The issue of a fitting response to the BJP goon squad that attacked and beat up women who visit pubs seems to have been settled:
The leader of the group is being sent hundreds of pink panties. Beating up women is an act of cowardice; those who do such things are what we call "kapurush." They deserve pink panties.
But the BJP has other Paleolithic ideas to offer our people: Here is the story of the "cow protection department" of the RSS planning to introduce soft drinks containing cow urine! Surely, this is taking Hindoo cow worship to absurd heights.
So what exactly is the BJP? Is it a serious political party offering an alternative to the Congress? It seems to me that the BJP is very much the same as the Congress in terms of actual government policy. The BJP supports a public industrial sector; the BJP supports economic nationalism and autarky; the BJP believes in Gandhi – who was a Congressman.
The only real difference with the Congress is on how to win the Hindoo vote. Here, the BJP is still talking about the building of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. And, of course, there are its gangs who oppose foreign culture, Valentine's Day, pubs, dating and alcohol. And now we even have cow urine. If we add them all together, the BJP's agenda is backward-looking and totally illiberal.
Indeed, the BJP are fascists using the methods typical of all fascists: hark back to a lost "golden age"; identify an "enemy" responsible for the loss of ancient glory; and mobilize lumpens to eliminate the enemy and return to the golden age.
We are indeed fortunate that this backward-looking agenda is not going down well with our forward-looking and freedom-loving people.
What I would like to see in Indian democracy is a party that appeals to the voter's intellect – that is, a party that does not appeal to emotions or faith, but to the mind.
Note that the Congress does not do so either: the Congress' appeal to the voter is in terms of "loyalty" to a family name, the only "brand equity" they possess. With both the major political parties avoiding intellectual appeal, democracy is meaningless. The idea behind democracy, after all, is that the voter is intelligent. It is anti-democratic to restrict electoral competition to such brainless parties. The conclusion is therefore stark: it is not the people who are dumb, but the politicians and their parties. Hence the pink panties. Hence the cow's urine. Hence the Ram temple. Hence the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
India is slowly waking up to the ugly reality of its brainless politics. Let us see how things proceed.
The cow urine story is incredible. hahaha.
ReplyDeleteThe BJP is really going to the dogs. Earlier, I used to (wrongly, I guess) classify Congress like the Democrats and BJP like the Republicans. But with Ashok Gehlot (and his 'disapproval of pub culture & PDA) on one end and BJP's swadeshi nonsense on the other, both the parties have proved to be completely statist. And the only alternative is the luddite CPM, ruthless regional parties, naivity (like the Jago Party) or profound stupidity (Paritrana). What to do?
Do check out my post on rationalizing govt. - http://www.rameshsrivats.net/2009/02/rationalizing-government-leaner-meaner.html
I would like to remind readers that Uma Bharti, the former CM of M.P. did such nonsense things, while holding office. Her love & revernce for holy cows became quite emberrassing to BJP. So at the first opportunity, she was replaced by Sivaraj Singh Chauhan, who did quite well as chief minister. Most of the political parties have such leaders who resort to idiotic thing but carry support of masses in their constituency. Notable writer & orator Shiv Kheda lost election from a constituency in Delhi which has most educated electorate.
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