RAISINA HILL (MAY)

Amitabh Shukla

JHARKHAND

The political turmoil in Jharkhand has left the BJP red-faced. The first mistake which the party made in the state was to call in chief minister Shibu Soren to Parliament for the cut motion which it was supporting against the UPA government. As Soren remains a Member of Parliament despite being the chief minister, the BJP thought that it will help it score brownie points against the UPA even though the outcome of the trust motion was a foregone conclusion. The unpredictable Soren did the unthinkable. He voted for the UPA, forcing the BJP to withdraw support to the JMM-BJP-AJSU government in the state. Hectic parleys followed. A formula thrashed out that for the rest of the tenure, it will a BJP government. The political managers had not heard the last of the maverick Soren who soon announced that the chief ministership will be on a rotation basis. As Congress has preferred to be a spectator, political observers are watching, how long, if at all, the new arrangement lasts in the state which has become a symbol of “political failure” ever since it was carved out of Bihar ten years ago.

DIGVIJAY SINGH

The ‘Diggi raja’ or Digvijay Singh is a thinking politician, never known to utter a single word without realizing its political ramifications. When he called Home Minister P Chidambaram as “intellectual arrogant” and questioned his approach to fight the naxals only through force, political observers were quick to see a pattern. It was seen as an attempt from a section of the Congress to cut the wings of Chidambaram, who had emerged as a “strong face” of the government, so much so that it catapulted him to a place just below Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Many in the Congress felt that the barbs of Digvijay were an attempt to rein in Chidambaram who as fast becoming an acceptable face to replace Manmohan Singh whenever he stepped down and Rahul Gandhi did not accept the top job. But the strategy of Singh apparently boomeranged as he had to hurriedly eat his words and tender a soft apology. Singh also met Chidambaram, apparently to cool down the tempers at the intervention of Defence Minister P Chidambaram. As the line taken by Digvijay has found support in the partymen with K Keshava Rao and Mani Shankar Aiyyar calling for talks and developments with the Maoists, the battlelines in the party has been clearly drawn. While Chidambaram no longer makes the type of statement he used to do before the killing of 76 security personnel, this group sees a victory of sorts that at least their point of view is being considered in the government.

SIBAL

Union HRD minister

Kapil Sibal is a man in hurry. He wants to usher in reforms which none of his predecessors have done. Some of the reforms have not gone down well within his own party, but the Chandni Chowk MP and a legal luminary is not worried. The Foreign University Bill has been disapproved by a section of the Congress which thinks that it is elitist and not warranted at this point of time. Many feel that the HRD ministry has become too political in recent years and it was time to do away with politicians and place the ministry in the hands of educationists. While Sibal’s predecessor Arjun Singh introduced 27 percent reservation in higher education he thought that he has endeared himself to the OBC. Arjun Singh not only lost his job in the May 2009 Cabinet reshuffle but now faces a political ignominy in the old age as he is never consulted on any matter. Singh’s predecessor Murli Manohar Joshi too tried to force the RSS agenda in education. This too was not acceptable to a large section. “Why don’t the HRD ministers go for consensus instead of confrontation?” asked a senior politician on the corridors of Parliament.

GILL

The Sports Minister M S Gill is a disappointed man these days. When the IPL controversy broke out, Gill had no role to play and was left out of it entirely as the IPL and its parent body BCCI are supposed to be autonomous bodies with no direct control of the government. Now when Gill has proposed to cut down the tenure of the chiefs of various sports federation, politicians cutting across party lines have come out openly against him. This includes Suresh Kalmadi, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Jagdish Tytler and many others. Gill does not know what to do even as his well intentioned moves are being questioned. The disgruntled chiefs of sports bodies have met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and want Gill’s order of fixing the tenure to be done away with. Only the Prime Minister will take a call on the ticklish issue now.

KARUNANIDHI

If you have 18 MPs and support that government, you can get away with anything you want. Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi has realized it and put it to good use during his recent visit to New Delhi. First, the seasoned politician got Telecommunications minister A Raja out of the loop for the 2G spectrum scam. In his meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Karunanidhi made it clear that Raja was being targeted by the BJP for belonging to a lower caste. The BJP had stalled the functioning of Parliament for several days after Raja expose. The second was the success of Karunanidhi in getting a Bill passed for the creation of the Legislative Council in Tamil Nadu despite the opposition of the Jayalalitha led AIADMK. Even though the Bill was not in the agenda of the government business, it was passed in the Rajya Sabha. Now, Karunanidhi would be able to rehabilitate several of his party workers who have been out in the woods in the Upper House in the state which was abolished way back in 1986.

(9.5.2010)