OPINION

Prime Minister Narendra Modi revamped his council of ministers on 3rd September 2017, may be the last one before he seeks peoples’ mandate again in 2019. What might have been the considerations weighing with him in making the choices he has made. The first and the foremost is his approach to governance that is productive, innovative, transformative and pro poor. This is what he has been emphasizing with the bureaucracy as well as the political leaders in his party and legislative wings.

 He is aware that now on the government will have to roll out results of the programmes and policies framed by the government to ensure that hopes and aspirations of the youth, the poor, the kisan (farmer), the exploited and of the deprived raised by him at the time of elections and thereafter remain floating and their support to the BJP and the government remain undented. This is the reason that he is retiring the lazy, the inefficient and the non-performers from both the administration as well as the council of ministers.

Binoy Tamang a member of the GJM after talks at Kolkata gave a call for the Darjeeling bandhs to be called off from 01 September. The party responded by taking necessary disciplinary action against him. On the other hand the people of Darjeeling, Kurseong, Kalimpong, Mirik, Bijanbari, Ghoom, Lava, Pedong, and Teesta and other areas continued to keep their establishments shut down voluntarily clearly indicating their stand on the issue of Gorkhaland.
 The drama in the hills is playing to high voltage as the people feel it’s now or never for the creation of a state. The next round of talks are due on 12 September at Kolkata. 
There comes a time in every struggle when the chips are down and the struggle seems to be failing; it is at that time when the struggle needs to be kept going at any cost, because the road to success is paved with hardships. The key lies in being united; the struggle for Gorkhaland has entered that phase.
Initially there was some confusion but the people action remained true to the cause. Everyone realizes once the momentum is broken, the strike lifted the cause of Gorkhaland will be lost for the third time, in thirty years. Continuing the strike hurts all, the people the hardest, the state to a lesser extent, and the Centre the least. New Delhi is too far away to feel the pain.

Let me start with a disclaimer that this article doesn’t purport to be in the defence of such acts indulged into by cult leaders which demands judicial and social reprimand. With Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh of Dera Sacha Sauda sentenced to 20 years in jail, the narrative on the television in the 48 hours shifted to the to more ‘juicy’ tales of who would succeed Baba and inherit the financial and spiritual legacy.

The incident in Panckula last Friday, which left several dead in police action stood as an evidence of the faith people had in their ‘Baba’, which raised queries in the urban drawing rooms, what made people get drawn to him in the first place. The hesitation and inhibition which Manohar Lal Khattar government showed in using the iron hand against whom some called marauders must not have been without merit and not just the simple concern for a vote bank.

 The ‘marauders’ were cult followers, whose helmsman, like it or not was Ram Rahim Singh, who now is behind bars. The silver lining in the whole episode and the one two years earlier involving Rampal of Satlok Dera, is that the court’s intervention has ensured no Bluestar like operation is required.

Several memorable Hindi films, over the last 70 years, have appealed to people’s sense of patriotism, valour and self-sacrifice for the nation. Their subjects range across freedom struggle, invasions & battles, sports, ancient and medieval history, insurgency etc. The common theme running across them is pride in being Indian and duty towards the nation. But admittedly they are fewer in number when compared with the vast output from the Bombay film industry, now called Bollywood.

The film industry in India grew up through the heydays of freedom movement. Like drama, in the 19th century, there was a strong possibility that films could purvey patriotic spirit. As early as 1876, the administration of Lord Northbrook had promulgated the Dramatic Performances Act to stamp out sedition on stage. The British similarly kept a watchful eye on the films also, through the Censor office and Police.

Thus in 1943 there was an arrest warrant against Ramchandra Narayanji Dwivedi aka Kavi Pradeep for writing a thinly disguised song in support of Quit India movement in the Bombay Talkies’ film Kismet.

Last week Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi attended a “Saanjhi Virasat Bachao” meet convened by almost ousted Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav. At the meet, if one were to believe Rahul acolytes, their leader came out with flying colours matching NarendraModi, “word-for-word”. Rahul Gandhi famously said, for that brief moment of glory, “Modiji says he wants to create a ‘Swachch Bharat’ but we want a ‘Sach Bharat’.”

Now does Mr Gandhi’s presence at the said convention of “16 political parties”, most of them having innocuous role in country’s politics, add to the discomfort of his rivals? Gandhi, who urgently needs to save “Congress Ki Virasat”, with his style of theatrical politics rather adds to the comfort of his rivals.
 
The public display of frustration among the Congress leaders keeps coming to the surface with them “unfollowing” their leader and the party on the social media network. In some cases they return “to follow” and in some cases they never return.