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Archive for October, 2011

Will Rahul Gandhi come to aid of Omar Abdullah?

October 28, 2011 By: Gemini Category: Uncategorized

The row over Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah’s decision to withdraw the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) threatens to derail the political ties between the Congress-National Conference and the coalition in the state.

The big question is not whether Omar can keep up his word to remove the Act from certain areas of J&K as announced by him on October 21. Rather, it is whether the Congress will let him continue in the saddle after January next year, by which time he would have completed three years in office.

Omar became chief minister in 2009 because his friendship with Rahul Gandhi, the AICC general secretary. Rahul ensured Omar had a free rein. Unlike in the case of the previous arrangement with the People Democractic Party (PDP), the Congress did not insist on a rotational arrangement of chief minister’s post– because Rahul had full confidence in Omar’s abilities. A sullen J&K Congress had to accept Rahul’s diktat to support Omar without any condition.

But Omar track record in office has left much to be desired. It has emboldened local Congress leaders to raise a banner of revolt against the arrangement.

Omar is naturally surprised by the behaviour of J&K Congress leaders. The idea to lift AFSPA was not his idea alone. Home Minister P Chidambaram, with whom he has had several rounds of discussions, and mooted the proposal as part of a political package to solve the Kashmir tangle.

True, Defence Minister A K Antony and Army chief V K Singh were not warm to the idea because they were not sure J&K would remain peaceful in the months ahead. The AFSPA gives sweeping powers to the Army to conduct operations without any legal question being asked in the event of any death or violence.

What weighed heavily on the minds of Chidambaram and Omar was that local population has been resentful of the Army’s sweeping powers under the AFSPA. Often, public outrage over custodial and encounter deaths have forced politicians to scurry for cover.

There’s no doubt there is a political angle to Omar’s decision. He was beleaguered by one controversy after another slamming his party and wanted to deflect the PDP’s campaign against him.

Omar also wanted to silence the local Congress, which wants to install its nominee as chief minister by pressing for a review of the Congress-NC arrangement.

With J&K Congress president Saifuddin Soz criticizing Omar for announcing the withdrawal of AFSPA without any consultation, the chief minister is naturally very upset that his plans can go haywire.

If Omar cannot implement his decision in the next few days, he will cut a sorry figure and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti will not let go the opportunity to taunt and run him down further.

Omar thinks that his decision to limit the AFSPA to only border areas and belts having militant movement should have been welcomed by the Congress when the Home Ministry had no problems. 

Of course, the security agencies still think that the Kashmir Valley is volatile and are against the Army being deprived of immunity when it acts against terrorists.

Local Congress leaders say Omar’s luck is running out and it is doubtful whether his friendship with Rahul will help him again. They have minced no words in conveying to the Gandhis that Omar is a disaster and that the Congress must rewrite the terms of engagement and endearment with the National Conference now.

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Is Priyanka’s Buddhist outlook influencing Rahul?

October 20, 2011 By: Gemini Category: Uncategorized

A day ago, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi advocated the inculcation of the Buddhist idea of “compassion” to meet challenges posed by globalisation, which, he said, “excludes as much as it includes.” 
This was the first time, he has used such an idiom, which has led to speculation whether his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has begun to influence his thoughts. 
It is no secret in the Capital that Priyanka practises Buddhist meditation.
In fact, she is known to discuss any issue from this perspective with her close aides and friends.
In fact, she often asks about any public project in her mother Sonia Gandhi’s constituency from the perspective of “compassion quotient.” 
She always wishes to know how a project has been conceived to relieve the people’s sufferings and make their lives better. 
Compassion Quotient, like Spiritual Quotient, Emotional Quotient and Moral Quotient, is the buzz word among the new age gurus, who are popular among the GenNext.
On October 19, Rahul chaired the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies’ 20th anniversary lecture — Globalisation, Justice and Rights, which was delivered by Professor Thomas Pogge of the Yale University.
He chose the Buddist concept of compassion to express his views on globalisation, right in the presence of his sister, Priyanka.
As he put it, “There are millions left out of the process, millions who do not benefit from globalisation and millions more damaged by its asymmetrical application of power. The local networks that protected them no longer exist.”  
Rahul said: “Like globalisation, there is another idea that has been around for thousands of years. It is the same idea that was spoken about in the deer park in Sarnath. An idea that has always been the basis of justice and rights, it is the idea of compassion. Compassion comes from understanding that we are all part of the same system - I am you and you are me. Compassion allows us to see that the rights of others are as important as our own. Like change, we must ensure that the idea of compassion is always with us.”
Rahul’s reference to Sarnath was to the Buddha who delivered his famous sermon from there. While Rahul may have intended only to red-flag concerns about globalisation but he left his audience with no doubt that Priyanka’s love of Buddhism had cast its influence on him too. 

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Why is Modi trying to be Don Quixote?

October 06, 2011 By: Gemini Category: Uncategorized

Can you dream of becoming Prime Minister by fighting everyone in your party? Can you appear to be petty by picking up on a police official just because he’s against you? Can you just sulk and don’t take calls even from your once-mentor-turned rivals because you are miffed with them?
That’s what seems to be happening to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
Only a month ago, the media saw in him a potential Prime Minister candidate of the BJP. There was a beeline of senior BJP leaders to felicitate him on his “sadhbhavana mission.”
Now, what do you hear? “Modi is sulking, he won’t talk to any senior BJP leader because he is very, very upset!”
What’s gone wrong with Modi within a month and after he was supposed to have got a “clean chit” in the 2002 riots? 
Has it gone to his head that the Supreme Court sent back to a trial court a report of a special investigation team (SIT), which was asked to probe his alleged role in the 2002 riots, instead of issuing any direction against him or in his favour?
If you pick today’s newspapers, Modi looks the  “villain” who has put a “hapless” IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in jail. His wife has written a second letter to Union Home Minister Chidambaram alleging that her husband was being treated like a “terrorist” by the Gujarat police. 
In the letter, she has also accused the state government of using all possible ways to deny bail to her husband. Shweta, wife of Bhatt, had written her first letter to Chidambaram a few days ago saying that there was danger to the life of the IPS officer from the “vindictive administration”. 
Why is Modi inviting so much ridicule? Maybe, Bhatt is a wily cop who politicized matters against Modi by working in tandem with Congress leaders or used his “links” with Chidambaram (because he was involved in a case involving a High Court judge close to the Union Home Minister when he was superintendent of police of Rajkot to evict his tenant).  
But does it augur well for a person who wants to be Prime Minister? 
Many BJP leaders say Modi is beginning to resemble Don Quixote,  the famous character in a novel by Miguel de Cervantes, first published in 1605, added on to by Alonso Fernandez, and finished by Cervantes in 1615. 
Like Don Quixote, Modi has selective vision of the real world. He fights impossible symbolic battles while the rest of the world says it can’t be done and mocks him for trying. 
Even his fans in BJP are confused. They see his “vindictive self” back in action—much to his detriment – even he has reasons to be upset with everyone.
If newspapers reports that Modi is not taking the phone calls of L K Advani, Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jaitley are true, what does Gujarat chief minister hope to gain by sulking? 
Modi is stated to be upset over two issues - appointment of his old enemy Sanjay Joshi as the BJP in charge of Uttar Pradesh and invitation extended to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to flag of Advani’s latest rath yatra in Bihar. 
But then, Advani had to shift to his yatra against corruption to Bihar because Modi was lukewarm to its launch from Gujarat. Advani was forced to look for a new locale, goes the buzz. 
Naturally, Modi’s detractors thought getting Nitish Kumar to flag off the yatra would serve two purposes—show the NDA is going great guns and put the hype about Modi becoming PM candidate in place. 
By refusing to go to BJP’s national executive on September 29-30 and taking the pretext of his Navratri fasts, Modi thought he could convey to other seniors that they can’t mess with him. 
Is Modi cut up with his party leaders because they think that his arch rival, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, is “more valuable” as an ally to BJP than himself as a tough-talking  hawk?
In fact, a day after Modi went on his fast, his close friend, Arun Jaitely, ad asked BJP leaders to remember to “strengthen” the NDA if they were dreaming of seeing the BJP in power again.
Also did BJP president Nitin Gadkari keep Modi in the dark about rehabilitating his old enemy, Sanjay Joshi, back in the BJP organizational set-up? Those close to Gadkari say Modi was given enough hints  by the BJP chief (maybe ten months ago) that Joshi would have to come back to work. 
Joshi was declared “innocent” by the RSS, months after he had quit as BJP general secretary in 2005 after mysterious CDs surfaced at a Mumbai party meet, showing him in a sex act. 
Yes, the BJP needs Modi and it cannot do anything to him as far as Gujarat is concerned. 
At the same time, Modi would be foolish to think that his colleagues will rush to him to fall on his feet. 
Secondly, name any second-ranking leader of BJP and you will find that they are his deadly rivals who are vying for the top slot! They would love to watch Modi fight the RSS as well as other contenders.
But, if Modi is aspiring for higher things, then he must re-read Dale Carnegie’s classic How to Win Friends and Influence People. By the way, Carnegie’s 1934 best-seller was one of Advani’s favourite books, which he often recommended to his juniors including Modi!

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