The many pitfalls of playing with minority politics

By Arun Nehru

05th May 2013 06:51 AM

General Elections are around the corner and leaders at this point will do and say anything to strengthen their political hold on voters. Thus, a certain amount of irrationality can be expected. We have seen posturing by everyone this Parliament Session and I think the Samajwadi Party qualifies for the first prize. Observe the comments of Mulayam Singh Yadav, who while criticising the Chinese incursion said the Army should chase away the intruders and China is our enemy No. 1, not Pakistan. I suppose that the minority vote bank is crucial to the SP leader and the Chinese who number a few hundred in Uttar Pradesh are not important, at least not right now.

Senior SP minister Azam Khan, accompanying Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav who was to deliver a speech at Harvard University, was livid after being held up by Immigration at Boston Airport and left sitting on a bench for half an hour. He insisted that this was done because he was a Muslim. Both leaders refused to attend the Harvard function and returned after lodging their protest. According to media reports, there was an incident at the VVIP lounge of Delhi Airport as well where the staff was accused of discrimination against Muslims. There is no VIP culture in the US, and Boston, after the terror blasts, was on extra alert. There must have been several such unfortunate incidents, but there is a way of lodging your protests.

Uttar Pradesh with 80 seats is crucial for every party and there is no doubt that the SP and BSP may win 50 out of 80 seats between them and the minority vote is crucial for the SP, BSP and Congress, and we are looking at a four-way battle. Every party will put many a VVIP candidate in the field. Early days for a firm forecast, but every party is under pressure to retain their 2009 numbers and at this stage only the BSP and BJP seem to be looking at an increase in tally while the SP and Congress are under pressure. Bihar with 40 seats also shows both the JD(U) and BJP under pressure and a combination of the Congress, RJD and LJP, if formed, can dent the numbers to a certain extent.

The murder of Sarabjit Singh has struck a chord. Sadly, Pakistan is living in the dark distant past and you can see this attitude on our TV screens as Pakistani experts give their jaundiced views on Indo-Pak relations. Even after major provocations we hoped for better days, but in vain. The government has limited options and clearly, if this is the attitude, we are dealing with a rogue state and a multiplicity of terror outfits.

The global community needs little evidence of their actions but the US still counts on Pakistan for support in Afghanistan. The US agenda includes drone attacks on terror targets in the cities of Pakistan and while there is widespread hatred for this, the Army and ISI have limited option and need the billions they get to maintain their force. We have to tackle the situation by a step-by-step approach as is necessary for a civilised country, but it is time to call the riot police. The elections in Pakistan will produce a government subservient to the Army and it makes little difference who occupies the chair.

We are a democracy and everyone is free to voice their opinion, but I have never quite understood why we allow anti-national elements to fester in our society. Kashmir is an integral part of our country and no government can think differently and it is time that we stopped pampering those who malign India and they have the option of going into PoK for the rest of their lives. The security situation has improved in Jammu and Kashmir and we need to act on the sleeper units with severity.  

The Karnataka elections are on and the battle is fierce; the Congress has its nose in front while the JD(S) seems to be improving its numbers and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa may do better than expected, compared to BJP.

Arunnehru89@yahoo.in

Nehru is a former Union minister