West Bengal
Why Left will win in WB
Going by what exit polls are predicting after the successful completion of the third phase of assembly elections in West Bengal, it can be assumed that the Left Front is going to form the seventh assembly with a thumping majority.
The unprecedented security arrangements on the line of Bihar elections held a while ago showed that if the administration has the will, there is always a way. That the elections have been free and fair has been admitted not only by the ruling party but by the ever-critical opposition as well.
Mamata Banerjee who, after every election, accuse CPI(M) of threatening and intimidating the voters and scientific rigging, has this time said that the elections were free and fair, and so the Trinamool Congress is going to form the government after May 11.
But contrary to her belief, the various channels have predicted that the Left Front is poised for a sweeping victory. The Left Front is going to increase its tally while the Trinamool Congress will lose some of its seats.
If proving the poll surveys true, the election results give the Left Front a clear majority, the opposition leaders including Mamata Banerjee will be left groping for words to justify their allegations all these years.
The Left, generally, and the CPI(M), particularly, will come down heavily on the opposition for creating the ghost of scientific rigging to bake their political bread and will go to the masses and say: "We have won more seats now when the elections were conducted under central forces, and the opposition themselves have admitted that the elections were free and fair and there was no rigging by us."
Now the opposition has to admit that the masses have voted the Left Front to power. There is resentment and disillusionment against the government among the voters but that reflects the minority view. The majority is still with the government, as the opinion polls and the exit polls show.
The reasons of the Left victory are not far to seek. First, the Left parties, particularly the CPI(M) are well organized and there is discipline in party rank and file. Everyone right from the cadre to the minister follows the party diktat to a tee even if the party's instructions are not to their liking. It was because of this discipline that when the party decided not to give tickets to over a hundred sitting MLAs. There was no voice of dissent or revolt from a single MLA. In other parties, the decision could have caused splits in the parties and new parties would have come into existence. There is no infighting in the party on the eve of polls, albeit Left constituents forget their differences and unite to fight the opponents collectively.
But the picture in the opposition camps was different. The national party, Congress was beleaguered by serious and suicidal infighting on the eve of the elections. The leaders started fighting from the day the elections were announced. The incidents in Murshidabad district are testimony to this. Adhir Choudhury wanted his nominees to be given tickets, but when three of his opposition camp members were given tickets by the high command, he was so enraged that he decided to field independent candidates against his own party candidates. Although later he withdrew two of the three candidates, he is against Maya Rani Pal of Behrampur and is campaigning against her. This can only benefit the CPM. We can only call him modern day Kalidas.
The picture in Malda was no different. Ghani Khan Choudhury wanted Samar Choudhury to be fielded from Ratua whereas Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi wanted Asit Bose to be official candidate from that seat. Ghani Khan had threatened to withdraw all the Congress candidates from the district if his nominee was not given ticket. But cashing in on his proximity to Sonia, Priya succeeded to get the ticket for his favourite candidate. The shock and sense of humiliation was so deep in Khan Choudhury that it aggravated his already failing health.
Now, If Murshidabad and Malda are fighting, can Burdwan be far behind? Here the workers threatened to physically prevent the official candidate Sampa Sirkar from Asansol from filing her nomination because they wanted their district president Tapas Banerjee to be nominated by the party. Though they later relented, they created another problem. They decided that they will not campaign for the LJP candidate from Hirapur with whom the party has an electoral understanding. Instead they would campaign in favor of TMC candidate and sitting MLA of Hirapur, Maloy Ghatak.
When the party leaders are fighting among themselves, who cares to form alliance against the Left. The Congress and the Trinamool Congress wanted to forge and alliance against the Left but they could not shed their inhibitions and the talks failed. Had they fought unitedly, they could have atleast given some resemblance of fight.
The infighting, the sheer show of indiscipline and imprudence of the opposition party leaders did not go down well with the electorate. They understood that those fighting for their own interests will never care for them after the elections.
As far as governance is concerned, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has succeeded or is at least trying to convince the voters that he wants to set right the wrongs committed by the previous regime. His main thrust is on industrialization and IT sector.
Contrary to the ideology of his party, he has been opposing strikes in the IT sector. The communal harmony has been maintained by the government for the last 29 years during which communal riots occurred in Bhagalpur during Rajiv Gandhi's rule, post Babri demolition riots during Narsimha Rao's tenure and the Gujarat carnage under Narendra Modi. But West Bengal was protected by the Left government from the menace with all sincerity. The Gujarat riots drew the minority community of West Bengal closer to the Left Front. This ensured one fourth of the votes for them as Muslims form about 30 per cent of the population in the state.
Unless, the Congress and the other opposition parties instill discipline in their rank and file and learn to unite for the sake of defeating their common enemy, the Left rule will go on and on and on in the state.
Sohail Arshad
Journalist
Kerala
Communists are a virus
We are Malayalis. We love our country India and our state Kerala. Are we satisfied with the development situation in Kerala, which is plagued by militancy of Communism and Trade Unionism? In the field of development, infrastructure, industry, IT, ITES, BT, agriculture, food processing, communication, etc, compared to our neighbours like Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, and Maharashtra, we are far behind. Kerala is very much equivalent to that impoverish West Bengal than the prosperous southern states.
We know that before independence, West Bengal was the richest state of India. But now its condition is poor and pathetic because of Marxist-Maoist parties like CPI (M) and CPI. The main culprit behind the under-development of Kerala is none, but the same Communist Party, Bureaucracy, and Trade Unionism. These anti-development forces destroyed two rich states in India - West Bengal and Kerala.
E M S Nambudiripad became the first chief minister was the greatest catastrophe of Kerala. EMS and his Communist-Marxists-Maoists-Naxal militant outfits are a curse to all Malayalis. Electing Communist Party to power in 1956 was greatest mistake (blunder) done by Malayalis in Kerala's History. Communists are not human beings, but viruses. Their menace is now becoming insufferable. According to a survey, nearly 100 per cent of Communist leaders are uneducated and illiterate.
We want to see a prosperous Kerala. We want to make Kerala as a new Bangalore, or Australia, or Singapore, or Finland, or France, or Estonia. We not only want Kerala be a 100 per cent literate and educated state, but also industrially developed, clean & green, free from the menace of CPI (M), Communism, Marxism, Atheism, Trade Union Terrorism, bandhs, hartals, strikes, bureaucratic mafias, and also from the nonsense of Nayanar, Pinarai Vijayan, Achuthanandan and their likes.
We all know that the main reasons for the unattractiveness of FDI (Foreign Investment) in Kerala are above factors. Foreigners will not come to Kerala because of Communism, and Trade Unionism. We must consider bandhs, hartals, strikes, trade unionisms, employee unionism, etc. as terrorism.
Moreover these Communists are against Christians (especially Syrian Christians), Nairs, Brahmins, Menons, Ezhavas, Adivasis, SCs, STs, and Moderate Muslims. They are against all peoples who worship God Almighty. They want to make all peoples Atheists. So these communities should join hand to fight against the threat of our greatest common enemy - Communism. Christians should remember that Communism is against the teachings of Bible. Christianity always opposed Communism, especially in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Serbia, Italy, USA, and our Kerala too.
What Kerala needs is a '2nd Vimochana Samaram' (Liberation Movement) against CPI (M) and LDF by a grand alliance of Nairs, Christians, Brahmins, Menons, Ezhavas, Adivasis, SCs, STs, and Moderate Muslims. We are all believers and pro-God, but communists are non-believers and anti-God. Christianity should reintroduce 'Mahlon Chollal' (Expulsion from the community) system, which restricts Christians from involving in the Communist anti-Social activities. Till 1980s this system existed. Brahmins, Menons, and Nairs should also reintroduce their similar system of 'Padiyadachu Pindam Veykkal' or 'Brashtu Kalpikkal' (Expulsion from the community) against Communists in their communities. This should be a new 'Shuddi' (Cleansing) movement.
Juan Rosario
Sr Software Engineer
Tamil Nadu
AIADMK will sweep TN
Latest survey indicates that Democratic people alliance led by J Jayalaithaa is heading for a landslide victory in the forthcoming Tamil Nadu Polls.
The swing now indicates that people of Tamil Nadu are very much skeptical to vote for the DMK front after the Dayanidhi-Ratan Tata episode.
The projections now are:
AIADMK - 142
MDMK - 27
DPI - 7
OTHERS - 1
----
DMK - 35
CONG - 3
PMK - 10
OTHERS - 9
------
TOTAL - 234
Shyam Sundara
Businessman
Who is Sasikala?
Who is Sasikala? From where did she come? How did she get involved with Jayalalitha? How did she grow from a video shop owner to the present level?
Income Tax payments - Talking about Indian Constitution, any elected chief minister should respect the Indian Constitution and follow the rules and regulations. Did our CM pay Income Tax like any other common man? Did she file her returns and follow the Tax norms set by the central government and set an example for the people of her state? If a head of state does not obey constitution, then why should the normal working class people in the state obey it? How we can ever forget the Supreme Court's unpleasant instructions to the CM on Tansi land case?
Comparing Dayanidhi Maran - Similarly how can she talk about Dayanidhi Maran and his capabilities, when she was not qualified nor experienced to lead the first time she got the CM post? She got through the elections just by the enigma of MGR and the sympathy votes of Rajiv's death during her first tenure as CM. Like her, the people elected Dayanidhi Maran. If he is not qualified enough, why should the people vote for him? Did not India Today Magazine select him the best minister for 2004-2005? Did he not bring investments and job opportunities for professionals, non-professionals to Tamil Nadu by his dynamic approach internationally with MNC's?
Vaiko and SUNTV - Recently, Vaiko was talking about Sun TV and its profits. For heaven sake this is a private company working for profits, why is Vaiko so concerned by its popularity. If Vaiko is against this, let any other TV channel or Jaya TV become competent enough to overcome Sun TV in coverage, content management, delivery standards and viewership. All TV channels employ people at different levels, provide better coverage on world affairs, better recreational programmes than mere party advertisement campaign such as JAYA TV (like naming of a child by the CM as the headlines!). I can't understand why some of them are concerned about SUN TV's popularity just because Karunanidhi has some share in this channel. In such a case, you can buy the shares of this company; it is open to all under IPO and is listed in the Sensex like other profit making companies like Infosys and Reliance. Do you know that, SUN TV started when DMK was not in power.
Beyond Veernam and Veerapan - In the present situation, do we still have any useful approach to youth employment, farmers welfare, village developments, permanent solution to Chennai's water problem but all we talk and cry is about SUN TV, MK's family? Can the CM tell us what she has achieved so far apart from Veernam and Veerapan for the past 5 years rather than just find excuses for her incapability, take for example implementation of a water desalination plant cancelled due to hidden agenda!! Can the CM be transparent to the public what projects were stopped by the Centre? Can the CM be transparent on corporation expenses and expenses of municipalities in the state, since we are paying taxes for development of the country, state?
HardTalk Interview - Last but not the least, have you seen the Jayalalithaa's interview on BBC's Hard Talk. She was not able to keep her cool, composure nor was comfortable to answer the questions raised by the show host Karan Thapar!!!.
Conclusion I am not a supporter of DMK, not any other party but this time DMK is foremost suited, due to the presence of TN cabinet ministers in the Centre and it would be better for Tamil Nadu. We need to think it over and should cast our vote such that it would benefit us and the state we live in. I request all the masses to come forward and vote including the 40 per cent of the people who never vote. At least we can hope of a developed state during the times of our children.
Comparison Matrix
Items AIADMK DMK
Infrastructure and IT development NIL YES
Cooperation with Centre NO YES
TV Network & News papers YES YES
Village Development plans Minimum Minimum
Does the party leader files IT returns? NO YES
Party Families Sasikala Stalin
Political experience of family members NIL Stalin - elected Mayor of Chennai
Any projected second level leader No Yes
Prakash
Project Manager
Writing is on the wall
By the second week of March, it appeared as if AIADMK was going to win by a comfortable margin, but now, at the end of April with 10 days to go for the elections, the writing is on the wall. DMK is likely to come to power and ADMK may bag about 50 seats. The reasons:
1. Karthik and his forward Bloc are not going to win any seat, but will garner 3000 to 7000 votes in each consistuency and most importantly 100 per cent of Forward Bloc's votes are going to come from AIADMK
2. Vaiko's vote bank included two groups. One Telugu speaking people and a sizeable proportion of that is going to vote for Vijayakanth now. The second group of Vaiko's vote bank was people who voted against ADMK as well as DMK. They are now going to vote to Vijayakanth.
3. When DMK announced Rice at 2 rupees a kilo, ADMK and MDMK were ridiculing that and told that it is impossible. But after 10 days, ADMK announces that they will give 10 kilos free. This is a single factor that is responsible for the MOOD SWING over the past 2 weeks.
4. In the end result, ADMK is going to win in the northern parts and DMK is going to have a landslide victory in the southern districts (considered a ADMK stronghold)
Masana muthu
Railway employee
More from rediff