Early Times Report
JAMMU, June 9: Indian democracy is strange. Political parties are exploiting it to grab power through all means and also throwing to the wind the cardinal principles of democracy. There are instances which show various parties coming together to stitch alliance to grab power and after coming into power to criticise each other. It is happening at the national level and it is also happening at state level.
On Wednesday, the nation witnessed BJP's ally, Shiv Sena, tearing into Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he was in the United States, and in J&K, the state BJP taking on Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
The Shiv Sena tore into the Prime Minister through editorial in its official organ Saamana. It asked the Prime Minister to stop maligning India on foreign shores with his public utterances on corruption in India. "The PM said publicly in Doha how India was steeped in graft, and outlined measures he had initiated to clean up mess. The gathering clapped and cheered him. This is nothing but maligning the country's fair image abroad," the Sena, among other things, said in editorial in the Saamana.
In Jammu, the BJP officially questioned the PDP-BJP government's policy towards separatists and asked Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to revise policy towards separatists. Mehbooba also holds the Home Portfolio. "Despite their anti-India activities, the separatists are enjoying special privileges, including security cover, provided by the state government. The government should revise its policy towards the separatists. The government should withdraw the security given to separatists and put them behind bars under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for indulging in anti-social and anti-national activities," the BJP said, adding that soft policy towards separatists is demoralising security forces who are fighting to curb militancy and sacrificing their lives. "These separatists are continuously disturbing the peace by holding the Valley to ransom thereby affecting business and tourism industry," the BJP also said.
"soft policy" towards separatists has, on one hand, encouraged anti-India forces and anti-social elements and, on the other, demoralised security forces and the masses," the BJP further said, and added that the "situation might worsen if steps are not taken to rein in the separatists".
Notwithstanding the fact that both the Shiv Sena in Mumbai and the BJP in Jammu made valid points, their criticism also established that there was trust-deficit between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The manner in which the Shiv Sena and the state BJP on Wednesday behaved also established that there were some fundamental differences among the parties which are part of the NDA. They cannot share power with a party and criticise it at the same time. Such an approach naturally sends a wrong message.
It was no wonder that senior Congress leader and former minister Sham Lal Sharma the same day accused the BJP of indulging in politics of convenience and asked the BJP to come out the government if it felt that it was not delivering. Interestingly, he too had on occasions criticised the NC when in government.
In any case, the politics of convenience is not good for the political health of the state and the nation. Democracy means more than what the people of the state and across the country have been experiencing. |
