Opinion View from the RIGHT

Move on

Veteran journalist M.V. Kamath,who has authored a biography of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi,and whose opinion is valued in the BJP and the wider Sangh Parivar,is all praise for Nitin Gadkari even as he asks the BJP to “focus on change”. Kamath says that the BJP must focus on four issues — “how to raise agricultural production and keep the peasant from migrating to urban centres”; “how to provide jobs to Gen Next”; “how to reduce corruption”; and “how to go beyond Hindutva to a way of life that is nation-embracing and appealing to all people of whatever caste,creed,religion and community.” Kamath says that “Gadkari is breaking away from the old moorings,which is just as well”. Arguing that the “young are not interested in ideologies; what they are looking for are well-paid jobs and the party must see how best this can be accomplished”,Kamath asks Gadkari to “break away from the past and project (the BJP) as a forward-looking party”. “Village self sufficiency is a Gandhian concept to which some fresh thought needs to be given.” Kamath says.  

Rage against the machine

The latest issue of the RSS mouthpiece carries excerpts from the BJP’s long-time resident psephologist G.V.L. Narasimha Rao’s book,titled Democracy at risk! Can we trust our EVMs which argues that electronic voting machines are not foolproof. Some experts from foreign universities have also been quoted in the book to support the argument. Rao,who has not been included in the recently recast BJP national executive,but is attached to the BJP-ruled MP government,hopes to keep up his anti-EVM campaign.

Against forgetting

A former editor of Panchajanya (the RSS mouthpiece in Hindi),Girish Chandra Sharma,wants to know why so few people know about K.B. Hedgewar,the man who founded the RSS,“when the organisation itself is not only known in India ,but also abroad”. Sharma,reflecting the wider RSS viewpoint,argues that “history tells us that it is a sad experience that the ideals laid down by great thinkers and scholars which were propagated during their lifetime are totally reversed after their departure.” 

Water matters

After “water activism” figured in some of BJP’s recent seminars and (also in an exhibition on groups doing social service at the BJP’s recent Indore conclave) Arabinda Ghose,a long-time contributor to Organiser argues that “water should be transferred from the state to concurrent list”.

He lists various inter-state disputes centred on water to argue his case,and says that “it is more than 60 years that we have attained Independence and it is time politicians and the people at large start considering certain matters from the national point of view,and accept the proposals to transfer water from the state list to the concurrent list.”