Saturday 29 September 2012

Gadkari - the man of the season

First of all, I do not want to be sued by Nitin Gadkari. Recently Anjali Damania, an RTI activist went live on national TV to state that Gadkari tried to dissuade her from pursuing her investigation into the alleged irrigation scam in Maharashtra. I am not very sure what proof the lady is carrying and it is perhaps very unwise to make that allegation in absence of any proof, even if it is true. 

Now apparently Gadkari had said that there were business dealings with Sharad Pawar. I am not very clear on this. However I was suddenly reminded of a Sanskrit sloka when I saw a news article that an amendment has been made by the BJP to its Constitution to enable heads of the state and national units to serve a second term. The most prominent beneficiary of this move would appear to be Gadkari as his terms ends in December this year. This was done apparently because the RSS felt that the job of overhauling the BJP begun by Gadkari was incomplete. Maybe he is indeed the best person suited for the job. I am not making any allegations, but to my knowledge the richest BJP President till date has been Gadkari who is a businessman and agriculturist (the link to Pawar?).

The sloka goes like this.

यस्यास्ति वित्तं स नरः कुलीनः 
yasyaasti vittam sa narah kuleenah
स पण्डितः स श्रुतवान गुणज्ञः 
sa panditah sa shrutavaan gunagyah
स एव वक्ता स च दर्शनीयः 
sa eva vaktaa sa cha darshaneeyah
सर्वे गुणाः काञ्चनमाश्रयन्ति
sarve gunaah kaanchanamaashrayanti

The meaning goes something like this - the one who has wealth, he is said to be of noble ancestry, said to be a scholar, a man endowed with good qualities. He alone is an orator and a handsome one. All qualities are dependent upon (possession of) wealth.

When the BJP is gearing up for the 2014 elections (though far away) and a possible election before that (unlikely though) would Sushma Swaraj or Arun Jaitley who are leaders of the opposition have been better choices? There is a lot of talk about Modi being the next Prime Ministerial candidate. Would he have been a good choice? The last choice is difficult as Gujarat is scheduled to go to the polls soon. Still, just wanted to express my opinion.

Also Yeddyurappa is in rebel-mode again. He is not very subtly giving hints to the BJP by praising the Congress saying they have never let their leaders down. Seriously? If this is indeed true this could have been because the tallest (officially at least) leader for most if not all of the time has been a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Apparently Gadkari started out as a BJP worker and is today party President. I hope this continues and we don't see people who think of party posts as family heirlooms (more than the case is today, if I may say so).

Monday 10 September 2012

Vanka leni...

The attitude of a certain political party towards the CAG somehow reminds me of the Telugu saying which natives will recognize from the title. The Hindi equivalent (kind of) is naach na jaane, aangan tedha (blaming the slanted floor for not being able to dance). Before I am lampooned I shall admit that the Telugu equivalent for this is aada leka maddelani annattu (blaming the instrument for not being able to play it).

The spokesperson of this party has blamed the CAG for the monsoon session. In reality the opposition parties have to definitely take the blame. However if the government had not provided the fire the opposition would not have provided the smoke. A previously active spokesperson had to quit after his colourful private life was exposed (pun unintended). The present spokesperson took the easy way out and blamed the easiest target. The CAG has generally not responded publicly to any allegations against him. So the political party is kind of safe.

Moving on, the powers-that-be in India have once again proved how intolerant we are of dissent. The cartoonist Aseem Tripathy perhaps got a trifle carried away when he portrayed wolves instead of lions in the national emblem. Ideally this should not have been done. But arresting the guy is taking things a little too far. The interesting thing is in this case though there are accusations of politics behind the arrest, it is the police who seem to have become too active.

And what is this item in the news which says wives will get salaries? As can be said, "78% of all statistics are made up, like this one". I mean no disrespect to homemakers, my wife is one. But is paying your family member a salary the only way to give "socio-economic empowerment" to women? So tomorrow will we find guys turning homemakers, asking their wives to work while they get salaries from them? This is apparently a way in which we will get a "truer picture of GDP in our country". Has the government lost all hope in its team of lawyer-ministers and bureaucrats? Does this government believe India's growth story is so dead that we will have to resort to (badly) creative accounting to inflate our GDP figures which by some estimates might go below 6% also this fiscal?

Saturday 1 September 2012

Quo Vadis NaMo?

Many in the BJP would want Narendra Modi to be the PM candidate in the next general elections. The JD(U) with an eye on its Muslim supporters is extremely unhappy with this idea and Nitish Kumar has made some not-so-subtle remarks to this effect.

Now Modi is in extremely troubled waters. First a BJP MLA has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for the Naroda Patiya massacre. Next Modi is also under flak for his remarks saying that malnutrition is because of girls becoming figure-conscious. The BJP which has been on the offensive for the last few days on the coal "scam" has suddenly been forced to stop and think. Modi is already facing opposition from non-Congress sections in Gujarat (read Keshubhai Patel who has put up his own party). It remains to be seen if and how Modi will extricate himself from this situation.

Coming to the coal scam the government is increasingly being painted into a corner. First came the CAG report. Then Chidambaram was accused of painting a "zero-loss" portrait a la Kapil Sibal on the 2G issue. Recently it has come to light how Subodh Kant Sahai recommended that a company of which his brother was a director be allocated coal. Now the coal ministry itself is planning to cancel allocation of those companies which have not been able to develop their allocations. All of this is adding ammunition to the opposition to further take on the government.

However the opposition is not justified in holding Parliament to ransom. They are elected representatives and are responsible to their respective electorates. Let Parliament function. The issues should be taken up on the floor of the house. Beyond this they can always take the issues up in public. Does the opposition believe that the PM will actually resign? Looking beyond the protests it might also appear the opposition is trying to drown out the issue as apparently some non-Congress states had also opposed auctioning of coal blocks.