From: goyle@tortie.me.uiuc.edu (Vipin Goyle)
Subject: Re: Reality Check on Indians
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 21:52:56 GMT

narayana@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu (Kuram T Narayana) writes:

>Hi! Guys!
Yo to you, maan :-).

>Come down to the reality. And have a check. When brinkmanship
>was played out in the BM case, what did you guys expect. Now
>you are going on bashing the PVNR govt for dismissing the
>BJP ruled govt. What did you guys (protectors of constitution etc)
>expect. It is politics, man. Rao did predictably what should be done.

I expected the UP Govt to go, and the VHP/BD to be banned. But wretched
excess seems to be the order of the day for PVNR.

>You can't expect PV to sit idle, and not enforce the ban on VHP/RSS.
>That will be ludicrous. When the BJP ruled states failed to do that,
>he dismissed those govt. So why are liberals and BJP wallahs 

Whoa there! From what I read in the INN bulletins, all 3 remaining
state Governments had agreed to implement the bans after their
respective HQ's had ordered them to. My reaction was also at
least partly disappointment at the resurgence of Indira-Rajiv-ism
just when I thought that it had been stomped into the ground for
good. After all, PVNR was getting kudos just last year for having
said that he did not want to dismiss state Govts. arbitrarily etc.

>getting excited about it. That is the reality of politics. You
>need a crisis in order to win elections and govern.  Think about
>it. Indira Gandhi needed to be assasinated for Rajiv Gandhi
>to come to power. VP Singh had to divide the country on caste lines
>for him to come to power. Rajiv Gandhi had to be murdered for 

Wrong. VP Singh barely mentioned the Mandal issue when he was running
for PM in the 1989 elections. The only reason that VP Singh became Prime 
Minister was because all the opposition parties grew to hate Rajiv Gandhi
so much that they decided to band together to ensure his ouster in the
elections. VP Singh decided to divide the country on caste lines to STAY
in power. The BJP of course, retaliated by trying to consolidate the
Hindu vote bank to prevent an internal civil war from hurting their
eventual ticket to power.

>This is all fun!

Are you sure that we can afford to have so much fun?

>PV is going to call a mid term election. To have BJP rule in states
>is not advantageous to PV. So he dismissed them. Ultimately any

It didn't hurt him to have a BJP Govt. in MP when the last elections were
held. The reason that seems to be hinted at is pressure from those on the
left of his party, Arjun Singh being first among them. PVNR was known for
his spinelessness (as was the rest of the Congress) when Indira Gandhi and
her progeny were out making hay while the sun shone; now he is too spineless
to take on the leftovers of Indira-ism that still exist in the Congress.
 
>elected leader has to go to the people and say to them he wants
>their support for the actions he has taken.

Well then, the least he could do is show a little foresightedness. It is
a lot easier to run against Governments and parties when they are in power
("incumbent fat cats") than when they have an air of injured innocence
about them, which aura is now going to hang about the BJP. 

An even better reason for not dismissing them is in the psychology of the 
BJP and its cadres, who are fiercely ideological and motivated. When in 
Govt., they will be infused with the lethargy that invariably affects 
people in power.  When in the Opposition, they will be motivated to do their 
damnedest to win.  When in the Opposition AND aroused, as they will be now,
they will be fighting mad and working hard as hell to get even with the 
Congress. The same is not true of the Congress which, ever since the death
of Nehru (or maybe Shastri), has been largely bereft of any ideology.

>...kt

-srinivas sunder
 sunder@crhc.uiuc.edu

(posting from a friend's account as my news server is kaput)
--
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 Vipin Goyle			Engg. Psych. Research Lab.     
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 v-goyle@uiuc.edu		MC - 244		       
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