The RTI (Right to Information Act) enables the Indian citizens to query the government about ANY information they want excluding the personal information of citizens and information related to security matters and defense.
It is a well known fact that the dynastic politics of Nehru family has ensured that on the birth day and death anniversary of every member of this family (Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, etc), the government spends tax payer’s money to advertise about the greatness of these Nehru family members and what not.
But the fact is that India has also had a number of great leaders outside this family, who have done an even greater service to this country. Take for instance Lal Bahadur Shastri, who succeeded Nehru, who was one of the rarest honest politicians India has ever seen. He used to skip one meal everyday saying I will continue to do this as long as there are poor people in this country. He provided the greatest slogan of independent India, Jai Jawaan Jai Kisan. When he was the central railway minister there was a railway accident and he immediately took moral responsibility for it and resigned from his ministerial post. He brought back the nation’s security moral back on track, with his strong political decisions by giving a fitting reply to Pakistan when it tried a misadventure with India in 1965 assuming that India was then a weak country due to the recent lost war with China in 1962 (which was obviously thanks to Nehru who was in power in 1962).
Now for Shastriji, a person of such a great stature, who was so humble, honest, patriotic, down to earth great leader with scores of achievements, and who died a suspicious death at Tashkent, how has been the government of India remembering this great personality?
Dev Ashish Bhattacharya filed an RTI application with the central government asking, how much has the government spent on advertisements to spread the messages and achievements of Lal Bahadur Shastri, to remember him on his birth and death anniversaries?
Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting responded to his query saying, the government has spent ‘ZERO’ rupees to commemorate Lal Bahadur Shastri till todate. And it is not him alone. I am sure the same treatment is being mented out to other great political leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Mahohar Lohia, Sardar Patel, Netaji, etc. Even P V Narasimha Rao was a prime minister, how much is he remembered by the Congress party today?
In other words, the Nehru family is running the country as if India is an empire ruled by the emperors from this dynasty!
It is a matter of utter shame that the prime minister Manmohan Singh recently said that “Rahul Gandhi is the future of you people“.
How dare he speak this sentence? Who is Manmohan Singh to dictate who or what our future is? It is a shame that no other leader outside the Nehru family is allowed to reach the top rungs in the Congress party. Mr. Singh himself was made the puppet prime minister after Sonia’s efforts were watered down.
Mr. Manmohan Singh himself has never faced people in a direct election, he is a member of Rajya Sabha not Lok Sabha, and that too from a state where he has never resided in, Assam! Today he has completely lost the respect which he had earned when he was the finance minister in the PV Narasimha Rao’s government.
Look at his repeated recent statements like “Minorities, particularly the Muslims, have first right over the national resources”. I would like to ask him, Mr Singh, the party of yours which was in power for more than 50 years of Independent India, what has your party done to the minorities of this country except using them as vote banks? Isn’t 50 years enough to bring up a community in the country? For how many centuries will your party be crying this slogan of “Minorities should be uplifted, backward classes should be taken care of, Garibi Hatao”, etc?
Mr. Manmohan Singh who “lost his sleep” when Hanif was arrested in Australia, the same Mr. Singh was rolling under his rugs in deep sleep when scores of people got killed in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Varanasi and Ajmer blasts! Isnt there a limit to this appeasement politics?
Mr. Prime minister, Where has all those crores and crores of rupees that were allocated to various programs (meant to the development of minority and backward classes) gone over the past 50 years? If it has been used properly then why are these people still backward?
I wish there was a legal system in India where one can sue these politicians when they dont keep up their promises.
It is high time that minorities and other sections of the society stop voting for this party, for they have only been used as vote banks by Congress and its dynastic politics.
Appeasement politics has been at the heart of Congress and its governance. They never want to uplift the minorities and other backward sections in the country, but only use them as votebanks. They appease the minorities by giving Haj subsidies, but do nothing to uplift their status in the society (like education, employment etc, except for the lip service) for they know that they cant get any votes if there are no backward sections in the society. Sachar committee report is a failure report of Congress led governments for the past five decades. The irony is that the same report is today again used by Congress to get more votes!
Either there is no leader in Congress party outside the Nehru family, or there is no internal democracy in that party, in either case this party is not for a “Better India”
The dynastic fever of Congress has also spread to some of the state level parties! DMK of Tamilnadu, JD(S) of Gowda & co in Karnataka, Laloo Yadav’s RJD in Bihar etc are the mini Congress parties in these states.
If Gandhiji were alive today he would have started another “Quit India” movement to oust dynastic politics from this country.
Politics as of now continues to be a process where we elect somebody whom we dislike the least






December 20, 2007 at 4:14 pm |
Very well said, Guru.
The truth is there for people to see but if they purposely ignore it, where is the hope for a bright India. This is precisely what all sane educated citizens have been afraid of, i.e., keeping the poor and illiterates as they are just to make sure that they are congress’s votebanks. Hence these parties accuse anyone who wants to really uplift the weaker sections of the society by calling them communalists, casteists, pro-rich, etc.
December 21, 2007 at 5:30 am |
Nice article guru…
Congress is the inherited property for Gandhi parivaar…
And its going to remain the same for more years to come…
Than the Five year Planning, i think Congress spends more time and planning for bringing a gandhi person into congress and ensuring that he is in the top most position.
UPA Chariman, Its like a new designation for democratic india…
I doubt tomorrow there will be an MD, CEO, CTO, COO for India all representing congress with surname “Gandhi”
Talking about minority upliftment, has anything being actually done for them. Has any particular schemes being issued for Hindus, Brahmins.
Haj Subsidy, From my knowledge india is the only country which provides such subsidies. Is it a joke or what.
There are many hindu pilgrim places accross, how many poor hindu’s has been given an oppurunity to visit those places on the cost of government.
In kerala, “Devasom Board” a functionary of government takes care of the temples (Only if the annual income is heavy). Where does these money goes.
If left goverment is against idol worship why the hell they are so keen in maintaining these temples..
Is there any mosque or church being maintained and controlled by the government… Why???????
After all what fuc**** facillties are we getting there..
I went to sabarimala recently, which is in kerala, an ayyappa temple. Crores and Crores of rupees flows here… People from whole south india come here…
There were no tight security, no facility and the worst part, There were no “Prasad” Available….
Well, Guru What do you think about the most debated gujarat elections and modi government..
December 24, 2007 at 7:42 pm |
Thanks for this timely post. It is a painful reality today that even Rahul Gandhi who is still learning ABCD of politics is projected as greater than stalwarts like PV Narasimharao, Lal Bahudur Sastry & Sardar Patel.
In Andhra Pradesh, the current congress regime has renamed more than 35 programs initiated by previous government after Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi & Sonia Gandhi. Important point is that these projects were originally not named after any of Telugu Desam leaders but were named after freedom fighters from Andhra Pradesh.
Such psycho fancy don’t take place without the encouragement of the Congress High Command.
Congress party has become a conglomeration of modern day Jayachandra who can mortgage our culture history, heritage and the nation for the sake of votes.
December 25, 2007 at 3:36 pm |
krishkundy
Very sad to know about this.
Arun
Krishna says in Gita,
Jo bhi hua accha hi hua, whatever happened, happened for the good
January 18, 2008 at 7:23 am |
It is always sad to see, the dynasties continue either in politics or in movie industry.
Actually I am much more bothered about these not so talented movie actor’s children taking down movie standards . I have not seen really really long time a good quality Indian movie given the great infrastructure .
It is really sad!
We need people like Gurudev in politics and a place for independent movies to flourish..
Dynasty is Anti progress!
January 19, 2008 at 5:15 pm |
Thanks Ramana
Atleast one vote is sure for me from your constituency
Just kidding. Yes, its very important that the very nature of politics be changed in this country.
What needs to be introduced in politics is ethics, accountability, a professional design followed by implementation to build a strong and self-reliant nation, independent systems/institutions to keep check on each other, more importantly – politicians who work for the development of the society instead of worrying about how to win the next elections…
In short, there is a 100% scope for improvement in the politics of this country.