Rubber Stamp !!!!

Sycophancy keeps touching new heights within the Congress party.The Congressmen and women speak in one voice only when they have to show their admiration of the Gandhi family.They have put Sonia Gandhi on a pedestal only because she married into the family and according to them Rahul is the future of the party because of the accident of birth.If the campaign in UP elections is an indicator of Rahul Gandhi`s political acumen then he has miles to go before he leaps on to something worthwhile.During the entire campaign he was hell bent upon fooling the people into believing that all their misfortune is on account of not having a Gandhi at the helm all the time.Well,many people would like to blame Nehru-Gandhi lineage for creating many of the problems ,right from taking Kashmir issue to the UN,underestimating China in 1962,imposition of emergency,militancy in Punjab etc etc.Of course,the Nehru-Gandhi family has done a lot for the country, but then is it not why one joins politics.
The latest example of sycophancy was when the entire Congress party left the decision on Presidential candidate to Sonia Gandhi and she zeroed in on the name of Pratibha Patil,the Governor of Rajasthan.President Kalam has been one of the most active and popular President in recent times.While it is a matter of pride that India is going to have its first women President ,the circumstances and the manner in which her name was proposed gives credence to the opinion that pliability has been a major factor in her selection.

National shame !!!!

'National Shame' is what the Supreme Court has termed the week long violence by Gujjar groups and rightly so.No politician worth his salt could have termed it a national shame as that would have meant goodbye to gujjar votes at the time of elections.But the week long orgy of violence for claiming ST status raises a big question mark over the flawed reservation policy.
Gujjars have OBC status and were happy with it until the NDA govt. ,led by A.B.Vajpayee ,included the well off Jats into the OBC category.Now,the Gujjars want to be shifted downwards into the ST category so that they can get more benefit in education and employment.This is being bitterly opposed by Meenas who have been reaping rich dividends of their ST status and are in no mood to share the reservation pie.This has become a catch 22 situation for the governments both at the state and in the centre.If they give Gujjars ST status they risk antagonizing the Meenas and vice-versa.
The administration has to take a fair share of the blame for the violence spiraling out of control,instead of being reactive they should have been proactive.The killing of six people in police firing acted as a trigger and after that the police was clearly on the defensive because of the political repercussions.The TV news channels did their best to inflame the passions by repeatedly showing disturbing visuals and providing undue publicity to mischief mongers.
The mere fact that caste groups are clamoring to get themselves declared more backward than the others points to the abject failure of reservation policy in uplifting these groups.Because if a community after enjoying reservation in a particular category for a considerable period wants to be shifted downwards,it speaks volumes of the efficacy of the reservation policy and its implementation.Reservation ,for all purpose,has become a tool in the hands of the creamy layers to corner all advantages for themselves.It is high time that the government wakes up and starts giving reservation only on economic grounds.