As BJP did after Pokhran II, Congress may be ceding more political ground by not standing up for the rights of the citizens of Assam.

The release of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, indicating that around four million of the State’s residents could be illegal migrants, has generated loud protests from the national leadership of the Congress, followed by some confused, calibrated responses from its leaders in Assam. Although the party knew that the final draft of the NRC would be out around this time, it appears to have gifted away the initial advantage to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by failing to acknowledge its past commitments to the detection and deportation of foreigners.

While the Congress’ seasonal fellow travellers — regional and caste-based parties far removed from the realities of Assam — can afford to raise their voice against the NRC in the hope of signaling solidarity with the Muslims in their areas of influence, India’s grand old party just cannot be whimsical about it because of its repeated commitment to detect and deport foreigners — a commitment that was first made by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1971 and firmly reiterated by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985. Indira Gandhi initiated the dialogue with the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) and the negotiations eventually culminated in the Assam Accord in 1985.

Looking at the Congress’ flip-flop on this issue, one is reminded of the party’s angry protests over the nuclear tests conducted by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government in May, 1998 (Pokhran-II) and its subsequent volte-face. When it realised that the nuclear tests had given the BJP Government a major political boost, its leaders began sheepishly claiming that it was actually Indira Gandhi who had turned India into a nuclear state with Pokhran-I in May, 1974! But the realisation came a bit too late. The BJP had walked away with the prize!

Here again, the Congress’ ambivalence on the NRC issue is inexplicable. Apart from Indira Gandhi’s public declarations in this regard, the Assam Accord — signed on August 15, 1985 between the Union Government headed by Rajiv Gandhi and the AASU and the AAGSP — gave specific guarantees to the people of the State. The Accord said that in February 1980, AASU had conveyed to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi its “profound sense of apprehension regarding the continuing influx of foreign nationals into Assam” and also expressed its fear about the adverse effects this would have on the political, social, cultural and economic life of the State. Following this memorandum, “being fully alive to the genuine apprehensions of the people of Assam”, Indira Gandhi initiated the dialogue with AASU and AAGSP, leading to the Agreement of 1985.

The main points of agreement were: Foreigners who came to Assam on or after March 25,1971, shall continue to be detected, deleted and practical steps shall be taken to expel such foreigners; foreigners who came to Assam after January 1, 1966, and up to March 24, 1971, shall be detected in accordance with the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964; names of foreigners so detected will be deleted from the electoral rolls in force and on the expiry of 10 years following the date of detection, names of all such persons which were deleted from the electoral rolls shall be restored; all persons who were expelled earlier, but have since re-entered illegally into Assam, shall be expelled. The Rajiv Gandhi Government also gave firm assurances in this Accord to securing the border against future infiltration.

Although the Illegal Migrants (Determination) Tribunals Act (IMDT Act) was brought in with much fanfare, it failed to fulfill its purpose of detecting and deporting foreigners and as against millions of illegal migrants, just a few thousand were detected and fewer still were deported. The failure of the Act to detect and deport foreigners also resulted in some adverse observations by a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in Sarbananda Sonowal Vs.Union of India & Anr. The petitioner is the Chief Minister of Assam today. The Court, in its judgement delivered on July 12, 2005, declared the IMDT Act ultra vires the Constitution.

It said the initial affidavit filed by the State Government showed that 85 per cent of the enquiries initiated were rejected and no reference was made to the tribunal. Similarly, the restrictions imposed on an applicant, a citizen of India doing a national duty of pointing out the presence of an illegal migrant in Assam, “does not carry any sense”.  The Court concluded thus: “A deep analysis of the IMDT Act and the rules made there under would reveal that they have been purposely so enacted or made so, so as to give shelter or protection to illegal immigrants who came to Assam from Bangladesh on or after March, 25, 1971 rather than to identify or deport them”.

Later the Court stepped in once again in Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha & Ors Vs. Union of India & Ors. In this case, the Court issued several directions and asked the Union Government to expedite the border fencing along the Indo-Bangladesh border. The Court also declared the schedule to govern the work of updating of the NRC in Assam so that the entire updated NRC is published by the end of January 2016.

In other words, the preparation of the draft NRC has its origins in the firm commitments given by Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi to detect and deport foreigners from Assam and is subject to the directions given by the Supreme Court, which is closely monitoring this exercise. The Congress does not even acknowledge the fact that this issue is being closely monitored by the country’s apex court. It is trying to tell the people that the NRC is part of BJP’s divisive politics.  It is also trying to pretend it has nothing to do with this issue in the hope that this will help it retain its share holding in what is called the Muslim vote-bank.

Since millions of illegal migrants have entered the country and spread themselves out with the patronage of some political parties, leading to social tensions and security concerns, this is a major issue agitating the minds of genuine citizens. By not standing up for the rights of citizens, the Congress could well be ceding more political ground to the BJP like it did after Pokhran II, and that too in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.

(The writer is Chairman, Prasar Bharati)

Writer: A Surya Prakash

Courtesy: The Pioneer

Similar to Uttarakhand and Bihar, Kerala is facing a crisis flood situation. It is time to find a permanent solution.

Citizens of Kerala have been mesmerised by the opening of all five sluice gates of the Cheruthoni Dam and the sight of the Idukki Reservoir draining out. This was the first time that all five gates of the reservoir have been opened since the dam was commissioned back in 1976. But the water level in the reservoir, which has come down now, was at unprecedented dangerous levels as rains in Kerala had not abated over the past week and thousands of gallons of water from the catchment area were still flowing into the reservoir. The resultant swelling of the Periyar river downstream is also having a massive impact on lives and on rituals, with authorities warning people against conducting the Vavu Bali ritual. Cochin Airport, the States major international gateway, has already been shut once and while operations have restarted, warnings remain in place. For a State that markets itself as ‘God’s Own Country’ in tourist campaigns, tourism has also been badly impacted with tourists having to be rescued from a resort.

However, the authorities at the State and Central levels, along with the Defence forces, have to be commended for their exemplary work in conducting rescue and rehabilitation efforts for the residents. But this is just the beginning. Several important rural roads and bridges, which are the lifeline of several communities, have been washed away. Several major roads and bridges will also need to have their structural integrity tested, and post-flood damage has to be avoided. Water and electricity supplies have been disrupted and thousands of families have had to leave their homes and move due to the floods. There will be considerable property damage with homes and vehicles flooded, and this can only be evaluated once the flood waters recede. It will further be imperative to prevent the rapid spread of disease after the flood waters have gone. Indeed, the potential of disease after the floods have gone can kill more people than the actual event itself.

All said and done, it is imperative that India, at both the Central and State levels, comes up with policies to combat the impact of extreme weather phenomena. This has to be discussed by India’s policy makers urgently. Given India’s vast land area and large coastline, India will suffer more than most from the effects of global warming-derived weather pattern changes. Extreme floods in Uttarakhand, Bihar and now Kerala are a warning. While the National Disaster Management Authority has done a stellar job so far, spot reactions are just that. But at the same time, India finds itself in a quandary. If it is to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, it will need to generate thermal power and industrialise, further polluting the environment, and with the Paris Climate Accord in tatters, thanks to US President Donald Trump, the path India must take has to be decided by its own people. And the forecasts are not not good for the time being. In the meantime, we pray for the people of Kerala and hope they can get their lives back to normal as soon as possible, and for now at least, regional water politics in southern India will not be an issue in the near future.

Writer and Courtesy: The Pioneer

The never-ending Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case needs to get closure. It was expected to end up in Supreme Court.

Aarushi Talwar would have been a grown woman by now, possibly she might have even had children of her own by now. After all, it has been 10 years since she was found brutally murdered in her bedroom in Noida. The sheer incompetence of the Noida Police in investigating the case, the fact that they discovered the body of the murdered servant Hemraj on the terrace two days later, and the wanton destruction of evidence means that this case will always have more questions than answers and the truth may never come out.

And while Aarushi’s parents may or may not be guilty, rather the evidence, or lack thereof, may not be able to prove guilt or otherwise, the fact is that there were two murders that day. The death of Hemraj, his bloated, decomposing body found only two days later must also be investigated, his widow also needs answers as to why he died. That said, it is imperative on the Supreme Court to ensure that this case gets dealt with quickly. Not only has a decade passed since the events of May 16, 2008, it is important that a high-profile murder case gets decided quickly. It’s important that every case gets decided quickly. A recent judgement by the Rajasthan High Court cleared a women of a murder committed in 1981. Thirty-seven years later. If this is not an indictment of India’s judicial system, god knows what is.

The speed of justice in India is becoming comically slow, and this case and the labyrinthine investigative and judicial process involved, have only highlighted why India needs urgent police and judicial reform. Aarushi and Hemraj both deserve justice and unfortunately, the lack of evidence thanks to its destruction might mean that whoever committed the crimes will probably get away with murder. The Supreme Court should also take a stand and punish those who destroyed the evidence because a double-murder will likely go unsolved.

And it must be ensured that such reckless stupidity does not occur in the future. If India has to stand out as a society where the rule of law is supreme and a cursory visit on the streets of this nation is evidence that the rule of law is fraying, then justice has to be delivered. India’s police and judicial system have failed Aarushi and Hemraj so far and it is unlikely that the Supreme Court can change much, but at least they can quicken matters.

Writer and Courtesy: The Pioneer

The act of hiring and firing journalists, similar to electing and rejecting politicians, is a never-ending procedure. The decision to let employees go are a matter of the management, not for political convenience.

Any democracy has its four pillars on which it develops and progresses. The fourth pillar or the fourth estate has been the Press. However, with technology playing a crucial role in information dissemination, a ‘fifth estate’ appears to have arisen which is social media. Today, the discourse of this fifth estate is all about preaching morality and ethics on an event related to the fourth estate. The case has been made out regarding the resignation of senior television journalist from ABP News, a leading Hindi news channel, over the past week. Those who are casting aspersions on the Government have forgotten a basic rule: That media houses today are business entities and work in a corporate environment. The Government has a limited say in their running and only looks at policy matters.

Social media outrage at the separation of the journalists from their company is sought to be directed as a not-so-veiled attack on the Government. But one must look at the larger problem that’s facing the media fraternity. Every time the Government is targeted like this, it is a digression, because one is sweeping the more serious malice plaguing the media sector under the carpet. The ABP News matter should be seen as a matter between the management and its employee. India is still a republic and the media is by and large free from Government interference. All media groups, like any other business groups, are governed by the law and have been given the option of self-censorship as part of healthy democratic norms. Like it or not, any editorial, financial, administrative and business decision in media houses is part of a larger corporate decision-making process with the management and its top executives taken in consonance with that particular company’s corporate philosophy and targets they set themselves to achieve.

The ABP News incident has been projected as a case where the Government allegedly ‘forced’ the management to ease out the journalists who were exposing faults in Government policy. Till now, it’s only the redoubtable social media warriors who are shooting allegations and scooting. Media watchdogs such as Editor’s Guild in its statement and more vitally the Press Council of India have not provided any substantive or related information or complaint or evidence that Government had any role to play in this. If the journalists had any problems with their management, then they have organisational and/or legal platforms to seek redress for their grievances relating to any administrative or editorial policy decisions. Till now, everybody is just firing in the air and not seeking recourse to the law available.

The fact that the media houses are private entities and run businesses according to their corporate mandate has also been highlighted and upheld by the Supreme Court. The Court marked out this clear if thin red line in the Majithia Wage Board case, sending it to the various labour commissioners of respective States and asked for the wage board’s implementation to ensure that pay and work-related recommendations, and their corresponding benefits, are passed down to journalists and non-journalist employees of newspapers. The Court also stated that the pay, compensation and employment situation of employees in newspapers need to be sympathetically and humanely dealt with and State Governments must ensure that mediapersons get their dues. However, the Court also made it clear that media house managements can’t be forced to take on financial or employee burdens as a thumb rule. The financial condition of the media house shall also determine its ability to spend, including on human resources. It follows, therefore, that managements would be able to decide whom to hire or fire.

The kind of ghetto politics that many senior journalists are indulging in against the BJP Government is actually a beating around the bush tactic. I would have welcomed and wholeheartedly supported all the top guns if they would have used the same energy, unity and sense of purpose in ensuring the Majithia Wage Board recommendations were implemented in letter and spirit. I wish all senior mediapersons would show the same sense of understanding in trying to bridge issues between journalists and managements to find a solution as they are exhibiting in trying to find the link between the ABP News resignations and a so-called Government diktat.

I remember an old interview of eminent journalist Kuldeep Nayyar during the Emergency and the situation of the leading media houses. He remembered that Ramnath Goenka’s Indian Express and CR Irani’s The Statesman were the two media houses which took up the challenge of keeping the media as an independent voice. Journalists such as Arun Shourie, Coomi Kapoor and Minhaz Merchant were supported by their managements to run independently collated and factually correct reports. This was not a decision  prompted by a Government or a political guideline or a party interest. It was purely a decision of the management which gave full support to its editorial leadership. The same principles and management-editorial teamwork policies stand true even today whether our politics agrees with them or not.

When we see so many layoffs, financial bankruptcy and even untimely demise of both old and upcoming media houses, one is reminded that business is all about profit; the ability of many management-editorial teams is tested in its struggle to keep the company alive. Managements are free to save and protect the intellectual property that they have created. As in politics and so in journalism, politicians will come and go and so will journalists. Hiring and firing of journalists, just like the election and rejection of politicians, is a constant. Decisions to separate from particular employees are management decisions and not of political convenience. If senior journalists use their energy to fight the Government to ensure the ills which plague the media industry are weeded out, instead of an imaginary battle, it would be a great service not only to media fraternity but also for democracy.

(The writer is a BJP leader)

Writer: Sudhanshu Mittal

Courtesy: The Pioneer

Congress has been hinting at bringing Priyanka into active politics for years. It seems like now feels the right time for the party, especially against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Some now say she will fight the Lok Sabha Elections from Raebareli, her mother Sonia Gandhi’s seat. Rahul Gandhi is not expected to leave his seat, Amethi, and Sonia will head to the Rajya Sabha in all likelihood. It is also being said that the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) also want Priyanka to enter the fight from Uttar Pradesh.

On the other hand, many Congress leaders opine that if Priyanka enters active politics, it will create two power centres in the party, leading to the premature end of Rahul’s career, which will be unacceptable to Sonia. Hence, a majority of party leaders don’t want Priyanka to jump on the bandwagon just yet. However, at the same time, the party is facing an existential crisis and leaders believe Narendra Modi’s return to power in 2019 will spell doom for the party as well as the Gandhi family.

According to the Congress, the path to stop Modi can only be carved out from UP. If the BJP gets minimum seats in UP, then it is certain that either the party will not get power at the Centre or that Modi will not return as the PM. It is precisely for this reason that it becomes imperative for Priyanka to get active, and the Congress as well as the SP and BSP are gearing up for this. The SP and BSP are of the view that if Priyanka fights from UP, the State will witness a different situation altogether. The Congress leaders feel that if this happens, Rahul’s seat will be safe from the BJP’s challenge. There is a catch, though. The Congress doesn’t want to waste the Priyanka card and she will fight only when the party gets more seats. And that’s why the decision is pending.

NO JOBS OR NO DATA?

The burning question doing the rounds on social media these days is whether there are no jobs or no data of jobs with the Government? While replying to the no-confidence motion in Parliament, PM Modi said the Government has provided ample jobs in the past four years, but there is no corresponding data. His statement was immediately scrutinised by many on social media. People said Modi had data on 60 years of the Congress regime, but none on such a crucial part of his own regime.

However, senior BJP leader and Minister Nitin Gadkari gave a statement on a different track. While talking about the Maratha reservation in Maharashtra, Gadkari said: “If the Government agrees to give reservation to Marathas, what will happen? Where are the jobs?” He added that there was retrenchment in the IT and other sectors, and new jobs were not being created. He added that if there are no jobs, why is there a demand for reservation? So, finally, are there no jobs or simply no data on them?

BIHAR’S BIZARRE POLITICS

There is a bizarre situation in Bihar; leaders of the BJP are fighting with each other, and at the same time, the BJP leaders are squabbling with the JDU leaders as well. Both parties are at loggerheads over the Muzaffarpur issue. However, a BJP leader says this is a blessing in disguise for the party as infighting has come out in the open. In fact, there has been a controversy of Sushil Modi vs others in the Bihar BJP for years. So, when it was claimed that the Muzaffarpur mastermind was close to Sushil Modi, other leaders took up the cudgels against him. A leader said that right from the Srijan scam of Bhagalpur to the Balika Grih of Muzaffarpur, the accused almost always have a connection with Sushil Modi. The husband of Bihar Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma — who resigned on Wednesday — is under question in the latest case as the Balika Grih falls under the Social Welfare Ministry.

Verma was a Minister from the JDU quota, but Deputy CM Sushil Modi gave her a clean chit, saying she was not at fault. The moment Sushil Modi gave this statement, his party colleague, CP Thakur, demanded Verma’s resignation, thereby indirectly launching an attack on Sushil Modi. Now, supporters of Sushil Modi are claiming that the accused in the Muzaffarpur case and Thakur belong to the same caste, so Thakur had tried to pull strings to protect him.

Tejashwi’S DHARNA IN DELHI

Why did former Deputy CM of Bihar and leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, sit on a dharna against the Bihar Government over the Muzaffarpur case, in Delhi? His party says the matter has been taken to the national level, has become the focus of nation media, and the dharna was an attempt to speed up action. But some say the real motive was, in fact, political.

Tejashwi is worried about the fact that the Opposition parties have their eyes on Nitish Kumar, knowing well that many leaders of the Congress and Left are sympathetic towards him. Tejashwi knows that attempts can be made to take Nitish back into the Mahagathbandhan any time. That is why he planned a dharna against the Muzaffarpur issue in Delhi and invited all Opposition parties. Right from Sitaram Yechury to D Raja and Arvind Kejriwal — they were all at Jantar Mantar, against Nitish. Despite being a supporter of Nitish, Rahul Gandhi launched an attack on him, saying if he was ashamed of the Muzaffarpur case, he should immediately take action against the culprits. By getting the Congress and all other Opposition parties to attack Nitish, Tejashwi tried to ensure that they don’t talk to the JDU for any alliance. By the dharna at Jantar Mantar, he managed to make a dent into Nitish’s image.

Writer:  Hari shankar vyas

Source: The Pioneer

Gujarat Government on Friday announced five new schemes for education and self-employment opportunities to economically weaker members of non-reserved communities.

The schemes designed in lines of aid being provided to reserved category would cover around 1.5 crore people in the State belonging to 58 non-reserved communities, claimed Gujarat’s Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel adding that all these schemes are formulated in a manner that reserved communities would continue to get their quotas as per the Constitution.

Notification for these schemes would be issued next week, said Patel. Last year Gujarat Government had initiated procedure to form Gujarat non-reserved category Commission as well as Gujarat Non-reserved Category Education and Financial Development Corporation. Both these bodies have now established with their own fully functional offices in the state capital Gandhinagar with an aim to roll out programmes for the unreserved communities in Gujarat who are not getting the benefits of reservation despite weak economic condition. On suggestions of these two bodies, the State Government announced the new schemes which according to Patel would benefit nearly 1.20 crore students across the State.

Elaborating on the schemes, Dy CM said that under these schemes financial aid including interest subsidy would be extended to students from non-reserved categories whose family income is less than Rs 3 lakh per annum. The aid would be in form of interest subsidy on educational loans as well as soft loans up to Rs 15 lakh, including for studies abroad, tuition fees of Rs 15,000 for Class X students who have scored more than 70 per cent marks, Rs 20,000 for preparation of national-level competitive exams and food subsidy of Rs 1,200 per month for 10 months to students living in hostels.

The Government has also made provisions for providing self-employment loan of up to Rs 10 lakh to buy auto rickshaw, loading auto rickshaw or taxi, open a laboratory or office. While women would get the loan at 4 per cent interest, men would be given a loan at five per cent interest.

The commission had recommended giving all the benefits to students or candidates belonging to non-reserved category communities, on par with those available to OBCs under various schemes, including age limit relaxation for a job, among others. However, the State Government was silent on this issue.

Writer: Nayan Dave

Courtesy: The Pioneer

The recent Pakistan polls are a clear example of how the military interfered and rigged them to catapult Imran Khan to power.

Few things in recent times has surprised this writer more than the breathtaking claim, even by Indians who ought to have known better, that the parliamentary elections held in Pakistan on July 25, 2018, were completely free and above board. The fact is that they were not, and were blatantly rigged in favour of Imran Khan, chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), who is set to become the Prime Minister.

Some have argued that they saw candidates of all parties campaigning freely and people voting without any interference by the Army or any other agency. Just because there was no such visible interference during polling, means nothing. The intimidating presence of 370,000 troops throughout Pakistan on polling day was more than a reminder that the Army called the shots and the presence of troops, even within polling booths, conveyed the impression, rightly or wrongly, that uniformed men would know which individuals voted for whom. It was also common talk that the Army wanted Imran Khan to win. People in Pakistan know one can pay a very heavy price for ignoring its writs.

The argument that one indication that the elections were free and fair was that candidates could be seen campaigning freely, ignores the fact that not all were allowed to become candidates. One of them was none other than former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who was debarred from holding any political office by an eyebrow-raising judicial verdict. Not just that. More than 100 candidates of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Sharif’s party, were made to change their allegiance or stand down. Criminal cases were slapped on more than 17,000 activists of the (PML-N) for violating “election rules.”

Any argument that changing of party loyalties mean nothing because it is frequent in India as well, is laughable. India is a vibrant democracy in which the Army has never played any political role; neither it nor any other agency can force candidates in any election to change sides or desist from contesting. The Army’s role in Pakistan, where it has run dictatorships for long spells, is well-known.

When not running Governments directly, it has been puppeteering elected civilian Governments from behind the scenes, and staging coups to assume power when its dictates went unheeded. In the case of the recent elections, it had made life, to say nothing of contesting, difficult for PML-N candidates who refused to heed it orders by sabotaging their campaigning and hindering their movements.

Third, vendors of the theory that recent elections in Pakistan were free and fair, play down the Army’s scarcely-secret role in compelling a section of the country’s electronic media to launch a vicious campaign against Nawaz Sharif and his family. While it can be nobody’s claim that the Sharifs are pure as driven snow, a significant part of the offensive comprised gross exaggerations and even blatant lies like Nawaz Sharif receiving $400 million for allowing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emissary, Navin Jindal, to arrive in Pakistan sans a visa. And this lie was spread just on the eve of the elections — in fact, after the campaigning had ended — when there was not time to shred it before polling.

The media blitzkrieg against Nawaz Sharif and family appears more than a bit odd because there is virtually no political party or leader in Pakistan which or who has not been accused of corruption. The knight in shining armour with a blazing sword, the great crusader against corruption, Imran Khan, is no exception. On August 7, 2018, he appeared before Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) which asked him 15 questions regarding his alleged misuse of Mi-17 and Ecureuil helicopters owned by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial Government which is run by his party, PTI. The resultant loss to the State exchequer was Rs 2.17 crore.

The NAB ordered a probe in February after Geo News had reported the matter. While Imran needed time to campaign for the general elections held on July 25, 2018, he could have been asked to appear in May or the first half of June without affecting his electioneering. This did not happen; nor did the media go to town over the massive corruption marking the functioning of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government.

The argument that the Army did not intimidate but let out a few subtle hints and the media observed “self censorship”, suggesting that the media caved in needlessly, ignores the Inter-Services Intelligence’s role in dealing with journalists who had invited its ire. The most shocking, of course, is its abduction, savage torture and murder in May 2011 of the outstanding journalist, Syed Saleem Sahzad. The crime, which has gone unpunished, had sent out a clear message: You will have to pay a heavy price if you cross our path.

One could then hardly expect the media to ignore the Army’s “subtle hints” to its bidding.

It is, thus, an election thoroughly rigged by the Army that has hoisted Imran Khan to power. Instead of swinging the cherry, he will now swing to the dictates of the men in Khaki. The sooner this is realized, the better.

Writer: Hiranmay Karlekar

Courtesy: The Pioneer

The poll results in Pakistan speak volumes about how polarised the polity there is. There is very little reason for Imran Khan’s PTI to have won the elections if there were free and fair elections.

Just like most elections in Pakistan, the 2018 poll have been marred by allegations of rigging. Nevertheless, even though numerous cases of bungling in this context can (and have) been highlighted, there is scant reason to believe that had the election been entirely free and fair, Imran Khan’s centre-right Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) would not have been able to win.

According to the final tally announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), PTI grabbed 115 National Assembly seats. However, I believe that in a more free and fair election, PTI would not have bagged more than 90 to 95 seats. But it would still have managed to win more than the Centrist Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and certainly, the Left-liberal Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

No matter how marred the elections actually were, they did correctly reflect the highly polarised nature of Pakistan’s polity. The bulk of the votes were split between PTI, PML-N and PPP, with PTI receiving approximately 32 per cent.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) voters decided to stick with PTI and voted overwhelmingly for the party. The main reasons for this are PTI chief Imran Khan’s continuing popularity in that Province; the police reforms that the last PTI Government in KP initiated; and, interestingly, the de facto positive image the party’s provincial Government in the Province enjoyed due to a considerable decrease in extremist terror attacks in the region.

I have used the word de facto because, ironically, PTI was against the military operation that was eventually launched by Pakistan’s armed forces and the PMLN-led federal government in 2015. The relative peace that followed just happened to emerge during a period when PTI was ruling KP.

This time, Punjab — Pakistan’s most populous Province — was split in half between PML-N and PTI. The former had swept it in 2013. But in 2018, whereas the ousted PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif’s narrative of him being a victim of ‘establishmentarian intrigues’ bagged PML-N some massive wins in much of central Punjab, the more conservative areas of the Province — mainly in the northern and the hilly Pothwari regions — largely switched to PTI. The more feudal-dominated southern Punjab region, too, mostly went to PTI.

Balochistan was as mercurial as ever. As has been the case for decades, its votes were distributed among the ever-splintering and ever-changing secular Baloch nationalist outfits and religious groups.

Sindh was once again swept by the PPP which notched a number of huge wins here, proving to be an unmatched electoral force in the province. A majority of Sindhis have continued to see the PPP as their bridge to the larger politics and economics of the country.

However, the most stunning results emerged in Sindh’s large, chaotic capital, Karachi. Karachi does not have a Sindhi majority. Approximately 41 per cent of its enormous population is made up of Urdu-speaking Mohajirs. The city’s second-largest ethnic group is Pakhtun (approximately 22 per cent) followed by Punjabi, Baloch, Sindhi and Seraiki groups.

Between 1988 and 2008, the secular and once radical Mohajir nationalist Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was an overwhelming electoral force in this city. But its vote bank began to slowly dwindle from 2013 onward. The party split into three factions in 2017, leaving the city open for other parties to sneak in.

The PPP, on the other hand, had remained strong in Karachi’s Baloch, Kutchi and Sindhi majority areas, such as Malir and Lyari.

But the party that eventually managed to sneak in was PTI. It nearly swept the city. The PTI had received the second-largest number of votes here in 2013. This time it was able to effectively neutralise the MQM, rather its largest faction, MQM-Pakistan. On the other hand, PTI also evicted the PPP from Lyari, a PPP bastion in Karachi since 1970.

Again, despite all the discrepancies of the election, one can still somewhat explain the stunning results in the city. The voter turnout in Karachi was low (38 to 40 per cent). During the last couple of years, the city has witnessed a concentrated police and Rangers’ operation against extremist outfits, criminal gangs and also against so-called militant wings of the now splintered MQM.

But whereas a majority of Karachiites had hailed the operation and the comparative decrease in the city’s once bulging crime rate, MQM and PPP were critical of the way the operation was being conducted. This gave the impression that both the parties were against the operation.

There was thus not much protest when the operation also targeted so-called MQM militants; and members of the Peoples’ Aman Committee (PAC) — a clandestine outfit patronised by the erstwhile PPP minister Zulfiqar Mirza. The PAC was made up of hardened Baloch gangsters from Lyari. Even though the PPP regime in Sindh eventually distanced itself from PAC, it seemed helpless in controlling Lyari’s vicious gang wars.

Both MQM and PPP began to be perceived as parties which were trying to roll back the Rangers’ operation in the city. Interestingly, the PML-N Government at the centre enjoyed a brief wave of popularity here, when it claimed that it was former Prime Minister Sharif who had initiated the operation. It was when Nawaz Sharif had a falling out with the military establishment that most Karachiites decided to side with the establishment.

As a consequence, in 2018, the political party which was seen as being closest to the establishment received the most votes. That party was PTI. As in KP, here too PTI benefitted in a de facto manner from an operation that it had nothing to do with.

The most striking aspect of the 2018 election was the manner in which the once obscure far-right Sunni Barelvi outfit, Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), managed to bag the sixth-largest number of votes. Most of these votes were cast in Punjab and in Karachi.

The TLP is seen as a more militant reaction against the rise of Deobandi and Salafi outfits in Pakistan. However, in the last couple of years, as militant Deobandi outfits begun to be pushed back by the state, the once non-militant political Barelvi segment not only saw resurgence but got radicalised by the execution of Mumtaz Qadri, the murderer of former Punjab governor Salman Taseer.

The TLP got the bulk of its votes in Punjab where many low-income Barelvis saw the PML-N as the ruling party which okayed Qadri’s execution — even though it was the former military chief, Gen Raheel, who had pushed for it the most.

In Karachi, much of the TLP votes were cast in the city’s large working and lower-middle-class industrial area, Korangi, and in the low-income Lyari area.

Low-income and lower-middle-class Mohajirs have continued to belong to the Barelvi sect. Before 1988, they used to vote for Shah Ahmad Noorani’s Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP). In the event of MQM’s split, many Barelvi Mohajirs from this economic segment switched to TLP.

In Lyari, the stage for TLP was set by apolitical Islamic evangelical outfits who found many takers there during the deadly gang wars in the area. Consequently, the large Baloch, Memon and Kutchi segments who had already been attracted by the Barelvi evangelical organisation Dawat-i-Islami, saw in TLP a more assertive expression of their reinvigorated religiosity.

But one should keep in mind, the TLP in Punjab and Karachi received the protest vote. Protest votes are largely short-lived. Also, TLP as an outfit cannot survive without street agitation. It is bound to face eventual resistance from the state just as the once patronised Deobandi outfits did.

Writer: Nadeem Paracha

Courtesy: The Pioneer

Trafficking of women and prostitution, which are rampant in shelter homes, must be tackled without sweeping the issue under the carpet.

The cases at Muzaffarpur and Deoria are just the tip of the iceberg, well-connected crooks running children and women’s shelters and abusing, torturing and sexually assaulting those under their care. This has happened with a sickening degree of regularity in this country and is not just isolated to the northern States. And every single time a case like this makes headlines, we argue that we must do something to prevent future cases from happening and talk about registering non-governmental organisations and doing regular audits of such institutions and whatnot. Yes, the owners and operators of these ‘shelters’, whether they are people like Brajesh Thakur or officials like Manju Verma should be prosecuted and it is shameful that Nitish Kumar is too scared to fire an incompetent minister for caste considerations. But to make a difference, to really act tough, action needs to be taken against those who used and abused the residents of the shelter. In many cases it is a statutory case because they raped a minor and in India right now that is a penalty that is punishable by death. Whatever your reservations about the death penalty, people who abuse children should be put far away from children and behind bars for a long time. This will undoubtedly open a Pandora’s Box, it is almost certain that those who were ‘customers’ are bureaucrats, politicians, policemen and reputable businessmen. These people knowingly indulged in their perversions, safe in the knowledge that nothing will ever happen to them. Only, and only if these individuals are found, and with call detail records, some of them will almost certainly be found, and then prosecuted can such crime be brought under check. Because removing a source will not take away the problem, it will only create an alternate source, the authorities must attack the clientele. And this will require a level of determination by the authorities from the very top, the work of honest and diligent officers because some of those who will be nabbed will be extremely powerful individuals at least in the local areas.

Action should be taken those who enabled these abuses to take place either by turning a blind eye or actively conniving in it. Action does not mean a cursory two-week paid holiday masquerading as ‘suspension’, it means proper jail time. Of course, even if strong investigation and prosecution is mounted, it will be foiled by our molasses-like judicial process, and one in which safety and security of the abused girls and women cannot be guaranteed. These cases must make us hang our heads in shame and demand that our elected representatives do something, otherwise the only solution would be an Indian Batman.

Writer & Courtesy: The Pioneer

India and Korea not just share history, but also have immense shared business interests. Samsung plant in NCR is just a beginning, a lot more is to come…

The South Korean President Moon Jae-in paid a four-day visit to India in July (7-10) and held delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior leaders on a wide range of bilateral, regional, and global issues of mutual interest with a view to further strengthen the special strategic partnership between the two countries. This was Moon’s first visit to India after he took over as the President of South Korea in 2017. It was one of the most productive visits to India by a foreign leader as the talks ended with a big-ticket investment announcement that would further deepen bilateral ties between Asia’s third and fourth largest economies, particularly in the economic sphere. Prime Minister Modi also took the opportunity to mention how India is concerned about North Korea’s nuclear weapon development programmes, and appreciated Moon’s initiative to address this issue. For India, Pyongyang’s nuclear link with Pakistan has remained a matter of concern for a long time.

A brief history

India-South Korea relations are not recent but for reasons other than economics, bilateral relations remained in a state of “strategic disconnect”. India’s policy of “non-alignment and economic autarchy” and the perceived closeness with the then Soviet Union were seen by the US and its allies, such as Japan and South Korea, with suspicion. Under the circumstances, there was little prospect for India-South Korea relations to develop. even the important role played by India in dispatching the 60th Parachute Field Military Ambulance Platoon — a mobile army surgical hospital that treated more than half of the wounded soldiers and an average of 250 to 300 civilians a day, during the UN operations in late 1951 following the Korean War — though remembered with gratitude, did not substantially help remove political barriers to forge a partnership that could have fetched mutual benefits.

There are civilisational linkages between the two countries too. It is popularly believed in South Korea that the legendary Korean King Suro married an Indian princess from Ayodhya centuries ago and mothered the Kim dynasty. Almost 80 per cent of the present generation bearing the name Kim traces their ancestry to the ancient dynasty. So, there is an emotional connection between the people of the two nations.

even Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s evocative poem that Korea will be the lamp bearer for the illumination of Asia could not translate to concrete construction of an India-South Korea partnership until the ideological gulf remained. The collapse of the Soviet Union and India’s Look east policy, rechristened now as Act east policy, dramatically altered the perceptions in reviewing India-South Korea bilateral ties in a different light in which economic, defence, and strategic dimensions were found enmeshed. The strategic history of India’s ties with this Northeast nation, that remained disjointed for almost four decades since the end of the Korean War, has been successfully recast now.

Put briefly, India-South Korea relations have developed in stages. The years since diplomatic ties were established in 1973 until early 1990 was the first stage or the ‘budding period’. Though some efforts were made by both, they could not realise the potentials because of their “inherent ideological incongruity and differences in their policy orientation”. While India adopted a socialist, secular, democratic government at home and pursued the policy of non-alignment of the third world in international affairs, South Korea remained tied in a security alliance with the US. So, both saw each other as belonging to different camps and “were blinded by the blinkers of the global block politics of the time”.

India’s choice of inward-looking import substitution model of development sharply contrasted with South Korea’s outward-looking export-oriented development path prevented the growth of economic ties between them. Though the diplomatic and other bilateral interactions continued smoothly, not much headway could be made in expanding the economic ties.

The second stage of the bilateral ties between 1991 and 2009 can be called the phase of ‘economic and commercial cooperation’. Both countries discovered a convergence of interests in many areas during this period. In the third stage, the bilateral relationship was elevated into a ‘strategic partnership’. This strategic partnership could be achieved because India’s of the convergence of India’s Look east Policy and Korea’s New Asia Diplomatic Initiative described as “policy rendezvous”. First, the bilateral relationship was catapulted into a higher gear when President Roh Myun-Hwan visited India in 2004 and a “long-term cooperative partnership” was established. This served as the bedrock for bilateral relations. This relationship was elevated to the level of strategic partnership when President Lee Myung-bak paid a historic visit to India in January 2010 as the chief guest of the Republic Day celebrations. The Comprehensive economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed in 2009 was also implemented and entered into force from January 1, 2010, thereby jump starting the dormant economic component of the bilateral ties. The CePA — which came into force on January 1, 2010 — was the first deal of its kind which India signed with an OECD country and South Korea with a BRIC nation.

Subsequently, several top level visits have taken place between the two countries: Former President Pratibha Patil’s visit in July 2011, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit in March 2012, and others. Defence and
Foreign Ministers from both countries have also visited, each time elevating the relationship to a higher level.

Significance of Moon’s visit

Against this background as the relationship evolved, Moon’s recent trip to India is another milestone in the bilateral ties. Firstly, the timing of the visit is significant as it coincided with the changes taking place with breathtaking rapidity in the geopolitical landscape of Northeast Asia. The architect of the changes is none other than President Moon whose peace overtures — which started with North Korea’s participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and subsequently led to a summit meeting with Kim Jong-un on April 27, and later paved the way for the first ever summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12. India-South Korea relations were elevated to ‘special strategic partnership’ after Modi visited South Korea in May 2015, seeking investments in many flagship programmes of the Government, including Skill India and Make in India. The South Korean Government earmarked a whopping $10 billion as “financing arrangement for infrastructure development in India”.

Moon’s dynamic leadership aside from his efforts to solve the nuclear dilemma of North Korea became demonstrably clear, or at least his intent, even during the presidential election campaign in 2017 wherein he pledged that he would elevate ties with India to the level of Korea’s relations with four major powers in and around the Korean Peninsula — China, Japan, Russia, and the US. This aside, he intended to craft India prominently in his “new Southern policy” and include the 10-member ASEAN group in its ambit. This is a significant departure from Korea’s traditional foreign policy and possibly could be, as some analysts suggested, a hedging strategy amid the US-China stand-off, coupled with the desire to forge a robust India-South Korea partnership in the interest of building peace and stability in the region. Though for India, South Korea is a valued partner, bilateral trade is below its potential. Bilateral trade in 2017 totaled $20 billion and investment has shown an upward trend. Both sides have pledged to increase it to $50 billion by 2030. There are about 300 Korean companies which have invested about $3 billion, employing about 40,000 workers. The only aberration in the bilateral ties seems to be that the POSCO project in Odisha did not take off despite that it was the single biggest foreign direct investment project to the tune of $12 billion, owing to land acquisition problems.

This 12-million capacity steel plant was floated in 2005 and POSCO had the patience to wait for close to a decade to see the project become functional. In the process, the company invested a lot of money in the social sector, including the CSR. But despite strong governmental support to the company to make the required land available for the steel project to be set up, the efforts failed and POSCO was forced to pull out of the project in 2017, after waiting for 12 long years as public resistance continued with no sign of ending.

Though POSCO was an unhappy experience for South Korea, this did not deter it to halt investment in India in other projects, such as by firms like Kia and Samsung, in recognition of the Indian market and the buying power of the urban middle class estimated to be to the tune of 350 million plus. Though the main driving force in the bilateral relations remains economic, the strategic dimension including defence cooperation is becoming equally important. The two sides are looking at defence hardware procurement and manufacture. India is looking for minesweepers for the Navy, and South Korea could be a possible source. India has also sourced artillery guns from South Korea and is looking to manufacture them in India under the Make in India programme. In this light, Moon’s India visit shall pave the way for expanding bilateral ties in multifarious dimensions, upgrading business ties to the level Korea has with China. Indeed, Moon has been pushing Korean majors to raise their investment in India.

The reason why the economic dimension in the partnership is significant can be deciphered from the address Moon made to the India-Korea Business Forum organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. It was attended by top management of the major business houses or large family-owned mega-conglomerates from Korea, such as Samsung, Hyundai, and LG. The three companies command large chunks of the export and domestic consumer and industrial markets in Korea. This was the second such event in less than five months. In February, Modi had addressed a mega delegation of 150-odd Korean companies, wherein he had exhorted the chaebols to further expand the $2.7 billion worth of investment mainly in the automobile and engineering sectors. Consumer products of Korean companies, such as Samsung and LG, are household names and therefore important players in the Indian consumer market. In the automobile sector, Hyundai competes equally with Japanese products, such as Toyota, Honda, and Mitsubishi.

There are some trade and tariff issues that need to be sorted out. For example, India seeks zero duty on items such as sesame and motor parts. Korea is reluctant to accede to this request. South Korea imports 630 per cent duty on Indian sesame, while imports 24,000 tonnes a year from China at zero duty, and therefore, India’s request is legitimate. Korea feels that opening tariff lines to a country ensures zero custom duty to importers of the country to which it is opened. The duty is applicable for products under those tariff lines. From the strategic perspective, the importance of South Korea in India’s Indo-Pacific strategy came out clear in Modi’s keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue on June 1, 2018, when he mentioned South Korea was an important component of the Act east policy.

During Modi’s visit to South Korea in 2015, the two sides sought amendment to the bilateral Air Services Agreement to enhance flight connectivity covering more cities. As Korean business in Indian cities expands, Korea would be interested in increasing direct flights from the existing six in a week. That time, an MoU was inked on cooperation in audio-visual co-production, paving the way for co-production of films, animation and broadcasting programmes. This time during Moon’s visit, five MoUs in the field of science and technology were signed. Science and Technology Minister Harshvardhan and his Korean counterpart You Young Min signed three MoUs on Programme of Cooperation 2018-21, Establishment of Future Strategy Group and Cooperation in Bio-technology and Bio-economy. Two other MoUs were signed between the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and South Korean National Research Council for Science and Technology and IIT Mumbai and Korea Institute of Science and Technology, to further accelerate future-oriented cooperation.

During his visit, Moon inaugurated a Samsung manufacturing unit, the largest in the world, in Noida in which the company has invested $760 million, demonstrating the trust and business confidence in Indian market despite the unhappy experience of POSCO. This is going to be the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturing facility, touting Modi’s pet Make in India to propel India to become the world’s second-largest manufacturer of mobile phones as the number of factories soared to 120 from just two, four years ago. Apart from creating four lakh direct jobs, 30 per cent of the phones manufactured at the factory — built at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore — will be exported to the Middle east and Africa. India was already the R&D hub for Samsung, now it will be a manufacturing base too.

Would India be the next China for South Korea, as claimed by Korea’s Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong? It may be recalled when South Korea deployed the THAAD US missile defense system in 2017, a decision taken by Moon’s predecessor, a diplomatic row broke out between South Korea and China as the latter felt that THAAD breached into China’s security. China adopted a series of economic retaliatory measures against Korean products, thereby severely affecting the Korean economy. South Korea is yet to recover from this. Moon now seeks to enhance economic and trade relations with the ASEAN and India, thus announcing his southern policy.

Moon’s strategy is laudable but not without difficulties. Many bilateral economic issues concerning trade and tariff need to be sorted out. Moreover, if Moon targets the ASEAN grouping as a single package, that would be difficult, as a strategy that fits all countries may not be possible as the characteristics of each country could be different. For example, if South Korea wants to expand the market presence of its car makers in Indonesia — the largest car market in Southeast Asia where Japanese vehicles enjoy 98.6 per cent market share, but the Korean cars take up only about 0.1 per cent — the challenge could be huge. on the other hand, India holds the greatest potential for South Korea and has the least risk, which is why India is a priority destination for Korean businesses. The absence of any sensitive issue, either historical or geographical, also works in India’s favour to be a preferred partner for South Korea. The Moon Government has, therefore, prioritised India to deepen and strengthen multidimensional relations.

With its population expected to reach 1.5 billion in 2030, India has the potential to emerge as the world’s single largest market. In view of this, any nation doing business with another country may find it irresistible to overlook India to be a partner in pursuit of economic prosperity. Moon is aware that India is eyeing the tag of the world’s third largest economy by 2030, after overtaking France as the sixth largest economy and coming close to the UK, which is at the fifth place. Indian economy is at the take-off stage and is expected to be the world’s third largest by 2030 with the GDP worth $10 trillion. This means India is aiming to overtake the UK, Japan, and Germany by 2030, to be behind only the US and China. As far as doing business is concerned, India presents tempting prospects for any country, and South Korea is well aware of this.

Rajaram Panda: Writer is former Senior Fellow at the IDSA, was until recently ICCR Chair Professor at Reitaku University, Japan. rajaram.panda@gmail.com I Courtesy: The Pioneer

As BJP gears up to defend its citadel at the Centre, here is a ready reckoner to follow

The Bharatiya Janata Party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had comfortably secured the majority to form the government at the centre in 2014. BJP and PM Modi’s win in 2014 was historic and the decisive mandate made it clear that the people really wanted to see PM Modi in power. Four of the five year term of the BJP
government has now come to an end. There has been multi-faceted growth in India in these four years. even though the country is progressing at a never seen before pace and there is a definite increase in how Indians and outsiders look at India today, something seems to be lacking. The urgency of the voters to get rid of Congress in 2014 had played an active part in BJP’s landslide win. That scenario has changed today.

People and even the BJP are appearing complacent today. Although, the recently held state elections have mostly went in the favour of BJP the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be a different game altogether. BJP cannot afford to show laxity today, especially since there are talks of a united opposition doing the rounds in the political circles today and the country has seen desperate opposition parties putting together rag-tag coalition to stop the juggernaut of the BJP in various by-polls.

From Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav’s SP-BSP in Uttar Pradesh to Lalu Yadav’s RJD in Bihar, leaders who have faced losses at the hands of BJP in state and Lok Sabha are trying to join hands. Congress too has been trying to get a piece of the united opposition game which has been going on for quite some time now. There definitely are visible differences between the united opposition leaders but there is also the chance that the collective fear against PM Modi led BJP could drive them towards joining hands for the polls to be held in 2019.

BJP as a party should remain active in the public sphere and keep doing activities which resonate with the public on ground levels. Their focus should be on settling the Ram Janmbhoomi Temple issue before the elections. BJP should keep pushing forward for early judgment from the Supreme Court with no further delays in the hearings if it wants to fulfill its election promise. The development of Hindu pilgrimages and a nationwide religious tourism circuit starting from Ayodhya would give them an added advantage. The Ram Janmbhoomi issue has been raging on for quite long now and political parties have taken benefit from stretching the matter for as long as possible. Congress, very recently, tried to put a stay on the hearings of the Ayodhya Temple case. Successful completion of the issue will repose the faith of the people in BJP and its promises.

BJP could try to bring about big policies to give further boost to the economy. The government could think of something along the lines of Demonetisation or creation of Special economic Zones in all states of the country to boost manufacturing and trade. one step that Modi government could push for is bringing the petroleum products within the purview of GST. Granting of special status to states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the south could also improve chances of BJP’s win from these states. TDP is likely to come back again to BJPs side following the grant of special status while Tamil Nadu is a swing state at the moment and BJP could gain massively from these
decisions. Implementation of Uniform Civil Code throughout India could also do the trick for BJP, UCC is necessary in a diverse country like India to provide equal treatment to the citizens.

After the surgical strikes, the government has somewhat softened its stance towards Pakistan. It should switch back to offensive mode and suspend direct talks with Pakistan until it takes substantial action against the terror groups operating from its soil. Ceasefire violations from the Pakistani side of the border have been going on for the longest possible time in Kashmir and other areas, a decisive surgical strike could be carried out once again to put an end to the terrorism in Pakistan. This message will go on to prove that BJP has not softened its stance on terrorism and is not looking forward to appeasement politics on the international level as was done by Congress in UPA II regime.

There are many ongoing cases against prominent Congress leaders like, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi’s National Herald case or P. Chidambaram’s 2G spectrum case and Aircel-Maxis case. BJP should push for expediting the judicial process in these cases and make sure that the guilty get their comeuppance
in a timely manner, preferably before the 2019 elections. It will clear the clouds over what BJP has been accusing the Congress leaders of doing over the years. The corrupt Congress leaders will be face public humiliation and it will further embolden the BJP workers who have fought for a corruption free India. The party needs to keep pushing forward just like it did in the Lalu Yadav fodder scam case.

The party will benefit immensely if the economic offenders like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi could be brought back to India before the elections in 2019. Kingfisher and Punjab National Bank incidents had its seeds in the Congress led UPA II regime but BJP could send a strong message by doing a decisive crackdown on them. Bringing them to justice would send a strong message that the BJP is not going to let the economic offenders relax under its rule. Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill has enabled the government to get hold of their properties inside and out of the country but their arrest and deportation will give the symbolic final stamp of crackdown. Public faith on BJP will be reinforced and it will show in the elections of 2019.