ChinmayC Blog

By all available indicators, trends and analysis the Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)—more precisely the Modi Government—is all set to perform a rare hattrick of coming-back-to-power in the  18 th  Lok Sabha or General Elecitons-2024 that starts on 19 th April and stretches like IPL all the way to 1 st June when the 7 th phase of voting is scheduled with the counting of results scheduled on 4 th June. A host of media reports/opinion polls, analysis by poll experts/psephologists, the confidence of the ruling BJP in achieving a 400+ tally of seats for its alliance, the NDA’s already achieved hattrick of winning three Assembly Elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in 2023, a divided opposition despite the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or the INDIA bloc of 27 political parties, and of course, the bonds of an endearing Indian electorate all point to this prediction which is fast becoming a certainty like a wa...

The only political party that is always having the last laughs on the pathetically prolonged Congress dilemma and its manifestations is obviously the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is greatly advantaged to stage a hat-trick of victory in the 2024 General Elections, even though the biggest national democratic exercise is more than two and half years away. The oldest political party of India, the Indian National Congress (INC or simply Congress), has been suffering consecutive routs in both the General Elections since 2014 and in most of the Assembly Elections in recent times, leading everyone to believe that the only second pan-India party, apart from the BJP since 2014, is caught in the throes of an irreversible decline and fall. It still remains a party bound irrevocably to the Gandhi family, despite the repeated failures of the leadership and internal conflicts led by several veteran Congress leaders called the G-23 demanding a change in leadership and holding organizational...

As I cool my heels in my native city Guwahati make no frills about all the thrills of politicking in the meantime. Starting with the Bill or rather the Ordinance to protect convicted politicians the Prime Minister of India returned from the US and, as anticipated widely, decided to kill the Bill in his Cabinet meeting thanks to Rahul Gandhi's vitriolics. All got seemingly well between the head of the Government and the Vice President of the party that leads the Government. As an immediate casualty of the killed bill Bihar veteran Lalu Prasad Yadav got convicted for stealing food from the animals and sentenced five years in jail. At the moment the politician is having sleepless nights thanks to the jail mosquitoes and insects that do not discriminate. Some other about to be convicted criminal politicians are fast losing hope in their own system. And today Assembly Elections are declared for five states starting November 11 to December 4 with the date of counting fixed on 8th Decem...

The Supreme Court of India gave a historic judgment today. The public litigation petition demanding the Right to Reject for voters had been pending for last nine years and Anna Hazare during his Movement against Corruption in 2011-12 made a lot of hue and cry for this too. Today the Supreme Court put its seal of approval on this. Now voters can reject all the candidates in his constituency if s/he thinks all of them are crooks and useless.   There will be a new option in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), ‘None Of The Above’, so that all candidates of all parties could thereby be rejected by the voter. Exactly when the EVMs are going to be adjusted or the date of effect to this decision is a matter of pure speculation at the moment. This is basically a negative vote, but the apathetic voters now need not sit at home and abstain from their constitutional duty. They can go to the polling booths and exercise their Right to Reject by voting for the new option. Maybe Voters’ Apathy ...

Friday the 13 th September, 2013. If you remember the movie for the sheer horror of it you must remember this particular date for the sheer excitement of it. One-two-three…on three counts of major developments in India. This date is considered unlucky as per superstitious beliefs of Western culture, but this particular date proved auspicious and lucky on three major counts. An auspicious beginning for a rape-tormented country as all the four accused in Delhi Gangrape rape were sentenced to death by a fast-track court in Delhi. It definitely proved lucky for Narendra Modi as the faction-ridden BJP finally managed to take the bold decision of anointing him as its Prime Ministerial candidate for General Elections-2014. A triumph for all genuine cricket lovers as the disciplinary committee of the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) imposed life bans on Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan for Spot fixing in IPL. Proof enough to make you reconsider the scare long attached to ‘Friday the 13 th’ ! Crowds Wai...

When the national capital along with its northern allies lead the way in torturing, maiming, raping and murdering women of all possible age-groups how could the financial capital be far behind! A city boasting of being safe for women over the years has lost this tag forever as crimes against women, intimidation and murder of liberals and all kinds of mafia related shootouts increase ominously. On a more sinister note this could just be the reflection of what is going all around the country. Like the nosediving value of the Indian rupee all values of the society are plummeting to all-time lows. Greed, lust, corruption, violence, intolerance, chauvinism, perversion etc are becoming the new parameters of modern life. Why? Because, our political parties and leaders need to contest and win the General Elections-2014. Because, to achieve that goal they need to have a hopelessly divided and morally defunct society. Because, they have to impose a new ‘governance’ on us for the same ‘noble’ o...

Almost every Indian political party hopes to rule one whole nation called India and in the process of doing so through elections leaves the ‘whole’ polarized, divided, seething and disillusioned. The much cherished theme of ‘unity amidst diversity’ has always proved to be a blessing in disguise for all unscrupulous parties or politicians who never stopped exploiting   this by dividing up the ‘diversity’ just to garner votes. Politics of polarization, politics of vote banks, politics based on caste-language-religion-you know what, politics of corruption and even politics of terror have compromised National Security again and again. But the power-obsessed politicians have been totally unmindful of the seriousness of the situation, particularly now with the General Elections-2014 just round the corner. Divisive politics and a perpetually stalemated Parliament have made the country directionless and weak. A weak country is always vulnerable for any kind of attacks or calamities. Such ...

Narendra Modi has become the classic pill that still affects you irrespective of your decision to swallow or not to swallow it. If you ignore the pill you suffer from relapse; if you swallow it and then throw it out you still suffer from wrong diagnosis and if you swallow it with a contented heart you are still not sure of escaping from its side effects.   Greatly relishing the spectacle the Congress party already quipped that the very mention of Narendra Modi’s name had made many BJP stalwarts sick unable to attend Goa meet. For a change media attention has somewhat shifted from the still raging IPL Spot Fixing scandal and has now been totally focused on Narendra Modi—the Chief Minister of Gujarat famous for his successful development model and arguably the most controversial leader within the national opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Recently there were a few opinion polls on General Elections-2014 that forecast that with Modi as the BJP campaign leader or a declared Pri...

The Indian ruling coalition, UPA-2, never faced a bigger crisis than this. Already embroiled in various scams the last few days witnessed explosions of opposition ire and an increasing threat to the very existence of the government with the prospects of General Elections-2014 getting really fluid and volatile. The opposition political parties, prominently the BJP, demand immediate resignations of two indicted central ministers linking this to the ultimate and outstandingly maintained demand for the resignation of the Indian Prime Minister. They have been stalling the proceedings of the Indian Parliament session continuously making this 15 th Parliament the lowest productive ever in terms of passing crucial bills. The cornered Government has been trying desperately to buy time since it understands that even after sacking the two ministers the opposition would hardly stop and go vigorously after the Prime Minister—the ultimate target. The Government has also been trying to turn attentio...

Yesterday was a hectic day for all in the Indian media including this writer as counting for assembly election results of the five states of India started at 8am sharp. This was rated as the semi-final for India ’s General Elections of 2014 and so the media hyperactivity and expectations were at the peak.   All news channels were live the whole day and late into the night debating, analyzing, assessing, speculating and of course reporting the trends, results and possible government formations with permutations and combinations. Not possible to give you everything here and so we have selected a few observations for you on calculations based on various exit polls going terribly or pleasantly wrong from the media point of view. The first state of interest was Uttar Pradesh—the biggest and politically the most important state of India . Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi campaigned extensively here to oust feudalistic and corrupt Mayawati and bring in a rejuvenated...