Is the PM a prisoner of his own image?



  
VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA

One of the most enduring mysteries of Indian politics in recent times would perhaps be the diminishing clout of the Congress in Punjab at a time when it has a Sikh Prime Minister.

In the last 10 years, ever since Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister in 2004, Congress has been on a losing spree in the State and has virtually lost all the polls — be it of the Assembly, by-elections, municipal polls, Panchayat polls, SGPC elections and what not.  The situation has come to such a pass that Congress MLAs have been deserting their parties, contesting by-polls and becoming MLAs of the SAD again. No one in politics would take such a risk unless there is guarantee of winning.

Of course, in between the losses, in 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Congress did reasonably well winning 8 of the 13 Lok Sabha seats when Singh was projected as the prime ministerial candidate of the party. In that election, I remember visiting several constituencies in Punjab and finding much to my surprise that the pictures of Manmohan Singh were much bigger than that of the Congress president in the publicity material of the party. Clearly, it paid electoral dividends.

Apart from the 2009 polls, Congress has nothing to show in the State — facing a crisis of sorts with bickering leaders and dejected workers not knowing how to take the Akalis head on. Perhaps it requires an intense political and sociological study to find out why the base of Congress has been continuously slipping in the State despite Manmohan Singh taking over in Delhi whom many say is the tallest living Sikh personality.

Interestingly, all this has unfolded in the last decade or so even when you do not hear a word against the Prime Minister even by his political opponents in Punjab. No one in Shiromani Akali Dal or Punjab unit of BJP speaks anything against Singh even though they go all out in their attack on Congress President Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

In fact, Akali Dal treats Singh reverentially and even when you talk to the leaders in private, they have good words for the Prime Minister. Clearly the party delineates Singh and Congress and absolves him of all the follies of the party of which government he heads in New Delhi. Due to the appropriation of Singh by the Akali Dal, at the grass roots level, the Akali Dal projects the Prime Minister as one of its own. No wonder, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal rushes to meet the PM in Delhi whenever the opportunity arises.

Even as the Akali Dal appropriated Manmohan Singh as “one of its own”, Congress gradually started disassociating from its own Prime Minister and now the party has practically disowned him not only in Punjab but also elsewhere in the country. Leave aside 2009, in none of the polls thereafter Congress mentioned him in his home State nor did the organisation ever refer to him as a towering leader from the State who made it big nationally.

Even in the 2014 campaign, you hear every issue under the sun — relevant or not — Operation Bluestar, Congress Government’s role in storming the Golden Temple, 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the acts of omission and commission of the Akalis, who did what and who stabbed whom in the back etc. But strangely, Congress has so far desisted from using the name of Manmohan Singh electorally. The party is yet to tell the electorate formally that the first Sikh Prime Minister of the country was from the party and that too for 10 years.

I still cannot comprehend why Congress has completely detached itself with Manmohan Singh in Punjab even though he has a groundswell of support as one Sikh who has made it big, really big. If Congress disassociates with the legacy of Singh in the rest of the country, and this is what the party under Rahul Gandhi is doing, it is understandable. For a decade, he presided over an indecisive Government incapable of taking an initiative, a regime of high ticket scams and leaves nothing as a lasting legacy for the people of the country.

But still, if Singh contests from one of the parliamentary seats in Punjab, I am sure he would win hands down. The Akali Dal would have preferred not to put a candidate and the cascading effect of Singh taking on the electoral battlefield would have been felt not only in Punjab but other northern States as well. When reluctant Congress leaders like Capt Amarinder Singh, Ambika Soni, Partap Singh Bajwa and Sunil Jakhar could be asked to contest, surely Singh could have volunteered to steer the boat when the sea is rough in his own State. Though he has said he would not be the PM again, surely he could have become a Lok Sabha MP and motivate the workers of the party by contesting the last election of his life.

The economist Prime Minister hardly campaigned for his party either in the 2007 Assembly polls or the 2012 polls. His party lost both. The PM does not interact with mediapersons but one pertinent question would be why he has lost all interest in his home State and what according to him would be one thing for which he should be remembered. I am sure he would smile benignly at these questions and prefer not to answer them.

But surely there are answers to these questions. I think, Singh has become a prisoner of his own image, an image which he cultivated assiduously over a quarter of a century and now cannot get out of it. This was the image of an intellectual, an economist and a bureaucrat who is into politics by accident and does not have high esteem about his colleagues and fellow political travelers.

The image was also of an obedient bureaucrat, the perennial “Yes Minister” who forgot that he himself was the Minister as years of saying yes to political bosses was too ingrained in his psyche. Perhaps he considered it below his stature to involve with regional politics of Punjab and interact with Congress leaders of the State as he thought that his image in Washington and London would be blurred if he got electorally involved.

As far as the lasting legacy of the outgoing Prime Minister is concerned, perhaps he will count the Indo-US nuclear deal, for which he staked his Government in UPA I. But did anyone hear about the nuclear deal in the run-up to the campaign of 2014? The issue has been forgotten simply because it is a non-issue and unlikely to fetch even 100 votes all over the country. Then there were the so-called “Rights”— to Information, 100 days of employment, food etc. But remember, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress under him has appropriated this and they do not give even an iota of credit to Singh.

So what should the people consider as the legacy of the Prime Minister? Should they consider it as a wasted tenure of 10 years where things moved on their own pace and the bureaucracy ran the country the way it felt? I suspect, there will be a strong resonance with the belief that the institutional machinery ran the Government for 10 years and Singh was a symbolic head, sitting at 7 Race Course Road, the official residence of the Prime Minister of India. (March 31, 2014)

Congress acts firm, cracks whip on reluctant leaders




VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA

Sensing the worst defeat ever and perhaps a double digit figure, the 128-year-old party has reacted and given indications that it is out of slumber and ready to take on the BJP. In a belated decision, an aggressive Congress decided to field most of its truant but senior leaders who have so far been reluctant to contest elections and prefer to be in the limelight through the Rajya Sabha route.

One could have never imagined Ambika Soni contesting a Lok Sabha election from Anandpur Sahib in Punjab. Since the late 1970s when she was in the youth Congress and a close aide of Sanjay Gandhi, perhaps for the first time the thought of contesting polls crossed her mind. I am sure, she would never have contested the polls but for the firm stand of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

For a long time, she has been happily getting Rajya Sabha nomination, one term after the other. She has been the political secretary of the Congress president, former Union Minister and now AICC general secretary — all without a victory in the battle of ballots. But when Rahul cracked the whip, she was forced out of slumber to think about her political career. Contesting from Anandpur Sahib obviously was done at the last moment as the party had already given its ticket to the sitting MP Ravneet Singh Bittu. So there you have a senior Congress leader forced to contest polls in the new dispensation which is emerging in Congress.

Soni is not alone. She has company in former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. Amarinder tried all tricks in the book to avoid contesting from Amritsar against BJP heavyweight Arun Jaitley. Just read his statement and you fill find how reluctant he was in contesting the polls — happy as he was issuing one press statement after the other and taking pot shots at state Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa regularly.

Again, Rahul cracked the whip and forced Amarinder to go to the battlefield. The former Punjab Chief Minister’s silly excuses did not work and even as he wanted to flee the battlefield, he was forcefully sent back. Undoubtedly, Amarinder is the tallest leader of Congress in Punjab and the party could not have found a bigger name to tie down Jaitley in Amritsar. Though, six of the nine assembly segments in Amritsar parliamentary constituency has MLAs of either the SAD or BJP, Amarinder only can give a tough fight to Jaitley, who too is contesting the first polls of his life — a similarity which he shares with Ambika Soni.

So in Punjab you have the husband contesting from Amritsar and the wife Preneet Kaur from Patiala. Soon, there will a by-election for the Assembly seat which Amarinder vacates and there would be no prizes for guessing that it will be his son Raninder who will contest the polls, making it three from the family. But then, whether it promotes dynasty or not, what is certain is that the new aggressive stand of the central leadership forces Amarinder back in the battlefield from where he had fled citing all reasons.

Similarly, Punjab PCC chief Bajwa wanted to sit out this time realising that even in 2009 polls, he won by a narrow margin against BJP’s Vinod Khanna when the tide was in favour of the UPA. He was perhaps eyeing the post of Chief Minister of Punjab after the 2017 Assembly polls when he expressed his reluctance to contest polls. Again, the whip forces him to retract and fight the polls. So both Amarinder and Bajwa would contest and would not be able to sabotage the prospects of each other.

But another senior leader Manish Tewari is extremely reluctant to contest from Ludhiana. The reasons are not far to seek — most of the local Congress workers are against him, he is facing anti incumbency as an MP along with that of the UPA as he was one of the most well known faces of the party and the government, there are three formidable candidates in the fray and Ludhiana has become a four-cornered contest. He could not get nomination from Chandigarh which is relatively a safe seat for the Congress and so he is sulking. Well, officially he is not well and I am sure he must have shown his health certificate to his party president and vice-president to wriggle out of a contest from Ludhiana. I am not privy to his health certificate so I cannot comment on his fitness to contest polls.

In neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, perhaps the Congress forgot its senior leader and Union Minister Anand Sharma — a permanent face of the Rajya Sabha for decades. Congress was finding it difficult to find a candidate against BJYM president Anurag Thakur from Hamirpur and it had to import an Independent MLA into party fold to field against the sitting BJP MP. Rajinder Singh Rana, who has been given party ticket from the BJP bastion of Hamirpur, is no match to Thakur, son of former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. As election in Himachal Pradesh is in May, there is enough time for the party to reconsider its decision and field Sharma from Hamirpur.

Interestingly, Anand Sharma has been crying hoarse from the rooftop showing his interest in taking on Narendra Modi from Benares. But then why not volunteer to contest from your home State Himachal Pradesh in Hamirpur? Obviously, a defeat against Modi in Benares would make him a ‘martyr’ and keep alive his political career while a defeat in Hamirpur would relegate him to the footnotes of contemporary Congress history.

Though Sharma may have been forgotten temporarily by the new aggressive leadership in Congress, Ghulam Nabi Azad was not. He has enjoyed political power and perks all his life without bothering to get into the heat and dust of electoral politics. But this time, for a change, the Rajya Sabha regular who detests contesting polls, will be seeking votes in Udhampur.

There are more leaders in the Congress who clearly have a preference for the Rajya Sabha to the Lok Sabha. If you leave aside Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, political secretary to Congress president, Ahmed Patel is a prominent in the list. He hails from Gujarat, has been amongst the top five in the Congress for a while and that qualifies him to take on Narendra Modi in Vadodara. But unless he is forced the way the party did to Amarinder, I doubt he would ever face the electorate.

Then you have Digvijay Singh who was on a “political sanyas” for 10 years after he presided over the decimation of Congress in Madhya Pradesh in 2003. He could be a good bet against Modi in Benares as he has been in the forefront of a verbal campaign against the BJP’s prime ministerial candidates all these years ever since he refused to contest an election. But then, speaking to the media is one thing and contesting an election is another.

Of course, P Chidambaram read the writing on the wall and opted out. Even in 2009 when the party had an alliance with DMK, he managed to win in a controversial manner. You don’t have to be a political scientist or psephologist to predict what would have been his fate this time. So his son would get some valuable training in contesting elections. Obviously, the party could not have been firm with one of its most senior leaders and forced him to contest.

A churning is going on in the Congress at present but the irony is that it has come quite late in the day. The older generation is on its way out — those who lose (like Amarinder and Soni) would be relegated to the margins of the party in the new leadership under Rahul Gandhi. (March 24, 2013)

Battleground North: Touch and go




VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA


The battlelines have been drawn in the northern region with the major parties announcing their candidates on most of the seats. The pre-1966 Punjab, which today comprises of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh have 28 seats and except in the hill state of Himachal, the main contender for power in New Delhi — BJP — is banking more on its allies rather than its own strength here.

In Punjab, BJP has played its trump card by bringing in Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley as the candidate to replace the ever sulking Navjot Singh Sidhu. As a senior leader of the party, Jaitley would not only act as a binding force for the faction ridden State BJP but is also expected to easily win the Amritsar seat. The holy city is a safe seat for Jaitley given its past electoral behavior, demographic composition and alliance with the Akali Dal.

Had Sidhu been the party candidate, multiple anti-incumbency along with hostile State Government would have ensured his defeat. Even in the 2009 polls, he won by a vastly reduced margin and after the victory he hardly visited the city, favoring the commentator’s box in a cricket stadium or TV studios of a comedy show. Even as he refused to visit the city, he kept on criticising the Akali Dal-BJP State Government, making enemies in not only the Amritsar unit of the BJP but also Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and powerful leader of the Majha belt and Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia.

The BJP has only three of the 13 seats in the alliance quota and in the 2009 polls; Sidhu was the only BJP MP from the State. Given the trend in the State, there are three seats as of now where outcome can be safely announced — Bathinda for Harsimrat Badal of SAD, Patiala for Preneet Kaur of Congress and Amritsar for Jaitley of the BJP. In the remaining 10 seats, the contest is expected to be close with the margin of victory or loss expected to be within 2-3 per cent of the votes polled.

Given the historical arithmetic in recent elections where margin of victory or loss has been rather thin and respective strength of Congress and BJP-SAD in various pockets and in communities, issues cropping up in campaigning would be crucial to determine the outcome. In addition, presence of strong AAP candidates in three seats, influence of BSP in certain pockets of the Doaba region, the diktat of Dera Sacha Sauda in Malwa, role of an Independent in Ludhiana and the untested Congress-PPP alliance could also marginally influence the otherwise straight contest between Congress on one hand and SAD-BJP on the other.

There was a section in Punjab Congress which felt that even though Manmohan Singh has announced that he would not become Prime Minister again (in any case, there was no chance of this), he could have contested one last Lok Sabha election from any seat of the State to buttress the chances of Congress not only in the State but also in the northern region. But when the Prime Minister did not even campaign for his party in the Assembly polls two years ago, this was clearly a wishful thinking.

It is 8-5 in favour of the Congress at present. It could be 8-5 or 7-6 this time round in favour of the SAD-BJP coalition this time round. The perception that Akali Dal, being a regional party, seems less bothered about the Lok Sabha polls than the Congress for which it is a question of survival in the State is growing. The choice of SAD candidates has been rather uninspiring, suggesting that it was just going through the motions of an election. 

Himachal Pradesh is the only State in the northern region where BJP and Congress have a straight fight on hand. This has practically been a two-party state for the last four decades and this time it is no different despite an insignificant regional party here and an AAP candidate there. Of the four seats, there is little doubt that Mandi would again send Pratibha Singh, wife of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to Parliament. She was elected in a byelection around nine months ago by a huge margin and there is no reason why she won’t get elected even this time, more so when BJP found it difficult to even zero in on a candidate for a long time.

The other seat where the outcome can be safely announced much before the polls is Hamirpur where the only curiosity would perhaps be the margin of victory of BJP’s Anurag Thakur, son of former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. Though Congress has fielded Independent MLA Rajendra Rana, a former supporter of Dhumal-turned-supporter of Virbhadra Singh, Thakur is on a safe home turf.

At Kangra, the veteran of many a battle, Shanta Kumar came out of retirement and is in the fray from BJP. This adds weight to the party’s campaign but give the trend of the Assembly polls, BJP would have to work hard and project a united face to defeat Chander Kumar of Congress. The remaining set of Shimla could be a case of touch and go. Though BJP has a sitting MP in Virendra Kashyap here, it is considered a traditional Congress stronghold. Of course, if a Modi wave blows across the nation, then nothing can be said otherwise both Congress and BJP are equally matched here. 

At present, it is 3-1 in favour of the BJP. This time it could be honours shared equally, a draw at 2-2 each. The only seat of Chandigarh offers an interesting tussle. Congress has again fielded the four-time MP Pawan Kumar Bansal, fighting hard to dispel the public perception that he was involved in the cash for job scam of the Railways. Had the scam not broken out, Bansal could have won easily given his track record, accessibility and bringing new trains to the city.

But now, it would be tough tackling two candidates from the showbiz — Kirron Kher of BJP and Gul Panag of AAP. While Panag brings more glamour to the contest and may grab more eyeballs in campaign, given the structure of AAP in the city, withdrawal of Savita Bhatti from the contest and internal division in the fledgling party, she faces an uphill task and would help the task of Kirron by dividing the votes of Congress supporters.

The most interesting political battle in the region would obviously be in Haryana. This is one State which was ripe for a party like AAP, riding an anti corruption bandwagon as the Bhupinder Singh Hooda Government was mired in one controversy after the other while the top leadership of the main Opposition INLD is in jail after being convicted on corruption charges. But except Yogendra Yadav, AAP neither has a candidate nor an organisation to cash in on the sentiments.

Ironically, even the BJP is not in a position to pin down Congress and INLD as it neither has candidates nor presence in the rural pockets of the State. Its tie-up with the Kuldeep Bishnoi-led Haryana Janhit Congress is more cosmetic than real on the ground. The HJC hardly has any presence outside Adampur and Hisar. What made matters worse was Sushma Swaraj opposing strong Congress leader Venod Sharma’s joining HJC.

Interestingly, BJP was so short of candidates in Haryana that it had to borrow 3 from the Congress in its first list of seven — Rao Inderjit from Gurgaon, Dharambir Singh from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh and Ramesh Kaushik from Sonepat.   Clearly, Haryana’s political scenario is a quagmire of possibilities and a nightmare for the pollsters as of now. All the parties be it Congress, INLD or BJP are in one crisis or the other at this point of time even though polls would be held here in the first phase on April 10.

In a State where loyalties are shifting at a fast rate, candidates are being selected at the last moment and the political mood is still hazy, electioneering after withdrawal of nominations would only decide which way the wind is blowing. As most of the opinion polls have given 6-7 of the 10 seats to BJP, I am a little surprised as to the basis of such a result given the ground realities. Again, unless there is a strong Modi wave, BJP would be hard pressed to get so many seats. Of course, the INLD here is ready to support Modi post polls with whatever figure it has in the Lok Sabha.

At present Congress has a staggering 9-1 result in its favor. It will remain a dream for the party this time. (March 17, 2014) 

Haryana in crisis, Cong in shambles




Amitabh Shukla | Chandigarh

   
The Bhupinder Singh Hooda Government is in crisis in Haryana and could fall due to its inner contradictions before completing its term in October. Due to shifting loyalties of several MLAs and imminent threat the Government faces, Assembly polls in the State could be advanced by at least two months.

While the Haryana Government is in crisis, the party is in shambles. Even as the Hooda Government and the party was trying to recoup after the shock resignation of Ambala MLA and practically the No. 2 in the Government, Venod Sharma, the party suffered another setback on Friday as sitting MLA from Sohna, Dharambir Singh resigned from the party and joined BJP.

He had earlier quit as Chief Parliamentary Secretary demanding a party nomination from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat in place of sitting Congress MP Shruti Chaudhary. Singh is a four-time MLA and his joining BJP is expected to boost the chances of the party not only in the Lok Sabha polls but also Assembly elections later this year.

The Hooda Government is now in a minority and has an effective strength of only 43 Congress MLAs, including the Speaker, in the 90-member Haryana Assembly. The only saving grace for the Government is that it passed the Budget before the Model Code of Conduct came into force and as per norms, the next Assembly session can be postponed till six months, first week of September.

In 2009 Assembly polls Congress won 40 seats and was reduced to a minority. The party poached five MLAs of Haryana Janhit Congress and took them in their party fold, increasing the figure to 45. With the support of seven Independent MLAs, Hooda formed the Government for the second time in a row.

Now after the resignation of Sharma and Dharambir Singh, the figure of Congress MLAs has come down to 43 reducing the party to a minority. Two of the supporting MLAs — Zile Ram and OP Jain are in jail. Another MLA Gopal Kanda, accused in the Geetika Sharma suicide case, has just come out of jail on bail and has announced the formation of a regional party to contest Lok Sabha elections against the Congress.

With the Lok Sabha elections scheduled on April 10 and Assembly polls in October this year, most of the other supporting Independent MLAs are looking for greener pastures and consider Congress as a sinking ship.

Venod Sharma, who helped Hooda get the support of Independent MLAs in 2009, is apparently in touch with some of them to form a block so that he is able to get a good bargain from the NDA. Sharma is supporting Narendra Modi as Prime Minister even though his entry in either BJP or Kuldeep Bishnoi led Haryana Janhit Congress has been blocked temporarily.

“The Hooda Government for all purposes has been reduced to a minority at this point as no one knows the stand of the Independent MLAs when the chips are down. The Government may not fall technically as a no-confidence motion would not be brought by the INLD as Assembly elections are close,” said a Congress leader. He said in any case, three INLD MLAs are also in jail — OP Chautala, Ajay Chautala and Sher Singh Badshami, reducing the effective strength of the Assembly.

In the run up to the elections, Congress has failed to attract any single important leader from any other party even though it faced a series of high profile desertions. The most prominent Congress deserter was sitting Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit, who was also a Minister in the UPA I Government.

Apart from Rao Inderjit, three former ministers Krishna Gehlot, Saroj Sarwan and Ramesh Kaushik also joined BJP. Sources in the BJP said that several other Congress leaders have approached them and want to join BJP.

With multi cornered contest emerging in Haryana for the first time in recent years, the desertions from the Congress have strengthened perception that the ruling party was on a sticky wicket in the state, facing double anti-incumbency at both the State and Central levels.   (March 15, 2014)

Congress fields Bansal




Amitabh Shukla | Chandigarh

Brushing aside serious objections from a section within the party, the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the Congress decided to give party nomination to the sitting MP Pawan Kumar Bansal from Chandigarh. His name figured in the second list of 71 candidates released by the party on Thursday.

The decision to re-nominate Bansal was taken in the meeting of the CEC in New Delhi earlier on Thursday even as his name was sullied in the “cash for top job scam” in the Railways in which his nephew, operating from his New Delhi house, was arrested by the CBI. Bansal had to unceremoniously resign from the Railway Ministry due to the scam in May last year. The critics of Bansal in the party argue that it was only due to the UPA Government which shielded him from the heat of CBI that he escaped being named in the chargesheet even though the investigating agency was gunning for him.

Soon after the Railgate, several other controversies came to light particularly how Bansal and his family’s wealth grew manifold in the years he was in politics. This was the fodder for local media for several months after Bansal’s exit from the Manmohan Singh Cabinet and also a tool with the BJP to beat the Congress.

 AICC General Secretary in-charge of Chandigarh, Shakeel Ahmad on Thursday said, “His name (Bansal’s) does not figure either in the FIR or charge sheet. This is all media speculation which has nothing to do with truth,” he added.

Bansal has contested six times from Chandigarh and has won on four occasions. He had a complete control on the Chandigarh unit of the party till his name cropped up in the scam. Since then, he lost his clout considerably and when applications were invited for nominations from Chandigarh parliamentary seat, much to his surprise Bansal found that he was not the unanimous candidate.

Despite winning four times from Chandigarh, Bansal did not figure in the first list of 194 candidates released by the Congress on Saturday. Sources said Congress was playing the waiting game before any formal announcement.

What triggered the omission of Bansal’s name in the first list was perhaps the interest of Union Minister Manish Tewari from his home town of Chandigarh. As Ludhiana, the seat which Tewari represents, is supposed to be a difficult one with four-cornered contest emerging, Tewari apparently wanted the safer seat of Chandigarh where it is a two-way contest between Congress and BJP despite Aam Aadmi Party fielding film-star and model Gul Panag. This did not find favour with the CEC.

Tewari, who has studied in a local school and college and whose mother is a nominated councilor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, has his house in the city. Without referring to Bansal, he recently said that the party should not get into legalities and instead “not give tickets to those who are facing even allegations of corruption”.

This was a view which was countered by Ahmed on Thursday, indicating that the party did not hold the former Railway Minister responsible for the cash for post scam of the railways.

Congress sources said that had Bansal been denied ticket, it would have virtually meant admission of his role in the bribery scam and it could have seriously affected the chances of the party in Chandigarh and given the opposition a stick to beat the party with. “Not announcing the name of Bansal in the first list was simply a political strategy,” a Congress leader said.

What went in Bansal’s favour was the fact that even after his resignation from Railway Ministry in May last year, he was politically rehabilitated in the organisation and appointed chairman of the party's candidate screening panel for Gujarat and Rajasthan. BJP and AAP have already decided that they will target Bansal on corruption and Railgate in their campaign. (March 14, 2014) 

Why cant’ we do without a political dynasty?





VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA


I sometimes wonder why don’t the sons and daughters of American, Russian and French Presidents, British Prime Ministers or other countries of the world get nominations from the parties of their fathers and contest polls. If getting born in the right family is the criteria for a sharp political brain, why don’t we see the children of big leaders of the world joining their fathers and mothers in the profession?

Perhaps in USA, Russia, France or Britain politics is considered not as lucrative as in India and the children of leaders choose other more paying professions. Perhaps for the exception of the Bush family in USA in recent years people there have abhorrence for anything to do with such traditions befitting only the royalty, perhaps they have out rightly reject the theory that sons or daughters of big leaders are more capable of leading the parties and their countries than those who do not have any political lineage.

It requires an empirical study to find out if children of leaders are born leaders and their parents pass on all the leadership qualities they have in their genes to their children. But in India, all the leaders assume that their son or daughter is the best when it comes to party tickets and notwithstanding their role in public life, they get party nominations without any hitch. In fact, most of them claim it to be their birthright. The moment a child is born in the household of an important leader in India, it can be safely said that he or she would someday contest an election.

So now you have a failed Bollywood star Chirag Paswan, son of LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan as the party candidate from Jamui in Bihar. Chirag acted in a forgettable film in the lead role and his co actor was Kangna Ranaut of recently released Queen, who is now getting critical acclaim for her acting talent. The film released in 2011 flopped badly at the box office and Chirag was forgotten once and for all. I remember meeting his father at his Janpath residence in New Delhi before the release of the movie. He had great hopes from Chirag and the movie and saw the next superstar in his son.

As he could not become the next Shahrukh Khan, Paswan chartered the next best course of action for his son and this was politics where you do not require any minimum qualification or popularity. He was first made the Chairman of the Parliamentary Board of LJP. I don’t know what that means as Paswan was the lone MP from the party in the Rajya Sabha and they do not have any MLA in Bihar Assembly.

With a new Paswan dynasty emerging in Bihar, no wonder there are three members of this dynasty in the fray — Paswan himself from Hajipur, his brother Ramchander Paswan from Samastipur and son Chirag from Jamui. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chirag also becomes a junior minister in the Narendra Modi Cabinet, provided BJP came to power and the electorate of Jamui vote for the Paswan dynasty.

But Paswan dynasty is not the only bane of Bihar. You have the Yadav dynasty as well, kicking and rocking, to contend with. Convicted Lalu Prasad, the RJD chief, cannot contest, thanks to the intervention of Rahul Gandhi who thwarted Government attempt to bring in an Ordinance to overrule Supreme Court verdict. But this did not prevent him from nominating his wife from Saran, the seat which he represented and his daughter Misa Bharti from Patliputra. The claims of loyalist Ram Kripal Yadav was brushed aside as he was not a family member. Lalu Prasad’s son, a former cricketer with Delhi Daredevils, too is very much a part of the entire RJD scene and you could see him soon as chairman of the RJD parliamentary board like Chirag or a contestant in the next Assembly polls.

You name it and you have dynasties all around. There is another Yadav dynasty in Uttar Pradesh with father Mulayam Singh Yadav eyeing the post of Prime Minister post 2014 general elections while the son Akhilesh Yadav ruling Uttar Pradesh as incompetently as he can as the Chief Minister. In Tamil Nadu the entire family of Karunanidhi is in politics and business. In Andhra Pradesh you have Jaganmohan Reddy, the son of YSR Reddy. But what goes in favour of Jaganmohan is the fact that he has risen due to his own efforts as he founded the party after the demise of his father. Of course his huge business empire helped him tremendously and the credit for that obviously goes to his father.

From Kashmir (Omar and Farooq Abdullah) and Punjab (Badal dynasty) to Tamil Nadu, from Maharashtra (Thackeray and Pawar dynasty) to Meghalaya (Sangma dynasty) — you have little choice. The various dynasties are around and you have little choice.

Of course, Congress is on top of the list in which Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has practically been calling the shots for the last 100 years. This must be one of the longest serving political dynasties in a democracy and if you remove the emperors of Maurya and Gupta dynasties in ancient India and the Mughal dynasty of medieval India, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty must be the longest serving one.

It all started when Motilal Nehru called the shots in the Congress exactly 100 years ago to Rahul Gandhi now. But this has been written about to the hilt and has been raised as an election issue for the last almost half a century. Now the situation has come to such a passé that you do not find any single important leader in Congress who is above the age of 60 and who does not have a son or daughter in politics. This thumbrule applies to all parts of the country where Congress has some presence and the exception perhaps could be a childless Congress leader.

Sometimes I feel sorry for the poor Rajmohan Gandhi who has now joined Aam Aadmi Party. Having a perfect lineage from the family of Mahatma Gandhi, Rajmohan has been in and out of politics, trying his luck from parties as varied as Janata Dal to the AAP without succeeding. But then, it was the Mahatma who frowned on the theory of dynasty in politics and practically banned his sons from entering public life even as his disciples failed to learn this and unabashedly promoted their dynasty.  

Given the stranglehold of dynasty even in regional parties, I sometimes wonder what would happen to parties headed by spinsters — Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee, AIADMK of Jayalalithaa and Bahujan Samaj Party of Mayawati once they cease to command influence. Also what about the BJD headed by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who remains a bachelor?

The BJP has tried to avoid going Congress way as of now, except in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, but then for how long? In any case, it has also promoted Varun Gandhi only because he is the grandson of Indira Gandhi and son of Maneka Gandhi, the estranged daughter-in-law of the former Congress Prime Minister. BJP had to score a brownie point and it did through the promotion of Varun. 

I might not be a great fan of Rahul Gandhi but at least he tried theoretically, though unsuccessfully, to bring in internal democracy in NSUI and Youth Congress. Why doesn’t he bring such a system in the main party of which he is the vice-president? Forget Rahul, why can’t the legislative system of the country think of bringing a mechanism in which internal party elections is held in every registered party of the country and the system is monitored by a statutory body like the Election Commission? Why can’t someone like Anna Hazare start a movement for such a reform at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi the way he did for the Jan Lokpal Bill.

I do not have any problem if a Rahul Gandhi, Varun Gandhi, Chirag Paswan, Misa Bharti, Deepender Hooda, Sukhbir Singh Badal, Sandeep Dikshit, Anurag Thakur, Akhilesh Yadav… so on and so forth, win internal party elections, strictly monitored by a statutory body and then get a party post. But then if wishes were horses…

Tewari ‘missing' from Cong LS list




Amitabh Shukla | Chandigarh

The announcement of the first list of Congress candidates from the region has thrown in several surprises, the main being the omission of the names of Union Minister Manish Tewari from Ludhiana and former Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal from Chandigarh.

Even though the names of four sitting MPs from Punjab has been announced, the name of Tewari, MP from Ludhiana and Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet is missing. This comes even as the name of Preneet Kaur, another Minister in the Union Cabinet is there in the first list from Patiala. The other three names in the first list from Punjab are that of sitting MPs Ravneet Bittu from Fatehgarh Sahib, Vijay Inder Singla from Sangrur and Harminder Gill from Khadoor Sahib. Besides Tewari, the name of Santosh Chaudhary, the MP from Hoshiarpur and another minister from Punjab in the Union Cabinet is also missing.

As there is hardly any claimant from Ludhiana, Congress circles in the state found absence of Tewari’s name in the first list as surprising. Party sources said that he could even be considered from Chandigarh, his home town in place of the tainted Pawan Kumar Bansal whose name emerged in the infamous Railgate. As more discussions are underway, no announcement could take place, a source insisted.

Bansal had to resign as Railway Minister due to the bribery scandal in which his nephew was arrested by the CBI. So far no name has been announced from Chandigarh as well even though Bansal is a strong contender and has been MP for three terms.

From Haryana, only seven names have been declared so far. This includes all the five sitting MPs — Deepender Singh Hooda from Rohtak, Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra, Arvind Sharma from Karnal, Avtar Singh Bhadana from Faridabad and Shruti Chaudhary from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh.

The two new names in the list are veteran leader Sampat Singh from Hisar who left the INLD to join Congress and  Jagbir Malik from Sonipat in place of sitting MP Jitender Singh Malik who refused to contest this time. No name has been announced from Ambala which was represented by Selja in the Lok Sabha before she was nominated for the Rajya Sabha. Newly appointed Haryana Congress President Ashok Tanwar could be shifted to Ambala from Sirsa. That perhaps could be the reason why no candidates have been declared for the two seats. The third seat from where Congress has not made any announcement is Gurgaon from where sitting MP Rao Inderjeet left the party to join the BJP.

Interestingly, there is no one from Himachal Pradesh in the first list of 194 announced by the Congress. The State has four Lok Sabha seats in which Congress has one seat while the BJP remaining three. Though Mandi is the least contentious seat, being represented by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh, the party has refrained from announcing her candidature. Sources in the party said that all four names would be announced at the same time. (March 9, 2014)

Haryana strongman left high and dry





Amitabh Shukla | Chandigarh

Haryana strongman Venod Sharma has been a veteran of many a political battle but perhaps for the first time, he has been left high and dry, not knowing what do after he resigned from the Congress and could not gain access to the NDA through Haryana Janhit Congress.

Political sources said the entry of Sharma in HJC was opposed not only by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj but also by members of HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi’s family.

Though it was Swaraj’s tweet on Thursday morning which sealed the fate of Sharma and prevented his entry in HJC, sources said that brother of Bishnoi and former Haryana Deputy Chief Minister, Chander Mohan was also strongly opposed to Sharma entering his party and disturbing the internal equations. Mohan, who had converted to Islam and named himself Chand Mohammed to marry Fiza, was forced to resign from the post of Deputy CM in the first tenure of Bhupinder Singh Hooda due to the scandal.

Chander Mohan has been marginalised in HJC ever since his conversion and re-conversion and was eyeing the Karnal Lok Sabha seat for political rehabilitation. It was the same seat which Sharma also wanted to contest, triggering protest from Chander Mohan. Also, had Sharma got into the HJC, he would have demanded the Panchkula Assembly seat for his son from where Chander Mohan had won several times in the past. Bishnoi’s brother wanted to avoid a strong competitor within the party and played his cards deftly to prevent the joining of Sharma.

Moreover, sources said, Jasma Devi, widow of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, too was strongly opposed to Sharma joining HJC.

Her reason was entirely different. When Congress won the 2005 Assembly polls in the state, both Hooda and her husband Bhajan Lal were contenders for the post of Chief Minister. She believes that Hooda became the chief minister due to the political maneuvering of Sharma and Bhajan Lal was denied his rightful claim on the post.

Sources in HJC are still baffled how Sharma managed to convince Bishnoi in the first place. “In 2009 Assembly polls when Congress won only 40 seats and HJC six seats, the party was getting a good deal to support Hooda. However, it was Sharma who practically took away the entire party and made them join Congress,” said a flummoxed HJC supporter. He said it was only due to Sharma that of the six, five MLAs walked over to Congress and Bishnoi was the lone MLA left in the party.

Licking his wounds and perhaps failing in his strategy to be on the potential winning side post 2014 general elections, Sharma is planning his next political move. Sources said there are three options for him now — joining Bahujan Samaj Party, floating a regional party or exploring options in the main Opposition Indian National Lok Dal.

A source said INLD seems a credible option given the fact that if the party managed to win a few seats, it could easily extend support to BJP and join NDA.

INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay Chautala are presently in Tihar Jail, New Delhi where Sharma’s son, Manu Sharma too is undergoing life imprisonment for the Jessica Lal murder case. Manu could perhaps act as a bridge between his father and Chautala.

Time is running out for Sharma as he would have to announce his next political move in the Jan Chetna Mahayagya rally at Kurukshetra on Sunday. Preparations have been made for the rally as the groundwork was being done for the last few weeks.

The attendance in the rally and who all would be on the dais is being keenly watched.  Whichever line Sharma takes, he has ensured a dent in the Congress’ support base and it could not have come at a worse time for Hooda as in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. (March 8, 2014)

Sushma Swaraj opposes Venod Sharma’s entry




Amitabh Shukla | Chandigarh

Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj’s opposition to the entry of Haryana strongman Venod Sharma in Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) has thrown the party in a quandary ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and disturbed all pre-poll equations.

“We do not know how to react to this. We understand that senior BJP leaders who favour the entry of Sharma in HJC are in talks with Sushma Swaraj to convince her on the need of having him in the alliance for better polls prospects of NDA in Haryana,” a HJC leader said.  Sources in HJC said that BJP chief Rajnath Singh had approved the proposal of Kuldeep Bishnoi on Sharma joining the party and contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Karnal.

The entire controversy began after Swaraj, who herself hails from Haryana, tweeted on Thursday morning. “I am strongly opposed to this. I have conveyed my views to Shri Kuldeep Bishnoi,” she wrote in her twitter account, quoting a report on Venod Sharma quitting Congress and joining HJC.

There was no reason given by her as to why was she opposed to Sharma joining HJC, an alliance partner of BJP in Haryana. The only thing which perhaps goes against Sharma is the fact that he is the father of Manu Sharma, undergoing life sentence in the Jessica Lall murder case.  “But then, a father cannot be punished for the sins of his son nor can a son be punished for the sins of his father,” a BJP leader said, refusing to be quoted.

Another BJP leader said that if Sharma joins HJC ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, the BJP-HJC combine would be a formidable alliance and could easily taken on Congress on one hand and the Indian National Lok Dal on the other. “Now that there are obstacles ahead, we are waiting to formulate a fresh strategy,” he said. While the state BJP was divided on HJC offering Karnal seat to Sharma, no one was opposed to his joining the Bishnoi led party.

Sharma, a former Union Minister and a Cabinet Minister in Haryana ended his over 40 year association with the Congress and resigned from the party on Wednesday. He is expected to announce his next political move at the Jan Chetna Mahayagya on Sunday at Kurukshetra.

Before breaking his association from the Congress, Sharma, an industrialist and MLA from Ambala, was considered to be the trouble shooter of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. He was instrumental in getting the support of the Independents when Congress was reduced to 40 in the 90 member Haryana Assembly in the 2009 Assembly polls, facilitating Government formation. (March 7, 2014) 


Trouble brewing for Hooda govt as Venod Sharma set to leave




Amitabh Shukla | Chandigarh  

Senior Congress leader and Ambala MLA Venod Sharma is set to join the Kuldeep Bishnoi-led Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) and contest the Lok Sabha election from Karnal.

Top sources said that Sharma, a close confidante and trouble shooter of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for long, will open his cards in his rally called Jan Chetna at Kurukshetra on March 9. He is expected to announce his complete detachment from the Congress and join the HJC, which is an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the State.

The Jan Chetna rally would also spell trouble for the Hooda Government in the State which is surviving on a wafer thin majority. The rally is being keenly watched as Sharma could throw in some surprises and more Congress MLAs could also switch their loyalty. "This rally has the potential to break the backbone of the Hooda Government," a senior HJC leader said.

Both the HJC and the BJP thrashed out their seat-sharing arrangement over two years ago and the Bishnoi-led party will contest two seats while the BJP would contest the remaining eight in the State having 10 parliamentary constituencies. Bishnoi himself would contest from Hissar while Sharma would contest from Karnal where Brahmins have a decisive say in the outcome. For Assembly polls later this year, both the parties are scheduled to contest on 45 seats each as per the seat-sharing arrangement.

Sharma's expected move to join the HJC is being considered nothing short of a political coup in Haryana politics ahead of the Lok Sabha polls as he is an astute politician and would provide muscle to his new party. Bishnoi has been huffing and puffing all alone in the run-up to the polls and Sharma is expected to bring in much-needed experience and strategy to take on the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal.

Earlier, there was speculation that Sharma, a former Union Minister and also a Cabinet Minister in Haryana, could join the BJP. He himself did not deny the reports but made sure that his displeasure against the Congress is known. Sharma, did not attend the Budget Session of the Haryana Assembly, did not attend the general body meeting of the Congress Executive in the State and earlier resigned from the state Election Campaign Committee of which he was the chairman.

Sources said joining the HJC would give greater maneuverability to the political plans of Sharma than the BJP. As an alliance partner, the HJC can reap all the benefits if there is a regime change in New Delhi and the NDA comes to power while retaining separate identity as a member of a smaller regional party. Moreover, as Assembly elections are a little over six months away in Haryana, Sharma would get a major say in ticket selection exercise in the new alliance of HJC-BJP when the present Congress dispensation is down and out.

Sharma deserting the sinking ship of the Haryana Congress ahead of the polls is likely to severely dent the prospects of the party in a State from where it won nine seats in the last election. Being a Brahmin face of the party, the community, already feeling marginalised, is likely to desert the Congress strengthening the non-Jat combination of HJC-BJP. Chaudhary Bhajan Lal successfully led the non-Jat communities of the State for a long time and now his son Bishnoi along with Sharma with the support of the BJP would woo this section with a renewed zeal. As the dominant Jats are divided between their loyalty to the INLD led by Om Prakash Chautala and the Congress led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, emergence of a non-Jat political formation could reap rich electoral dividends in the State both in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. (March 6, 2014)

Rahul interacts with Chandigarh Editors, fails in 'Mission Impress'



VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA 


Last Monday, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was in Chandigarh for a meeting with the ex-servicemen to impress them how his party made One Rank One Pension possible. As the States of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have a huge population of ex-servicemen, the choice of Chandigarh made a political sense when the Lok Sabha election is weeks away. I do not know whether Rahul managed to impress the former soldiers as I was not present in the meeting but a colleague who was present, said he failed to do so.

But I will tell you about another meeting where I was present. Gandhi took this opportunity to invite the Editors and Resident Editors of English, Hindi and Punjabi newspapers to have what his organisers said a “free-wheeling” discussion with him on anything under the sun. I was one of those invited for the discussion along with two dozen odd editors of newspapers based in Chandigarh and Punjab. No one from the electronic media was invited as one of the print editors quipped, “once bitten twice shy”. He was referring to the disaster of an interview of Rahul with Times Now not long ago.

I suspect, the meeting with the Editors was perhaps the first priority of Rahul and other meetings scheduled with ex-servicemen, NSUI leaders and with the senior Congress functionaries were incidental. Repeatedly showing indifference towards the media has taken a heavy toll on Rahul’s image and he has been getting a bad press throughout. Of late, he has tried to correct this image as Rahul himself said that he has been meeting the editors wherever he is going for electioneering and party related work. For a change, even his office in New Delhi has climbed down from the high pedestal and started sending press releases and his photographs only now after he completes a decade in politics.

Perhaps, Gandhi and his cheerleaders always thought that media would lap whatever he said or did. It will make a positive story out of all he does or doesn’t do and keep him in the limelight in a positive way. But sheer arrogance of a decade hasn’t really worked out.  Bad press ahead of the Lok Sabha elections has forced the Congress heir apparent to change his media strategy and approach the press. So, I was there at the interaction which was supposed to begin at 5.15 pm at the Chandigarh Club. I did not mind when the interaction was delayed by almost an hour as I expected Rahul to speak his mind out on national issues, hitherto a forbidden area for him. But it was not to be.

In the entire conversation spanning around 40 minutes, there was nothing significant which Rahul spoke and which I already did not know as a journalist and an avid consumer of news. The only thing, I thought, was different was the answer to a question as to why he did not shave every day. Frustrated at his answers and strategy of ducking inconvenient questions, a journalist, perhaps jokingly asked the question on his shaving pattern and stubble and the perennial question, when will he get married. On shaving every day, Rahul said his beard is hard and he finds it inconvenient to shave everyday as he gets bruises. I never knew that and returned enlightened. On the question of marriage, Rahul preferred to give an expression of smile-cum-frustration but did not answer it making sure that the journalist sounded silly asking this. Anyway, this question has been put to him hundreds of time in the last 10 years and now no one bothers to ask it any longer. Many think that he crossed the marriageable age long time ago; the minimum legal age in India to get married is 21. He will turn 44 in June and in India this is the age when many are in the process of getting their children married and becoming grandparents.

Anyway, as he was continuously talking about women empowerment in his entire conversation, another senior journalist got an idea and said if he married, at least one woman would be empowered. Rahul preferred to ignore the jibe which was perhaps aimed at him taking refuge in the word “women empowerment” repeatedly.

At the outset when the ground rules were set in for the interaction, we were told that it was an “off the record” interaction and Gandhi should not be quoted. But when journalists insisted, Gandhi simply said you may ask Ajay Maken (head of Congress media department in New Delhi) about it. Come on Rahul, no one would take the trouble to call Maken as you never said anything which was actually worth quoting. In any case being a party vice-president you can easily take a decision on the spot if you want to be quoted or not. Delegating such a simple decision to another party leader in front of journalists does not speak well of your leadership qualities. 

Without bothering whether it was on the record or off, at the outset, I asked him about the opinion polls which project the worst ever performance of Congress and the best ever by BJP and what was his take on these polls. The Congress vice-president simply dismissed the opinion polls saying that they were held in 2004 and even in 2009. He also did not reply when reminded that these opinion polls predicted Congress defeat in the four States which went for Assembly polls in December last year.

Then it was the turn of a friendly editor, known for his pro-Congress inclination. He asked about the vision of Gandhi about the issues facing the country. Now Gandhi’s eyes lit bright and he jumped on the opportunity and lectured us on the importance of women empowerment, bringing the poor above the poverty line, Right to Food Bill, Right to Information and how his father Rajiv Gandhi brought computers in the country and the Opposition at that time laughed at him. When the lecture went on and on leaving the journalists exasperated, a nice soul interrupted the monologue and put a question on lack of growth, employment opportunities and economic downslide. Rahul thought for a while or at least made that expression and came out with a gem — this was happening everywhere. Then all of a sudden, he again jumped at the claim on how the UPA Government has brought in 15 crore people from below to above poverty line.

In the entire interaction, Rahul refused to reply directly to any question or suggestion, using vague ideas throughout to put his obscured point of view through. He referred to various “Rights” which UPA made as law, MGNREGAs, how the party brought Lok Pal Bill but never talked about what the Government would do if voted to power and what will be the agenda. He almost verbatim repeated what he said at Gannaur in Haryana earlier on the same day while interacting with farmers. The rest of his answers were from his speeches at public meetings all over the country, clearly failing to realise that in this age of media boom and live telecast, a consumer of news knows what he has spoken and where. He perhaps forgot that he was interacting with senior media persons, not all of whom are reverential towards the first family of Congress and want a Rajya Sabha berth under the nominated category.

Asked about high command culture prevalent in Congress and how every decision is taken in Delhi even as he talked about democratisation in NSUI, Youth Congress and holding primaries in a dozen odd seats, all he said was that more decentralisation was needed but Congress was far better party than BJP in this regard. His attack on BJP was all on similar lines which we have heard everywhere — power there (in BJP) is concentrated in one person while we talk of empowering the people, they talk of breaking and we talk of bringing people together etc.

I remember a similar interaction with Rahul almost five years ago at his 12 Tughlaq Lane residence-cum-office in New Delhi. Around 30 journalists covering the Congress party as a beat got a call to make it to the interaction with Gandhi who was then a party General Secretary. Surprised, everyone who got the call went there, yours truly included. Again, it was a monologue, ducking inconvenient questions, talking about what he knew rather than what was being asked. Finally, it was agreed that the entire conservation and interaction would be “off the record” on the promise of Rahul and his aide Kanishka Singh that it would become a regular feature. It never became a regular feature and it is only now when Lok Sabha elections are round the corner that Rahul has again thought of engaging with media persons — something which he always thought was not worth doing or below his stature left at best for the battery of spokespersons.

 So, there we are. Even after interacting with Rahul in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, hearing his speeches all over the country on news channels and reading it on websites and newspapers, going through the press releases which his office sends regularly on my e-mail ID, I am not any wiser. I still do not know what is Rahul’s stand on various issues, what is his blueprint for economic growth and social equity, how is he better than his opponents and how will he tackle various economic and social challenges.

It seems Rahul has stopped learning as the interaction at 12 Tughlaq Lane in New Delhi almost five years ago was no different from the one at Chandigarh Club last Monday. In five years you can do a PhD in two subjects but Gandhi remained the same. Both interactions were vague, without any substance, unappealing and even if you went there with the intention to support Congress, you will return and vow not to vote for the party given the naiveté of the heir apparent, dismissive approach, air of arrogance, contempt for those opposed to his idea and un-accommodative authoritarian approach in functioning.

Perhaps a stint in Opposition would teach him what 10 years in Government has not been able to do. Perhaps he will have to unlearn what he has learnt so far in politics and make a fresh beginning to sound appealing. After all he is not heading a 10-member NGO but is the de facto head of a 128-year-old party.
(March 3, 2014)