Vol. 10, Issue : 12
December 2018
Elections : Basic Issues Sidelined
As the people are going to polls in five states in
a week, the election campaign reached to a feverish
pitch. In Telangana, the grand alliance of Congress
and TRS campeted in taking the campaign to lowest
levels The leaders from both sides, including the
Chief Minister are prolifically using unparliamentary
and abusive language.
The BJP campaigners are leaving no occasion
to charge the political atmosphere with communal
ranting. While preparations are going on to celebrate
birth centenary of Joseph Kurien, the founder milk
producers cooperatives in India, BJP’s MP Dileep
Sanghania accused him of donating funds from
Amul for conversions of tribals to Christianity knowing
full well that Kurien was an atheist.
Communal rantings were not the monopoly of
BJP. During the election campaign in Rajasthan,
former union minister C P Joshi and Congress leader
proclaimed that ‘Umabhartis and Narendra Modis are
not qualified to talk about Hinduism because they
are not Brahmins.’ “If anyone knows about Hindu
religion, it is the Brahmin pundits”, he stated in the
rally.
In a bid to counter BJP’s dynasty allegation
against Nehru family, Vilas Muttamwar, who once
held shipping portfolio, cast objectionable aspersions
on Modi’s family. He said “everyone knew five
generations of Rahul Gandhi. But this Narendra,
nobody knows his father’s name”.
In Maharashtra which is not going to polls, the
state government headed by BJP took the elections
in neighbouring states as an opportune time to
announce the recognition of Marathas as backward
caste to provide for 16 per cent reservation in
education and jobs.
There are many Joshis, Sanghanias and
Muttamwars who are trying to mobilize votes using
religion and caste. If these comments proved
anything, it is the ideological bankruptcy and political
cowardice of both the parties.
It is also an attempt to divert the peoples’
attention from their miserable failure in solving the
basic issues faced by the people.
One major such issue is growing agricultural
crisis. Thousands of farmers across the country
reached Delhi and participated in a day-long protest
demanding a special session of Parliament to
discuss agrarian crisis among others.
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh
are predominantly agrarian states. The crisis is
pushing many peasants to commit suicides. Anger
and frustration among farmers has erupted as
protests and demonstrations in the last two years in
these states. Even then the governments tried to
assuage them with palliatives like loan waivers, crop
insurance and promise to raise minimum support
price. But they never tried to address the underlying
causes for the agrarian crisis.
During their march to Delhi many peasants
recalled their experiences. A farmer from Bikaner
laughed when asked about recent announcement
on the government promising to purchase Bajra,
urad and moong at increased MSP. “Bajra is selling
between Rs,1100 to 1200 per quintal when MSP is
Rs.1900. similar is the case for urad and moong”.
He said.
Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje grandiosely
announced waiver of co-operative bank loans up to
Rs.50,000 and procurement of rabi crop. The farmers
Organ of the Central Committee of CPI(ML)