Monday , November 09, 2009 at 14 : 09
TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, THE SECOND COMING
TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, THE SECOND COMING
The BJP's 'former future prime minister of India' L K Advani is not a poet like that party's only real prime minister A B Vajpayee.
Advani's 'weighty' biography My Country, My Life doesn't talk about poetry or literature. If he had studied poetry, Advani might have recited the above lines after watching the Reddy brothers of Bellary holding his 'national' party to ransom.
Soon after B S Yeddyurappa led the BJP to victory in the Karnataka Assembly polls in May 2008, Advani had boasted that the party of the Hindi belt had finally conquered the Deccan. Advani believed that the party's southern conquest would make him the Prime Minister a year on. His plans went horribly wrong, as we all know.
Ironically, the BJP, which always lives in the past, doesn't seem to have learnt any lessons from history. Some hours before a broken and bitter Yeddyurappa wept in front of a TV camera in Delhi, I was sitting across the table having breakfast with him. I was shocked by his sudden emotional outbursts and felt bad for him.
I told Yeddyurappa that his party was looking like the Mughal Empire on its last legs. No offence intended, Advaniji. Nobody is calling you Bahadur Shah Zafar... The once mighty Mughal empire's reach was restricted to Hindustan (today's Hindi-speaking areas) till the time of Aurangazeb. The decline of the empire began with its southern conquests. The Mughals were steadily losing ground in the North when their army was marching southwards. The BJP's plight is no different.
Like the Mughals, a desperate BJP started its southern foray in the company of treacherous people. It is paying a heavy price. I was covering the Karnataka elections and had sensed the danger from the Reddy brothers. My worst fears came true as I watched the Reddys storming to the Vidhana Soudha on a scorching May afternoon.
Three weeks later (14 June 2008) I posted on my blog a post titled ' BJP, Bellary and Reddyurappa's Story'
I wrote:
Sushma Swaraj campaigned for the party in TV spots in what can only be called Marwadi-style Kannada. She believes she brought the BJP to power. For those who didn't know, she has also become the Reddys' godmother.
In fact, the brothers publicly call her their mother, and she acknowledges the honour with an expansive grin. She posed for pictures hugging these much-despised moneybags of Karnataka politics. What explains this strange bonding? God knows, but this much I can say: it has the power to break the party one day. Beware Advaniji and Yeddyurappaji!
Arun Jaitleyji, do you see what's happening? Please take a close look. The BJP is already being called Bellary Janardhana Reddy Party in Karnataka!
In fact, many in Karnataka believe that the state is being governed not by the rule of law, but on the whims and conveniences of the Bellary brothers.
I can claim credit for predicting the future of the BJP's first-ever government in the South! But I was not the only one who saw it coming. Many other journalists and millions of ordinary voters had guessed as much.
Only the BJP was not ready to heed their words. Power was everything. For Yeddyurappa, only the end mattered, not the means. The Reddy tiger he rode to power is now thirsty for his blood.
Whenever I ask him to give a sound bite in English to our English TV news channel, he tells me I always want him to speak in a language he doesn't know! Not knowing English is perfectly all right. But not knowing the language of politics could lead to disasters. Yeddyurappa is now learning it the hard way.
The peace deal brokered by the BJP ' high command ' (they may be high, but do they really command?) may not last long. It is also the most dishonourable peace deal. The BJP's so-called stalwarts in New Delhi crawled before the BJP's orehouse kings of Bellary!
When Yeddyurappa came to power, the Reddys believed he would reign and they would rule. But the temperamental and insecure Chief Minister proved them wrong. If the Reddy brothers don't get what they want, it won't be long before a bigger, bloodier battle breaks out.
As one of my favourite journalists from Mysore says, "Those who live by the Reddys die by them!"
These are the last days of a BJP that chose to covertly loosen themselves from RSS discipline. The RSS shall soon re-take the BJP and mould it once more into a cadre-based formidable political machine rooted in ideology and discipline.
http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/dpsatish/237/53942/when-bjps-things-fall-apart.html
Advani's 'weighty' biography My Country, My Life doesn't talk about poetry or literature. If he had studied poetry, Advani might have recited the above lines after watching the Reddy brothers of Bellary holding his 'national' party to ransom.
Soon after B S Yeddyurappa led the BJP to victory in the Karnataka Assembly polls in May 2008, Advani had boasted that the party of the Hindi belt had finally conquered the Deccan. Advani believed that the party's southern conquest would make him the Prime Minister a year on. His plans went horribly wrong, as we all know.
Ironically, the BJP, which always lives in the past, doesn't seem to have learnt any lessons from history. Some hours before a broken and bitter Yeddyurappa wept in front of a TV camera in Delhi, I was sitting across the table having breakfast with him. I was shocked by his sudden emotional outbursts and felt bad for him.
I told Yeddyurappa that his party was looking like the Mughal Empire on its last legs. No offence intended, Advaniji. Nobody is calling you Bahadur Shah Zafar... The once mighty Mughal empire's reach was restricted to Hindustan (today's Hindi-speaking areas) till the time of Aurangazeb. The decline of the empire began with its southern conquests. The Mughals were steadily losing ground in the North when their army was marching southwards. The BJP's plight is no different.
Like the Mughals, a desperate BJP started its southern foray in the company of treacherous people. It is paying a heavy price. I was covering the Karnataka elections and had sensed the danger from the Reddy brothers. My worst fears came true as I watched the Reddys storming to the Vidhana Soudha on a scorching May afternoon.
Three weeks later (14 June 2008) I posted on my blog a post titled ' BJP, Bellary and Reddyurappa's Story'
I wrote:
Sushma Swaraj campaigned for the party in TV spots in what can only be called Marwadi-style Kannada. She believes she brought the BJP to power. For those who didn't know, she has also become the Reddys' godmother.
In fact, the brothers publicly call her their mother, and she acknowledges the honour with an expansive grin. She posed for pictures hugging these much-despised moneybags of Karnataka politics. What explains this strange bonding? God knows, but this much I can say: it has the power to break the party one day. Beware Advaniji and Yeddyurappaji!
Arun Jaitleyji, do you see what's happening? Please take a close look. The BJP is already being called Bellary Janardhana Reddy Party in Karnataka!
In fact, many in Karnataka believe that the state is being governed not by the rule of law, but on the whims and conveniences of the Bellary brothers.
I can claim credit for predicting the future of the BJP's first-ever government in the South! But I was not the only one who saw it coming. Many other journalists and millions of ordinary voters had guessed as much.
Only the BJP was not ready to heed their words. Power was everything. For Yeddyurappa, only the end mattered, not the means. The Reddy tiger he rode to power is now thirsty for his blood.
Whenever I ask him to give a sound bite in English to our English TV news channel, he tells me I always want him to speak in a language he doesn't know! Not knowing English is perfectly all right. But not knowing the language of politics could lead to disasters. Yeddyurappa is now learning it the hard way.
The peace deal brokered by the BJP ' high command ' (they may be high, but do they really command?) may not last long. It is also the most dishonourable peace deal. The BJP's so-called stalwarts in New Delhi crawled before the BJP's orehouse kings of Bellary!
When Yeddyurappa came to power, the Reddys believed he would reign and they would rule. But the temperamental and insecure Chief Minister proved them wrong. If the Reddy brothers don't get what they want, it won't be long before a bigger, bloodier battle breaks out.
As one of my favourite journalists from Mysore says, "Those who live by the Reddys die by them!"
These are the last days of a BJP that chose to covertly loosen themselves from RSS discipline. The RSS shall soon re-take the BJP and mould it once more into a cadre-based formidable political machine rooted in ideology and discipline.
http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/dpsatish/237/53942/when-bjps-things-fall-apart.html
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