top of page

By:

Correspondent

21 August 2024 at 10:20:16 am

Europe’s Blindspot

With another Islamist-inspired knife attack shaking Berlin, Germany is once again paying the price for a decade of denial. It reinforces tha belief that Europe’s migration crisis was never merely about numbers but a profound failure of political judgment. The latest outrage followed a horrifying rampage near a Berlin Pride event, where a man drove a rented van into a crowd, killing a 65-year-old Polish woman and injuring at least 29 others before attacking people with a machete. Just days...

Europe’s Blindspot

With another Islamist-inspired knife attack shaking Berlin, Germany is once again paying the price for a decade of denial. It reinforces tha belief that Europe’s migration crisis was never merely about numbers but a profound failure of political judgment. The latest outrage followed a horrifying rampage near a Berlin Pride event, where a man drove a rented van into a crowd, killing a 65-year-old Polish woman and injuring at least 29 others before attacking people with a machete. Just days before, another confrontation had unfolded in Berlin’s leafy Spandau district, when the police had shot dead a knife-wielding suspect as he charged towards officers. The identity of the attacker has intensified the questions facing Germany. Abdul Ballout, a 21-year-old German citizen of Lebanese origin, was not an unknown figure. Authorities knew he had previous convictions for assault, robbery and extortion. They knew he had attempted to join the Islamic State. They knew he had been radicalised. The tragedy in this case was not a failure to identify a threat but the failure to act on one. Germany’s latest security crisis is part of a disturbing pattern. The country has repeatedly witnessed attacks where perpetrators were already known to authorities or had displayed warning signs before violence erupted. In December 2016, Tunisian extremist Anis Amri drove a truck into Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz Christmas market, killing 13 people. He had been classified as a security threat, yet bureaucratic failures allowed him to remain in Germany. In Würzburg in 2021, a Somali migrant killed three women in a knife attack after reportedly shouting Islamist slogans. In 2024, a police officer was killed in Mannheim when an Afghan national carried out a knife attack during an anti-Islam demonstration. The same year, Solingen’s anniversary celebrations were shattered when a Syrian asylum seeker allegedly inspired by Islamic State ideology killed three people. In each case, the public was told that lessons would be learned. In each case, the cycle continued. The roots of this crisis lie in the political choices made during Europe’s migrant wave of 2015. Angela Merkel’s decision to allow more than a million migrants and asylum seekers into Germany was presented as an act of moral leadership. Her famous declaration “Wir schaffen das” (we can manage this), which became the defining slogan of an era, today stands as the apotheosis of elite liberal folly besides being a dangerous illusion. Merkel’s government had underestimated the challenges of integration, vetting and monitoring. Instead, a legitimate debate about borders, identity and public safety was replaced by moral grandstanding. Open societies cannot survive if they become incapable of defending themselves. Berlin’s latest tragedy is not simply another attack. It is a warning that Europe ignored too many times.

Clever seat selection helped BJP to secure historic win

The party won 65 seats against Congress, 37 against NCP (SP) and 29 against Shiv Sena (UBT)

Clever seat selection

Mumbai: The BJP’s strategic seat sharing with the allies has proved beneficial for the party. An analysis of the Assembly election results show that the BJP has scored over its main rival, the Congress, in a big way because of the direct fights.


The analysis shows that BJP defeated all three constituents of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) – Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) – in the direct fights. This is attributed as one of the reasons for the BJP’s historic poll success.


The BJP contested 147 out of 288 seats. In 76 constituencies, it faced Congress. BJP secured victory in 65 seats and lost only 11 seats, making it a whopping 86 per cent of the total direct fights. This was followed by an even stronger performance against NCP (SP). Of the total 39 fights with Sharad Pawar’s party, BJP captured 37 seats making it 95 per cent of the total fights with NCP (SP). BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT) were head-to-head in 32 constituencies, of which BJP emerged victorious in 29 seats, making this 91 per cent of the total direct contests.


According to a BJP strategist the party had bargained hard with its allies, Shiv Sena and NCP to get the desired constituencies in the seat sharing formula. “We had studied to potential candidates of the MVA. That helped us in choosing the seats where we can register comfortable victories,” the strategist said.


BJP spokesperson Niranjan Shetty attributed the success to all the party workers who worked hard to boost development, infrastructure in the state. He gave credit to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his contribution to the party’s success.


Shetty pointed out that in 2019, Uddhav Thackeray had stalled all the “novel” and “legendary” projects that Fadnavis had started when he had taken over as CM, making it very easy for the people of Maharashtra to strike a comparison between both the leaders and the potential they had for serving the people. “Devendra Fadnavis gave up his post very easily for the larger good. There are many such examples like Venkaiah Naidu who was BJP National President and later worked as the Vice President of India because that was the need of the hour. We seldom care about our posts,” Shetty told The Perfect Voice.


Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe refused to call the election results as the people’s mandate. “This is not at all a Janata mandate. Despite Maharashtra struggling with so many basic social issues, how can BJP acquire such a huge mandate is the question. If a student copies and fails with just passing marks, it can go unnoticed, but if a student copies and bags the number one position, something is fishy. Why is the BJP scared of ballot papers?” he said.

Comments

bottom of page