Saturday, July 12, 2008

Intrigues Before the Vote of Confidence

Check out this post on Retributions today on the signals being sent by the Left to the BJP. If something is indeed cooking between the two, that fits in well with The Hindu's newfound love for everything saffron.

Is the BJP reciprocating these gestures? Apart from all the thanks that Advani gave Ram in the recently concluded interview, see also this article by Sudheendra Kulkarni in the Indian Express (courtesy Retributions). Kulkarni's writings have considerably deteriorated of late with his strained attempts to provide convoluted justifications of his party's line - this one certainly fits that profile of a writer leaving no stone unturned to return to the good books of his bosses.

4 comments:

Dirt Digger said...

Pilid,
This whole saga between the Left, Right and Center shows that there is only one loser in this whole episode.
That is the Indian citizen. Parties which change stances and allies like daily newspapers, leaders who would kiss corpses just to get a piece of power, media turns on a dime without reason just to please its political masters all indicate to a fun season ahead. More than any soap opera, it seems likely the upcoming election will see new bed mates and break ups.

cbcnn_Pilid said...

Well said DD. For the most part, parties play these games for the extra money. And they do not believe that the voter will penalize them on account of this which is what makes all the bed hopping an attractive proposition.

Anonymous said...

PILID,

It is amusing that the left is even able to afford answers int his critical moment for them. Yechury's recent comment that he has no control over a co-passenger in a journey is a case in point. Atleast, in yechury's case, the co-passenger is a decent human being. In the case of the BJP, the co-passenger is a parasite with unnatural megalomaniac tendencies, with belief that they could transform the polity with a paltry strength of 60 or thereabouts, who believe in wheeling and dealing and cosying up with the establishment and bring them down when it matters to them. the Left has forfieted all its right o justify their actions. It is only upto chindu to keep up the pretenses as if anybody cared.

Thyagarajan

cbcnn_Pilid said...

Thyagarajan,

With only 60 MPs in parliament, you are right that the Left does not have a lot of hard power. But one must not doubt the soft power that it has. The Left pretty much sets the agenda on many matters and even those who disagree with it are afraid to press their stance publicly. Unfortunately, this is what has lent the Left far more legitimacy than its numbers might suggest. This can only be confronted if the government or journalists or ruling party ideologues are willing to go to town swinging for the government. Until such time that the government believes that they are fine so long as they manage the number game, they are likely to lose the larger war for the hearts and minds of the broader public which gets to hear, for the most part, only one side of the story.