|
|
Asia-Pacific
South Asia Monitor
Indian Elections: A Circus of Villains
By Gautaman Bhaskaran South Asia Editor
 | Varun Feroze Gandhi (born March 13, 1980, New Delhi, India) is an Indian politician. He is the great grandson of Nehru. He is the son of Sanjay Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi, the son and daughter-in-law of the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. | Someone called the ongoing general elections in India a huge circus. Circus, it certainly is, but this time around it has more villains than clowns. And the villains have been breathing acid. Foul mouthed to the core, they have been ruthless and vengeful in their attacks.Take, for instance, Varun Gandhi, the son of Sanjay Gandhi whose campaign of forced sterilizations in Muslim dominated localities of Delhi in the 1970s is still considered a horrible blot on India's history. More so, because the zealous officials in charge of controlling the country's runaway population did not even spare young unmarried boys.Well, Varun Gandhi, who has just been freed on a two-week parole, was recently captured live on camera as he was making an inflammatory speech in an election campaign in northern India. A candidate of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, Gandhi, spoke of cutting the limbs of those attacking Hindus. "Let such men go away to the other side (meaning Pakistan)," he thundered. He left nothing to imagination: it was clear that he was referring to Muslims.However, what appeared incredible was his complete denial later. He said the video tapes had been doctored. India's courts did not buy this argument and he was sent to jail for offences under the National Security Act. India's Supreme Court gave him a breather when he promised in an affidavit that he would "not cause any disaffection among the communities either by words, spoken or written, or gestures and will not make any provocative speech which may lead to the disturbance of communal harmony."One may argue here that Gandhi's inexperience and youth may be cited as an excuse, however unjustified it may be, for his utterances. But the other day, when the veteran 85-year-old Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Chief Minister of the southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu, Muthuvel Karunanidhi, called Vellupillai Prabhakaran, the chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, his friend in a televised interview, it seemed unpardonable. Karunanidhi went a step further when he said the LTTE was not a terrorist organization, but some of its members could have become terrorists along the way! This was not the end of the story.Karunanidhi, whose DMK is an ally of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government in New Delhi, tried retracting what he had uttered. He accused the television channel of quoting him selectively. I saw the program, and could vouch that it was a straight interview wherein the Chief Minister said all that had been ascribed to him. Again, Vaiko, leader of another political party, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, warned of a bloodbath in Tamil Nadu and the State's secession if Prabhakaran were to be harmed. His highly seditious speech was meant to cash in on an emotive issue: the affinity that Indian Tamil speaking population shares with its Sri Lankan counterpart.Despite such political misdemeanors that often border on the incitement and provocation in an essentially poor country divided by 30 main languages and six main religions, elections and democracy are held with clockwork regularity. There was one exception, though. For some months during the 1975 "Emergency," the people's basic rights to choose their rulers were curtailed. In the years following the Emergency, there have been many "reasons" for the Government to suspend these rights: India's predominant Hindu caste system is based on tradition and feudalism that oppose universal suffrage; insurgency has wrecked havoc in Kashmir and parts of north-east India for decades and; Naxalites have led bloody rebellions in the country's interiors. Yet, India has never let its democratic institutions sink into oblivion, and elections have gone on, as they are now. This time, they are being held in particularly difficult times as the world and India face a deep economic slump. Huge job losses in a nation where poverty and hunger are still disturbing forces have added to the general gloom. For the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, whose Congress Party had presided over the boom time and was one of those instrumental in opening up India's economy in the 1990s, these must be sad days. The man must have been rattled when the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, Lal Kishen Advani, described Singh as the weakest Prime Minister India has ever had.Obviously, the Indian political tongue has got a little too large for its mouth, and such vitriolic assaults can damage the sensitive fabric of India's democratic system. Let alone personal attacks, some politicians are so brazen to divide the society through spiteful speeches that the judiciary now finds itself as a peace-keeper. The call of the hour is surely greater maturity: political organizations must not allow its members, especially those contesting the polls, to turn into hoodlums.
Related Articles Tiger Man Mike Pandey Egypt's First Edition of El Gouna Film ... El Gouna Film Festival Opens with Sheikh ... New Egypt's El Gouna Film Festival to Add ... India Stands Shamed after Racial Attacks near ... The Dashing Pedro Almodovar to Chair Cannes ... Korean Cinema Comes to Chennai in India The Horror of Custodial Death Modi Is the Man We Need in India Mumbai¡¯s Child King The Cocktail at Cannes Cannes Film Fest Begins on a Hollywood Note Mumbai Terrorized Again Venice Lines Up Impressive Jury Cannes Film Fest Begins on a Delightful Note No Indian Movie at the Festival Meaningless Film Censorship This Bloody Life! Mumbai and Pusan Film Fest Establish Ties On Road, in Rage India Picks Wrong Films for Oscars Robert De Niro to Head Cannes Film Fest Jury Someone Killed Jessica, But of Course! Middle Eastern Cinema Hits Hard Dubai Film Fest Opener Dubai Film Fest to Unravel Diverse Selection Indian Police Cut Corners to Tackle Crime Goa Festival Not God's Own "West Is West" Sets IFFI Sailing Fine Cinema at the Coming Dubai Film Festival "The King's Speech" to Set the Fest Rolling Abu Dhabi Film Festival a Fantastic Mix of ... "Adoor Gopalakrishnan: A Life in Cinema" ... The Venetian Storm Frieda's Venice Jafar Panahi's Music Soothes Souls "Black Swan" Opens Venice Festival Festival to Bounce with Youthful Energy Shame and Scandal Plague Commonwealth Games Child Needs Compassion, Not Cane A Beast Called Beauty Adoor Gopalakrishnan: A Life in Cinema Bhopal Gas Tragedy: A Crime Called Bhopal Honour Killings Are India's Shame Cannes Film Festival And Poetry Cannes More Art Than Glamour This Time An Indian Pilgrimage to Cannes Maoist Rebellion in India Asians to Carry the Torch at Cannes Cannes Film Festival and Probables "Robin Hood" to Open Cannes Film Festival Persecution of Artists The Only Two Real Races This Year Curry Bashing in Australia US Director Tim Burton to Lead Cannes Jury India's Car Boom Creates Its Own Chaos Making Idiots Out of Men Indian Girls Find Paris Hilton¡¯s Shoes Too Hot Mexican Film Wins Top Prize at Marrakech Ben Kingsley Hopes to Be an Envoy for Cinema Movie Director Hopes Obama Would Solve the ... Nandita Das on Marrakech Jury A Decaying Film Festival Marrakech Festival a Boon for Local Cinema Panorama Selection Questionable IFFI to Open on a Note of Visual Lyricism South Korea to Be Focus at the Film Fest Dalai Lama¡¯s Tawang Visit Vexes Beijing Why Mumbai Film Fest Scores over Goa Mumbai¡¯s Young Movie Critics Ready to Tear ... India Is Still Hungry for Food Honor Killing through Lens at Mumbai Festival 11th Mumbai Film Festival to Open with Matt ... Film Festival to Showcase Some Gems Can India Host 2010 Commonwealth Games? A New Irritant in India-China Ties The Venetian Sorrow The Tiger War Israeli War Film Wins Venice¡¯s Top Golden Lion Politicians Livid over Festival Movie "Bad Lieutenant" Creates Bad Blood between Two ... Clooney and Damon Star Attractions at Venice Muslim Bashing Must End Mumbai Film Festival Prizes to Be among the ... An Indian Juror in De Sica Land India's Gays Can Now Love without Fear Moore's "Capitalism," 70 Other Films to ... An Indian Summer at the Lagoon City Festival May Be Strong on European Fare A Tamil Film with a Difference Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:
But ... India Is Racist Too Hollywood Bungles in Bollywood The Tragic Tale of the Indian Tiger Cannes Jury Honors Chilling Tales Lars Von Trier¡¯s Sex and Horror Gems and the Cannes Film Festival Market and the Cannes Film Festival Keats Poetry, Campion¡¯s Reading Lou Ye¡¯s Controversial Disaster Clash of Titans on the Croisette Sexy Sirens and Political Propagandists Is Sharmila Tagore the Right Choice for Cannes ... The Stars in Cannes¡¯ Dark Skies Cannes Courts Controversy Festival Unveils Lineup of Masters Beyond Bollywood¡¯s Melodramatic Mishmash India's Infrastructure at Breaking Point Guessing the Festival Goodies Kate Winslet the New Face of Brilliance Tarantino¡¯s ¡®Basterds¡¯ to Spit Fire at Fest Animated Film, Up, to Open Festival Smoking Screen Oscar-Rich Penelope Set to Master English Cannes Honours Clint Eastwood Renowned French Star to Chair Cannes Jury Fable of Mr Benjamin Button: Riveting Cinema The Mangalore Molest Aamir Khan Film Is a Bad Copy It May Well Be the End of Agony in Sri Lanka Woody Allen¡¯s "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" International Film Festival of India Mumbai Terror Marrakech Int'l Film Festival Has Grown Marrakech Int'l Film Festival Marrakech International Film Festival Shambled Secularism Benegal¡¯s Sajjanpur Birdwatchers Venice Festival Blues Venice under the Hollywood Spell ? A Riveting Movie on Islam's Crisis Venice Festival a Haven for World Premieres Pakistani Films Come to India, at Last! Tamil Super Hero Rises Again The Comic Fantasy The Smoking Screen! Bollywood and Beyond at Stuttgart New Film May Spell Hope for Bollywood Indian Cinema Feeds Deceit An Indian Film on an American Power Plant India Not At Cannes Cannes Line-Up Writer Taslima Nasreen Forced Out of India India Inspires World Fashion Mills & Boon "Jodhaa Akbar" Creates Controversy in India Sania Mirza Subject to Ridicule in Native India Sarkozy and Bruni Love Causes Moral Outrage India and the Oscars Marrakech International Film Festival Reviewed Paranoid Park Cannes 2007: Killings The Spy Case The Good and the Not So Good Bollywood Superman First Kashmiri Film in 20 Years Chinese Influence Seems Unstoppable Cannes Film Festival 2006: Minimalism, Too Cannes Fest Prizes Cannes Film Festival 2006: Great Delights The Da Vinci Code Missing Tigers The Despair of Tibetans Trilateral Stratagem To Slow China's Growth Sri Lanka Crisis Hollywood Movies Doing Well In India Peace Pipe Mangal Pandey: The Rising Honda Clash Bush-Manmohan Singh Pact Satyajit Ray, Still India's Most Noted Movie ... Ban on Cigarettes in India "Match Point" Excoriated by Britons Crisis In India¡¯s Hindu Nationalist Party Manmohan Singh¡¯s One Year 58th Cannes International Film Festival Begins Indo-Pakistan Cricket Diplomacy U.S. Visa Refusal The 7th Deauville Asian Film Festival Closes Seedy Film Journalism Indian Tigers Butchered in Broad Daylight No Oscar for Scorsese, Yet Again Nepal in Turmoil As King Sacks PM Deuba History Repeats in Struggle for Free Press India Could Have Prevented Tsunami Deaths Argue over Freedom on Internet "City of Gold" Dubai Stands like Oasis in ... Towards a Solution to the Kashmir Problem India & China Rising Bush Victory and India Indian Robinhood After 9/11, World Links Muslim with Violence India's Great Heritage Taj Mahal in Danger "Kashmir": A Never Ending Thorny Issue The Village -- A Silly Joke Jakarta Bombing Aimed at Aussie ... Millions of Indians Go to Bed Hungry Sri Lanka's Ethnic War Knows No End Over 600 Tibetan Monks, Nuns Should Be Freed India's Schoolgirl Killer Hanged in Controversy 3 Kidnapped Indians Endure Agonizing Torture Musharraf's Sets Deadline on Kashmir Usefulness of Nepalese Monarchy in Question Temple of Learning Turns into Grave of Death AIDS Keeps Threatening the Poor in Asia, Africa Fearful of Dowry Parents Kill Newborn Girls Hot Discussion on Death Penalty in India India's Flag of Democracy Kept Unfurled Politics Dominates Cannes Int'l Film Festival Intolerance Grows before India General Election Fears of Strife Continue in Sri Lanka Torture, Rape Occur in Indian Classroom World Leaders Must Take Stand against Nukes India's Cities Prosper as Country Folk Starve India, Pakistan Form Friendly Ties Cell Phones Bring Joy, Sorrow World Over
Other Articles by Gautaman Bhaskaran
Tiger Man Mike Pandey Egypt's First Edition of El Gouna Film ... El Gouna Film Festival Opens with Sheikh ... New Egypt's El Gouna Film Festival to Add ... India Stands Shamed after Racial Attacks ...
Gautaman Bhaskaran is a veteran film critic and writer who has covered Cannes and other major international festivals, like Venice, Berlin, Montreal, Melbourne, and Fukuoka over the past two decades. He has been to Cannes alone for 15 years. He has worked in two of India¡¯s leading English newspapers, The Hindu and The Statesman, and is now completing an authorized biography of India¡¯s auteur-director, Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Penguin International will publish the book, whose research was funded by Ford Foundation.
back
|
|
|
|
|