Tale of Two bills-FDI in Retail and Jana Lokpal
(English)
Nobody would have been more happy to see that FDI in Retail was
passed by both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha than Sushma Swaraj and Arun
Jaitley of BJP for they represent a political party that has time and
again proved to be backing the upper class especially the capitalist and
trading class. Their job was done by their proxy partner ,INC. You may
ask then why did they oppose it? Opposition was for the sake of
opposition to show the people that they look after their interests and
want poor farmers and lower middle class protected against the invasion
of Multinational Companies besides exposing the parties like SP and BSP
who talk endlessly about poor and the downtrodden but in fact side with
the rich and the capitalists directly or indirectly. The eye is on 2014
elections.
Why did Mayawati change the tag between Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha voting? Was it CBI? No, Mayawati has been under the sword of Tantalus for so many years now as is Mulayam Singh and other small regional party heads like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Karunanidhi, except perhaps Mamta Banerjee who unfortunately has diligently painted herself as unreliable a partner who gives more trouble while in your camp than in the opposite camp. The real fact is that neither Mulayam singh nor Mayawati wants Lok Sabha elections immediately. One would have believed that Mulayam wanted early elections after he came to power but he was also conscious of the fact that in such an event greatest benefit would be reaped by BJP which would bag the anti-incumbency vote given that Congress had sufficiently blackened its image due to the scams and the exposures. The only remedy therefore was that Congress should be given time to correct itself and rebuild its reputation for the remaining one and a half years so that it is able to garner enough vote percentage and with the support of parties like SP, BSP and RJD come back to power in next elections. On the other hand, Mayawati is waiting and watching. She wants time to lapse and let people of UP know the real worth of SP. She believes by 2014 SP will have been sufficiently exposed for their non-performance and non-fulfilling of their promises which may help BSP to get majority of seats in Lok Sabha elections and also changes fortunes at local level. Other smaller parties too hope for similar results and do not want to sink along with the Congress immediately.
What is important to note is the way Congress managed to get the bill on FDI in retail passed smoothly in both the houses this time while earlier the Lokpal bill found hurdles at every stage more so from its own allies and remains hanging ever since. This in fact shows that the Gandhi-Nehru's Congress party had no intention to get the Lokpal bill passed nor were Ambedkar's Bahujan Samajwadi Party and Narayan-Lohia's Samajwadi Party interested in seeing the bill through. Reason is obvious and needs hardly be discussed here in detail. They do not want the avenues of their parallel income to be curtailed. Sharad Pawar,Lalu Prasad, Paswan,Sharad Yadav, Nitish,and Thakre all are birds of the same feather who do not want their avenues of earning to be choked. BJP too did not show any keenness to support Anna Hazare on this issue and work out draft of the bill that would have been acceptable to him and the party. Again the reason is obvious. There are number of Gadkaris and Yeddurappas in waiting in the top and middle levels of the party who too are opposed to the Lokpal. It is the same party that once prided itself for clean image and anti-corruption crusade. The remaining parties are the Communists who have unequivocally supported the Lokpal bill but they have by now been so much marginalized that they hardly matter and their voice in the well of both the houses hardly resonates.Fortunately no scams have been dug out against them despite having ruled West Bengal and Kerala for so long.
So one can well imagine the truth behind the failure of Lokpal bill ( as also Women's Reservation bill) and see for oneself as to why they did not get through the houses of Parliament. One can also imagine the dramatics of the people's representatives in both the houses who do what suits them and not what suits the people. I am reminded of a couplet of Ghalib;
Bazeecha-e- Atifal hai duniya mere aage;
Hota hai shab-o-roz tamasha mere aage.
The problem with this vast country is who will make our countrymen understand this since more than forty percent of voters are illiterate and another twenty percent are mal-educated. The frustration of these people is writ large on their helpless faces. Only some supernatural authority can save them.
Why did Mayawati change the tag between Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha voting? Was it CBI? No, Mayawati has been under the sword of Tantalus for so many years now as is Mulayam Singh and other small regional party heads like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Karunanidhi, except perhaps Mamta Banerjee who unfortunately has diligently painted herself as unreliable a partner who gives more trouble while in your camp than in the opposite camp. The real fact is that neither Mulayam singh nor Mayawati wants Lok Sabha elections immediately. One would have believed that Mulayam wanted early elections after he came to power but he was also conscious of the fact that in such an event greatest benefit would be reaped by BJP which would bag the anti-incumbency vote given that Congress had sufficiently blackened its image due to the scams and the exposures. The only remedy therefore was that Congress should be given time to correct itself and rebuild its reputation for the remaining one and a half years so that it is able to garner enough vote percentage and with the support of parties like SP, BSP and RJD come back to power in next elections. On the other hand, Mayawati is waiting and watching. She wants time to lapse and let people of UP know the real worth of SP. She believes by 2014 SP will have been sufficiently exposed for their non-performance and non-fulfilling of their promises which may help BSP to get majority of seats in Lok Sabha elections and also changes fortunes at local level. Other smaller parties too hope for similar results and do not want to sink along with the Congress immediately.
What is important to note is the way Congress managed to get the bill on FDI in retail passed smoothly in both the houses this time while earlier the Lokpal bill found hurdles at every stage more so from its own allies and remains hanging ever since. This in fact shows that the Gandhi-Nehru's Congress party had no intention to get the Lokpal bill passed nor were Ambedkar's Bahujan Samajwadi Party and Narayan-Lohia's Samajwadi Party interested in seeing the bill through. Reason is obvious and needs hardly be discussed here in detail. They do not want the avenues of their parallel income to be curtailed. Sharad Pawar,Lalu Prasad, Paswan,Sharad Yadav, Nitish,and Thakre all are birds of the same feather who do not want their avenues of earning to be choked. BJP too did not show any keenness to support Anna Hazare on this issue and work out draft of the bill that would have been acceptable to him and the party. Again the reason is obvious. There are number of Gadkaris and Yeddurappas in waiting in the top and middle levels of the party who too are opposed to the Lokpal. It is the same party that once prided itself for clean image and anti-corruption crusade. The remaining parties are the Communists who have unequivocally supported the Lokpal bill but they have by now been so much marginalized that they hardly matter and their voice in the well of both the houses hardly resonates.Fortunately no scams have been dug out against them despite having ruled West Bengal and Kerala for so long.
So one can well imagine the truth behind the failure of Lokpal bill ( as also Women's Reservation bill) and see for oneself as to why they did not get through the houses of Parliament. One can also imagine the dramatics of the people's representatives in both the houses who do what suits them and not what suits the people. I am reminded of a couplet of Ghalib;
Bazeecha-e- Atifal hai duniya mere aage;
Hota hai shab-o-roz tamasha mere aage.
The problem with this vast country is who will make our countrymen understand this since more than forty percent of voters are illiterate and another twenty percent are mal-educated. The frustration of these people is writ large on their helpless faces. Only some supernatural authority can save them.
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