The General Elections, Sandeshkhali Incident in West Bengal And Much More…

Edits | March, 2024

The General Elections

Over-hyped and such a frenzy of media publicity by the BJP for the present general elections has never before been seen, in all of urban India, by any political party before the general elections. Everywhere that you can look is now PM Modi posing to be re-elected for the next 5 years in the upcoming general elections of April-May 2024. All media has been bought out many times over, the outside hoardings, pages in the print media, artificially intelligent bots, most social media platforms, and any sort of communication which has to do with general public awareness has a photo of PM Modi on it. Is so much publicity really needed if somebody is a great leader in running the country? One wonders about the media budget. With the political bans being called, and the freezing of political party bank accounts, BJP has an edge over expenditure in the election campaign which is light years ahead of the next best competitor, herein the entire bunch of competition. Some would say it is unfair competition, but then the ruler always has an edge.

Sandeshkhali, West Bengal

Though the media reports are definitely sponsored by the party not in power, something like Sandeshkhali happens in many places in India. Even though it is a political gimmick of downsizing TMC, it is a bad case in urban-rural India of oppression and deletion of human rights. The government needs to act at both local and central levels. People who are responsible for it need to go behind bars along with their leaders. For once, Mamata Banerjee’s role should be analysed as to why she is turning a blind eye to some Muslim leaders who may be getting her votes, but also a bad name and setting not-so-great examples for society and leadership. From the media perspective, it is one of those stories which is a hit below the belt and can be gruesome considering the elections are around the corner.

Arvind Kejriwal’s Response To ED Summons

Having discounted the enforcement directorate summons 7 to 8 times, Arvind Kejriwal is only escaping not going to prison. In most likelihood, it will come about at a date which is much closer to the general elections, since PM Modi is hell-bent on taking him to bars for the liquor scandal of the Delhi government. Though we all know that it is a political move, and the Aam Aadmi Party stands as a big hurdle in the governance of Delhi, still stealing from the government and from the public does not augur well for any kind of political party. Arvind Kejriwal is now left helpless, with all his generals either behind bars or having been compromised. His plea to the general public that the leaders of Aam Aadmi Party will go to prison if they do not join the BJP, is not going to get him many votes. Although the general public in Delhi, because of the freebies being distributed by the Aam Aadmi Party, seems still to be with him, it will only be evident in the Vidhan Sabha elections in Delhi. As far as general elections are concerned there is a seat sharing agreement with the congress, which is literally down in the dumps at the moment. Internally, the Kejriwal camp must be down in the dumps or trying to hide all the corrupt practices done so far, to remain out of the ED scanner. 

Disintegration And Migration Of Local Parties

Many local parties have been dismembered by the BJP with the help of central agencies just before the elections. There is not much to write on this matter other than to recognise that this has been plotted and executed brilliantly, to eliminate the electoral competition by the BJP. By no stretch of political imagination has this been an easy task, and it will pay well for the BJP to remain in power. What remains to be seen is how these local political parties are going to resurrect themselves after the general elections, where most likely most of them will lose further ground. Also, if the BJP is going to become a 370+ seat party, will it become large enough to be split, as was the Congress during the days of Indira Gandhi? Anything, as long as that in politics, there will be internal power centres who may want independence rather than revolve around the sun which has created them.

Government’s Failure In Competitive Exams

An interesting thing that has happened in Uttar Pradesh is the announcement of culling the three important examinations held by the government for the post of Constable, Review Officer and Assistant Review Officer in the last week of February 2024. This comes in the wake of the fact that examination papers were leaked. Needless to say, everybody may have seen images of lakhs of candidates appearing for a few thousand posts available with the government. A government job instils security in the youth as it comes with a pension, and also with the promise of earnings over and above the government salary. Plus, there are perks, but at the same time, it does make most youth a vegetable in the head, and a non-performer for life. It is only the people in the top urchins of government jobs who really make a name for themselves, their families and the nation. But since India is a poor country and most of the people do not have capital in the places where they are born, a good secure government job is one of the best options. Does the cancellation of evaluation after these three exams have happened seem to have some sort of a political angle, which could either be caste or religion-related? It shall become clear only after the general elections where the BJP is looking to hit 80 out of 80 seats in the state of Uttar Pradesh. At the same time, Rahul Gandhi’s rally seems to have not gathered much support; definitely not much media footage on it, but it still goes on for whatever reason.

India Women’s Hockey Team Out Of Paris Olympics

Despite beating Japan thrice last year, the Indian women’s Hockey team was unable to score a victory against them at the Olympic Qualifiers in Ranchi. It is sad to see the team fail to perform under the pressure to qualify for the Paris Olympics, certainly a heartbreak for Indian fans especially around Women’s Day. Even the head coach, Janneke Schopman and Indian Hockey’s CEO, Elena Norman, resigned days after the loss. Although the reasons could also be the internal tensions in the federation, failure to qualify for the Paris Olympics was definitely a big blow but at least Indian representation will not be lacking at the big game.

As a closing line, we look forward to another democratic election and hope that democracy will still go on as proposed in the Constitution of the country.

CA Divesh Nath

Editor
Woman’s Era
LinkedIn: Divesh Nath