Is One Seeing A New Raga?

Rahul Gandhi gate-crashed into Ajay Maken’s press conference where the latter was praising the Ordinance negating the Supreme Court order that any politician would be debarred from active politics and lose seat in legislature the moment he is convicted for more than three years. He or she would not be allowed to start politics again for six years after his or her release.

The ordinance had been okayed by the Core Committee of which Sonia Gandhi is a member and then by the Cabinet after that it was sent to the President for his seal of approval. The bll had also been referred to the Standing Committee. But all this would have taken time. Sonia Gandhi was reportedly in a hurry so as to save Lalu Yadav accused in Rs1000 crore fodder scam and the judgement of the CBI’s Special Court was to come on September 30.

But the plan failed. Rahul Gandhi in four-minute cameo denounced it saying it is nonsense and should be torn into pieces and thrown away. His denouement of the ordinance was described as ill-timed because the Prime Minister was out of the country, in Washington. And that he could have been more careful with the choice of his words. Even Sheila Dikshit said so.

Now it is being said that his denouement marked a transitional change in politics. At the press conference, Rahul assumed a new avtar, a young leader not afraid to take on the government and the party. And that connected him to the 65 per cent youth who like aggressive and a doer leader. In fourminute cameo appearance Rahul changed the game of politics. All this praise comes from his followers and those who are happy to see someone emerging as the face of the Congress and as an aggressive counter to an aggressive Modi.

Is India seeing a new RaGa?

From Technical Support To Modi

It is amazing how telephone network and internet are being used to reach Narendra Modi to the people. The kind of effect it has on those who got such calls indicates positive reaction towards Modi. When a number was given, again through recorded telephonic calls, and people connected to that number, they heard live the Modi’s speech in Rohini.

Afterwards, such people got a recorded message of Modi thanking them for listening to his speech. Since then everything concerning Modi is sent through telephone. Some of such people have been telling, with quite a bit of pride, about the Modi ‘thank you’ call and then excerpts from his speeches.

If such contacts with people continue by the time the 2014 election takes place, many of these people would have become Modi converts. This is another alarming development for the Congress. In the 2009 election the Congress Party got 206 seats in the Lok Sabha basically from the support in urban areas. If most of its support switches to Modi’s BJP, the Congress Party would have an uphill task reaching anywhere 206.

Mulayam Dreams Again

He has been predicting, from time to time, a Third Front government post-2014 election. This is based on his hope that his Samajwadi Party would win anywhere between 50 and 40 seats in the Lok Sabha. With soup and the many seats, he would have the largest flock of MPs after the Congress and the BJP. So in any Third Front government, Yadav would have a legitimate claim, as head of the largest group, to head the government. His long cherished hope of being India’s Prime Minister would thus be realised. But as they say there are many a slip between the cup and the lips, Yadav could miss the tenancy of 7, Race Course Road, if he gets only as many or even less number of seats than he has in the present Lok Sabha.

The chances are that his SP would never secure more than 20 to 25 seats given the bad reputation of the Akhilesh government due to the lawlessness. According to reports almost 30 communal riots have happened including the most infamous one in Muzaffarnagar. The incidents of rape and misconduct in police stations have further dented the charisma of Akhilesh. His problem is that he has to be under the dictat of his father and many “uncles” who consider him a ‘bachcha’ not mature enough to be chief minister.

The other problem is that within the Third Front many leaders would be claimant for the gaddi—Mamata, Jayalalithaa, Sharad Pawar, Nitish Kumar, if he is not facing any case. Then Manmohan Singh would surely be hovering, in case a compromise candidate is needed.

The idea of Third Front could remain a dream!

Fly To China For Most Exclusive Sex Lessons

Ma Li, an adventurous entrepreneur in Shanghai, a city that can hold its own against New York, has opened in a suite in a hotel where she gives two day lecture on all aspects of sex to women. The fee is hefty, £410 for two -day lectures. She gives vivid details of anatomy, psychology and techniques of intimacy. After the lessons by Ma Li there is no need to read Kamasutra or other sex books. The techniques and knowledge now is far more arousing than in the days of Vatsayan. An enlightened woman lawyer, 30, said that until the lessons she thought the body of a man was just like that of a baby. What a dolt!

Will Nitish Kumar Be Caught Between Fodder And Sleeper?

The Jharkhand High Court and the Delhi High Court are likely to make life of Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) head and one who has the desire, unspoken, to be Prime Minister, very difficult. The Delhi High Court order could land Kumar in deep trouble. It has asked petitioner Mithilesh Singh to file a writ petition in a Rs 320-crore railway sleeper case in which Kumar’s name has come up. The case pertains to irregularities in the purchase of concrete sleepers used between railway tracks during Nitish Kumar’s tenure as Railway Minister from March 2001 to May 2004. Kumar was Railway Minister between March 1998 and August 1999 as well.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and Justice Manmohan, while hearing a Letter Patent Appeal (LPA) on 4 October, advised the petitioner, Mithilesh Kumar Singh to file a fresh petition in the case. The Central Bureau of Investigation was asked to investigate the case by a Parliamentary Standing Committee in March 2005, but the status of its investigation is not known.

As per the allegations, the then Railway Minister awarded a Rs 320-crore contract for manufacturing 160 lakh concrete sleepers to M/s Daya Engineering Works, Gaya, a company belonging to the late Dayanand Sahay and Dhirendra Agarwal. Sahay and Agarwal were allegedly close to Nitish.

The work was awarded through limited tender, thus limiting it to only a few bidders, in spite of the fact that many tenders had already been received through an “open tender”, which had been floated earlier. Interestingly, the other firms that had submitted their bids had quoted a much lower price than that quoted by Daya Engineering, according to documents submitted to the court.

More trouble is likely because of the order of the Jharkhand High Court. It has asked the CBI as to why not Kumar be implicated in the Rs1000-crore fodder scam because of which Lalu Yadav has already been imprisoned for five years.

The same person who charged Lalu Yadav and 42 others had also alleged that Nitish Kumar was paid in two instalments—Rs 1.40 crore for election purposes and then Rs 5.50 lakh for shopping by the leader during his trip to Australia. It was alleged an air ticket, too, was arranged by the scamsters. He alleged that Shivanand Tiwari was paid money in three instalments. “I have sufficient proof against Nitish Kumar and his colleagues,” said Singh.

Smelling blood, the entire opposition—the BJP, the CPI-ML and even the RJD—has virtually ganged up on Nitish, demanding that the CBI also make the Bihar Chief Minister an accused in the scam. The parties have started hitting the street over the demand and mobilising public opinion.

The development has left the Chief Minister worried. It partly explains why he has suddenly gone silent, not even reacting to the incarceration of his arch rival in Bihar politics. “The CBI’s silence over the involvement of Nitish Kumar, Shivanand Tiwari, Lalan Singh and others in the fodder scam is mysterious and we want to know why their names have been left out,” CPI-ML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said at a press conference in Patna.

“Were the leaders let off because they were with the NDA government at the Centre when the CBI started investigating the case? BJP leader Ravishankar Prasad is now saying that there was proof of Mr Kumar’s involvement in the fodder scam case too,” he added.