OPINION

BJP's win in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on Friday has given an apt reply to those who were saying that BJP is limited in just Hindi speaking part of the country.

 Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP has been continuously winning elections in all parts of the country. Due to several development schemes and good-governance of the Modi government, Lotus has been blooming from Ladakh to Karnataka, from Gujarat to Manipur and it will continue.

 Emerging from 4 seats in last GHMC polls to 48 seats in 2020 could have been possible because of PM Modi's development scheme, Home Minister Amit Shah's efforts and obviously the leadership of BJP president JP Nadda.

 People of Greater Hyderabad have supported BJP and have put the BJP at second position. State ruling party TRS which had secured 99 seats in last GHMC polls was cut to 55 seats while AIMIM could managed to win only 44 seats.  BJP is just 8456 vote behind TRS. 

As the country battles unprecedented rise in Covid-19 cases, a report submitted by a parliamentary panel has pointed that absence of adequate beds in government hospitals and absence of specific guidelines for Covid treatment resulted in private hospitals charging exorbitant fees. The panel, headed by senior parliamentarian Ram Gopal Yadav, has also asserted that a sustainable pricing model could have averted many deaths.

Now what’s a sustainable pricing model? Taking example of Delhi, the nation’s capital and also considered microsome of the country, the hospitals made hay as patients died in hundreds. Delhi in fact is third only to large states of Maharashtra and Karnataka in the number of dead Covid positive patients. Its political leadership has repeatedly failed at rising to the challenge posed by the pandemic needing Central intervention for the second time within a period of six months.

The grim situation in the national Capital has been best summarized in the orders past by the Delhi High in the matter during the past week, which mentioned, “the crematoriums are overflowing and the funeral pyres are burning throughout the night.” Why did such a situation arise? The answer to this also lies in the High Court’s rap, which said, “While Delhi government Ministers were giving press statements to the effect that third wave of COVID-19 infections has reached its peak and the numbers are going down, the same is not reflected in the daily figures and the status report before the court.”

The difference in the submissions made before the court and the statements released by Ministers in public is for certain not inadvertent but a part of a well thought out media policy to cover up for its failings. Now what are the failings? The answer has been given in the report of the parliamentary committee mentioned above.

From being toast of those who saw a middle-class hero, an aka Amol Palekar of middle-of-the-road Indian cinema, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has graduated to be a ‘mass’ leader, as in a church congregation. Delhi Chief Minister attired in silk with his consort in attendance and bhajan singer Anoop Jalota singing Raag Darbari, completed the metamorphosis of leader who came to power pleading to fight ostentation to becoming a symbol of flashiness.

For those who may not know, mass is the central act of worship of the Roman Catholic Church, which culminates in celebration of the sacrament of the Eucharist. On Saturday last, when Arvind Kejriwal led the city in the act of worship, he was closer in imagery to the Diwali celebrations in princely states than any act of sacrament of sacrifice. The Indian royal couples of the yore often saw themselves as incarnation of Vishnu and his wife Lakshmi. Delhi Chief Minister this Diwali night indulged in no less an act.

The ‘Sarkari’ Diwali Puja was preceded by a media blitzkrieg and streamed live on the television and internet channels, to an extent stealing the thunder from under the nose of the soldier act of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who must be marveling at Delhi leader’s expertise at event management. One till now thought Prime Minister Modi was best at conceptualizing and executing events, but this Diwali Arvind Kejriwal certainly bettered him.

While penning obituary to the memory of one of the best-known modern day intellectual from Bihar, Arvind N Das in year 2000, his mentor Dileep Padgaonkar wrote, “In his (Das’) eyes, Bihar was a metaphor for India itself. At a pinch, he would have deemed it to be the very centre of the universe. While he loathed its venal, caste-ridden, ineffective governance, the violent nature of its society, its decrepit intellectual and cultural life and the slothful ways of its elite, he never missed an opportunity to recall its rich cultural and spiritual legacy, the noble character of its long-suffering people and the revolutionary potential of its youth.” A social scientist, Das’ collection of seminal essays were published as book titled Republic of Bihar.

Addressing party workers at the function to celebrate BJP-led National Democratic Alliance victory in Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too said, “Bihar Loktantra Ki Janmbhumi Hain (Bihar is cradle of democracy).” Now Modi and Das come from diametrically opposite ideologies but still there is something in the nation’s politically most complex state that it invites such admiration.

Those analysing poll results should take a cue from Das’ dictum of Bihar being metaphor for India. This poll has given everybody their due. While it has given more seats to stability, it has also a big pat to novelty. While it has given thumps up to espousers Marxian theorems, it’s the right of the Centre which has been the final winner. In short, voters have risen and vote banks have shrunk. 

Despite the intervention of Delhi High Court and its clear direction that the salary bills of 12 Delhi University colleges funded by Delhi Government be immediately cleared, there seems to be no relief forthcoming for the starving teachers and the staff of these colleges. Delhi’s Education Minister Manish Sisodia has now come out with an ‘audit report’ prepared by a functionary of his party, which claims that these colleges are paying salary to ghost employees.

This is startling move to cock a snook at the High Court. It’s not far to seek what’s the politics behind the Minister’s move to even risk the wrath of the High Court. At the bottom of the problem is the financial model of subsidy which has been followed by the Delhi Government, which has left it hard put to release funds for salaries, not just for these colleges but various other arms of the government.

The politics of subsidy comes at a very high price. According to a rough estimate the Delhi Government pays the private power distribution companies anything upward of Rs 2000 crore annually to subsidize the power bills of the domestic consumers in the national capital to keep its election promise.