Rahul Gandhi is not an option

Saswat Panigrahi

Rahul Gandhi continues to fight shy of donning the crown which fawning courtiers around him believe belongs to the Congress vice president.

In an interaction with select party MPs and journalists, the 42-year-old Nehru-Gandhi family scion said asking him whether he wants to be Prime Minister is a ‘wrong question’.

Given the fact that the chances of Congress coming to power after the next general election look bleak, Rahul Gandhi knows well that he can’t occupy the country’s top seat.

But his statement is an attempt to grab the limelight amid the rising nationwide popularity of BJP’s star performer and Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The Congress Chintan Shivir at Jaipur in January was an attempt to build a political foundation for the 42-year-old leader. He was formally annointed as vice president, the official number-two of the party.

Read the full article in www.niticentral.com

Our futile war against terror

Saswat Panigrahi

It has been a week since the twin blasts rocked the crowded Dilsukhnagar area of Hyderabad snuffing out the lives of 16 people and injured 120 others. But a breakthrough still eludes the police and investigative agencies.

But the modus operandi clearly suggests that it is an act of Indian Muhajideen, an offshoot of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

Investigations so far suggest that the blasts bear a striking resemblance to the earlier terror strikes like those in Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Assam, all of which the IM has claimed responsibility for.

Indian Mujahiddin is headquartered in Pakistan. Iqbal Bhatkal and his brother Riyaz run operations from Karachi. So there really is no doubt that Pakistan-sponsored terrorism is responsible for the Hyderabad bombings. But Pakistani terrorists work in tandem with local terror elements and these local terror elements have political patronage besides.

Read the full article in www.niticentral.com

Modi has won over Gujarati Muslim hearts

Saswat Panigrahi

In the recently concluded Gujarat civic poll, the BJP won all 27 seats in Salaya municipality, a Muslim-majority town in Jamnagar district. Of the 27 winning candidates, 24 are Muslims and the remaining three are Hindus. Not to forgetten is the fact that in the last Gujarat Assembly election, BJP won 12 out of 19 Muslim-dominated constituencies.

The figures tell a story. Narendra Modi is emerging as a popular leader among Muslims in Gujarat. But one needs to understand what the growing popularity of Modi among Gujarati Muslims should be attributed to.

Muslims in Gujarat are better off than their counterparts in other States. The Sachar Committee — appointed by the Congress-led UPA to study the socio-economic and educational status of Muslims in the country brought home this very fact.

Read the full article in www.niticentral.com

Modi reminds youth of Swami Vivekananda’s dream

Saswat Panigrahi

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s model speech at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) in Delhi has captured the imagination of the youth.

In his 45-minute-long speech, Modi left an audience of 1,800 students and 200 teachers spellbound. It was not just the SRCC. Youth across the nation watched and rewatched the speech on Television and webcasts.

They downloaded it from internet. They read and reread the text from the newspapers and websites. They shared it on Facebook, Twitter and Google plus.

Modi spoke on the future of India. He asserted that brand India could rule the world. He emphasised that youth power is the nation’s power.

Read the full article in www.niticentral.com

Now that Afzal Guru is dead…

Saswat Panigrahi

Afzal Guru hanged! India woke up to this news last Saturday. The Parliament House attack convict finally got his just desserts.

It took 12 long years to complete the ‘due process’ and execute the key conspirator behind the audacious attack on the temple of Indian democracy on December 13, 2001.

Though Afzal Guru’s hanging calls for celebration, the process of his execution leaves some unanswered questions.

First, there was an inexplicable delay in executing the Parliament House attack plotter. The Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist was sentenced to death by a special court in 2002. His death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2005. Two years later, in 2007, the Apex Court rejected a mercy petition by his wife. Then Afzal’s mercy plea moved from Delhi Government to the Home Ministry before it finally reached the President. And the process took another five years.

Read the full article in www.niticentral.com

Congress’s brand of politics is brazenly anti-Hindu

Saswat Panigrahi

Remember WikiLeaks? A secret US diplomatic cable, released by the whistleblower website, quoted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as saying ‘Hindu radical groups’ pose a much bigger threat to India than Pakistan-based terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Tayyeba.

Rahul had made those comments during a conversation with US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer just eight months after 26/11.

Now fast forward to Jaipur where Congress held a Chintan Shivir. As the whole country mourned the gruesome and unprovoked killing of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani Army, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde raked up ghosts of the imaginary ‘Hindu terror’ again. Shinde essentially, was taking off from where Rahul had left off.

He went on to blame the main Opposition party BJP and its ideological fountainhead RSS for promoting ‘Hindu terror’.

“Training camps of both the BJP and the RSS are promoting Hindu terrorism. Whether it is Samjhauta blast or Mecca Masjid blast or Malegaon blast, they plant bombs and blame it on the minorities,” Shinde said. Later he backtracked and said it was ‘saffron terror’ and not ‘Hindu terror’ that he was talking about.

The Congress’s traditional approach — spewing venom against imaginary saffron offences has come full circle.

Read the full article in www.niticentral.com

Cyclone Gadkari blows over

Saswat Panigrahi

The central leadership of BJP  has saved the party from a disaster by dropping the idea of renominating Nitin Gadkari and electing Rajnath Singh as president.

It was a done deal and Gadkari was almost on his way. The RSS was intent on giving him a second term as if there was a dearth of talent in the BJP. This, despite allegations of serious irregularities in the financial transactions of Purti Power and Sugar Limited, a company headed by Gadkari. A day before he was supposed to file his nomination papers, the Income Tax Department launched ‘on-field inquiries’ into ‘shell companies’ that are alleged to have invested in Purti group.

This prompted the BJP core group to discuss Gadkari’s renomination as party president over several rounds of deliberations. Finally, a majority of core group members of the party were in agreement that Gadkari’s re-election would have an adverse impact on BJP’s performance in the next general election.

Read the full article in www.niticentral.com

Time for us to shrug off ‘soft state’ tag

Saswat Panigrahi

The gruesome and unprovoked killing of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani Army has shocked the nation. Pakistani troops entered 600 metres into Indian territory along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch sector and killed Lance Naik Hemraj and Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh. Their bodies were mutilated and their heads were chopped off. One of the heads was carried away by the enemy.

This is a chilling reminder of the brutal torture and killing of Captain Saurabh Kalia and his team by Pakistani troops during the Kargil war.

A soldier represents the nation in the battlefield. No one’s presence is as direct as a soldier’s. Every drop of our soldiers’ blood is sacred to us. The death of a soldier is a huge loss to the nation, a loss which should make us all die a little.

Read the full article in www.niticentral.com

Time for Modi to shine nationally

Saswat Panigrahi

The gruesome and unprovoked killing of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani Army has shocked the nation. Pakistani troops entered 600 metres into Indian territory along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch sector and killed Lance Naik Hemraj and Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh. Their bodies were mutilated and their heads were chopped off. One of the heads was carried away by the enemy.

This is a chilling reminder of the brutal torture and killing of Captain Saurabh Kalia and his team by Pakistani troops during the Kargil war.

A soldier represents the nation in the battlefield. No one’s presence is as direct as a soldier’s. Every drop of our soldiers’ blood is sacred to us. The death of a soldier is a huge loss to the nation, a loss which should make us all die a little.

Read the full article in www.niticentral.com

Congress will wither away in Gujarat

Saswat Panigrahi

Lies, lies and more lies. This is what defines the Congress’s election campaign in Gujarat.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has claimed that that Narendra Modi Government is making “tall development claims” and “hollow promises”. She went to the extent of alleging that the condition of farmers is bad in Gujarat, roads are poor and the law & order situation in the State is in tatters.

But Sonia is sadly mistaken. Ironically, the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, which the Congress president is heading, said in its report that Gujarat is the fastest-growing State in the country. Of the awards given to the States by the Centre in various spheres in the last five years, as much as 60 per cent were bagged by Gujarat.

The State’s per capita income is pegged at Rs 63,961, which is higher than India’s per capita of Rs 46,492. Gujarat has given a record 72 per cent of employment out of total employment provided in the country during the last five years. At a time when nation’s agriculture growth rate is barely 3 per cent, agriculture in Gujarat has been growing at an astounding 11 per cent.

Gujarat is also one of the hottest investment destinations of the world. As for roads, the first thing anyone visiting Gujarat notices about the State is that it has the best roads in the country. 

Read the full article in www.niticentral.com

UPA clinches a tainted victory

Saswat Panigrahi

Politics makes strange bedfellows. Mulayam Singh Yadav-led SP and Mayawati-led BSP have bailed out the UPA Government in both Houses of the Parliament during the retail FDI vote.

In Lok Sabha, of the 543 members, only 471 voted on the Opposition motion against the Government’s decision to allow 51 per cent FDI in multibrand retail. While 253 members voted against the FDI motion, 218 voted for it. Ahead of the voting, both SP and BSP — which support the Government from outside — walked out of the House, thus helping the UPA sail through the FDI vote in the Lower House.

In the Upper House, of the 250 members, 232 voted on the motion. While 109 members voted in favour, 123 voted against it. BSP stood by the Government during the FDI vote while SP chose to walk out minutes before it happened. The Government scraped through the FDI vote in Rajya Sabha, despite lacking a majority of its own.

UPA-2’s decision to allow 51 per cent FDI in multibrand retail now has the Parliament’s stamp of approval, thanks to the SP and the BSP. FDI policy, after becoming a law will pave ways for multinational corporations like Walmart to colonise Indian economy. The country will have to grapple with the ill effects of this dubious policy. I have no hesitation in saying that FDI in multibrand retail will force us to deal with the equivalent of another East India Company, which will directly affect the livelihood of millions of farmers and small traders.

Read the full article in www.niticentral.com

Nothing Pyari about BJD’s mounting paranoia

Saswat Panigrahi

The BJD has a competitor now. And it is not the Opposition Congress or the BJP. The threat now comes straight from Naveen Patnaik’s former advertiser-turned bete noire Pyari Mohan Mohapatra.

It was just six months ago Pyari Mohan attempted a failed coup to dislodge Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik when he was away in UK – his first visit abroad in 12 years.

Pyari’s botched-up attempt to gather power in Naveen’s absence initially earned him a suspension and recently an expulsion from the BJD.

Mohapatra, who floated a pressure group called Odisha Jana Morcha (OJM) to “ensure democracy” within the BJD is now converting it into a full-fledged political party. The OJM is a party of BJD dissenters that aims at destabilising the party by eating into its support base.

Read the full article in www.niticentral.com