'Bharat Ratna' getting politicised
Parties have begun to prepare for elections. On one hand they are looking for coalitions to pose a strong challenge to BJP. Rahul Gandhi is in touch with regional political parties for the same purpose. Chandrasekhar of Telangana and Mamatha Banerjee of West Bengal are in talks on this issue. Leftists are still unclear about their stance. To cause major embarassment to BJP, Shiv Sena has been insisting on having Ram Mandir built soon as possible. Delhi government has somewhat provided answer to rumours that Congress would truck with AAP on the upcoming elections. Delhi government has submitted a plea to the centre demanding the withdrawal of Bharat Ratna conferred on Rajiv Gandhi because he masterminded the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. BJP has also joined hands with AAP on this.
It is rather easy to understand why this order was passed in Delhi assembly. AAP wants to break into Punjab and hence it has assumed the stance to repeal Bharat Ratna from Rajiv Gandhi's name.
Punjab is a very promising state for AAP apart from Delhi. The party wants to garner Sikh votes. Which means the party will fight elections in the near future with Sikh massacre as its moot issue in Punjab. But the most unfortunate aspect is Kejriwal has presented this issue before a PM who defends massacres. Delhi government is expecting those elements to facilitate responsible behavior and justice from the others, while the former didn't even apologies for the violence they created in Gujarat. That's a tall order!
Rajiv Gandhi hasn't assumed power when Sikh massacre took place. He had reportedly said “when a huge tree falls, it surely causes small damages” or something to that effect. At the same time, there are allegations that he had shielded those who were part of the massacre.
Hence Rajiv Gandhi's role was limited in this case. But when the Gujarat incident happened, Modi was the CM of that state. Amit Shah was the home minister. Media reports have repeatedly suggested how the government machinery was used to create and mastermind this massacre. And the man who stayed put on his chair of CM owing to Gujarat is the PM of India. Kejriwal surely is aware of all of this. With this plea by Kejriwal as the context, most BJP leaders in the centre are all set to sling some mud on Rajiv Gandhi themselves. Let's agree that Rajiv Gandhi needs to be stripped of this honor. At the same time are they ready to strip former PM Vajpayee of the honor of too? Because when the Gujarat massacre happened, Vajpayee was the PM.
While instructing Modi to follow the 'Raj dharma’, Vajpayee defended this massacre in his speech in Goa. Most of the senior police officers maintain if the centre had taken cognizance, the massacre could have been contained. Vajapayee also faced charges of outing the details of freedom fighters to the British and getting them arrested during the struggle for independence. If both names of Rajiv and Vajapayee were placed together, then this demand could have been a bit balanced. Rajiv Gandhi family has a deep bond with this nation. Motilal Nehru sacrificed all his ancestral property for the nation, during the years of freedom fight.
His son Jawaharlal Nehru not only took part in the freedom struggle but also became the first PM of the nation and took it towards progress in the initial years. Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi was popular among people with her poverty eradication programmes. The boldness she showed in getting freedom for Bangladesh left the world dumbfounded.
She sacrificed her life to contain the terrorism in Punjab. She didn't ever have any animosity with Sikhs. If she did, she wouldn't have Sikhs for her bodyguards even after Operation Bluestar. If this is the background Rajiv Gandhi has, the only thing that follows Vajapayee are those tasks he did you favour the English during the quit India operations. The youth came into focus after Rajiv Gandhi became the PM. The digital era was ushered with his foresight. If we are roaming with two mobiles each, the dream that Rajiv Gandhi saw has a significant role in making this turned true and country was on a path to technological progress. But the Bofors scandal followed him like a shadow even when he had a reputation of being Mr Clean.
But the court said he had no role in that deal, in the case that continued after his death. He sacrificed his life for the sake of this country too. Having started something as indignifying as this against a leader who was the role model of youths isn't very complementary to AAP. Through this, Kejriwal has shown he isn't too averse to doing dirty politics and whatever it takes to win elections.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Wayanad LS bypoll: Priyanka crosses lead achieved by Rahul in 2024 Lok Sabha polls
Wayanad (Kerala) (PTI): Top Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was on Saturday comfortably cruising towards her maiden electoral win from Wayanad in Kerala, as she surpassed the lead achieved by her brother Rahul Gandhi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls earlier this year with party leaders and ally IUML predicting a big win for her amid the counting trends.
The Congress-led UDF's candidate from this hill constituency, Priyanka, extended her lead by over 3.8 lakh votes after five hours of counting of the ballots in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll, according to the Election Commission.
Reacting to the lead achieved by Priyanka, Congress' ally Indian Union Muslim League and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said she would get more votes than her brother Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls in April this year and will win by a record margin.
"An amazing first trend on counting day is the massive early lead for our leader @priyankagandhi ji in Wayanad, Kerala, by-election. People of Wayanad are surely going to record in victory margins today and Priyanka ji will make Parliamentary debut with a grand win," Reddy said in a post on 'X'.
IUML supremo Panakkad Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal said that going by the trends, Priyanka will get more votes than what Rahul got and the majority she achieves would also be higher than that of her brother.
A similar view was expressed by IUML's national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty.
On the other hand, BJP leader Anil K Antony, earlier in the day, had claimed that though Priyanka has achieved a good lead, her victory margin would be less than what Rahul got in the 2024 and 2019 LS polls in the hill constituency.
According to the latest EC figures, Priyanka had a lead of 3,82,975 with 5,78,526 votes. LDF's Sathyan Mokeri was behind her with 1,95,551 votes and NDA's Navya Haridas was in the third spot with 1,04,947 votes.
Rahul had got 6,47,445 votes and won by a margin of 3,64,422 votes against his nearest rival, CPI's Annie Raja, in the LS polls this year. In 2019, he had got 7,06,367 votes and had won by a margin of 4,31,770 votes.
After winning from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh as well, in this year's polls, Rahul vacated the Wayanad seat, and the party nominated his sister Priyanka, paving the way for her electoral debut.
The bypoll turnout in Wayanad, which has over 14 lakh registered voters, was around 65 per cent, a decline from the close to 74 per cent in the LS polls held in April this year and much lower than the over 80 per cent turnout in the hill constituency in the 2019 general elections.
The counting of votes commenced at 8 am with postal ballots being taken up first.
The strong rooms, where the EVMs were kept, were opened more than an hour before counting began.
The bypoll for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat was held on November 13.
Of the 16 candidates who contested, the main contenders are Priyanka, ruling CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri, a political veteran, and BJP-headed NDA's Navya Haridas.
