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Five reasons why Modi sarkar is worse than UPA 2

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Kumar Shakti Shekhar
Kumar Shakti ShekharAug 04, 2015 | 21:11

Five reasons why Modi sarkar is worse than UPA 2

October 21, 2009 can be marked as the day when UPA 2's downfall started. It was the day when the CBI had registered a case against unknown telecom department officials, private persons and companies in the 2G spectrum scam. Later, the government was rocked by one scam and controversy after another. Congress's first casualty took place with Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan resigning on November, 9, 2010, soon after US President Barack Obama left Delhi after his first trip to India. It was followed by resignations of several of UPA 2 ministers and MPs.

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For Modi government, June 14, 2015 can be pinpointed as the day when its first major controversy involving a minister hit it. It was the day when reports of Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj's alleged help to former IPL chief Lalit Modi came in public domain. The other controversies which have taken place since then and the way the government has responded certainly reflects very poorly on NDA 2.

Controversies: The NDA 2 celebrated its first year in power on May 26, 2015 with much fanfare. It was considered to be a successful year with several surveys rating Swaraj as the most successful minister in Narendra Modi's government. But soon after, she got embroiled in the Lalit Modi controversy over helping the former IPL boss, living in London as a fugitive, procure travel visa for Portugal on humanitarian grounds. This was followed by expose on Raje's association with Lalit Modi and conflict of interest. Chouhan came in the eye of storm over deaths of accused persons and witnesses in the Vyapam scam after Aaj Tak correspondent Akshay Singh died under mysterious circumstances in Jhabua on July 4 while covering the scam. The Opposition, particularly the Congress and the Left, have been demanding the resignation of Swaraj, Raje and Chouhan and have even stalled the functioning of Parliament.

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The BJP is getting a taste of its own medicine now. When scams like the 2G spectrum, coal block allocation, Commonwealth Games and Adarsh Housing Society and controversies involving former railway minister Pawan Bansal and law minister Ashwani Kumar had rocked UPA 2, the BJP forced Parliament disruptions and washout of several sessions. They had forced the government to accept the resignations of leaders like Bansal, Kumar, former telecommunications minister A Raja and former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan before allowing smooth functioning of the Parliament. The Congress is showing mirror to the BJP now. Party president Sonia Gandhi has accused the BJP of being the author of the "resign-now-debate-later" principle of parliamentary norm. Neither Swaraj, Raje and Chouhan have resigned nor the government has given any convincing reason for not breaking silence over these issues.

Silence of the government: Even though more than half of the 18-day monsoon session of Parliament has been wasted without conducting any meaningful business, the government has not yet come out with a reply on the Opposition's demand for resignation of Swaraj, Raje and Chouhan. Modi has maintained a mysterious silence over these controversies even though he is speaking on all other political issues from several platforms like public rallies, social media and radio. The response of Modi's cabinet colleagues and senior BJP functionaries over the issues remains much to be desired. They would accuse the then prime minister Manmohan Singh of maintaining silence over the scams and controversies during UPA 2 but are emulating him now. The Congress had at least taken the resignations of several ministers to buy peace with the BJP but the NDA 2 shows no signs of relenting from its hard stance.

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Parliament functioning: The NDA 2 government has surpassed the UPA 2 in taking action against the Opposition. While the then Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar had suspended 18 MPs from Andhra Pradesh on February 13, 2014 over Telangana issue, present speaker Sumitra Mahajan has suspended 25 of the 44 Congress MPs. Manmohan Singh and the parliamentary affairs minister of the day would invite BJP leaders LK Advani, Swaraj (the then leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha) and Arun Jaitley (the then leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha) for talks in order to break deadlock. But no such initiative has been seen during the present NDA 2 regime so far. Far from reaching out to the Opposition, the treasury benches have leveled accusations against them, leaving no scope for rapprochement.

Headlines Management: The government was on the back-foot on three issues on August 3 - retreat on the controversial Land Acquisition Bill, Sonia's frontal attack on Modi saying "the champion of 'mann ki baat' (Modi's regular radio programme) appears to have retreated into a 'maun vrat'", suspension of 25 Congress Lok Sabha MPs and ban on 857 porn sites. The government was facing flak in the mainstream media as well as the social media on all these four counts. However, the government apparently devised a strategy to dilute the all-round bashing which would have taken place on 9 pm news bulletins. Modi tweeted that the nation would witness a landmark event and that he would make a special announcement at 6.30 pm. The focus of the nation slightly shifted from the other burning topics of the day to the peace accord between the government and Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN).

Government of bans: The government is trying to control what one eats, reads or sees. It is trying to invade the privacy of the citizens. It has come for a major flak for banning 857 porn websites.  Ban on porn websites is just the latest of the several bans the nation has seen in the last one year. The ban on beef in Maharashtra and Haryana has already come in for criticism from several quarters. It has banned Nestle's instant noodles Maggi, over 4,000 NGOs including Greenpeace and films and documentaries like Leslee Udwin's India's Daughter and Fifty Shades of Grey.

Last updated: August 04, 2015 | 21:42
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