BJP picks Jairam as HP CM

Amitabh Shukla | Shimla 

After an internal power struggle in the Himachal BJP for five days, the party announced the name of soft-spoken Jairam Thakur, having strong roots in the RSS, as the new Chief Minister.

With the party doing exceedingly well in the Mandi region in the Assembly polls, winning nine of the 10 seats, the Rajput leader got the nod ahead of other contenders and will be the first leader from this region who will get the coveted post.

All other Chief Ministers of the State so far have been from Kangra, Shimla and the lower hills. Soon after his name was announced, the tense political atmosphere in Shimla, decked in festive spirit ahead of Christmas and New Year, turned boisterous with his supporters bursting into impromptu celebrations.

Thakur, the 52-year-old five-time MLA from Seraj in Mandi was chosen after the BJP chief ministerial face Prem Kumar Dhumal faced a shock defeat from Sujanpur constituency, the result of which was announced on December 18.

After the BJP won two thirds majority, Dhumal’s supporters pitched in for his name despite his defeat, crediting him with the impressive performance of the party in the polls. He was one of the top contenders for the post despite his defeat but at the last moment, the Central leadership of the party convinced him and his supporters that this would not send good signal to the rest of the country as the countdown for the general elections of 2019 has already begun.

Another serious contender for the top job was Union Health Minister JP Nadda. But party sources maintained that sending him to the hill State would have ensured a vacancy in the Union Council of Ministers and also the BJP Parliamentary Board which would have led to some difficulties for the Centre. Also, he would have had to contest an Assembly bypoll in six months and given the defeat of Dhumal in the Assembly polls, it was not easy in the current political situation.

Though a low-profile politician, Thakur cut his teeth as a pracharak of the RSS in the Jammu region before shifting to electoral politics. He has been a State party chief and has a good experience in Government as Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister in the BJP Government headed by Dhumal. Though the party leaders on record did not give importance to the caste factor, it is a well-known fact that Himachal politics is driven around the Thakur (Rajput) axis and this perhaps contributed to a consensus on his name. “One Thakur (Dhumal) makes way for another Thakur,” summed up a party functionary in the State capital, suggesting that any other caste for the top job would have led to apprehensions.

Thakur was elected leader of the BJP Legislature Party after the Central leadership convinced the State leaders on Saturday itself that the observers — Nirmala Sitharaman and Narendra Tomar — had found a consensus. The observers had submitted their report to party president Amit Shah and a consensus was built around Thakur’s name in consultation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi even before the meeting of the Legislature Party, sources indicated.

In the BJP Legislature Party meeting on Sunday, Thakur’s name was proposed by Suresh Bhardwaj, himself a contender for the top job, two-time former Chief Minister Dhumal and seconded by Nadda and another two-time Chief Minister Shanta Kumar. Tomar later told the waiting mediapersons that there was no other name in contention and Thakur was chosen unanimously as the leader of the BJP Legislature Party.

The Central observers Sitharaman and Tomar were present along with Nadda and State party in-charge Mangal Pandey in the meeting of the MLAs. It is understood that all the pros and cons were worked out in advance and a decision on Thakur’s name was taken before the meeting of the Legislature Party and the announcement was a mere formality.

Soon after the Legislature Party meeting, the Chief Minister-elect met Governor Acharya Devvrat at Raj Bhavan to formally stake claim to form the new Government in the State. Party top brass was present at the meeting, including Dhumal, indicating that there was complete unanimity after his election for the top job. Thakur is likely to take oath of office and secrecy soon after Christmas.

Thanking all party leaders, including Prime Minister Modi, party chief Amit Shah, Nadda, Dhumal and Shanta Kumar, Thakur said his Government will try to meet the expectations of the people of Himachal Pradesh. “Our dream of a Congress-free Himachal Pradesh has been realised,” an enthusiastic Thakur told a huge media gathering.

After his stint in the RSS, Thakur contested for the first time on a BJP ticket in the 1993 Assembly polls but lost. He won for the first time in 1998 and has won five elections so far, including this one and has considerable legislative experience and also sway amongst the newly elected MLAs. 

Riding on a strong anti-incumbency wave, the BJP had ousted the Congress from power by winning 44 out of the 68 seats in the Assembly polls. Thakur will be the sixth leader of the State to occupy the Chief Minister’s Office and the 14th Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. (December 25, 2017)

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BJP's landslide in HP, but CM face bites dust

 

Amitabh Shukla | Shimla

Riding a strong anti-incumbency wave and a positive vote for change, the BJP on Monday wrested the hill State of Himachal Pradesh from the Congress and will form the next Government.

Though Himachal affirmed its faith in the policies of the NDA Government and gave thumbs up to the intensive campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the electoral strategy of BJP chief Amit Shah, it, however, gave some jitters to the party. BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal bit the dust. He was defeated in Sujanpur from where he was contesting for the first time and not from his traditional stronghold of Hamirpur by protégé-turned rival Rajinder Rana.

After Dhumal’s defeat, some of his camp followers among the newly elected MLAs, offered to vacate their seats for him. BJP’s victorious candidate from Kutlehar Kunwar Vikram Singh offered to vacate his seat for bringing in Dhumal to the State Assembly. A section of his supporters floated conspiracy theories as he was allotted a constituency, which was altogether new for him.

A Dhumal supporter said being a disciplined soldier of the party, he accepted to contest elections from any seat given. He said late announcement of Dhumal’s name as CM candidate has cost him personally as he could not focus on his own constituency but in the entire State where he ensured the success of BJP.

Dhumal, who contributed significantly in the overall success of the party along with his son and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur, accepted his defeat and said that the result was unexpected and the party would do introspection. He congratulated the winners and party workers for the spectacular victory.

The defeat diluted the sweet taste of victory as the party will have to look for someone else, most probably, Union Minister JP Nadda, the choice of the central leadership, as the next head of the Government. The loss of state BJP president Satpal Singh Satti also was not music to the ears of BJP supporters.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and party leader Narendra Tomar will visit Shimla to get the opinion of the newly elected legislators in a day or two to decide on the new name.

Interestingly, the State continued with the three-decade-old tradition of voting out the incumbent Government even as Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh continuously maintained in the campaign that anti-incumbency was not an issue.

What has come as a personal silver lining for the septuagenarian six-time Chief Minister is the victorious electoral debut of his son Vikramaditya Singh from Shimla Rural constituency. His own victory from Arki constituency was hardly a surprise even though he never went there to campaign after filing his nomination papers. 

Singh accepted the defeat. “I own responsibility for the defeat…,” he said in the state Capital, adding that he respects the mandate of the people as it was their prerogative of making a party victorious. Singh, who single handedly, campaigned in the State, however, indicated that he got little support from the central leadership of the party. 

Congress cabinet Ministers GS Bali, Kaul Singh Thakur, Prakash Chaudhary and Thakur Singh Bharmouri faced defeat in the polls. 

Another surprise was the victory of CPI(M) after two and a half decades in the State from Theog, a seat which was represented by Vidya Stokes in the last Assembly. The area made headlines after a schoolgirl from the area was gangraped and the issue turned into anger against the Virbhadra Singh Government and the opposition successful cornered him for deteriorating law and order situation.

The tally of 44 for the BJP and 21 for the Congress in the 68 member House, almost two thirds majority in the State, suggested strong grip of BJP following its sweep in the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 where it had won all the four seats. In the outgoing House, the Congress and the BJP had 36 and 26 seats respectively. (December 19, 2017)

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Eyes on the road and hands upon the wheel

 

Amitabh Shukla 

You cannot have a decent quality life anywhere in the country without quality roads: Whether you go to school or cycle to work, whether your trip is on the tractor to the local mandi or a long drive in a sleek car...

For a lot of fellow citizens, the vast expanse of black bitumen on roads, unbroken and serpentine stretches, with wide expanses of the countryside and the hills unfolding, sends the adrenaline pumping. Ask those who travel on many bitumen wonders or highways of the country and they will swear by the excitement driving on them has to offer.

Driving is not only a stress buster but also a learning experience. Nature, people, aspirations, food, culture, society, the economy… you name it. Being based in Chandigarh is of great help when planning a long drive due to its geographical advantage — it lies in the foothills of the Shivalik range and the great Indian plain ends here. The joint capital of Punjab and Haryana is perched on the edge of the vast expanse of the Indo-Gangetic belt, the mainstay of Indian agriculture since the Indus Valley Civilization. So, one has the best of both geographical worlds, the hills and the plains, in front of one, a diversity which is rare in any part of the world.

I may be a travel junkie and love driving for the fun of it plus I can select very good highways in the vicinity to hit the road, but for a majority of the people in the country the use of roads is an everyday necessity. You cannot have a decent quality life anywhere in the country without quality roads. Whether you go to school or cycle to work, whether you go to the local mandi on your tractor to offload your produce in a bullock cart or whether you are on a road trip in a sleek car. In many ways, the first contact of a citizen with the effectiveness or lack thereof of a Government is the road s/he uses to get from Point A to Point B.

The National Highway I, for example, which connects Delhi to the two prosperous States of Punjab and Haryana, takes you to Himachal Pradesh on the one hand and Jammu & Kashmir on the other. There would hardly be any decision-maker in the Capital or in the four northern States who must not be using this road for travel purposes. The stretch between Panipat and Jalandhar should have been converted into six-lane in 2011 but it was left to the Supreme Court to issue directions to the concessionaire which ensured the completion of the project only recently.

This project should now be used as a case study in school management how not to build new road projects. It should also be used as a case study to give contracts for other road projects so that they do not get into legal wrangles and cost over runs. Drive ahead to Jalandhar in Punjab and one would find a major flyover stuck in legal mess for years together on the national highway. Every motorist, who use the highway, curse the authorities as it spoils the pleasure of their journey.

Further, there’s yet another expressway which should have been built years ago — the much awaited Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) expressway — which is expected to reduce vehicular congestion and as a result, pollution in the Capital but has perpetually been under construction with one legal issue or the other cropping up every time. This can be yet another case study of a project in the management of schools with the chapter saying: How not to build a road; KMP case study!

What perplexes me the most is that most national highways have perpetually been under construction since years. Most of them are being six-laned. Two decades back, the National Highways Authority of India  was under the process of converting the highways into four-lanes. I wonder whether construction and widening would be a permanent feature of the roads. Half a decade from now, the need will be of eight-lane roads and maybe 15-20 years down, the volume of traffic may force the authorities to have 20-lane roads.

One fails to understand what prevents the authorities from constructing 12-lane roads straight away in important stretches, keeping in view the traffic scenario of 2040? It does not require rocket science to know that the number of vehicles on roads keep increasing everyday and vehicles need space to move. I am sure after the six-laning of NH-8, which goes to Jaipur and Mumbai, the need will again be to make eight-laned roads in the next five years and then 10-laned roads in another 15 years from now. Why not build it today itself? If it’s not planned today, construction activities will continue all the time and one will hardly find a 200-250 km of expressway free from construction or broadening activities.

The Ambala-Zirakpur (Chandigarh) stretch was four-laned only six years ago and already the need is being felt to widen it to six-lane with multi-storied housing complexes coming in vicinity of Chandigarh and accompanying vehicles clogging the road. What worsens the situation is the fact that whenever a new stretch of road comes up, there is heightened economic activity around it. Housing colonies are built, shops, eateries and small scale establishments come up and even rural population shifts towards the road to take benefit of the new economic activity.

In the last few years, there has been hectic construction activity on NH from Delhi to Amritsar, Delhi to Jaipur and Delhi to Lucknow via Moradabad and Bareilly. Shifting of economic activity in and around the roads will lead to a situation where only a few stretches alongside the highway will be left for paddy or mustard fields as the remaining space will be gobbled up by commercial activities.

Coming back to the joy of travelling on the road, nothing can beat the hilarious shop sign — ‘child bear’ sold here. It’s only when you take the kids to see the baby bear and are confronted by a liquor shop selling ‘chilled beer’ that the truth dawns.

Trucks, however, rule the roost when it comes to innovative slogans. Most slogans appeared like works of fledgling litterateurs, who could not get their work published and, had rather taken to writing slogans on trucks as a career! Himmat hai to aage nikal, warna bardasht kar (If you are brave enough, overtake me, otherwise tolerate me), warned one frightening slogan. I was brave enough and overtook the truck without any fuss. The driver merely brought out an extended palm from the window of his huge vehicle and facilitated the overtake without taking the slogan written on his truck seriously.

Imagination ran wild in the case of some slogans. Recently, on a trip to Shimla, I thought the owner of one of the trucks or its driver was using abusive language when the slogan at the back said, Teri Ma ki. However, in equally bold letters followed Jai Ho. So, the entire slogan read: Teri Ma ki jai ho. I never came across such a slogan anywhere!

Another slogan said, Amiro ki zindagi biscuit aur cake par, driver ki zindagi clutch aur brake par. There were hundreds more. Tata phir milenge and buri nazar wale tera muh kala seemed to be written on maximum number of trucks and read like a national slogan of the big Indian beast that were the trucks with number plates identifying vehicles from far and wide including Orissa, West Bengal, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Kerala.

One fuel station on NH 1 was giving a bathing soap free for every 100 litres of diesel and the limit was 400 litres. Half a dozen of trucks and their drivers were lazing around early morning in the vicinity of the fuel station, giving an indication that marketing strategy indeed worked.

At another, if a driver had to use a clean toilet, he had to fill in fuel first. Fill the tank, get a slip and then show it to the guard in front of the toilet to ease yourself. Another private fuel station had kept a log book of the diesel filled in by a particular vehicle in a month. The prizes were good-set of steel glasses for 1,000 litres, briefcase for 2,000 litres, branded shirt so on and so forth.  Business on roads has become quite innovative over the months and years. Knowing about it is the perk of road travel. (17 Dec, 2017)  

 http://www.dailypioneer.com/sunday-edition/agenda/opinion/eyes-on-the-road-and-hands-upon-the-wheel.html

Gujarat model and after: Need for a long-term policy

The long wait may be over but many questions remain

 

That Rahul Gandhi is finally being elevated to lead the Congress is not surprising at all. Nevertheless, the million dollar question is: Has the Congress scion developed the political acumen to take on the BJP?

Amitabh Shukla

It was one of the worst kept or rather the most publicized secret of Indian politics — Rahul Gandhi becoming the president of the Congress. Ever since he came into politics and contested the Amethi Lok Sabha seat 13 years ago in 2004, there was not even an iota of doubt that he would be the top boss of the party one day.

The reason is simple: ‘Dynasty’ is the keyword for the Congress and a leader, whose mother, father, grandmother and great grandfather have been Congress presidents, would naturally take over the mantle some day. There is no rocket science involved here and everyone, even in the remotest part of the country, perhaps, knew it. It was simply a matter of time as the question merely was ‘when’ and not ‘who’.

No wonder, soon after he became an MP, there had been a consistent clamour by an overwhelming section of the younger generation of Congress leaders, primarily the dynasts and speculation in the middle and upper echelons of the deeply entrenched party men and women, as to when and how will Rahul Gandhi take over from his mother, Sonia Gandhi.

Now that the decks have been cleared and the heir-apparent for a long time would finally take over as Congress president in the first week of December, speculations will finally end. In fact, after having occupied the post of the party president for the highest number of years in the entire 132-year-old history of the Congress, speculation would now be on the role of party chief Sonia Gandhi in the grand old party. Also, what will now be the role of the old guard of the Congress, which has been consistently loyal to Sonia Gandhi and who managed to read her mind over the years as also influenced her directly or indirectly, occasionally in conflict with the stated desires of the younger Gandhi. 

Perhaps what prompted the Congress to anoint Rahul Gandhi as the new party chief at this juncture in the month, when the Congress was founded in 1885, was the perpetual indisposition of 70-year-old Sonia Gandhi. In the high decibel, Himachal Pradesh Assembly election, she did not campaign at all. Even in the ongoing campaign in Gujarat, she is conspicuous by her absence. She was vacationing in Himachal Pradesh when a small bout of illness again forced her to go back to Delhi. She has been in and out of India for treatment for a while now.

In fact, it was the 47-year-old Rahul Gandhi, who was made the party vice president in 2013, who was the de facto party president for the last four years after officially becoming the Number Two in the party hierarchy at the Jaipur convention. It is a different matter that now, this official No. 2 position is being sought to be elevated to Number 1, even though the entire brass of the party knows that the actual decision-making since 2013 was being done by Rahul Gandhi himself.

The million dollar or rather the billion rupee question is: Has Rahul Gandhi re-invented himself to take on the mantle of not only the Congress but also the electoral charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi?

As we can see in the electoral polity, it is increasingly becoming a clash of towering personalities, something similar to the presidential form of contest and electioneering in the United States. Rahul Gandhi proved himself to be incapable of taking on Prime Minister Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, followed by several Assembly elections, the most important of which was the Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll.

In his home State, Rahul Gandhi himself selected the candidates, and decided to go for an electoral alliance with the Samajwadi Party and then faced one of the most crushing defeats of his lifetime, the second time in a row. When he took the mantle in the 2012 Uttar Pradesh poll, taking all decisions, the party just managed a little over five per cent of the seats. Both in 2012 and 2017, the entire political strategy in the largest State of the country of the soon-to-become Congress president collapsed like a house of cards, exposing him to several uncomfortable and probing questions.

Of course, what saved Rahul Gandhi from a complete political humiliation in March this year was the redemption in Punjab to a great extent. Here again, in the clash of two personalities — Capt Amarinder Singh on one side and the Badal duo on the other (Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal), the former won. Even though Rahul Gandhi’s political strategy was limited to non-interference in Punjab affairs and leaving almost everything to Capt Amarinder, no one would really call it a sign of a maturing Rahul Gandhi. Punjab cannot really be termed as a victory for Rahul Gandhi’s political acumen. Not even the staunchest Congress supporter would buy that argument.

So, what has changed between the disaster of Uttar Pradesh in March and certain ascension of Rahul Gandhi in December? Politically, nothing but perception wise, the Congress is thinking that the tide is somewhat turning against the BJP at the Centre and it is the right time for Rahul Gandhi to take over so that he can be projected as a leader of stature against Modi in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha poll. The party, perhaps, thinks that by projecting a prime ministerial candidate, they would be able to stitch up an anti-Modi alliance in the remaining months.

There is also a belief amongst Congress strategists that an element of voter fatigue with the BJP has crept in after being in power for three and a half years at the Centre and they are increasingly finding traction once again amongst the electorate.

In the last six months or so, speeches of Rahul Gandhi in foreign countries and during election campaigns in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, is being cited as signs of the maturing of a leader. Of course, Rahul Gandhi does not sound immature now the way he did all through his tenure as a politician, it remains to be seen how it translates into votes in the near future. In fact, trust deficit of the electorate with the Congress has only widened over the years and months since the summer of 2014, when the grand old party of the country was reduced to its lowest figure in its entire electoral history of independent India.

Instead of reinventing itself in any big way and offering a new narrative to counter the electoral juggernaut of the BJP, the Congress is more or less counting on anti-incumbency, if any, against the Modi Government and is hoping that the alleged negative impact of demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax on the economy would help it overcome the political odds stacked against it. Being the principal opposition party at the Centre and most States, it is hoping that it would come to power by default rather than by a concrete design and roadmap. Is it a mere wishful thinking or is there any concrete electoral traction on the ground, only the results of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat on December 18 would show.

Rahul Gandhi would become the party president in the middle of the Gujarat election campaign — a State where the party is hoping to make a comeback bid. Not that the Congress hopefuls are hoping to return to power in a State where they have been out of the equation for decades. All they are thinking at this moment is a good show to use it as a launch pad for the next 16 months when the rival political parties would try to match each other in high decibel in the run up to the general election of 2019. (Nov 26, 2017)

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