No grant or subsidy is given by any leader from his family treasure in a Democracy
Daya Sagar Sharma
July 19, 2009
Common Indian in villages / rural India / tribal areas / unemployed could be, at occasions, found under the impression that RURAL roads, Rural WS, Rural Electrification, Rural telephone , Rural Housing and irrigation under programmes like Bharat Nirman Yojna as of Bharat Sarkar are the gift to him by the Indira/ Rajiv/ Gandhi Family. Bandra Worli Sea Bridge is a new addition as was named as Rajiv Gandhi Bandra Worli Setu in presence of Sonia Gandhi. No doubt Sharad Pawar Jee proposed the name.
Let people know that no concession or subsidy is given by any party or leader from his family treasure, it is only the national wealth, the taxes paid by common man and the assistance / aid/ loan as received by government over the head of the citizens of India. So , Parliament of India need to consider this for some new constitutional provisions. The Titles of the schemes / programmes of welfare nature will have to be changed.
The Indira/ Nehru family has surely not played fairly since otherwise there would have been welfare schemes named after persons like Rabindranath Tagore, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Bal Gandadhar Tilak, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sarojini Naidu, Jayaprakash Narayan, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, C.Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad, etc. And ofcourse in the name of many of the freedom fighters who had left us before 15 August 1947 and saints /reformers/ nobles like Aurobindo , Swami Vivekananda, Raja Ram Mohan Roy , Mahatma Phule, C.V.Raman, Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, patriots like Bhagat Singh , Chandrashekar Azad etc.
The list of government welfare programmes, schemes, institutions etc named after Nehru/ Rajiv / Indira Gandhi is large. Most of the schemes financed by GOI are in the name of Nehru / Gandhi family. Some of the infrastructure and employment schemes / projects run into thousands of crore of rupees. The rural India is poor and illiterate. Over the years Congress Party has been placed at great advantageous position since the welfare programmes of the government that matter to crores of Indian citizen voter – man ,woman, child; – child bearing and child rearing mothers , education of children, food, education of youth, employment, marriage, unemployment, destitution, handicap; and many of possible apparent benefits flowing out of government promoted infrastructure – drinking water, electricity and housing are mostly named after Rajiv, Indira or Nehru. So Congress party has been able to even manage without internal democracy in party and the descendents of Jawahar Lal have become icons of Congress. Advantage has gone to Congress only in the name of Nehru / Indira/ Gandhi .The Congress leaders and cadres appear "spineless" and have landed at place where even greats like Pranab Mukherjee and Man Mohan Singh are left with no alternative than to toe behind Sonia Gandhi . Now it appears to be toeing behind Rahul and even Priyanka .
The poor , weak India masses who form 75% of the vote bank ( may be over 50 crore ) so innocently even may be found believing that the family pensions, handicap allowances, houses to poor , ration and food to poor people is being paid by Nehru or Gandhi family. This places other political parties at disadvantage. The Congress party surely gets advantage at the cost of Public Exchequer inspite of poor cadres, poor performance, growing corruption and the like.
I do not say that the leaders like Jawahar Lal, Indira Jee and Rajiv do not deserve respects and remembrance. They do deserve. But under the circumstances when they belong to a political party who has to fight elections, surely it is unfair when we look for a fair competition. No doubt any fair thinking person would prefer a larger party with healthy cadres to rule his country but it will also be unfair in case others are not given a fair chance to grow in a democracy. This also is indirectly of disadvantage to Congress. Since Congress party will remain under illusions even without their honest performance and the party cadres too would not be healthy worth facing competition in case some day CONGRESS has to contest without the banner of Indira Gandhi / Rajiv Gandhi / Nehru.
Ofcourse when the roads, bridges, scholarships , institutions etc are also named after only a few political leaders at the cost of state exchequer that too is politically unfair .But the effect of welfare programmes for the poor masses surely results in more immediate unfair political advantage to others. National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was in power at the Centre, it launched the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. This nomenclature, as is obvious, is politically neutral. Several schemes launched by the present government in Madhya Pradesh also carry politically neutral names and are called Mukhya Mantri Yojanas. No doubt in an effort to save electricity, the Himachal Pradesh government launched Compact Fluorescent Lamp scheme across the state named after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal launched at Kullu. Under the scheme 'Atal Bijli Bachat Yojna', a pack of four CFL bulbs is to be provided free of cost to 16 lakh households all over the hill state in replacement of equal number of incandescent bulbs, ofcourse so it was not all free.
Constitutionally a bar needs to be put on naming any government welfare programme after a past or present leaders of a political party that would be contesting elections. All small and large political parties must come together and force such like constitutional provision. With the growing awareness in the masses looking for stability at center , the times for the small and regional parties would be harder in future. Even for their survival they should come forward and taken this issue as priority number one.
This will be of advantage for all political parties including Congress since Congress will then work hard on ground to develop strong cadres and the other political parties will not be put to indirect disadvantage at the cost of public money.
( Daya Sagar is a Sr Coloumnist on Kashmir affairs and a social activist dayasagr@yahoo.co.uk www.alookthroughthemist.blogspot.com)
Let people know that no concession or subsidy is given by any party or leader from his family treasure, it is only the national wealth, the taxes paid by common man and the assistance / aid/ loan as received by government over the head of the citizens of India. So , Parliament of India need to consider this for some new constitutional provisions. The Titles of the schemes / programmes of welfare nature will have to be changed.
The Indira/ Nehru family has surely not played fairly since otherwise there would have been welfare schemes named after persons like Rabindranath Tagore, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Bal Gandadhar Tilak, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sarojini Naidu, Jayaprakash Narayan, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, C.Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad, etc. And ofcourse in the name of many of the freedom fighters who had left us before 15 August 1947 and saints /reformers/ nobles like Aurobindo , Swami Vivekananda, Raja Ram Mohan Roy , Mahatma Phule, C.V.Raman, Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, patriots like Bhagat Singh , Chandrashekar Azad etc.
The list of government welfare programmes, schemes, institutions etc named after Nehru/ Rajiv / Indira Gandhi is large. Most of the schemes financed by GOI are in the name of Nehru / Gandhi family. Some of the infrastructure and employment schemes / projects run into thousands of crore of rupees. The rural India is poor and illiterate. Over the years Congress Party has been placed at great advantageous position since the welfare programmes of the government that matter to crores of Indian citizen voter – man ,woman, child; – child bearing and child rearing mothers , education of children, food, education of youth, employment, marriage, unemployment, destitution, handicap; and many of possible apparent benefits flowing out of government promoted infrastructure – drinking water, electricity and housing are mostly named after Rajiv, Indira or Nehru. So Congress party has been able to even manage without internal democracy in party and the descendents of Jawahar Lal have become icons of Congress. Advantage has gone to Congress only in the name of Nehru / Indira/ Gandhi .The Congress leaders and cadres appear "spineless" and have landed at place where even greats like Pranab Mukherjee and Man Mohan Singh are left with no alternative than to toe behind Sonia Gandhi . Now it appears to be toeing behind Rahul and even Priyanka .
The poor , weak India masses who form 75% of the vote bank ( may be over 50 crore ) so innocently even may be found believing that the family pensions, handicap allowances, houses to poor , ration and food to poor people is being paid by Nehru or Gandhi family. This places other political parties at disadvantage. The Congress party surely gets advantage at the cost of Public Exchequer inspite of poor cadres, poor performance, growing corruption and the like.
I do not say that the leaders like Jawahar Lal, Indira Jee and Rajiv do not deserve respects and remembrance. They do deserve. But under the circumstances when they belong to a political party who has to fight elections, surely it is unfair when we look for a fair competition. No doubt any fair thinking person would prefer a larger party with healthy cadres to rule his country but it will also be unfair in case others are not given a fair chance to grow in a democracy. This also is indirectly of disadvantage to Congress. Since Congress party will remain under illusions even without their honest performance and the party cadres too would not be healthy worth facing competition in case some day CONGRESS has to contest without the banner of Indira Gandhi / Rajiv Gandhi / Nehru.
Ofcourse when the roads, bridges, scholarships , institutions etc are also named after only a few political leaders at the cost of state exchequer that too is politically unfair .But the effect of welfare programmes for the poor masses surely results in more immediate unfair political advantage to others. National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was in power at the Centre, it launched the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. This nomenclature, as is obvious, is politically neutral. Several schemes launched by the present government in Madhya Pradesh also carry politically neutral names and are called Mukhya Mantri Yojanas. No doubt in an effort to save electricity, the Himachal Pradesh government launched Compact Fluorescent Lamp scheme across the state named after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal launched at Kullu. Under the scheme 'Atal Bijli Bachat Yojna', a pack of four CFL bulbs is to be provided free of cost to 16 lakh households all over the hill state in replacement of equal number of incandescent bulbs, ofcourse so it was not all free.
Constitutionally a bar needs to be put on naming any government welfare programme after a past or present leaders of a political party that would be contesting elections. All small and large political parties must come together and force such like constitutional provision. With the growing awareness in the masses looking for stability at center , the times for the small and regional parties would be harder in future. Even for their survival they should come forward and taken this issue as priority number one.
This will be of advantage for all political parties including Congress since Congress will then work hard on ground to develop strong cadres and the other political parties will not be put to indirect disadvantage at the cost of public money.
( Daya Sagar is a Sr Coloumnist on Kashmir affairs and a social activist dayasagr@yahoo.co.uk www.alookthroughthemist.blogspot.com)
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