BJP big guns out on streets to woo voters in Capital FOR DELHI ELECTIONS:

BJP big guns out on streets to woo voters in Capital
24 Nov 2008, 0153 hrs IST, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: With just four days to go for the conclusion of campaigning to Delhi assembly polls, the BJP has decided to throw its entire
organisational might for mobilising support for the party.

The BJP’s election managers in the city, party sources said, have decided to organise 200 public meetings in the last three days of campaigning. It’d mean that each assembly segment would have three such rallies during the period. The list of leaders lined up for the purpose looks like the virtual who’s who of the party, with its prime ministerial candidate L K Advani and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi heading the cast.

The two senior BJP leaders will crisscross the entire city during their campaigning. While Mr Advani’s roadshow will take him to Rithala, Netaji Nagar, Okhla Industrial Area and Lajpat Nagar on November 25, he’s scheduled to cover Paharganj, Kingsway Camp, Chandni Chowk, Rohtas Nagar and Karawal Nagar a day later.

Mr Modi, who has emerged as the BJP’s most effective crowd-puller, will be travelling to Panchkuian Road, Khanpur, DDA Flats Kalkaji, Pandav Nagar, Krishna Nagar, Mustafabad and Nand Nagri on November 25. A day later, his road-show will cover the areas of Nangli Sakrawali Dairy, Uttam Nagar, Tilak Nagar, Raghuvir Nagar, Paschim Vihar and
Tri Nagar.

Besides these two leaders, the BJP will be fielding its former president Venkaiah Naidu, its deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha and former Delhi chief minister Sushma Swaraj, Uttarakhand chief minister B C Khanduri, Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu to lure people into voting for the party.

An array of other senior leaders have already solicited votes for the party in the Capital. These include BJP president Rajnath Singh, former union ministers Murli Manohar Joshi, Shatrughan Sinha, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and Bachi Singh Rawat and Rajya Sabha MP Bhagat Singh Koshiyari. Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has also been roped in to lure the large Sikh community.

In an attempt to cash in on the popularity of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the party will also be issuing a signed appeal urging the Delhi electorate to cast their votes in favour of the BJP.

The party has, in the meanwhile, unleashed a publicity blitzkrieg in all forms of the media, including the audio-visual and print. With the Election Commission approving publicity on FM channels, the BJP was first off the mark.

State elections and democracy: Political parties debate

Published on Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 09:10 , Updated at Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 17:10
Source : CNBC-TV18

As critical state elections get underway with tens of millions preparing to vote, the question that arises is how democratic are our political parties? How tolerant are they of dissent? Do they sell tickets or seek the most deserving candidates? Are they driven by ideology or opportunism?

According to Congress Party Spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP (Member of Parliament), Jayanthi Natarajan, it is not charity that happens in political parties, parties dispose off leaders who don’t perform and who don’t deliver. “We have Mrs Sonia Gandhi because we feel that she is the best person to lead us as she has proved in the last elections and will prove again and again.”

Rajya Sabha MP and Senior Journalist, Bharatkumar Raut said, “In democratic system like India, there cannot be a dynastic rule after all whoever the party may chose finally they are exposed to the people’s mandate. If people don’t accept them, the whole thing goes berserk. So, there is nothing called dynastic rule in democracy like India.”

BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party) and Rajya Sabha MP, Prakash Javadekar said Congress party is run by one family; it is a one-family party and is entirely different. “Our leadership decision makers are Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and others. Nobody is nobody’s relative. That is the strength of BJP.”

Samajwadi Party (SP), General Secretary and Rajya Sabha MP, Amar Singh said the top hierarchy of the SP has all elected members from the Lok Sabha whether it is Akhilesh Yadav or Shivpal Yadav or Ram Gopal Yadav or Mulayam Singh Yadav; none of them are nominated and are from the different parts of the Uttar Pradesh (UP).

According to Vinod Mehta, Editor-in-Chief of Outlook, Indian democracy is very vibrant and robust but this is a conspicuous weakness in the party - this dynastic politics - and the reason for that is if you have a party which has a supreme leader or you have a party where the party has seen birth because of that supreme leader that supreme leader is very insecure for two reasons. He thinks that he might be toppled and secondly there is money, he added. “For both these reasons, he wants a family member. If you remember the famous Rajiv Gandhi’s statement when he was asked why he was entering politics, he said, “I am entering politics to help my mother.”

Here is a verbatim transcript of the exclusive interview with Jayanthi Natarajan, Prakash Javadekar, Amar Singh, Bharatkumar Raut and Vinod Mehta on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: Rahul Gandhi doesn’t miss an occasion to talk of the need to democratize political parties but despite that the Congress hasn’t held an election for the working committee since 1997, the party President hasn’t faced a challenge for her job since 2000 and the hold of the Gandhi dynasty is getting stronger and stronger. Aren’t you embarrassed by the contrast between what Rahul Gandhi says and the reality in your party?

Jayanthi Natarajan: No, because it is a very Democratic Party and we do conduct elections far more than any other parties and if Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress Party, doesn’t face a challenge, it is because none of us want to challenge her and we want her to be our leader.
It is not charity that happens in political parties, parties dispose off leaders who don’t perform and who don’t deliver. We have Mrs. Gandhi because we feel that she is the best person to lead us as she has proved in the last elections and will prove again and again.

So no, we are not embarrassed, we are a very democratic party and far more democratic than almost any other party in the country.

Q: When it comes to family based parties, the Samajwadi Party actually only exists because of Mulayam Singh and his family. In your case, there is the father, the son, the brother, the cousin and the nephew. Honestly, the SP is a joint family enterprise.

Amar Singh: I endorse what Jayanthi Natarajan has said that nobody does charity in politics and any politician who is a non-performer, will be disposed by the party as well as by the electorate. Barring B in the top hierarchy of the SP, each one of them are elected member from the Lok Sabha whether it is Akhilesh Yadav or Shivpal Yadav or Ram Gopal Yadav or Mulayam Singh Yadav. None of them are nominated and they are from the different parts of the Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Q: Why do you only give prominence to members of one family, can you not find talent outside the family? Don’t you believe that you have a responsibility to bring other people in?

Singh: I do agree that this will be ideally and morally very correct.

Q: Then why don’t you do it?

Singh: At times it is not possible because when Akhilesh joined the party there was a popular demand that either Mulayam Singh and if not him then his son. The sense of belonging became more intense with the dynasty and the family. There is no denying this fact.

Q: We are talking about the role of dynasties in parties, no doubt like Congress you do not have a dynasty at the top of your party at the moment but you have lots of small dynasties flourishing all over the place; there are the Sindhias, there is Jaswant Singh’s family, there is Menaka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi, Kalyan Singh and Son, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and son-in-law. It seems that the BJP believes in the family principle in a much more broad based way than Congress.

Prakash Javadekar: Congress party is run by one family; it is a one-family party. It is entirely different. Our leadership decision makers are Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and others. Nobody is nobody’s relative. That is the strength of BJP.

Q: In other words you are saying that the fact that there are at least six small dynasties nestling within the BJP is irrelevant?

Javadekar: No, because they are not – at the moment – the national leadership and they are not deciding. Jaswant Singhji is our national leader, he is a leader in Rajya Sabha but his son has got elected in Lok Sabha and it is not like a dynastic thing.

Nobody can prohibit somebody but as you have seen what Rajnathji has done himself – Rajnathji’s son is a very enthusiastic young leader; people want him so he was once recommended and appointed as a Chief of Youth Wing by UP but he rejected it. He was nominated to become a candidate and still Rajnathji rejected it. Till Rajnathji is President, he will do that.

Q: He is of course unusual I should point out to you that that hasn’t happened in case of Varun who has been seeking seats much before the BJP was prepared to give it to him, his only credential is that he is Menaka’s son, that is also true of Kalyan Singh’s son, that is also true of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s son-in-law.

Javadekar: No, we and others are in their own right political workers so let us differentiate between the top decision-maker one family party and a party of different leaders coming out of ideology, idealism and merit.

Q: Maybe the BJP can make that as an explanation to justify their situation that certainly is not an explanation that works for the Shiv Sena in your case not only are you run by a single family but the funny thing is even breakaway factions of the Shiv Sena are run by breakaway factions of the same family and of course the status that Balasaheb Thackeray is even higher than Sonia’s status in Congress. You truly are a one-man creation.

Bharatkumar Raut: In democratic system like India, there cannot be a dynastic rule after all whoever the party may chose finally they are exposed to the people’s mandate. If people don’t accept them, the whole thing goes berserk. So, there is nothing called dynastic rule in democracy like India.

As far as Shiv Sena is concerned, it was Shiv Sena Chief Balasaheb Thackeray who floated the party, he is the sole leader of Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray came into power not as his son before that for ten-fifteen years he was working as a normal Shiv Sainik and then he was chosen to lead the party.

You yourself had answered that even if there was dynastic rule, there would not have been breakups in the party. Raj Thackeray went away because there is a democratic system and he has floated his own party. So, Uddhav Thackrey has been chosen by the people now.

Q: You have heard in a sense the same explanations from all politicians, they denied that there is dynastic rule, they denied not just because of the argument given by Jayanthi Natarajan that people want Sonia in the case of Congress but there is the Raut argument that these are people who are elected and therefore there is no dynasty. Does that actually work or are they infact being clever?

Vinod Mehta: Indian democracy is very vibrant and robust but this is a conspicuous weakness in the party - this dynastic politics - and the reason for that is if you have a party which has a supreme leader or you have a party where the party has seen birth because of that supreme leader that supreme leader is very insecure for two reasons. He thinks that he might be toppled and secondly there is money. For both these reasons, he wants a family member. If you remember the famous Rajiv Gandhi’s statement when he was asked why he was entering politics, he said, “I am entering politics to help my mother.”

Q: What about the point Mr. Amar Singh made because he is the only politician who came very close to conceding that in an ideal situation this is right but it happens because the force of the family in politics is such that it gives an advantage which otherwise wouldn’t happen?

Mehta: I think that Mr. Amar Singh is being exceedingly honest and I agree with him entirely that there is family pressure. If you remember Lalu Prasad Yadav when he was toppled as Chief Minister, he made his wife the Chief Minister. But, I think that in many ways it is an easy answer. These small parties actually don’t believe in democracy, – it is quite ironical sometimes when Rahul Gandhi talks about democracy in parties. I think that he is just talking for the sake of talking.