Race Course Road / The Sunday Standard/ August 07, 2011

CAG effect, or How UPA Learnt a Lesson

The political establishment is concerned about the growing clout of various constitutional authorities like the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the judiciary, Lokayuktas, the Election Commission and even the institution of the Chief Information Commissioner. What is worrisome is not the extent or the nature of exposes by these authorities, but their tendency to run after publicity and encourage selective leakages of portions involving the Prime Minister, Union ministers and chief ministers. Some of the these institutions have been in existence since Independence, but never before have their chiefs held press briefings and made public comments, soon after, or even before, their reports were submitted to the concerned authorities. Last week, deputy CAG Rekha Gupta released the audit report on the Commonwealth Games at a crowded press conference within minutes of the copies having been submitted to Parliament. Earlier, some parts of the report were leaked to the press. In the south, Lokayukta Santosh Hegde’s report reached the media even before it was formally signed. After that, Hegde chose to appear on all national TV channels offering advice on how to implement his findings. It’s worth remembering that CAG findings on Bofors were not publicised by the then-CAG T N Chaturvedi through a press release; yet it demolished the credibility of Rajiv Gandhi’s government. The UPA leadership is now convinced that the time has come to restrain CAG and others from exceeding their constitutional brief and to prevent them from becoming power centres. The PMO is likely to set the tone by selecting only those who go by the book, not those who seek to make waves.

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Some powerful state honchos are causing serious problems for the UPA leadership. With the erosion of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s political authority, chief ministers like Mamata Banerjee and J Jayalalithaa are dictating terms to the Central government and redefining the political agenda. Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh had a taste of Mamata’s clout during his Kolkata visit; when he sought an appointment, he was told Mamata was extremely busy. When Jairam insisted, he was advised to wait for her at the office of a private Bangla news channel where Didi had gone for a two-hour-long live interview. Poor Jairam got a short audience during a commercial break. Mamata has sent clear signals that all Union ministers, including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, can meet her only at her convenience. Even to seek funds, she sent West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra, a former FICCI official, to meet Pranabda. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa uses her MPs to carry missives to various ministers, and even the Prime Minister. Power seems to be shifting from the Centre to the states.

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For the beleaguered PMO, offence is the best defence now. The Prime Minister feels that having a Group of Ministers to deal with the media has paid dividends. Now young ministers will be fielded not only to defend the premier, but also to throw the mud back on prime minister baiters. Most enjoy a clean image. They are well-connected with their constituencies and opinion-makers. Last week, the PMO directed Sports Minister Ajay Maken to turn the tables on the NDA on Suresh Kalmadi’s appointment as the chairperson of the Organising Committee for the CWG. The PMO opened all its files to him. Maken is digging deep into decisions taken by the NDA government. Kalmadi may be a pariah for the Congress, but he was the darling of the capital’s powerful chatteratti club comprising prominent political leaders and India Inc. Various government agencies have collected enough evidence about his connections to the other side, which will be reflected in the counter attack by the UPA’s young guns.

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The first victim of Sonia Gandhi’s sudden illness seems to be the Governors’ Conference, slated to happen by August-end. The President’s secretariat has conveyed to all the governors that it has been postponed again. Initially to be held by July-end, it was postponed due to political compulsions. The ongoing Parliament session will be cited as the official reason for the second delay. The real reason, however, is the government’s inability to fill some of the Raj Bhavan vacancies. The Congress hasn’t decided the fate of controversial Puducherry Lt Governor Iqbal Singh yet. President Pratibha Patil is resignedly waiting for the next date.

Snippets/ Mail Today, April 19, 2010

Now tatkal clearance for Games

IN THE old days when a telephone was a luxury and owning one involved a waiting period that often took years, you could opt for a Tatkal scheme and acquire a connection. Ditto for the railways where if you had to travel and didn’t have a reservation, you could opt for a ticket under the tatkal scheme. But ever heard of a tatkal clearance for the cause of sport? With the 19th Commonwealth Games now less than 200 days away, among the many things that cause headaches to cabinet secretary K. M. Chandrasekhar is the woeful shortage of accommodation for the thousands of visitors who are expected to visit the Capital for the 11- day event.

Delhi, rising India’s shining Capital, has fewer hotel rooms than many small cities in the US or Europe. The government came up with a scheme to bridge this shortage by offering fully furnished DDA flats at reasonable rates for visitors. Plans were afoot to offer about 2,700 such flats, but there were hitches. Green activists planned to petition the environment ministry against clearance for the flats. In Jairam Ramesh, they saw a friend who would sympathise with their cause and give the government a thumbs down.

Last week, the matter came up for discussion during a meeting of the standing committee of the CWG, chaired by the cabinet secretary. Faced with several imponderables, Chandrasekhar called Ramesh who promised to get back later in the day. The minister promptly reviewed the situation with the mandarins of his ministry and within hours called back the CabSec to assure him that clearance for the project had been okayed and the necessary notifications would soon be issued. Like everyone else, Chandrasekhar knows that Ramesh is a very efficient minister, but the minister’s lightning reflexes have now prompted the CabSec to rechristen Ramesh “ the Tatkal Minister”.

Nitish could mar prospects of BJP, Cong in Bihar

NITISH Kumar may have failed to get special status for his state from the Planning Commission, but during his tenure, the socialistturned- free- marketer chief minister has himself acquired a special political status in the state that goes to polls in a few months’ time. In the once lawless state, now there is more than a semblance of law and order. Yet, Nitish’s political arrogance and highly individualistic rule has not only created mayhem in his own party, the JD( U), but has paralysed the BJP, its ally.

On the eve of elections, the divide between the two is widening by the day and there is no clear agenda or chain of command to steer the NDA. While Nitish cocks a snook at his “ high command” in Delhi, the local BJP appears to be a house of cards which could collapse any moment. Five months after his appointment, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari has not chosen a state party president nor named a central leader to oversee the party’s election strategy. This is crucial, because the Bihar polls will be the first after Gadkari’s elevation and therefore could make or mar his own career.

The state BJP is being managed and manipulated by Friends Of Nitish Kumar ( FONK) based in Delhi and Patna. The Congress seems to be in a deeper crisis as state chief Anil Sharma is unable to carry the cadres with him. Jagdish Tytler, the AICC’s point man for Bihar, is spending sleepless nights in the heat and dust of the backward state, but his efforts may come to nought because the caste and community- ridden party consists of many invisible Nitish admirers.

Rahul Gandhi's resolve to revive the party in the state is unlikely to yield dividends unless he takes direct command. The only beneficiaries of the confusion are the regional satraps such as Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan. The fate of the two national parties will depend on how quickly their central leadership rids their respective parties of the virus called FONK.

THE CURRENT BJP leadership may believe that there is no matter of national importance more pressing than the shenanigans of Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor, but the parent RSS obviously thinks otherwise. A resolution passed by the Akhil Bharatiya Prathinidhi Sabha of the RSS, which met last fortnight, was as much an indictment of the Centre and the state government in Jammu & Kashmir for the drift in the state as of the BJP leaders for nitpicking over trivial issues. The resolution was passed just a few days before Manmohan Singh left for the United States where he had a scheduled meeting with his Pak counterpart.

In the past, before any such meeting, the BJP president or the Leader of the Opposition called on the Prime Minister to convey the Opposition’s mood on important bilateral issues. No such meeting was sought this time, which the RSS feels, is an indication that the BJP had got its priorities all wrong. The new party president who hasn’t allocated work responsibilities to his office bearers despite being at the helm for nearly six months now, is busy hiring second grade management doctors to cure the party’s ills. Nitin Gadkari came to office promising to take the BJP back to its roots. So far, he has nothing to show and time may not be on his side for long.