Politics
April is the cruellest month...", TS Eliot had once declared. April this year has indeed been unusually cruel.
On the third day of the month, the Central government rammed the controversial Waqf (Amendment) Bill through an incensed Lok Sabha — obviously more to needle the Muslims than grab their endowments. The next day, it harangued and bickered and bullied the Rajya Sabha, until it cleared the amendment at 2 o’clock in the morning. Muslims seethed with rage, while the Opposition licked its wounds.
Now that we are hell bent on becoming a Hindu Pakistan, how can we do without a Sunni-Shia divide, that has led to innumerable killings among Muslims in the real Pakistan? When hate becomes the cornerstone of the one-religion-one-country demand, then the ghost of Jinnah is bound to roam all over, to ensure that this hate just does not stop at one community.
Few world leaders have caused such universal consternation, even before they formally accepted their office, as President Donald Trump has. Much of this apprehension arises out of his past record of extreme aggression whenever he perceives that American interests are hurt, leading to a lot of sabre-rattling and chest thumping. The more worrisome part lies in his weaponising of tariff protect the American market against importers, until they zip open their markets to him or toe his political line.
Of the two major national day celebrations that India observes, Republic Day is certainly more colourful because of the pomp and power government displays on New Delhi’s imposing Central Vista avenue. Amidst the glitter and glory, we tend to forget why we celebrate this day. On this 26th day of January in 1950, India gave effect to the Constitution of a free nation and replaced the Imperial-era Government of India Act of 1935.
Now that the minister of state for finance has finally confirmed, in reply to one of the last letters written as MP before I resigned, that the Indian banking system has written off Rs 16.11 lakh crore during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first 10 years – we have the full picture for the first time.
One of the heavy costs that Narendra Modi is paying for staying in power is disowning the strongest of biases of his parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – to which he swore everlasting loyalty when he joined it in his teens. He also retracts, ever so stealthily, from the principle of his political guru, V.D. Savarkar of the Hindu Mahasabha, even as he never misses a photo opportunity to worship him publicly.
On August 9, the day Mahatma Gandhi had launched the ‘Quit India’ movement in 1942 (opposed by the Hindu Right), the entire opposition walked out of the Rajya Sabha in protest against the chairman’s ruling that disallowed the Leader of Opposition to speak about the chair’s jibe at Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan, who’s in her 20th year in the Rajya Sabha.
What started as a protest against a heinous rape and murder of a junior lady doctor in a government hospital in Kolkata attached to the famous RG Kar Medical College has snowballed into an unprecedented movement for justice and the safety of women.
Though Narendra Modi and his cohorts swore before the elections that they would surely cross 400 seats, it was clear during the different phases of polling that the INDIA bloc parties would certainly do well. The new-found unity among the opposition parties had evoked enthusiastic popular support.
During the UPA years, 2004 to 2014, Narendra Modi, CM of Gujarat, led the brigade of States on each and every issue that he felt militated against the federal structure of the Constitution. Thus, when he was elected prime minister of India in 2014, we had naturally expected him to strengthen the rights of states and were certain that he would take away several controversially acquired powers of the Centre.
In 1967, when I was just 15 years old, I was attracted to Ram Manohar Lohia’s brand of desi socialism that targeted the nexus between caste and class in India. The Congress had been in power for 20 years and appeared quite invincible. But socialist leaders such as George Fernandes, Madhu Limaye, Rabi Ray and Kishen Pattanayak believed that the mighty Congress could be dislodged.
Narendra Modi has begun his third term in 2024 with the inglorious distinction of leading the “least productive parliament session” – the just-concluded monsoon-cum-budget session. Conversely, his first session after his second innings in 2019 was proudly declared by the Speaker as the “most productive” one since 1952. Along with the Rajya Sabha, it had passed a record 36 bills – demonstrating, in no uncertain terms, the cocky spirit of that phase.
The INDIA front, that Narendra Modi and his acolytes had scornfully dismissed as divided and doomed, had managed to give the Bharatiya Janata Party a real fright, with its 237 seats so perilously close to the BJP’s 240.
The 4th of June will be remembered in the history of stock markets in India for the biggest single-day fall in share prices in 4 years. The benchmark stock indexes, Sensex and Nifty, crashed by almost 6 per cent on this day when the election results to the 18th Lok Sabha started revealing that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party may not be headed towards an absolute majority on its own.
ভারতের শেয়ার বাজারে গত ৪ জুন যে পতন হয়েছে, তেমন ঐতিহাসিক পতন বিগত চার বছরে হয়নি। একদিনে শেয়ার বাজার এতটা পড়েনি। শেয়ার বাজারের সূচক হল সেনসেক্স ও নিফটি। যে মুহূর্তে খবরে প্রকাশ পেল যে অষ্টাদশ লোকসভায় ভারতীয় জনতা পার্টি নিরঙ্কুশ সংখ্যাগরিষ্ঠতা না পাওয়ার দিকে এগোচ্ছে, সেদিন সেই মূহূর্ত থেকে সেনসেক্স ও নিফটিতে প্রায় ৫ শতাংশ পতন শুরু হল।
As I switched on the TV for a brief while to watch Narendra Modi’s third swearing-in ceremony, my mind flashed back to his first, in 2014. I was a bit nervous as I was sure to be the fall guy, as the CEO of Prasar Bharati, if any glitch occurred in the television and radio coverage. A few days earlier, he had alleged that Prasar Bharati had mischievously cut off parts of his last interview on Doordarshan.
মনে থাকবে। ১৯৬৭, ১৯৭৭ বা ২০১৪-এর লোকসভা নির্বাচন যেমন ইতিহাসে অন্যতম চাঞ্চল্যকর নির্বাচন হিসেবে স্থান পেয়েছে ঠিক তেমনই স্মরণীয় হয়ে থাকবে এই ২০২৪ সালের লোকসভা নির্বাচন। কোনও সন্দেহ নেই মোদি জামানার পরিসমাপ্তির সূচনা ঘটল এবারের নির্বাচনে। এই দেওয়াললিখন তাঁকে ভবিষ্যতে কতটা সতর্ক করবে তা ভবিষ্যতেই বলবে।
History will look back at the 2024 elections to the 18th Lok Sabha as an exciting landmark— somewhat like 1967 or 1977 or even 2014. There is no doubt that it marks the beginning of the end of the Modi era, though one cannot predict how badly he may react to the writing on the wall or how or viciously he may tighten his stranglehold over a battered democracy. It is a major blow to Narendra Modi’s ego and his hold over his flock that he has fallen 32 seats short of the absolute majority figure of 272 seats.
What started as a completely one-sided election has slowly but surely turned into an interesting one, with all sorts of possibilities. Liberals, rationalists, pluralists, democratic, leftists and all others who have not accepted a regime that is openly opposed to these values enshrined in the Indian constitution have suffered repeated defeat, demoralisation and humiliation for 10 long years.
মোদিজি হয়তো এটা দেখে খানিকটা বিস্মিতই হয়েছেন যে, জানুয়ারি মাসে রামমন্দির নির্মাণকে কেন্দ্র করেই হোক, কিংবা এই এপ্রিলে রামনবমীকে ঘিরেই হোক, বাঙালিকে তেমনভাবে উৎসাহিত হতে দেখা গেল না। উত্তর ও পশ্চিম ভারতে এসব নিয়ে যেমন উৎসাহ-উদ্দীপনা দেখা গিয়েছে, পশ্চিমবঙ্গের ছবি তদ্বিপরীত। বঙ্গ-বিজেপি চেষ্টার খামতি রাখেনি। খোলা তলোয়ার প্রদর্শন থেকে শুরু করে আগ্রাসী শোভাযাত্রা, বাদ ছিল না কিছুই।
When Narendra Modi attacked Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav recently for violating the ‘strict norm’ of vegetarianism during the Ram Navami period, he was directly inciting voters in the northern Hindi belt, and of course, in adjunct areas like Gujarat.