What is the intent?

POLITICS | September 30, 2007 | Share

Parliament Building I was watching Doordarshan news and L.K. Advani gave a steaming speech in the parliament on the government’s complete lack of interest in curbing terrorism. Rajya Sabha MPs did something similar by accusing Andhra Pradesh government’s gross neglect on matters like terrorism. By repealing POTA as soon as the Congress came to power, was like giving out the message that our take on terrorism is softer than that of the previous government. BJP; We want POTA back!

Excuse me for being cynical but somehow all this drama sends across one message- It is not about the affected people, it is not about terrorism, it is not about ways of curbing terrorism, it is actually about showing the government’s inefficiency in protecting its people so that next elections BJP comes to power.

Almost the same seems to be repeating itself in the tug of war between the left and the centre on the Indo-U.S. nuke deal. Left’s contention: India’s strategic programme, including nuclear weapon testing, would be compromised. Well…role back to 1998 Pokhran test and left’s take then was to condemn the nuclear test. What I don’t understand is that if the left was against nuclear testing in the first place then an agreement that would curb our possibility to test in future should be welcomed with arms wide open. Please don’t give an excuse that things have changed in 9 years, being a nuclear power is a necessity now, well….9 years from now things will inevitably change n this deal could prove to be in India’s interest just as the Pokhran test was. And since you were wrong then, you could be wrong now so it’s better to let that best known secret out- it is not about the123 agreement at all, it’s about anti Americanism! Whew!

Let’s not forget BJP here; they want the left to withdraw support so the government falls even though on this particular issue The Opposition has no opposition with the centre since they are very pro-nuclear deal. But lets not let the Top secret out. It’s about how this deal would impinge upon India’s autonomy in the conduct of its foreign policy and not about getting into power.

When will the people of India ever have leaders who can put selfish Party (read personal) interests on hold and actually debate for the welfare of common people? Agreed, they are just doing the job of the opposition by questioning and condemning so that we can have a more responsible and answerable government. But I refuse to go by the consequentionalist approach, intentions matter more to me than the consequence! What is the intent? Is it welfare of the nation? Is it a fight for one’s ideology? Or is it simply a blame game where the winner takes the “kursi”!?!

All said and done, I wonder what the victims of the recent Hyderabad blasts feel about this. The man who is fighting for our rights in the parliament is actually fighting for his seat in the next elections!

Bini Philips

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