Signs galore of the coming fall of mighty Congress
If proof was needed of the rout that awaits Congress, consider the return of the secularist Ram Vilas Paswan to the NDA.
far as political messages go. Again, notable Muslim leaders have shown readiness to consider Modi anew, and not only through the propagandist prism of the Gujarat riots. In this context, the public call by a leading light of a renowned Islamic seminary in UP to vote for the BJP is important. The politics of fear — darr in Hindi, is a more evocative word — which had hitherto chained the largest minority to the Congress’ Hand has only produced more and more socio-economic distress for the community. Public memory being proverbially short, not many readers would recall what the Congress megaphones had said at the time of Modi’s anointment as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. Well, the return of Paswan to the NDA fold has belied those claims. Secularism and communalism have become like swear words, which politicians fling at one another to advance their opportunistic designs. In the fully de-ideologised polity, pursuit of power is the only game in town. Better players are bound to win. Politicians, voting with their feet, have already left no one in doubt as to which side is set to emerge a clear winner in the coming election. tyens’ Delhi as Delhi Chief Minister for a few more months beyond his actual entitlement was only unusual for the person it originated from. You expect this kind of request from a “normal” politician, and certainly not from someone who is selfavowedly the champion of a new politics, an unselfish politics. The ground cited by Kejriwal for seeking extension in the CM’s house that his daughter is to sit for an important exam is again not unusual. It is normal for children of other politicians too to sit in such exams. It is so bad that Kejriwal found it politically expedient to resign when he did. If the people of Delhi are being made to pay the price of his opportunistic politics, why should his daughter expect to be singled out for preferential treatment? We have always maintained that there is a lot of artifice, a lot of self-righteousness about the AAP boss. Remember that originally Kejriwal had sought two fivebedroom houses in the heart of New Delhi. Only when the aam aadmi protested did he settle for a well appointed single flat. Again, it bears telling that while still in government service, he had gone on a foreign study tour after giving a sworn undertaking that should he quit the service within three years of his return he would reimburse about Rs 8 lakh, which was the cost to the taxpayers of his study tour. But he actually quit before completing the mandatory three years in service. When asked to reimburse the amount, he cried foul, alleging vendetta because he was agitating for the creation of a strong Lokpal. He hummed and hawed. Finding no legal escape, he paid up. But, hold your breath. The money did not come from his or his family’s accounts. No, according to Kejriwal himself, his wellmeaning friends came to his rescue, coughing up the required sum. A true servant of the people, in our book of morals, would not have relied on other people to fulfill his private commitments. In the case of Kejriwal, not only was he a middle-level income tax officer, but his wife too earns a decent sum as a full-time government servant. Therefore, he ought to have paid the cost of the study tour from his own savings, having benefited personally from it. Or he ought not to have gone on the study tour. But having gone, he ought to have stayed on in government till the end of the bonded three-year period getting his friends to pay because he was in the business of social and political work was a clear no- no. True public service, it should be noted, involves a lot of self-denial. While still on the poseurs and pretenders of AAP, how come the moment they come to control some well-funded NGOs, the first thing they do is to charge it rent by turning their own residences into NGO offices? This seems a convenient ploy to make money while being in the business of do-gooders. For example, Manish Sisodia, a minister in the mercifully short- lived AAP government, charges the NGO under his control Rs 12,000 per month as rent for using his own flat as its office. The rent is apparently paid by Sisodia’s NGO to his wife. Would Sisodia like to rent that space to someone else for that amount? Or it is just an accounts entry while the entire house remains in the occupation of the Sisodia family? Lest the genuine social workers take offence, we ought to make it clear that the idea of social workers relying on NGO funds for personal use seems repugnant to us. Most NGO bosses are known to run private cars, pay rent and other expenses from its accounts. That may be a much abused modern concept but a genuine social worker would spend his own time and money to rid the society of its various ills and shortcomings. In short, NGOs have become a cottage industry, providing gainful employment to tens of thousands who may or may not have found work otherwise.