution, we can only wait as always has been the case.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Global Warming: Will the meeting make appropriate changes required to initiate the Protocol?

To save Planet earth from hazardous climatic disturbances a weeklong preparatory meeting was held in Poznan, Poland from 1^st to the 12^th of December. Talks began with new methods to reduce carbon emissions to promote a concrete solution when

the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012. Around 189 countries were a part of this meeting where certain environmental matters were discussed. At the beginning of the meeting, delegates at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Montreal finally agreed to implement a Rulebook for the Protocol after years of concession and endorsement. The United States which had supposedly walked out of the summit earlier, agreed to participate in the non-biding talks on remedies to reduce Global Warming.

UK Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said that the UN Control deal, which met with a success in Montreal, has been conveniently glorified. The meeting might prove to be fruitful especially in context of the Road to Copenhagen, a web-based initiative started in 2007. Shadow Environment Secretary Peter Ainsworth says that talks won’t suffice, as we need to take the first step as well. First and foremost to ensure the correct form of implementation we need to make use of funds provided in the most effective way possible rather than just walking on the right path to reach our proposed destination. Technology is like a sharpener, which can only sharpen our pencils. Before anything else we need to take the initiative of moving our fingers. Likewise as responsible Natives of this planet, we can bring about a difference only if we make an attempt to reduce climate issues and make this world a better place to live in. New Tory Leader David Cameron took the first leap by setting a policy group on the Environment to enforce effective decisions on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The largest contribution of emissions of industrial countries has come from economies, which have seen a rise of 7.4 % in greenhouse gas emissions within a span of 6 years from 2000-2006. Reports say that among industrialized Nations 16 have still not met their Kyoto Obligations and around 20 are astray which include Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and Spain. Nations, which will possibly miss the target in 2012, will have to incur a penalty of an additional third added to what the Cut has been agreed upon in the meeting. If given a thought there can be some possible solutions to the existing problems. The world needs to agree towards winning this battle against Global Warming by taking steps, which would halve global emissions by 2050. The most prominent area we need to look into is by how much and when will the carbon emissions be reduced? Not by aiming at something, which is impractical, but by aiming at short term targets like 20-35 % by 2020 at present. Developing countries should look for alternatives to afford clean technology to reduce emissions, such as carbon capture and solar power, developed mainly by companies in industrial areas. They should also organize and manage their funds for adaptation and mitigation in the present scenario. Deforestation causes about a fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions. So in this aspect how will the developing countries work towards keeping tropical forests integral. And last but not the least, how can the systems set for us such as the UN Clean Development Mechanism and the European Emissions trading scheme, set under Kyoto, be strengthened and Expanded in such a manner that we become more responsible towards the cause.