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.

When legislators unite

I saw a few articles in the online edition of the Times of India and NDTV which prompted this post. There are rare occasions when our legislators display unity cutting across party lines. This is especially true on two occasions - when they face some common threat to their facilities or authority, and when the issue is vote bank politics, namely reservation.

We have a range of reservation quotas in our country, SC/ST, OBC and god knows what all. The Supreme Court had said some time back said that quotas for promotion should be backed up by solid figures to show actual backwardness of the categories. Does this make sense? Well, to our legislators it appeared to be a golden opportunity to amend the Constitution and introduce reservation quotas for the SC/STs. Another occasion when our legislators were united was during the recent agitation against corruption when cutting across party lines they remembered to mention that parliamentary processes enshrined in the Constitution have to be respected.

Another thought-provoking incident is the recent rallying around of ministers in the Andhra Pradesh government. There are a few accused of colluding with the late YSR Reddy and his son Jagan in quid pro quo cases with corporates. Dharmana Prasada Rao has recently been chargesheeted by the CBI. He is the second minister after Mopidevi Venkataramana to be investigated by the CBI in a case related to a company called Vanpic. A number of ministers have unitedly asked the Chief Minister not to give permission for his prosecution. There is a saying in Telugu which says that the guilty person is the one who makes the maximum protestations of innocence. These ministers bring to mind this saying. I do not recall the exact time but another time ministers are united is when they give raises to themselves in terms of salaries and facilities.

In these times of government austerity a large panel will be going abroad, flying business class and also going sight seeing. If the government was serious about austerity it should have curtailed at least the sight seeing trips, for it is the tax payer that is financing these jaunts. However in this age of lip service can we expect anything more? Politicians rally around Baba Ramdev when he talks about the need to bring back black money from abroad. How many of them are willing to publicly list all properties owned by them, their ministers and civil servants? On the other hand we have an opposition which is hell bent on disrupting proceedings of Parliament.

The BJP must be smoking something if they seriously believe that either the PM or his government will resign because of their protests over the coalgate (I am sick of this "gate" syndrome) issue. Why do they insist on disrupting the house? The UPA might have the moral authority to rule or govern. If in the next elections the NDA comes to power it will be more because of a lack of alternatives than anything solid or constructive that they have done while in opposition. These are the times when one years for the no-choice option on a ballot paper or an EVM.

Will our politicians ever unite like this for a Lokpal or something which is actually useful for the nation?