Seedhi Baat / Aajtak, October12, 2008

'I am doing what leaders haven't'

Baba Ramdev says on Seedhi Baat that political leadership of the country has failed to do enough to fight terrorism, corruption and pollution.

watch video: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5

Power & Politics / Mail Today, October 13, 2008

IN THEORY, the general elections are still seven months away. In practice, it could be a lot closer. That is why as the 14th Lok Sabha assembles after a rather long break this week, speculation mounts whether the House will meet for the full four weeks as scheduled; and more crucially, whether this will be its last session? But such questions, instead of throwing answers, trigger more questions. Has the Congress, for example, decided to go in for early elections ignoring the views of its allies? If so, is it because the party is confident that early elections will yield better results? Only Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have a clue about all this, and they won’t tell. But if this is destined to be the last session of this House, I am certain it will not go on till November 21 as scheduled because I have reason to believe that the Opposition will not allow the session to continue even for a week. This could put the government in a bit of a tight spot.

With its majority in doubt after the expulsions of many cross voters on the nuclear deal debate, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may not want sleaze tainting his government in another trial of strength. So he is more likely to seek a vote on account and get the House to approve supplementary demands involving additional expenditure of about Rs 1,00,000 crore and then dissolve the House.

What’s behind this new line of thinking is a lurking fear in the establishment that just as they did in July, the left and the right will join hands to attack the government on national security, communal violence, inflation and the nuclear deal et al. Both Sonia and Singh firmly believe that, with a little bit of help from a mostly embedded media, they can squarely beat the Opposition outside Parliament; it is the fight within Parliament they don’t have a stomach for. Most of the allies like the DMK and the RJD are not quite sure of their poll prospects and would want to remain in power till as long as they can. Only Sharad Pawar backs the “ early elections” line of Sonia and Singh. Ironic because Sharad feels the NCP can do better than the Congress in Maharashtra.

Sonia and Singh are expected to soon meet M Karunanidhi and Lalu Yadav to allay their worries about early polls but most leaders have pulled out political calculators to work out the electoral arithmetic. The primary question now is: will the combined tally of its allies be more than that of the Congress? At present the Congress has 150 MPs, more than the rest of the entire UPA which has 115. I am reliably told that a powerful group consisting of Whispers in corridor Singh: Early polls? Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu, Ram Vilas Paswan and couple of other leaders are working on a strategy — that includes seat sharing pacts — that would see the allies getting more seats than the Congress.

Once that plan is in place, they won’t mind an early election after forcing Congress to announce Singh as the prime ministerial candidate of the UPA and settling key portfolios even before the first vote is cast. But will Sonia and the Congress want to deal with another power centre within the UPA? The conduct, smooth or chaotic, of the impending Parliament will give us the answers to these and many other questions.

Snippets / Mail Today, October 13, 2008

Small men grapple with big leadership issues

BIG LEADERS are expected to fight the war, but in our political parties, they often end up fighting small battles. That is evident from the internal shenanigans in both the national parties in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP and the Congress together won just about a fourth of the 80 parliamentary seats from the state. Both of them have many things in common.

Both have Brahmin presidents, are remotecontrolled by the Thakurs at the Centre and are under the illusion that if you have trusted people with hard bargaining skills to run the campaign, everything else will fall in place. Digvijay Singh, AICC general- secretary in charge of UP makes life difficult for Amar Singh by staking claim to over 20 seats on the foolhardy belief that the Congress’ credibility is better than the SP's. Even Sonia Gandhi seems to be missing the larger picture by letting Diggy Raja bargain endlessly at the cost of alienating allies. In the BJP too, its top leadership including L. K. Advani and Rajnath Singh think that issues or candidates don’t win elections, it is the men in charge who do the job.

For the past few months its central leadership was locked in a tussle to replace BJP's state president Ramapati Ram Tripathi. Singh, who chose Tripathi only last year, put his foot down. While Tripathi could hang on to his post, Rajnath was forced to appoint Kalraj Mishra as election in charge replacing Kalyan Singh. If that wasn't enough, the state and the central leadership are now feuding over allying with Ajit Singh. State BJP leaders want nothing to do with the unpredictable Jat leader but 11 Ashoka Road has other ideas. While leaders in both parties continue to fight over such petty issues, the more crucial ones like selection of candidates and getting the organisation battle ready have gone into a spin.

COMMUNISTS, we have been taught, are atheists who believe that the only gods are Marx and Lenin. But sometimes they do turn believers. Now from God’s Own Country, where no communist is presumably godfearing, comes news that the CPI( M)- led government deputed a minister as head of an official delegation to the Vatican where Pope Benedict XVI yesterday canonised Sister Alphonsa, making her the first female saint from India. Sister Alphonsa who lived in the early part of the last century is said to have disfigured herself to avoid marriage and dedicate herself to Christ and is venerated by Christians who form a fifth of the state’s population. Could electoral arithmetics be the reason for the Marxist- led government to send a representative for the canonisation? With its fortunes at its lowest, the Left may be looking at divine help to keep it in power against the odds.

SKEPTICS who doubted the Indo- US nuclear deal will go through have had to eat their words but perhaps the real story behind the men and the way they went about their missions is waiting to be written. There are many claimants for the credit. I was in New York last week and it is my belief the credit belongs entirely to one person and a trusted aide. I don’t enjoy the most favoured journalist status with the American establishment either at home or in the US. Yet I did meet several movers and shakers, all of whom told me that we should doff our caps to Dr Manmohan Singh. He burned the midnight oil, calling up influential Congressmen and Senators to revive a deal that was in a comatose state. With even Republicans distancing themselves from president Bush and his elegant secretary of state Condi Rice, a handful of mega- rich NRIs who have liberally filled both Democratic and Republican coffers took upon themselves the task of spotting US lawmakers who could manage an early listing of the deal for legislative approval. So, a list of half a dozen lawmakers was drawn up. But there was a price.

The Americans would rather deal directly with the PM. At which point Manmohan appointed one of his key aides, who was never part of the negotiating team, to be his pointsman. Only he knew the names and telephone numbers of the lawmakers that the PM rang up even at odd hours.

So, it was only the PM's secret and persuasive involvement which finally saved the deal when Bush had almost failed to convince his own party. N- deal enthusiasts should closely scrutinise the telephone records of this low- key official. They will recommend that he be conferred the Bharat Ratna. Others were file pushers now basking in reflected glory.

Modi has the last laugh

FOR LONG the target of vile critics within and outside his party, Narendra Modi is having the last laugh. In bagging the Nano project, he outplayed three BJP chief ministers and cocked a snook at the secular brigade which would have liked everyone to believe that Modi’s Gujarat is a dangerous place. He moved with lightning speed and outwitted the PM who made a pitch for Congress- ruled Andhra. But Modi had been in touch with Ratan Tata for months even as he set up a small team of key officials to settle all issues relating to the 1,100 acres at Sanand. Modi was determined to stage this coup because he knew the tiny Nano is corporate India’s biggest stamp of approval. Unlike West Bengal, he gave the land at the prevailing market rates. To ensure that Ratan is not persuaded to move elsewhere, he ordered the state government to hand over the land to the Tatas without even waiting for the cheque to be dropped. So impressed was Ratan that he took to singing paeans in praise of the CM. With a badge of honour from Ratan Tata himself, Modi doesn’t have to look for certificates from any one else. “ I welcome Ratan and the House of Tatas to Gujarat. For me, the Nano project entails nationalistic spirit”, he said. Spoken just like a politician.

Power & Politics / Mail Today, October 6, 2008

ALL GOOD things come to an end. Correction.

Not all good things have to have an end. MS Liberhan was 54 and a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court when he was appointed to head the commission probing the circumstances leading to the Babri Masjid demolition. PV Narasimha Rao was the prime minister then and since then, Deve Gowda, IK Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee have all moved into and out of Race Course Road and barring a miracle, Manmohan Singh may soon have to pack his bags. But Liberhan, now 70, remains the constant.

Last week, the commission which was set up 10 days after December 6, 1992 and asked to submit its report within 180 days, was given another six months’ extension, the 47th occasion that Liberhan has managed to buy time. The commission has already spent Rs 7.5 crore in the last 16 years, making it the costliest and the longest ever panel in independent India. The question that the government ought to ask Liberhan and is not asking is: What are you waiting for? Evidence and cross- examinations ended two years ago, and Rao, LK Advani, MM Joshi, Kalyan Singh, Vinay Katiyar, Uma Bharti are among the many who deposed before the commission.

Liberhan himself has not offered any reason for the inordinate delay nor has the government order last week given any reason for the latest extension. And that is precisely what keeps the pot of speculation boiling. The latest extension ends on March 31, 2009, which is a few weeks before the next General Elections are due.

Assuming the polls will be held as scheduled, will Liberhan drop a bombshell on its eve to torpedo the prime ministerial ambitions of Lal Krishna Advani? The BJP leader has already been exonerated by several lower courts, but Congressmen are now pinning their hopes on Liberhan pulling a rabbit out of the hat, in the form of a sanyasin, Uma Bharti, whose cross- examinations were completed way back. And herein lies the story. During the demolition and through much of the deposition before the commission, she was in the BJP. But her bitter parting with its leadership has seen Congressmen lick their lips in anticipation of the sanyasin spilling a few beans that would make her former colleagues squirm and botch the ambitions of the BJP’s PMin- waiting. Well placed friends in the Congress have told me that the Liberhan Commission is not money down the drain.

Uma Bharti may ( be coaxed to) express a desire to depose again. If she does, her deposition would arouse more media interest than any murder trial. With terrorists mocking at authorities and the resultant wave of nationalism, the Con- gress cannot hope to fall back on BJP- bashing to win votes. But if Liberhan makes the right noises about Advani, some of the minority votes would accrue to the Congress kitty. Liberhan’s long stint on the job comes at a time when judicial commissions are under scrutiny not for what they do but what they do not do. Whenever Liberhan submits his report, credibility is likely to be at a premium since some will view it as a whitewash and others as a witchhunt.

Snippets / Mail Today, October 6, 2008

BJP dumps its GenNext for GenEx

IN THE BJP, they are busy ringing in the old and ringing out the young. The announcement of Vijay Kumar Malhotra as its chief ministerial candidate for Delhi is proof that the party is falling back on its ageing leadership to pull a few rabbits out of the electoral hat. What then happens to the BJP’s famed Gen Next? Will they be content being merely shrewd backroom operators and ace election strategists, which some of them undoubtedly are. This is a distant cry from five years ago when the BJP unveiled a young and talented line- up which was toasted as the team of the future. But some of them don’t seem to have the stomach for a fight, while of the rest, Shivraj Chauhan and Vasundhara Raje remain.

In Karnataka, Ananth Kumar, once the rising star, has yielded space to the older BS Yedyurappa, in Uttarakhand, BC Khanduri who did not fight the election initially was roped in as chief minister. PK Dhumal remains its best bet in Himachal. In picking the 77- year- old Malhotra over several younger aspirants, the BJP is merely playing it safe. He is a veteran of 16 electoral contests, 15 of which he won. He was Delhi’s Chief Executive Councillor, equivalent to today’s Chief Minister, way back in 1967, when Lal Krishna Advani, four years older than him, was merely a corporator. Advani was born in Karachi, Malhotra in Lahore. So, the BJP has two Pakistanborn running for prime minister and chief minister. The party has surely come a long way.

No SEZ please, we are Congress. It’s official and brings to end months of speculation about the party’s stand on the issue of land acquisition for SEZ and IT parks. Farmers in Noida and adjoining areas have been involved in periodic skirmishes with the police for weeks now, demanding better compensation for land acquired by the Mayawati government. Typically, Mayawati responded with brutal police force. For quite some time now, Sonia Gandhi was said to have been keen to meet the farmers, but was dissuaded by her advisors. Congress- ruled states are among those where maximum land has been acquired for SEZs and her solidarity with farmers would send wrong signals, she was advised. That she threw caution to the wind and went ahead last week to address rallies essentially means two things: she intends to take Mayawati head on; and Vilasrao Deshmukh, YS Rajashekhara Reddy and Bhupinder Hooda will have to move a bit slow on SEZs.

TRUST Jayalalithaa to hit where it hurts. Though she has been ruthless in her attacks on the DMK and its leadership, she finds nothing wrong about filching a few points from Karunanidhi’s agenda in the forthcoming elections. Voters in Tamil Nadu will not only be electing 39 MPs but will also be queuing up at polling booths to elect a new government at Fort St George, and if the Iron Lady’s recent speeches and actions are anything to go by, she may well jettison some of her pet themes and embrace those that the DMK has espoused for long. The Tamil Eelam, for one. Jayalalithaa is among the few politicians on the Z+ category, having been on the LTTE’s hit list for more than two decades now, but her recent utterances about the Tamil Eelam should make many DMK bigwigs green with envy. Her sudden switch around has put both the Congress and the DMK, allies at the Centre but with varying approaches to the Tamil cause, on the defensive. And Karunanidhi must have more reasons to worry since she has successfully managed to wean regional heavyweights away from the DMK- led front in the state. First to join her was Vaiko who has thrown the considerable weight of the MDMK behind her.
With the powerful Vanniyars of the PMK led by S Ramadoss ditching the DMK, Jayalalithaa seems to be going from strength to strength. And though she gives signs of distancing herself from the BJP, it is clear that her stiff opposition to the Sethusamudram project has less to do with environmental reasons and more with winning over the Hindu votes. Add to these the twin issues of rising prices and terrorism, and the situation seems tailor- made for her to erase memories of the humiliation in 2004 when the AIADMK did not win even one of the 39 seats to the Lok Sabha.

Swami and friends
MORE ON inquiry commissions.

Does anyone now remember the Jain Commission which was supposed to look into the conspiracy that led to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Hardly likely. Then you are even less likely to remember the Multi Dimensional Monitoring Agency ( MDMA), set up to probe, well, the conspiracy behind the assassination and the alleged role of Godman Chandraswami and the LTTE in the former prime minister’s killing. Like Justice Liberhan, the MDMA, now in its tenth year, is nowhere nearer to solving the mystery than when it started out and has been getting one extension after another.
The MDMA functions directly under the CBI, which is handled by the Prime Minister’s Office and comprises, besides CBI, officers from the Revenue Department, Home Ministry, External Affairs Ministry, Military Intelligence plus the ubiquitous Research and Analysis Wing( RAW). The MDMA was set up in 1998 by then Home Minister LK Advani under sustained pressure from Congressmen who seethed with rage after the 6,000- page Jain Commission report held Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and the DMK responsible for actively aiding and abetting Rajiv Gandhi’s murderers.

The report had led to the Congress withdrawing support from the then IK Gujral- led United Front government in which the DMK was a partner. Strange that the same Congressmen don’t raise a finger these days despite the MDMA running around like a headless chicken. Not so strange actually, since the Congress needs the DMK more than the other way round. As for Chandraswami, whatever the dispensation at the Centre, he has enough friends to ensure that he goes scot free.

Seedhi Baat / Aajtak, October 05, 2008

'One should better oneself every day'

Actor Abhishek Bachchan on Seedhi Baat says that creative stagnation is suicidal for an actor.

watch video: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4; part 5