VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 209 Date: 10.07.2017
Contents:
1.
Goa CM Parrikar Should
Have Known Better
2.
Stand-off with China at
the Border near Sikkim-Bhutan
3.
Amit Shah Lying Through
His Teeth on Cow-Related Violence
Goa CM Parrikar Should Have Known Better
Manohar
Parrikar visited South Goa last week for the first time after taking charge as
Chief Minister in his new term and while speaking there he is reported to have
said that development in South Goa has not been adversely affected though the
region did not vote for BJP during the last Assembly elections. Immediately
after that we have the desecration of the crosses in South Goa and also
that of a temple n the same area. This is continuing with more incidents
of cross damage in the last two days. The coincidence with Parrikar's
statement and the damage to crosses thereafter is rather strange.
Not only that Manohar Parrikar further continues with his comments as
reported in the local papers calling the desecration as a conspiracy and
that the government and the BJP while denouncing the attacks will get to the
bottom of this. When the situation in Goa and that in South Goa was quite
normal, one cannot understand why Manohar Parrikar should have made the first
comment as above. People holding important positions in governance particularly
at the level of ministers and a Chief Minister at that should be careful with
what they say. Since as later events have proved it has had a deleterious
effect on law and order. Parrikar's statement would have incited
pro-BJP elements to teach South Goa a lesson which is what common logic
derives from the consequent cross desecrations. Further compounding the
situation by calling it a conspiracy puts a spin on it implying that pro-BJP
elements may not be involved in the actions. This situation could have been
easily been avoided by Manohar Parrikar remembering that he is
the Chief Minister of Goa and not of its North or South. The investigation
on the incidents is being pursued but look at the cost of it constituting a
rapid action force, round the clock patrolling etc. etc. All this could have
been easily avoided if the CM had not stirred things up. In any case the
perpetrators should be brought to justice irrespective of which political
colour they sport. Where there is communal harmony in Goa, there was no need to
have these sentiments aroused since we have enough of such things happening in
the country and we need not import these into Goa maybe just because we feel
left out of the mainstream of things.
Stand-off with China at the Border near Sikkim-Bhutan
The stand-off with China at the border
near the Sikkim-Bhutan region is indicative that all is not well with the
relations that we maintain with our neighbouring countries. With every country
on our borders we have problems with Pakistan being major and then continuing
with Nepal, Bangladesh and lastly, Sri Lanka in the order of lessening
severity. Thus Modi's foreign policy dominated by hugs and dropping in for tea
unannounced does not seem to be working. Even in the latest visit that Modi
made to the US, you can see in the photo that Donald Trump is cringing away
from a 'hugging' Modi. The latter seems also to be in supplicant mode and
hugging Trump in desperation, probably believing that the hug is more
important than national pride.
As for China, there is no doubt that the
incident on our borders with them is more in the nature of game-play to show
that India cannot do a thing to it with or without US support. The recent
apparent bonhomie in India-US relations is unacceptable to China. Added to
that India has been making noises about patrolling the Indian Ocean
and maybe even the South China Sea where China has a major confrontation with
the US. Hence the flexing of muscles by China to show who's boss and
to put India in its proper place. As our foreign policy it is rare that we
anticipate situations like the imbroglio with China now and try and defuse it.
More often than not it seems that we walk into a situation unaware of what's
going on. This is a rather sad state of affairs where we constantly see
India getting upstaged, first it was by Pakistan and now by China. Sometime
back when it was reported that China was building multiple dams on the upper
reaches of the river Brahmaputra and this would reduce the water flow of the
river drastically as it flows through our North East region, there was a lot of
umbrage in India. But ultimately India accepted that China could build these
dams but there was no news that whether a quid pro quo was sought
in guarantees on water flow. Confrontation is not always the desired path
in international diplomacy and should be used as a last resort when all other
methods of conflict resolution have been exhausted. Alertness and preparedness
should be the hallmark of India's foreign policy.
Amit Shah Lying Through His Teeth on Cow-Related Violence
Amit Shah while in Goa
claimed that lynchings in general and related to the cow in particular were
more in the 3 years preceding 2014 than in like period thereafter. Independent
data puts this number for just the last six months as 20 which is set to
cross 25 for the whole of last year. The same data puts 97% of the
cow-related attacks between 2010 and 2017 of 63 having happened after May 2014.
Additionally 32 of the 63 attacks happened in BJP ruled States. Amit Shah was
trying to defuse the irate public opinion on cow lynchings that have erupted
across India with the latest in Haryana and then Jharkhand. His approach is the
typical bluff and bluster style adopted by most BJP leaders these days. It is
as if they have the privileged access to all the 'correct' information in the
world and all the rest of the citizens of India are stupid and dumb. This may
work among the illiterates which is their major constituency who believe that
any words coming out of the BJP leaders mouths particularly Narendra Modi and
Amit Shah is 'Ram Vani'. Not only that the BJP is quite capable of
manufacturing the figures since when they have fudged the GDP, CPI, WPI, IIP
ETC. so what's with some numbers related to cow lynchings. We are living in the
era of fake news and managed information and finding out the truth will need
sifting through many layers of obfuscation and disinformation which is the specialty
of the present BJP government.
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