UPA government is by far the best that has happened to this nascent democracy.
A PM was an intellectual par excellence. An economist who knew what he was doing.
An astute politician who built consensus
A FM, PC & not Pranab Da, who was an expert in his domain
Ministers with intellect - @Jairam_Ramesh , Mani Shankar Aiyar & practical knowledge & street smartness, like Murali Deora etc.
They had no compulsions to embark on campaign trails. Every few days or months.
The vote catchers were different - YSR, Vilasrao, Gehlot, Amrinder etc
The politics did not come in the way of governance. India was on the cusp of prosperity. Poverty reduction, education & climate control were actively pursued.
India was feted across the world as the next power. Economic as well as democratic
RTI, telecom revolution, RTE, MNGRES
Then, Sonia Gandhi wanted that the rural landholders should have a remunerative price for parting with their holding.
That enraged the moneybags who wanted cheap land for exploitation.
They turned against the UPA.
Bought media vehicles.
Propped up RSS Stooges like Anna & Kejari
Religious con-men like Double Sri & Thus Ramdev were feeling suffocated. They saw a chance.
An atmosphere of disenchantment was created.
Gullible folks like Nikhil Wagle & Rajdeep fell for it. They termed it as second revolution & fraud Anna was next Gandhi.
I-Pac & moneybags foisted a Hologram. The Hologram had a potent mix of misleading propaganda and religious bigotry, nay, extremism.
He won big. Then bigger next time round. In between, democratic institutions stood destroyed. So was growth & social harmony
We are a basket case.
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Where the Top judiciary sings hosannas for personal liberty, but selectively.
Where the Lower Judiciary is trained to be antithetical to personal liberty.
Where The Top Judiciary thanks the Executive for Court infra development - the Thane Court functions out of a dungeon. A veritable hell-hole. No place to even stand in the Court w/o rubbing a 100 people on their public & private parts.
A Top Judiciary that fears to lend its name to judgements or adhere to due process when it comes to one of it's own.
Where cases run Ram Bharose i.e w/o a guardian.
Where bail application isn't an urgent matter but a perceived defamation of a sleazy officer or moneybag is
#ShivSena Chief @OfficeofUT 's speech on the occasion of #DasaraMelava - My take:
Caveat : I heard only 30 mnts or so at the end. 1. He made a distinction between #Hindutva as practiced by RSS & as understood by him. He said - my Hindutva doesn't make me hate people.
2. RSS Chief's persistent claim that all Indians had the same ancestors, meaning Hindus - UT had a 2 fold answer - If you talk of the ancestors, you will have to go back to monkeys, and, if ancestors of all Indians were Hindus - why u behave as if ancestors of opposition ..
leaders came from a different planet. [Methinks, this is an effective counter (given the charged & gullible citizens) to the trope of claiming superiority of race by the Sangh Pariwar. 3. He spoke about federalism. He stressed that Maharashtra is being discriminated against.
On the eve of #75thIndependenceDay : I want to address fellow citizens: I know I'm inconsequential. I also know that I'm the ultimate source of power. The power of my Corporator, the MLA, the Chief Minister, the Prime Minister, the CJ of my High Court, the CJI ...
All of them assume power from me. They're there to 'serve' me & you.
How would they serve 'us' ??
Well.....
Not at their whims & fancies.
Not at their biases.
Not at their ideological preferences.
All of them are there to serve 'us' - in accordance with the Constitution.
They are enjoying their power, their perks, their luxuries - at 'our' cost.
We slog, we work hard, we live & we pay taxes. The taxes pay for their upkeep. They're there cause 'WE' put them there. They draw their legitimacy from 'us'.
Namaste sada vatsale matrubhume, tvaya hindu bhume sukhamvartitoham......
I sang this every evening when I headed RSS shishu shakha at 12.
It was fun. The evenings, the small little games. The बौद्धिक। Stories of great kings & heroes. The sense of pride, the fulfilment.
Went on for a few months. Then, my ताऊजी got to know that I'm attending Shakha.
ताऊजी was an amazingly simple person. A Brahmin who lived in poverty despite his father being the Chairman of local municipality for 20 years. Despite his father being a person friend of Rajasthan CM
At night, he called me - told me a long story as to how the जांगिया वाले (that's Marwadi for RSS Chaddis) betrayed his father & other freedom fighters, gave info of their whereabouts to Brits & the Brits caught my grandpa along with Hiralal ji Shastri (1st CM of Rajasthan)