Showing posts with label Congress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Congress. Show all posts

Friday, July 12, 2013

A Federal Front Plus Congress With Nitish At The Helm

A coalition of regional parties, all in power, with a total tally larger than that of the Congress or the BJP but needing the support of the Congress to cross over the majority mark is what I see happening in 2014. That would make Nitish Prime Minister of India. And that would be awesome.

Federal Front is a great name for that coalition of regional parties. I can see the JD(U) winning at least 30 seats in Bihar. That Federal Front need not bring together all regional parties and all non-Congress, non-BJP parties.
 
The Third Front Needs A New Name
A Roadmap For Nitish
Nitish Is On His Way To Becoming Prime Minister


I have been impressed with Modi's economic record, but I have been more impressed with Nitish' economic record. And Rahul has the option to wait.
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Monday, March 25, 2013

Nitish, Modi Or Rahul?

English: Image of Narendra Modi at the World E...
English: Image of Narendra Modi at the World Economic Forum in India (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Nitish is quite possibly the best Chief Minister India has right now: Bihar is growing the fastest of all Indian states. Narendra Modi of BJP has had an impressive economic record in Gujrat for over a decade now. Rahul Gandhi is a scion of India’s Kennedy family, and his party is the largest. Nitish and Modi are part of the same alliance, but there is a sound possibility of a non-BJP, non-Congress front emerging in 2014. Nitish might be the most qualified to be India’s next Prime Minister, and that judgment might be a little tinted because I am half Bihari, and I take obvious pride in him, as I did in Laloo Yadav’s amazing work as India’s Railways Minister. But then Nitish’ party is rather small, and there are many prime ministerial aspirants among the non-BJP, non-Congress parties. Right now it is not even clear if Nitish is even a prime ministerial candidate. If it is simply Modi versus Rahul, Modi might have a huge anti-incumbency advantage. The ugly 2002 Gujrat riots have been a taint on the Modi name but the Indian Supreme Court has given him a clean chit on it. He likens it to the anti Sikh riots of 1984. It was tragic, but it is hard to pin the blame on any one person. I must admit I do feel uncomfortable about the fact he did not contest a single Muslim candidate in the recent state elections in Gujrat.

I root for Nitish because he is India’s best Chief Minister, because he is a Bihari, and because Nitish as India’s Prime Minister and Imran Khan as Pakistan’s Prime Minister might bring about regional peace and normal relations between the two countries, and also because there is a clear possibility he might make it. India will now on have coalition governments for a long long time. If both the Congress and the BJP fail to go past 150 seats in 2014 that will give a lot of leg room for someone like Nitish.

Both Nitish and Modi talk in terms of surpassing China in terms of economic growth. That is a breath of fresh air coming from the messiest – or most interesting – democracy on the planet. It is hard to predict which way the wind will blow in 2014. Modi’s advantage is that he can, as he has, make it clear he is the BJP’s candidate for Prime Minister. Nitish might not have that option. He might have to count on a friendly configuration emerging after the polls are over. But if Nitish is not in the race and Modi at the top gets the BJP to perform surprisingly well at the polls then it might be Bihar’s good luck that Nitish gets to continue as Chief Minister of Bihar to keep giving that state double digit growth rates. We all know Bihar needs it.

English: Nitish Kumar
English: Nitish Kumar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rahul likely is headed to be Leader of the Opposition. He is clean, he is smart, he has a famous last name. He is obviously popular inside his party. But long gone are days when the Congress used to be able to get a majority on its own. And his lack of experience in government – he has not been Cabinet Minister or Chief Minister – might work against him.

It just might be that both Modi and Nitish get to make their way to the top, Modi now and Nitish perhaps two terms later. But such predictions are extremely hard to make for a country like India. The political landscape can alter so fundamentally so fast. Anna Hazare came out of the blue, did he not?

With either Nitish or Modi at the helm India is poised to do well economically, as it deserves to. And 2014 is going to be an election campaign for the history books. My favorite democracy to watch in the world is going to be like a peacock in full dance. India deserves nothing less. Both Gujrat and Bihar have roads that are better than in some states in America. This has been called the Asian century. India is a country to watch, year in year out, decade in, decade out.
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Saturday, December 29, 2012

The Third Front Needs A New Name

What Is Nitish Thinking?
Nitish Might Not Have The BJP Option
The Nitish Magic



The NDA is a good name, as is the UPA. The Third Front is not a good name. Even the name National Front is better. Or perhaps a three letter acronym. The name Third Front has too much of a non-Congress, non-BJP sting to it.

The Third Front needs a new name and a proper structure. If it is not going to become one unified party, there needs be some kind of a confederate structure.

If both Mayawati and Mulayam can get together to prop up the Congress government, they can perhaps together prop up Nitish Kumar.

The Third Front needs a new name, a leader who is projected as the PM candidate months before the elections, an organizational structure that makes it some kind of a a confederate, and a common national manifesto that is centered around Nitishism: rapid development.

Name: National Front (NF). PM candidate: Nitish Kumar. A steering committee of the presidents of all member parties that meets every three months in Delhi or as often as necessary. When there is no consensus decisions are taken through voting where each president has a weight in proportion to how many MPs his/her party has in Delhi. The Steering Committee of the National Front should be similar to the central committee of the Congress or the BJP. And Nitish should make a repeat of his Bihar performance. All his cabinet members must declare their assets on the internet. The manifesto would be easy to write. Nitish has to make a repeat of what he has already done in Bihar.

I think 2014 will catapult Nitish Kumar as the PM of India, Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of the Opposition, and Narendra Modi will continue as the Chief Minister of Bihar.

As Power Flows to Regional Bosses, Questions Rise on India’s Economy
power is now radiating to regional political chieftains, who are teasingly considering a new national political alignment, a so-called third front to compete with the two national powers, the Congress Party and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party ..... In past decades, third-front governments have twice taken power and have twice collapsed because of internal bickering, a prospect of instability certain to be unappealing to those in New Delhi and Washington who are eager for India to become a stable and influential player in Asia. Most analysts are skeptical that a true third front will take power in the near future, but they agree that the clout of regional leaders is growing. ..... Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of the state of Bihar, has hinted that his regional party could join any coalition that granted his state special status. Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister of Orissa, has expressed support for a third-front coalition. Jayalalithaa, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, has also spoken suggestively about a new political alliance. .... Most analysts predict that both the Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party will lose seats in the next election, but that one of the dominant parties will ally with some combination of the regional bosses to form a government, possibly even agreeing to elevate one of them to serve as prime minister.
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Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Paramendra Kumar Batting For Nitish Kumar


Nitish Kumar: Prime Minister

My name is Paramendra Kumar, and I am batting for Nitish Kumar.

Bihar bats for Nitish Kumar as PM
L K Advani's blog about a non-Congress, non-NDA Prime Minister coming to power after 2014 polls stoked the fire on Tuesday with Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray criticizing the BJP leader while JD(U) leaders differed in their opinion on the issue. Thackeray's comment, that Advani's prediction might be based on the two contenders - Nitish and Narendra Modi - for the PM's post within the NDA, threw up the issue for debate .... TOI on Tuesday reached out to a cross-section of society for reaction on Thackeray admitting Nitish as potential PM candidate and majority of them preferred Nitish to Modi mainly because of the former's secular credentials, wider acceptability among the NDA allies, clean image and his pan-India appeal among youth. .... his stature will also bring other socialist, secular and nationalist parties under one umbrella. The 2014 battle will be fought in the Hindi heartland. In this backdrop, Nitish will emerge an automatic choice .... "Nobody in this country is ready to accept that Modi is a secular person. Nitish has secular credentials. If the NDA projects Nitish as its next prime ministerial candidate, he would be able to garner support from all secular forces. Among the non-Congress leaders, Nitish would be the best prime minister." .... "Nitish has emerged as the strongest prime ministerial candidate. He would be the most capable and dynamic PM. He has vision and ability to lead a country of different religions, faiths and languages. Unlike Modi, Nitish has experience of running ministries at the Centre. Whichever ministry he headed, Nitish hardly disturbed the basic fabric of bureaucracy." .... "Bihar has taken a big leap in terms of development, safety and security under Nitish leadership. The world has recognized his ability to govern. In 2008, when I was travelling in Gujarat, some co-passengers in train told me about crisis of workers mainly because Biharis had stopped going to Gujarat after tremendous development in Nitish raj. I think Nitish would prove a better PM." ..... "When Lalu Prasad was the chief minister of Bihar, Nitish used to be called his 'Chanakya'. Let this modern Chanakya from Nalanda be the next PM. As he has brought an overall growth in Bihar, he would surely change the economic scenario of the country." .... "Modi has no experience of heading ministry at the Centre whereas Nitish has been minister of different departments, including railways, for several years. Besides, unlike Modi, Nitish has acceptance among people of all religions." ..... "Nitish must be given a chance to become PM. He would definitely bring the nation on the fast track of development as he has done in Bihar. If Modi is doing well in Gujarat it is because he got a developed territory to lead. But Bihar has been a 'Bimaru' state for several years. Nitish has made the turnaround no one had even thought of."
Post-2014 polls, non-Congress, non-BJP PM likely: LK Advani
Advani wrote in his blog, "A non-Congress, non-BJP prime minister heading a government supported by one of these two principal parties is, however, feasible. This has happened in the past also." .... Advani also predicted that the Congress was headed for its worst-ever debacle and might for the first time "sink to just two digits" in Lok Sabha .... at a time when the BJP leadership is debating whether it can risk annoying allies like Bihar CM Nitish Kumar by projecting his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. ..... In his blog , Advani also wrote that a government which will not be led by either the BJP or Congress was not likely to last long. "This has happened in the past also. But as the prime ministership of Chaudhry Charan Singh, Chandrashekharji, Deve Gowdaji and Inder Kumar Gujralji, as also of Vishwanath Pratap Singhji have shown, such governments have never lasted long," he said.
A scenario I am looking at is where either the BJP or the Congress emerge as the largest party but distant from a majority on their own, the non-Congress, non-BJP parties collectively become bigger than either the Congress or the BJP, and the BJP throwing its weight behind Nitish Kumar among all possible non-Congress, non-BJP candidates. That BJP support wipes out any possibility of any other non-Congress, non-BJP candidate showing up. Congress gets left out big time. The UPA as an alliance is no more, and even the NDA as an alliance is in tatters. For the first time the non-Congress, non-BJP government could last a full four year term.


Advani blog: Sena fumes, JD(U) welcomes prediction
A political storm has stirred up over Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L.K. Advani's blog post predicting a non-Congress, non-BJP prime minister after the next polls, with ally Shiv Sena terming it "demoralising" and another ally Janata Dal(United) (JD-U) welcoming it..... JD(U) MP Shivanand Tiwari, however, defended Advani, saying his assessment is "impeccable".... Old ally Thackeray, in a strongly worded editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna, however, said: "If Advani has any doubts, he can come to me at Matoshri (Thackeray's residence in Mumbai) and I will give him a dose of morale and strength." .... He added that the comment would "add fuel to the fire" of ambitions in Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi for the prime minister's post.... "There is price rise, unemployment, corruption, but the BJP is not fighting a sustained battle against these evils... In Uttar Pradesh, Punjab elections, there was anti-incumbency factor which should have benefited the BJP but it didn't," said Tiwari..... Tiwari's comment come a day after his party chief Sharad Yadav said he did not agree with Advani's prediction
LK Advani's Blog
Speculations About Congress' Fate In 2014
the Government likely to take shape can be that of the Third Front. .... It would not at all be surprising if the next Lok Sabha elections yield a result which for the Congress may prove the worst in its history since 1952
How Britain Promoted Opium In India
Today, it is universally acknowledged that the two basic touchstones to judge a country’s conditions are its performance in the field of education and healthcare...... the British rulers in India deliberately and systematically, destroyed whatever wholesome existed .... When the British came there was throughout India, a system of communal schools managed by the village communities. The agents of the East India Company destroyed these village communities…. ..... “Instead of encouraging education, the Government encouraged drink. When the British came, India was a sober nation. ‘The temperance of the people,’ said Warren Hastings, ‘is demonstrated in the simplicity of their food and their total abstinence from spirituous liquors and other substances of intoxication.’ ...... “With the first trading posts established by the British, saloons were opened for the sale of rum, and the East India Company made handsome profits from the trade. When the Crown took over India it depended on the saloons for a large parts of its revenue; the license system was so arranged as to stimulate drinking and sales....... “The Government revenue from such licenses has increased seven-fold in the last forty years; in 1922 it stood at $60,000,000 annually-three times the appropriation for schools and universities.’ ..... She does not tell us that the opium is grown only by the Government, and is sold exclusively by the Government; that its sale, like the sale of drink through saloons, is carried on despite the protest of the Nationalist Congress, the Industrial and Social Conferences, the Provincial Conferences, the Brahmo-Somaj, the Arya-Somaj, the Mohammedans and the Christians, that there are seven thousand opium shops in India, operated by the British Government, in the most conspicuous places in every town; that the Central Legislature in 1921 passed a bill prohibiting the growth or sale of opium in India, and that the Government refused to act upon it; that from two to four hundred thousand acres of India’s soil, sorely needed for the raising of food, are given over to the growing of opium; and that the sale of the drug brings to the Government one-ninth of its total revenue every year. ...... It was…the practice of the miserable tyrants whom we found in India, that when they dreaded the capacity and spirit of some distinguished subjects, and yet could not venture to murder him, to administer to him daily dose of the pousta, a preparation of opium, the effect of which was in a few months to destroy all the bodily and mental powers of the wretch who was drugged with it, and turn him into a helpless idiot. That detestable artifice, more horrible than assassination itself, was worthy of those who employed it. It is no model for the English nation. We shall never consent to administer the pousta to a whole community, to stupefy and paralyze a great people

The NDA has to project Nitish as its PM candidate before the elections. That is a sure way for the NDA to get into power.

The only person contesting against Nitish Kumar is Rahul Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi himself is a fan of Nitish Kumar. I think that pretty much sums up the debate, if there is one.

May 2009: Rahul praises Nitish Kumar, Naidu
"I am not saying that only Congress has leaders (who have done good work), there are leaders in the opposition.... Nitish (Kumar), for example," he said, praising the Bihar chief minister. 
Rahul blundered by praising Nitish, Jayalalitha, quips Jaitley
"It is a blunder on part of young Gandhi to praise Nitish Kumar and Jayalalitha, for his overtures have been cold-shouldered by the parties he was trying to reach. On the other hand, UPA partners got upset and is seeing it with suspicion" 
Lalu, Paswan Dismiss Rahul's Praise For Nitish
Reacting to Rahul Gandhi lauding Nitish Kumar for the developmental work done in the state, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad made no attempt to hide his ire. He told reporters: "Nitish koi achha kaam nahi kiya hai (Nitish has not done any good work)." ... He added, "Neither is the Congress ours nor are we in Congress." ..... Lok Janshakti Party leader and Bihar leader Ram Vilas Paswan too made apparent his irritation at the Congress general secretary's speech. "If Nitish has done good work, then why has the Congress pitched its candidates against him? Kya bolte hain Rahul? (What is Rahul talking about)."
And the biggest name in the BJP is himself saying no to Modi, and yes to Nitish.

Lal Krishna Advani moves away from Modi, says Non-Cong, Non-BJP PM possible
Advani's remarks assume significance in the context of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's reservations over BJP projecting Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate in the next general elections..... Of late, there has been speculation that Advani and Modi do not share the same relationship they used to have years ago. Advani had in an earlier blog also written about not-so-rosy a picture about the state of affairs in BJP

A vote for Nitish Kumar will be a vote for double digit growth rates for India. India becomes the new China with Nitish Kumar at the helm. This is about the economy, stupid. India's time on the world stage has come.
 
Bangladesh Diplomat Identifies Pakistan's Seven Deadly Sins
If Saudis Can Surrender Abu Jindal, Why Can't Pak Hand Over Dawood Ibrahim?
Some Memories Of Past Presidential Elections

I must say Advani has a great blog.
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Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Maloney Lied Repeatedly In Radio Debate

Charles B. RangelImage via Wikipedia

Maloney spoke a string of lies in her radio debate.

She said she does not own BP stocks, she never has. Factually correct. Her family by now has sold all BP stocks it owned. When the Maloney family owned BP stocks, it was in her late husband's name, not hers.

By that logic, Maloney's net worth is zero dollars. She has not made any money. But the truth is her net worth is 20 million dollars. A-l-l of that came from Wall Street. I don't begrudge her wealth. I wish more of the same on as many others as possible.

But to suggest your family owning BP stocks had nothing to do with your voting the Dick Cheney votes on the oil industry in the early 2000s is hogwash. This is Charlie Rangel behavior.

Maloney's 20 million dollars are relevant in that she played a key role in undoing the regulations in 1999 that made her family a lot of money but that gave America its Great Recession a decade later.

Maloney has been accused of having hosted fundraisers with Wall Street PACs right when she was working on Wall Street reform. In the radio debate she said her congressional staff did not organize those fundraisers she attended. Factually correct. But the truth is she has separate staff for fundraising. Her fundraising staff organized those fundraisers that violate the basic ethics rules of Congress. Is that a problem or is that a problem? Did Maloney lie in saying her people did not organize those two fundraisers?

This is Charlie Rangel behavior.

"She lied," Reshma Saujani said. Saujani was pointing out the obvious. But the Maloney trolls are saying for Saujani to point out that Maloney was lying borders towards the "negative."

Looking the other way while wrong is being done, is that positive? That is not positive, that is irresponsible.

Maloney has lied repeatedly.

The biggest lie though was Maloney saying she had authored "70 bills." What she did not say was she got only three of those passed, one was to do with renaming a post office.

Wall Street Journal: Maloney, Saujani In Primary Debate: "Congresswoman Maloney has failed New Yorkers. She has failed to lead, failed to offer a single new idea in this race, failed to serve responsibly and ethically," Ms. Saujani said in her opening statement. "She says that I'm running a negative campaign. Carolyn, all I'm doing is telling the truth." .... Calling for a House ethics investigation into Ms. Maloney's conduct, Ms. Saujani accused Ms. Maloney of holding fund-raisers with lobbyists for the financial-services industry while negotiating legislation to reform Wall Street..... Ms. Saujani accused her of lying: "You said that your staff and you were not involved in those two fund-raisers. I'm holding the invitations right now and they say checks can be mailed to Maloney for Congress. It's this type of lack of ethics and integrity that people are tired of." ..... Ms. Saujani was scheduled Tuesday night to hold a fund-raiser at the home of Alan Jones, managing director of Morgan Stanley.

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