Hypocrisy in Indian Politics

So the nuclear deal has been temporarily put on hold, according to the UPA. Evidently, the allies who insisted on following the Left into semi-repudiating the deal included great luminaries, such as Lalu Prasad Yadav (of fodder scam fame) Sharad Pawar (who’s rumored to be the richest and most corrupt man in Indian politics) and M. Karunanidhi (father of M. Stalin, whose political career he’s busy promoting). Apparently, these gentlemen had agreed to the deal when it was discussed in a Cabinet meeting, but were reminded of their "nationalist" principles (or the anti-incumbency factor) by the Left’s behavior, which closely resembled that of Balaam’s ass, with much less justification than that animal had. Of course, the Left claims they see an American imperialist plot in the 123 Agreement, which has led to their asinine behavior, but we will let that pass.

Of course, the PM is depressed--anyone would be, to see the old men of Indian politics refusing to recognize how much the world has changed over the last 20 years. And yes, the BJP wants a change--they feel that a depressed man is unfit to lead a young and resurgent nation, forgetting the fact that for at least five years, India was led by an elderly man who was considered to be physically unfit.

Of course, the Left has its own problems--there’s a ration shop owners’ strike on in West Bengal. It appears that ration shops in the districts of Bankura, Birbhum and Burdwan have not stocked grain for several months. When the people complained to officials, they were ignored and went on a rampage to register their protests. The government then deigned to cancel the dealership licenses of ration shop owners in these districts. Evidently, many of the ration shop dealerships in these districts are owned by CPI (M) cardholders. And the person who is at the center of the scandal has very high CPI (M) connections. Till date, the Left has been able to gain some credibility amongst the middle class because none of its leaders are seen as corrupt, but the ration shop case, taken in conjunction with the Rizwanur Rehman case, in a state where the Left Front has enjoyed an uninterrupted hegemony for the last 22 years, is something else. And since the Communist Party of China (CPC) is holding its 17th Congress, the CPI (M) has sent it "warm fraternal greetings."Incidentally, the CPI (M) might not know that the CPC has begun to accept businesspeople as its members, thus diluting the very character of the party. After all, Communism is based on a division between the capitalist-business class and the proletariat, so how can a capitalist join a party that represents the interests of the proletariat?

And, by the by, why not take a leaf out of this Idea advertisement? We cannot all go about replacing our names with our cellphone numbers, but we can change the names of two major universities, Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University to just Aligarh University and Banaras University. There is no need to identify any community with a particular institution in a secular state.