Karnataka 2018 Elections - Likely Key Issues

Every election is a challenge in India. In a vibrant democracy, with lots of freedom allowed to express oneself, and with unique reservation, religion, language and other pertinent issues, you can expect every election to be colourful.

2018 Karnataka election is likely to happen in May 2018. Let's examine what are the potential issues on which this election would be decided. There are mainly two parties fighting 2018 election - Congress and BJP. But JDS has sufficient base in southern Karnataka, hoping to become a King Maker with 40 to 60 seats out of 224 in the assembly. As of the final week of 2017, things look quite murky with no clear winner capable of crossing the magical 113 mark. These are not in any order, as any issue can flare up as high-priority one on any given day!

1) Kannada Pride: Usually language is not a big issue in Karnataka elections. Mining, Corruption, inter-state issues, Caste etc. are the big ones. But expect a lot of language pride (Kannada aasmite) to show up in 2018.

Image: IndiaTimes.com

Advantage? Congress and JDS.
Disadvantage? BJP.
Where would it mostly affect? Urban and Semi-urban areas. Maybe up to 15 MLA seats. 

Why? Congress has worked for a whole year mobilizing various groups on social media and on the streets to show that Kannada is not given preference in may areas. NEET exams, new state flag, Metro train Hindi boards, central government offices not helping in Kannada, banks missing Kannada, railways not helping in Kannada and a whole lot. "Hindi Imposition" which is a Tamil Nadu trademark, slowly inching into Karnataka politics this time. The funny part is that most of this "imposition" was done between 1969 (nationalization of 14 banks) and 2010 (by which most regional languages had disappeared in Railways) by various Congress governments. But now it is easy to blame everything on Narendra Modi. So the game is on!
BJP has not defended against this attack till now. The goal of JDS and Congress is to show that BJP is a Hindi imposing "North Indian party". And they are working very hard to paint that impression.

2) Interstate Water Sharing Issues: Kaveri is a permanent issue in Karnataka politics, but for a change, 2018 might not see any anti Tamil Nadu sentiment in campaigns. Because unlike 2016 which was a horrible year of drought, 2017 has seen excess rainfall. Also Jayalalithaa is no more, who was a permanent fixture in Supreme Court cases, dragging Karnataka into conflict year after year. Tamil Nadu is busy with internal broken party politics, and there is enough water in both states.  The much talked about Mekedatu dam on Kaveri did not even take off. No one is talking about that failure of Siddaramaiah. Krishna water sharing has been smooth from Karnataka's side. Bhima is not an issue now. So the attention would be with the tiny state of Goa, which is hardly the size of one of the neighbouring districts of Karnataka. Mahadayi, which originates in Karnataka, flows west into Goa becoming Mandovi. There is a long pending drinking water project near Hubballi city which needs about 5% of Mahadayi water in a year. But as usual with everything in India, unnecessary complication has come in. The issue is very hot now. Something that could have been sorted out on a table in 30 minutes, 30 years ago, has become a Tribunal, Court, Politics and Emotional issue.

Image: Deccan Herald

Advantage? JDS.
Disadvantage? BJP and Congress.
Where would it mostly affect? North West Karnataka. Up to 35 MLA seats.

Why? For nearly 4 years, Siddaramaiah government did nothing except writing letters, giving speeches, and some delegation meeting. Now close to election, Congress is putting pressure on Modi to solve the issue directly. Because courts and tribunals would take forever, and it is easy to put the ball in Modi's court. On BJP side, Yeddyurappa met with Parrikar and Shah, worked some consolation out, but quick acting Congress has thwarted the entire thing. The goal is to put BJP in the guilty position saying that both central government and Goa government are BJP's, and they are not helping Karnataka. The funny part here is that Congress in Goa is playing the exact opposite card, trying to unseat Parrikar by painting him as anti Goa! In fact, the whole issue became a big problem after Sonia Gandhi gave a divisive speech in Goa ten years ago. Maharashtra also has a small part to play here. JDS is trying hard to saying both "national" parties have failed and it should be given a chance, while it failed to solve it when in power 12 years ago. Also JDS is also a "national" party technically :)

While politicians are doing all politicking, farmers are very angry - they are neither getting drinking water, nor the long term irrigation water. Two years, ago the anger was against Siddaramaiah for the brutal lathi charge his government ordered in Naragunda area. But now, it seems like the villain would be Yeddyurappa if something concrete does not come up.

3) Farmer Suicide: 2014 through 2017 have been terrible years for Karnataka farmers. Suicides have occurred on three major river basins - Kaveri, Tungabhadra and Krishna.
Easily, more farmers have committed suicide during Siddaramaiah's Congress regime, than many prior governments combined.. maybe a few decades worth of governments combined.

 
Advantage? BJP and JDS.
Disadvantage? Congress.
Where would it mostly affect? Throughout rural Karnataka. Maybe 40 to 80 seats.

Why? 3515 farmer suicides is not a joke. And this number might not even be the total number, as many are talking of much higher number. Families have been destroyed. Farmers are very angry at Congress government for giving pittance as compensation. One farmer Vittal Arabhavi had consumed poison and committed suicide right across from Suvarna Soudha in Belagavi, when assembly was happening. All the ads that Siddaramaiah gives about how he has helped farmers, do not stand a chance if BJP and JDS inform voters that poor governance was one of the biggest reasons for such large scale farmer suicides. But for now, this is not a very hot issue, as other emotional issues have been raked up. It is up to BJP to delicately handle this issue and help farmers. Also, BJP has a long list of good schemes of central government like crop soil card, crop insurance, MUDRA loan etc, to inform the farming families. Loan waiver is an ever green topic. Siddaramaiah doing a small waiver on cooperative loans did not yield any dividend, and Congress will keep pressing for a bigger waiver from the central government on nationalized banks. Kumaraswamy of JDS has already played loan waiver card. Whoever wins farmers' vote in large pockets, will easily win 2018 election. But right now, the situation of Karnataka farmers is in pretty bad condition.


4) Karnataka government in massive debt as a result of freebie governance: This again is a result of copying Tamil Nadu politics by Congress. Everyone knows that from Amma canteen, to free rice to other freebie politics, was a trademark of TN politics.

This month news items showed massive debt numbers since Congress came to power in 2013.

News link: Debt: more and more...
2013: when Congress came into power- Rs.1.12 lakh crores
2013-14 end -Rs. 1.36 lakh crores
2014-15 end- Rs. 1.55 lakh crores
2015-16 end- Rs. 1.80 lakh crores
2016-17 end- Rs. 2.05 lakh crores
2017- 18 end (expected)- Rs. 2.42 lakh crores

We are looking at Rs.38,000 debt over every head in Karnataka by the time this government finishes five year period.

Advantage? BJP and JDS.
Disadvantage? Congress.
Where would it mostly affect? Urban Karnataka. Maybe 25 to 30 seats.

Why? This is a tricky topic. Though Siddaramaiah has made more debt than all other CMs since 1947 (then Mysore) combined, he is still within the magical 25% limit of GSDP. So he can always claim that there is nothing wrong as he is using it for tonnes of socialist freebie projects like Anna Bhagya, Ksheera Bhagya, Shadi Bhagya etc. Congress also keeps showing that they have managed better investment into Karnataka than even Gujarat, without going into details of how much of that is central government's investment. Also, it is not clear from the ads as to what percentage is actually finished implementation generating jobs.

BJP on the other hand, has to push hard to show how this has harmed the state's economy and in spite of so much loan, the state has not seen any major irrigation or infrastructure benefit. Bengaluru in particular can understand this, with 28 seats at stake here. But for now, BJP has not been successful in driving home this point, and most people are not talking about this major issue. Lack of visible job creation is an important matter, which BJP has not capitalized so far.

5) Bengaluru Issues: Since Bengaluru has over 10% of the seats in Karnataka assembly, it is vital for all the three contenders. Dismal state of Bengaluru in traffic, rain/flood/encroachment, lack of infrastructure, overflowing foam in lakes, has hurt the brand image of Bengaluru across the country and in many cities in the world. Garbage issue is still not solved. People literally got washed out in poorly finished drains. Traffic has been a joke across the city.

Advantage? BJP.
Disadvantage? Congress and JDS.
Where would it mostly affect? Bengaluru - Up to 20 seats.

Why? Bengaluru elected BJP as the single largest party in 2015 BBMP corporation election. But Congress managed to snatch the Mayor seat from BJP by allying with JDS and managing overall majority using MLAs, MPs and MLCs. So naturally people are not happy with the setup. Bengalureans voted for BJP to form the local government, not Congress. So it is a big advantage in favour of BJP now, if they play the cards properly. Large scale infrastructure issues have dissuaded more companies to come into Bengaluru off late, with stiff competition from Hyderabad, NCR and other areas in India. Encroachment removal drive affected lot of poor people, while the rich and movie stars were spared. There is a lot of simmering anger among the Bengaluru city dwellers, who totally account for well over 60% of Karnataka's state revenues. But in return for so much tool, tax and cost they pay, they are getting pittance in return. Nothing worth mentioning has happened to show the world that the last 4 years were great for Bengaluru.

Congress on the other hand keeps blaming earlier BJP local government for loans. Congress is betting that populist schemes like Indira canteen (copy of Amma canteen of TN) will fetch lower middle class votes. Siddaramaiah is also very prompt in putting ads for any good news about Bengaluru, anywhere in the world - like the most dynamic city title, without thinking for a minute as to what was his government's contribution!

JDS can't say much as it is an opportunistic party which allies with Congress in Bengaluru, and with BJP in Mysuru!

6) Youth belonging to Hindu organizations murdered across the state: This is a big election issue as of now. Till now, these political murders were usually limited to Kerala in news. But more than 20 RSS, BJP and Hindu org people have been murdered since Siddaramaiah came to power. That has angered a lot of people. This month, a book written by famous Kannada Editor Hariprakash Konemane came into news.

The title reads - "Man Slaughters - Already 20. How many more?"

Book cover: Samvada

Advantage? BJP.
Disadvantage? Congress and JDS.
Where would it mostly affect? Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Kodagu, Bengaluru and more. Up to 40 seats.

Why? Almost every year, there have been multiple murders since Siddaramaiah came to power. Political murders were there before also, but why BJP supporters are angry this time is - there is no visible action against the extremist ideologies that are targeting Hindu activists. To make things worse, Congress government had dropped 175+ cases against the notorious Muslim organization PFI when BJP was calling for PFI's ban. And since then, the deaths have been hot news every few months, with blames going squarely to Siddaramaiah's head. On the other hand Congress has been vociferous in blaming BJP and its leaders for provocation and disrupting "communal harmony". The usual targets are Pratap Simha, Anant Kumar Hegde and Shobha Karndlaje. JDS can't talk much on this, as it has also lost its cadre to murders, but since it needs to be in power in Bengaluru with Congress, has not made much noise. BJP squarely blames Ramanatha Rai, Siddaramaiah, Roshan Baig and other Congress leaders for provocations. Overall, there is a lot of fear factor among Hindu activists, which might affect a large section of voting depending upon how politicians use the fear. Siddaramaiah is seen as someone squarely siding away from Hindu organizations with his open calls to fight "communal forces" meaning RSS and BJP in his language. Cow slaughter is one of the most discussed issues since 2013 when Siddaramaiah repealed an earlier bill of BJP for stricter slaughter controls.

In fact, Karnataka being declared as the most communally sensitive state in 2017, is not going to help Rahul Gandhi when he campaigns here in 2018. Overall, law and order, women's safety, and related issues will pop up too.

7) Leadership Quality: Who is the strongest leader in Karnataka right now, is a big question. For Congress, Siddaramaiah is undoubtedly a tall mass leader now. With a weak High Command and Congress wiped out of most of India, Siddaramaiah's hands are stronger than ever. He also has not much competition from within Congress now as Mallikarjuna Kharge, DK Shiva Kumar, Janardhana Poojary, Parameshwara are not in a position to challenge him. He has projected himself as a mass leader for AHINDA (A = Minority, Hin = Backward Castes and Da = Dalit in Kannada) groups. Thought Yeddyurappa's KJP helped a lot in splitting BJP votes in 2013, a big credit is for Siddaramaiah's caste calculations. He is definitely a formidable force in Karnataka politics in 2018. Even though Congress has lost some stalwarts like SM Krishna, Srinivasa Prasad and Vishwanath, not much damage has happened on the ground for voter base. Even some serious charges against Siddaramaiah like expensive watch, de-notification, Lokayukta damage, ACB cases, nothing has dented his position as the top leader of Congress. Siddaramaiah also has a strong support among "Buddhi Jeevis" who have been cultivated with careful events and awards over the years.

Pic: OneIndia

Advantage? None have distinct lead in the CM's race.
Disadvantage? Not much choice for any party.
Where would it mostly affect? Everywhere. Hard to quantify. 

BS Yeddyurappa is a top leader for BJP now, though not as powerful as he was in 2008 elections. He is nearing 75 years, so there is a lot of question mark on whether he would complete a term if elected as CM. But undoubtedly he is the only BJP mass leader now who can draw crowds in all 30 districts of Karnataka. His strength includes tremendous connection with voters across castes. He can attract diverse caste groups and commands respect of rural voters in many districts. But his biggest disadvantage is his corruption cases from 2010 and 2011 period. Though he is not convicted in any court of law, his brief jailing (for failing to get bail) has dented his reputation. Siddaramaiah talks about this all the time, and BJP is defenceless here. Though BJP has a RSS man as governor now, he is nowhere as lethal as Bharadwaj was when UPA was in power at the center. There are lots of young and emerging leaders for BJP like CT Ravi, Shobha Karandlaje, Anant Kumar Hegde, Pratap Simha to name a few. But none are close to CM's chair at present like BSY.  He is BJP's biggest strength, yet the biggest weakness also now.

HD Kumaraswamy of JDS is a very clever leader. Deve Gowda has trained his son in political maneuvering very well. His strengths include mobilization of Gowda (Vokkaliga) votes in 4 to 5 districts of south Karnataka. That loyal voter base can easily get him 20% of the assembly seats. He is also clever to latch on to politically beneficial issues like CM's watch, Mahadayi, Minorities etc. But his weakness is the pan state reach. Also he is tainted due to previous mining and other cases against him. JDS is not having much base beyond old Mysuru region, and also his health is not in top shape as he underwent heart surgery recently. Overall a sure shot king maker, but a long shot king if JDS manages 70+ seats.


8) Caste Equations: Two major caste issues for 2018 elections would be Lingayat as separate religion, and inner-reservation within Scheduled Castes (SC).

For decades, the issue of Lingayats being separate dharma or religion outside of Hinduism had surfaced. But for 2018 elections, concrete plans have been put in place. Rallies have happened across the state and Congress party's ministers like MB Patil and Vinay Kulkarni have actively mobilized lakhs of people for separating Lingayats from Hinduism. 

Advantage? Congress.
Disadvantage? BJP.
Where would it mostly affect? Mostly in North Karnataka. Up to 50 MLA seats.  

For decades, there was a debate as to whether Lingayats were different from Veerashaivas. There was also a debate on whether one or both of them are separate from Hindu Dharma. But this time Congress has openly taken sides and trying its level best to get Lingayats a petition for minority status. This has created massive rift within Lingayat - Veerashaiva community with 100s of Jagad Gurus from each side in verbal battle with the other section. It has not been pleasant to watch! Moreover, Lingayat - Veerashaiva has been together the biggest voting bloc for BJP, helping in more than 60 MLA seats during 2008 elections. This time, BJP has played a wait and watch position, which only time will tell if it helps BJP or not. Congress has already started smiling that it has split the biggest voting bloc of BJP. JDS has not much to gain or lose when it comes to this community as it has not much votes here.

The second caste equation is that of Dalits or Scheduled Castes. In Karnataka, there are mainly three groups of Scheduled Castes - The Right Hand, The Left Hand and the Misc Dalits. You can read here about the 1960 Dalit organizations in Karnataka, and 100+ caste divisions within the SC group.

The potential big issue for 2018 election is the "Ola Meesalati" or Inner Reservation issue.

Advantage? BJP
Disadvantage? Congress
Where would it mostly affect? In nearly 50 reserved constituencies.   

Since conducting caste census a few years ago, Congress government has not released the data. But is has access, so it is carefully working to avoid the inner reservation issue from flaring up. Initially Dalit CM issue had popped up, but Siddaramaiah cleverly pushed that to inconsequence. But off late, the non-Right-hand Dalits have been vocal in securing fixed percentage of reservation within the SC quota, which would be a huge blow to Congress. In 2018 elections, the right hand SC might support Congress, while the left hand SC might go with BJP. If the reservation quotas within Dalit quota are altered, there would be huge implications on voting pattern. JDS is not a big factor in Dalit politics at present, but you can never rule out anything.

Muslim and Christian votes would be mostly be with Congress or JDS, depending upon who plays better card. BJP has been kept away with constant rhetoric from Congress side on this matter. Tippu Jayanti was one such massive project to consolidate Muslim votes into Congress for 2018. To counter this, BJP might get one or two saffron clad candidates too!


9) The Modi factor: This is a pan-India factor, which will certainly have effect in Karnataka. But to what extent is a big question mark.

In mid 2013, BJP had lost a state election and was in terrible shape due to KJP and BRSC splits. Morale was very low. At that time, it was Karnataka that gave massive hope to Narendra Modi in south India by volunteers forming Namo Brigade. It was so successful, that literally lakhs of youth poured into work for Modi as PM. And they succeeded in shaping the opinion in favour of Modi in no time. 

Namo Brigade rally in Mangaluru - Youtube

Advantage? BJP
Disadvantage? Congress, JDS
Where would it mostly affect? In nearly 50 constituencies.   

A state that gave the highest MPs for BJP from south India, the state which is considered as a gateway for south India for BJP, has lots of potential for Modi. But the key is.. will people vote in state election seeing Modi's promises, work and face?

BJP leaders think very positively. Because a lot happens with just Modi's name on the ground. Even after 3.5 years, Modi remains a very popular PM for Kannadigas. But Congress thinks otherwise. It is painting Modi and Shah combo as outsiders, and just talk without action guys. Siddaramaiah has been particularly harsh on Modi in his speeches. JDS is not that vocal, as clever Deve Gowda is not letting people know which side the wind is blowing. Overall, if BJP manages to rekindle the NaMo Brigade energy across the state, Modi factor alone can change the results in 25 to 50 seats. Devolution of taxes, MUDRA yojana, farmer policies, Explaining Digital India in India's silicon valley, GST, Bank Accounts and 100+ other schemes can be carefully explained by 17 Lok Sabha MPs and 4 Rajya Sabha MPs of BJP here. But can they beat the perception battle launched by Congress against Modi using demonetization, "15 lakhs" and tons of other local factors?

Can Rahul Gandhi be a factor? Doubtful considering the current scene. But after the sudden temple run in Gujarat, nothing can be ruled out.

10) Vote Division: This is a part of every election. Congress is trying hard to divide the Lingayat vote bank of BJP. BJP is trying hard to dip into Dalit vote bank of Congress. A number of small parties are coming into fray with Kannada film star Upendra's party being the notable one. If they manage to get even 10% votes in 20 constituencies, that would directly affect BJP as most supporters of Upendra's party would be urbanites. There were news reports of Congress getting tacit support from SDPI on Muslim side.

Advantage? Everyone
Disadvantage? Everyone
Where would it mostly affect? In nearly 100 constituencies. 

But BJP will be trying hard to use Triple Talaq to divide Congress party's trusted vote bank here. A couple of years ago, Hasana had a movement of Muslim ladies led by Banu Mushtaq, a Kannada writer, to enter a mosque for prayers. Both BJP and Congress are trying to dent into JDS' core vote bank of Vokkaligas/Gowdas. BJP has already tried to dent into Siddaramaiah's Kuruba vote base, using Rayanna Brigade. Congress is on a spree to give land to various caste groups to secure as much votes as possible. SC/ST would be the most crucial bloc along with Lingayat considering the various uncertainty right now.

But one thing is certain - Unlike Hardik Patel and others in Gujarat, there is not much of an unknown person's entry into election right now. All are time tested faces.

In fact, Development is not a key issue at all as of today! Unfortunately so. Caste will be a dominant issue. There might be more issues, but let me stop here for now.

Your comments, corrections and additional pointers are most welcome! Take this blog post as an attempt to get more people to talk of issues, and get a clear idea, rather than campaigning for any party or against a party. In short, take it easy :)

Why is Congress losing its ground in India?

There was a question on Quora:

Why is Congress losing its ground in India?
A cursory look at the political map of India reveals that the Congress rules some patches at the margins with only Karnataka, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh left as the proper in-land states..

I tried to answer with March 2017 current assessment of Indian politics. See if you agree with me.

Congress is losing during the 2010s mainly because of the following:

1) An ailing President, who does not give up the top post.

Sonia Gandhi has been the President of Congress for nearly 20 years now. By far that is the longest stint in Congress party’s history, even if you go back to pre independence era. No one held for so long the top post. Congress talks of Muslims, Dalits, Poor etc., but never thought of giving the much coveted top post to any of them.

Sonia was doing well with well informed strategists for the first 10 years into her presidency. But then her health has started giving way. No one knows where she goes for medical treatment, what illnesses she has, who pays, how serious is her condition etc. Only half news and rumours float around. This is Congress party’s big weakness now. With a strong unbeatable Amit Shah- Narendra Modi combo sweeping India, an ailing and at times untraceable Congress President will weaken lot of plans and strategy. When Modi can do 100s of big rallies and road shows in a year, Congress can’t even match with 10 big rallies with Sonia as star campaigner. That is hurting.

2) A reluctant and incompetent Vice President

Rahul Gandhi is undoubtedly Congress party’s biggest weakness now. His track record is horrible, and in any corporate setup, such a Vice President would have been fired long ago. But as Congress party always runs around the Nehru-Gandhi family, he has to be kept in the center, with more capable mass leaders running around him like electrons around a Nehru-Gandhi nucleus!

Here is a famous joke about him floating on Twitter. It tells you everything in succinct terms.

And, he also has the same problem as his mother. He disappears out of India for longer periods without anyone knowing what is happening. You can’t run a party successfully with millions of workers and supporters, if you have mother and son combo at the top, be unaccountable in most cases and untraceable on occasions.

And interestingly, wherever Congress is still existing, like Karnataka and Punjab, it is mainly because of capable local leaders like Siddaramaiah and Amarinder Singh. Not because of Sonia or Rahul. Amarinder might even have strategically kept Rahul out of Punjab campaigns recently.

3) Lack of vision that matches with the vision of 21st century India.

Ask any Congress loyalist. What are the top 5 schemes or projects for India today? They will repeat the same things that were there during Indira Gandhi’s time. But young India is demanding much more. Modi’s Jan Dhan Yojana, Digital India, Standup India, Skill India are the kind of things young India wants. Not the same old Garibi hatao slogans and obsolete NREGA kind of artificial employment generation schemes of Congress. The very reason Congress was reduced to just 7 seats in a 403 member assembly of UP recently, shows that people have totally dumped Congress. Even the most loyal vote banks of Congress has been distancing itself out.

4) Most of its core political strategy is taken away by BJP.

Congress had great years between 1950s and 1980s. Mainly it was due to social engineering across castes and religions, and pro poor socialistic freebies. But now BJP has worked out its own social engineering. That has made Congress vote bank disappear in most states. Secondly, India has moved on and freebies don’t win elections anymore. India needs real work like LPG cylinders in crores of rural homes, electrification of the remotest villages, 10s of crores of new bank accounts, demonetization that the poor perceive as hurting the black money hoarding rich.. Most of Congress’ agenda and vote bank has been snatched by clever moves of BJP. Also, Congress playing second fiddle to regional satraps like Lalu, Mulayam and Karunanidhi is hurting even more. But who has time to sit and discuss all these? See reasons 1 and 2 above to know the core reasons again.

5) Unable to shrug off the SCAM taint.

During this decade, Congress means 2G scam, Coal scam, CWG scam and a host of other scams. It even made to recent UP election as SCAM acronym, but unfortunately Rahul Gandhi did not even understand the severity of that. He tried to snub Modi by owning SCAM acronym which made Rahul a laughing stock. Results were there to see after a few weeks. Congress decimated again. Congress needs fresh faces. Because right from Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, all the big faces are scam tainted now. Sonia and Rahul are out on bail in the National Herald corruption case. So anytime Congress opens the mouth on corruption of other parties, people will ask about Congress mega scams. That is hurting Congress at perception level.

6) Last and most importantly, unable to make head or tail of how to handle the Modi TsuNaMo sweeping India.

It is so serious now that for every one person living in a Congress ruled state, there are seven people living in a BJP ruled state. BJP has almost hit 2/3rd of India in terms of state governments. And they are nowhere near peak, as there is a lot of ground to still take over along the eastern coast of India. Narendra Modi’s clean image, hard working nature, and outstanding clarity in convincing a voter, is unmatched by the opposition. The only thing Congress and its allies are doing is to bad mouth Modi, which he is cleverly using to get even more votes!

So if Congress has to regain ground and relevance pan India, it has to:-

1. Get better leadership. Rahul is not the right man and Sonia is one step into retirement. Priyanka Vadra is just for guest appearance. Old leaders like Kharge, Chidambaram, Gogoi, Digvijaya are not going to cut any longer. Get 15 to 20 young and visionary leaders, with one pan India appeal leader at the top. Nehru-Gandhi family’s charm has faded and next in lines are not at all going to help Congress.
2. Get better vision, particularly more positive views to attract Indian youth. Minority appeasement, caste combinations and scaring India of RSS/BJP/Hindutva are so 20th century. Won’t work now.
3. Look at long term planning for 2024. Modi’s wave is so popular now, that they stand little chance to challenge him in 2019 in the current organizational setup. Keep in mind - Congress is BJP’s only alternative nation-wide at present. AAP, TMC, DMK, ADMK, TDP, TRS, SP, BSP, RJD, SS, SAD, JDU, JDS, CPM, BJD etc. can’t even win 5 seats across 5 different states. Congress has the brand and ready made cadre pan India. It is just in a self destructing mode due to horrible management at the top. Start from top, and change will bring fruits by 2024.

PS: All images from Google Pictures. All credits to the original photographer or owner of the picture, who placed it for public consumption.

Propaganda Against Venkaiah Naidu.

It has been a long time since I blogged on any topic. There were many chances, but I procrastinated and lost the interest eventually.

But today, I got a chance. So enjoy reading :)

Venkaiah Naidu flagging off Namma Metro. Pic: Indian Express

For the past week or so, social media in Karnataka is abuzz with Venkayya Sakayya (enough of Venkaiah) kind of messages. First there was a big column in Vishwavani. It was followed by other news paper reports and countless memes floating on Facebook and Twitter. TV stations also might be picking it up by now. The core message was to force BJP to not give Venkaiah Naidu, a fourth term to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka. For a casual observer, Venkaiah Naidu is usually in news whether in parliament or his rhyming word speeches, or his frequent photo ops for important events.

Initially I was  not interested in this. Didn't read or comment much on this. But when I saw that it was a well organized movement, just posted one casual tweet.

Of course, my focus was Congress supporters who were sending me tweets for a week. I knew quite well that BJP and JDS supporters were also in this campaign. But I thought I will handle them later :)

Posted a similar message on FB too. I thought it was just one off post on this topic and time for a good night's sleep.

I was surprised with the reaction. It was from all corners. Highly popular FB poster Vivek Shetty picked up this tweet and posted on FB where it went viral. Within hours, 100s of reactions started pouring in. I tried to answer a few dozen initially. Then it became difficult to keep up. Emotions were flying around.. Some abused me.. Small number praised me. Most argued that it is a bad choice to support Naidu.

The fact of the matter is - I have no favourites among the 12 Rajya Sabha MPs from Karnataka. Rather, I hardly care. For me Legislative Council, Rajya Sabha, Governors' offices and President's office are things that are mostly ceremonial. I don't spend much time talking about them. Hence I was very surprised at the amount of interest by youth, particularly the emotion part! How can anyone be so interested suddenly on as trivial thing as reelection of a Rajya Sabha MP? Every 2 years, RS keeps getting people coming and going.. No one really pays much attention, but this was different.

Here is how things went parallelly across Facebook and Twitter. Let me sum up.

I said: Indira Gandhi was also an outsider. So what's the big deal with Venkaiah?
They said: So you are saying BJP can do the same sins that Congress did? What happened to Party with a difference tag?

I said: Not that way. From when did we get so touchy about "outsiders" in Karnataka? Sonia Gandhi won in Ballari (which she dumped quickly). Many "outsiders" have gone to parliament from Karnataka. Why suddenly touchy about Venkaiah's fourth term?
They said: Lok Sabha is different from Rajya Sabha. Here you are nominating, and not getting elected directly.

I said: OK. Then how do you feel about Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka, born Jairam Ramesh going to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh? He was in RS for 12 years since 2004. Isn't that case exactly reverse of what you are opposing? How do you justify Manmohan Singh becoming India's PM from Asom's RS quota?
They said: Who cares? That is up to people from AP or Asom to oppose.

I said: So you are OK with Sonia Gandhi winning from Karnataka. You think it is their problem if someone elects a Karnataka born person to RS from their state. What is your core issue with Venkaiah?
They said: He does not work for the development of Karnataka. He is too partial towards AP.

I said: OK. Let's examine facts. You know that Karnataka has a quota of 12 RS MPs. Have you even examined how all 12 have done before shooting on Venkaiah?
They said: Again, he has not done anything for Karnataka. That's the point.

I said: Let's go to details. Here are the 12 MPs from Karnataka in Rajya Sabha as of May 2016. Number 9 is vacant as Vijay Mallya was allowed to quit a few weeks ago. Have you done any comparison of how Naidu has fared against the rest? Keep out "Bhakt", "Sanghi" and other blah blah from discussion. Let's compare people across all parties.

List of Karnataka RS MPs - May 2016. Source Wiki

They said: We know that Venkaiah has not given any money towards Bengaluru's development projects. See Vijaya Karnataka and other paper articles.

I said: Let's go straight to the parliament website. The link is here: Then dig into Karnataka MPs using the MPLADS funds. These funds are sanctioned by the government frequently, based on the amount requested for their constituency's development activities. Venkaiah has done a very good job in using 92.35% of the allocated funds, while Rajeev Gowda of Congress has a zero in the utilization percentage! How can you say Venkaiah is not working when there is an MP listed right next to him with zero development funds utilization in 2 years?

Usage of MPLADS funds by Karnataka RS MPs

They said: *Silence for some time*. Yes, it does seem impressive for Venkaiah. But he uses the funds in Andhra. He adopts villages there.

I said: As far as I know, the funds are for the constituency specified by the Rajya Sabha website. He can't use it in another state.
They said: Whatever..  He is too focused on AP. He adopts villages in Andhra, but not in Karnataka where he is an MP from.

I said: Are you sure? Just go to Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana website and see which village he has adopted. It is from Devanahalli, north of Bengaluru city. He might have adopted a village in AP after the cyclone in 2014, but not under Adarsh Gram Yojana.

Village Adopted by Naidu

They said: Oh! We were told by 100s of people that he adopted Andhra village. Anyway... he does not speak Kannada. He does not talk in the parliament about Karnataka matters. He does not wish for Karnataka Rajyotsava.

I said: That's a valid point. We can tell him to wish. We can ask him to pick up matters. For that matter, even Sonia Gandhi who won from Ballari, does not wish for Rajyotsava as far as I have seen.
They said: Just because Congress does some mistakes, why BJP should do it? It was NDA that changed Rajya Sabha rule to elect people from other states.

I said: That's not what I know. MS Gurupadaswamy of Mysuru, got elected to Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh (1966-72). Forget NDA, even BJP wasn't born!
They said: *Silence*. But it is wrong from federal structure. We should only send people who are from that state to Rajya Sabha. Enough of money bags and outsiders using our state and not doing anything for us.

I said: Just to give an instance (not comparing with Venkaiah in any way) - Dr. Ambedkar was from Bombay. Got to parliament from Bengal. Bengalis didn't ask..you failed to get elected from home state. Why should we help?
They said: Hmmn.. we were told that it was BJP that tweaked rules. In any case, both BJP and Congress are useless parties that surrender to Dilli High Command. We wish a regional party like JDS stands up for Kannadigas. High commands enforcing candidates in spite of opposition from people is not right.

I said: Do you even know the kind of people Deve Gowda's Janata Dal sent to Rajya Sabha?
They said: Better people than Hema Malini or outsiders that national parties send.

I said: What did the "local" Janata Dal do? Sent Sindhi Ram Jethmalani, Tamil MAM Ramaswamy and Telugu Kupendra Reddy to Rajya Sabha! Some said they even supported Malayalee Rajeev Chandrashekhar's candidacy (I don't remember properly). How do you justify them?
They said: Now you are deviating.. It is not about language. Reddy is local to Bengaluru at HSR Layout.

I said: So is Venkaiah now. He is a voter from Malleshwaram area. Indian constitution considers him as a resident of Karnataka. So what's the issue?
They said: Frankly, he does not speak for Karnataka issues. He never spoke for Kalasa Banduri issue. He is too focused on AP issues. Why doesn't he go there and get elected?

I said: Now you are talking about real issues. So far I had not come across any valid comparison to be made to other MPs. Let's go further. Let me ask 5 questions on how other MPs from Karnataka have performed recently in Rajya Sabha. Here I go..

They said: *Silence for some time*. You should ask the editor of papers who campaigned against Venkaiah to answer this.

I said: It is not about the editor of newspaper. It is about facts. If you are measuring Venkaiah using some parameters, why not ask the same for others? If you are opposing Venkaiah Naidu's Rajya Sabha reelection, oppose based on data. Show how other 12 Karnataka RS MPs have done better.
They said: This might be a game played by Congress with the help of Media in Karnataka. There could be reasons right from the dynasty at the center of whom Venkaiah is very critical. After media took over, BJP supporters too joined in.

I said: I have not seen anyone telling how Rajeev Gowda (zero MPLADS usage) or Rahaman Khan (no MPLADS used in 14 Mon) are better. How come no one is campaigning against them them? Development is for the state. Who does is secondary.

But as you can imagine... most have made up their mind. I only saw more arguments like he has not done anything, to vocal abuses.. I don't care much about abuses. That only shows the weakness of those who abuse.

But I left these discussions shaking my head.

• Frankly, I don't care if Venkaiah Naidu goes to parliament from BJP again. 
• Frankly, I don't care whom Congress or JDS send. At the end it is usually the most influential or money bags that become Rajya Sabha MPs or MLCs at state. We know that!

But what I care is:-

• how much MPLADS funds is used to Karnataka, by those who are sent. 
• I care how much attendance they have. 
• I care about what kind of debates they participate in. 
• I care about the end result - their constituency's development. What's the use of MPs getting reelected 3-6-9 times from their constituencies, but people continue to live in poor conditions? We have plenty of such examples in Karnataka.

It was too late by the time I realized that too many people have fallen to media propaganda. I have nothing against those who angrily reacted to my tweets or posts. At the end, I want the development of Karnataka, as much as they want. But I was more focusing on the parameters they used and the facts they checked. Some points might be valid, but the overall way in which Venkaiah was made a soft target was strange. Before I raised the data from Rajya Sabha website, most did not even know that there are RS MPs in Karnataka with low to zero MPLADS usage. Media propaganda is very powerful! A fair movement would have been to put all 12 RS MPs side by side, and show why Venkaiah failed in certain areas.

No one did that, or at least I have not seen it! If you did.. let me know. Naidu might be a big failure in reality, but no one is presenting that in a fair manner, with parameters that can be applied to other MPs too. After all, a state's development can't be done by one MP. It is a collective effort. Ultra regionalism without using data to compare MPs, can be dangerous in the long run. Every state would end up doing it, which hurts the nation as a whole.

ಸಿದ್ದರಾಮಯ್ಯ ನವರೆ.. ನಿಮ್ಮ ಗಾಂಧಿ ವಾದದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿದುಕೊಳ್ಳೋಣಾ?

ಗಾಂಧಿ ಜಯಂತಿ ದಿವಸ ಗಾಂಧಿ ಅವರನ್ನು ಪ್ರಾಮಾಣಿಕವಾಗಿ ನೆನೆಯುವುದನ್ನು ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಬೇರೆಲ್ಲ ವಿಷಯಗಳು ಸುದ್ದಿಯಲ್ಲಿದ್ದವು. ನಮ್ಮ ಸಿದ್ದರಾಮಯ್ಯನವರಂತೂ ತಾವು ರಾಜ್ಯದ ಎಲ್ಲ ೬.೩ ಕೋಟಿ ಜನರ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಅನ್ನೋದನ್ನು ಮರೆತು, ತಾವು ಕೇವಲ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಪರಿವಾರದ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಅನ್ನೋ ಹಾಗೆ ನಡೆದುಕೊಂಡರು.  ಅವರ ಕುಣಿತಕ್ಕೆ ತಾಳ ಹಾಕೋ ಹಾಗೆ, ಖರ್ಗೆ, ಮೊಯ್ಲಿ, ಪರಮೇಶ್ವರ ಮತ್ತಿತರು ಉಘೆ ಉಘೆ ಅಂದರು.

ಅಂದ ಹಾಗೆ ಆಗ ಬಾರದ ಅಚಾತುರ್ಯ ಆಗಿದ್ದಾದ್ರೂ ಏನು?

ಸಿದ್ದರಾಮಯ್ಯನವರಿಗಿಂಥ ೮ ವರ್ಷ ದೊಡ್ಡವರಾದ ಹಿರಿಯ ರಾಜಕಾರಣಿ ಶಂಕರ ಮೂರ್ತಿ ಅವರು, ಸಿದ್ದರಾಮಯ್ಯ ಅವರ ಅರ್ಧ ವಯಸ್ಸಿನ ವಾಗ್ಮಿ ಚಕ್ರವರ್ತಿ ಸೂಲಿಬೆಲೆ ಅವರನ್ನು ಗಾಂಧೀಜಿ ಅವರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಭಾಷಣ ಮಾಡೋಕೆ ಕರೆದ್ದಿದ್ದು. ಇದು ಯಾವ ಪಕ್ಷದ ಅಥವಾ ಸಿದ್ಧಾಂತದ ಸನ್ನಿವೇಶ ಅಗಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಇದು ಕೇವಲ ಮಹಾತ್ಮ ಗಾಂಧಿ ಅವರ ಆದರ್ಶದ ಬಗೆಗಿನ ಸಮಾರಂಭ. ಸಿದ್ದರಾಮಯ್ಯನವರಿಗೆ ಸಿಕ್ಕಾಪಟ್ಟೆ ಅಲರ್ಜಿ ಆಗಿದ ವಿಷಯ, ಈ ಇಬ್ಬರು ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ಸ್ವಯಂಸೇವಕ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆಯ ಜೊತೆ ಹೊಂದಿರುವ ಬಾಂಧವ್ಯ!

ನಾನು ಚಕ್ರವರ್ತಿ ಅವರನ್ನು ಬಹಳಷ್ಟು ಸಲ ಭೇಟಿ ಆಗಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ಅವರ ವಾಕ್ ಚಾತುರ್ಯ ನೋಡಿ ಶಭಾಶ್ ಅಂದಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ಅವರ ದೇಶ ಭಕ್ತಿಗೆ ಮೆಚ್ಚಿ ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ ತಾಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ಅವರಿಗೆ ನನ್ನಂತಹ ಲಕ್ಷಾಂತರ ಅಭಿಮಾನಿಗಳು ಇದ್ದಾರೆ. ಚಕ್ರವರ್ತಿ ಅವರು ಜಾಗೋ ಭಾರತ್ ಅಂಥಹ ೨೪ ಕಾರೆಟ್ ಚಿನ್ನದಂಥ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ಮಾಡಿ, ಹಳ್ಳಿ ಹಳ್ಳಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾರತದ ಮತ್ತು ಭಾರತೀಯ ಸೈನಿಕರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹೆಮ್ಮೆಯ ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ ಬಾರೋ ಹಾಗೆ ನೋಡಿ ಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಇಂಥಹ ಭಾರತ ಮಾತೆಯ ಹೆಮ್ಮೆಯ ಪುತ್ರನಿಗೆ ಏಕ ವಚನ ಉಪಯೋಗಿಸಿದ್ದು ಪರಮಾಶ್ಚರ್ಯ! ಹೋಗಲಿ ಬಿಡಿ.. ಶಂಕರ ಮೂರ್ತಿ ಮತ್ತು ಚಕ್ರವರ್ತಿ ಸೂಲಿಬೆಲೆ ಅವರಿಗೆ, ಸಮಾಜದಲ್ಲಿ ಅವರದ್ದೇ ಗೌರವ ಮತ್ತು ಸ್ಥಾನ ಇದೆ. ಅವರೇನು ಈ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿಯಿಂದ ಪ್ರಮಾಣಪತ್ರ ಪಡೆಯೋಕೆ ಹೋಗಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ.

ಇಷ್ಟಕ್ಕೂ ಬಹಳ ಜೋರಾಗಿ "ಗಾಂಧಿ ಪರ" ಕೂಗಾಡಿದ ಸಿದ್ದರಾಮಯ್ಯನವರು ಎಷ್ಟು ಮಟ್ಟಕ್ಕೆ ಗಾಂಧಿ ತತ್ತ್ವ ಮತ್ತು ಸಂದೇಶ ಖುದ್ದಾಗಿ ಪಾಲಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆಂದು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ನೋಡೋಣ. ನವರಾತ್ರಿ ಸಮಯ ಆದದ್ದರಿಂದ ಒಂಭತ್ತು ಬಹಳ ಪ್ರಚಲಿತದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ. ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ಒಂಭತ್ತು ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಗಮನ ಹರಿಸೋಣ.

೧) ಮೊದಲನೆಯದಾಗಿ, ಗಾಂಧಿ ಅವರು ಸಸ್ಯಾಹಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಬಹಳ ದೊಡ್ಡ ಪ್ರಾಮುಖ್ಯತೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದರು. ಅಹಿಂಸೆ ಗಾಂಧಿ ಅವರ ಪರಮಧರ್ಮ ಆಗಿತ್ತು. ಪ್ರಾಣಿ ಹಿಂಸೆ ಮಾಡಬೇಡಿ ಅಂತ ಅವರು ಬೋಧನೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು.
ಆದರೆ ನೀವು ಸಿದ್ದರಾಮಯ್ಯ ಅವರೆ.. ಮೊದಲ ತಿಂಗಳಲ್ಲೇ, ಗೋ ಹತ್ಯೆ ನಿಷೇಧ ಕಾನೂನನ್ನು ತಿರಸ್ಕಾರ ಮಾಡಿ, ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾರಿ ಪ್ರಮಾಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಹಾಲು ಕೊಡದ ಹಸುಗಳು, ಕರುಗಳು, ಎಮ್ಮೆಗಳು, ಎತ್ತುಗಳು, ಕೋಣಗಳ ಮಾರಣಹೋಮ ಮಾಡಲು ಅನುಮತಿ ನೀಡಿದ್ದೀರಿ. ಇದು ನಿಮ್ಮ ಗಾಂಧೀವಾದವೋ?

೨) ಮಹಾತ್ಮ ಗಾಂಧಿಯವರ ಜೀವನ ಪರ್ಯಂತ ಅವರು ಜಾತಿ ಮತ್ತು ಮತಗಳ ನಡುವೆ ಸಂಘರ್ಷ ತಡೆಯುವದರ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದರು.
ಆದರೆ ನೀವು? ಬೇರೆಯವರನ್ನು ಕೋಮುವಾದಿ, ಜಾತಿವಾದಿ ಅಂತೆಲ್ಲ ಜರಿದು, ಖುದ್ದಾಗಿ ಬರೇ ಜಾತಿ ಮತ್ತು ಕೋಮು ಯೋಜನೆಗಳನ್ನೇ ತಂದು ಸಮಾಜವನ್ನು ಒಡೆಯುವ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದೀರ. ಶಾದಿ ಭಾಗ್ಯ ಅಂತ ತಂದು ಮುಸಲ್ಮಾನರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹಿಂದುಗಳಿಗೆ ತಾತ್ಸಾರ ಬಿತ್ತಿದ್ದೀರ. ಅಹಿಂದ ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಪ್ರವಾಸ ಅಂತ ಬೇರೆ ಜಾತಿ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಅನ್ಯಾಯ ಮಾಡಿ, ಶಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲೇ ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಹಸಿ ಮನಸ್ಸನ್ನು ಜಾತಿ ವಿಷದಿಂದ ತುಂಬುತ್ತಿದ್ದೀರ. ನರ್ಸಿಂಗ್ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿನಿಯರ ಹಾಸ್ಟೆಲ್ ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿ, "ಮೇಲ್ಜಾತಿ" ಹುಡುಗಿಯರನ್ನು ಹೊರಗಿಟ್ಟು ಅವರಿಗೆ ಅನ್ಯಾಯ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದೀರ. ಯಾರಾದರೂ ಇವುಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮಾತಾಡಿದರೆ, ಅವರನ್ನು ದಲಿತ ವಿರೋಧಿ, ಹಿಂದುಳಿದವರ ವಿರೋಧಿ, ಮುಸಲ್ಮಾನ ವಿರೋಧಿ ಅಂತ ಕೂಗಿ ಬಾಯಿ ಮುಚ್ಚುಸ್ತೀರ.  ಇವೆಲ್ಲ, ಗಾಂಧೀ ವಾದವೋ?

೩) ಗಾಂಧಿ ದೇಶದ ಸಂಪತ್ತನ್ನು ಲೂಟಿ ಹೊಡೆಯೋರ ವಿರುದ್ಧ ನಿಂತಿದ್ರು.
ನೀವು? ದೊಡ್ಡ ಭ್ರಷ್ಟಾಚಾರ ಆರೋಪ ಇರುವ ಸಂತೋಷ್ ಲಾಡ್ ಅವರನ್ನು ಮಂತ್ರಿ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದ್ರಿ. ನಂತರ ಬಹಳ ಜನರಿಂದ ಕಿವಿ ಹಿಂಡಿಸಿಕೊಂಡ ಮೇಲೆ ಅವರನ್ನು ಬಿಟ್ಟು, ಅವರಿಗಿಂತ ಗುರುತರ ಆರೋಪ ಇರುವ ಶಿವ ಕುಮಾರ್  ಮತ್ತು ರೋಶನ್ ಬೇಗ್ ಅವರನ್ನು ಮಂತ್ರಿ ಮಾಡಿದ್ರಿ. ನಿಮ್ಮ ಮೇಲೆ ಖುದ್ದಾಗಿ ಅರ್ಕಾವತಿ de notification ಆರೋಪ ಇದ್ರೂ, ಅದನ್ನೆಲ್ಲ ನಿರ್ಲಕ್ಷ್ಯ ಮಾಡಿ, ಬೇರೆಯವರನ್ನು ಭ್ರಷ್ಟರೆಂದು ಕರೆಯುತ್ತೀರ. ಇದು ಗಾಂಧಿವಾದವೋ ?

೪) ಗಾಂಧಿ ಎಂಥ ಸನ್ನಿವೇಶದಲ್ಲೂ ಕೂಡ ಒಬ್ಬರ ಮೇಲೆ ಕೈ ಮಾಡದ ಅಹಿಂಸಾವಾದಿ.
ಆದರೆ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಸುತ್ತ ಇರೋ ಜನ? ಭೈರಥಿ ಅವರು ಪೋಲಿಸ್ ಮೇಲೆ ಹಲ್ಲೆ ಮಾಡಿದ್ರು ಅಂತ ನಾವು ಒದಿದ್ವಿ. ಅಭಯಚಂದ್ರ ಜೈನ್ ಅವರು ಆಟೋ ಚಾಲಕನ ಮೇಲೆ ಹಲ್ಲೆ ಮಾಡೋಕೆ ಹೋದರು ಅಂತ ಟಿವಿನಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿದ್ವಿ. ಇದೇ ಜೈನ್ ಅವರು ಒಬ್ಬ ಕರಾವಳಿ ಪತ್ರಕರ್ತನಿಗೆ ಜೀವ ಬೆದರಿಕೆ ಹಾಕಿದರು ಅಂತ ಕೂಡ ಕೇಳಿದ್ವಿ. ವಿನಯ್ ಕುಲಕರ್ಣಿ ಅವರು ಒಬ್ಬ ವೈದ್ಯಾಧಿಕಾರಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಸಿನಿಮಾ ರೀತಿ ಹೊಟ್ಟೆಗೆ ಪಂಚ್ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದನ್ನು ಟಿವಿನಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿದ್ವಿ. ಇವರಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾರದ್ರಿಗೂ ನೀವು ಶಿಕ್ಷೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟರಾ? ಇದು ನಿಮ್ಮ ಗಾಂಧೀವಾದವೋ?

೫) ಮಹಾತ್ಮಾ ಗಾಂಧಿ ಅವರು ಭಗವದ್ ಗೀತೆ ಮತ್ತು ರಾಮಾಯಣದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಅಪಾರ ನಂಬಿಕೆ ಇಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡವರು.
ಎಲ್ಲಿ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಭಾಷಣಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲಾದರೂ ಕೃಷ್ಣ ಅಥವಾ ರಾಮನ ಆದರ್ಶದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಉಲ್ಲೇಖ ಇದೆಯೋ? ನಾವಂತೂ ಕಂಡಿಲ್ಲ. ಆದರೆ, ನೀವು ಜರಿಯುವ ಸಂಘ ಪರಿವಾರದ ಮೋದಿ ಅವರ ಭಾಷಣಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಬೇಕಾದಷ್ಟು ಭಾರತೀಯ ನೀತಿ ಬೋಧನೆ ಕೇಳಿದ್ದೇವೆ!

೬) ಗಾಂಧಿ ಅವರು ಮಾತಿನ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಬಹಳ ಗಮನ ಕೊಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ಅಪ್ಪಿ ತಪ್ಪಿಯು ಇನ್ನೊಬ್ಬರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಸುಳ್ಳು ಆಪಾದನೆಯಾಗಲಿ, ಕೀಳು ಟೀಕೆಗಳಾಗಲಿ ಮಾಡಿದವರಲ್ಲ.
ಆದರೆ ನೀವು? ೨೦೧೪ ನೇ ಚುನಾವಣೆಯಲ್ಲಿ, ದೇಶದ ಸರ್ವೋಚ್ಚ ನ್ಯಾಯಾಲಯದ SITಯಿಂದ ಕ್ಲೀನ್ ಚಿಟ್ ಪಡೆದುಕೊಂಡ ನರೇಂದ್ರ ಮೋದಿ ವಿರುದ್ಧ ನರಹಂತಕ ಅಂತ ಅಪಪ್ರಚಾರ ಮಾಡಿ, ಚುನಾವಣಾ ಆಯೋಗದಿಂದ ಛೀಮಾರಿ ಹಾಕಿಸಿಕೊಂಡ ದೇಶದ ಏಕೈಕ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಮಂತ್ರಿ! ಅದು ನಿಮ್ಮ ಗಾಂಧೀ ವಾದವೋ?

೭) ಗಾಂಧಿ ಅವರು ಎಂದೆಂದೂ ಸಾರಾಯಿ ಮತ್ತು ಇತರ ಆಲ್ಕೋಹಾಲ್ನಿಂದ ದೂರ ಇದ್ದರು.
ಆದರೆ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಸುತ್ತ? ಕಾಶಪ್ಪನವರ್ ಅಂಥ ಕುಡಿತದ ಬಾರ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಪೋಲಿಸ್ ಮೇಲೆ ಹಲ್ಲೆ ಆರೋಪ ಇರುವ ಪಕ್ಷದ ಸದಸ್ಯರಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಅವರ ಮೇಲೆ ಏನು ಕ್ರಮ ತೊಗೊಂಡಿದ್ದೀರ?
ನೀವು ನಿಮ್ಮ ಸರ್ಕಾರದಿಂದ ಕುಡಿತದ ಹಾವಳಿ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಮಾಡಲು ಏನು ಕ್ರಮ ತೆಗೆದು ಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದೀರ?

೮) ಗಾಂಧಿ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಸರ್ವಾಧಿಕಾರ ಬಹಳ ಅಸಹ್ಯ ಆಗುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಅವರು ಹಿಟ್ಲರ್ ಅವರಿಗೂ ಕೂಡ ಒಂದು ಪತ್ರ ಬರೆದಿದ್ದರು.
ನೀವು? ಪ್ರಮಾಣ ವಚನ ಸ್ವೀಕರಿಸಿದ ಮರು ನಿಮಿಷದಲ್ಲೇ, ಸಾವಿರಾರು ಕೋಟಿ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಹಣವನ್ನು ಜಾತಿ ಮತ್ತು ಕೋಮು ಆಧಾರಿತ ಸಾಲ ಮನ್ನಾಗೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟು ಬಿಟ್ಟರಲ್ಲ..  ಕ್ಯಾಬಿನೆಟ್ ಕೂಡ ಮಾಡುವ ಮುಂಚೆ ಒಬ್ಬರೇ, ಇಷ್ಟೊಂದು ದೊಡ್ಡ ನಿರ್ಣಯ ತೊಗೊಂಡು, ಬೇರೆಯವರನ್ನು ಸರ್ವಾಧಿಕಾರಿ ಅಂತ ಭಾಷಣಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಜರಿಯುತ್ತೀರಲ್ಲ.. ಅದು ಗಾಂಧಿ ವಾದವಾ?

೯) ಕೊನೆಯದಾಗಿ, ಗಾಂಧೀ ಅವರು ಸ್ತ್ರೀಯರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಗೌರವ ಇಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದ ಶ್ರೇಷ್ಠ ಮಾನವ. ಗಾಂಧೀ ಅವರು ನಿತ್ಯ ಪಠಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದ "ವೈಷ್ಣವ ಜನತೋ" ಭಜನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹೀಗೆ ಒಂದೆರಡು ಸಾಲುಗಲಿವೆ.

"ವಾಚ, ಕಾಛ್ ಮನ ನಿಶ್ಚಳ ರಾಖೆ" - ಅಂದರೆ, ಮಾತು, ಕೆಲಸ ಮತ್ತು ಯೋಚನೆ ಶುದ್ಧಿಯಾಗಿ ಇಟ್ಟುಕೋ.
"ಪರಸ್ತ್ರೀ ಜೇನೇ ಮಾತ್ ರೇ" - ಅಂದರೆ, ಪರಸ್ತ್ರೀಯನ್ನು ತಾಯಿ ಅಂತೆ ನೋಡು.

ಆದರೆ ನೀವು ಗಾಂಧಿ ಜಯಂತಿ ದಿವಸ ಹಾಕಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದ ಟೋಪಿ ನೆಹರು ಅವರದ್ದು. ಗಾಂಧಿ ಆ ಟೋಪಿ ಹಾಕಿದ್ದು ಬಹಳ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಅಥವಾ, ಇಲ್ಲವೇ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಅದೇ ನೆಹರು ಅವರು, ಮದುವೆ ಆಗಿ ಮಗಳಿದ್ದ ಗೃಹಿಣಿ ಎಡ್ವಿನಾ ಮೌಂಟ್ ಬಾಟ್ಟೆನ್ ಜೊತೆ ಹೇಗಿದ್ದರು ಅಂತ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಎಡ್ವಿನಾ ಅವರ ಮಗಳು ಹೇಳಿರುವದನ್ನು ಓದಿ. ನಿಮ್ಮ ಪರಮಾಪ್ತ ಸಿ ಎಂ ಇಬ್ರಾಹಿಂ ಅವರು ಇಂದಿರಾ ಗಾಂಧಿ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಮಾಡಿರುವ ಭಾಷಣಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಗಮನ ಹರಿಸಿ. (ಈಶ್ವರಪ್ಪ ಸಹಾಯ ಮಾಡ ಬಹುದು). ಆಮೇಲೆ ಹೇಳಿ, ನಿಮ್ಮದು ಯಾವ ಸೀಮೆ ಗಾಂಧಿವಾದಾ?

ಮುಕ್ತಾಯ: ಒಂದು ಸಮಾಜ ಅಂದ್ರೆ, ಬೇಕಾದಷ್ಟು ತತ್ತ್ವ ಇಟ್ಟುಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಜನ ಇರುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಎಲ್ಲಾರೂ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಮೌಲ್ಯಗಳನ್ನೇ ಇಟ್ಟುಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಿಲ್ಲ. ಒಬ್ಬ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಆಗಿ, ನೀವು ಎಲ್ಲ ತರಹದ ಜನರನ್ನು ಪ್ರತಿನಿಧಿಸಿ. ನೀವು ಕೇವಲ ಕಾಂಗ್ರೆಸ್ ಪಕ್ಷದವರ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಅಲ್ಲ. ನಿಮ್ಮ ಪಕ್ಷದ ಬಹು ದೊಡ್ಡ ನಾಯಕ ನೆಹರು ಅವರು ಕೂಡ ತಮ್ಮ ಕೊನೆಗಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ RSS ವಿರುದ್ಧ ಪರಮದ್ವೇಷವನ್ನು ಬಿಟ್ಟು, ಅವರನ್ನು ೧೯೬೩ ಗಣತಂತ್ರ ದಿನದ ಪೆರೇಡ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸುವಂತೆ ಆಮಂತ್ರಣ ನೀಡಿದ್ದರು ಅನ್ನೋದನ್ನ ಮರೆಯಬೇಡಿ!

ಕನಿಷ್ಠ ಪಕ್ಷ ನಿಮ್ಮ ೨೦೧೫ ಗಾಂಧಿ ಜಯಂತಿ ನಡವಳಿಕೆ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಹುದ್ದೆಗೆ ಘನತೆ ತರುವಂತೆ ಇರತ್ತೆ ಎಂದು ಹಾರೈಸೋಣ.

Images from: coastaldigest, mangaloremath.wordpress, corruptcongress.wikia and oppanna

Rise and Fall of Anti Corruption Movement

Here's what happened in India.

Pre 2013:
Congress was winning elections due to ill-informed middle-class and mostly freebie enjoying rural population. In 1994, India's middle class population was just 2.5 crores. Now it is 10 times that. And one thing I observed is that middle class has more or less moved away from Congress. I don't have a single sane friend in my close circle, who vehemently supports Sonia Gandhi's party.

Since most political parties have their own designated votebanks (DMK, ADMK, BSP, SP, RJD etc.), by default middle class, that too in tier 1, 2 and 3 cities were supporting BJP in large numbers. But many were disillusioned with BJP too as those who were imported for quick power, did not stand up the scrutiny in many cases. And BJP is always disliked by those who have lesser connection to true Hindu roots. No matter what, for them BJP is dangerous.

This vacuum was exploited by Kejriwal. He could fool a few middle class disgruntled youth, who were encouraged by revolutions in the middle East, Occupy Wall Street and many other contemporary movements. They saw a messiah in him, even after he blatantly used Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev and many more to only dump them to achieve his goal to grab power. And the hype continued 24*7 on TV.



Late 2013 and early 2014:

The small success in Dilli was portrayed by media as a great achievement. In reality, AAP had only 0.68% of MLA seats in India. In most countries such parties are not given the space they got in India. Why they got so much space?

2 reasons:
1) They had close media links as it was exposed in "bahut hi krantikaari" video -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hj6ScbJ3sY

2) Some middle class folks saw their potential to challenge BJP and Congress as a third front.

In Dilli, the situation is worse now. They have no government after Kejri ran out giving excuses and hence earned BhagodaKejri title.
The rapes, the crime, the water mafia, and everything is rampant.
Worse, the much publicized electricity "subsidy" drama has been exposed too. Kejri never left any money to pay for the subsidy.

http://zeenews.india.com/videos/setback-for-aap-delhi-hc-puts-electricity-subsidy-on-hold_27946.html

So in essence AAP and Kejriwal defaulted on ALL his promises to Dilli voters. The long list of u-turns and lies earned the title Kejri-Turn.
If an election is held in Dilli today, a vast majority of those who funded AAP just 4 months back may be reluctant to repeat the funding.

After running away after 49 days:

The 3 cities that had donated most to AAP, seeing hope in them were Dilli, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Dilli was an utter flop episode. In fact, Sheila's government at least provided some governance and did not run away like Bhagoda Kejri.

In Mumbai the second most contributing city to AAP, he tried to test waters, but the show was bad. It resulted in AAP Chaos and people cursed the drama company.



Then the drama queen went down south to test waters in Bengaluru, the third highest contributing city to AAP.

It was so bad that the next morning's paper had flAAP show as the headline. The road show was cut short miles before the planned finish. Dinner saw only 175 and next day's rally was nowhere near the enthusiasm shown to Anna Hazare's rallies 2 years back at Freedom park. The local people almost fully dumped Kejri and gang with only some North Indian migrants still sticking to sloganeering.



So now what?
Modi wave is clearly predicting an NDA government now. The third, fourth, republic and AAP fronts are all collapsing. Congress is staring at 100 or so seats only. So what's now for Kejri whose political existence is at stake?

The one and only option. Go anti Modi in full force. At least that way he would be in news for 2 more months.

So the 2014 election battle is back to the familiar BJP versus "secularism". This time even within BJP, Modi has overshadowed everyone, sending them to non-striker end.



Another way to showin the same desperate effort of all anti BJP forces trying to dislodge Modi's tsunami, keeping Kejri was a poster boy.



That my friends, is a summary of the rise and fall of anti-corruption movement in India. Now we are back to election time secularism and communalism debate, but the only change this time is... Modi has turned communalism debate in most cases into Development debate. Even Mulayam Singh Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal, with zero development track record, have been forced to talk of development (or talk negatively about Gujarat where development is clearly visible to the local people).

Modi has already won 2 battles.

1) He has emerged as the clear winner within BJP camp. It took him lot of effort.
2) He has forced casteists, communals and even anarchists to talk of development topic. In fact, Modi's clear emergence as leader has already secured NDA 20+ allies before the election itself! That's comparable to Vajpayee's ally strength at the peak of NDA :)

Now the third and the last step in his 2014 battle would be to demolish the pretentious anti-corruption squad and their sponsoring corrupt Congress team by big margin. Let's hope he does!

 {Credit to pictures - social media}

Bharat Nirman Ads - Bogus Claims Of Jobs And Growth

It has been almost 9 months since India's tax payers money is misused to a wide extent to bombard Indians that a massive "Bharat Nirman" (India building) is happening. Every print or visual advertisement will surely have Sonia Gandhi (no one is sure what is her active and constitutionally sanctioned role in the government) and PM Manmohan Singh. More or less all these ads are hypes and I have spent time debunking many of them earlier.

Over 100 crores are clearly burnt in various Bharat Nirman ads. The one ad that always catches my attention is the Jobs related ad. The "revolution" in job creation as claimed via MNREGA has burnt crores of valuable tax money, in just the print and digital ads.

Bharat Nirman ad on jobs - source: vifindia

Keep in mind, there are three kinds of major jobs in India.

1. The regular jobs - salaried either in government or in private sector.
2. The casual jobs - like the one being advertised. These are seasonal either in private or public sectors.
3. The self employment jobs - Majority of Indians make their living in self employment or casual jobs.

"Earlier we used to search for work.. now jobs come to us" claims the young man, in that UPA ad.

Are you really sure Mrs. Sonia Gandhi?
Have you really created the crores of jobs that you claim using our tax money?

Let's explore.

Devinder Sharma, an expert in food and agriculture policy, has written a very important, fact filled article in DNA on 17th February 2014. The title of the article is Migration back to villages. If we don't understand the plight of the 60,00,00,000 farmers in India who are actively into agriculture, we just can't comment on the economy in any sensible manner. This article paints the most current picture of Indian agriculture. It not only exposes the jobs creation myth of UPA, and also exposes the hollowness of their claims on food security and land acquisition bills.

Some key excerpts from that tell us an entirely different picture.


Farmers are leaving the cities and moving back to the villages. Why? The economy has tanked in urban areas.

In the coming months, about 1.5 crore farmers who quit agriculture in the past seven years, are likely to trudge back into the villages. In normal circumstances such a massive reverse migration — from the cities back to the villages — would have been a sign of inclusive growth. But economists are taking this U-turn as a sign of economic slowdown.

When UPA talked of employment generation, it did not tell that 50,00,000 farmers of India left their farming jobs each year, to take up menial and highly unstable jobs. Who calculated these lost jobs?

In the seven-year period between 2005 and 2012, according to CRISIL an estimated 3.7 crore farmers quit agriculture. Economists view this trend as a sign of economic growth. In other words, while 50 lakh farmers are forced out of agriculture every year, growing farm unemployment is being considered as a sign of economic growth. How can pushing farmers out of agriculture sector and then finding an alternative employment for these millions displaced from agriculture constitute economic growth?

India saw mostly temporary and casual jobs that were counted as "Bharat Nirman". Here's the reality.

we are told that an estimated 70 lakh jobs are created in the non-farm sector. Considering that most of the non-farm jobs are in construction, what is not being told is that these menial jobs are temporary and do not carry any social security.

Except agriculture, everything else is collapsing during "Bharat Nirman" phase of Manmohan Singh.

At a time when there is an all round doom and gloom — industrial output failing to keep pace, manufacturing sector declining, joblessness growing, fiscal deficit mounting and the current account deficit growing to a worrisome level — it is only agriculture that provides a glimmer of hope.  

Here is a very worrying part. India emerged as the biggest exporter of rice during the years immediately after NDA government. But the so-called Bharat Nirman is almost making India an importer of rice in 3 years.

India emerged as the world’s biggest exporter of rice, and farm exports zoomed exponentially. And yet the fact remains that agriculture is the most neglected sector. Even the Prime Minister acknowledges that India is faced with terrible agrarian distress.

Already there are indications that India will turn into an importer of rice in the next three years.

UPA government is killing even the only sector that has some decent future, the agriculture.

In fact, at a time when government employees have been promised a further pay rise from the 7th Pay Commission, farmers remain at the bottom of the pile, neglected and forgotten. On an average, 2,500 farmers quit farming every day to join the army of landless workers.

UPA is not reducing the poverty, but infact making it worse. All the "garibi hatao" slogans are just eye washes, by reducing the scale with which poverty is measured.

With joblessness growing and the policy thrust on reducing subsidies for the poor and needy, the number of poor in absolute terms has been increasing. By reducing the poverty line to Rs28 in urban areas, and Rs24 in rural areas, the government can play around with figures, but the fact remains that poverty is on an upswing.

 UPA government burns public money to claim that the National Food Security Bill (FSB) is a great thing.

Food Security Bill ad - source: castingnb

But the reality exposed by Devinder Sharma is that UPA's failed policies have deliberately displaced farmers and now this FSB is just to reduce the chances of food riots when people have neither jobs nor food.

The enactment of the Food Security Act ensuring a monthly entitlement of 5 kg of rice/wheat/millet  to 67 per cent of the population or 830 million people is not only aimed at offsetting the additional burden of the unprecedented price rise, but more importantly, it is aimed at minimising the possibility of food riots that can erupt when a large section of the population is being deliberately displaced from an assured livelihood.

UPA 2 has killed India's economy. Proof.

From a high of 9.3 per cent two years ago, the GDP has fallen to less than 5 per cent in 2013.  

As opposed to UPA's Bharat Nirman claim, jobs are disappearing in India.  All the growth we saw on paper was jobless growth in totality. This is not going to help India that has 18% of the world's population.

At a time when GDP was galloping at 8-9 per cent between 2005 and 2010, the report shows 140 lakh people were displaced from agriculture. Generally it is believed that those who quit agriculture would be joining the workforce in the manufacturing sector. But the report showed that even in the manufacturing sector 57 lakh jobs were lost. A clear pointer to the jobless growth the country is witnessing.

 And lastly,  Rahul Gandhi keeps harping about the Land Acquisition bill as a great achievement of UPA government, even though he has no official role in the government (meaning, will take credit for all positive thigns, but escapes all blame for negative things like scams).

But Devinder exposes the hollowness of Rahul Gandhi's claim:

With the new land acquisition law coming into force, more people would be driven out of their meagre land holdings and forced to migrate to the cities looking for menial jobs.

Wake up India.. It's not Bharat Nirman. It's Bharat Nirnaam (ruin) that UPA government is doing.
India needs a leader with a growth track record. Not tape records. Think and vote in 2014.

Myths about RSS

Today, I saw twitter trending #NationalistRSS in India. Social media has been a powerful medium in exposing the sinister campaign against RSS.

While reviewing some of the tweets by anti RSS propagandists, I felt it is necessary to expose some of the popular myths about RSS. A lot of people are blindly ranting against Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh, without getting proper information. You can't change everyone, but at least you can put some facts on the table. So here we go.. Note that these are not the official statements of RSS, but that of general social media population in India today. Full credit to the original thinkers and the original photographers, for the information presented here onwards.

Myth 1: RSS Killed Gandhi.
Fact 1: Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. Godse had left RSS in 1930s itself. This has been reiterated countless number of times by RSS, and the recent one is from December 2010, when Ram Madhav of RSS claimed court records clearly showing RSS had nothing to do with Gandhi's murder. Justice Kapur Commission Report clearly says: "RSS as such were not responsible for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, meaning thereby that one could not name the organisation as such as being responsible for that most diabolical crime, the murder of the apostle of peace. It has not been proved that they (the accused) were members of the RSS"
Also, Nathuram, the convict was hanged within months, bringing justice to the whole incident. Blaming RSS for Gandhi's murder just because Godse was a former member of RSS, is like blaming Congress for Muslim League's mass murder and atrocities during Partition, because Jinnah was a member of Congress earlier. Jinnah was a member of Congress party between 1906 and 1920. So someone who was a member of Congress for long 14 years, was instrumental in inciting Direct Action Day and other mass atrocities against Hindus, resulting in 1000s of deaths. Will today's Sonia Gandhi's Congress claim responsibility for all the wrong doings of Jinnah, including breaking up an age old civilization resulting in millions of deaths?

Myth 2: Sardar Patel disliked RSS.
Fact 2: Sardar Patel had to take action in 1948 due to political pressure from "secular" Nehru and group. But when the ban on RSS was lifted, read Sardar's letters to Guruji, the RSS chief. Patel was the happiest man then! All the bans till date on RSS, including the ones after Sardar's death, are purely the hate that Congress party nurturers for RSS. Everyone knows that RSS does not negotiate with vote bank politics, corruption or country's soverignty. If the same yard stick was used against Congress, SP or other parties, they all should have been banned for the violence of their cadres, or the deadly riots their governments failed to stop (and in some cases helped rioters like in 1984) over the years.  Here is a partial list of nearly 150 incidents of Congress violence. If for each riot or disturbance Congress party was banned, that number would have easily gone beyond Sachin Tendulkar's international century count!

Myth 3: RSS is anti national.
Fact 3: RSS is the most nationalistic organization in India. In fact, even the most bitter enemy of RSS, Jawaharlal Nehru, invited RSS to come participate in the 1963 Republic day parade. 3500 Swayamsevaks marched on that day, in their typical Gana Vesha. During his final years, Nehru realized the patriotic pulse of RSS, that too only when his Congress party's foreign policy went seriously wrong resulting in a humiliating defeat at the hands of China. It was RSS that helped Indian soldiers and civilians greatly in 1962, for which even Nehru was forced to invite them to be a part of 1963 Republic Day parade. I am sure the icon of secularism, Nehru would not invite an anti national organization to march with Indian army during republic day. In fact, the so-called secular folks like members of Indian communist parties, were busy raising donations for India's enemy China during 1962 war! During the 1965 Indo-Pak war PM Shastri requested nationalist RSS to help control traffic in Delhi so policemen could be freed for defence duties. When Pakistanis were trying to take over Jammu and Kashmir, it was swayamsevaks who cleared the snow, so that Indian air force could land their aircrafts.

Myth 4: RSS is fundamentalist.
Fact 4: RSS is pro India, pro Hindutva. RSS' ideology says that there are only two kinds of Hindus in India. Those who are Hindu today and those who were Hindus yesterday. That makes every single human in India (and rest of Indian subcontinent), Hindus by culture, ancestry and tradition. That is the Hindut-va (Hindu essence). Tva in Sanskrit means characteristic, essence or hood - like Bhratrutva (brotherhood), Maatrutva (motherhood), Shatrutva (Enmity) and so on. RSS never preaches any religious doctrine using any sacred book with the eventual goal of converting everyone to that doctrine 100%. RSS does not believe in converting anyone to its "religion". So calling such organization fundamentalist is silly. If at all RSS has any fundamentals, it is that of calling India as Bharat, and treating her as the mother of every single human in Indian subcontinent. In fact, RSS supports uniform civil code in India, meaning one type of marriage/divorce/inheritance laws for ALL citizen, which is opposed by so called progressive parties like Communists and Congress!

Myth 5: RSS is fascist and a terrorist organization.
Fact 5: When you show the long list of social service organizations that are a part of Sangh Parivar (family), the favourite line of Jihad supporters is that Jamat ud Da'wah also does social service. But they don't understand the basics that RSS does not preach violence in any of its shakha. It only teaches people to be proud of India's glorious 5000+ years culture and tradition. It teaches swayamsevaks (volunteers for the nation), self defence. Every human on this planet has the right to defend himself or herself. RSS never advocated for killing or converting "non-believers", like Jihadi terrorists or radical evangelicals do. If any person who claims to be associated with RSS is convicted of any crime, RSS won't play communal or victim card. RSS believes in law taking its own course and punishment for anyone who violates law, unlike Congress party that still supports a convict Lalu Yadav or those charged with mass murder like Sajjan Kumar, or those caught giving genocidal "15 minutes" hate speeches like Akbaruddin Owaisi. While Nehru was unable to stop the blood shed during partition, it was the RSS that organised over 3000 relief camps for the Hindu Refugees from Pakistan after the Partition. In short, every effort to frame RSS to a fictional "Hindutva terror" or "Saffron terror" has failed till date. Here is one such example.

Myth 6: RSS is only for Hindu males.
Fact 6: This is the favourite line of ignoramus feminists. There are two kinds of RSS setups. Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh for males, and Rastra Sevika Samiti for females. Both are thriving in India for decades. Both take out marches, celebrate India's heritage festivals and glorify India's national Hindutva icons.

Myth 7: RSS is anti Muslim and RSS is anti Christian.
Fact 7: RSS treats Muslims, Christians and everyone else in India, irrespective of caste and creed as cultural Hindus. Hindutva is an all encompassing ideology of RSS. This is the reason why RSS never has RSS Muslim shakha (daily assembly) or RSS Christian shakha. Anyone can become a member of RSS as long as they are ready to respect Bharat Mata (Mother India). RSS is against only those whose work against India's soverignty and heritage. In the famous Ranganathacharya Agnihotri case,  "Primafacie the RSS is a non-political cultural organization without any hatred or ill will towards non-Hindus", declared Karnataka High Court (then Mysore HC).

Myth 8: RSS is for Brahmins, Kshatriyas and other upper caste Hindus only.
Fact 8: Totally wrong. RSS has no caste system at all. It treats every single member, be it male or female, as equal. In fact, even Mahatma Gandhi had applauded RSS' casteless setup 7 decades ago. All RSS requires from a volunteer, is respecting Bharat Mata (Mother India) as "vatsale, Maatru bhoome".

Myth 9: RSS was anti Sikh in 1984 riots.
Fact 9: Even the most staunch Sikh supporters of 1984 time, won't claim such things. Read Kushwant Singh's writeup. In fact, RSS was instrumental in helping Sikhs in large numbers when Congress party's murderers went on rampage to kill, and their leader Rajiv Gandhi failed to stop the mass killing. 

Myth 10: Organizations like the Sri Rama Sene of the infamous pub incident, Abhinav Bharat and other organizations are part of RSS.
Fact 10: No. RSS clearly has defined who is a part of Sangh Parivar and who is not. You can't club everyone who claims to be a Hindu organization, and malign RSS because of those organizations' actions. In fact some of those ignorantly clubbed as "Sangh Parivar" with RSS, were trying to kill RSS leaders! Every attempt to malign RSS, like how Congress leaders did in case of Ajmer blast, has backfired.

Myth 11: BJP is the political outfit of RSS.
Fact 11: Wrong. RSS has always been a non political organization. It's prime aim is service to the society, character buidling of youth and nation building. BJP evolved from Jan Sangh. Many BJP leaders, like Vajpayee, Advani and Modi might be from RSS background, but that does not maike RSS a political outfit. In fact, many Congress, AAP and other party leaders are also of RSS background. It is like scores of Indian leaders today  could be from NCC, but that does not make NCC a political organization. RSS volunteers support many political parties, depending upon who is doing the best service to the society, without bias, at that time. The only non-political force that vehemently opposed Emergency was RSS. It was so feared, that Indira Gandhi, who had murdered democracy in 1970s, banned the RSS during her draconian Emergency. J P aandolan, Janlokpal aandolan and a whole lot of popular movements had RSS support. In short, there are RSS admirers and RSS opponents in every party of India. To give an example, even the most staunch anti RSS politician in India today, Digvijaya Singh, was sharing dais with RSS leaders when it suited his Congress party :)






Myth 12: RSS has a membership process.
Fact 12: Wrong. RSS has no business card or party member ID. Anyone can walk in, and anyone can walk out. The concept is that of Swayam sevak. No RSS volunteer carries a Sangh membership card. In short, anyone who wants to serve the society and Bharat Mata, can become a part of RSS, temporarily or permanently. RSS adheres to the age old saffron colour flag (Bhagwa) that was an inspiration to serve the mother land for billions of Indians over millenia.

Myth 13: RSS only concerns with Hindus.
Fact 13: RSS deals with all sections of Indian society. RSS is the first one in majority of natural disasters like 2004 TN Tsunami, 2001 Gujarat Earthquake, 2009 Karnataka-AP massive floods, 2013 Uttarakhand floods, or any rail/bus/building disasters. RSS volunteers are found from Jammu and Kashmir to Tamil Nadu, rushing to help every single natural disaster. They are also in forefront to help people in case of man-made disasters like 2012 Asom riots caused by illegal foreign settlers from Bangladesh. It was RSS volunteers who donated blood during 1971 war. RSS runs over 1,70,000 projects across India via organizations like Sewa Bharati, catering to every language, state, religion, caste, colour and creed. Go to their website to learn. RSS runs 27,041 schools (Ekal Vidyalaya) in remote tribal areas : 7,53,123 socially deprived tribal students are enrolled. RSS is in fact the world's largest voluntary service organization with over 60,00,000 active members, plus millions of supporters. RSS was one of the first to land at Uttarakhand to help the needy. They even proudly helped the organization that helps every Indian.. the national army! Watch this video.

Myth 14: RSS does not raise Indian flag.
Fact 14: RSS Sarsangh chalak (highest position within RSS), Mohan Bhagawat himself stands and respects an Indian flag during important national festivals.

There are scores of other myths being propagated systematically against RSS. For now, this list is enough. Just remember: 

R : Ready for
S : Selfless
S : Service

RSS will become stronger with availability of social media, as the malicious propaganda against the Sangh Parivar, will eventually have to die down.

सत्यमेव जयते !