LEFT’S CRUMBLING CITADEL
MAMATA BANNERJI has made history. A leading Kolkata daily has front paged her victory story with the headline: “QUEEN OF CALCUTTA, NOT OF BENGAL YET”.
She may well become that also; she needs not be impatient for an Assembly encounter earlier than scheduled. Patience may pay her richer dividends.
If the Marxist citadel of Kolkata has collapsed, Mamata has served only as an instrument. The real achievement is of the Reds themselves. The ‘achievement’ is negative: ‘alienation’ from the people, as Prakash Karat has rightly commented.
Americans by themselves could never have achieved the disappearance of the gigantic U.S.S.R. empire. An unending series of Stalinist excesses, of Hungarys and Czechoslovakias, and a growing arrogance that it was only a matter of time before, as used to be the British boast in the days of U.K’s colonial dominance, the sun would never set on the Marxist empire!”
Not many soothsayers could have predicted how revolutionary 1989 would prove. This was the year that saw the Berlin Wall crumble, the U.S.S.R. disintegrate and the Cold War dramatically come to an end!
As an active participant in Indian politics since the first General Election of 1952 I cannot miss the significance of this year, 1989, for our own country as well. This year proved a turning point in national politics also.
The BJP which in 1984 could win only two Lok Sabha seats in the whole country made a spectacular leap forward and won 86 Lok Sabha seats – from its all time low, to its all time high!
And from then on, the party led by Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, kept growing from strength to strength until in 1996 it out beat the Congress and became the largest party in the Lok Sabha. In 1998, just one year after India observed the Golden Jubilee of its independence the BJP dislodged the Congress from New Delhi, and successfully ruled this large country for six stable and fruitful years.
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I hold that the year 1989 enabled the BJP to lay the foundation of the biggest achievement of its life – conversion of India’s single-dominant-party polity into a bi-polar polity!
No wonder, though the 1989 Lok Sabha election made Janata Dal the largest among the non-Congress Parties and installed Shri V.P. Singh its leader, as Prime Minister, the New Statesman of London gave to its story on the Indian polls the significant caption: “Winner stands Second!”
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The roots of Congress downturn lay in the Emergency. If there had been no emergency there would have been no 1977 !
Jaya Prakash ji, Atalji, and Morarji Bhai were only instruments, as Mamata was in West Bengal lately.
Even in 1977, despite the Emergency, Congress won hands down in Andhra. Janata Party secured a miserable single seat – that of Sanjiva Reddy.
Andhra had to await one more election and the arrival of an N.T. Rama Rao to see the end of Congress Party’s hegemony in that State.
Single-party dominance is an enemy of democracy. When the history of Indian Democracy is written, the names of all those who have contributed towards smashing this one party hegemony either at the Centre or in the States will always be remembered. This is a long list, which includes not only national stalwarts like Dr. S.P. Mookerji, Dr. Lohia, Deendayal Upadhyaya, Jaya Prakash Narain and Atal Bihari Vajpayee but also leaders like C.N. Annadurai, M.G. Ramachandran and N.T. Rama Rao. I think that what Mamata Bannerji has done is also a significant contribution to the strengthening of democracy.
L.K. Advani
New Delhi
June 05, 2010
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June 5th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
I think with the crumbling of left in Bengal, there will be opportunity for even BJP to get some space in Bengal which was not possible earlier due to the whole state being used to negative brand of politics/ non-governance model of left parties. There is a strong possibility that Mamta would not succeed in providing good governance up to the level of expectation of people but there is little doubt that her regime will at least give some flavour of good governance and leave the people wanting for more…since, in all probability, congress will be a part of the goverment with Mamta. So it will leave an opening for BJP to atleast get a good foothold there….ultimately, in the long run, BJP needs to become stronger in West Bengal for a stronger India.
June 5th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
L.K. Advaniji would have become one of India’s finest PMs if he was inclusive in his poltical approach as the leader of a national party whilst being a devout Hindu. Exclusiveness paid bad dividends in his political career. I still hope to see L.K. Advaniji as the PM in the next general elections.
R.Jayakumar
A devout Christian.
June 6th, 2010 at 9:34 am
With all respect to the venerable Advaniji, I think the time has not yet come to conclude that Mamata’s contribution to strengthening democracy has been significant. If democratic attitude can only usher in democratic behaviour, what we have seen for a couple of years may hardly be called democratic attitude on the part of the popular leader. She heads a party which is still largely depends on her for its movements. There is hardly any policy-oriented approach to address Bengal’s problems which are innumerable in a sense. What, of course, she has tried to prove is that the Left is removable and the democratic exercise of election can be a tool to achieve that. The confidence that it is possible has been adequately restored in the people’s mind. The positive for BJP here is that if it is possible to remove the Left based on, among others, the governance issue, then it might be possible to go to the people with the BJP’s bouquet of all good things in a couple of years.
June 6th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Excellent advice, Advani ji. Mamata has been the saviour of democracy in Bengal and we hope to see her in her rightful chair soon. By the way, I wonder whether you go through the comments on your blog or is it that someone else does the typing for you so you are unware of the readers’ feedback? The latter would be a shame. Looking forward to more posts from you. I wish you all the best. You were and remain my hero.
June 6th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
I doubt how could Mamta strengthen democracy while she is hand in gloves with maoists.
June 7th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Respected Advani ji,
I still believe Bjp is strong in all parts of the country. If we see the 12th and 13 th Lok sabha, we are very strong With NDA listed below. Its time to recall the previous parties and ask them to join the NDA again. Before the election, the NDA comprised the following constituent parties:
Bhartiya Janata Party
Shiv Sena
Janata Dal (United)
Shiromani Akali Dal
Indian National Lok Dal
Rashtriya Lok Dal
Asom Gana Parishad[5]
Nagaland People’s Front
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha
Uttarakhand Kranti Dal
Kamtapur Progressive Party
Ladakh Union Territory Front
Mizo National Front
Telangana Rashtra Samithi[6]
Former Members (after 2004 election)
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (joined the Third Front)
Telugu Desam Party (joined the Third Front)
Trinamool Congress (joined the United Progressive Alliance)
Biju Janata Dal (joined the Third Front)
Indian Federal Democratic Party (merged with Kerala Congress)
June 7th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Sir,
Now its time to think about Southern States.
I would request BJP to join hands with Jantha Party lead by Dr. Subrmanium Swamy in Tamil Nadu, as I think that his ideology and BJP’s core Hindutva matches with each other, so BJP must look into this aspect of poll alliance with this political party. In case if BJP doesn’t do that this man will eat away votes from Hindus as he has been in news quite sometime for his legal action against Islamic Banking in Kerala, Communist taking over Hindu Temple and in Stopping gold plating work in Thirupathi. Even he is very much active in Ram Janmabhomi Andolon where he is personally fighting for Ram Temple in High Court and Supreme Court.
Even he has very good reputation among several Hindu organization like RSS, VHP and HJS, so once this man contests election in TN and Kerala as he has announced than I am sure Hindus will prefer him above BJP even Sangh Parivar ideologue too will vote for him only, leaving BJP in lurch.
June 10th, 2010 at 11:15 am
I am writing this message with a lot of anguish as a die-hard supporter of BJP and especially Advani ji for whom I personally campaigned in last Lok sabha elections, I feel completely let down by BJP on failing to nail the government on Bhopal gas tragedy..I have tried to reach BJP leaders by whatever means poosible but that proved to be futile so Advani ji is my last hope..request administrator to help this message reach Advani ji..people are thinking BJP is too busy in its petty fights over the Rajya sabha seats than to take govt on Bhopal issue..why none of BJP leaders is not asking question about the role of then PM Rajiv Gandhi in letting Andersson fly out of India as a state guest in a govt provided aircraft after the killng of 25,000 poor people. By taking on Congress on this issue, BJP can counter it on Kandahar where convicts were released to save 184 innocent people where as Congress freed a murderer of 25,000 people…
It has been a fact that Anderson was traeted as a state dignitary and was saluted by police officers and a tea party was arranged with the then President..obviously Rajiv Gandhi the then PM would have ensured that… also why not ask these questions:
Question 1: Why did Arjun Singh, the Chief Minister, ignored all warnings and evidence that a disaster was imminent and assured the Assembly that he had personally inspected the Carbide plant and there was no problem just months before the gas leak ?
Question 2: Why was Warren Anderson, the chief of Union Carbide, given the Chief Minister’s own aircraft to leave India, just four days after the leak and with a charge of 304A against him ? He left the country shortly afterwards.
Question 3: Why did the government accept the Supreme Court settlement with Union Carbide for just 470 million dollars, money not enough to compensate even a fraction of its victims ?
Question 4: Why did the Digvijay Singh government in Madhya Pradesh allow Carbide to return the land with tons of toxic waste still on it when the lease clearly said that Carbide would have to return the land in the same condition it was leased to it in ?
Question 5: Today with Carbide back in India as Dow Chemicals, the government seems keen to exonerate Dow from its liabilities in the Bhopal gas tragedy. Why ?
June 10th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
I certainly don’t hold any brief for the CPM. But I think the celebrations are a little premature! And its even more far-fetched to imagine that the space vacated by the loony left would automatically fall into the lap of the loony Right!
The BJP would do well to rediscover its vote base among Hindus which it has been steadily loosing since Gujarat. You certainly have lost my vote. Given this background, its a little premature to be celebrating Mr.Advani. Set your own house in order first.
June 10th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Dear Sir,
I also feel that the BJP is totally lacklusture in nailing congress on Bhopal Gas issue when there are so many facts exposing the complicity of the then Rajiv Gandhi goverment and subsequent congress goverments including the role of Paranab Mukherjee (External affirs minister in 1994) who wrote a letter to MEA to dilute the case. BJP can/could have taken this opportunity to nail Congress on following issue which your party has been raising from time to time :
1. Congress govt’s anti-poor and pro-Ameriacn stand even when 25000 people died. Congress party sold the rights of poor people by dropping all the criminal charges in 1989 and reducing the amount of compensation at the expense of died people/victims. BY this you can hit in a big way the pro-poor image which Sonia and Rahul are trying to project as even Rajiv gandhi was involved in this. Please don’t concentrate on role of Arjun singh (as he has no relevence today) but concentrate on Rajiv Gandhi govt’s role.
2. Answering on Kandhar issue - You can tell that although BJP relaesed 4 terrorists to save the life of 184 innocent people, congress gave a state welcome (state plane, salute by policemen, Tea party with president) and arranged for flying off to a killer of innocent indians. On kandhar issue, it can always be contended that despite no NDA leaders’ relatives were hostage we took a hard decison to free the terrorists to save life of innocents whereas congress freed a criminal who killed innocents to save american interests. You can also quote Rubiya sayeed where a cong supporrted govt released terrorist to save life of one person (kin of Home minister).
This arguments can counter any criticism on Kandhar forever. Please advise your ill-prepared spokespersons to take thse lines as kandhar is going to remain an issue even in future.
3.Misue of CBI for vested interest of congress party- As same is clear from claim made by then CBI joint director. Even today, people like Kamal nath/ Chidambaram etc are pursuing the interest of Dow chemicals as proved by a document through right to infomation act.
Also, why BJP is silent on continuous atrocites on dalits in Harayana where they are being burnt alive, looted, injured in a spate of events ? Why BJP doesn’t ask questions from Congress regarding Rahul Gandhi’s dalit prem restricted to visiting poor people’s villages for the purpose of photo opportunities when in the congress governed states, there are incidents after incidents ?
June 11th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Dear Sir,
When will you be making a statement against the idian national congress on the issue of the Bhopal Tragedy verdict and VVIP treatment given to Mr Anderson escorting him a state plane and then meeting the president of India Mr Zail Singh even though there was a non-bailable warrant against him. Do you believe this could have occured without Mr Rajiv Gandhi’s permission?
Thanks
July 25th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Many BJP persons may not be aware of the type of inhumanity lies in the minds of all CPM cadres. This is the first party in India which started killing its opposition in the country. The brutality of CPM cadres is incomparable as it is reprehensible. BJP leaders can search from history about the Sain bari killings. When many people were killed, many ladies were raped in NANDIGRAM then Bhuddhadev Bhattacharya identified those culprits as ‘our men’.
How can one state Chief Minister identify criminals and rapists as ‘our men’ ? We know some BJP leaders have soft corner to Bhuddadev Bhattcharya but most of the Bengalees are not happy with this. CPM has exploited a lot of the people and so Lalgarh type of agitation started. CPM is mainly responsible for it as people living in those are areas not getting even one meal in a day ! It is an ideal example of the so-called ‘ideal’ state. So people of west Bengal chose Mamata Banerjee for her honesty and dedicated struggle against Capitalist turn Communist Chief Minister Buddadev Bhattacharya. CPM is the root cause of all troubles of India. BJP leaders shouldn’t ignore this fact. Anti-Gujarat sentiment was started by the CPM only. BJP leaders shouldn’t forget this also.
July 25th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
All Plans to create panic in the minds of non-Congress leaders have been invented by Pranab Mukherje. Thats why he is known as Crisis manager of Congress. He uses Income Tax Department and for this reason some non-Congress leaders didn’t have courage to support BJP’s Bharat bandh.
A Movement has started in Gujarat and I hope in future no one will get courage to insult Gujarat as all the Gujaratis across the world are united behind Amit Shah. Any attempt to defame Respected Amit Shah is attempt to defame whole Gujarti community across the world. He is the pride of all of Gujarat.
July 25th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
BJP should focus on creating pressure on the misuse of Income Tax and CBI by the government.
As the idea coming from the brain of Pranab Mukherjee , everyone should be united against him as it is a crime to use CBI and Income Tax for political purposes. Earlier, as per instruction of Sonia Gandhi, CBI harassed Amitabh Bachhan .
If BJP makes such type of move, they will get indirect support from Mayavati, Mulayam, Sibu Soren and also Lalu as Congress repeatedly uses CBI and Income Tax Department instruments to blackmail them.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Blackmailing of BJP, Mayabati, Mulayam , Lalu, Sibu Soren using Income Tax Department and CBI is the greatest concern for this country. India may be only country in wold where ruling party uses it’s top intelligence force and Income Tax Department to harass opposition leaders.
BJP’s historic revolt against misuse of CBI is great. Mayabati and other opposition leaders can also revolt against regarding misuse of CBI by Congress in this way .
BJP should back them also when Congress tries to harass Mayabati, Mulayam or Lalu by blackmailing them using CBI despite the political differences between BJP and all other party.
One day will come when Mayabati and Mulayam and Lalu will join hands with BJP against blackmailing by Congress using CBI and Income Tax Department for political gain only (which was invented by Pranab Mukherjee).
September 9th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
aircraft instruments…
After I read LEFT’S CRUMBLING CITADEL | LK Advani’s Blog, I got some good idea for aircraft instruments! Thanks for sharing….