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The real reason why Congress failed to form a Government in Goa

Gaurav
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The real reason why Congress failed to form a Government in Goa

In Goa, the incumbent BJP came crashing to 13 seats from 21 seats. The Congress jumped from a mere 9 seats to 17 seats, falling just 4 short of the half way mark. Being the single largest party, Congress was expected to form the Government in Goa, but as things panned out, it was the BJP which raced ahead with other parties. While it may be easy to blame BJP, the Governor, Modi etc, the moot question is the same question which the Supreme Court asked the Congress: Why the Congress didn’t approach the Governor with their so-called majority to stake claim to form the Government?

The easy answers are: Rahul Gandhi was too laid-back in his approach, Digvijay Singh bungled up the negotiations etc. But to get to the real answer, we must first understand a bit of history.

The current supremo of Goa Forward Party (which bagged 3 seats and allied with the BJP), Vijai Sardesai, was once a hard-core Congressman. He was the General Secretary of Goa Congress, and along with then CM Digambar Kamat, had formidable clout in the matters of the party. Then came the 2012 assembly elections, in which Sardesai was denied a ticket from the constituency he had nursed for years, Fatorda. Sardesai broke away, contested as an independent and won. This act, is termed by Sardesai, as the first betrayal by the Congress.

Cut to 2017, Sardesai had formed a regional front Goa Forward Party (GFP), which was essentially a one-man show. He had done so on the back of being one of the most vocal MLAs in Goa, fighting against the BJP, and usurping the role of leader of opposition from the Congress. For months before the elections, Sardesai had been harping on a mahagathbandhan with the Congress and other parties, to stop the split of “secular votes” to defeat the BJP. His seat-sharing demands may have been unreasonable but he wanted to ally with the Congress and other like-minded parties.

The Congress, led by former CM Luizinho Faleiro, kept on dilly-dallying on talks of forming a formal alliance. A faction headed by Faleiro was in favour of going to polls on its own, barring adjustments on some seats, while another faction headed by Digambar Kamat, was advocating pre-poll alliance with parties including GFP. Faleiro was said to be annoyed with Sardesai, accusing him of trying to blackmail Congress.

Finally, after hectic discussions, it was reported that Digvijay Singh had ruled out any alliance, which prompted GFP to declare that they would contest only on 4 seats, to prevent any division in non-BJP votes.

In response, Digvijay Singh announced that a seat-adjustment formula had been struck between the Congress and GFP, where-in Congress would not field candidates in 3 of the 4 constituencies where GFP had fielded its candidates. These 3 included the prized seat of Fatorda, which Sardesai was contesting from. Even as this was announced, media reports suggested that the local party leaders were upset with this move since the State Congress had repeatedly passed resolutions stating that they do not want to ally with GFP.

That should have been the end of the matter, but Congress had other ideas in mind. Even though Digvijay Singh had announced that Congress would not field anyone against Sardesai in his constituency of Fatorda, on the last day of filing nominations, towards the closure of the process, Fatorda block Congress committee president Jose D’Silva filed his papers as a Congress candidate in Fatorda, blessed by papers signed by none other than Congress President Faleiro. With this, the Goa Congress had gone back on its word and once-again double crossed Sardesai, who terms this as the second betrayal.

In the end, the sham of seat-adjustment was shattered, and the same Digvijay Singh announced that the Congress would contest on 37 seats, and support candidates in the remaining 3 seats. Sardesai too in the end backed an independent candidate in the constituency of Faleiro.

The story from here is familiar. Faleiro led the Congress to a commanding position of 17 seats. Having led the party, he must have naturally assumed to be the Chief Minister of the Congress once the Government is formed. But GFP leader Sardesai, who had emerged king-maker with 3 seats, had not forgotten the treachery of Faleiro. To add to his dislike for Faleiro, was his close association with Digambar Kamat, who was the former CM of Goa and the leader of the other faction. Obviously, GFP demanded informally that they would ally with the Congress only if Faleiro would be relegated to a smaller role in the party.

This is where the talks broke down. The Congress began scrambling internally to arrive at a consensus and elect a leader from amongst themselves, who would be acceptable to the party, as well as the alliance partners. This was not an easy task since the party had 4 former CMs as MLAs, and also a few younger MLAs aspiring to move up the ladder. Add to this Faleiro’s claim for the chair of the CM, considering he revived the dead Congress.

While these talks were on, the BJP sensed an opportunity and within record time, sealed deals with ideological adversaries like GFP. The Congress was left sorting their internal issues whereas the BJP had worked out an alliance with a wide range of partners.

There could have been other factors behind GFP joining hands with BJP, the lure of better portfolios, the support of the Central Government etc, but in all of this, the crux remains this: Why Congress could not easily ally with GFP, even though Congress was the single largest party, and even though GFP was led by a former Congress man. In fact the other MLAs of GFP are also imports from the Congress.

The answer to this is the complete break-down of trust between the 2 parties, owing to skullduggery by the Congress. Irrespective of whether it was Faleiro who engineered the last-minute backstabbing, or whether it was Digvijay who double-crossed GFP, the fact remains, the Congress in Goa is again in shambles, with MLAs slamming the party leaders and rumours abound that the Congress would split anytime soon.

At this juncture, one remembers BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi’s analogy:

Like an orange which comes apart when peeled, the Congress party falls apart when given power.

Mullahs issue ‘fatwa’ against young Muslim singer as her acts can attract ‘wrath of Allah’

OpIndia Staff
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Mullahs issue ‘fatwa’ against young Muslim singer as her acts can attract ‘wrath of Allah’

Barely a week after a 22-year-old Muslim girl Suhana Sayed from Karnataka was subjected to hateful comments for singing Hindu devotional songs in a TV reality show, another Muslim girl who took part in a singing reality show has come under attack.

This time the fanatics have targeted 16-year-old Nahid Afreen from Assam, who took part in the 2015 edition of popular singing reality show Indian Idol Junior and was the first runner up of the show. A fatwa has been issued against her declaring her singing against Islamic values.

According to reports, the fatwa has been issued by 46 Muslim clerics and the leaflets have been distributed across Hojai and Nagaon districts of Assam, putting pressure on the young singer not to sing songs or perform in future.

Nahid was slated to take part in a programme on 25th of this month at a college in Assam, which is situated near a mosque and a graveyard. This appears to be the trigger of the fatwa, as clerics have declared that if “anti-sharia” acts like musical nights is performed near mosques, “future generations will attract the wrath of Allah”.

Radical Muslim organisations and preachers have traditionally taken a stand against music and singing, often terming it ‘haraam’ (forbidden). Popular Islamic preacher Zakir Naik had once declared that music was like liquor:



Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal‏ has strongly condemned this fatwa. He informed that he spoke to Nahid and reiterated his government’s commitment to provide safety and security to artists. As a result, the organisers of the the musical night have decided not to cancel the programme on March 25.

Nahid too refused to bow down to the fatwa. Earlier today, he was quoted as saying that “My singing is gift of God I believe it must be properly utilised, not doing so is ignoring God.”

Nahid however conceded that earlier she was shocked and broken from inside, but many Muslim singers gave her inspiration not to quit music.

Apart from taking part in the reality show Indian Idol Junior, Nahid has also sung a song for Bollywood movie Akira starring Sonakshi Sinha. Her renditions of songs written and composed by the Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankardeva are reportedly quite popular in Assam.

Police have said that they are investigating if these could be one of the factors behind fatwa being issued against Nahid Afreen. Apart from singing Hindu devotional songs, Nahid has also sung and performed songs against terrorism, including against the terror group ISIS. Police is investigating this angle too.

UPDATE: There have been some reports and claims that it was technically not a “fatwa”. You can read the details here.

Actor Ranvir Shorey attacks AAP for inaction against the corrupt, gets attacked in return

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Actor Ranvir Shorey attacks AAP for inaction against the corrupt, gets attacked in return

Ranvir Shorey, a Bollywood actor who had supported the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the past, has come under attack from “passionate” AAP supporters after he put out tweets were critical of the AAP government in Delhi.

His main point of disquiet against the Kejriwal led government was that the AAP government had failed to act against the allegedly corrupt guys as was promised by the party, even after coming to power. Shorey was also critical of Kejriwal’s way of functioning and the hefty advertising budget of the government and party.

After the spectacular debacle of AAP in Goa and underwhelming performance in Punjab, Ranvir started raising some questions:


His criticism drew sharp and angry reactions from AAP supporters, which made things worse:


Ranvir used to think that AAP supporters are at worst idealistic and gullible, but this latest experience made him change his views.

Things were always not so bitter between Shorey and AAP supporters as he was one of the earliest supporters of the party since it was founded in 26th Nov 2012. Here are a few of his tweets from that era:


His support however had withered after AAP won the Delhi elections in 2015 and ran the government for a year, which mostly saw Kejriwal blaming others:


Today, he realized the new character of AAP supporters:


After trying for a few hours, Ranvir gave up on reasoning with the AAP supporters, who as he now realizes, are a lot more than idealistic gullible fools. He has also set up a poll to ascertain which political supporters are the most annoying. AAP was leading at the time this report was published:



Shorey isn’t the only celebrity who has got disillusioned with the party. Even actor Anupam Kher had got disillusioned with the party despite supporting Kejriwal earlier. Even common volunteers of the party like the one who gave Kejriwal his blue Wagon-R and the one who designed the party’s logo have expressed unhappiness over the affairs of the party.

Should the single largest party be invited to form the Govt? Not according to history

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Should the single largest party be invited to form the Govt? Not according to history

As the tussle over the BJP moving to form the government in Goa grew, the Congress was dealt a blow by the Supreme Court on Tuesday after it refused to stay the oath taking ceremony of Manohar Parrikar. SC ordered a floor test in the Goa Assembly on 16th March instead. This decision comes after the Congress had challenged the Goa Governor’s decision to invite the BJP to form the government.

Congress’ contention was that as per the existing convention, the single largest party is invited to form the government, which it contended should have been the Congress. Congress has won 17 seats while BJP won 13 seats in Goa assembly elections where support of 21 MLAs is needed for a majority.

But what do the rules or convention say? Does the single largest party have some sort of a perpetual right of getting called to form the government? The Supreme Court dismissed the Congress’s petition by stating that:

You (Congress) don’t have the numbers and that’s why you didn’t claim to form government… You haven’t demonstrated before the governor that number is in your favor

Apart from this logic, the precedence on a possible course of action if no party won a majority was set by K.R. Narayanan when he was the President of India.

In 1998, after the 12th Lok Sabha results were declared, it was found that the BJP was the largest party with 182 seats, followed by the Congress with 141. As per the press release (brought to our notice via this tweet) put out then by the Rashtrapati Bhavan, it was stated that (emphasis added):

When no party or pre-election alliance of parties is in a clear majority, the head of State has, in India and elsewhere, given the first opportunity to the leader of the party or combination of parties that has won the largest number of seats, subject to the Prime Minister so appointed obtaining majority support on the floor of the House within a stipulated period of time. This procedure is not, however, an all-time formula because situations can arise when MPs not belonging to the single largest party or combination can, as a collective entity, outnumber the ”single largest” claimant.

This is exactly the situation in Goa and Manipur today where the Congress is the largest party but the combination of the BJP MLAs and their post poll supporters as a collective entity are not just outnumbering the largest claimant, but are also generating a simple majority.

And as rightly pointed out here, the governors of the two states have invited the largest post-poll group to form the government provided they pass the floor test.

This precedence set by Ex-President KR Narayanan does make a lot of sense. Let’s consider an absolutely hypothetical scenario. Consider there’s a state called RaGasthan which has 20 seats. As the final results come out it is found that independents have won 11 seats, three parties have won 2 seats each, and one party, let’s call it Kungress, wins 3 seats.

So if the norm of inviting the largest party is followed, the Governor blindly invites Kungress even though it just has 3 seats when the majority mark is 11 which is about 250% more than what seats it has currently. As it turns out,  it was found that 11 independents who had won had declared a coalition and could have formed the govt by proving their majority but couldn’t as the governor was busy following the single party norm.

Even a week before the results were declared, a report in Times of India dealt with the same subject of the Governor not being obligated to invite the largest party in-case of a hung house. The article took the opinions of various constitutional experts, who in one form or the other reiterated KR Narayanan’s position. The article concluded that Governor has to apply his or her mind before calling a party to form the government, which is exactly what is being done in Goa and Manipur.

And then there is this controversial and shocking case when BJP was stopped from forming a government in Jharkhand in 2005, despite being the single largest party and largest pre-poll alliance.

Having said all of this, even if Parrikar becomes the CM of the state and manages to run a smooth government, many including its supporters might continue to raise their eyebrows over this maneuver of the BJP. Many are unsure if it is a demotion or promotion of Parrikar, who until now was tasked with the important defense ministry and had done quite a good job in it.

Plus this decision of giving the ministry’s charge to Arun Jaitley (maybe on a temporary basis) who has his hands full with the Finance ministry and the roll-out of the GST might also have its detractors. Also, this rush by the BJP is also in direct contradiction with its stance of not forming the Delhi Government when it was the largest party during the Delhi elections of  2013.

What might explain this behavior of the BJP is the fact that it desperately seeks to someday manage a majority in the Rajya Sabha and the lone RS seat from Goa held by the Congress comes up for elections in July.

Government schemes for journalists – should media be okay with this?

OpIndia Staff
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Government schemes for journalists – should media be okay with this?

The Telangana government led by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao was yesterday visited by a delegation of journalists led by the Telangana State Press Academy Chairman Allam Narayana, who thanked him for allocating 30 crores in the Telangana Government’s budget for the welfare of journalists.

This scheme was announced by the CM in February 2017 wherein he stated that the government would allocate 10 crores every year for the journalists’ welfare. It is also mentioned in the press release of the government that in the last two budgets too, the government had set aside 10 crore each year for the scheme.

The money is aimed at helping journalists who fall sick or die. Rs 1 lakh has been announced as compensation for death, while family members will be provided Rs 3000 per month for a period of 5 years. The scheme also extends to the children of the journalists studying below the 10th standard would be provided Rs 1000 per month. The scheme also includes a provision for overseas scholarship.

While citizens in distress do need help, a special treatment to journalists by the government does raise questions about the rationale. Such measures should ideally be undertaken by the employers of the journalists, which are usually private corporate houses and not by the government. Journalists do play important role in the society, but so do doctors or teachers or other professionals, many of whom are employees of private organisations. One could argue why no special welfare budget for these professionals?

What the government can do is make it compulsory for the employers to enact such schemes by bearing the expenses out of their own pocket.

Government giving a special status to journalists might lead to a mollycoddled relationship between the two institutions, thereby posing a risk to the objectivity and freedom of the profession. Further, this opens a pandora’s box as to who qualifies and who not for such schemes, because journalism is not a profession where you need to have certain degrees from certain institutes. There will be charges of bias in choosing of beneficiaries of such schemes.

We had recently reported how some schemes for journalists have been used by certain governments (Mulayam singh Yadav in 1995) in order to dole out favor to the journalists who were inclined their party and disposition.

However, as it turns out, there are other instances of similar schemes which have been undertaken by other governments. The central Information and Broadcasting Ministry under the then UPA government had brought in modified guidelines [pdf] in 2013 for a similar journalist welfare scheme which was to come into force from 1st Feb 2013. The benefits too are similar, though the amount is higher; 5 lakh for deceased, permanently disabled journalists and 3 lakh for those suffering from major aliments among others. Such welfare grants are fairly common with accredited journalists being the most common beneficiaries. Such schemes have been implemented by the Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal, Chhattisgarh governments.

This is something the journalistic fraternity should ponder over, especially at a time when the mainstream media is losing its credibility. While it might have been a common practice till now, is it something worth continuing with?

When UPA sent Deputy CM to raid an aeroplane to stop BJP from forming government

Abhishek Banerjee
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When UPA sent Deputy CM to raid an aeroplane to stop BJP from forming government

In terms of realpolitik, here is what is happening in Goa and Manipur. The BJP got more votes but less seats. Now, the BJP is striking a deal with smaller players to grab power in both states.

In other words, the Congress benefited from an idiosyncrasy of the electoral process and ended up with more seats with less votes. Now, the BJP is benefiting from an idiosyncrasy of the parliamentary process and winning power even with less seats.

Based on their party sympathies, I am sure people will take their pick on which party is “murdering democracy”. In the meanwhile, I came across this tweet:

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Coming from P Chidambaram, one can only assume that this tweet was basically intended as a joke,  perhaps in a light “Bura na mano holi hai” mood. I could have called it a case of the “devil quoting the scriptures”, but I do not subscribe to the dark absolutes of Abrahamic thought.

Nevertheless, the Honorable Former Minister felt the need to specify that his Twitter account is intended for  “short but serious comment on contemporary issues”. Which puts me in the mood to tell you a story. It’s a political thriller from 2005. Listen if you will.

Here are the results (pdf link) of the Assembly Election in the State of Jharkhand from Feb – March 2005 (Total of 81 seats).

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The BJP was by far the largest party, winning 30 seats out of the 63 seats it contested. The BJP’s pre-poll alliance partner JD(U) contested the other 18 seats and won 6. This took the NDA tally to 36 in the 81 member Assembly.

The UPA parties were far behind with JMM winning 17 and Congress winning just 9 for a total of 27 seats if you would like to include the NCP’s lone MLA as well.

Immediately after the results, the BJP received the support of 5 other MLAs : 2 from the AJSU (All Jharkhand Students Union), the lone MLA from the Jharkhand Party and 2 other independents. This took the NDA tally to 41, which would be a clear majority.

(Side note: Because of the lack of any identifiable party structure or discipline in the two smaller parties mentioned above as supporting BJP, several media sources for this article tend to refer to all these 5 MLAs simply as “independents”).

The BJP duly staked claim to form the government and also physically presented the 5 supporting MLAs before the Honorable Governor of Jharkhand.

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But then, Governor Syed Sibtey Razi did something that shocked and stunned the entire state of Jharkhand. He invited JMM supremo Shibu Soren to form the government. Soren was sworn in as CM and Stephen Marandi as Deputy CM.

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To give you an idea of how muddy the political waters were in Jharkhand in 2005, let me mention that Stephen Marandi was a JMM rebel who had just won as an independent from Dumka, defeating Shibu Soren’s own son Hemant! In fact, Hemant Soren finished in 3rd position in Dumka with just 20,000 votes. The BJP candidate came second.

The NDA called for a statewide bandh and an agitation, but there was little it could do otherwise. The only option for them was to fly the 41 MLAs to Delhi to be paraded before President Kalam, winning a “moral victory” in public view. The date chosen for this was March 3, 2005. It was now a simple matter of getting these 41 MLAs, including the 5 precious independents, on the 90 minute flight from Ranchi to Delhi.

Right?

No!  Not so fast!

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Yes, you read that right! Deputy Chief Minister Stephen Marandi and his men stopped the chartered plane on the runway at Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport as it was about to take off! The plane was ordered to return and then raided to capture the independent MLAs on board. This is not a Hollywood movie. This is a low budget thriller produced by our UPA government.

So what did the UPA do once it caught hold of these 5 MLAs?

Nothing. Because the 5 MLAs weren’t on board at all.

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While the Congress government was busy at Ranchi Airport, the 5 independents were actually being driven across the state border. Where were they headed? To BJP ruled Chhattisgarh, obviously. They would be safe there.

Except they weren’t going to Chhattisgarh. Because that was the first border that the UPA government sealed when they realized the MLAs were escaping.

Surely they were headed to Odisha then? Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, then in NDA, would protect them.

Wrong again. The MLAs were actually headed to CPI(M) ruled West Bengal. The panicked UPA government deployed minimum resources on that border, convinced that the BJP would never choose a state ruled by the Left Front!

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Once in Durgapur, the MLAs received further orders from Venkaiah Naidu, who made them turn towards Kharagpur Railway Station. There, at 2:30 AM on March 3, the MLAs boarded a train to Bhubaneswar. At 5 AM on March 3, they were finally safe.

Meanwhile, the BJP continued to bluff, throwing the UPA’s sniffers off the trail over and over again. Rumors were spread that the MLAs were still in Ranchi, then it was said they were in Delhi. At one point, the BJP even spread the rumor that they had been moved to Ahmedabad.

That afternoon, the 5 supporting MLAs finally caught an Indian Airlines flight from Bhubaneswar to Delhi. They were then presented before the President of India.

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Nine days later, Jharkhand Governor Sibtey Razi dismissed Shibu Soren from the post of Chief Minister and invited Arjun Munda to form the government in the state.

PS: Personally, I do not support BJP’s act of forcing in a government in Goa. The party and Parrikar’s image would have been better off not getting involved, the numbers being what they are. 

Goa Congress MLAs lash out at Congress even as party approaches SC over Goa Govt formation

OpIndia Staff
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Goa Congress MLAs lash out at Congress even as party approaches SC over Goa Govt formation

In a cruel twist of fate for the Goa Congress, the Goa unit of BJP with 4 MLAs lesser than the Congress, staked claim to form the Government and received the Governor’s assent as well. While the Congress was bickering over who would be their CM face, the Goa BJP swiftly held talks with smaller parties and stitched together an unlikely alliance overnight.

Miffed by this, the Congress took the matter to the Supreme Court:


Legalities aside, even as the Congress is taking umbrage to the BJP and other smaller parties, Goa Congress MLAs themselves are unwilling to blame others and have started attacking the Congress party and its leaders.

Vishwajit Rane, who is a former Minister and son of Former CM and current MLA Pratapsingh Rane, slammed the Congress party saying he felt “let down at the functioning of the party leaders who could not take a decision at the right time”. He further said that he had told Digvijay Singh that he would no longer work for the party and that his voters had black-listed Congress for the future.

It was reported that he had quit the party but at least at the time of writing this story, he seems to be in the Congress. However, he has warned that he along with 6 more MLAs could very soon quit the party and that at least 13 MLAs are upset at the party’s functioning.

Striking a similar chord, another Congress MLA Jennifer Monserrate also slammed the Congress and its leaders:

Our party leaders are to be blamed for the failure to form the government. People had given us the mandate but party leaders failed to respect it. It is entirely their fault

In an audio recording which has now gone viral on social media, she is heard trashing the Congress leadership both in the state and also the central leaders. She went on to say that the Congress is today the “laughing-stock” of the state, and that the entire internal processes for electing a leader were a sham. She further said that there was no point in blaming others and the entire blame lied with the Congress party:

Similarly, Curtorim Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco said that the people wanted the Congress to form the government but party leaders miserably failed to honour the verdict:

Why should we blame someone for forming the government, when we failed in our responsibility?

Political circles are now rife with speculation about an imminent split in the Congress.

Debunking the article in Economic Times that tried to save Rahul Gandhi

Hariprasad N
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Debunking the article in Economic Times that tried to save Rahul Gandhi

Many social media users thought that the coverage of Congress-Samajwadi Party (SP) alliance during the Uttar Pradesh elections by Economic Times was a bit too partisan, which was exposed with BJP sweeping the elections.

However, it seems that Economic Times is still continuing its “helpful” coverage. The newspaper today published an article claiming that though the party had failed, Rahul Gandhi had “succeeded” in his Dalit Leadership Mission (DLM).

The key points of the article are as below:

  • Due to seat sharing arrangement with SP, Congress got 27 seats in Reserved Constituencies
  • 18 out of the 27 Congress candidates in those constituencies were chosen from Rahul Gandhi’s DLM
  • Out of those 18, Congress had not contested in 3 seats in 2012
  • In the remaining 15 seats, total number of votes increased from 437448 to 660880 representing a 51% jump in votes for Congress from last time.
  • In the 3 seats where it contested now in 2017, but not in 2012, Congress polled between 20000 to 53000 votes which represents a good show

Even otherwise the article might appear as clutching on to straws to save the image of Rahul Gandhi, but one deeper analysis, it comes out that even this attempt fails.

The article purposely leaves out the fact that in 2012, Congress and Samajwadi Party did not have any alliance. In other words, they contested against each other. Whereas in 2017, there was a tie-up between the two.

As a result of the alliance, Congress is bound to get some additional votes that would otherwise have gone to Samajwadi Party if there was no alliance. So the correct comparison would be to pool the total votes of Congress and Samajwadi Party from 2012, and compare those to what Congress got in 2017.

And that’s exactly I decided to do to cross check claims of Economic Times article. I could obtain a list of  29 reserved seats in UP where Congress fought, but couldn’t manage to narrow it down to the 18 that Economic Times quotes. Those 18 seats have to be out of these 29 seats, so we should have at least 18 cases of votes going up from 2012 to 2017.

To ascertain whether the votes have gone up, this is how I have compared the votes:

  • Congress and SP both fought in 2012, but only Congress fought in 2017: Votes received by Congress in 2017 (includes votes by SP voters) was compared with total number of votes received by both Congress and SP in 2012.
  • Congress and SP both fought in 2012, and both fought again in 2017: yes, despite the alliance, there were 7 such seats with “friendly” fights. Here I compared only Congress votes from 2012 to 2017 (which Economic Times has done with all the seats).
  • No Congress but SP fought in 2012, while only Congress in 2017: Here votes gone to Congress in 2017 was compared with what SP got in 2012.
  • No Congress but SP fought in 2012, but both fought in 2017: 1 such seat. Despite a friendly fight, here what SP got in 2012 is compared to total number of votes polled by both Congress and SP in 2017 (this is being generous to Congress).

Please note that the numbers have been rounded off to nearest thousands, but this will not affect the final conclusions, as the numbers themselves reveal:

Economic Times lie
Rahul Gandhi’s success

As you can see from the above table, in spite of having the entire Samajwadi Party vote base at its disposal in many seats due to the tie-up, the Congress party has managed to increase the votes in ONLY 7 OUT OF 29 RESERVED SEATS.

We needed at least 18 such seats if the conclusion claimed by Economic Times article was correct.

Furthermore, out of these 7, there is no data available to figure out if any of the candidates came from Rahul Gandhi’s DLM, since the Economic Times article does not publish the list of constituencies where candidates from DLM stood.

One more attempt at propaganda for the family caught, I would say!

References:

  1. 2017 UP Results Candidate Wise 
  2. Reserved Constituencies in UP
  3. 2012 UP Results Candidate Wise

(the article was originally published on my blog)

Chhattisgarh: Leftists take revenge for progress, snatch 12 innocent lives

Abhishek Banerjee
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Chhattisgarh: Leftists take revenge for progress, snatch 12 innocent lives

Far away from the cream and strawberries world of celebrity patrakars and their political patrons in Lutyens Delhi, there is a forgotten vastness of the nation where people still struggle for their basic needs.

The people in this tribal patch of Eastern India were divided. No, not because of “Hindutva” or “intolerance”. But because the Sabari river flowed between Dornapal town in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh and Podia town in Odisha. Seven decades of the idea of India had failed to build a bridge between these two communities. As a result, despite being so close to each other, the people would have to travel as much as 120 km to make it to the other side.

Finally, Achchhe Din have arrived. The bridge has been built and a journey of 120 km has come down to a mere 3 km, as seen in this report from Navbharat Times:

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For friends who might not be able to read Hindi, let me translate some of the most relevant lines:

“The news of the opening of the bridge had spread like wildfire through dozens of villages and towns a day before. By evening thousands of people from Chhattisgarh and Odisha had gathered to see history being made. There was a smile on every face and a desire to see something new and special. Nearly a thousand people from the Chhattisgarh side crossed the bridge in two wheelers to meet people on the Odisha side and express their happiness.”

This is exactly the kind of grassroots development that should bring tears of joy into the eyes of any genuine well wisher of the Indian people. Not to mention that this is exactly the kind of grassroots reporting that is losing out to celebrity patrakars who tweet out the rumblings in their own echo chambers in the form of “ground reports”.

Swarajya Magazine also picked up the story here from the same report in the Navbharat Times. They published it along with a prophecy:

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which came true almost immediately in the most morbid manner possible.

Of course, the enemies of India couldn’t bear to see the people of Odisha and Chhattisgarh take even one step forward. The whiff of progress sent a shiver down the spines of leftists. If India develops, they lose their narrative. They’ll go out of business.

The Left acted swiftly and vengefully:

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That’s right! Leftists went to the same Sukma district of Chhattisgarh that had just been connected to Odisha with this new bridge. They just had to do it. By means of a spectacularly gruesome operation, they just had to show the people that every step towards progress will be met with swift and ruthless punishment.

India just lost another 12 fine young men as a punishment for progress.

What is worse is that the stranglehold of the Left on national discourse is such that these massacres are either forgotten instantly or don’t even get noticed in the first place. See if you can name even one of our brave men and women in uniform who have died fighting the intolerance of the militant Left. See if you can find even one mainstream website or primetime TV debate today on this massacre in Chhattisgarh. This story is not fashionable enough to go viral on the internet and electronic media.

Every time I see a leftist speaking with a straight face on tolerance and democracy at a televised event, I wonder if this person will burst into laughter the moment he/she goes behind the scenes.

My humble advice: take the “Bharat ki barbaadi” chants seriously. They are telling us exactly what they want. They are showing us what they are capable of doing by doing exactly what they said they would do. The only thing they are not showing is how much they are laughing at all of us.

BBC shares old report about ‘EVM hacking’ a day after BJP sweeps elections

OpIndia Staff
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BBC shares old report about ‘EVM hacking’ a day after BJP sweeps elections

Have you suddenly discovered some people sharing a 2010 news story of BBC on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in India being vulnerable to be “hacked”? Do you think they dug that story up from the BBC website thanks to their sharp memories? Not exactly. BBC helped them.

A day after BSP supremo Mayawati made rather ridiculous allegation that EVMs were hacked that helped BJP win big in Uttar Pradesh, BBC News recycled an old news article that claimed that EVMs could be “hacked”. They shared the article on their Facebook page at around 9 PM on Sunday, but deleted it a couple of hours later.

What was dishonest was that while sharing it on Facebook, the article – titled “US scientists ‘hack’ India electronic voting machines” and originally published in May 2010 – BBC News didn’t clarify that they were sharing an old article. In absence of which, it appeared as if Mayawati’s ridiculous claims were now validated by “US scientists”.

The original article referred to an old controversy, which ironically was triggered after the BJP lost the 2009 general elections. Although senior BJP leaders didn’t officially support this ‘EVM hacking’ theory, there were concerns raised back then by various people after a techie named Hari K Prasad claimed that EVMs could be manipulated.

Hari Prasad had teamed up with a professor and couple of students of computer science at University of Michigan, who are referred to as “US scientists” in the BBC News headline. They had claimed that with some underhand hardware changes, the EVMs could be programmed to favour a particular candidate.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) had back then disputed the claims and issued a clarification (pdf link) reiterating that EVMs were safe. In fact, the Congress government had arrested Hari Prasad on charges of “stealing” an EVM – an act that was opposed by many including Telugu Desam Party President N Chandrababu Naidu.

ECI has since then maintained that enough precautions and security measures are taken to keep the EVMs safe from manipulation. Even going by the claims of Hari Prasad and his team, one needed to physically tamper the EVMs (to make minor hardware changes) to manipulate the results, which technically is not “hacking” as the term is typically used for software manipulation.

Even in their detailed response (pdf link) to the latest allegations by Mayawati, ECI has pointed out about the security measures and how every EVM has a seal signed by representatives of political parties. Therefore, any attempt to physically tamper the EVMs can be spotted by the representatives of such parties. The original complaint by the BSP (pdf link) doesn’t mention any proof of such tampering being observed by its representatives.

One expects that a ‘reputed’ media organisation like the BBC News would be aware of these facts and if at all it touches upon the story of EVM manipulation, they will highlight these aspects. However, like a cheap dishonest clickbait website, BBC News pushed out an old report, which can only help in pushing a propaganda currently being propagated by certain political parties.

This chicanery by BBC News was spotted by many of its readers, who bashed the news organisation on its Facebook page, after which BBC deleted the Facebook post. However, by then the article was shared over 2000 times, thus misleading thousands of people into potentially believing that Mayawati’s allegations were backed by some US scientists. Some are now sharing the old article of their own.

BBC’s intentions are suspect because while they deleted the old news from their Facebook page after users bashed them, an article on similar theme referring to the same 2010 incident was published on their Hindi website.

While ECI claims that the technology is foolproof and enough precautions are taken, to do away with concerns of manipulation, the Supreme Court of India had suggested having a paper trail along with the EVMs i.e. a voter will get a ‘receipt’ showing whom he had voted for, and the same receipt can then be submitted in a ballot box. In case of dispute over EVM numbers, the paper ballots can be counted. Such EVMs were tried, rather unsuccessfully, at a few places in the recently concluded Punjab assembly elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi too has encouraged this proposed system of having a paper trail along with the EVMs. Last year he had asked start-ups to come up with technologies that can help the Election Commission implement it successfully.

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