Modi
on Indira Gandhi's footsteps
Prime Minister Modi seems to be following the path of late PM Indira Gandhi
when it comes to dealing with the Opposition parties who are ganging up against
him. Though most of these national or regional parties are bitterly opposed to
the Congress, they are trying hard to forge a workable unity before the 2024
Lok Sabha polls. Indira Gandhi also got rid of the majority of senior leaders
who were part of the “Syndicate” comprising K Kamraj, Atulya Ghosh, N Sanjiva
Reddy, SK Patil & others. The irony was that this syndicate made her the PM
in 1966 and they fell out later as "goongi gudiya" (Indira
Gandhi's nick-name in political circles) had started talking. In order to nail
the 'Syndicate' and other Opposition parties like Bhartiya Jana Sangh,
Swatantra Party and others, Indira Gandhi announced a slew of populist steps
for the poor and advanced Lok Sabha polls by one year. Her slogan, “Mein Garibi
Hatana Chahti hoon, Aur ye Log Mujhe Hatana Chahate hein” (I want to remove
poverty and they want to remove me) worked like wonders and she won 352 out of
521 seats in the Lok Sabha . PM Modi has also drawn a leaf out of late Indira
Gandhi's book. He has declared a war against all Opposition parties saying, “I
want to remove corruption from the country and these Opposition parties are
ganging up to remove me.” Insiders in the BJP say that Modi is pushing the
Opposition parties to join hands as he wants to fight 2024 Lok Sabha polls on
the “corruption” plank. He has also prodded the CBI, ED and other agencies that
there should be no let up in the war against corruption. It may be interesting
to mention here that Modi never named Indira Gandhi in his election rallies or
otherwise. But he bitterly attacks Nehru, Rajiv and others.
A
Saga of Police Encounters
UP
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has hogged the limelight as the number of
killings in 'Police encounters' has set a new record. Ever since he came to
power in March, 2017, more than 10,900 police encounters took place, 23,300
alleged criminals arrested, 5,046 injured and 185 killed. And Yogi is not
blinking. Rather, he roared in the Assembly recently saying, “We will make the
mafia bite the dust.” But the way Atiq Ahmed and his brother were shot dead in
full view of TV crews outside the hospital premises, is a sure recipe for tough
times ahead. The BJP high command is keeping a close watch while the North
Block (Home Ministry) is keeping its fingers crossed as these killings may
force courts to step in.
Legal
experts say the glorification of extrajudicial killings by politicians
emboldens an ecosystem of lawlessness. But Yogi is neither the first Chief
Minister to choose this path to eliminate the mafias. India’s history since the
1990s has remained replete with instances of fake encounters. The National
Human Rights Commission registered 2560 cases of fake encounters between
1993-2009. The numbers fell to 1782 between 2000 and 2017. Of them, 1,224 were
fake. In the 1990s, the Mumbai Police used encounter killings to eliminate the
underworld network and soon this practice spread to other states including
Punjab. The 'Super cop' K P S Gill, succeeded in putting an end to the
militancy in Punjab in the 90s. He was decorated with the Padma award too. It's
a different matter that many of the Police officers languished in jails for
these extra-judicial killings. Incidentally, Mumbai's top cop JF Ribeiro was
specially sent to Punjab where he launched “Bullet for Bullet '' policy. Later,
Gill turned the tables with the success of his “Operation Black Thunder.” Be it
Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Assam and
West Bengal; all have also witnessed a high number of encounters, says NHRC
report.
Salman Khurshid's surprise entry
Ever
since Salman Khurshid, former External Affairs Minister, lost his last Lok
Sabha polls, he was virtually in political wilderness. He had started focusing
on his law practice. But one fine morning he was found sitting on the high
table of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Bihar Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar and a handful of other leaders. It was the first formal
meeting between the Congress and Nitish Kumar to bring about unity among all
Opposition parties. But why Khurshid was called at the crucial meeting suddenly
out of the blue. It transpires that Kharge had invited Khurshid to join the
meeting. It is learnt that Khurshid and Nitish Kumar have cordial relations for
sometime and Kharge may utilize his services in respect of Bihar. It would be
interesting to mention that Nitish Kumar also told the leaders that after
meeting with Sonia Gandhi in 2017, he kept waiting for almost a month whether
the Congress is ready to work with him at the national level. In the absence of
any response, he was virtually fleft with no option but to swim with the BJP.
