The Indian Election of 2014 (informed ramblings)

[Vehl]

43. The Liberalism Congress stands for is anything but that.

As a person of south Asian origin and one who belongs to the younger generation, The "liberalism" the congress claims to espouse looks pretty wonky to me.

For example, the bill that would have allowed women a minimum 33% seats as MP's on the parliament has been stalled thanks to some Congress/Congress-affiliated bigwigs. Their reason? allocating such seats to women would mean minorities would have less seats ( ). Modi recently proposed a 50% reservation for women, and hopefully this would come into effect, now that the Congress party is truly trounced.

This brings us to what a lot of Indians find wrong with the way congress goes about enacting their "liberal policies". They pander to minorities. We all speak of the need to improve the status of women in India..but what does the Congress party do? they go ahead and allow Muslim men to marry four women.

"Under India's Muslim Personal Law, Islamic Shariah permits men to have up to four wives at a time."

Why does a democracy make such an exception to a minority? especially a regressive one such as this? Congress party wants this because they can be assured of the Muslim vote-bank in the elections. IMHO, having such a law is a disgrace to any democratic country. When did liberalism allow certain segments of a democratic country to have special rights such as this?

The same thing goes for the "reservations" for minorities. For Example, if you are a minority, you are allocated a certain minimum quota for jobs/universities, regardless if you qualify for that job; or earned enough points in an exam for college. Why do we need such a framework in a democratic society where everyone is treated equally? And yes; I do agree that poverty makes a big difference and allowances need to be made; thus why not have the quota for disadvantaged people based on family income, than on their religion/caste?

The BJP on the other hand, envisions an India where there is no Caste. They even proposed the abolition of caste in the birth certificate; a proposal that never went anywhere thanks to Congress opposition. Imagine an India without caste? well we cant have that now..can we? If we do, where else can the Congress party go asking for votes?

What Indians want now is not a party that plays favorites or panders to certain segments of the society while paying lip-service to "liberalism". What they want is a party that allows Indians to decide their own fate. The BJP may or may not be this party, but at least they have a pretty good chance of being that one.

The Congress liberals would never have let a low caste child laborer become PM, however the so called "conservative" BJP did. Imo actions speak better than words. So yes, imo The Congress is not truly liberal.


PS: The BJP won by a landslide even on Muslim Majority states, such as Jammu and Kashmir. This makes one wonder about Muslims not voting for BJP




PPS:
Oh also, the Gandhi dynasty presided over one of the largest ethnic riots in Indian history; the Riots against Sikhs(After Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards). And the Congress party has been heavily implicated in these riots.

""When a great tree falls, the earth is bound to shake."

So Rajiv Gandhi is reported to have responded as violence took hold after his mother's death and accounts began to emerge of Congress party members leading the mobs.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26235314


PPS: Apologies for the delayed reply