Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Chhattisgarh 2008 (4): Thoughts on the Eve of the Verdict

In less than a week, all will be revealed: to paraphrase the Great Dickens, we would know for certain whether we are headed straight for heaven or going direct the other way. By most estimates- and here, I am not talking of ‘surveys’ published by various media houses (these, I shall deal with separately)- it is a tough call; even more to the point, we’re told that Independents, the BSP & the CPI would, in all probability, play a decisive role in the formation of Chhattisgarh’s third government. Not surprisingly, both major parties- the ruling BJP as well as the Congress- are already wooing them in earnest.

Even now- more than ten days after the second round of polling ended- it is difficult to decipher the precise vectors that led more than 70% of the state’s electorate to cast its votes- a significantly higher figure than in any of the other five election-going states (Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir). Could this extraordinary polling percentage be only due to (a) an increase in the number of polling booths in every constituency, which made it easier for people to go and vote & (b) heightened awareness among voters thanks to an intensive media campaign, as many have surmised; or- and this is the really uncertain variable with the potential of upsetting all existing political calculations- were there other Issues- perhaps even an overriding Issue to beat all other issues- at play in the electorate’s mind? If so, what might they- it- be?

The two dominant versions currently on offer reflect, more than anything else, wishful thinking on the part of both major political parties: the BJP would have us believe that people went to the booths singing “Chaaur Waale Baba ki Jai” (Long Live the Rice-waale Baba) in an obvious reference to what they perceive to be the immense popularity of Dr. Raman Singh’s Rs. 3 per kilo rice scheme launched six months before the elections. The Congress on the other hand seems to draw comfort from the basic tenet of classical psephology: that a high voter turnout is indicative of a strong anti-incumbency undercurrent.

The BJP’s claim can be disputed for a variety of reasons. One, “chaaur waale baba”- a title the BJP claims the people of the state have lovingly bestowed on Dr. Raman Singh- isn’t really something any Chhattisgarhiya would say for the simple reason that “waale” is as alien to the Chhattisgarhi dialect as Dr. Singh’s Uttar Pradeshi- Pratapgarhiya- roots. Two, as I have already discussed in an earlier post, this scheme isn’t as big a success as it has been made out to be.

The way it works, a minuscule number of BPL (below poverty line) families in every village are given 35 kilos of rice every month at the rate of Rs. 3 per kilo. While this sounds very nice on paper, the fact is that since most Chhattisgarhi households are exclusively rice eaters, 35 kilos of rice would last a family of four barely ten days (and here I am assuming that they’re all frugal in their dietary habits). To meet their requirements for the remaining twenty days, they’re compelled to buy rice at prevalent market rates. Now, this is where the Scheme behind the scheme kicks in: the only rice available is in the black market, and it is sold at not less than Rs. 16 per kilo. In the ultimate cost-benefit analysis, therefore, the only true beneficiary is the blackmarketeer, who is inevitably a loyal party worker of the BJP. Moreover, even if one were to assume that 35 kilos is sufficient for every family, there is no denying the fact that only one in fifty families actually ‘benefits’ from this scheme; even so, most of these families, given the skewed manner in which BPL cards are allotted, aren’t really poor. In the many places that we campaigned, I couldn’t help noticing that the dominant complaint was that while the well-to-do families- those with a close relationship with the village Sarpanch, for instance- are getting their quota of 35 kilos of rice, the really deserving- and needy- ones simply aren’t. This, in my opinion, has led to even more discontent.

Maybe what I’ve just said above is mere conjecture; maybe Dr. Singh’s Rice Scheme has really worked wonders for the BJP. But as far as one could tell from what one saw- and heard- during the campaign, there were no visible signs of it. If indeed Dr. Raman Singh has metamorphosed into a larger-than-life cult figure- the hugely popular ‘chaaur waale baba’, as the BJP & a large section of the state’s media would have us believe- then surely it would only be reasonable to assume that people by the tens of thousands would be rushing from near and far to catch a glimpse of him, to hear him speak, maybe even to touch him in the hope of getting healed. Yet, for all that, the attendance at his preannounced public meetings were at best, a damp squib, not crossing fifteen hundred anywhere even when the BJP’s campaign-planners were careful to hold them at market places on weekly market days.

This phenomenon wasn’t confined to Dr. Singh: his party’s prime ministerial candidate and key campaigner, Mr. Lal Krishna Advani, left Raipur visibly perturbed when his rallies failed to draw crowds. (I’m reliably told that not more than seven hundred persons were present at his Katora Talab meeting very near where I live, and he had to wait for more than two hours before there was sufficient crowd for him to address at Jagdalpur.) The fate of Mr. Narendra Modi, whose feat Dr. Raman Singh hopes to no doubt emulate, was no different. His meeting at Kanker (north Bastar) wasn’t exactly what he- or for that matter anyone- expected.

Could it, therefore, be that all the mass-outpourings of adulation for our beloved ‘chaaur waale baba’ was totally undetectable to the average human eye (except perhaps those of Navbharat reporters)? If so, why? Were the people, for instance, afraid- nay, terrified- of showing their affection for him and his wonderful government? What could be the reason for this Deafening Quiet?

There is sadly only one answer to this: Dr. Raman Singh- Chhattisgarh’s ‘chaaur waale baba’- is purely a Creation of the Media. I can’t remember a time when the media- or a large section of it anyway- was so totally one-sided. No, actually I can: in 2004, right before the last Lok Sabha election, under remarkably similar circumstances. Infact I remember I’ve written something about it already on this Blog; so, what I say here might tend to be repetitive. Let me tell you a tale, then. Sometime back, Mr. Kanak Tiwari, a leading lawyer of the High Court and a widely respected columnist, submitted his weekly article to Mr. Sunil Maheshwari, the proprietor of a local eveninger who I like to think of as the self-appointed permanent advisor-in-chief to the chief minister irrespective of who the latter may be. When he discovered that his article had not been published, he quite reasonably asked Mr. Maheshwari why. The answer he got, he says, irrevocably shook his faith in the ‘sanctity of the media’: he was told pointblank that his article could not be published because it was apparently too critical of the chief minister. ‘Chhattisgarh’, Mr. Maheshwari’s publication created from money robbed from ‘Deshbandhu’ (a highly respected newspaper he worked for earlier, and milked for all it was worth), is small potatoes compared to Navbharat, once the biggest circulated newspaper of the state. For a princely sum of money- running no doubt into several crores of rupees- the BJP quite simply transformed it into its principal mouthpiece. Infact so blatant was this newspaper in its one-sided coverage of the campaign that many old-timers, who admired it for its neutral, hands-on reportage, decided to stop subscribing to it altogether.

The aforementioned publications thankfully reflect the ‘in extemis’ cases. As for the rest of the media (not all but most anyway), our candidates felt it was impossible to get them to write anything about their campaigns without paying for it. Given the fact that we’re not in power & more to the point, we- as a party- don’t have the crores it requires to be written about favorably in the press, it was, therefore, only natural to see a distinctively pro-BJP bias in the media coverage of the election in Chhattisgarh. How much has this worked to the BJP’s advantage- and by implication, to our disadvantage- would depend on whether the electorate’s opinion is purely media-determined (in which case, we are clearly the losers in the media game) or whether the electorate does infact realize that the media’s role is first and foremost to report on what is objectively, and that if- and when- it fails to do so, it loses its moral credibility.

Put simply, the media in Chhattisgarh, acting in collusion with the BJP, made Dr. Raman Singh & his government into something that he clearly was not: Chaaur Waale Baba. The Question is whether the people have accepted this media-created Image of his, and made it their own? Agreed, the Congress-led Opposition didn’t do its damndest best to put this government in the dock, as it jolly well should have done during the past five years, but that doesn’t mean that the Sins of this Regime should be forgotten & forgiven merely because nobody is shouting about them from the rooftops. I firmly believe that an Ineffective Opposition can be no justification for the continued existence of a Failed Government: the advantages of Democracy (in which each citizen has a voice) far outweigh the many ills of parliamentary procedure (where only select & at times manageable elected representatives have any say). Equally firmly, I also believe that this belief is not mine alone: it is shared by millions of others in the state.

*

The fact of the matter is that the BJP (unlike the Media) had realized long ago that it was facing an anti-incumbency wave: why else would it deny party tickets to eighteen of its sitting MLAs? Even more obviously, the chief minister himself shifted constituency, choosing not to contest from Dongargaon, which he has been representing these past five years! That subsequently this very obvious fact should be forgotten- and contrary claims of a massive pro-incumbency wave asserted not just by the demagogues of the party but also echoed in large sections of the media- is in itself peculiar, to say the least. This brings me to my next point. The incumbency factor- whether pro or anti- was at play at two levels: at the state level (which the ruling party, much of the administration as well as the media are if not denying, then at least not talking about); and also, at the local level, where people were judging the performance of those they had previously elected.

Propaganda of the kind we witnessed in Chhattisgarh can only dampen anti-incumbency at the state level; it does precious little as far as the local level is concerned, where the electorate is more likely to have first-hand knowledge of ground realities. Come to think of it, the more we approach the grassroots, the less effective propaganda as a campaign-mechanism becomes. So, yes, while last two month’s Media blitzkrieg might have helped salvage Dr. Raman Singh’s reputation as a non-starter non-performer by presenting him instead as an inoffensive Gentleman-ruler- this incidentally is Dr. Singh’s preferred public persona- it has, in my opinion, done little to change the perception of elected-representatives & also the various party candidates before their constituents; and, more to the point, it is precisely this first-hand knowledge of candidates, which is clearly not subject to media-influences, that would play the paramount role in determining which way a voter ultimately votes.

This is why the choice of party candidates becomes all-important. As a Congressman, I was perplexed (along with several of my party persons, I should think) about the time- and the manner- it took to decide on our party’s ninety candidates. I believe we spend in all fifty days- and nights- in endless rounds of meetings in Delhi before a list could be finalized: this would imply an average of fifteen hours of deliberations per candidate selected. Not only that, during all this time, the entire party- all of the state leaders with hundreds of followers in tow, at least twenty ticket-aspirants per constituency, each with at least a dozen supporters (taking the total into thousands of key party workers from all over Chhattisgarh)- had shifted bag & baggage to Delhi, leaving the field totally empty for more than two months just before the election. Typically enough, tickets were announced hours before the deadlines. But in retrospect, I think we- and by we, I mean the party- didn’t do such a bad job after all.

The Goof-up percentage was about 10%, which isn’t bad at all by our standards. Alright, the NCP alliance was totally uncalled for, especially in the two seats we left for them in Ambikapur division (Manendragarh, Samri), as I’m sure the results would no doubt reveal. Also, we could’ve done a whole lot better in North Bastar, where our candidates are, in all likelihood, destined to slip to third place in at least two otherwise totally winnable constituencies (Kanker, Bhanupratappur): in one, we gave the ticket to someone who has repeatedly lost four elections since 1990; and in the other, we gave to someone totally new. Consequently, we now face the prospect of Congress-rebels (rather than official Congress candidates) taking on the BJP directly.

However, at most other places, we were successful in getting the rebels to withdraw in favor of official party candidates, which in itself is no mean achievement. And while on the subject of rebels, let me point out that this is possibly for the first time that we have as many- if not more- BJP-rebels contesting: most curiously, in one constituency, the RSS fielded its candidate against the BJP’s nominee (Vaishali). This brings me to yet another ‘misperception’ created by the state media in collusion with the BJP: that of total disunity in the Congress. Infact, the reverse is true. Given that it is widely believed that Mr. Vidya Charan Shukla is my father’s bête-noire, it is highly creditable for the two to have met not once, but four times, in the duration of less than two weeks to iron out their differences, and arrive at a broad mutual understanding to work together towards bringing the party back to power in the state.

Nothing of the sort can be said of the BJP, where every leader of some stature- Mr. Tarachand Sahu, Mr. Shiv Pratap Singh, Mr. Ramesh Bais, Mr. Nand Kumar Sai, to name only four sitting BJP MPs- are openly opposing what they rightfully perceive as the intra-party Tyranny of Dr. Raman Singh as he has systematically destroyed all state-level leadership not his own in an attempt to manufacture his hegemony. In the case of Mr. Sahu, he actually personally protested at a police station demanding the arrest of BJP workers loyal to Mr. PP Pandey, the incumbent Speaker & BJP candidate from Bhilai; likewise, Mr. Shiv Pratap Singh’s son, Vijay, who is also the elected Jila Panchayat president of Ambikapur, is in the fray from Bhatgaon as a rebel candidate.

The setup at Ekatm Parisar, the BJP’s state headquarters at Raipur, provided positive proof of this all-pervasive sense of paranoia in that party’s decision-making mechanism during this election. The think-tank, which included only one local leader, Mr. Soudan Singh, was put-up on the third floor; beddings were placed on the stairway leading to that floor, all occupied by RSS-workers from outside the state; the chain-gates outside the entrance to the floor were closed shut, and the only access was through a solitary elevator, again manned by outsider RSS-workers. To further counter dissent, three hundred RSS-workers, especially trained at Nagpur and sent via Indore, were deployed all over the state, with specific emphasis on those constituencies where sitting party MLAs had been denied tickets. Personally, I feel that this almost-neurotic setup is most unbecoming of any party that seeks to function in a democracy like ours.

Yet, for some peculiar reason, the media remains remarkably selective in its coverage of this fact, which is there for all to see. Instead when the PCC president and the two working presidents of the party decide to go to Delhi on separate planes- as they may well do in the natural course- the media portrays it as yet another proof of the intra-party discord: could it be that they expect that the only way the three gentlemen can give a message of unity is by traveling not only on the same plane but perhaps by sitting in the same seat!

Admittedly, a lot of this has to do with the respective ‘cultures’ of both parties. In a truly democratic fashion, everything about the Congress is transparent: things get discussed, things get out. No such degree of freedom exists in the BJP (as indeed in the RSS): party bigwigs decide, everybody else is expected to follow, nobody talks, period. Discipline is the flimsy codename given to this absolute lack of intra-party democracy. But all that is changing, and I saw it very clearly during these elections. In the aftermath of the India Shining Debacle, Mr. Advani had famously lamented what he described as the ‘Congressification of the BJP’. That process, I believe, has reached its apogee in Chhattisgarh during this election.

The BJP, once a party of disciplined cadres, is behaving in many ways like the Congress; and vice-versa. It is curious sort of role-reversal: while grassroots Congress workers were going door-to-door quietly distributing voter slips (realizing perhaps that if they didn’t do so, there’s no way they could survive another five years of this BJP regime even if their leaders may well manage to do so, some of them quite comfortably even), their BJP counterparts, drunk in the excesses of power, could be seen crisscrossing highways in air-conditioned Scorpios fitted with loudspeakers, only stopping by to disburse booze, cash, saris, blankets and other such bounties from the Loot they collected during their five years of Misrule.

For a change, we were the ones taking the beatings, and consequently, I hope, the voter’s sympathy.

*

This article couldn’t possibly be complete if I don’t mention my father, Mr. Ajit Jogi. As I see it, my principal role in this particular election was to ensure that he gets to as many places- and talks to (how he speaks at public meetings is more in the format of a dialogue one has with a close friend and less in the way of a formalistic speech) as many people- as is humanly possible.


By sheer dearth of willpower- there is simply no other explanation- he addressed more than 115 public meetings in 74 (of 90) constituencies in less than fifteen days, sleeping for less than four hours everyday. The maximum time he gave to any constituency was Durg City (from where Mr. Arun Vora is contesting), where he addressed three public meetings and did a road show as well. He took only one last-day public meeting at Kota, my mother’s constituency. As far as Marwahi is concerned, both he and I were forbidden by the people there from coming even for a day, and consequently he didn’t get to go- let alone campaign- in his own constituency at all.

In contrast to this, the chief minister, as his party’s chief campaigner, took less than 90 meetings in more than twenty-five days (he got more campaign time as his party took about two days to finalize its list of candidates while we took fifty), and spent more than four days campaigning in his own constituency (Rajnandgaon), barely making it in time to cast his own vote in his hometown, Kawardha.

Of course, Dr. Singh did try to make an issue of my father’s statement, made several months ago, that he would like to contest against the chief minister from any constituency of the latter’s choosing: however, he did so only after the last date of filing of nominations had ended, when he was quite certain that my father infact would not be able to contest against him. This was because the Congress high command felt, quite rightly, that confining Papa to one constituency- which is what he would have been had he directly taken on the CM- wasn’t a particularly sensible move especially since no one else from his party- the PCC president, two working presidents, the LOP and other state leaders included- was going to be campaigning.

This last aspect too I found somewhat perplexing: why is it that the state chief of the Congress, his one other co-chief and the Leader of Opposition, who all obviously played such a pivotal role in the candidate selection process, didn’t move out one itsy-bitsy bit outside of their respective constituencies to campaign for other party candidates, even those they had gotten the tickets for? How can one claim leadership of the entire state, as some of them no doubt would, when they are so threatened in their own homes to move out & seek support for others?

Coming back to Papa, he labeled the chief minister- the Media’s ‘Chaaur waale Baba’- “Labra Raja” (Liar King): the epitaph isn’t a personal insult, as the BJP leader Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad complained to the Election Commission, but a reminder to the people of the many, many promises that he, as the chief minister, has failed to keep. No jersey-cow for every tribal family, no Rs. 500 monthly stipends for unemployed youth of the state, no waiver of electricity bills, irrigation taxes & farmers’ loans, to name only a few.

My father’s question really was this: can we trust this man- again? Soon, very soon, the answer would be clear, and we- you & I- would know whether we’re going to heaven or whether we’re headed straight in the other direction.

AJ

8 comments (टिप्पणी):

Mohit Singhania said...

Nice article bhaiya. I too did not find anybody who was attracted to the "3 Rs Rice" scheme in the limited time and area that I campaigned in. In fact there are more discontent people who feel cheated because of this scheme.

I am sure this particular scheme will have a decisive role in the results. But is it going to be for the good or bad is what is to be seen.

Coming to uncle's rallies, well he is a magnet. A crowd magnet. People come to hear him and see because they like him and nobody has to be bribed with chicken and liquor (which the BJP workers try to do to gather mass at their meetings). As a matter of fact, in Pallari, we saw more than double the expected number of people showing up for uncle's rally and they all had come to just hear him and catch a glimpse of him. Nobody gets this amount of attention and love from the public anywhere in Chattisgarh.

Anonymous said...

very well written...n i m sure congress will b back to power wth a huge majority.....

Atul said...

Very well written post Bhaiya. Kudos. You have touched upon each and every point.
Here are my observations (my apologies for a long post):
1. Though this 3 Rs rice scheme was highly publicized by the govt and media, I feel that its not so easy to fool the people of Chhattisgarh. All the (real) BPL card holders have come to know that the incumbent govt slept happily for the initial 4.5 yrs, busy filling up their own pockets and accumulating lots and lots of money to be utilized during campaigning. It was only in the last 6 months when they got up from their hibernation, and just to appease the voters and to highlight atleast one of their achievements they started this scheme. They also took it for granted that they can fool everyone when they announced in their election manifesto that they will give rice at Re 1/kg and salt free of cost. I guess they completely forgot that they were not able to fulfill even a single promise mentioned in their last manifesto and everybody is aware of it. So how could they even think that people are going to believe the promises made in this manifesto?

I too support Mohit's view that this particular scheme will have a decisive role in the results, but I don't have two minds about it being good or bad. I strongly feel that the role will be good for us and for the development of Chhattisgarh.

2. About the reports of media and even other surveys - I feel that media has always remain biased. Be it 2004 Lok Sabha elections, where every news channel, every news paper and every survey predicted a clear majority for NDA or be it 1998 Vidhan Sabha elections of MP where too all the reports favoured a BJP win. Both the times, the voting and the people proved all of them wrong. Specially in 2004, after the victory of BJP in 3 states, such big was the hype created by media that the BJP led NDA govt preponed the Lok Sabha elections to about 7 months in advance and what happened after that is history.
So, I feel that people of Chhattisgarh will vote as per their conscience and self judgment and will not go blindly on what media says. This will ensure a Congress victory and simultaneously the media and surveys will once again be proven false.

3. Regarding Uncle and his popularity in Chhattisgarh- Well, I guess I don't have enough words to elaborate that. Chhattisgarh has time and again seen his popularity and the love which he commands of the people. The Jogi family (Mr Ajit Jogi and Dr Renu Jogi)is the one man army of Chhattisgarh, and I personally do not feel that there is any other leader in CG who commands such a high level of popularity, love and trust of people as that of Mr Jogi.
To give another instance of Uncle's popularity and mass support, in addition to the ones given by Mohit above:
On the festival of Dusshera in October, both Congress and BJP had organized "Ravan Dahan samaroh". Uncle was the Chief Guest from Congress, and Raman Singh from BJP. With elections due next month, this Ravan Dahan Samaroh had come more of a trial of strength for both the parties rather than the conventional festival. The ruling BJP had made all possible use of state govt machinery, all the IAS/IPS officers etc to gather as much crowd as possible. The result: as per the reports, even after resorting to all sorts of hooks and crooks, the govt was able to just gain a very marginal advantage in terms of the number. And I hope, everyone knows this convention that when ever a trail of strength between the govt and opposition occurs, if the ruling govt is not able to get 20% more people than the opposition, its a virtual defeat of the CM. In this case, forget about 20%, the difference was not even 5%.
This fact itself speaks about the mass appeal of Uncle.

4. In continuation of my point 3 above, and about the last aspect mentioned in Bhaiya's post (non campaigning by PCC President, other co-chiefs and Leader of Opposition)- I would like to state that this was one of the biggest factors which created problems for Congress. All these leaders knew very well, that Mr Ajit Jogi is the one and only leader in Chhattisgarh, who can bring Congress back to power. Not only they, the whole party was aware of this fact that Mr Ajit Jogi is the need of the hour for Congress. Without him, the party can't even dream of giving a tough fight to the ruling party, forget about Congress making a comeback.
After knowing this fact, the state leaders should have shown full confidence and trust on Mr Jogi and should have given him the complete charge of state. They should have thought about the State and should have kept Party's interests above their personal gains and interests. Instead of thinking about getting tickets for their own candidates, they should have emphasized on the fact that a candidate who has the ability to win should get the party ticket. They should have believed that Mr Jogi will always keep this point in mind while suggesting candidates for tickets and will never have his self interest above that. If they would have done this, the entire process of ticket distribution would have become much easier for Congress and would not have taken 50 days. Thus candidates would have got decided early, giving them ample time to campaign, and also senior leaders would have got sufficient time. This was the only point where BJP out performed Congress and thus got more time to prepare themselves.
While stating the above points, I am not denying the fact that even after all this, Congress did a wonderful job of best utilizing its available time and tactfully managing the rebel candidates. The entire credit for this goes to Mr Ajit Jogi. But had the other leaders taken my mentioned points into consideration, the road would have become much more smoother for Congress.

5. About the CM making issue of Uncle's statement - Since this was not the first time the CM was speaking ill against Uncle, the people of CG did not find any surprise element in this comment. For the record, Raman Singh led BJP govt has done its utmost to tarnish the image of Uncle and the family during the last 5 years.
i)Take Kota bye election - where the entire State govt, all govt machinery, all top leaders including CM, his wife, BrijMohan Agarwal etc were trying their level best to make sure that Dr Renu Jogi somehow doesnt win the election. In contrast to the BJP's strong preparation, Congress was fighting the election under the leadership of one man army of Mr Jogi. BJP, inspite of doing all hooks and crooks, couldn't achieve anything as people gave a fighting reply to the govt for betrayal.
ii) Same happened during Rajnandgaon bye election when the BJP went on to the extent of getting Mr Ajit Jogi arrested in a false case and even getting a case of robbery registered against him. But the result, people gave their reply by defeating BJP stalwart Leelaram Bhojwani and later even Mr Jogi got clean acquittal in the case registered against him.
iii) 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Mahasamund - BJP resorted to all sorts of false charges against Mr Jogi, which they had done even in the recently concluded assembly elections, but the result- 7 times winner of Mahasamund, Mr V.C. Shukla (the then BJP candidate) lost the election by a record margin on 1,54,000 votes. Do I need to speak anything else?
iv) The BJP crossed all limits of morality and decency when a govt supported group attacked Mr Jogi's vehicle during the second phase of polling on 20th Nov 2008, and the govt levied a false charge that Mr Jogi was supporting bogus polling and because of that the villagers attacked the vehicle. The fact of the matter is that the whole state was witness to what the State Home Minister did, more importantly even when the timing of casting the vote was over, and how carelessly did the BJP made bogus poll to happen that the no of votes crossed the no of registered voters in some of the booths. There is a saying in Hindi "उल्टा चोर कोतवाल को डांटे". BJP, in order to hide its blunder, did exactly the same.

The Chief Minister's irresponsible comments against Mr Ajit Jogi were a result of his frustration and fear of possible defeat of the party. As the govt had been doing earlier, the CM this time also thought of gaining some publicity by commenting on Mr Jogi.
I hope that keeping in mind the past traditions and the instances mentioned above, the people will support the truth this time too and will give a tit for tat reply to the govt for its effort to tarnish Mr Jogi's image by voting the govt out of power.

I sincerely pray to God that Chhattisgarh heads towards Heaven and not in the other direction on 8th Dec. The people of CG prove everyone that they can no longer be taken for granted to be fooled, and they show exit doors to the incumbent govt. Doing so and by giving the reins of the state to Jogiji, they once again put our state on the path to progress and development from all sides and corners. The state has been put behind by atleast 10 yrs during the BJP's rule of 5 yrs, and only if Ajit Jogi ji is given the charge for the next 5 yrs, the state can out shine all other states and be ahead by 20 yrs.

P.S: The above are only my views. I request all the readers not to start any debate here over my comments. What ever you want to comment, please comment on the basis of Bhaiya's post and not my views. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

It would be nice to know what will be the contours of heaven under a congress
government in chhattisgarh. is there any practicable policy to counter the
crisis of agriculture.

Rahul Banerjee
74,Krishnodayanagar,Khandwa naka,Indore,Madhya Pradesh, India-452001
Cell no: +919926791773
webpage: http://rahulbanerjee.notlong.com

Anonymous said...

अमित,वास्तव मे अच्छा लिखा है आपने.....आप लिखते भी अच्छे हो...लेकिन कई बार हम जैसे लोगों को महसूस होता है कि अगर आपकी दिशा सही होती तो ज़रूर आप छत्तीसगढ़ के काम का हो सकते थे....आपके पापा से भी ऐसी ही उम्मीद थी लोगों को...लेकिन अफ़सोस...खैर..सबसे पहले तो आपको इस बात के लिए बधाई कि आपने थोड़ा सा सत्य स्वीकार कर लिया कि कांग्रेस हार रही है इस चुनाव मे, और बसपा एवं लेफ्ट की भूमिका हो सकती है सरकार बनाने मे...जबकि अभी तक कांग्रेस के तमाम लोग मुंगेरीलाल की तरह सरकार बनाने के हसीन सपने देख रहे हैं या ऐसा आभास देना चाह रहे हैं....खैर.
अब मुद्दे की बात करें... आपने कहा कि अजित जोगी जी,मदाम की अनुमति नहीं मिलने के कारण ही रमन सिंह के खिलाफ चुनाव नहीं लड़ पाए...तो क्या आपको इस बात का जबाब नहीं देना चाहिए कि बिना अनुमति के क्यू जोगी जी ऐसा दावा कर रहे थे...जबकि आपको याद होगा कि कथित तौर पर बिना मैडम कि अनुमति के राज्यपाल को पत्र लिखने के मामले मे एक बार श्री जोगी पार्टी से निलंबित भी हो चुके हैं....आज आप चवाल का हिसाब करने बैठे हैं...आपको पहले पता नहीं था कि चावल योजना इतना महत्त्वपूर्ण हो सकता है कि आज आपको अपना पूरा आलेख इसी मुद्दे पर लिखना पड़ रहा है...आपने मीडिया पर भी बड़े ओछे तरह से भडास निकाला है...आपलोग कितना सम्मान करते है मीडिया का वह स्टार न्यूज़ के कार्यक्रम मे सारे देश ने देखा था...यदि आपके पास कहने को वाकई कुछ था तो अपनी बात कहने का अच्छा प्लेटफोर्म था आपके लिए...लेकिन आपकी तमाम बातो से राज ठाकरे की बू आती है...प्रदेश के लोग भूले नहीं हैं कि किस तरह से छत्तीसगढ़ को बाहरी असामाजिक तत्वों का अड्डा बना दिया था...और इंदौर के बारे मे आपसे बेहतर कौन जानेगा...खैर.
अमित...बहुत अच्छा नाम आपने दिया है अपने ब्लॉग का....आधा भरा गिलास सकारात्मकता का प्रतीक है..आप भी अपने सोच मे कुछ पोजीटिव चीजों को जगह दें तो शायद प्रदेश का कुछ भला हो...या कह सकते हैं कि कुछ काम बुरा हो....धन्यवाद.

Anonymous said...

as i worked for the Congress two three years back and now i m not in Chhattisgarh....but i m not sure that congress will back with majority...it would be 55% (BJP) and 45%(our Congress) ratio

Anonymous said...

very well written...n i m sure congress will b back to power wth a huge majority.....

Anonymous said...

Well. Looks like Congress again lost in CG.
Dr. Raman Singh, seems to be doing pretty good. I don't think people have forgotten the murder and the cash for MLA scam.
Anyways, Good luck. Doesn't matter who comes to the power, he will screw the people. Gone are the days when politics genuinely concerned with the welfare of the people.

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