The road ahead for Sidhu and the BJP

Amitabh Shukla | in Oped

Navjot Singh Sidhu's exit may not hurt the BJP, but in case he joins the AAP, it will be a challenge for him to get used to the dictatorial-style of Arvind Kejriwal

The exit of Navjot Singh Sidhu from the BJP might not have much impact on the Punjab unit of the party, except on its psychological bearings to some extent, in the run-up to the Assembly poll early next year. Despite loud claims of the new patrons of Sidhu, he was practically out of politics for a pretty long time; he hardly campaigned for the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and had even boycotted the campaign for his political ‘guru', Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in Amritsar Lok Sabha seat. To add to his political see-saw, now, he has ditched the man he often called his ‘role model' — Prime Minister Narendra Modi — despite being given a Rajya Sabha nomination, barely three months ago.

It is a different matter altogether that had Sidhu contested the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, his defeat margin could have been much higher than that of Jaitley and he would have left politics. When I was in Amritsar, covering the campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, I felt that there was a discernible undercurrent against Sidhu and his two terms as an MP, and it proved to be costly for Jaitley. What made matters worse was an intransigent approach of Sidhu who refused to be seen on the same platform with Jaitley throughout the campaign, despite being the sitting MP from the place. No one in the BJP ever asked Sherry, as Sidhu is popularly known, if it was prudent and morally correct to ditch a ‘guru’ for one's ego and nothing else?

In fact, indications of growing unpopularity of the sitting MP became visible in the last few years. Sidhu's wife, Navjot Kaur Sidhu won from Amritsar East constituency in 2012 Assembly poll, a part of Sidhu's constituency then, narrowly only because of a rebel Congress candidate who was in the second position. Sidhu himself won the 2009 Lok Sabha poll by merely 7,000 votes, a far cry from the voter percentage of over 55 he got in the 2004 poll and over 50 in the 2007 by-election.

His victory margin in the three elections he fought from the holy city, including a by-election, consistently came down. The biggest fault for the BJP was that it could not see the writing on the wall as far as the role of Sidhu was concerned and continued to trust the former Indian cricketer despite his direct and indirect role in the defeat of Jaitley. It was fairly clear then that Sidhu could not be trusted for a bigger role in the party.

The reasons for Sidhu's disenchantment is not far to seek. He could not get big ticket projects for his constituency, he could not build a bridge with the cadres of the BJP as he never felt he was a part of them and was continuously in bickering mode with the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal which the BJP had allied with. Also, perhaps he nursed the idea of heading the SAD-BJP coalition one day which was not practical as SAD was the bigger part of the alliance.

Sidhu's desire that the BJP should severe its ties with the SAD lacked political imagination from the very beginning. Given the socio-religious dimensions of Punjab and it being a Sikh-dominated State, the BJP was not in a position to think about it. Also, the BJP is present largely in the cities and urban pockets of the State and cannot do without the massive rural and Jat peasantry support of the Akali Dal. Moreover, given the tumultuous past of the State and militancy, leaders like Parkash Singh Badal, may have other limitations and inadequacy, but have continuously worked for communal amity and a SAD-BJP alliance was crucial in this scheme of things.

In fact, his wife and MLA from Amritsar, Navjot Kaur Sidhu too simply ranted the political views of her husband. She was at loggerheads with almost everyone in Punjab BJP and the Akali Dal and was a “rebel without cause” as a BJP leader put it.

Even though Sidhu's exit may not hurt the BJP to that extent as he was, in any case, a non-playing batsman, it would definitely bolster the chances of Aam Aadmi Party as and when he decides to join it. Playing the role of non-conformist throughout his political career would help him in his new avatar and give him fresh political life. However, he still will have to conform to the norms of the AAP and the one-man dictatorship that has emerged in the party of late. It will of course be a challenge to the new convert to AAP ideology given his past record. (July 21, 2016)

 http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/oped/the-road-ahead-for-sidhu-and-the-bjp.html

Sidhu’s pregnant pause feeds speculation about next move

 

 

Amitabh Shukla | Chandigarh

It was a strategic silence by cricketer-turned-politician-turned comedy show judge Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday that triggered a political speculation as to which way the former Indian batsman is headed.

After quitting his Rajya Sabha seat on Monday, the 52-year-old Sidhu remained on what his wife with the same first name, Navjot Kaur Sidhu, called a “maun vrat” on the day of Buddha Purnima. Sidhu’s phone remained on the silent mode throughout the day even as his wife did the plain talk and threw several potential possibilities for Sidhu.

The three possibilities at this moment for the former Amritsar MP are — remain with the BJP, join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and become its face in Punjab or to hang on to the lollypop thrown by Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh and join the party, like his father did decades ago. However, like a seasoned cricket analyst, Navjot Kaur gave ample hints that her husband was on his way to bat for Arvind Kejriwal’s party in Punjab.

Like a good batsman, Sidhu played the waiting game on the turning track but his MLA wife said the nominated member of the BJP had simultaneously resigned from the Rajya Sabha seat and the party as well. But giving indications of a compromise, she said she was still a part of the SAD-BJP Government in Punjab and would continue as Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS). Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal too said he has not got any resignation so far though he said the exit of Sidhu from the BJP will not make any difference on the prospects of the alliance in the Punjab Assembly polls early next year.

As Sidhu kept the suspense, there was no official confirmation from the Punjab BJP of his resignation from the party. “Both Navjot Singh Sidhu and his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu are still in the BJP,” said State BJP chief and Union Minister Vijay Sampla. He said that the party would react only when it gets an official statement from Sidhu.

But BJP sources indicated that this time no one from the BJP would reach out to Sidhu given his unpredictable political behaviour. “He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has clearly betrayed his trust by resigning without consulting anyone in the party. Earlier, he refused to campaign for Arun Jaitley from Amritsar. His days in the party are over,” said a senior BJP leader in Punjab.

Amritsar East MLA maintained that her husband had resigned from the BJP due to differences with the SAD which has “pushed him to the wall and he was left with no option”. She added that she was not aware that Sidhu was going to resign and waiting to listen from him about his future plans.

“It is our principal stand that if the BJP continues its alliance with the SAD, we would not contest the next elections on the BJP ticket. And he has taken the decision as per his conscience,” said Navjot Kaur.

Without confirming that her husband would join the AAP, Navjot Kaur said she was an “ardent fan of Arvind Kejriwal”.

“I liked him because he talks about giving good education, free health facilities and cheap power to people. He is ground-level worker like me,” she said.

AAP sources in Punjab said that Sidhu, a Jat Sikh, would solve the party’s problem of leadership in the State where the political momentum is with it. “He is a candidate without any baggage, a typical leader of the AAP variety,” said a source.

Fishing in troubled waters, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh offered an olive branch to Sidhu, famous for his one liners and punch lines. He said Sidhu was welcome to join the Congress, if he desired to do so. “Congress party’s doors are open for everyone,” he remarked.

However, Amarinder clarified that there was no communication between him and Sidhu on the matter. The PCC president said, that Sidhu had a Congress background as his father late Bhagwant Singh Sidhu had remained an office-bearer of the District Congress Committee, Patiala.

Asked whether he had met Sidhu of late, Capt Amarinder said, “We are both from Patiala and we are both Sidhus”. He said he had seen him playing and practicing cricket when he was young. “I don’t remember having met him for a long time now,” he added.

The ball is in Sidhu’s court now. But it is almost certain that the doors of the BJP are close for him while that of the AAP has opened. (July 20, 2016)

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Of Trials and Tribulations

Amitabh Shukla | in Oped

A personal experience of the Modi regime’s excellent public grievance redressal system

As the Narendra Modi Government completed two years in office and is now approaching its mid- term, it will be fair to analyse its omissions and commissions as is being done extensively. While some will hail the BJP’s achievements as ‘unprecedented’, others will try to downplay what the Government has done in the past two years. They may even target it for various reasons.

Here, the discussion is limited to only one micro scheme of the Government which shows how the penetration of information technology has changed the grievance redressal system in our country. I’m talking about the public grievance portal of the Union Government — the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS). Some of the cases can be hailed as ‘revolutionary’. My personal experience with the system too reinforced my belief that indeed, Government departments work and they work very fast. I have two experiences to share and both are related to the postal department.

In the first instance, my father, who left for his heavenly abode two and a half years ago, left a very old post office savings bank account in his files. When I sent someone on Friday to Bettiah, a small district headquarter in north Bihar, to the Naya Bazar post office at the end of 2013, they came out with a plea that there was no nominee in the account and that one has to go through a lengthy process to claim the amount. Though the amount was only Rs35,000, there was a sentimental value attached to it as it belonged to my doctor father.

Then, in December 2015, at my home address in Bettiah, my mother got a registered post saying that the account of my father had been transferred from Hazaribagh and it indeed had a nominee — my mother. The letter said that they would enquire it from Hazaribagh and get the original nominee form there. We thought that the ordeal was over and soon my mother would get the cheque. However, that was not to be. After the last post, the postal department simply forgot to follow it up. The post master would continue to feign ignorance and refuse to process the matter. I felt it's better to forego the amount instead of putting someone to so much harassment and make him run from pillar to post for this.

It was then that someone told me about the public grievances portal — pgportal.gov.in — and how it is meant exactly for cases like this. I opened it one fine morning and gave the account details in the complaint section and wrote a brief description about the problem and the harassment I went through. It took me all of five minutes to seven minutes to lodge a complaint with my e-mail ID and mobile number given. Soon after lodging the complaint, I got a docket number which was to be used for future reference.

I logged into the portal again using the number sent to my mobile phone and e-mail after two hours. It had the details and said that the complaint is lying with the public grievance officer of the postal department, with an office at Parliament Street, New Delhi. Next day, in the morning, when I again opened the portal to see the status of the complaint, it had been sent to the public grievance officer at Patna General Post Office. In the next three hours, the complaint had reached the Superintendent of the West Champaran postal circle in whose jurisdiction the account existed. It was actually so fast.

In the evening, I got a call from the Superintendent of Posts that the matter has been processed and my mother is welcome to visit the post office the next day for signature and collecting the cheque which now totaled to Rs39, 480 after adding the interest. I was elated, the system had actually worked. The cheque was collected by my mother the next day. For the first time, I saw how this system cut through all sorts of hierarchies, paper work and obstacles put up by the babus and delivered to the common man who had hitherto been condemned to grease the palms of these very babus and treat them as sahibs all these years.

The second matter also pertained to the postal department. This time, it was the National Savings Certificate (NSC) of my father. The NSC matured at the end of March and I was the nominee in these papers. The agent, through whom my father used to invest in small savings scheme of the post office, got the paperwork done like depositing the death certificate and forms relating to the claim. He assured me that my presence was not required to claim the money. But when I was in Bettiah during the summer vacation, I signed the papers and got it deposited in the Lal Bazar post office from where the NSC was purchased.

But the post master of Lal Bazar post office would have none of it. He simply sat on the papers and did nothing. When I enquired from the agent, he said that the post master was playing truant. It was then that I rang up the Superintendent of the West Champaran Postal Circle, Manoj Sharma, who had processed the first case and who had talked to me regarding it a few days back. He talked to the Lal Bazar post master and asked me to send a scanned copy of my signature. I did that. But this post master was taught in the old school of bureaucracy and kept dilly dallying the payment to me. He consistently claimed that his office did not have the original NSC papers even though I had personally deposited it there. I had enough of it. Lodging a complaint with the public grievances portal was a click away. This time, in three days flat, the cheque was given to my representative in Bettiah.

CPGRAMS is the new hope for redressal of any grievance-related either to the Central or the State Government. While grievances related to departments of Central Government are handled quite efficiently, those pertaining to the States are passed on to the respective State Governments. An officer of the Indian Revenue Service said, “The monitoring of the system is done at the highest level and no laxity on the part of the officials tolerated. It is a new terror amongst the lazy officials of the Government”.

As monitoring is done at various levels, there is an unusual hurry on the part of the officials to dispose the complaints as everyone would now know at which end the problem exists. That to me is indeed a revelation and my personal experience with the CPGRAMS has been a pleasant exercise. (July 1, 2016

http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/oped/of-trials-and-tribulations.html

Congress on back foot on Kamal Nath

Pioneer Analysis

Amitabh Shukla

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi might have tried to score meaningless brownie points over the SAD-BJP combine with his sit-in against the drugs menace at Jalandhar in Punjab on Monday, but for  the party the state seems to be a lost cause now. A day before, the party gave a big stick to its rivals in the state to beat it with the appointment of Kamal Nath as the AICC General Secretary in-charge of the poll-bound Punjab.

“With one stroke of the pen, Congress leadership seems to have handed over Punjab to the SAD-BJP combine and the Aam Aadmi Party,” said a senior Congress leader here, on the appointment of Kamal Nath, whose name figured as one of the Congress leaders allegedly involved in the 1984 riots.

The leader reasoned, “it is not a question of being found guilty by a court of law…or not being charge sheeted. It is a question of perception which is what matters in politics, particularly when elections are a little over six months away”.

The appointment of the 69-year old MP from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh would have wide ranging political ramifications in the state and whatever momentum Capt Amarinder Singh was building ever since his appointment as PCC President would be lost in no time.   

Besides Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, two Congress leaders, whose name have repeatedly figured in various Commissions of enquiry, reports and eye-witness accounts, Kamal Nath was the third prominent leader whose name was associated with the mob violence against the Sikhs at Gurudwara Rakab Ganj in the heart of New Delhi.

While Congress ensured over the years that Kumar and Tytler have nothing to do with Punjab and of late, have been sidelined completely, Kamal Nath is the sole leader with the 1984 taint who has continuously been a minister whenever the Congress was in power and has been its longest serving MP now with nine terms. His imposition, all of a sudden in Punjab, has opened the old wounds of the Sikhs and triggered an anti Congress undercurrent which would be reflected in the elections a few months down the line.

Being an extremely sensitive state where religion mixes freely with politics and vice versa, not only the Sikh hardliners but even the moderate leaders   would find an issue around which they can spin their politics in the run-up to the February 2017 polls. Already the SAD-BJP combine and the AAP has launched a virulent campaign against the Congress on the issue, putting it on the defensive.

Not that an AICC General Secretary has much to do with electioneering and campaigning in a state but the symbolic gesture of the appointment itself is fraught with danger for the party.  Congress was on a revival mode, helped by the two-term anti-incumbency against the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and the unpopularity of some of the leaders of the ruling combine. The appointment of Capt Amarinder and bringing in Prashant Kishor boosted the morale of the grassroots Congress worker in the state, lying low for nine years now.

“How will these workers canvass for the Congress when rural Sikhs question them about the role of Kamal Nath? Won’t they become defensive straight away?” asked another leader.  He added, “Sikhs are emotional and sensitive and no amount of convincing that he was never charge sheeted or had a role in the riots, would cut the ice,” he added.

For the last half a century, Punjab had always been a two-party state with Congress on one hand and the Akalis on the other hand of the political divide. AAP emerged only at the time of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and now is a force to reckon with. With such a decision, many now say that soon Punjab would be back to the two-party system with SAD-BJP on one side and AAP on the other and Congress at the third spot.

Of course, AICC General Secretaries do not win elections; however, hard they may try. It is the public face of the party, its internal dynamism and the perception of the people along with several other micro factors which does that.  General Secretaries are merely back room operators who devise strategy, lobby for tickets for their faction and help some get nomination for some and deny tickets to some.  But Kamal Nath could perhaps be the first general secretary of the party in recent years who would surely contribute to the defeat due to the decision of the high command. Being a nine-term MP, surely Kamal Nath knows what important role public perception plays in politics.

So what is the way ahead for the Congress? Simple. Take back the appointment with immediate effect. Low profile leaders like Shakeel Ahmed whom he has replaced or B K Hariprasad would do the job as effectively as Kamal Nath without the heavy baggage of 1984 riots. But for that you need to first admit that the appointment of Nath was a mistake. But is anyone in the Congress is ready to admit that mistake, more so when it seems to have been made at the highest level.   (June 14, 2016)

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