Mailbag

BJP government

Sir,

It refers to bold post-poll decisions of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to strengthen administration after being dragged on for last eight months when BJP government was formed at the centre. Various allies and hardliners of BJP never allowed Vajpayee to govern efficiently. By ignoring allies' demands for extra cabinet berths, and sidelining faction-ridden BJP leaders from ministry expansion, Prime Minister has now shown his firm determination to run government with active assistance of his confidents like Jaswant Singh, Pramod Mahajan and Jagmohan as Union Ministers.

Political system should be modified to remove party-bossism from the government. It is a known fact that Atal Behari Vajpayee is the favourite choice of public and most political parties for Prime Ministership. His opposition is mainly because of his affiliation to BJP which is known to be controlled by hardliners. It was indeed a nice gesture of Congress Chief Minister Digvijay Singh seeking Vajpayee's blessings by touching his feet !

In national interest, Prime Minister should be chosen through secret ballot of Lok Sabha members by absolute majority. Such an elected Prime Minister may be free to select his/her ministers without asking parties to nominate their nominees for ministership. Law may be enacted for maximum size of the ministry. Any no-confidence motion may be voted by secret ballot only on written demand of at least forty percent of Lok Sabha members. But fall of government sponsored bills may not be considered as reason for fall of government. System will promote a new era of 'National Government' in our multy party system where coalition governments are found unsuccessful.

Same system may be considered for state governments also. Even Speakers and Deputy Speakers of State Legislatures and also Deputy Chairpersons of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha may also be chosen by secret ballot. However post of Lok Sabha may be upgraded to that of a second Vice President. President and two Vice Presidents may be simultaneously elected in the manner President is elected by all MPs and MLAs. Senior Vice President may be President for rest of the term in case of mid-term vacancy at post of President. However in case of mid-term vacancy at post of a Vice President, an interim Vice President may be chosen for balance term by MPs only.

Yours etc...
Mrs. Madhu Agrawal
1775, Kucha Lattushah,
Dariba, Delhi-110006.

Paying price for misgovernance

Sir,

For the BJP something more than the anti-incumbency factor seems to be responsible for its humiliating defeat in the just concluded assembly elections in four states of the country. These assembly elections were being viewed as the ''Mini Lok Sabha elections''. Although it is unfair to link the assembly elections with the government at the centre but considering the way these elections were fought by the political parties, it won't be right to label these elections as ''Mini Parliamentary Elections''. Firstly, the national issues like the failures of the BJP Government at the Centre and the mishandling of the price rise issues overshadowed the local issues as revealed by the speeches of various leaders and issues raised in the election meetings. Secondly, national leaders like Congress President Ms Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister A B Vajpayee were more deeply involved in the election campaigns defending their respective ends. Thirdly, media projected these elections more or less as something more than a regional election. In nutshell, the performance of the BJP Government at the centre was one of the major issues (if not the only issue) in the just concluded assembly elections.

The clear message conveyed by the outcome of these elections is that people are not satisfied with the eight month old BJP rule at the centre. The common masses are not contented with Government over a handful of achievements like Pokhran blasts, the settling of cauvery dispute and the partial control over militant activities in J&K as well as on the communal riots. The common man seems to be more concerned with the long list of the failures of present government that includes the shattered economy of the country, the sky high hike in the prices of essential commodities, unsuccessful effort to dismiss the democratically elected Government of Bihar and the failure of the foreign policy etc. etc. At the same time the public appears not to be in tune with the priorities chosen by the ruling BJP govt. viz nuclear blasts, issues like reciting of Saraswati Vandana and Vande Mataram and so-called Indianisation of the Education system of our country. The citizens of our country seem to have not admitted the argument that the problems of the coalition politics are the mere cause of poor performance of the BJP Government as proclaimed by our beloved and able Prime Minister. In short, people are not satisfied with just a Stable Government (as promised by the BJP in the manifesto) but want an active Working Govt at the Centre.

The second aspect of these elections worth mentioning is that the outcome is more the defeat of BJP than the victory of Congress as evidenced by the fact that the major chunk of votes polled to the Congress party is constituted of the negative votes. This means that the voters have primarily rejected BJP and not choosen the Congress party because the voter caste his vote considering the failure of BJP Govt and not the qualities of Congress Party. This implies that this verdict should not be viewed as the call to dethrone the BJP Govt at Centre immediately and replaced by the Congress but should be seen as the warning of people to the central Govt ''mend your ways of working otherwise face the devastating consequences''.

It is never too late to mend. Sooner the BJP reads the message written on the wall and mends the ways of working to regain the last credibility, the better it will be for the future.

To conclude with , any political party, may it be Congress or the BJP can't take the voter for granted as far as his support to the political party in concerned. The common man has realised the cost of his vote and he is vigilant enough to caste his vote only to the party that will deliver him goods.

Yours etc...
Vikas Padha
Jammu.

Education

Sir,

This is in reference to the news item (IGNOU & NCERT) to reach door step which appeared in Daily Excelsior dated 2.12.1998. According to news item IGNOU and NCERT will reach more than 500,000 students in country and abroad through their Distance education and correspondence education system. This is a welcome step taken by IGNOU &NCERT authorities. Today if we look at the present education scenario of India we can easily find that formal education system has failed to cope with the emerging needs and demands of the individuals and the aspirations of the society. India is a large country with a large population and there are millions of such people who are capable but could not get education due to lack of facilities. And to ensure educational opportunity to every one non-formal education has become must. In non-formal education, distance education and correspondence education assume a vital place.

In this type of education system, students enjoy advantage of studying at their own place and in their own independent way. There is no inter -action between the students and teachers. Students and teachers are linked through TV Radio, correspondence, printed material, internet, doubt clearing letters etc. etc.

In words of professor Holmberg Distance education is the various form of study at all levels which are not under continuous immediate supervision of tutor present in lecture room or on the same premises, but which nevertheless benefit from the planning, guidance and tuition of a tutorial organisation.

Main aims of such education system are:-

*To provide education to those who could not get education due to poverty.

* To enable people to learn and earn

* To eradicate adult illiteracy

* To universalise primary education

* To improve professional and academic qualification, and many more.

* Success achieved so far by this system of education makes people to put more faith in this system because formal system of education has failed to achieve the target.

Lastly I feel that when population of our country is growing at a tremendous rate and nor economy is in poor condition then only non-formal system of education can prove a significant step towards better education.

Yours etc.......
Sandeep Rana
Near Police Station,
(Doda City)

Continue honest efforts

Sir,

When Delhi, Rajasthan & Madhya Pradesh States geared up for recently held Assembly elections, one thing was clear from various pre-poll surveys that anti-incumbency factor will decide the future of these states. To counter this phenomenon, BJP reacted by making a quick & abrupt change of guard in Delhi i.e Mrs Sushma Swaraj replacing Sahib Singh Verma as Chief Minister of the State. Many political analysts considered it a wise move as the target of the opposition as well as general public ire Mr Sahib Singh Verma was removed from the scene & person with better image i.e Mrs Swaraj was brought in. BJP did whatever they could do to retain at least Delhi if not Rajasthan & thought that anti-incumbency factor could help them past a win in MP. The BJP's think-tank thought that victories in two states would automatically neutralize loss of Rajasthan.

Prime-Minister Atalji in the meantime repeatedly averred that results of these assembly elections shall not be treated as referendum on central Govts, performance. He also, being star of BJP, involved himself in addressing various street corner meetings to ensure victory of BJP in MP BJP,s gameplan was to try & see that price-rise does not dominate the election scene.

The Congress went to any elections for the first time under Mrs Sonia Gandhi's leadership. In MP, Mrs, Gandhi took care of infighting by making Mr Digivijay Singh, the Chief Minister, accountable for the election results. While selecting candidates Mrs Gandhi took care of anti-incumbency factor by putting up new faces on majority of seats. Congress under Mrs Gandhi 's leadership was successful in making BJP's Govt's rule at centre a key issue, mainly sky-rocketing prices of essential commodities. This is what we call leading from the front & it paid huge dividends when Congress party swept the polls for the first time since the heady days of 1984 elections. It goes to the credit of Congress party that they were able to successfully convey the issue of BJP Govt's non-performance at the Centre to the masses in all states.

People were watching Mrs Gandhi's political conduct right from the day her husband Mr Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. Her reluctance to take over the mantle of party leadership or the leadership of the country even when it was offered to her on a platter was much appreciated. However, when she eventually did take over the reigns of the party after pressures from all quarters, the Congress party under stewardship of Narasimha Rao & Kesri had touched its nadir & was almost written off by political pundits.

Mrs Sonia Gandhi started from scratch but by her political behaviour & conduct she succeeded in getting back the confidence of the Minorities, Dalits, OBC's & other sections of the society who had moved away from the Congress under Narasimha Rao & Kesri. She achieved this by making less noise & more by her political conduct. In any history, I am sure she must be the only leader to have achieved so much success by her ''Conduct'' alone.

In Delhi under Mrs Sonia Gandhi's leadership, maximum Sikh candidates won on Congress ticket. This feat, which was solely achieved due to personal efforts of Mrs Gandhi, was thought as impossible proposition only a few days ago post anti-Sikh riots in 1984. Majority of Muslims, who had moved away from Congress after Babri Masjid demolition, voted for Congress. Our t of 111 BSP candidates in Rajasthan 102 candidates forfeited their security deposits. All this indicated that Minorities, Dalits & OBC's were coming back to Congress.

In Chattisgarh area of MP, where BJP expected maximum seats (BJP gave the impression that they were the champions of Chatisgarh Statehood concept), the Tribal belts believed in Mrs Gandhi's leadership more than anything else.

This election has clearly established that people of this country believe that sincere & honest leadership still exists & that was a major reason that they overwhelmingly voted for Congress. People. noticed a clear & sincere attempt to try & remove criminal element by the Congress leadership. People realise that system cannot get rid of such mess over night & as such rewarded Congress leadership for at least making a honest attempt to clean the system.

Congress under Mrs Sonia Gandhi's leadership will have to continue its honest, efforts of putting this country on road to progress & prosperity.

Yours etc...
Dr Mehboob Beg
Former Cabinet Minister
J&K State