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Out of
the Woodwork The selection of Ram Prakash Gupta is a betrayal of young India
More worrying than any of this is the BJP's instinctive preference for the line of least resistance. A mindset that sees stodgy mediocrity as the most appealing attribute is fine when running a grocery store -- -- not a government. India's electorate is increasingly becoming younger and, as opinion polls have suggested, in recent years the BJP has won considerable support from the young voter. When almost every party is seeking to effect a generational change, falling back upon an obscure septuagenarian is a regressive step. While it did bring in some new faces to the Union ministry sworn in October, the BJP has not given sufficient evidence that it is alive to these realities. Indians want leaders for the future; if the BJP can't give them what they seek, they may as well look elsewhere. Parasite Policy Isn't there more to culture policy than half-planned birthday parties?
Kumar can, of course, argue that he is only following in the footsteps of his predecessors. That the Culture Ministry has become a forum for wasteful, unaesthetic and entirely non-meaningful event management is an old story. The point is: what is Kumar doing to redeem this? Take the example of the golden jubilee of republican India. As things stand, it seems set to emulate the 50th birthday of Independence. On August 15, 1997, there was a special session of Parliament and a riotous state-sponsored night on Delhi's Rajpath, the tackiness and patent unpreparedness being made up for by the spontaneous patriotism of humble citizens across the country. Then, as now, the government didn't use the 50th anniversary as a culmination of a year's festivities but as a belated beginning. There is so much that a culture minister can do -- from patronising a nascent art form to restoring a heritage monument. Can't Kumar outgrow this fetish for birthday parties? |
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 © Living Media India Ltd |
To describe Ram Prakash Gupta as
mothballed would be to insult napthalene. The new chief minister of Uttar Pradesh is 76,
has been absent from competitive politics for a considerable period and, put bluntly, is a
relic from the BJP's scarcely prepossessing past. In both manner and outcome, the
selection of Gupta has proved a windfall for the BJP's critics. The ruling party is guilty
of letting down three constituencies -- -- votaries of "social engineering",
sticklers for constitutional propriety and youth. The replacement of an OBC with a Baniya
goes against prevailing political logic in north India. In the past decade, the BJP did
much to widen its once narrow, upper caste base. Now its rivals will be free to ask
whether it actually internalised the change. That the MLAs in Lucknow had no role to play
in the replacement of their chief minister indicates, when it comes to the crunch, the BJP
couldn't care less about inner-party democracy. Gupta has left even the composition of his
cabinet to the party president. Such stifling of local aspirations is usually the first
step towards electoral suicide. The example of the Congress is there for all to see. 
As bogus policies go, it is difficult
to beat Culture Minister Ananth Kumar's grand plans for the year 2000. Beginning January
26, Kumar's ministry will busy itself celebrating the 50th anniversary of India becoming a
republic, the 100th anniversary of Shyamaprasad Mukherjee's birth, the 125th anniversary
of Sardar Patel's birth, the 150th anniversary of the creation of Vande Mataram and the
2,600th anniversary of the birth of Mahavir. All Kumar has revealed is the enormous
potential for special committees, ad hoc budgets, long tours abroad and endless
freeloading. The babus at the ministry must be salivating. In a sense Kumar set the trend
when, earlier this month, he attended the World Summit on Physical Education in Berlin and
delivered the profound message that there was urgent need for a global policy on physical
education.