6053 - From financial inclusion to political inclusion - Kashmir Times

From financial inclusion to political inclusion By Lalit Sethi In the face of lack lustre Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir as well as Jharkhand, the BJP has several new ideas to gear up the Bharatiya Janata Party to a mass movement. From financial inclusion, it is moving to political inclusion. This is the new Saffron mantra. Not only banks or the Unique Identity or Aadhaar are the models, there is now a new political dimension to it. As Opposition, the BJP might have ridiculed Aadhaar, but it has now been lapped up and accepted as a tool of all inclusive growth. Mr. Modi is open to ideas from anywhere in the world, though he claims to be an India First leader of the nation. He appears to have been impressed by the Chinese Communist Party model of having 88.3 million cadres or party members. Mr. Modi would like to excel the Chinese in that area. The BJP plans to have Mr. Amit Shah, believed to be a go getter of sorts to enrol 100 million members in a year or two. The doors are wide open to all comers. A dedicated telephones with possibly hundreds of lines all over India and websites by the hundred to enrol members. Whether they will have to pay one rupee or ten rupees as a membership fee or is the fee being waived altogether? Will that apply to active or super active members of the BJP? The picture will be clarified in course of time. Whether India will move towards dual citizenship, as some countries have it already, is not yet known. But it is clear that non-resident Indians are likely to be given the voting right ~ at diplomatic missions of India or by post. That is in the works. The NRIs are already a big vote bank of the BJP, as is clear from the New York Madison Square and Sydney Alphonse Stadium with near hysterical rallies for Mr. Modi. Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah have already usurped the broom or the "jharu", the election symbol of Kejriwal's Aam Adami Party, who had usurped the Sonia Gandhi slogan of "Aam Adami. The excitement of the Assembly elections, starting on November 25, as Jammu and Kashmir as well as Jharkhand is missing because no clear winners are on the horizon. Maharashtra and Haryana were a different ball game. Even though BJP dominates Jammu and expects to win seats in Ladakh and Kargil, it has not been able to work up much enthusiasm in Kashmir Valley. Not yet, though it would try to come up with some new plans. The BJP is trying to give the Kashmiri Pandits living in the State, be it Jammu or small parts of Srinagar or outside the State, the right to vote as it is striving to take them back to the valley and give them comfort in the rest of India. There is some debate over it whether the Kashmiri Pandits' names have already been placed on the electoral rolls for the valley or is it already too late to do so? Could they make a difference in some or several constituencies in Kashmir? Mr. Modi has announced in Sydney that 71 million people have been enabled to open such bank accounts and farmers would be entitled to loans of up to Rs.3,000 so that they escape the clutches and trap of usurious money lenders and saved from committing suicide. The BJP might believe that 400 to 500 million Indians will be able to have simple bank accounts as part of the Pradhan Mantri financial inclusion plan. If the government and public sector banks and possibly post offices can reach half a billion people quickly, why can the party not be able to enrol 100 million cadres or party men in a political inclusion plan? To run a party with a membership of 100 million would be a tall order, and it would require considerable financial clout even though enrolment even on telephone as well as computer has already begun. But the new cadres would expect what is called "roti, kapra, makaan" that is bread, clothing and shelter or some kind of an allowance which might be a few hundred rupees per month like the pension for widows and poor old people. Will the money bags and captains of industry underwrite the scheme and fill the BJP kitty to finance its political inclusion or political spread plan, left even as several people are ditching the Congress or some regional parties not on the make in the electoral business? Will the 100 million cadres sway the nation from north to south, east and west as the BJP challenges the regional parties on their home ground? Will they be too visible or will they show up the flag at certain times only? Will the Saffron Parivar march in towns and countryside, several of them wearing khaki shorts, white shirts, black caps and a stick in hand create a scare around them? Will they become a great vote bank after a bank account to their names? In this developing scenario, regional parties dominate the scene in Kashmir, but the National Conference led by Omar and Farooq Abdullah, ruling the State in coalition with the Congress appears to be on the downslide. The People's Democratic Party led by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and his daughter, Mahbooba, are hoping to make gains, but could they win a sufficient number of seats in the 87-member Assembly to be able to form a government in the State? That question is far from easy to fathom and the result may throw up a hung assembly. The Congress and National Conference have parted company and are not on the same page. Nor does the PDP have an alliance partner for the month-long election from November 25. Counting is due on December 23 as the cold weather has started in right earnest. The elections in Kashmir had to be postponed because of the unprecedented recent floods in Srinagar and rest of Kashmir which caused enormous misery. The security forces and army men with boats and helicopters delivered food and rescued tens of thousands of people. In Jharkhand the BJP is hoping to win the elections but alliances with regional parties have come apart and both Congress and BJP are at the receiving end. Will the result be a hung assembly or will alliances be forged after the elections or will the State go in for President's Rule as is the case with Delhi? The political parties in Delhi have started wooing the voters of Delhi as the Assembly elections are expected around February after the BJP finally declined to form a minority government and three by-elections were cancelled. The RSS has advised the BJP to put up at least 35 candidates for the 70 member Assembly from Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad or ABVP to woo the youth whom Kejriwal had reached out last year. The Congress is keeping a low profile, but Arvind Kejriwal is trying to whip up some kind of frenzy although he is facing some kind of ridicule because he formed a government after last year's election but fled from office in 49 days. There have been desertions from his party and from the Congress and the BJP has been a minor gainer so far. Even though BJP hopes it will win the elections and not land in a hung House, it realizes that there are many hurdles on the way. Could there be a slip between the cup and the lip? It has opened a website to ask people about their expectations, but power tariff and piped cooking gas prices have been kept at the present level and an increase has been deferred. There will be frenzied interest over the Delhi elections in the New Year and feverish political activity will be witnessed, but until then all contenders are keeping their fingers crossed. —[IFS]