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Showing posts with the label Indian National Congress

Decision Making as Output and Bounded Rationality

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  The classical economics theories proceed on the assumption of rational agents. Rationality implies the economic agents undertake actions or exercise choices based on the cost-benefit analysis they undertake. The assumption further posits that there exists no information asymmetry and thus the agent is aware of all the costs and benefits associated with the choice he or she has exercised. The behavioral school contested the decision stating the decisions in practice are often irrational. Implied there is a continuous departure from rationality. Rationality in the views of the behavioral school is more an exception to the norm rather a rule. The past posts have discussed the limitations of this view by the behavioral school. Economics has often posited rationality in the context in which the choices are exercised rather than theoretical abstract view of rational action. Rational action in theory seems to be grounded in zero restraint situation yet in practice, there are numerous restra
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Political Factional Fights

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  Over the last month or so while the cases of the Chinese virus show small signs of abatement, factionalism has reared its head across political parties across the states. The Congress is facing challenges to its Chief Ministers in Punjab and Rajasthan. In Punjab, there are multiple factions that are clamoring for replacement for existing Chief Minster Capt. Amrinder Singh. In Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot group is queering the pitch for the Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Meanwhile Gehlot is demonstrating counter show of strength. There are reports of factional fighting in Jharkhand and Karnataka. BJP too is not immune from these fights. From Bengal where they are facing murmurs of dissent partly due to state pressure, they are experiencing factional troubles in different states. They replaced Chief Minister in Uttarakhand, there were reports of fights in Uttar Pradesh. Karnataka is no stranger to factional fights in the BJP and currently witnessing one more round of such infighting.   Th
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The Message from Gujarat

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  Local body election results tend to favour the ruling party in the state and prima facie, the results from Gujarat seem to reinforce that. One witnessed something similar in Punjab where the ruling Congress swept the polls with the other parties performing very badly and nearly wiped out. In Gujarat too, the ruling BJP has ensured it swept the urban body elections across all six corporations. It did so in resounding manner. The opposition was left to clutch some straws for hope. It is more remarkable given the BJP is ruling these corporations for nearly three decades. In 2016, there were some setbacks, the party barely managed to hold on a few of these corporations though the urban voter by and large stood with it even in those tough times, the Patidar agitation at its peak.   The remarkable feature of the Gujarat polls is not merely in the BJP sweeping the stakes. It is the changes that seem to be occurring in the landscape of the political opposition in the state. this changing
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Modi and Western Media and Intellectual Perception

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  In the last few weeks, there has been bit of attention in the Western media and celebrity circles about the anti-Modi farm protests. It is being projected as if the whole of India is out on the streets seeking to uproot the alleged dictatorial regime of PM Modi. It is further being projected that PM Modi is trying to suppress these protests, something indicative of India’s backsliding from democracy. These fanciful and wishful projections could have been dismissed as something of fantasy but the forces that seem to be masterminding it seem sinister and would not hesitate to create divide within the country. To add, there is a vast section of the chatterati and the opposition polity that seem ever eager to use any opportunity, however faint it might be to destroy the credibility of Modi even if it meant siding with forces inimical to India’s long term interests.   There might be a puzzle or two to the bystanders why the Western media apart from the intellectual and activist celebr
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Congress and the Loss of Ahmed Patel and Tarun Gogoi

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  COVID-19, the pandemic induced by the Chinese virus continues to claim celebrity victims. In the past few days, two senior Congress leaders Tarun Gogoi, the ex-Assam Chief Minister and Ahmed Patel, the political secretary to the Congress President succumbed to the post COVID-19 complications. They were two contrasting leaders who contributed in different ways to the Congress and perhaps their loss is irreplaceable to the party in the short run. The Congress had lost Shri Pranab Mukherjee ex-President few months back and thus the woes do not seem to end. It would be pertinent to have a look at what their loss would mean to the Congress.   At the outset, it must be said, no one is indispensable and thus everyone have their own shelf life. Nature would have its own replacements. What Ahmed Patel was the UPA-I and II, the same role was executed in different means, but same intended ends by RK Dhawan during the days of Indira Gandhi. While the Congress would await its new Ahmed Patel,
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An Amery in the Congress or Night of the Long Knives?

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  The grand old party of Indian politics the Indian National Congress seems to find no end to the churnings inside and outside. Given the consecutive drubbings it has received in the general elections both in 2014 and 2019, it is not surprising to find those churnings. At the core of the churnings and discontent in the Congress is the Nehru-Gandhi family which has treated it as a family business. As a matter of fact, the ownership of the Congress by the Nehru-Gandhi family is nothing new. It goes back to 1931 when Motilal Nehru was on his deathbed. He was a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest policy making body in the party. So   were his son Jawaharlal, daughther in law, Kamala, son in law, Ranjit Pandit. Soon they were followed by Motilal’s daughter Vijayalakshmi. The control of the party by the family in many ways is close to nine decades now though it was only in the last fifty years that it was complete domination.   The current crisis began immediately
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24 Akbar Road: History or Eulogy?

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Rasheed Kidwai wrote a book on the history of the Congress or rather the history of 24 Akbar Road, the headquarters post 1978 split. The book came out in 2011 with an updated e-book in 2013. The book was titled 24 Akbar Road: A Short History of the People behind the fall and rise of the Congress . The book is supposed to be tracing the roots of how Congress came to be associated with 24 Akbar Road and the anecdotes that give a flavour of the happenings at the party headquarters including the power struggles not just at the mid level in jockeying for favour of the family but between the family and its rivals. Given the updated e-eversion came out in 2013 when the party was under siege and waiting to be killed halal in the hustings a due a year hence, it seemingly was an attempt to shore up the image of the party and its crown prince. Therefore, it can be safely believed the new chapter on the Crown Prince was added to demonstrate his suave intellectual image something he has struggling
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