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Governance, politics and morality – Mumbai Mirror

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CORRIDORS OF POWER

It’s perilous to infuse a stiff dose of morality into the pursuit and practice of politics because after a point, the amalgam doesn’t work. It becomes a contortion of the envisaged formula. An excess of morality makes the mixture suspicious and hypocritical while used niggardly, the veil of righteousness comes apart before it can begin masking statecraft.

‘Naitikta’ and ‘sadachar’ are Hindi synonyms for morality and feature like a mantra, especially in the speeches of BJP leaders. The temptation to treat every political and policy initiative as a religious crusade, a ‘dharma yudh’ against a degenerate system, is the hallmark of BJP politics. The crusading zeal was tempered by pragmatism in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee era because Vajpayee was realistic enough to know that the cocktail of ‘naitikta’ and ‘shuddh rajneeti’ was deadly and not worth experimenting with. He had a horde of dissimilar parties in the NDA coalition to keep his government going. Not all of them shared the RSS’s contorted notions of pedagogic politics.

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There was a phase when hard as it tried, the BJP couldn’t ambush the Congress on corruption, even when the dirt flew all over in the UPA’s second tenure. By then, the Congress had dug up dope on the BJP’s wheeling and dealing, BS Yeddyurappa’s allegedly shady land transactions, the Bellary brothers and so on. Therefore, when Anna Hazare arrived from the boondocks of Maharashtra to Delhi and declared a holy war against the UPA’s corruption, the RSS quickly co-opted the former military man as a mascot. It ensured that the BJP was in the shadows lest its presence discredit the Hazare project. He fitted into the RSS’s idea of a ‘model’ citizen because he whipped tipplers in his village square. To the Sangh, drinking alcohol was a blind imitation of the derivative practices that came to India with colonialism along with English and the suit-boot and knee length dresses for the Macaulay ‘putra’ and ‘putri’. Never heard of ‘bhang’ and ‘handia’, bhang being de rigueur with northern BJP leaders during Holi?

Narendra Modi is not Vajpayee. He has the numbers in Parliament, an Opposition that awakens from slumber now and then, the state’s iron boot and the RSS’s endorsement. Whatever else Modi cherishes, he is steeped in the RSS’s ideas and way of life. He subscribes to the Sangh’s definition of dharma, which is not religion as you and I understand but a larger moral and cultural order that must permeate and ‘cleanse’ society of western thoughts and values. Therefore, when corruption was fought against, the drive got evangelic and enmeshed with the RSS’s certitude of upholding ‘public morality’. Tax compliance was enforced through a regime that put the fear of god in the corporate sector and the small and medium enterprises, which were sold on Modi’s ‘minimum government, maximum governance’ maxim before 2014. India Inc was one of Modi’s strongest supporters in 2014 and 2019. Wonder what the big wheels have to say about the enforcement agencies’ pursuit of a celebrated banker and her family? She was the toast of the Vibrant Gujarat summits hosted in Gandhinagar.

Like Bollywood. Remember that epic selfie that the bright young actors and directors clicked with the prime minister shortly after he won asecond term? They looked obsequious. Think of the one who stuck out prominently for attention. His spouse was quizzed for allegedly smoking weed and her phone was impounded. This is jihad against Bollywood’s drug mafia. So what if the stars stood up for Modi?

ABJP cheerleader excitedly framed the crackdown on the film industry as the only way to exhume the trail that cannabis and cocaine consumption left, smash it and ‘detoxify’ the moral environment. The sadachar underpinning of the “crusade” against corruption and the drug league is unmistakeable. If the exercise was merely political and administrative, it wouldn’t click with the RSS-BJP faithful and an ever-expanding constituency that has begun to view Modi more as a savant, a maharishi, and less as a politician.

Does gender parity bother the RSS because the drug sleuths have demonstrated a preference to go after women? No, because feminism is an imported concept that doesn’t go with their image of a ‘sanskari’ woman, who is naturally underempowered and never thinks for herself. The obsession with a warped view of morality drove the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, to unleash anti-Romeo squads on young couples dating in public spaces and initiate ‘Mission Durachari’. The latter operation intends to name and shame harassers of women on posters. In a state that reports at least one rape and murder of a minor every other day (what of the rapes and assaults that go unreported for fear of social ostracism?) and holds little or no hope of convicting the rapists, the mission makes no sense except to score a moral point.

Ravi Kishan, the Gorakhpur MP, was the first BJP leader to publicly laud the anti-drug movement in Bollywood. Kishan drew his salience from being a part of the same industry about which he is self-righteous. His moral demagoguery was rejected by his BJP colleagues, Hema Malini and Babul Supriyo, both celebrities and successful politicians. Is there a cautionary tale for the virtuous custodians of the Sangh Parivar?

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Opinion: Canada's foreign policy and its domestic politics on Israel's war against Hamas are shifting – The Globe and Mail

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The vote in the House of Commons last week on Israel’s war against Hamas represents a shift in both Canada’s foreign policy and its domestic politics.

The Liberal government is now markedly more supportive of the rights of Palestinians and less supportive of the state of Israel than in the past. That shift mirrors changing demographics, and the increasing importance of Muslim voters within the Liberal coalition.

Both the Liberal and Conservative parties once voiced unqualified support for Israel’s right to defend itself from hostile neighbours. But the Muslim community is growing in Canada. Today it represents 5 per cent of the population, compared with 1 per cent who identify as Jewish.

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Although data is sparse prior to 2015, it is believed that Muslim Canadians tended to prefer the Liberal Party over the Conservative Party. They were also less likely to vote than the general population.

But the Conservative Party under Stephen Harper deeply angered the community with talk about “barbaric cultural practices” and musing during the 2015 election campaign about banning public servants from wearing the niqab. Meanwhile, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was promising to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada if elected.

These factors galvanized community groups to encourage Muslims to vote. And they did. According to an Environics poll, 79 per cent of eligible Muslims cast a ballot in the 2015 election, compared with an overall turnout of 68 per cent. Sixty-five per cent of Muslim voters cast ballots for the Liberal Party, compared with 10 per cent who voted for the NDP and just 2 per cent for the Conservatives. (Telephone interviews of 600 adults across Canada who self-identified as Muslim, were conducted between Nov. 19, 2015 and Jan. 23, 2016, with an expected margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points 19 times out of 20.)

Muslim Canadians also strongly supported the Liberals in the elections of 2019 and 2021. The party is understandably anxious not to lose that support. I’m told that Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly often mentions the large Muslim community in her Montreal riding. (According to the 2021 census, 18 per cent of the people in Ahuntsic-Cartierville identify as Muslim.)

This is one reason why the Liberal leadership laboured so mightily to find a way to support last week’s NDP motion that would, among other measures, have recognized the state of Palestine. The Liberal caucus was deeply divided on the issue. My colleague Marieke Walsh reports that dozens of Liberal MPs were prepared to vote for the NDP motion.

In the end, almost all Liberal MPs ended up voting for a watered-down version of the motion – statehood recognition was taken off the table – while three Liberal MPs voted against it. One of them, Anthony Housefather, is considering whether to remain inside the Liberal caucus.

This is not simply a question of political calculation. Many Canadians are deeply concerned over the sufferings of the people in Gaza as the Israel Defence Forces seek to root out Hamas fighters.

The Conservatives enjoy the moral clarity of their unreserved support for the state of Israel in this conflict. The NDP place greater emphasis on supporting the rights of Palestinians.

The Liberals have tried to keep both Jewish and Muslim constituencies onside. But as last week’s vote suggests, they increasingly accord a high priority to the rights of Palestinians and to the Muslim community in Canada.

As with other religious communities, Muslims are hardly monolithic. Someone who comes to Canada from Senegal may have different values and priorities than a Canadian who comes from Syria or Pakistan or Indonesia.

And the plight of Palestinians in Gaza may not be the only issue influencing Muslims, who struggle with inflation, interest rates and housing affordability as much as other voters.

Many new Canadians come from societies that are socially conservative. Some Muslim voters may be uncomfortable with the Liberal Party’s strong support for the rights of LGBTQ Canadians.

Finally, Muslim voters for whom supporting the rights of Palestinians is the ballot question may be drawn more to the NDP than the Liberals.

Regardless, the days of Liberal/Conservative bipartisan consensus in support of Israel are over. This is the new lay of the land.

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Recall Gondek group planned to launch its own petition before political novice did – CBC.ca

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The third-party group helping promote the recall campaign against Mayor Jyoti Gondek had devised plans to launch its own petition drive, as part of a broader mission to make Calgary council more conservative.

Project YYC had planned with other conservative political organizations to gather signatures demanding Calgary’s mayor be removed, says group leader Roy Beyer. But their drive would have begun later in the year, when nicer weather made for easier canvassing for supporters, he said.

Those efforts were stymied when Landon Johnston, an HVAC contractor largely unknown in local politics, applied at city hall to launch his own recall drive in early February. Since provincial recall laws allow only one recall attempt per politician per term, Project YYC chose to lend support to Johnston’s bid.

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“Now we have to try to do door-knocking in the winter, and there’s a lot of preparation that you have to contemplate prior to starting. And Landon didn’t do that,” Beyer told CBC News in an interview.

Project YYC has helped gather signatures, created a website and erected large, anti-Gondek signs around town. It has supplied organizational heft that Johnston admits to lacking.

Their task is daunting.

According to provincial law, in order to force a recall plebiscite to oust the mayor before the term is up, they have two months to gather more than 514,000 signatures, an amount equal to 40 per cent of Calgary’s population in 2019.

They have until April 4 to collect that many signatures, and by March 21 had only 42,000.

Beyer criticizes the victory threshold for recall petition as so high that it’s “a joke,” and the province may as well not have politician recall laws.

So if he thinks it’s an impossible pursuit, why is he involved with this?

“You can send a message to the mayor that she should be sitting down and resigning … without achieving those numbers,” Beyer said.

Project YYC founder Roy Beyer, from a Take Back Alberta video in 2022. He is no longer with that provincial activist group. (royjbeyer screenshot/Rumble)

He likened it to former premier Jason Kenney getting 52 per cent support in a UCP leadership review — enough to technically continue as leader, but a lousy enough show of confidence that he announced immediately he would step down.

Gondek has given no indication she’ll voluntarily leave before her term is up next year. But she did emerge from a meeting last week with Johnston to admit the petition has resonated with many Calgarians and is a signal she must work harder to listen to public concerns and explain council’s decisions.

The mayor also told the Calgary Sun this week that she’s undecided about running for re-election in 2025. 

“There used to be this thing where if you’re the mayor, of course you’re going to run for another term because there’s unfinished business,” Gondek told the newspaper.

“And yes, there will be unfinished business, but the times are not what they were. You need to make sure you’re the right leader for the times you’re in.”

The last several Calgary mayors have enjoyed multiple terms in office, going back to Ralph Klein in the 1980s. The last one-term mayor was Ross Alger, the man Klein defeated in 1980.

Beyer and fellow conservative organizers launched Project YYC before the recall campaign. The goal was to elect a conservative mayor and councillors — “a common-sense city council, instead of what we currently have,” he said.

Beyer is one of a few former activists with the provincial pressure group Take Back Alberta to have latched themselves to the recall bid and Project YYC, along with some United Conservative Party riding officials in Calgary. 

Beyer’s acknowledgment of his group’s broader mission comes as Premier Danielle Smith and her cabinet ministers have said they want to introduce political party politics in large municipalities — even though most civic politicians have said they don’t want to bring clear partisanship into city halls.

Although Beyer admits Project YYC’s own recall campaign would have been a coalition effort with other conservative groups, he wouldn’t specify which ones. He did insist that Take Back Alberta wasn’t one of them.

A man in a grey baseball cap speaks to reporters.
Calgary business owner Landon Johnston speaks to reporters at City Hall on March 22 following his 15-minute conversation with Mayor Jyoti Gondek. (Laurence Taschereau/CBC)

Johnston says he was approached by Beyer’s group shortly after applying to recall Gondek, and gave them $3,000 from donations he’d raised.

He initially denied any knowledge of Project YYC when documents first emerged about that group’s role in the recall, but later said he didn’t initially realize that was the organizational name of his campaign allies.

“They said they could get me signatures, so I said, ‘OK, if you can do it by the book, here’s some money.’ And it’s worked,” he said.

Johnston has said he’s new to politics but simply wants to remove Gondek because of policies he’s disagreed with, like the soon-to-be-ended ban on single-use plastics and bags at restaurant takeouts and drive-thrus.

He’s no steadfast conservative, either. He told CBC’s Calgary Eyeopener that he voted for Rachel Notley’s NDP because one of its green-renovation incentives helped his HVAC business.

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Larry David shares how he feels about Trump – CNN

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Larry David shares how he feels about Trump

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Larry David shares how he feels about former President Donald Trump and the 2020 election. Watch the full episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” streaming March 29 on Max.


03:21

– Source:
CNN

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