Archive for May, 2010

Jaya Bachchan and Amar Singh: The distances that politics brings between people who used to be close friends once

Indian politics is famous for bringing together people who were on the opposite ends of the scale at one point of time, and separating those who used to be counted as close friends. We already see this day in and day out, however, this does become more challenging when you see this happening in the case of people whom you do not expect to see such easy acceptance of the realities of politics.
Consider the case of the friendship and association between the Bachchans and Amar Singh. Amar Singh was once the close link between the earthy casteist Samajwadi Party and the fashionable world of Indian business and movies. Amar Singh was the one who brought in a number of his friends from movies to the world of politics and to bring more glamour to the SP. Prominent among these were the 2 lady politicians, Jaya Prada and Jaya Bachchan. The friendship between the Bachchans and Amar Singh was not only political, they would go to support each other when either one of them was in some trouble, and one can be sure that when Amitabh Bachchan was facing some pressure from the Income Tax authorities, Amar Singh would have tried to call in some help.
And then Amar Singh became too ambitious, wanting to be the second-in-command of the Samajwadi Party when there were a number of relatives of Mulayam Singh, primarily his brother and son, wanting to be known as the next set of leaders, right next to ‘Netaji’. After a period of separation, he was finally kicked out of the posts of the party and then from the party itself. He was followed soon after by Jaya Prada, but Amar Singh was expecting Jaya Bachchan to also make her exit from the party in his support, and that did not happen then, and is unlikely to happen now; she is going to be renominated by the SP for her Rajya Sabha MP seat, that too at at time when the reduced presence of the SP means that it cannot re-elect all the Rajya Sabha MP’s it had earlier (link to article):
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Exposing Indian Maoists : Part – 1

( Let me make one thing clear…..the objective of writing this article is not defending any activity of Indian govt, but to focus on Indian Maoists. They are largely potrayed as a group fighting for the legitimate rights of Adivashis. But here I discussed some unknown, or atleast less-known aspects of Maoist movement in India. Most informations are gathered from publiocations & statements made by Maoists themselves )

Two conceptions regarding Indian Maoists are quite popular – 1) It’s an adivashi movement, 2) There main concern of Maoists is protecting the rights of adivashis.

Well, both are partially-true. While it’s true that Maoists are most active in adivashi belt & most of the members are adivashis, the top Maoist leaders are mostly not adivashis. Ganapthi, Kishenji, Bimal, Azad , Kobad Ghandy,Telegu Deepak, Anand………none of them are adivashi, but quite educated people, & mainly a result of Naxalite political movements in ‘70s & ‘80s.
In various instances, Maoists have expressed their objective to establish a People’s Democratic Republic in India. See what Kishenji have said in an interview with Tusha Mittal from Tehelka-

“Q : What is your larger long-term vision? Outline three tangible goals.
A : The first is to gain political power, to establish new democracy, socialism and then communism…………”
Besides they they have extended support to LTTE & justified their demand of a separate Tamil Elam, supported various separatist movements in India, support the movements for separate states, & take an uncannily soft stand towards Islamic terrorism.
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Finally an agreement in Jharkand, after 3 weeks of turmoil about who will be the Chief Minister

Who would have thought that Shibu Soren could have caused such a huge amount of political turmoil, and plunged the politics of Jharkand into a minefield where everything seemed to be have become unsettled. Shibu Soren was the Chief Minister of Jharkand, as a part of a coalition where the BJP supported the JMM in a coalition (and the BJP had agreed to let Shibu Soren be the Chief Minister). However, Soren is also a Lok Sabha member (and did not yet get elected to the state as a MLA); so he was eligible to vote for the no-confidence motion against Congress / UPA in Parliament. To the shock of the BJP, Shibu Soren voted for the Congress. Visibly angry, the party decided to pull out of the coalition and send a note to the Governor that they would no longer support the JMM. At the same time, given how Shibu Soren does not have a very clean reputation, the Congress and the party of Babulal Marandi do not want to tie hands with the JMM and any talks between the JMM and these parties must have foundered. So within a few hours of this decision by the BJP, the JMM decide to make a peace offer, where Shibu Soren blamed his health for touching the wrong button, and his son Hemant offered a formula whereby there would be a switch and the BJP could decide the Chief Minister.
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