After todays complain to the President by the Governor of Karnataka I am forced to write this article on decay in the party I have supported for last 25years. I am a retired army officer staying in Uttarakhand who has been closely involved with the BJP. I have been an active supporter of the party but today I face the dilemma whether I support the party whose ideology I support but whose leaders just cannot put country’s interest before their own or the party that I have hated all my life but whose president seems to be an honest lady trying hard to do something good for the country. The dilemma is to choose between ideology and sincerity. But then what is the point of ideology if the people responsible to act on it are not sincere.
I am sure millions of BJP supporters are going through this dilemma at this moment and I am sure that despite of high rate of inflation if we were to have general elections today, BJP would find it hard to reach the tally it reached in the last elections.
In 80s and 90s BJP was a party of promise, a party with difference that would change the way India was govern. In late 90s when BJP came to power under Mr Vajpayee it did many commendable things foremost of them was the massive road construction work that was undertaken by Maj. Gen. B. C. Khanduri, AVSM (Retd) under the leadership of Mr Vajpayee. It was by far the biggest achievement of NDA government or any government before it in the field of Infrastructure development. In 2004 elections we thought that BJP will come back to power. All of us worked hard to ensure that but unfortunately we lost that election and with that ended one of the most glorious chapter of our politics and our honourable leader Mr Vajpayee retired. Leadership fell into the hands of Mr. Advani but he was never allowed to settle by some forces that had started to take control of the party. Today these forces have complete control over the party and are dictating every decision that the party is making. I am an ordinary worker of the party who is finding it very hard to understand the decisions the party is taking these days. An honest CM Khanduri was replaced when BJP lost all the seats in LS elections though it was clear that some of the big leaders including the current CM (in whose constituency BJP lost by more than 5000 votes, the difference being more than 22% of the total votes) had worked against the party in those elections. If the people who had honestly worked for the party are punished and people who had worked against the party are rewarded then there is something wrong in the decision making. It also make you wonder, was the result had anything to do with the sacking of Khanduri or was it pre decided that he would be removed whatever the result be and the leaders worked against the party to facilitate that decision? The choice of person who succeeded Khanduri raises the suspicion. He is someone from whose constituency BJP lost by a huge margin, so popularity was not considered. He is someone whose image is not very good, so image was not considered. The only thing he scores higher than anyone else is his propensity for corruption. He is arguably the most corrupt politician in Uttarakhand, something that have just been proven by the allegations of corruptions against him.
But then corruption has become a part of our life and it is accepted and many times profited from. The media that should have exposed these wrong doings have profited by hiding them. The local media would not show anything against the CM no matter how strong the evidence is of the wrong doing. I was pleasantly delighted when two national NEWS channels exposed two cases of corruption but unfortunately they did not pursue them to their logical conclusion. Was it because Uttarakhand is too small to be shown in National television or is it because of what the people close to CM are saying,” the national media has been managed”? The latter seems to be more probable when you realize that the advertisement of the government of Uttarakhand has suddenly started to appear on those two NEWS channels after the exposé.
All of us were shocked by the extent of corruption done by ex CM of Jharkhand Mr Madhu Koda. It was the failure of our systems, our media and every other check due to which he was able to loot the state. We have another Madhu Koda in the making and our media is still unaware of the reality. But then it is life everything is fine as long my interests are safe guarded.
I had great respect for our media but in last one year that respect has taken a beating. The way media has protected the CM has created the suspicion in the minds of people. Kubh Mela was declared a success by the media though they are fully aware of countless people who have died or are missing due to drowning. But no one in the media had raised the eyebrow except for either HT or TOI (I don’t remember exactly who) who had given a very small article about these missing people. I came to know about it because I was there on the last day of Sahi snan. Police refused to lodge complains, everyone denied about any such incidents and the mela was declared a huge success, prompting the CM to ask for Nobel Prize. Moreover, large scale irregularities were done on the construction work for Mela. The so called permanent work has been washed away by the first rainfall.
Scam in allotment of hydro Power plant and Rishikesh's Citurgia Biochemicals land acquisition are now well documented. But there are many more such scams that have taken place in last one year including changing land use for thermal power plant and allotment of land to the relatives of a very senior BJP leader. But all of these have been ignored by the media. The Law and order situation has worsened in Uttarkhand. Police has assumed the role of “gundas”. In last one year three big incidents have happened that shows complete lack of discipline in police forces. Ranveer encounter, Kala Dhungi and recent beating of MLA of ruling party by police sub inspector has exposed complete lack of control on these indiscipline policemen.
BJP has a slogan which states ‘country first, party second and self last’. But action speaks lauder than words and judging BJP by its action it seems for its leaders self is first, party is second and country is last. Present CM is stated to be close to RSS and has backing of its senior office bearers which raises the questions on the credibility of these leaders. No one in Uttarakhand seems to believe that there will be change in leadership. How can people, who are profiting from the corruption of CM, act against him? It is for the people to vote him out in next elections, which I am sure they will do. But the image of party and its stated ideology will be the only sufferer.
Coming back to my dilemma, for whom should I vote? One act against corruption of Olas and Tharoors while the other act against honesty of Khanduris and Jaswants. The choice after all is not that difficult.