Opinion Satyam’s asatyam 

The confusion within the Bharatiya Janata Party,a major player in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections,has been the subject of much comment. According to Jamaat-e-Islami’s biweekly Daawat (Jan 10),“There has been a fall in the popularity of BJP for quite sometime. One does not see the response or reaction of the people to the issues,particularly emotive issues,raised by the party now as was the case in the past years when such issues had endangered the communal harmony in the entire country.” The paper points out that the desire of the RSS to have total control over BJP versus the compulsions of coalition politics is a cause for “great worry” for the party. Rashtriya Sahara,in an editorial entitled,‘BJP’s worry’ writes that following the “rejection by the people of the leadership of Vasundhara Raje Scindhia”,the stance of “a tall leader” like Bhairon Singh Shekhawat “is bound to harm the party not only in Rajasthan but also in other parts of the country”. The paper writes that apart from Shekhawat,“the second big challenge before Rajnath Singh and his brigade is Kalyan Singh— the situation today is that while Rajnath Singh is the party’s president,Kalyan Singh is marginalised in the party,and is trying to show Rajnath Singh in a poor light (neecha dikhaney ka mauqa talaash kar rahey hein). This conflict between the two leaders on the eve of elections can harm the party,particularly in UP.” The paper adds: “This is the reason that along with efforts at cultivating Bhairon Singh Shekhewat,leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi have been asked to hold talks with Kalyan Singh. It is to be seen if the party succeeds in prevailing over these two leaders”. 

Season of strikes

Rashtriya Sahara,commenting on the strike by public sector oil companies’ officers and truckers in an editorial on January 10 wrote: “In a democracy,everyone has full right to express his or her views,protest peacefully and place before the government and the people their genuine demands. But democracy becomes tarnished when employees,in their frenzy for getting their rights and demands accepted,do not care to see what great hardships the people have to face because of their protest.” Sahafat,published from Delhi,in its editorial emphasised that the strike had to be withdrawn because of the strict attitude of the government. 

The Bhatnagar effect 

Qaumi Tanzeem (from Patna and Ranchi) in an editorial titled,Musalmaan pehle to aise na the writes; “of the 40 scientists chosen for the prestigious Bhatnagar awards 2007,not a single one is a Muslim. Is it not astonishing that out of about 20 crore Muslims in India,not even one has been found to have done the work deserving the prestigious award?”

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