Franchise is a great right.

C P Aboobaker

Our beloved country is passing through a vicissitude. Rampant corruption has become the hallmark of the nation at large. The Delhi administration seems to enjoy the pathetic position into which it is pushed into. The conduct of the Common Wealth Games has tarnished the image of our country to a worst ever visual. The 2- G- Spectrum Scam has no parallel in the history of any nation except India herself; the S- band scam is the worst ever graft known to history.

The Prime Minister and his colleagues have been in a state of complacency until the court ordered immediate inquiry in to the 2-G-Spectrum scam. The minister Raja is behind the bars; along with him many other heads are said to be booked by the Inquiry Committee. The ruling DMK in Tamilnadu is in a traumatic situation. Its MP Kanimozhi and her mother are said to be in the list of persons who will be charge sheeted.

It is in the midst of this chaos and confusion, the Weak Leaks brought out the question of bribing the Members of Parliament during the 2008 confidence motion. As usual, Pranab Kumar Mukherjee jumped up and said to the media that the alleged incident pertains to the 14th Loksabha and the 15th Loksabha need not and should not discuss it. A central minister of pedigree and political seniority was blaspheming the great traditions of democracy by this statement. He just forgot that democratic bodies are a continuity.

It is in the background of these mountains of corruptions that the UDF of Kerala is fighting the election. The tradition by and large in Kerala is that in alternative quinquinniums, the LDF and the UDF come to power in Kerala. The left is trying to change this practice by a populist governance record. Two Rupees a Kilo Rice programme is an example for this. I feel that this is not only a populist slogan, but also a must in a developing society. A hungry society may not be able to feed to the requirements of wider and deeper developmental measures. The EMS Housing Scheme is also equally important as also the welfare pensions. Media are naturally prone to propagate that these are peripheral benefits. But these measures amount to creating a hungerless Kerala.

The notes in the various face book groups that show that the UDF is falling into an ever low profile, attest being its would-be chief minister Oommen Chandy is going to be incriminated in the notorious palm oil scandal; this complaint came from not less a person than Sri. T. H. Musthafa the then colleague of Sri. Oommen Chandy in cabinet and Congress party. Mr. Musthafa well-known to Keralites to be an audacious congress man has filed his affidavit that any wrong-doing in the purchase of the palm oil case was well-known to Mr. Oommen Chandy who was the then Finance Minister of the time. Mr. Musthafa questions the propriety of filing a case against him while the Finance Minister responsible to the payment is let scot-free. Thus Mr. Chandy is left with no choice to be exempted from climbing the judicial docks.

Congress party is in great dilemma. It is going to face many state elections this year. Kerala has been its expectation; but one after the other, UDF leaders are on door steps of jails in various parts of the state. R. Balakrishna Pillai has achieved a sentence of rigorous imprisonment in the Idamalayar case. T. M. Jacob is almost on the docks in Kuriyar Kutty case. And who has not been corrupt in the UDF bandwagon? With the immoral help of a cluster of useless media, they have been speaking highsoundingly. When Kunhalikutty opened the Pandora s Box, all scorpions and snakes are out.

UDF is not able to match up the LDF in matters of development also. But they depend on statistics and tradition; statistics is the result of the last Loksabha election as well as the Local Body election. Tradition is the alternate change of the ruling front in every five years. However, before the impartial electorate, which constitutes nearly 8-10 percent of voters, the grafts and scams at the centre and the various cases corruption haunting the UDF leaders pose a radiant question: should they vote for tradition or should they vote for clean governance? One minister of the earlier UDF cabinet is behind the bars consequent on the Supreme Court verdict.

When I upload this , the election is over, the results are to be announced only on 13th of May this year.

(Two)

Egypt has perhaps the longest historical tradition. On the murder of Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak became Egyptian President. It was in 1981. Hosni very conveniently converted the constitution to suit his purposes. All elections to Egyptian Presidency became mere referendums because the qualified candidacy meant that only Hosni could contest the elections. A nation with 8000 years of history and culture behind it could not find out a qualified candidate to contest elections against its President. When the chance came to elect a President through Adult franchise, the election was rigged. The opposing candidate was imprisoned immediately after the election; even the US govt having the notoriety of persecuting political opponents and media persons protested this.

In the meanwhile protests had sprung up here and there in the streets and closed houses. The protesters were members of Muslim Brotherhood and core democrats. Hosni played gimmicks natural to dictators. He had sold out the soul of Egypt by selling her conscience to the imperialists for a sum not more than 14 billion dollars. He had helped the US, British and allied armies against Iraq and helped them Iraqi evacuation of Kuwait. Although he protested, US invasion of Iraq later, he did not want US to let Iraq free for Iraqis. And the US wanted him because he was the main person that supported US occupation and escalation and also the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

He was corrupt to the core. Now he is out and the Army High Command is in charge of Egypt. It has promised to restore democracy. Let us wish good for Egypt.

( Three)

Muhammer Gaddafi of Libya is not an innocent creature. A struggle against his life-time regime is, in no circumstance, to be blamed. But this spirit of struggle dormant in Libyan mind is hijacked by Imperialism and now Libya is under attack from NATO after a spell of air raids by USA and England. This is the best example of how a people s movement can be stolen from them by imperialism for its own narrow political ends. We urge the people the world over to protest the NATO aggression of Libya.

Likewise, India witnesses a similar plight in the so-called anti-corruption movement of Anna Hasare , which diverted all discussion on corruption that has infested the nation and all talk is now about the Lokpal discussion that Hasare has opened. People are castrated unaware in issues where they should have had a positive and direct role.

C. P. Aboobacker

Chief Editor

C P Aboobaker - C.P. ABOOBACKER, editor of thanalonline, belongs to Calicut in Kerala. His interests include writing, publishing poems, essays, and many more literary things. Latest writing is about Channels and Globalizations. He is a retired professor of history.

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