My Opinion

The very fact that Samajwadi Party’s maverick leader Azam Khan has indirectly compared Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Ravana clearly indicates that development issues have been put on the backburner by most of the politicians in Uttar Pradesh. Politicians of all hues are presently engaged in running down their rivals as the electoral cauldron gets hotter in UP. BJP leaders have been raising the Ram temple issue, but their party president Amit Shah told me at the Aap Ki Adalat show last weekend that the courts will decide the Ram temple issue, and the promise of building a Ram temple has been there in the party manifesto every time. At the other end is BSP supremo Mayawati, who has her own solid vote bank, but her speeches at the rallies indicate that her self-confidence has been somewhat dented. Mayawati is now promising that she would not build parks, memorials and statues any more and would concentrate on development. As far as the Samajwadi Party-Congress combine is concerned, their rallies have been gathering good numbers, and their workers are now infused with fresh vigour, but the ouctome remains to be seen, when votes will be counted on March 11. Meanwhile, party patriarch Mulayam Singh, for the first time in 50 years of his public life, is completely out of the nitty-gritty of electoral battle, though he has decided to address a few rallies in support of his son. It appears, Mulayam Singh has now decided to accept the harsh political realities as they exist now, mainly because of his old age.

This year’s Union Budget was pathbreaking on several counts – one, it was presented a month before the due date, two, Railway Budget was merged in Union Budget, and three, the Finance Minister did not mention each and every item on which duties were being reduced or raised. Arun Jaitley confined himself to broad policy decisions. But the facts that he mentioned about tax evaders in India were revealing. Jaitley said, Out of 130 crore Indians, only 3.7 crore individuals filed income tax returns, 99 lakh people showed their income below the exemption limit of Rs 2.5 lakh, meaning a little over 2.5 crore people pay income tax. Out of these, 1.95 crore people show income between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, 52 lakh show income between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, and only 24 lakh people show income above Rs 10 lakh. Out of the 76 lakh individuals who declared income above Rs 5 lakh, 56 lakhs were in the salaried class. The number of people showing income more than Rs 50 lakh in the entire country is only 1.72 lakh. He contrasted this with the fact that in the last five years, more than 1.25 crore cars were sold in India, and more than 2 crore people flew abroad in 2015. These facts will surely make the people of India think about tax evaders. But to expect that tax evaders will disclose their real income and pay tax, is presently a tall order. Because most of the people feel once they file returns they will be questioned by income tax. Now the Finance Minister has promised transparency in assessment of Income tax , it will take a while for public to accept it.

It is true that Pakistan put Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed under house arrest on Monday because of US pressure, but there are many people inside Pakistan who believe this action is only meant to hoodwink the world. Earlier, after the Mumbai terror attacks, Hafiz Saeed was put under house arrest. Pakistan, under US pressure, had even put restrictions on telecast of Hafiz Saeed’s speeches, but this lasted only for a few weeks. This terror mastermind openly spews venom on Pakistan’s news channels, addresses meetings in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore in the name of ‘defence of Pakistan’, openly takes responsibility for terror attacks inside India, but Pakistan chooses to overlook all these acts. The common assumption now is that, this house arrest, too, will be a repeat of earlier such actions. Pakistan government will then take a plea that it does not have sufficient evidence to nail Hafiz Saeed, and the Pakistani courts will allow him to go scot-free.

Over the decades, Pakistan had been a spawning ground for terror outfits, aided, abetted and nurtured by its army intelligence agency, ISI. The United States has been aware of this fact, but it took only selective action and never prodded Pakistan seriously. India has been consistently saying that there cannot be any differentiation between ‘good’ and ‘bad terrorists’, and action must be taken against all terror outfits based in Pakistan. The new Donald Trump administration has now clearly indicated that it may bar the entry of Pakistani nationals into the US, an action that it has already taken against nationals from seven Islamic countries. It is gratifying to note that the US has now admitted that Pakistan is at the root of terrorism. One hopes that the new Trump administration will take action and send a positive message across the world.

In a democracy, everybody has the right to protest, but nobody can be allowed to take law in one’s hands. This can create anarchy. On Friday, a mob of supporters belonging to Rajput Karni Sena vandalized the sets of a Bollywood film Padmavati at Jaigarh Fort in Jaipur, and roughed up noted film director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The Karni Sena activists alleged that there was a “love scene” between the legendary Rani Padmini of Chittor and Delhi Sultan Alauddin Khilji in the film, which the director has strongly denied. The activists alleged that this was “distortion of history”, as Rani Padmini had immolated herself alongwith other women to save herself from Khilji’s army. Karni Sena could have put forth their arguments, backed by historical facts, before the film’s producer and director, but vandalizing film sets, and roughing up the film director is unacceptable. Strong legal action must be initiated against this outfit, so that this could be a lesson for others.

On Thursday, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo inducted UP gangster Mukhtar Ansari and his relatives into her party and gave them tickets to contest assembly elections. The BSP supremo is now caught in a Catch-22 situation. On one hand, she badly needs Muslim votes, and one the other hand, she may face questions over inducting leaders from criminal background. When Mulayam Singh Yadav was at the helm of Samajwadi Party, Mayawati’s hopes of gaining Muslim votes in UP were dim. But now, she is a bit hopeful about gaining a section of Muslim votes by inducting Mukhtar and his partymen. One remembers the day when Mukhtar’s Qaumi Ekta Dal was ‘merged’ into Samajwadi Party, during the father-son imbroglio, and Mayawati had then remarked that Mulayam and his son, fearing electoral defeat, were taking the help of criminals like Mukhtar Ansari. On Thursday, however, the BSP supremo gave a clean cheat to Mukhtar Ansari. The conclusion: In politics, definitions of crime and corruption can change with time and requirements.

The government’s decision to honour the brave officers and jawans of 4 and 9 Paracommandos (Special Forces) who took part in the successful surgical strikes on terror camps located inside Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, is a welcome step. These brave officers and jawans eliminated the terrorists in a pre-dawn simultaneous strike at several camps inside Pakistan-occupied territory, in the last week of September, without any fear or trepidation. The nation surely needs to honour its heroes. Now that assembly elections in five states are in full swing, the issue of surgical strike is bound to become a poll issue. The Opposition may complain that the government revealed the identities of its surgical strike heroes for political gain. Normally the identities of armymen who took part in such top secret operations are not revealed. The government has revealed their identities after four months. But no true Indian can question the decision to honour its heroes. The nation is proud of its brave officers and jawans. We salute them.

The question that was being asked for the last several years was: why is not Priyanka Gandhi Vadra not entering active politics? There was no official reply forthcoming. However, this time around, Priyanka has become active in UP politics and this has become a subject of animated discussions. For the first time, senior Congress leaders have admitted that Priyanka has played a major role in forging an electoral alliance with the ruling Samajwadi Party. There are reports that Priyanka will campaign for the party across UP. This possibility has already galvanized the Congress workers spread across the state. The workers are convinced that Priyanka can give them a robust leadership, and this would help the party in the forthcoming assembly elections.

The new Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat on Friday promptly reacted to an army Lance Naik’s video in which he had aired his grievance. Since the issue was sensitive, the army chief reacted with sympathy saying he was the head of the 12-lakh strong family of Indian Army, and as the family head, he would try to solve problems and grievances within his ranks. He said, such grievances should be heard and the problems must be solved, but it would be better if such issues remain within the family, and are sorted out from within. The general’s reaction was truly praiseworthy, and he did not react with arrogance at all. Few people know that Gen. Rawat has done Ph.D in military-media strategic studies, and he has said he would try to bridge what he called the ‘communication gap’. One should hope that given the general’s expertise, his advice would percolate down to all ranks and the recent trend of posting videos of grievances on social media will stop.

The entire nation respects our jawans who work in the army, BSF, CISF, CRPF and other paramilitary forces. They salute their zeal and integrity. There are more than 12 lakh jawans and officers in the army, 3,08,862 jawans in the BSF, 2,57,025 jawans in the CRPF.

Naturally in such a huge armed force, there may be instances of deficiencies. The complaints aired by some of the jawans may be justified, they are being probed and taken care of.

But the question arises why jawans took to social media to air their grievances.

Government should create a forum where jawans could share their grievances fearlessly.

The manner in which the videos of jawans went viral on social media, lowers the prestige of these forces and this raises serious issues of indiscipline.

Our armed forces can avoid such embarrassment by creating credible forums for the jawans to ventilate their grievances.

On Wednesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi again quoted from papers purported to be from Sahara, Birla diaries to level unsubstantiated charges at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, even as the Supreme Court, on the very same day, rejected Prashant Bhushan’s petition seeking probe into the diaries. As opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi has every right to criticize the PM and level charges based on facts, but after the Supreme Court verdict, which threw out these documents describing them as unsubstantive evidence, it does not behove of him to smear the Prime Minister’s reputation, based on a sheaf of papers. The Supreme Court has clearly said that evidences that are required to order a probe into this matter are lacking. Advocate Prashant Bhushan had sought time from the apex court, which was granted thrice. But, in the end, Prashant Bhushan failed to submit fresh evidence. The Supreme Court’s stand in this case has been consistent. Prashant Bhushan is a reputed advocate. He can put forth his case before the court, but he cannot expect the apex court to give a verdict to his liking. It was unfair on the part of Mr Bhushan to question the motives of the judges.

The cat is finally out of the bag. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may try his best to hide his ambition, but the reality is that he fervently desires to become the Chief Minister of Punjab. His closest confidante Manish Sisodia inadvertently disclosed this on Tueday to the media, albeit indirectly. Kejriwal had already handed over the reins of Delhi to his Deputy CM several months ago. He had already left Delhi politics and had been concentrating on Punjab affairs, but he is unwilling to publicly announce that he wants to become Punjab CM, because that may cost him votes. It also became clear when he flatly refused to project Navjot Singh Sidhu as CM candidate of his party in Punjab. If Kejriwal finally decides to leave Delhi and go to Punjab, the ultimate beneficiary will be Manish Sisodia, who will take over as Chief Minister. Kejriwal’s former associate and now bitter rival Yogendra Yadav has already said, if Kejriwal wants to become Punjab CM, he should tell this to the people of Delhi and Punjab, and fight elections.