It's politics of the worst kind in India and one that recently the people of many states like Bihar have rejected with the votes they cast in the ballots but that does not stop our Politicians from reverting back to caste politics every chance that they get. Now, Karunanidhi and his party DMK have resorted to blatantly low caste politics to defend the tainted ex Union Minister A Raja, According to Mr Karunanidhi, Raja has been jailed because he's a Dalit and because he was doing a good job as a Telecom minister, 
he (Raja) made mobile telephony available to millions of poor people.
He went further with his conspiracy theories which no doubt were hatched in a head that would have been wearing an aluminum alloy and under the influence, he said that that Raja is in fact the victim of a conspiracy by the "Upper" caste politicians in the opposition who with the help of a section of media "owned by upper castes" have "distorted news to bring down a Government working for upliftment of the poor and downtrodden". Report by Economics Times - Karunanidhi Defends Raja. It is most definitely Nauseating and reminds us just why India has struggled for as long as she has.
It's no secret that politics based on caste have been used by our politicians over several decades to divide the masses and to further their own agenda. There are also vital problems of reverse discrimination which gives parties like BJP a fairly good case and of the well to do Backward Caste and OBC people hogging the benefits. In fact when the Mandal Commission made its suggestions for quotas to Backward Classes and Scheduled castes in 1980, it's only Dalit member one L R Naik refused to sign the recommendations because he feared (and now we know rightly so) that well off OBC's will hog most of the benefits and also our Politician's ability to use such measures for their nasty agendas.
But politics based on the caste of an individual (unlike based on region which has gained ground now) appeals to the sense of historical victimization of only a handful gullible people from the lower castes out there, we must remember that the number of such people has drastically shrunk and continues to shrink year on year throughout India. It's sad that politicians like Karunanidhi haven't adjusted their perceptions to the changing times and it's evident in the decision of the party to try and defend A Raja. Not only does he stand guilty in the eyes of the people of the country for looting the country of thousands of crores in the 2g scam, he and the scam both also resemble all that is wrong with our Political system in terms of the compulsions of Coalition Politics and Politics of Caste. By choosing to defend Raja the party and the old warhorse Karunanidhi only evoke a feeling of disgust in the majority of people of the country.
A friend of mine who belongs to the same caste and tribe as Raja, said to me some time back, that as far as he can tell, all his uncles and aunts were even more angry at A Raja than the average Indian, because of the way in which he has shamed the community. To him, Raja was well on his way down and headed to Lalu Prasad and Paswan land. Now Karunanidhi + DMK seem to be along for the ride. What remains to be seen is the long term effect of all this on the Congress and the election results in 2013.
There is no doubt in the minds of all the expert commentators's minds that both the DMK and Congress have suffered gravely because of the erruption of the scam in the short run, the Congress even more because of the way it handled the whole thing with the Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh who is supposedly a man of the highest honor himself defending A Raja in the parliament once, the raids on the accused being conducted fourteen months after the registering of the FIR and Mr A Raja being arrested only now after such a long and consistent outcry by the people and a section of the media. There is little that can be done to undo the damage the whole 2g spectrum scam has done to these people but it will be interesting to see what the vast well oiled PR machinery of the Congress and DMK can pull out of the bag.
he (Raja) made mobile telephony available to millions of poor people.He went further with his conspiracy theories which no doubt were hatched in a head that would have been wearing an aluminum alloy and under the influence, he said that that Raja is in fact the victim of a conspiracy by the "Upper" caste politicians in the opposition who with the help of a section of media "owned by upper castes" have "distorted news to bring down a Government working for upliftment of the poor and downtrodden". Report by Economics Times - Karunanidhi Defends Raja. It is most definitely Nauseating and reminds us just why India has struggled for as long as she has.
It's no secret that politics based on caste have been used by our politicians over several decades to divide the masses and to further their own agenda. There are also vital problems of reverse discrimination which gives parties like BJP a fairly good case and of the well to do Backward Caste and OBC people hogging the benefits. In fact when the Mandal Commission made its suggestions for quotas to Backward Classes and Scheduled castes in 1980, it's only Dalit member one L R Naik refused to sign the recommendations because he feared (and now we know rightly so) that well off OBC's will hog most of the benefits and also our Politician's ability to use such measures for their nasty agendas.
But politics based on the caste of an individual (unlike based on region which has gained ground now) appeals to the sense of historical victimization of only a handful gullible people from the lower castes out there, we must remember that the number of such people has drastically shrunk and continues to shrink year on year throughout India. It's sad that politicians like Karunanidhi haven't adjusted their perceptions to the changing times and it's evident in the decision of the party to try and defend A Raja. Not only does he stand guilty in the eyes of the people of the country for looting the country of thousands of crores in the 2g scam, he and the scam both also resemble all that is wrong with our Political system in terms of the compulsions of Coalition Politics and Politics of Caste. By choosing to defend Raja the party and the old warhorse Karunanidhi only evoke a feeling of disgust in the majority of people of the country.
A friend of mine who belongs to the same caste and tribe as Raja, said to me some time back, that as far as he can tell, all his uncles and aunts were even more angry at A Raja than the average Indian, because of the way in which he has shamed the community. To him, Raja was well on his way down and headed to Lalu Prasad and Paswan land. Now Karunanidhi + DMK seem to be along for the ride. What remains to be seen is the long term effect of all this on the Congress and the election results in 2013.
There is no doubt in the minds of all the expert commentators's minds that both the DMK and Congress have suffered gravely because of the erruption of the scam in the short run, the Congress even more because of the way it handled the whole thing with the Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh who is supposedly a man of the highest honor himself defending A Raja in the parliament once, the raids on the accused being conducted fourteen months after the registering of the FIR and Mr A Raja being arrested only now after such a long and consistent outcry by the people and a section of the media. There is little that can be done to undo the damage the whole 2g spectrum scam has done to these people but it will be interesting to see what the vast well oiled PR machinery of the Congress and DMK can pull out of the bag.
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