Editorial

Old wine in young bottle: The new President of BJP with old habits

The first major decision that Nitin Gadkari took as the President of BJP on the last days of 2009 was to support Sibu Soren as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand! A momentous decision for a man like Gadkari who just a few days back in his first press conference ostentatiously declared that he did not touch the feet of any person whom he did not respect! Sibu Soren must be a very respectable man for Gadkari and his party to be their unanimous choice as the Chief Minister despite his highly corrupt background! So what is the difference between the “old Rajnath” and the “young Gadkari”? It is Old wine in young bottle? So far as the RSS control over BJP is concerned, Gadkari apparently is the nominee of RSS. Nothing can therefore be expected to change in the ideological level. At the political level, the first act of Gadkari in supporting the minority group of Soren having only 18 MLAs is clearly as opportunistic as his predecessors or else how could the BJP with only 20 elected MLAs get into the ministry in a house which has 81 MLAs?

Welcome 2010

The first decade of the 21st century has very few happy moments to remember. In Gujarat we had started 2001 with the worst earthquake of the country followed by the most shameful genocide of 2002. The last few years witnessed the unusual spectacle of a crumbling American economy having been earlier hit by the deadly airplane attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.

We of course have our struggle to celebrate. The last seven years have been testing times for all of us in Jan Sangharsh Manch and the New Socialist Movement. With heavy odds against us, we have firmly stood our ground to uphold secular democracy and during this time even register the New Socialist Movement as a political party. To advance the cause of the working people and guide the movement, we now have our newspaper, “Elaan”. So while we take lessons from the unhappy past, let us look forward to an eventful 2010. From all us at “Elaan” and New Socialist Movement, we wish our readers a very “Happy New Year”!