vir sanghvi: For national interest's sake -- "don't vote for regional parties"

oct 1, 2007

yes, the 'dravidians' have amply demonstrated that they have no stake in india, only in the mythical tamil empire consisting of tamil nadu, kerala, and sri lanka's north and east. i think this display of ill-tempered histrionics by karunanidhi recently will hurt all tamils. there is already a return of that old perception by many that somehow the tamils would be happy to leave the indian union. in fact if tamil nadu secedes, it would find it very difficult to survive. there will immediately be insurrections by the al-umma and other mohammedans, then a separatist movement for christist kanyakumaristan by the nadars, and if there is no huge indian market for the BMWs and fords and hyundais being built in chennai, those guys will wind up and leave as well. and a water embargo (kaveri, mullaperiyar, tamraparni?) would bring the state to its knees. it would be suicidal for tamil nadu as well as for india.

this is identical to the pakistani longing for a mythical mohammedan empire with pakistan as its imperial center (which of course is entertaining in itself. pakistan cannot control a bunch of pathans with rifles, and they are going to build a caliphate! ROTFL).

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: venkat

The take home message is:

Regional parties simply have no stake in the national future. They do not care about India as a whole. And they seek only to appease their regional (frequently, caste-based) constituencies.

For national interest's sake

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=23628d4e-cbfe-4158-a7f2-bf583a1b005c&&Headline=For+national+interest's+sake

Vir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times
September 22, 2007
First Published: 22:40 IST(22/9/2007)
Last Updated: 01:30 IST(23/9/2007)  

For all of the last month or so, people have been stopping journalists in the streets and asking the same questions: will there be an election? And when exactly will this mid-term poll be called?

The honest answer to that question (but one which a surprisingly small number of journalists is willing to give) is: I don't know. Nobody knows how long this government will survive: will the Prime Minister's statements provoke the Left again? Will the people who actually have to fight elections ask Prakash Karat and his friends to take it easy? Does the Left have a larger game plan?

Only if you can answer these questions — which none of us can — can you say with any degree of certainty whether there will be an election or when it is likely to be held.

But what intrigues me is how people react once they've got the will-there-be-an-election question out of way. Most ask if the government will be re-elected. (Possible but the rules of anti-incumbency suggest otherwise.) They ask if LK Advani will be the BJP's choice for Prime Minister. (Yes, I think.) And then they say: "Whatever happens, I hope these bloody Third Front guys don't come to power."

Most of us will have observed the growing disdain of the educated middle class for the Third Front. Even lifelong BJP voters who would froth at the mouth about a party led by an Italian-born person, will now tell you that they would be happier to see Manmohan Singh back in office than to see some Third Front-type stride into Race Course Road.  (Ideally, of course, they would prefer AB Vajpayee or LK Advani.)

Likewise, hardcore secularists who have never forgiven Advani for his Rath Yatra and will never forget the massacres in Gujarat, will tell you that, on balance, they would rather see the BJP in office than support some coalition of regional leaders kept in office by a bunch of China-lovers (or Chinese stooges, depending on your perspective).

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