Politics

Who will win Delhi? Modi stability mantra versus Kejriwal’s new politics

- by India Writes Network

All eyes are on the electrifying electoral battle for Delhi, and which way it will swing. On a sunny Saturday morning, Delhites queued up outside polling booths spread across the city of around 25 million people. There was a palpable sense of enthusiasm among voters, who were unanimous in their craving for a smart city, equipped with world-class infrastructure and higher standard of living.
By 3 pm, 51.15 per cent of 13 million voters had cast their ballots. Chief Election Commissioner H.S Brahma said he expected a 65-70 per cent voter turnout on February 7. 66 per cent had voted in the 2013 assembly elections. If opinion polls are to be believed, a few thousand votes may make a decisive difference.
The key issues in the Delhi polls are, according to the voters spoke by India Writes Network, indiawrites.org, access to uninterrupted electricity, decent health care, modern education, controlling inflation, encouraging sanitation drive and building infrastructure, strengthening women security, and increasing employment rate and raising living standard.
It would be fair to say that the Delhi elections have become a matter of prestige for Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal. Delhi is the power centre of the country. A win or loss in Delhi for the BJP could strip Mr Modi of some of the halo of invincibility as his party has won most state elections and done exceedingly well in states like Jammu and Kashmir, where it had hitherto no presence.

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Modi’s federalism project: A work in progress

- by India Writes Network

Complaints against the UPA government’s discriminating attitude and step-motherly treatment of the states of the Indian Union, particularly of those where the non-Congress parties ruled, and the promise to usher in cooperative federalism if voted to power was one of the main planks of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s electoral agenda in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Now that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been in command of India for over seven months, it is time to have a look at the progress that the country has made in this direction.
Barely months after the announcement, the prime minister has delivered on his promise as the Planning Commission has been replaced with a new think tank-like body, NITI Ayog, which is expected to set the policy agenda for the government. The new body’s Governing Council will comprise state chief ministers and Lt. Governors of Union Territories.
The next few months are going to reveal the government’s strategy for the implementation of its federalism project. It is a work in progress and appears to be going in the right direction, but the next Union Budget and the 14th Finance Commission report would offer concrete evidence of the prime minister’s commitment.

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Bharat Ratna birthday gift for Vajpayee, Malaviya

- by Manish Chand

It was long overdue. Finally, on a befogged morning in Delhi, there was some cheering radiant news for the ailing leader-statesman as the Indian government decided to confer the country’s highest civilian honour on Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a sort of birthday gift as the iconic leader turns 90 on December 25.
A towering political personality, Mr Vajpayee, known for his dazzling oratory, formidable diplomatic skills, and political acumen, successfully led the first non-Congress government for a full five-year term. He headed the first NDA government as the 11th Prime Minister of India, first for 13 days in 1996, second time for 13 months from 1998-mid 1999, and then from 1999 to 2004.
Mr Vajpayee’s stints as the prime minister saw several path-breaking initiatives in the diplomatic arena. Vajpayee, also a former foreign minister, surprised the world by going ahead with the contentious decision to conduct the twin nuclear tests in May 1998 that made India a formal nuclear power and managed to successfully ride out international sanctions that followed through deft diplomacy.
The bestowal of Bharat Ratna on Vajpayee caps decades of a multi-hued career, and is a fitting tribute, however belated, to an outstanding politician-statesman, who is esteemed and admired by friends and detractors alike.

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