Ashok K.JhaLalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav &Mayawati!
December 9th 2007 10:26
When the Left Parties threatened to withdraw their support, the constituent parties forming the United Progressive Alliance developed cold feet and after a marathon meeting, they decided to save the government at the cost of the Nuclear deal.Leaders of regional parties saw no merit in sacrificing the privileged opportunity for something that their electorate would not understand and appreciate.After some hectic lobbying left relented and allowed the government to take a step further for the time being.As a result, frantic negotiations are now being carried out with the International Atomic Energy Corporation at Vienna and the safeguard measures would be in place very shortly,hopefully.
Political parties,especially regional parties gain power by exploiting the emotive issues that have direct bearings on the day to day lives of the multitudes, but once they come into power, they start politicking.They perforn mere lip service and divert their attention from the core issues.
"Lohiya Ke Log" or the followers of Lohia, like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav forgot all the basic ideology once they secured power and thus disappointed millons of voters who had entrusted them the responsibility to usher in social change.
It is believed that Lalu Prasad Yadav acted like a safety valve of a pressure cooker that saved the state from bursting.His ascendancy to power proved a blessing in disguise as the state saved itself from engulfing in a caste-war like situation and gradually the tension that had built up evaporated completely,giving the present chief minister Nitish Kumar a calmer but more impoverished state to govern.
According to Dr. Saibal Gupta, member-secretary of the Asian Development Research Institute in Patna,Bihar, part of the earliest areas conquered by the British were placed under the Permanent Settlement (of 1793). This meant that the land was not held by the farmers but by zamindars, who had the right to collect revenue and pay a percentage of that to the British.The zamindars began to exploit the farmers for more and more and also, they themselves did nothing to develop the land's productivity. The rest of India had the ryotwari system where the land belonged to the farmers, who paid taxes to the state directly and were therefore interested in keeping the productivity high.
Additionally, land reforms failed in Bihar because the politicians and bureaucrats who were to implement such reforms, all came from the zamindari class and thus ensured that such reforms were never really implemented on the ground. Thus, the peasant here remained deprived of land and a means of livelihood;he remained dependent on the landlords for his very survival.The inequality was so high that a few people held hundreds of acres of land in a village and the remaining would have none.
The anger was there but the courage was missing as the government would always sided with these mostly upper caste Zamindars.During the movement initiated by Jai Praksh Narayan, the latent anger manifested itself but it just ended in a fierce battle between the forward and backward castes.Lalu,Nitish and the Dy C.M,of Bihar,S.K.Modi are all products of that movement and they were the torch bearers of the so called backward caste.
The movement had sparked the aspirations of the majority as a deep resentment had been brewing amongst the masses which welcomed the coronation of Lalu Prasad Yadav as divine intervention to uplift them from bondage and poverty.There would be very few examples where a politician was elevated to the status of a demi-god.
But,Lalu failed them.Once ensconced in power, Lalu started manipulating it to secure his and his kins' place in perpetuity.Everything was forgotten and even his cabinet minsters had to come to his residence to seek permission to visit some places by using the ministry’s car.A whimsical Lalu kept playing errands while complete lawlessness gripped the state.Those who had trusted him got disillusioned and ultimately realized that politicians are there to play politics only.They are the great artists of the great Indian Political Theatre.
Crores of dalits are eyeing Kumari Mayawati to do something at the grassroot level so that they could be benefited as well.Lucknow in any case would have numerous poorly maintained parks ; her priority should be to provide basic needs at the village level. Will our politicians ever be that sanguine?
Had the Congress not relented to the power-mongers and let the government go for something which it is convinced is for the national interest,it would have been a landmark decision,a new beginning of responsible politics.It would have recaptured the mind and space of the people who has deserted it for its incoherent policies.Each and every party has grown at the expense of Congress.But,alas!That was never to be and it's again the same old story.
Political parties,especially regional parties gain power by exploiting the emotive issues that have direct bearings on the day to day lives of the multitudes, but once they come into power, they start politicking.They perforn mere lip service and divert their attention from the core issues.
"Lohiya Ke Log" or the followers of Lohia, like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav forgot all the basic ideology once they secured power and thus disappointed millons of voters who had entrusted them the responsibility to usher in social change.
It is believed that Lalu Prasad Yadav acted like a safety valve of a pressure cooker that saved the state from bursting.His ascendancy to power proved a blessing in disguise as the state saved itself from engulfing in a caste-war like situation and gradually the tension that had built up evaporated completely,giving the present chief minister Nitish Kumar a calmer but more impoverished state to govern.
According to Dr. Saibal Gupta, member-secretary of the Asian Development Research Institute in Patna,Bihar, part of the earliest areas conquered by the British were placed under the Permanent Settlement (of 1793). This meant that the land was not held by the farmers but by zamindars, who had the right to collect revenue and pay a percentage of that to the British.The zamindars began to exploit the farmers for more and more and also, they themselves did nothing to develop the land's productivity. The rest of India had the ryotwari system where the land belonged to the farmers, who paid taxes to the state directly and were therefore interested in keeping the productivity high.
Additionally, land reforms failed in Bihar because the politicians and bureaucrats who were to implement such reforms, all came from the zamindari class and thus ensured that such reforms were never really implemented on the ground. Thus, the peasant here remained deprived of land and a means of livelihood;he remained dependent on the landlords for his very survival.The inequality was so high that a few people held hundreds of acres of land in a village and the remaining would have none.
The anger was there but the courage was missing as the government would always sided with these mostly upper caste Zamindars.During the movement initiated by Jai Praksh Narayan, the latent anger manifested itself but it just ended in a fierce battle between the forward and backward castes.Lalu,Nitish and the Dy C.M,of Bihar,S.K.Modi are all products of that movement and they were the torch bearers of the so called backward caste.
The movement had sparked the aspirations of the majority as a deep resentment had been brewing amongst the masses which welcomed the coronation of Lalu Prasad Yadav as divine intervention to uplift them from bondage and poverty.There would be very few examples where a politician was elevated to the status of a demi-god.
But,Lalu failed them.Once ensconced in power, Lalu started manipulating it to secure his and his kins' place in perpetuity.Everything was forgotten and even his cabinet minsters had to come to his residence to seek permission to visit some places by using the ministry’s car.A whimsical Lalu kept playing errands while complete lawlessness gripped the state.Those who had trusted him got disillusioned and ultimately realized that politicians are there to play politics only.They are the great artists of the great Indian Political Theatre.
Crores of dalits are eyeing Kumari Mayawati to do something at the grassroot level so that they could be benefited as well.Lucknow in any case would have numerous poorly maintained parks ; her priority should be to provide basic needs at the village level. Will our politicians ever be that sanguine?
Had the Congress not relented to the power-mongers and let the government go for something which it is convinced is for the national interest,it would have been a landmark decision,a new beginning of responsible politics.It would have recaptured the mind and space of the people who has deserted it for its incoherent policies.Each and every party has grown at the expense of Congress.But,alas!That was never to be and it's again the same old story.
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