Happy Green Diwali-2020!

Diwali, the biggest festival of India, is a festival of lights, and is traditionally celebrated by lighting rows of earthen lamps or diyas, candles and strip electric lights, in and around homes and buildings. People can celebrate and enjoy in this way even during the worst crisis ever faced by humankind as there are no restrictions on burning oil or electric lamps. In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to us to light up diyas just before Lockdown was enforced in March. Lighting up your houses essentially means driving away evil spirits and forces, and hoping for a bright year ahead. Celebrating Diwali this way does not in any way rob you of enjoyment.

 

Besides, if you’d like to have sweets and distribute those to your neighbors there are no issues either. Sweet shops are open across the country you can even walk down to and buy to your heart’s desire. Various state governments have also announced measures to ensure undiluted sweets for your good health. Then, if you want to buy new clothes there is still no problem. Retail cloth stores, malls and online stores are open across the country and you can buy without taking any risk in terms of wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.

 

You can also enjoy company online and through video chats/conferences with your dear friends and relatives, and help yourselves by not inviting lots of them to your home. You must check your impulses to go to large gatherings, and instead, enjoy quality times at your homes with your families for whom you always care. You must understand that after long six months the pandemic situation is coming under control, and you should never give away the advantage by your impulsive indiscretion.

 

And, why at all do you want to burst firecrackers and fireworks? Under normal circumstances bursting of firecrackers and having bouts of fireworks greatly impact pollution, adversely affect the elderly population, particularly with asthma or lung or hearing issues and tremendously harm the street humans and animals. We heartily welcome the preventive measures adopted by the state governments of Rajasthan, West Bengal and Delhi with more states joining in the campaign to have a Diwali totally free of firecrackers and fireworks.

 

This a festival of lights and not of politics or of a particular religion. Therefore, politicking of any kind in banning fireworks must be avoided by the states. In West Bengal, the High Court had taken the initiative in banning crackers as it had declared all Durga Puja pandals as no-entry zones earlier which most probably prevented an explosion of infections in the state. The state of Karnataka first went for the ban, but then, perhaps political considerations taking over, allowed two-hours of fireworks which is not at all advisable.

 

The Chief Minister of Maharashtra has been consistently appealing to people to have a green Diwali while the municipal authorities in Mumbai decided to only partially implement a ban by allowing firecrackers of the milder variety and green crackers that are almost smokeless, but such measures cannot ensure full compliance. In Maharashtra Diwali is a five-day event starting today, and therefore preventive measures assume utmost importance here. Most preferably, all states must go for the total ban irrespective of any consideration. People can have a resonant Diwali next year if they comply with the restrictions this year.

 

The NGT (National Green Tribunal) has done the right thing by imposing a total ban in Delhi NCR region till 30^th November 2020, and by ordering all cities to enforce similar bans if the pollution indexes in those are above the moderate levels. Here too, the state governments must cooperate in taking suitable decisions, seriously taking local pollution levels into active consideration and observation. However, a total country-wide ban of firecrackers would be the most needed step at the moment. Under Epidemic Disease Act states are empowered to impose such bans. 

 

Wish you all a great and fulfilling Happy Green Diwali-2020! 

Bihar Elections-2020: Was Chirag Paswan BJP’s Conscious Strategy?

 

Defying all exit polls, the BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) came back to power with a simple majority in the closely fought Bihar Assembly Elections-2020, giving the fourth consecutive CM-term and fifth overall to Nitish Kumar. All of the exit polls gave simple to two-third majority to the MGB (Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance) led by the young energetic face of Bihar, Tejaswi Yadav, son of the Bihar stalwart and former Chief Minister for three terms, Laloo Prasad Yadav, who had been in jail since a long time on corruption cases, and predicted Tejaswi to be the next CM. One or two exit polls indicated, in the worst scenario, a hung assembly.

 

Various reasons have been ascribed for the incredible comeback of the NDA against all odds. The primary reasons are: the continuing influence of the Modi-factor, the 12 crucial rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bihar where he warned people against falling for the ‘Jungle Reign’ of the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) led by Laloo and family, a majority of the women voters favoring Modi and the NDA, and that Asaduddin Owaisi, MP and President of AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen), deciding to contest on its own in all the Muslim-dominated regions of the state, and thus weaning away crucial votes that RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) and the Congress were expected to garner for the MGB.

 

However, the most crucial factor or the so-called X-factor had been the pre-poll acrobatics of the Lok Janshakti Dal (LJP which was formed in 2000 by Ram Vilas Paswan) led by Member of Parliament Chirag Paswan, son of another stalwart of Bihar politics, Ram Vilas Paswan, who had been a central minister for the NDA government in India and unfortunately died on 8^th October this year. He also served as a minister in the UPA government earlier under former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. When Ram Vilas was alive in the first week of October the LJP left the NDA in Bihar saying that they did not want to fight elections under Nitish Kumar, and would continue to support BJP fighting on its own. So, the LJP went ahead contesting as many as 143 seats in the 243-seat Bihar legislative assembly.

 

After the demise of Ram Vilas, Chirag had been consistently opposing the leadership of Nitish Kumar and saying that they would be devoted to Modi and BJP and would form a government with the BJP in a new alliance. So, a situation emerged where a party not in the time-tested BJP alliance led a campaign against an integral NDA partner while vowing all the support for the BJP. And the BJP leadership kept mum all the time on Chirag utterances and deeds. This politically-unique Chirag-factor has been discussed and analyzed by various political experts all the while; but since the absurd situation made my head break at times, I decided to write about it.

 

It is not at all practical to assume that the BJP think-tank was not aware of the strong anti-incumbency wave against three-term-CM Nitish Kumar and open public anger for his mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic and the migrant workers of the state. The party leadership must have thought about it, and after much brainstorming must have approved the Chirag factor. There were obvious reasons why this strategy would work:

v This was sure to improve the acceptability of the BJP as it in a way joined the voters in their wrath against the serving Chief Minister;

v BJP has been known to playing as a Big Brother in any alliance in states, and this strategy would either eliminate Nitish’s JDU (Janata Dal-United) from the alliance entirely or would reduce its numbers drastically making its influence much weaker;

v Even if the probability of forming a BJP-LJP government in Bihar was far remote, the Chirag-factor would at least contribute as a vote-cutter, mostly affecting the JDU candidates and also for the RJD and other partners of the MGB like the Congress and the Left; and

v This strategy can also be seen as an effective counter against the surging young leader Tejaswi putting up another energetic young promising leader in the guise of Chirag.

Now, after the results were finally declared in the wee hours of 11^th November the following benefits to the BJP were apparent:

vBJP’s tally of seats increased remarkably to 74, almost making it the singe largest party in the assembly;

vAs was anticipated, JDU’s seats got hit to the extent of a loss of 28 seats, effectively making it the junior partner in the alliance;

vAs the margins of victories in the suspense-thriller of an election were very thin the Chirag vote-cutting visibly harmed the prospects of RJD and the Congress primarily, in many crucial assembly constituencies; and

vEven though the LJP finally managed to win only one seat it has emerged strongly as an ally for the BJP in future.

Of course, the strategy had its elements or risks that Nitish Kumar would decide to feel insulted and humiliated by the actions of non-NDA Chirag Paswan, and would walk out of the alliance post-poll which eventuality would have made the situation ripe for a Maharashtra-like twist. Therefore, the BJP always maintained that JDU had been an integral part of the NDA and Nitish Kumar was always the Chief Minister candidate. After declaration of the results the BJP has again reiterated the fifth term for Nitish. In the event of a BJP-LJP majority Nitish would have definitely been out even as Nitish said, emotionally and also significantly, in his last rally that it was going to be his last election.

 

How effectively the NDA alliance in Bihar works in the coming months and years is to be observed and seen. MGB has emerged as a great force in the state with 110 seats, and it will not be an easy ride for the NDA at 125 seats. Creating more and more jobs and tackling the migrant workers expertly would be the acid test for the new government, and the MGB won many hearts in Bihar with its focus on creation of jobs. In an expected move today, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while announcing another pandemic-stimulus package listed out a plethora of measures for job creation across the country.

Another Student Commits Suicide: Digital Education Still A Mirage!

 

Online education had been hailed as an integral part of the new normal after the COVID-19 pandemic hit India and lockdowns were imposed from 25^th March 2020 onwards. Schools and colleges were closed since late February, and after more than 8 months the much-touted online education is still not affordable for students of the poorer sections. The dream of Digital India had been sold years before with tremendous emphasis on smartphones and connectivity, even in the rural belt. And yet, one more bright student in a college in India’s capital commits suicide due to lack of a mere laptop or a proper smartphone with good internet connection. Earlier, incidents of students’ suicides were reported regularly from various states including Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Assam.

 

Her name is Aishwarya Reddy, a topper in 12^th standard exam from the state of Telangana. This bright ambitious student got admitted in the prestigious Lady Shri Ram College of Delhi last year, as a B.Sc. Mathematics student. In February this year she came back to her home in Telangana as colleges were closed. Online classes were started after a few months by her college, and she found it increasingly difficult to attend and learn from these on her ordinary mobile phone and poor internet connection. She asked her father for a laptop, no problem even if it is a second-hand one. Her struggling father could not get it on time, and a part of India’s bright future committed suicide on November 2, leaving behind a suicide note saying that she did not want to burden her family further amid the pandemic-induced financial crisis.    

 

Her father has been a motorcycle mechanic who established his own repair shop only in March, and had to close it down after lockdown was clamped. To raise the money for his daughter’s higher education he mortgaged his house for Rs. 2,00,000, and was able to get her admitted in the Delhi college last year. Like millions of other workers and migrants he too got severely hit by the lockdown, as sources of income dried up completely. Although he opened his shop again recently, he had been struggling with his heavy compounded debt. Therefore, he was unable to get even a second-hand laptop for his daughter. And he lost her and the family’s hope, forever.

 

What about her college in the capital itself? Well, the Principal denied any knowledge of the student’s condition, and said further that the student never approached college authorities or teachers about her problems. Such claims are highly contestable, because when you do online classes with your students you have to accommodate all your registered students, and if some are missing in the classes you have to find out the reasons why. Besides, other sources in the college disclosed that she did indeed contact the college authorities with her issues, and nothing was done in the months that followed.

 

Aishwarya’s father also stated that she was selected for the INSPIRE scholarship by the Ministry of Science and Technology in the first quarter of the year, but the scholarship money never reached her. Why the delay happened is another contentious issue involving the college administration and the related Ministries including the HRD. If only a part of the scholarship money reached her even a few days back a precious life could have been saved.

 

A tremendous irony for a country that has been boasting of a Digital India since years, declared a new education policy and has been talking of self-reliance since the pandemic invaded the country. The Government of India has been continuously saying that the pandemic is indeed a great opportunity for momentous and permanent tasks and measures to strengthen our economy, but if you cannot provide for your students, the future of your country, then what opportunity are you talking about! Months back, this writer pointed out in social media that the greatest opportunity to take from the pandemic is to ensure a Digital India, giving away free smartphones/laptops to the needy students and making online education available and affordable for all rural and urban students.

 

But alas! Even after eight months of crisis the logistics are still not clear for the government. In the name of stimulus packages, they only provided free rations, but not the crucial financial assistance that millions were desperate to get. Do we need another pandemic and scores of more suicides to finally realize the priorities?

                                                                                                                            (Courtesy: NDTV Report)