RAISINA HILL (AUGUST)

Amitabh Shukla

Diary from the seat of power

SONIA

Congress President Sonia Gandhi was in the United States for two weeks to attend to her ailing mother Paola Maino undergoing treatment there. The issue of Gandhi’s absence from the country would not even have been known but for the scheduled appointment of Gandhi with the British Prime Minister David Cameron.

As Gandhi could not keep up the scheduled appointment with Cameron, Britain apparently wanted to know the reasons. The reasons appeared in a section of the media. None of the Congress leaders were aware of the absence of Gandhi who had gone to the US with her son and Congress leader Rahul. They cite security reason for non-disclosure of the personal visit of Gandhi to the US.

After Gandhi arrived in the country several decisions awaited her approval, which included inclusion of caste in census enumeration and taking decisions on important legislations for the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

Some leaders, however, still wonder why such an episode was kept a closely guarded secret. “The entire country would have wished her well,” quipped a party leader who came to know about the illness of Gandhi’s mother through the newspapers.

AJIT SINGH

The mercurial leader having a solid support base in Western Uttar Pradesh is now finding it difficult to trudge alone in the political battlefield. The son of the late Charan Singh, whose political legacy he inherited, Ajit Singh is not averse to joining Congress to better his fortunes in the state.

“For the last two decades or so, he is getting 10-15 odd seats in the state assembly and 3-5 Lok Sabha seats. For how long can he remain content with this. He should be looking at a bigger, all India canvas,” remarked a senior Congress leader.

Elections for Uttar Pradesh Assembly are slated to be held in early 2012 and the political mathematics and the calculators are working fast now. While Congress wants the merger of the Ajit Singh led RLD, Singh himself believes that an alliance is the best option for him. The bonhomie between Singh and Congress came out in the open when he supported Congress nominee Captain Satish Sharma for the Rajya Sabha elections from the state. Sharma would never had won had it not been for the support of the Jat leader.

However, in this game of political one up manship where both the parties want a better deal, it remains to be seen who has the last laugh, Congress or the RLD.

MAMATA

With Congress eager to stage a comeback in West Bengal, riding a piggyback on Mamata Banerjee, the riddles of the party and the worry lines are only increasing. The latest in the episode was the involvement of Maoists in a rally at Lalgarh.

"Congress has extended moral support to the rally. The Committee comprising of Intellectuals, writers, artists and others are working for the restoration of peace in the area," party spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said.

The very next day, papers published photographs of wanted Maoists roaming around in the area during the rally. But Mamata has never been defensive about it as she sees the Maoists an active ally against the CPI(M) in West Bengal. “Enemy’s enemy is a friend,” quipped a leader, meaning that the Maoists are an enemy of the ruling CPI(M) while Trinamool Congress too is an enemy of the ruling party. Political observers are keenly watching how long this association continues.

COMMONWEALTH GAMES

The Commonwealth Games are headed to become a national shame even though the UPA government is trying its best to prevent the disaster from happening. The Opposition has demanded setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee or a CBI probe into the scam, a charge rubbished by the Congress.

However, the charges are gradually sticking and even the common people in the city of Delhi are now asking questions throwing in jeopardy the involvement of the local people, so crucial for the success of the Games.

(7.8.2010)

RAISINA HILL (DECEMBER)

Amitabh Shukla

Diary from the seat of power

Digvijay Singh

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh is in the eye of storm again after his controversial statements on Hemant Karkare, the chief of ATS in Mumbai. He had created a flutter by stating that slain Maharashtra ATS chief Karkare was under threat from right-wing groups, insisting that he had spoken to the police officer a few hours before the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in 2008.

"I am trying to get the records and I am sure those who are saying that I did not talk to Karkare would be proved wrong," he said, despite the BJP going in for a no holes barred criticism of Singh. Even the Congress disassociated itself with the remarks of Singh with party’s media department chief Janardan Dwivedi saying that the issue was a talk between two individuals.

Digvijay's remarks came following a media report which said that call records of Karkare's cell phone showed that he had neither called nor received a call from the Congress general secretary during that period. "I am absolutely firm on this. I did speak to Karkare and I have stated that already," Digvijay said in Guwahati.

Not only the BJP, even the wife of the police officer rubbished Digvijay’s claim even though the Congress General Secretary maintains that he indeed talked to Karkare. As Karkare is no more there to verify the facts, the buzz is that Digvijay’s statement has to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Congress Reshuffle

There is talk that there could be a large scale reshuffle in the Congress in the work allocation of the General Secretaries following the plenary of the party in New Delhi. However, party President Sonia Gandhi’s decision to hand over the charge of Assam to general secretary Digvijay Singh from Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily is being interpreted in party circles as an indication that the controversial leader would continue to play an important role post reshuffle. Gandhi will reconstitute the Congress Working Committee and appoint new general secretaries after the plenary session of the AICC.

Chidambaram

Union home minister P Chidambaram came under scathing criticism by the opposition for blaming the spate of crimes in Delhi due to migrant population. Stroking controversy, Chidambaram said, "I condemn the heinous crime of rape. Migrants are behind such crimes in the capital."

He said crime takes place because Delhi attracts a large number of migrants. Chidambaram’s ministry is responsible for maintaining law and order in the sprawling city of 14 million people. "There are a large number of unauthorised colonies and these migrants who settle in unauthorised colonies carry a kind of behaviour that is unacceptable in any modern city, so crimes do take place," he told reporters in New Delhi. He was reacting after an 18-year-old girl was gang raped in a moving car. A few days ago, another girl from North East was raped in the city.

The Opposition RJD and Samajwadi Party slammed Chidambaram for his remark. BJP leader Kirti Azad also criticized Chidambaram and said that Congress government has been trying to hide its failure and mistakes by blaming migrants. Chidambaram himself was quick to retract his statement but the damage was already done. A few years ago, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit too had made comments that the migrants were behind the civic woes of the city. She had to eat a humble pie as the Congress high command came cracking.

Gag Order

The gag order of Congress leadership has become a joke in the party circles with leaders awaiting the first politician who breaks the order issued by Janardan Dwivedi, chief of the media department of the party. General secretary Digvijay Singh merrily violated the order and went around talking about his conversation with slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare hours before his killing, about the 2G spectrum scam, possibility of mid-term polls, etc. Anil Shastri, editor of the party mouthpiece “Congress Sandesh” tweeted about Meera Shankar’s pat-down search in Mississippi and asking the government of India to take up her humiliation more strongly. Then it was J&K PCC chief Saifuddin Soz, who questioned Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh’s mandate to talk in Cancun about the acceptance of a legally binding commitment to cut emissions. UP Congress leader Jagdambika Pal followed suit violating the order and so did Law Minister M Veerappa Moily. “I do not understand why such gag orders are issued in the first place when they are complied more in breach,” said a senior party leader on the latest order and its fallout.

Parliament standoff

The standoff between the government and Opposition over the 2G spectrum scam has resulted in the wastage of over Rs 146 crore as the entire Winter session of Parliament was virtually washed out. The Winter Session began on November 9 and since a day after it, the entire Opposition has been hell-bent on demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into 2G spectrum allocation, which is believed to have resulted in losses to the tune of Rs 1.74 lakh crore. The government however, refused to yield to the demand, leading to a deadlock because of which Parliament was unable to function for more than 10 minutes per day on an average. On an average, the government spends Rs 6.35 crore per day to run the Parliament. As the Winter session has been adjourned sine die, the 23rd consecutive working day also ended without transaction of any business. This makes it clear that Rs 146.05 crore were spent without Parliament transacting any substantive business like Question Hour, debates and other legislative business.

(7.12.2010)

RAISINA HILL (APRIL)

Amitabh Shukla

Diary from the seat of power

Raja

The opposition has tasted blood after it forced Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja to resign from the Union Cabinet in the wake of the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

Though Raja himself put a brave face forward saying that he resigned to avoid embarrassment to the government and maintain peace and harmony in Parliament, the issue has propped up the question as to why the delay when he was actually named in the CAG report. Now even the Supreme Court has posed inconvenient questions to the government on the delay in the scam which was of a profound magnitude. It also suggests the coalition compulsions of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who could remove Shashi Tharoor of the Congress but not Raja of the DMK from the Cabinet.

47-year old Raja, said to be the dalit face of the DMK, faced the united opposition onslaught after the Comptroller and Auditor-General indicted the Minister for not allotting the 2G spectrum in a transparent manner, causing the exchequer a loss of over Rs. 1.40 lakh crore.

Sensing blood, the opposition is now demanding setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the entire matter. It would be interesting to see whether the government yields to the pressure or not and whether the opposition unity is fragile or would lead to another round of bout with the government on a host of issues.

RSS versus Congress

With corruption fast becoming a major political embarrassment for the Congress, the controversial comments of former RSS chief K S Sudarshan against UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi led to fierce war of words between the Congress and BJP.

Sudarshan, who was eased out of the RSS, sought to bring in conspiracy theories against Sonia Gandhi and saw her hand in some of the incidents affecting her family.

"We strongly condemn Sudarshan's statement” Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh said adding that Gandhi's personality has been of an ideal wife, daughter-in-law and mother. "To say such things against a person who has declined to accept the Prime Minister's post is totally condemnable," he said.

Sudarshan had called Gandhi a CIA agent and accused her of plotting assassinations of her husband and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and his mother Indira Gandhi bringing the political discourse to a new low.

The BJP, however, distanced itself from Sudershan's statement, saying Gandhi was an elected representative and should be treated with respect.

Political observers see a pattern in the entire episode. They point out that Sudershan's attack on Sonia Gandhi was triggered by Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's statement that RSS and banned outfit SIMI were both fanatical and held fundamentalist ideology.

However BJP leaders felt Sudershan had gone overboard. The RSS earlier launched a country wide sit-ins against the Congress strategy of linking it with terror in the wake of Indresh’s name cropping up in the Rajasthan ATS charge sheet regarding the Ajmer blasts.

Chief Ministers

After Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan was asked to go following the Adarsh co-operative scam in Mumbai, fingers are crossed in Congress circles as to who will be the next in line. The name of some Congress leaders is being talked about, the prominent is that of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

She is still trying to recover from the setback of the Commonwealth Games after Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi raised fingers at her as the Budget of the Delhi government was ten times more than that of the OC. Kalmadi, the MP from Pune, himself has been removed as the Secretary of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the wake of the scam. The house collapse in Delhi which led to 70 deaths has further compounded her woes. Some Congress leaders say that she should take moral responsibility for the episode and quit. Dikshit has been at the helm in Delhi for the last almost 12 years and several leaders say that she “has played her innings” and the party has to project someone else as its “winning face” for the 2013 Assembly elections.

Reshuffle

Clearly some vacancies have emerged in the Union Council of Ministers after the resignation of Prithviraj Chavan. He was holding charge of several ministries, including that of Science and Technology, Parliamentary Affairs, Personnel and also as a MoS in the PMO.

Telecom Minister A Raja too has gone and the portfolio given to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal temporarily. Earlier Shashi Tharoor had resigned as MoS External Affairs. None of these vacancies have been filled so far fuelling the possibility of a major reshuffle after the ongoing session of Parliament.

As Prithviraj Chavan was also an AICC General Secretary in-charge of important states like Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana, it is understood that there could be a reshuffle in the AICC Secretariat also sooner than later to make it more representative and have a better work allocation amongst the General Secretaries.

A lot of work remains to be done in the Congress Secretariat, including that of nominating the Congress Working Committee members. Political grapevine is that the Cabinet reshuffle will be done simultaneously with the reshuffle in the AICC so that there is no bitterness and somebody left out is accommodated in either of the two important places.

(7.11.2010)

RAISINA HILL (SEPTEMBER)

Amitabh Shukla

Diary from the seat of power

Singhvi

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the high-profile Congress spokesperson has been restrained from holding press briefings on behalf of the party, an act which is being seen as a setback for the Rajya Sabha member. His decision to represent a lottery company in Kerala High Court has not gone down well with the party unit in the state which is fighting a political battle against the CPI(M) in the state on the contentious issue.

The appearance of Singhvi, who is an eminent lawyer, in the High Court had raised a storm in the Kerala unit which had launched a campaign against promoters of lotteries from outside the state and senior state Congress leaders had complained to AICC over his action. Singhvi, who is also the Chairman of the AICC’s Legal and Human Rights Department, had earlier maintained that he was appearing for the Government of Bhutan in support of a Central government enactment and regulation of 2010 and it had nothing to do with politics. Later he announced his decision to withdraw from the case to avoid any controversy.

The ruling Left Democratic Front had seized the issue as a weapon to strike back at the Congress-led United Democratic Front which has taken the lotteries as one of the major issues in the campaign for civic polls this month.

As the Congress is left with one spokesperson short, the party has made it a practice to cancel the regular media briefings quite frequently. But the buzz in party circles is that Singhvi will spring back into the centre stage sooner than later as he is considered close to party President Sonia Gandhi. He had organized a convention of lawyers sometime back in Delhi in which both Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had participated which had increased his clout in the party.

Antony

Defence Minister A K Antony has blamed kickback scandals for the delays in procurement of military equipment and said the Armed Forces has lost 20 years as a result of the past controversies. The statement has stirred the hornet’s nest as people are questioning why the system could not be rectified earlier. "There are a lot of non-military persons who are concerned over the lack of equipment for our armed forces. But they should not forget the past controversies in defence procurements from 1980s to 1990s that engulfed the governments. As a result, we lost 20 years," Antony said addressing senior armed forces personnel in New Delhi. At the same time, he assured them that the government was trying to change the situation now through its defence production policy that was aimed at curbing corruption in defence deals.

Officials say the problems started after the Bofors kickback controversy in which the then government headed by Rajiv Gandhi was under the scanner. Even as the ghosts of Bofors have been buried, the realization has taken over 20 years, pushing the defence preparedness to some extent. People hope that this is rectified at the earliest.

Rahul Gandhi

An intense war of words took place between BJP and the Congress after Rahul Gandhi equated RSS with the banned SIMI and painted them with the same brush during his visit to Madhya Pradesh. He said both the organizations preached hardline fundamentalist ideologies. This evoked sharp reactions from the RSS and the BJP.

Incensed over being equated with SIMI, RSS hit out at Rahul saying he needs to learn more about the country before making such meaningless statements. RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav said Rahul should brush up his knowledge before making meaningless statements and should know the difference between RSS and banned outfits and know the history of Congress party, which has been accused of fundamentalism in the last six decades. The reaction of the BJP was sharper with the party with the party saying the young Congress leader seems to have lost his mental balance and shown his political immaturity by his comments.

"Only a sick mind can do it (compare RSS to SIMI). He seems to have lost his mental balance. RSS is an institution of nationalist thought while SIMI has been banned by their (Congress) government as it was banned by us when we were in power," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar reacted .

After the BJP’s sharp reaction, Congress hit back with General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi saying BJP's reaction on Gandhi's statement seems to be an outburst of an organisation having a "guilty conscience" and charged that its leaders do not have the "moral courage to accept the sins of their partymen and associates".

Even as charges and countercharges flew, senior party leaders said there should have been more restraint from both sides. “This is not the way political discourse takes place,” a Congress leader quipped.

Karnataka

The political drama in BJP-ruled Karnataka never refuses to end. From one political upheaval to the other, little time is left for governance. While the Reddy brothers call the shots sometime, they remain in the background on other occasions and control the political proceedings. No one for sure knows what is happening in the state which is the only one in south India ruled by the BJP. But the Congress says that the drama has been engineered by the BJP itself to keep away the focus from corruption which has dogged the government for months. “We have nothing to do with the crisis. We are not in the race to form the alternative government. We are amused. Waiting what the BJP can do to cripple itself in the state,” a Congress leader remarked on the developments. The latest crisis in the state arose after 20 MLAs -- 15 of the ruling BJP and five independents -- submitted a letter to state Governor H R Bhardwaj declaring withdrawal of support to the state government led by B S Yeddyurappa.

Bihar BJP

The crisis in the Bihar BJP in the wake of the resignation of the state unit President C P Thakur and then his decision to take it back has only sharpened the knives amongst the BJP leaders in the state. The section, led by Thakur wants the other section of the party led by Sushil Modi down and out. While Modi is an OBC, the upper caste leaders led by Thakur are saying that though the party wins with the support of the upper castes, it is having OBC leaders at the helm. Whatever the reason, the bickering on the eve of the assembly elections has not gone down well with the cadres who are finding it difficult to explain to the electorate the reasons for this mutual distrust.

(7.10.2010)

RAISINA HILL (JUNE)

By Amitabh Shukla

AMAR KATHA

Amar Singh, expelled from the Samajwadi Party, has a habit of being in news. So much so that he cannot do without media.

Not surprising, he says that some of his old party colleagues want him back in the SP. The contention of Amar was denied within hours by the SP which dismissed it as a claim without any basis.

With Amar's exit from the SP, the entire glamour quotient of the party has gone. The last in the list was Jaya Bachchan, who was given SP nomination for the second time in the Rajya Sabha but decided to opt out of the fray. It is understood that Amar Singh played a crucial role in the entire episode. Sanjay Dutt and Jaya Prada were the other prominent film-stars who rode piggy back on Amar for a berth in politics in the SP and then let it.

LALU U-TURN

RJD boss Lalu Prasad Yadav thinks that it was right time to make appropriate noises on behalf of the upper castes in view of the Bihar assembly elections in October-November. Fighting for his survival as another election loss would mean his political obituary, Yadav says that he is reaching out to the upper castes in the states.

The only problem is that no one is willing to listen to Yadav, a known upper caste baiter in his hey days when he ruled the roost in Bihar. The politician with a white hair and known for his humorous one-liners is fighting the battle of his life in Bihar. He wants all the cards in the right place. The only question is whether the upper castes ate listening to him.

NITISH

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is engaged in a shadow boxing with his ally Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). He knows it too well that both his JD-U and BJP compliment each other in Bihar and have entirely different vote bank which adds to the victory of both.

Attempting to woo the Muslim vote-bank from RJD, LJP and possibly the Congress, the Bihar CM used the pretext of the advertisements showing him with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to consolidate his weakening hold on the minorities.

As tension mounts in both the BJP and JD-U about the fallout of the episode, Lalu Prasad Yadav does not stop smiling. Both BJP and JD-U fighting separately would ensure the victory of his party, a scenario even the most optimistic RJD supporter would not imagine if the ruling alliance continues in Bihar. Congress too sees an opportunity here terming the NDA as a 'naturally dissolving alliance'.

SONIA

What Sonia Gandhi writes in the party mouthpiece 'Congress Sandesh' becomes the talking point for a while. "The Congress party has launched a mass contact programme in the country, with special attention being paid to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar," she said in her 'Letter to Congress persons' in the latest issue of the party magazine.

A senior Congress leader was unaware when asked whether any such mass contact programme is indeed there in Bihar, the only state where elections will be held this year. Even after scrutinising every word and paragraph of her signed article, nothing much could emerge as what could be called hard news.

"Better luck next time," a party leader was heard saying when asked what was news in Gandhi's write-up.

PASWAN MAKING NEWS

Ram Vilas Paswan returns to Parliament as a member of the Rajya Sabha after a gap of one year following his loss in the Hajipur Parliamentary constituency in 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Not surprisingly, the dalit leader is back to business making one statement after the other as soon as he was declared elected.

The buzz is that Paswan could become a Cabinet Minister before the Bihar Assembly polls if he agrees for a poll-tie up with the Congress in the state. As Paswan was elected due to the support extended by RJD, it is a million dollar question to see if he would do an about turn. Both the Congress and the RJD want to use the clout of Paswan in the dalits of Bihar. Paswan himself is never critical of the Congress as he sees it as the only party which can assure him a berth in the Union Cabinet, a position he has enjoyed in almost every ministry since 1989.

COMMONWEALTH

The Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October is posing several problems for the government, the main being what to do with the massive projects after the games which have little or no economic value. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is finding it difficult to explain that huge expenses incurred over preparations for the Commonwealth Games are not being met out of the tax payers' money.

Recently, the government had hiked VAT on diesel from 12.5 to 20 per cent, besides increasing the registration fee for properties, road tax for luxury cars and circle rates for properties. More so, public transport has become 40 percent costlier after increase in the CNG rates.

Critics are questioning what will the city do with the stadiums, racing tracks and swimming pools after the games get over and was organising the games the right thing to do.

(7.6.2010)

RAISINA HILL (MAY)

Amitabh Shukla

JHARKHAND

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

DIGVIJAY SINGH

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

SIBAL

Union HRD minister

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

GILL

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

KARUNANIDHI

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

(9.5.2010)

RAISINA HILL (APRIL)

Amitabh Shukla

RAHUL

After Rahul Gandhi became the trustee of Jawahar Bhavan Trust, there was a lot of speculation in the Congress circles. It was said that the young leader wants the old guard of the party to retire from politics.

Three leaders, all in their late 70s, were out in the reshuffle of the trust which carries out philanthropic activities in the name of the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Arjun Singh, who has been left in the cold now after being dropped from the Union Cabinet in May 2009, has been eased out from the trust. Mohsina Kidwai, another member of the old guard and Makhan Lal Fotedar, a close confidante of Indira Gandhi and then Rajeev Gandhi too finds himself out of the coveted body.

What was more interesting was the replacement of Ahmed Patel, Political Secretary of Congress President Sonia Gandhi as the Secretary of the trust. He has been replaced by Moti Lal Vora, the Treasurer of the party. Patel, however, will continue to be the trustee.

The new entrant in the trust is Union Minister Mukul Wasnik, considered relatively young apart from Vora.

RAMESH

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has a penchant for controversy. He has already said that he only has the Prime Minister as his confidante in the Union Cabinet. Now he has publicly disowned the practice of wearing the traditional robe in convocation ceremonies.

He called as "barbaric colonial relics" the practice of wearing the traditional coloured robe at convocation ceremonies and publicly removed his own gown at one event during the convocation function of a university in Madhya Pradesh.

"I still have not been able to figure out after 60 years of Independence why we stick to this barbaric colonial relic," Ramesh said while addressing students at the seventh convocation of the Indian Institute of Forest Management.

No one for sure knows how will Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal react to the latest barb from Ramesh. On the Bt Brinjal issue, the minister had locked horns with Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan. There was a light hearted comment in the AICC when some Congress leaders asked whether the coats and gowns of the lawyers and Judges too was a colonial relic and should be done away with. The controversy will sure not die down soon.

GADKARI

BJP President Nitin Gadkari, an RSS confidante roped in to end the infighting in the party posed 14 questions to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on inflation, poverty etc. the other day.

Interestingly, none of the mainline media bothered to report the issue prominently as Gadkari is considered a lightweight in not only the BJP but also is not taken seriously in government and Congress circles.

“Had L K Advani even now or earlier Atal Bihari Vajpayee had written a letter to the PM, the entire media would have carried it prominently. It will take time for him to settle down and considered a serious politician,” remarked a Delhi BJP leader.

The Prime Minister too has not bothered to reply so far to the letter of Gadkari who is not a member of Parliament. If an MP writes a letter to the PM, the PMO invariably replies to it even though it might not act on the letter entirely.

Gadkari’s 14 questions were nevertheless important an concerned price rise, plight of the farmers and 'aam admi' and reasons behind its failure in curbing inflationary trends.

He asked a perfectly valid question as why inflation in India was at 11 per cent as against global inflation of 1 to 2 per cent. He pointed out that sugar prices in India is more than double and price of wheat was 80 per cent more than the price in other countries.

LALU

After Supreme Court gave relief to former Bihar chief minister and Railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi in assets case tongues started wagging why it happened.

When Lalu was a part of the UPA, the CBI had gone slow in the case leading to his acquittal by a court in Patna. But when the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar, a bete noire of Lalu and a friend turned foe, filed an appeal in the apex court, it held that the state government had no locus standi on the issue. The Yadav couple was accused of amassing assets worth Rs 46 lakh beyond their known sources of income when Prasad was the chief minister between 1990 and 1997.

Congress leaders say the party wants to keep its options on Lalu as it needs his support for the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha and possibly some kind of political arrangement in Bihar where the elections are scheduled for October-November this year.

AMAR

Expelled and disgraced from Samajwadi Party, Amar Singh wants a political space in the Congress. No wonder he has been praising Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi repeatedly giving the right signals to the party.

When the Amitabh Bachchan row broke out in which first Congress attacked the star and then toned down, Singh defended Sonia Gandhi saying he did not see her hand in hounding of the actor.

"Personally I have full faith in Sonia Gandhi and Rahul and I believe that this can never be done by them," Singh wrote in his blog on the controversy over Congress leaders objecting to Bachchan's presence at a government function.

Even as Amar Singh is sending the right signals, Congress is not amused and has not shown any interest in him. CWC member Satyavrat Chaturvedi has already said that Congress was not a dustbin. The party uses Chaturvedi now and then to attack Amar Singh.

(7.4.2010)