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| The tears of a denied mandate | | A child crying is understandable, but Jaswant Singh is too grown up a man to cry in public |
By Amit Kushari
A kid can shed tears in public if his mummy doesn't give him a chocolate. But it is not expected that a senior politician with 50 years experience in public life will do so if his political party is unable to give him a ticket in the elections. Usually our politicians try to put up a brave 'dabang' image in public and would never reveal their weaknesses. Last week when we saw Shri Jaswant Singh shedding tears in public because BJP had denied him a ticket from Barmer, people were really shocked. Jaswant Singh had served in various senior positions in the party and in the government of India. BJP had made him external affairs minister of India and he had also served in various key positions. If for once BJP could not give him a ticket from Barmer, he should have concealed his disappointment with dignity rather than making himself a laughing stock by crying and filing his nomination as an independent candidate. There are solid reasons why a ticket was denied to him from Barmer. Although he belongs to a village in Barmer, his personal influence would not be felt in every nook and corner of Barmer because it is a constituency which is very big in size, almost as large as the state of Haryana.
Barmer has a very large Jat population and Shri Jaswant Singh is not a Jat by caste. Knowing the way people vote in India along caste lines, it is natural for BJP to look for a Jat candidate for this seat. Shri Sona Ram Choudhury, who is BJP's choice for this seat is a Jat, although he may be a new entrant in BJP. He had earlier won this seat twice whereas Shri Jaswant Singh has never won this seat. His son, Manavendra may have won an assembly seat within Barmer Lok Sabha seat, but that is no justification for claiming the Lok sabha seat. In every election all political parties give topmost priority to winnability---and all other considerations are secondary. When BJP felt that Jaswant had winnability in Darjeeling, that seat was offered to him, and he won the seat also. This time Shri S S Ahluwalia was considered more appropriate for Darjeeling, in West Bengal, because of his closeness to the Gurkhas and his fluency in Bengali language. Although a Punjabi Sikh, Shri Ahluwalia, belongs to Asansol of West Bengal and has a Bengali speaking wife. As a political party BJP must have taken these into consideration before giving him a ticket from Darjeeling.
Since Shri Jaswant is held in very high esteem, in BJP, surely they were contemplating using his services in some other alternative way. Therefore he should not have rushed in to file his nomination as an independent and should have waited patiently for his party's ultimate decision. By his hasty act he has ruined the future of his son, Manavendra, who was just about to become a minister in Rajasthan government. In all probability he will not be able to win the Barmer seat without the support of the BJP. He will only divide the votes of the BJP supporters and this may help the Congress candidate to win! No wonder the Congress leaders are showing so much sympathy for Jaswant Singh. They may win this seat only because of Jaswant Singh betraying BJP.
There are many other similar instances also.In Bihar a veteran BJP leader, Lal Muni Choubey, has filed his nomination as 'independent' in Buxar because the seat has been given to Ashwini Choubey of BJP. In the tussle between Ashwini and Lal Muni, the candidate of the rival party, JDU, may win the seat. In this election NDA has to ensure that not a single seat is lost in the Hindi heartland---otherwise they will not be able to provide a stable government at the centre with 300+ seats. Therefore discipline has to be maintained by BJP with an iron hand and nobody should be allowed to shed tears in public. Congress also faced similar problems with Suresh Kalmadi, who was denied a ticket because of the CWG scam. He had threatened to file his nomination as an independent, but was made to fall in line because of the discipline enforced by the Congress high command. BJP should also wield the stick to ensure that people like Lal Muni Choubey and Jaswant Singh fall in line. If they donot withdraw their nominations in time, they have to be shown the door. For the sake of party discipline Karunanidhi had to expel his own son, Alagiri.
(Amit Kushari (IAS, Retd.) is former Financial Commissioner, J&K. Feedback at [email protected] or contact at 09748635185)
(Opinions expressed in write-ups/articles/Letters are the sole responsibility of the authors and they may not represent the scoopnews.in)
Editor, Scoop News.
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