By Sidharth Mishra

A few weeks back in these very columns, at the height of debate on Vikas (development) agenda, your reporter had penned that it was only matter of time when the “Hindu issues” could come to take the centrestage. The tone and tenor of the election campaign in the past week has shown that characters like Aurangzeb and themes like sacred thread are dominating the script. While the attempt from the Congress is to stop polarisation of votes on communal lines, the BJP is finding the new avatar of the rival quite amusing.Development is something on which Prime Minister NarendraModirode to power at the Centre in 2014. Development is something about which he talked about at the beginning of both the 2007 and 2012 assembly poll campaigns in Gujarat. But subsequently, the narrative on both the occasions turned towards communal polarisation.

By Sidharth Mishra

We living in the capital seldom try to look inwards and are always ready to find excuse for our follies. Last week newspaper headlines screamed putting the blame on West Asia for the hell that we have created for ourselves, which has in turn helped pharmaceutical companies see their sale graphs soar. Delhi has been covered with smog, a layer of polluted air for a fortnight now and none seem to be worried about the way the whole city is turning sick. We have been going through our lives as usual at best the arguments now focus on which is best gas mask in the market. Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal has done what he does best, blamed the world for the smog in the city and has tried turning the misery into an opportunity to once again demand more powers for his government. One wonders if Ministers know only one way to get even with the problems of the capital -- by acting in an odd manner, thus the plea to bring in the odd-even car rationing scheme.

By Sidharth Mishra

A few weeksago the officials of Delhi Traffic Police had a torrid time when both the, as Bollywood potboiler was titled, ‘Raja AurRunk’(the ruler and the ruled) decided to queue up at the Raisina Hills for a plate of Khichdi, the ubiquitous Indian two square meal for the poor. The occasion was World Food India Congress, a jamboree of leading investors and producers from food processing industry. But what caught the eyeballs, the camera bytes and twitter snipes was about the making of the poor Khichdi leading to a massive traffic jam. When Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker would have set out to design New Delhi and planned the grand avenue down from the Viceregal House to War Memorial Arch (the present day RashtrapatiBhawan to India Gate) and named it Kingsway, they would have never dreamt of it being anchor for a food festival that too under the government patronage.

By Sidharth Mishra

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the home state of Gujarat definitely underlined the fact that he is rattled by poor state of economy and administration. Not that I seek to write a treatise on how BJP could lose in Gujarat in the upcoming assembly polls, on the contrary the Prime Minister’s personal push could actually see his party pass the finishing line ahead of the Congress for the fifth time in the row. But then as mentioned, it has to be Narendra Modi’s personal push which would see the party through as the present BJP chief minister Vijay Rupani emerges almost as a non-entity in the Google search. Its important for the Prime Minister to win Gujarat to retain his stranglehold over the party as next year states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan go to polls, where the reigning chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Raman Singh and Vasundhara Raje have been leaders in their own right much before Modi rose on the national stage.

By Sidharth Mishra

In the midst of the dynasts as leader debate, Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot, himself belonging to a dynasty, announced that Rahul Gandhi was all set to take over as the party president after Diwali. This is not the first time that one has heard about the anointment of the heir as the king. Unfortunately on all the previous occasions of proposed coronations, debacles in state assembly polls have delayed the process. There is, however, no denying the fact that the mirage of “Rahul Gandhi as young and youthful leader waiting in wings to take over” have kept the Congress workers somewhat afloat and given them some hope despite very depressing political environment. Gandhi has been lately on a trip, including tours abroad, to refurbish his image ahead of another proposed coronation. But has these attempts at image management really helped? One doubts. In his farewell speech in Lok Sabha during last Budget session, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had made a very pertinent political observation about Rahul Gandhi. Yogi had said that he was a year older than his predecessor Akhilesh Yadav and a year younger to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.

By Sidharth Mishra

We are in the midst of the festive season. The west has had its fill in Ganesha and the Navratra-Dandiya, the south has had its share of Onam and Dusshera, the east has celebrated the Durga Puja and the festivities in the north would reach its crescendo with Diwali. Ever since the opening of the economy in the 1990s, these festivals have also come to be about shopping and aggressive trade. With technology bringing in online traders, the courier boys with huge Santa Claus like bags are common feature in urban areas. These modern day Santas, unlike the original, however, often are of rickety frames. The shadow of these Santas, burdened by the huge bags, replicate the state of our economy. Amidst the loud talk of the country being feted with end number of government schemes, the fact of the matter is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being questioned – when would the ache din (good days) come?

By Sidharth Mishra

Its Puja time and it’s unfortunate that the celebrations should get mired into a controversy on when to immerse the idol of the Goddess. For us in Delhi, the matter may have got rested with the Kolkata High Court decree and the executive order of the Mamata Banerjee government which followed. But people’s sentiments on such matters of faith do not necessarily ebb and soar with court decrees and executive orders. They become part of the folklore and leave indelible mark on the local psyche.    To buttress my point, let me recall the 1989 Lok Sabha polls, which had come with an unusual dichotomy in the voters’ mood. While there was unanimity in their anger towards the Congress, led by Rajiv Gandhi, the reason for anger varied from region to region. By 1987-88, the mammoth mandate which Gandhi had received in December 1984 had started to erode, at least in public appreciation if not in the numbers inside Parliament. His Finance and later Defence Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh had walked out on the issue of probity in public life.