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For weeks now the Bharatiya Janata Party, the only political hope for the Indian Right has been flogging the Vande Mataram horse to death. Is it really helping ? In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley, however, rejected suggestions that his party had reversed the position its leaders L K Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee had taken in 1998 against moves by the Kalyan Singh government on mandating Vande Mataram singing in UP schools. Admitting that the BJP is in the process of undergoing change where the second generation leaders would emerge on top, Jaitley admitted public opinion has not leaned towards his party over the past two years. He said the party is required to concentrate "exclusively" on issues like price rise, economy and security, "rather than allow every third day some irrelevant controversy within us to surface, which diverts public opinion from the UPA's failures." So why is the BJP so obsessed with trying to make a political point on the Vande Mataram issue ? Part of the reason is to polarize political opinion in UP by forcing the muslim political leadership to take a sharp stance on the issue. But how is this helping the BJP across the country. Not a whole lot if one were to go by how the Left has pretty much donned the mantle of Opposition and is setting or rather subverting the agenda. Jaitley complimented the left when he said claiming that it was only the BJP and the Left parties, which has “structured political set-up” in the country, but while the BJP is resting on its laurels the Left has charged ahead.

Offstumped has analyzed how the Left has stolen a march on the BJP on all key issues.

CPI-M leader, Sitaram Yechuri, on Friday said the Left parties would withdraw support to the Central government if it moved away from the Common Minimum Programme."Left parties are with the government till it abides by the CMP. GENERAL SECRETARY of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Prakash Karat today said that any formal decision on the issue of the proposed corporatisation of defence factories would be taken only after consultations with the trade unions associated with the party. The CPI(M) general secretary also targeted the former NDA government for starting ‘future trading’ in the country, which had led to the increase in prices of all essential commodities. He also criticised the foreign policy of the UPA government specially the nuclear deal with the USA. He said India’s vote on the Iran issue was an example of the growing US influence on India’s foreign policy.

So where does this Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat duo get off really with this kind of rhetoric and where is the BJP on the issues ?

First an Offstumped refresher on the real political strength of the CPI-M. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections the CPI-M won a whopping 44 Lok sabha seats an increase of 14 seats. However its vote share was just 5.77%. Contrast this with the BJP's vote shares of 22%. The NDA as a whole garnered 35.9% and the UPA as a whole 35.8%. Further closer look is warranted at where the CPI-M's 43 seats come from. West Bengal - 26, Kerala - 13 and the rest from Tripura, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Where did the bulk of the 5.69% vote share for the CPI-M come from - again West Bengal where it pocketed 50.7%.

Next an Offstumped spotlight on the biographies of Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury. First Prakash Karat - Number of direct elections contested equals ZERO. Sitaram Yechury - Number of direct elections contested equals ZERO too. Both have been elected to the Rajya Sabha on different occassions. Contrast this with the BJP's Vajpayee and Advani who have been elected innumerable number of times in Lok Sabha elections. The BJP's Gen-Next has lost the script here with Jaitley to Sushma Swaraj taking the Rajya Sabha route. Narendra Modi is perhaps the only Gen-Next leader with an impeccable track record of winning elections.

The contrast between the BJP and the Left is even more stark when we recognize that is a party which only truly represents 2 states in India lead by 2 individuals who have never really won a real election pretty much holding all public debate and the agenda of the Manmohan Singh UPA Government hostage to their left of center ideology. On issue after issue, ranging from Defence Privatization, Election Commission, Economic Reforms, Foreign Policy they have injected their insiduous world view to subvert the national debate, lend legitimacy to discredit trade union mafioso and even doctor NCERT Text Books.

So while the BJP Gen-Next are busy doing the rounds of TV Studioes how does the CPI-M get away with this kind of subversion with its meagre political strength. It does so partly on account of the critical support it lends to the Manmohan Government for its survival. But more so it is its friends in the media that have been lending it a helping hand along the way, giving undue coverage to its subversive agenda every step of the way.

So who are these closet communists ?

At the one end of the spectrum is N. Ram, chief editor of The Hindu. A rather ironic name for this newspaper to cling on to, for neither in its political colors nor in its editorial slant is it in anyway Hindu. N. Ram delivering the Naren Sen Memorial Lecture, 2006, on "the Danger of Imperialism and the role of the Media" made amply clear where his political moorings lie. Offstumped has analyzed his lecture and the recurring theme in his lecture "Imperialism" brings to mind images of Don Quixote battling imaginary wind-mills. Point to note Naren Sen in who's memory the lecture was being delivered was a Communist Trade Union Leader form Kolkota. The parallel universe that the likes of N. Ram and his fellow leftist psuedo intellectual dwell in became quite apparent when Ram went on to rant that the

“Government of Iran has stood up to imperialism much better than the Manmohan Singh Government."

This is where the hypocrisy of the left in India comes to the fore. These allegedly godless, atheist, rational non-believers are the most fervent defenders of the rabid, unapologetically Islamic Clerical Regime of Iran. So in their perverse value system a repressive regime that swears by religious fundamentalism is more righteous than a democratic regime elected by universal adult franchise in a secular state. So much so for rationality. The callousness and indifference of the psuedo intellectuals epitomized by N. Ram to Indian Citizens Lives is highlighted amply when N. Ram goes on to lament loss of life in Lebanon

"where Israel continues to demonstrate its contempt for international law, where was the voice of the Indian Government,"

but not a word of regret, remorse, anger, or accountability on the 200 Mumbaikar deaths during the 7-11 Mumbai commuter train serial bomb blasts. So in the Left's value system Indian and mostly Hindu Deaths at the hands of Islamic Terrorists are not even worth the Hezbollah Islamic Terrorist Deaths in a remote foreign country at the hands of a Jewish Military. The first while not worthy of even a mention, the second is an international crime.

N. Ram's hypocrisy becomes crystal clear when he alludes to the "five news filters" referred to by Noam Chomsky for Offstumped has on multiple occassions exposed how The Hindu's Harish Khare, Siddharth Varadarajan, Vidya Subramanian manufacture consent.

Offstumped has analyzed the editorial page in The Hindu from July 11th to date to highlight the extent to which The Hindu has manufactured consent by taking the CPI-M's line on focusing on the Israel Lebanon Hezbollah conflict and completely ignoring the 7-11 Mumbai Bomb Blasts.

Op-ed columns on Anti-US, Iran, Israel Lebanon Hezbollah Conflict - 2/9, 26/8, 25/8, 22/8, 21/8, 19/8, 14/8, 13/8, 11/8, 10/8, 9/8, 8/8, 7/8, 4/8, 3/8, 2/8, 1/8, 29/7, 28/7, 26/7, 25/7, 24/7, 22/7, 21/7, 20/7, 18/7, 15/7, 12/7

Op-ed columns expressing Muslims Concerns - 29/8, 23/8, 18/8, 16/8, 15/8, 14/8, 5/8, 26/7, 19/7, 17/7, 14/7, 12/7

Op-ed columns on accountability for 7-11 - 17/8, 5/8, 21/7, 18/7, 17/7, 13/7, NO Lead editorial on 12th July.

N. Ram signed off his lecture giving a clear signal to his fellow closet communists in the media that the role of the media was "agenda building" and more specifically "left of center pro-communist agenda building". It can be seen from the above analysis what kind of agenda building N. Ram is referring to. The kind that toes the CPI-M's line, ignores Indian Hindu deaths at the hands of terroorists and goes out of its way to defend terrorist regimes in the middle east.

N. Ram did not just stop with this signal but he also outlined for his closet communist buddies in the Indian Media, Newspapers and Television News Channels how they could accomplish this - by not just reporting and of course coloring the reportage with one's opinions, biases and prejudices but to go a step further and unapologetically campaign. So who are these close communist buddies that N. Ram was signalling to help his pals Karat and Yechury. Well one just has to look at the anchors and op-ed columnists across the Hindustan Times, Outlook India, NDTV, CNN-IBN to spot them. Offstumped has taken up the crusade to out these closet communists in the coming days. Keep an eye on this column.

In the meantime on a side note Saubhik Chakrabarti in the Indian Express writing a news analysis piece made the below comment.

In Indian politics, only the Left offers a set of ideas that carry the imprimatur of serious scholarship. The Right in India wants but still lacks the intellectual polish.

It is not clear which Right, Saubhik is referring to, he clearly has not been tracking Offstumped or the other fellow Right of Center blogger on Indiatimes.com. So Offstumped invites Saubhik to track these blogs to get an intellectual perspective from the Right.

The Left has stolen a march on the BJP. Nothing exemplifies better than the extent to which Leftist media outlets like the Peoples Democracy are being represented in the Prime Minister's international tours. The BJP's problems are not going away. Today 3 BJP MLAs in Uttar Pradesh switched over to Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party. The BJP's obsession on Vande Mataram while polarizing public opinion in the run up to September 7th centenary celebrations with Madarsa Darul Ulloom of Deoband issuing a fatwa against BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqv is unlikely to pay any electoral dividends. The BJP's strategy for Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections needs to be much more creative, imaginative and issues focussed. Offstumped once again reiterates that the BJP should go to the polls in UP on a plank of smaller states with a trifurcation of Uttar Pradesh. This has the potential to change the political debate completely and stump Mayawati and Mulayam while winning over friends like Ajit Singh.

Offstumped Bottomline: The Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury lead Left and their buddy N. Ram have made clear in black and white to us their perverse value system. It is a value system where security for Indian Citizens amounts to nothing specifically when amongst dead on 7-11 in Mumbai were Hindu Gujarati Diamond Merchants. In their perverse value system dead Islamic Terrorists matter more. And this perverse value system also conjures up a parallel universe where these leftists are constantly battling imaginary imperialism. These modern Don Quixotes and their closet communists buddies in the media will be outed soon. The countdown has begun. The BJP as the only political voice to the Right needs to take control back as the Principal Opposition and pin the Manmohan Singh Government on issues. Its time the BJP Gen-Next trooped out of Delhi to the heartland and engaged the masses on Issues.