Power & Politics / Mail Today, April 13, 2009

WE DON’T need a pollster to tell us that Narendra Modi is the most sought after leader on the campaign circuit. A pile of requests from the BJP and NDA candidates from Kashmir to Kerala and Kolkata to Kolhapur lie in the Gujarat chief minister’s residence and if he were to accept all of them, he would be addressing close to 500 rallies before the grueling campaign is through. But he has chosen to address only about 200 rallies, covering most of the big states.

Bihar, where a JD( U)- BJP coalition is in power, won’t be among them. Because Nitish Kumar doesn’t want him there. There could be two reasons for this: one, the affable but uninspiring Bihar chief minister may genuinely have apprehensions of being dwarfed by the charismatic Modi; equally plausible, he may want to insulate himself from all saffron affiliations in the hope of garnering some of the minority votes.

His advisers in the party, as also close friends in the BJP, have told him to keep equidistance from both the Congress and the BJP just to make sure he is seen as a shining 24- carat secularist. That’s why he publicly stated last week that he will not share the dais with the BJP’s most effective vote catcher. Instead, he is quietly lobbying with his friends in the BJP’s central office to invite him to campaign for its candidates.

Needless to say, in the event of these candidates winning, Nitish would want to hog all the credit. So keen is the man to sport his secular credentials on his sleeve that he was said to be reluctant to share the dais even with L. K. Advani, though last Friday, he finally relented and was seen on stage with the BJP’s prime minister- in- waiting.

Nitish is actually having his cake and eating it too. In public, he shuns the BJP, but in private drops by at the home of some of its second rung leaders for a meal while in Delhi. Some of the more hardcore Hindutva elements have told me in recent times that Nitish is as ungrateful and double- faced as one can get. In the immediate aftermath of Godhra, when Modi was the man that every secularist loved to hate, Nitish, as the- then railway minister, had shared the dais with Modi many times on his visits to Gujarat. As late as last August, after the Kosi floods submerged vast parts of Bihar, Modi was the first to respond to Nitish’s appeal for help.

He released Rs 10 crores from the Gujarat CM’s relief fund, sent 108 ambulances and asked his senior officials to camp in the affected areas and oversee the relief and rehabilitation opera- tions. Then, Nitish had publicly expressed gratitude for Modi’s humanitarian gestures. The grapevine has it that in this season of a prime ministerial bid that’s open to all, Nitish fancies his chances as much as the rustic Lalu Yadav or the cunning Ram Vilas Paswan. And his BJP friends have even assured him support in case the saffronites don’t become the single largest party.

We will know in just over a month if Nitish’s keep- Modi- out strategy yields the expected dividends. If it doesn’t happen, Nitish will live to regret for long. As will Naveen Patnaik in Orissa where, as I write this, Modi is said to be working his magic.

Snippets / Mail Today, April 13, 2009

THE month- long elections will begin this week and in about five weeks, a new government will be in place. Insecurity prevails at all levels and some of the regime’s favourites are already bolting. Pulok Chatterjee, the mystery man who liaised between Race Course Road and 10 Janpath is off to Washington; others are scouting for plum postings. And the super superannuated are finally contemplating retirement.

It’s apt that national security adviser M. K. Narayanan chose the Holy Week before Easter to hold his own version of the Last Supper. The mood among the 50- odd bureaucrats — including the entire Mallu brigade — who gathered at his house to break bread for one last time was said to have been very sombre, as if the beginning of the end was already here.

Enemy’s enemy is a friend

THE arena could not have been more perfect for a showdown between two of Bihar’s biggest exports to the world of show business. The Patna Sahib constituency will witness a battle royale between Shatrughan Sinha and Shekhar Suman, and this is one contest that will be watched more closely than any show on reality TV. Sinha, as we all know, has been the BJP’s main vote catcher in Bihar since the 1991 elections and has himself won two elections to the Lok Sabha and was also a minister in the Vajpayee government.

But once Nitish Kumar arrived on the scene, Shotgun’s stars began to fade. When his second term in the Rajya Sabha came to an end in March last year, Nitish worked on his friends in the BJP to deny him another term and the BJP leadership invoked the two- term clause. It is another matter that if strictly implemented, many second rung BJP leaders who have chosen the safer parliamentary route via the Rajya Sabha will not be sitting in that august house now.

Considering that he and Nitish don’t really get along well, Shotgun had apprehensions of Nitish scuttling his seat prospects. Long before the electoral process got under way, he began campaigning and much as they wanted to torpedo his nomination, Nitish and friends could really do nothing. Mystery surrounds the Congress’s choice of Suman to take on Shotgun. His only public appearance on a political platform so far has been at the swearing- in of Narendra Modi after the 2002 assembly elections that followed the Godhra massacre.

The grapevine has it that Shekhar Suman’s candidature is the result of a secret deal between the BJP, the JD( U) and the Congress, all of whom share a dislike for Shotgun. So in Suman, they found a Kayasth to stop another Kayasth in the Kayasth- dominated constituency. As a Bihari icon, Shotgun has the edge, but if the applecart is upset, I suspect the BJP and the JD( U) will join the Congress in celebration.

WITH elections on the horizon, most Cabinet ministers have taken a sabbatical from work these past few weeks but there is someone who looks at the polls as a once- in- a- fiveyear distraction and continues to pour time and energy into the job entrusted to him.

I am of course talking about P. Chidambaram, our home minister. Having dispatched that other national distraction, the IPL, to the distant shores of South Africa, PC is criss- crossing the country, visiting state capitals to discuss security arrangements for the voting that will begin later this week.

That nothing, not even “ Shoegate”, would deter him became evident when, a day after journalist Jarnail Singh hurled a Reebok at him, he went to Chandigarh to discuss pollrelated matters with the governments of Punjab and Haryana. Next stop was his own Tamil Nadu where he discussed reports of possible reprisal from the LTTE with the state security establishment.

But he did not go to Shivaganga whose voters have sent him to the Lok Sabha on five occasions. Most of his colleagues are skipping office to keep their quinquennial date with their constituentcies, but PC is sticking to work despite the fact that he faces a formidable opponent in Raja Kannappan, who recently quit the DMK to join the AIADMK. Could this turn out to be a case of overconfidence? Or is PC trying at the last minute to erase the image of the UPA government as a weak one in the fight against terrorism? The former is understandable, considering he has won the seat five times and the last time got over 60 per cent of the votes. If it is the latter, he may be barking up the wrong tree since Shivaganga is as tranquil as it gets. The rare flare up that terrifies Shivaganga’s denizens happens over water shortage in the mainly agrarian constituency. Maybe, instead of talking security matters with the state home minister, he should sit across the table with the DMK’s water resources minister.

The hidden hand struck

IT is seldom that the Congress succumbs to blackmail or pressure tactics. Its leaders handle pressure cooker situations with a been- thereseen- that kind of attitude. If my memory serves me right, this is the first time that the party has withdrawn two of its most known, if infamous, faces — Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar — from impending polls. Was it just a shoebite or was it an insider job that did the trick? The timing of the CBI affidavit makes me believe it is the latter. In the quarter century since the riots, numerous commissions were set up to look into the state sponsored mass murder in which, officially, 2,700 people lost their lives. The actual toll is said to be much higher. Though the Nanavati Commission found “ credible evidence” of Tytler’s involvement, he twice got clean chits from the CBI, which was however ordered by a Delhi court to reopen the case. The third clean chit has not brought him any luck either. But questions remain.

The CBI report was submitted to the court in a sealed envelope. So who leaked the contents, how and why? I am told the hidden hand belongs to a junior minister from the Rajya Sabha who was, along with Tytler, part of Sanjay Gandhi’s original gang of louts. The two have since fallen out. The minister who is in the good books of both 10 Janpath and 7 Race Course Road played his cards perfectly to put an end to Tytler’s controversial political career.

Seedhi Baat/ Aajtak, April 12, 2009

Voters will dismiss UPA: Rajnath

In an interview on Seedhi Baat, BJP president Rajnath Singh says the public had seen the UPA's performance in the last five years and was intelligent enough to make the right choice.

Part2 ; Part3 ; Part4

'लोगों को गुमराह कर रही है कांग्रेस'
आज तक के साप्‍ताहिक कार्यक्रम सीधी बात में भाजपा अध्‍यक्ष राजनाथ सिंह ने कहा कि कंधार मसले पर कांग्रेस लोगों को गुमराह कर रही है. मनमोहन सिंह को इसकी जानकारी दी गई थी.

THE GREAT PRIME MINISTER BAZAAR/India Today, April 13, 2009

THE BATTLE CRY

With the Mood of the Nation Poll predicting a photofinish, regional chieftains are likely to play a key role in the selection of the next prime minister. It could even be one of them.

The complaint is as old as the politics of social justice: the hegemony of urban elite over the wretched and the dispossessed. Votaries of the so-called Other India—the India beyond the sensations of the Sensex and the temptations of the marketplace—never get tired of narrating the conspiracy of the privileged.

Twelve of our 14 prime ministers, they keep reminding us, have been from urban India. Only two, H.D. Deve Gowda and Charan Singh, came from the peasant class, and both were accidental. Now that the politics of cohabitation has made India one of the most crowded—and politically promiscuous—democracies in the world, the sociology of power has become starker.

There are no clear winners in a fragmented verdict but contenders for the top job continue to multiplyThe most obvious trend in the India Today Mood of the Nation poll on the eve of the General Elections is the shrinking bipolarity—or the thriving multiplicity. There are no clear winners as the ruling UPA and the NDA are separated by only 19 votes. The middle is occupied by that amorphous group called Third Front, populated by provincial pachyderms who think their time has come to be the rulers of India. If they can’t, they will decide who will. It may not be the revenge of the regions but it certainly brings out the less-than-national appeal of the national parties.

The only certainty in a fragmented polity is that we have an embarrassment of prime ministerial riches. In the beginning, there was only one, and BJP leader L.K. Advani has been campaigning in true presidential style, that too without an identifiable opponent.

Much belatedly, and less ceremoniously, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said Manmohan Singh would get another term as prime minister if the UPA won the elections. She can only name him, she just can’t make him prime minister. Without the support of regional parties with more than 70 members, either Advani or Manmohan can’t become prime minister. That support can no longer be taken for granted as kingmakers now aspire to be kings.

As Lalu Prasad Yadav, a Sonia worshipper-turned-heartbreaker, said in an interview with the television channel Aaj Tak, “The UPA exists only in Delhi and why can’t we consider Ram Vilas Paswan, a Dalit leader, for prime ministership after the elections?” Then, why just Paswan? Why not Pawar? The NCP has been projecting its leader and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar as a future prime minister for a while.

He will share a platform with CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat and Orissa Chief Minister and BJD leader Naveen Patnaik at a rally in Bhubaneswar on April 13. That is the freedom of being Pawar. His party is fighting the Congress everywhere except his home state of Maharashtra and Goa. The strategy of each regional party is to contest maximum number of seats so that they can improve their tally of 2004. Obviously, both the Congress and BJP are anxious, and they may end up fielding more candidates than they did in 2004.

The poll provides little cheer to the Congress and BJP. Parties which belong to neither of the two alliances are likely to get almost the same number of seats as the others. Leaders like Lalu, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Paswan, Jayalalithaa, Mayawati and the communists are an independent lot. Pawar’s feet may be on the UPA ground but his heart is elsewhere. And each of these satraps is worth 25 to 30 seats, and their combined strength could go up to 180. Still, they are too volatile a group to remain intact. Will Maya and Mulayam ever be compatible? Unlikely. A candidate sponsored by the so-called Third Front led by the Left and others can’t reach 7 Race Course Road without the support of either the Congress or the BJP. In the marketplace of prime ministers, choices are many and the art of bargain alone can ensure a politically profitable deal.
How come we have got so many choices—or so many competing ideas of India in the fray? The UPA has been particularly fertile for prime ministers in waiting. Leaders like Lalu and Pawar have acquired a national profile as star Cabinet performers. They used their power at the Centre to expand their regional base. For the UPA, the vote of confidence was the moment when it realised the true worth of its allies. It survived the vote because partners like SP, RJD and DMK not only kept their flock together but broke the ranks of others.

It gave the allies a new confidence. As the poll illustrates, all those regional leaders seeking national glory enjoy more support in their states than the prime ministerial candidates of both the national parties. Mayawati with 24 per cent votes and Mulayam with 21 per cent are way ahead of both Advani (11) and Manmohan (7) in Uttar Pradesh. For the voters of Bihar, Lalu or Nitish Kumar would make a better prime minister than Advani or Manmohan.

With 120 seats, these two states will play the arbiters after the elections. In Gujarat, Modi is the choice of over 40 per cent of voters: Advani gets only 3 per cent. In Maharashtra, Pawar is the second most popular candidate for the top job. In the South though, Manmohan scores over the likes of Gowda, Jaya, Karunanidhi and Chandrababu Naidu. When Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were in power, there were no regional leaders who could match—or come anywhere near their popularity.

This regional eruption in leadership also means the rise of so many little Indias. Post-election, India is all set to stage a thriller of mathematics and megalomania, of oversized prime ministerial ambitions and total repudiation of political morality.

Power & Politics / Mail Today, April 6, 2009

IN POLITICS, running with the hare and hunting with the hounds is all too common. It is now almost three weeks since the two Yadav honchos, Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad, along with that eternal freelance coalition bedmate Ram Vilas Paswan, formed a regional power bloc within the larger ruling alliance.

The Congress leadership reacted initially with shock and horror at the UPA’s impending number shrinkage and continues to be baffled by the posturing of allies like the SP, RJD, Lok Janshakti Party, Nationalist Congress Party et al. During seat sharing talks, there was no shortage of insult trading and humiliation as Mulayam, Lalu, Paswan and Pawar denied the Congress even the seats held by its MPs. In normal times, that would be the political equivalent of talaq, talaq, talaq . Yet, all of them insist they are part of the UPA and, barring the NCP, swear they fully back Manmohan Singh as the prime ministerial candidate. Last week, Mulayam, Lalu and Paswan held their first joint press conference in Lucknow and defying all logic, Paswan claimed “ This is the real UPA”. Significantly, not a single Congress representative was present on the dais. This is strange considering it was the Congress that formed the UPA and though not protected by patent, received wisdom tells us the Congress is the head of the UPA. The appropriation of the alliance nomenclature leads me to believe that Paswan and Co are holding out an open ended invitation to the likes of the AIADMK, Biju Janata Dal, the Left parties and a whole lot of others who are opposed to the Congress to come on board. Strategically, this makes sense.

The UPA, as we know it, was formed post 2004 elections and, tardy as its performance has been, it has lasted five years. So are the bhaiyyas from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar usurping the name only because it worked for five years and rings a bell with voters? Or are they merely playing their cards until the elections to see what happens after? My belief is it is the latter.

If you recall, during the seat sharing talks, messrs Lalu, Mulayam and Paswan heaped abuse on the middlemen — interlocutors, if you prefer — even as they praised Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi. This is a strategy which is as safe as it can get, because the Congress reacts only if the abuse is aimed in the direction of the top two and a half — Rahul included. And Lalu and Co don’t do that. Digvijay, Dwivedi and Moily are easy targets because there need be no fear of retribution.

I think that the attempt to appropriate the UPA leadership is aimed at scuttling speculation that, if the numbers favour the other side, some of the new “ Fourth Front” partners may hop across to the NDA. Out of the 134 seats in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, the Congress currently has just 16, while the RJD, SP and LNJP together account for 67.

The Theory of Probability, when applied to politics in the heartland, says that the more seats you contest, the more your chances of winning more seats. Or so these leaders seem to believe. So they say nice things about Sonia and reiterate their support to Manmohan’s bid for another term but they leave nothing to chance to ensure that the Congress is roundly thrashed.

Make no mistake, these messiahs of social justice won’t desert the UPA. They are just regrouping before hoping to come back with greater numbers. The timidity of the Congress in the face of the Left blackmail during the last five years will be repeated. This time it will be the Fourth Front playing Fifth Columnist.

Seedhi Baat/ Aajtak, April 5, 2009

I'm a self-made actor: Priyanka

On Seedhi Baat, actor Priyanka Chopra says all her achievements are a result of hard work and fate.


Part2 Part3 Part4



'मिस इंडिया के बारे में सोचा नहीं था'

आज तक के खास कार्यक्रम 'सीधी बात' में बॉलीवुड अभिनेत्री प्रियंका चोपड़ा ने अपने करियर, अपनी जिंदगी, फिल्‍मों और अपने तजुर्बे जैसे मुद्दों पर बात की. प्रियका के अनुसार उन्‍होंने कभी भी मिस इंडिया बनने के बारे में नहीं सोचा था और अगर वो अभिनेत्री नहीं होती तो इंजीनियर होती.

अभिनेत्री नहीं होती तो इंजीनियर होती: प्रियंका