Gujarat: Are polls the answer?

'Let's go for the Agni Pariksha'

Mon Jul 22 20:56:08 2002
Name:nishank
Email:shank_tronics@hotmail.com
Your Views:first of all one thing should be made clear.BJP government should not be always looked at with suspicion. During the starting of the roits Mr Modi was continuosly asked to resign on the basis of moral grounds. He should be praised for not losing his patience at that time and bringing back peace in the voilence torn state. Now when the situation is under control Mr Modi has taken the right step by dissolving the government and giving people an option to choose another person if they feel that he is responsible for the act.Hence maintaining a democratic state.

Mon Jul 22 21:04:04 2002
Name:paresh
Email:pareshvora@vsnl.com
Your Views:There does not seem to be enough justification for postponing the election. For those who feel that the current government has done things wrongly, they can certainly campaign against it and convince people to vote as per their opinions. Also they can track the elections to ensure they are free if they feel there is chance of them not being so.

Mon Jul 22 21:05:18 2002
Name:Varghese Gnalian ssp
Email:vgnalian@rediffmail.com
Your Views:Narendra Modi seems to be intoxicated with power or he is gone out of his mind. How dare is he to fool the people of his state. They will never forgive him for the massive injustice that he has done to the state that was progressing steadily. As a citizen I am ashamed to say that we have such Chief Ministers in our country. At this juncture Gujarat can never have a free and fair election. I am afraid that the members of the minority communities will never be able to make it to the polling booth to exercise their freedom to vote.

Mon Jul 22 21:22:19 2002
Name:N. H. Khan
Email:nhkhan1@rediffmail.com
Your Views:The election should not take precedence over relief and rehabilitation but the whole issue of a snap poll is based on the presumption that the common public innocent enough not to see the design of the ruling party. I believe the common people may be innocent but they are fools. Everybody sees the design. Let's see the people of Gujarat prove or disprove the presumptions of politicians.

Mon Jul 22 22:28:03 2002
Name:gokulnayak
Email:gokulnayak1@hotmail.com
Your Views:The decision of Gujarat chief minister to resign and preparing the state for election is timely.In the past on several occassions the EC has conducted fair elections under odd circumstances and this time election in Gujarat will not different. At least this way people will know which way the tide is blowing. It will be all fresh and will help restore confidence with minority community who were affected the most.

Tue Jul 23 00:27:48 2002
Name:Venkat
Email:venkat_ramamurthi@hotmail.com
Your Views:Its politically perfect to call for an mid-term elections in Gujarat. The political parties barring BJP have opposing this purely for Muslim votes. This is not surprising as they have not sympathised the Godhra victims as the perpetrators were Muslim and whose vote bank are very important for these so-called secular parties. Obviously, these political parties have been caught in a wrong foot when the Modi hurriedly dissolved the assembly and called for elections. Moreover its democratically perfect. In the height of the violence, the panchayat elections took place which had a good 65% voter turnout, so it doesnt hold water to say the state is not prepared for polls because of violence. Moreover, people in most of the camps have returned home voluntarily. The Jagannath Rath yatra passed off peacefully and it was another good sign for normalcy.

Tue Jul 23 01:00:21 2002
Name:Arvind Balasubramaniam
Email:arvind011@eudoramail.com
Your Views:Most Definitely Elections should be held in Gujarat. While you the opinion makers (national media)and the elected representatives (MP'sand MLA's) have reservations about the fallout, why not let the people decide their future course of action. The present understanding of Secularism in the country is deficient. Why expect the Hindus to given in, when the other groups blatantly pursue policies that cannot see beyond their respective religions. A large section of the population actively cheers for Pakistan (small kids too). The National Parties are turning a blind eye toward this problem. Why should I care about the well being of traitors. When you (the press) or the parties that go around with the secular tag dont care about this open traitorship, don't bother expressing reservations about what happened in Gujarat or whatever is going to happen there in the future.

Tue Jul 23 02:01:36 2002
Name:Ashwani Garg/Boston USA
Email:ashwani.garg@fmr.com
Your Views:Going to people and asking for their opinion is the best thing to do under the circumstance. The opinion expressed by people should be respected by all political parties.

Tue Jul 23 02:03:08 2002
Name:pritesh
Email:sam@fucker.com
Your Views:hi, BJP will win the election and Hindu rastra ka nirman hoga, Modi will win the eletion. Har Har Mahadev

Tue Jul 23 02:12:49 2002
Name:Rakesh Raju
Email:2@2.2
Your Views:No elections until people are rehabilitated.

Tue Jul 23 02:20:08 2002
Name:Shanthan Reddy
Email:shanthan_reddy@hotmail.com
Your Views:Its high time that we stopped making fools of ourselves and start working towards being more progressive and forward thinking like the west. Elections are not going to solve the problem in gujrat. That doesn't mean that Modi can stay in power. He should have been the first to be kicked out the moment the riots were going out of control. The best bet for Gujarat would be to impose presidents rule for a period of one year and undertake rehabilitation measures to the affected people and win back peoples confidence in the judiciary. With the way things are going I dont see any hope for the country unless the Indian consitution is revamped and a multiparty system is scrapped to give way to a bi-party system like in the US. Its only then we can see significant changes in the development of the country and get rid of political corruption to an extent.

Tue Jul 23 02:21:17 2002
Name:Madhusudana S
Email:madhusudanas@netscape.net
Your Views:Namaste, Lot of people were saying that Shri. Modi was biased and was singularly responsible for all that happened in Gujarat. Probably we will know that if elections are held. If the polarisation has to happen it has already happened with what all happened in Gujarat. Nobody is living behind the curtains any more. They say what they think is right and let others analyse. Unfortunately this is not true with the rest of the country. They are still in a facade created by politicians and to a certain extent media. Money is not a matter of concern since we all have lost a lot more in Gujarat in the last few months. Let's go for the Agni Pariksha for a politician - the elections. To me personally, this is true democracy. If elections cannot be held properly it is a problem of the Election Commission. That means that they are not up to their task, might as well ask them to quit their jobs. Anyways, all the best for all the politicians... for it is their exam.

Tue Jul 23 02:27:39 2002
Name:Srinivas Telukunta
Email:st245@cornell.edu
Your Views:We are a democracy and only the people can decide what is wrong and right. Its not for random people to speculate. In this situation it is imperative to have elections to seek the opinion of the people.

Tue Jul 23 02:28:42 2002
Name:Kanti Patel
Email:kantipatel@msn.com
Your Views:Narendra Modi is right in declaring new election in Gujarat. Since BJP is the only party which has wide popular support it should remain in power. The record of BJP speaks itself. Mody is taking advantage of present popularity of BJP in Gujarat. He is acting in interst of India.

Tue Jul 23 02:47:20 2002
Name:Amit vyas
Email:amitvyasg@rediffmail.com
Your Views: When we talk about gujrat The image comes of a thousands of mob headed by police trying to selectively burn and kill the minorities, But we need to realize that with the mob and the police there is a third party also there in the game, whose men r there in the mob and which gives the orders to the police.The godhra incident is just a first move in this game of chess in which all moves r pre planned.The game plan is as clear as water, First recruit and train peoples in using arms,then have a incident(godhra) to make the Hindu's anger,then killing minorities to pacify their anger and getting their sympathy and then having early polls to cash on it. but The third player had done one mistake,it forgot that there is also one forth player called God to play next, which plays his moves very carefully,which can anytime change the game to a position, where, there is no move to defend for enemy and ensures a check and mate. I hope and pray to the forth player(God) to give the people of india enough wisdom and courage to identify the game plan of the third player and defeat it jai hind

Tue Jul 23 02:49:11 2002
Name:Madhup Rathi
Email:madhuprathi@hotmail.com
Your Views:Yes, elections should take place. If the society is already polarized, elections or not, nothing can really change it. Democracy is all about holding up people's wishes. If the Hindus of Gujarat feel a particular way about Muslims, and project it in a particular way during elections, its a message to everyone, including Muslims and pseudo-secular parties of the state. All the opposers to elections are simply whining coz they know that they are going to lose. Relief and Rehabilitation is a state of mind. Nobody can help those people who do not want to improve themselves.

Tue Jul 23 02:55:45 2002
Name:vinayak hegde
Email:vmhegde@rocketmail.com
Your Views:I think it is a good decision. In fact it is an opportunity for the people of Gujrat to decide whom they want the Govt. to be run by. It is true that Modi's govt initially(for the 1st 24 hrs) kept quiet when the aftermath Godra voilence broke in Guj. However since then Modi's Govt and Center has taken adequate steps to stop this mindless voilence some of that all of us know is of Ccngresss's doing or some other vested interests who do not want the voilence to end. I am sure time will tell whether Modi deserves a chance or kick!!.

Tue Jul 23 03:11:19 2002
Name:Brickbat
Email:brickbat_x@yahoo.com
Your Views: stupid bloodthirsty Gujarathi's. the only good seed of the 'godforsaken land' is mahatma gandhi. elections are no good for the state. let the mob decide- their leader to be.

Tue Jul 23 03:24:15 2002
Name:K Madhava Krishna
Email:mkrishna@laas.fr
Your Views:Nope. Cashing on emotional issues is the only thing our politicians are adept at. Relief, rehabilitation and providing the healing touch is what is required and not furthering the divide by rabble rousing speeches. A country can be viable if its humanitarian. And through out history organized religion has tended be autocratic. And off late people in India have identified with hinduism on an emotional basis rather than on an intellectual footing. Under such circumstances they are more prone to fall into the trap of ultra right fascism which is a royal road to death. In 1930s entire Germany rallied behind Hitler. And because he had such a collosal support does he stand vindicated. It looms awful when these guys say that their repartees to the human rights groups would be shown in the ballot boxes as though people's support would wash the burden of Modi's pogrom. Small wonder when the Shiv Sena supremo openly admires Hitler. The only solution is to restrict religion to private lives, a uniform civil and criminal code and economic criterion as the sole yardstick for reservations. Thats the only way to stop the parties from wallowing in the urine of caste/communal divide.

Tue Jul 23 03:31:35 2002
Name:Milind digrajkar
Email:milinddigrajkar@rediffmail.com
Your Views:Yes. Let the public decide who should and in which way Gujarat should be ruled. That should be public opinion. And Indian voters have proved it many times that they know the right choice at every time.

Tue Jul 23 03:36:27 2002
Name:Venkatesha Murthy
Email:vvmurthy@yahoo.com
Your Views:We can have two options: 1) Not have election, but ask Modi to continue as caretaker chief minister until EC decides on a date for election. 2) Go ahead and conduct election. Situation has been quite normal in the last few weeks. This can bring back confidence in the minds of people.

Tue Jul 23 03:41:12 2002
Name:Secular Indian
Email:secularass@indianenglishpress.com
Your Views:The ground situation is there is a penchant anti-pseudo-secular, anti-muslim, anti-congress feelings in the society. Which means, if elections are conducted now, the comgress, et al, will lose their deposits. And ofcourse, our english press is always there to help save lick and protect Sonia's ass. Hence, we see questions like - Do you think elections should take precedence bla bla bla. Sickening bastards of Rediff. Shut your both ends and let the Gujarat people decide what their future is. Not your dirtbag's heads! In summary, looking at your articles and other stuff, one can understand how desperate you are. shame shame english press. Gujarat, Gujarat: go 4 elections! kick sonia out of Gujarat

Tue Jul 23 03:47:35 2002
Name:Gautam Desai
Email:gdesai_us@yahoo.com
Your Views:I think elections are necessary just because opponents of the goverment has made baseless allegation of goverment's hand in the riots. Otherwise it was not necessary. In democracy when such allegations are made then there is no alternative but to take issue to the public. As far as advantage is concerned I do not see how does this help BJP. People against BJP has harden their stand and same with their supporters and as usual swing votes are up for grab for both sides. As far as polarization is concern it is blamed on the riots but it is worth noting that it is the Godhara massacare that has polorized Gujaratis and not the subsequent retaliation. Jai Hind

Tue Jul 23 03:51:24 2002
Name:ashish bose
Email:ash74j1@sify.com
Your Views:The Polls are the right answer. I dont understand why the opposition is frightened to face the peoples verdict. We are having elections and not some dictator coming and grabbing power. I think elections are the best answer to these so called secularist who are always busy cursing Hindus and glorifying Muslims.

Have you posted your views?