Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Country comes above all' that was published in Newsband

Country comes above all

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked the Opposition to discuss development rather than communal issues. She is right. Rahul Gandhi, the Congress president, met Muslim intellectuals and said the Congress is a Muslim party. This provoked the defense minister to make the statement. Congress, it appears, is only interested in vote bank politics and appeasement.

She also spoke about the transparent process through which the Government is working very clearly targeting those who deserve to get the facilities, infrastructure, assistance, financial inclusion and above all, most important for this country, corruption free Government.

She is right when she says that we as Indians need a Government which is working in an open transparent manner to make sure that we don’t forget the poor and needy but also make sure that the country moves forward.

But people don’t understand the behaviors of both Congress and BJP> While the BJP was in opposition and Congress was in power, the former clamoured for full statehood for Delhi. However, when the BJP was in power during the Vajapyee regime, the Congress shouted itself hoarse, demanding statehood for Delhi - a move it had previously opposed. And now when the BJP and the Congress are both in opposition to AAP, they both oppose the same stance that they fought for. Likewise, then CM Modi opposed the Aadhar scheme whilst in opposition, but embraces it now. And Congress, which introduced Aadhar is now opposed to Aadhar citing misuse of Aadhar by the BJP. Strange, isn’t it?

What is ideal situation? Freedom to practice one’s own religion, culture and follow food habits and above all personal safety and impartial criminal justice system is the paramount need of every citizen. If it is ensured all round development will follow naturally.

Democracy only allows opposition. That is the greatness of democracy. Military rulers do not permit opposition. The duty of an opposition leader is to oppose the stands of government critically. But ruling government’s duty is to accept the critical views of opposition positively.

Opposition politicians could not focus on development only because they have other responsibilities like having to be in the headlines everyday both in visual and print media to remain in politics.

We need a leader with clear thought and vision. People strongly expects that ministers are above politics and party and they should perform within a given time frame of 5 years. That doesn’t mean that old policies should be scrapped once new government comes to power. The flaw in system / things should corrected.

Development should be mantra for everyone in our country. In reality, we are running away from Development and talking or promoting other dirty things to come to power. We should support positive things and depromote negative things.

With so much of poverty and illiteracy, democracy is the right thing for a country like India. If the people are corrupt they don’t mind selecting a corrupt leader, if the people are worried more about their religion & caste, they are going to elect someone with their taste. As of today Indian democracy is more of what’s good for me rather than what is good for the country and its future.