Outrage over ‘raincoat’ comment – how Congress is trying to re-write history

During 2009-2014, Manmohan Singh presided over a regime that saw scams of all hues and proportions. As a Prime Minister, he didn’t act promptly to stop these scams, and in fact is accused of helping in some cases. What we saw under his tenure is described best by a term he himself coined – organised loot and plunder.

While the loot largely happened during the second term, Manmohan Singh undermined the dignity and constitutionality of the office of the Prime Minister for full ten years where the PMO was reduced to executing orders of NAC under Sonia Gandhi – something that is corroborated by the PMO files. Continue reading

Why Rahul Gandhi will continue to copy Arvind Kejriwal’s antics

Back in December 2013, when AAP made an impressive debut in electoral politics and went on to form a 49 days long government in Delhi with the outside support of Congress, Rahul Gandhi had said that he will learn from the success of AAP.

And it appears that he was dead serious, even though people take his statements in jest. In the last couple of years, Rahul Gandhi has been doing everything AAP has done, or rather Kejriwal has done. Continue reading

Narendra Modi has forgotten the 2014 elections, and this is why he has done that

In May 2014, Narendra Modi recorded an unprecedented victory in the history of contemporary India. I have deliberately called it a Modi victory rather than a BJP or NDA victory, because it indeed was victory of a personality called Narendra Modi.

While hardly anyone gave Congress any chance of it returning to power, and people talked about Modi wave, no one knew about this Modi tsunami that would strike the pollsters, some “intellectuals”, and of course, the Congress party.

People just couldn’t stop talking about 2014 after the results were out. Well, even otherwise it was a hotly debated election, but the results made it burning hot. How it happened, why it happened, does this change India forever, and all kinds of things were discussed.

Whether Modi haters or his ‘bhakts’ – both love to go back to the last general elections, and remind or warn each other that it will repeat or it will not repeat in 2019. Books were written and are still being written about the 2014 elections.

It’s been around 30 months now, but it appears that most people can’t get over the 2014 verdict yet.

Except one man – Narendra Modi himself. Continue reading

“Growing intolerance”, and why Congress loves it

Indian National Congress, the grand old party of India, suffered its worst ever electoral defeat in May 2014. Reduced to 44 seats, it was staring at a risk of being pushed to the margins if immediate corrective steps were not taken.

The reasons for its defeat were pretty obvious – corruption charges, anti-incumbency, lackadaisical leadership of Rahul Gandhi, and Modi wave.

However, if you analyze them as a pragmatist, these reasons don’t warrant any “corrective” step. They are transient in nature. For example, Congress could simply shrug them off with the following responses, and the party won’t really be wrong: Continue reading

BJP’s back to back defeats in Delhi and Bihar – no lessons learnt

Bihar assembly election results are out. BJP has lost the second assembly election in a row.

Coincidentally I was in Bihar in February early this year to attend my brother’s wedding when the first defeat – in Delhi assembly elections – had taken place. I had written about BJP losing Delhi elections then.

Based on what I witnessed and experienced during my trip in February, I felt, before the Delhi results were announced, that the BJP was more likely to lose Bihar than Delhi.
Continue reading

Reservation for Patels – what it shows about our politics and society

A 21-year-old guy named Hardik Patel hogged headlines in the mainstream media and trended on social media today. He addressed a rally that was reportedly attended by over 4 lakhs Patels – who wanted to be declared “backward”.

This guy is demanding that Patels – who are traditionally considered socially and politically ahead of other castes in Gujarat – should be included in the list of OBCs and given the benefits of the reservation policy.

The demand sounds like trolling, but since it is taking place in the offline world, it’s some serious business. And when it comes to reservations, it’s always serious business in India.

Reservations are about politics and are about society.

Let’s first talk about the politics. Continue reading

BJP helps Kejriwal become the CM of Delhi, PM next?

Consider what every Modi hater would say about Narendra Modi a couple of years ago:

He is just a PR creation. APCO is backing him.
He has support only on internet, can only become Prime Minister of Twitter.
He may win Gujarat, but India is not Gujarat.

Now consider what many BJP supporters say about Arvind Kejriwal of late:

He is just a media creation. Lutyens media is backing him.
He has got only army of AAPtards trending hashtags, no ground support.
He may win Delhi, but India is not Delhi.

Does it sound like Arvind Kejriwal is on his way to become the next Prime Minister of India after winning Delhi thrice, just like Modi won Gujarat thrice earlier? And, well, technically he has won Delhi twice already!

The BJP has to realize that the “bhagoda” Kejriwal is here to stay for the long race. They can continue to reject him like Modi haters used to reject Modi, and thus help Kejriwal become the next Prime Minister of India, or analyze this phenomenon and learn their lessons.

In this article, I try to analyze what made Kejriwal click with Delhi’s audience and why BJP’s strategies failed.

Which Narendra Modi supporter are you?

“People voted for Narendra Modi because they wanted development, they didn’t have any Hindu agenda in mind.” is the latest muse of people who earlier religiously believed that “a vote for Modi means crossing the moral point of no return”.

They are the same people who thought that Modi, with help of Amit Shah, “polarized” Uttar Pradesh to sweep the general elections. Now they think that the elections were won on development agenda.

This U-turn by these alleged “intellectuals” is not surprising as they are experts in shifting goalposts; however, what is consistent are their generalizations.

Earlier a vote for Modi was a vote for fascism, and now a vote for Modi has become a vote for development.

This post is not to analyze what a vote for Narendra Modi meant, because many alleged journalists are analyzing that by writing fat books, hoping to make a fat impression and preferably fat money.

This post is about who voted for Modi. Continue reading

Rahul Roushan

a well known expert on nothing

Politics