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.