Change of Guard

BJP’s sudden move to bring back Rajnath Singh as party president to replace Nitin Gadkari may provide some reprieve to the main opposition but the decision is likely to pose fresh challenges in the run-up to the next general elections. Analysts say Singh’s return, coinciding as it does with the ascent of Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi in the ruling Congress, may necessitate a swift call on the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
The critical changes in the two national parties come at a time when both Congress and BJP have lost traction and there is palpable anxiety among their cadres over the need to arrest the downslide. Gadkari’s ouster followed an acknowledgement in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh that the income-tax department probe into his links with the investors in the Purti group could prove damning to BJP in its campaign against the corruption scandals under the Congress regime.
The selection of the new president, however, showed that it was only a lack of agreement over his peers that eventually made him the compromise choice. “Sushma Swaraj was not acceptable to Arun Jaitley and vice versa; Venkaiah Naidu was not acceptable to RSS; and Narendra Modi was not interested in the job. So the job went to Rajnath Singh,” said a senior BJP leader close to the development. Singh, a former chief minister of UP, had earlier served as the party president for four years from 2005. BJP leaders concede that Modi will be the party’s best bet in the next elections.

The Shiv Sena’s national executive unanimously elected Uddhav Thackeray as president of the party. A resolution to this effect was passed at a meeting at Sena Bhavan in Mumbai on the occasion of party founder Bal Thackeray’s 86th birth anniversary.
Uddhav has been invested with all rights to make or cancel the appointments of Sena office-bearers. It is Uddhav’s wish not to be called ‘pramukh’, a title his father held.
In his maiden speech as Sena chief, Uddhav came down heavily on party rebels. “Those who want to quit the Sena are free to do so. But they should remember that rebels who left the Sena soon faded into oblivion,” he stated. Slamming Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde for his recent statement on Hindu ‘terror’ camps, Uddhav said, “Shinde’s irresponsible remark shows that the Hindus will have to fight for their legitimate rights in their own country.”
The Sena national executive passed a resolution equating Hindutva with nationalism. In another resolution, the party reiterated its commitment to the ‘sons-of-the-soil’ issue. The party also said it was committeed to women’s issues.
The national executive resolved to ‘freeze’ the post of Shiv Sena pramukh, which the late Thackeray Senior had held.
Sena leader Sanjay Raut, MP, said Aditya Thackeray, Uddhav’s son, would strengthen the party because of his youth-friendly image. Aditya’s Yuva Sena has been made one of the party’s affiliate wings.

Somewhere in Odisha....

The gifting away of land belonging to Coal India Ltd by the Odisha government in 2004 is set to embarrass the Bharatiya Janata Party, now accused of favouring a company promoted by relatives of the late former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma. The BJP is already under pressure over party president Nitin Gadkari’s alleged lobbying for MP Ajay Sancheti’s firm for an irrigation contract in Maharashtra.
The land in question is a 22-acre expanse in the backward Jharsuguda district of Odisha, given to Global Coal and Mining Pvt Limited (GCMPL) by the state’s Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) controlled by the BJP’s industries minister Biswabhusan Harichandan in the BJD-BJP government of the time. Not only was the land, owned by CIL subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, handed over to GCMPL, but a coal washery was also permitted on the land in 2006, in clear contravention of the rules. Despite a show cause notice issued by Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, GCMPL has refused to vacate, taking the dispute into litigation that began in 2009 and is still continuing.
Activists allege that the deal was a political favour.
The land is part of the Samleshwari Open Cast project of MCL. The PSU acquired the land in village Belpahar, Jharsuguda, under the Coal Bearing Areas (CBA)Act. “The Act clearly stipulates that land acquired under it cannot be transferred or sold. This transfer is illegal,” said Ramesh Tripathi, another local activist who wrote to the CVC in 2010. The matter is now being investigated.
MCL, in 2006, sent a letter to IDCO for cancellation of the lease given to GCMPL, followed by a show cause notice to GCMPL in August 2009.

Parliament logjam

The Congress’s last-ditch effort to salvage a few working days of the monsoon session and de-escalate the confrontation over the CAG report on coal block allocations has come unstuck, with the BJP spurning Sonia Gandhi’s peace overture.
Opposition leader in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj told Sonia on Friday the BJP could not consider letting Parliament function until the UPA scrapped the allocations and ordered a judicial inquiry into the issue following the CAG’s censure for benefiting private players.
Swaraj had first conveyed the BJP’s bottom line to the Congress chief when she had called on Thursday appealing for an end to the disruptions that have hit the monsoon session.
BJP sources said Sonia did not turn down Swaraj's demand at once, and told Swaraj that she would get back after holding consultations with PM Manmohan Singh and her other colleagues.
However, when Sonia called on Friday after the PM’s return from Tehran, she reportedly expressed her inability to concede to the BJP’s demand. Although she renewed her pitch that the opposition should allow a debate in Parliament on Coalgate, it was turned down by Swaraj.

Of economic reforms....

The finance standing committee headed by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has offered a tempting window of opportunity over a shared reforms agenda that can revive a moribund economy.
The standing committee has urged the government to speed up pension reforms, insurance and banking bills saying these legislations can act as a tonic to pep up the sagging investment climate. The bills have been in limbo for long, not the least due to Congress ally Trinamool’s bitter opposition.
Even with BJP support, the task of bringing Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee around is not easy. But the committee’s ringing endorsement, apart from the dissent of the CPM and CPI members, points to a wide political consensus of reforms. Finance minister P Chidambaram can take heart from the committee’s views given that Sinha is often seen as a hardliner in BJP ranks and has been a leading critic of Chidambaram’s alleged role in the 2G scam. However, Sinha’s prescriptions on the economy should gladden the Centre.
Taking note of “doom and gloom” scenarios being bandied about, the draft report on “current economic situation and policy options” backs the Prevention of Money Laundering Amendment Bill, 2001, the Direct Tax Code and the Companies Bill. Taken together, the six measures can be seen as a significant booster to investment at a time when fiscal and current account deficits have turned the government’s balance sheet into a nightmare. “The committee recommends speeding up of policy reforms and removing investment hurdles,” the report said.
The committee has called for a coherent and effective disinvestment policy and a plan for a 10% reduction in non-plan expenditure. On monetary management, it highlighted a divide between the Reserve Bank of India and government. The central bank has pointed a finger at governance issues as “…(RBI) states that the fiscal part of the obligation is not being fulfilled by government,” the report said.

Mota Maal

Rebuffing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s defence, the BJP on Monday further ramped up its offensive over Coalgate, with its leader in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj accusing the Congress of allocating coal mines in return for mega bribes.
“Mota maal mila hai Congress ko ( Congress got big bucks),” Swaraj said, escalating the confrontation which has jammed Parliament and triggered speculation that the monsoon session could be adjourned sine die.
Swaraj, along with Arun Jaitley, her counterpart in the Rajya Sabha, was responding to the Prime Minister’s 32-point statement, where he rejected the charge of resignation by denying any wrongdoing in the allocation of coal mines and disputing CAG’s estimate of gains for private players.
“Congress has got a fat sum from coal block allocation, that is why this delay (in amending the laws) was caused. My charge is that huge revenue was generated but it did not go to the government and went to the Congress,” Swaraj said.

Asked if BJP is alone on this issue as even its allies have indicated that they would like a debate in Parliament on the issue, Jaitley said, “We don’t stand alone. And on corruption even if we have to fight alone it would be majestic isolation. The support of the people is with us.”
Swaraj claimed, allies SAD, JD(U) and Shiv Sena were with BJP and even parties like AIADMK were supporting NDA on the demand for PM’s resignation.
BJP said, as minister in-charge of coal ministry, PM was morally responsible and he should step down.

Anna Hazare targets Congress, BJP

Reacting sharply to the six-day parliamentary deadlock, social activist Anna Hazare accused both the Congress and the BJP of corruption in coal block allocation in his blog.
Supporting Sunday’s agitation by India Against Corruption volunteers, he said people only wanted to know where the politicians had spent public money. Accusing political parties of squandering away public money, he said the House had not been allowed to discuss the CAG report yet.

The gloves are off within erstwhile Team Anna with one of its core members Kiran Bedi, conspicuous by her absence at Sunday’s protest, coming out in support of the BJP in sharp contrast to her colleagues.
Bedi’s affinity to the opposition party could spell bad news for the fledgling political movement that erstwhile Team Anna is planning to establish. She is the only prominent woman face in the agitation.

BJP loses the plot

If the BJP wants to bring down the UPA 2 government, it should bring in a No-Confidence motion in the parliament or wait for it's chance at the hustings....not disrupt parliament.

The BJP said it would not settle for the government’s offer to debate the federal auditor’s conclusion that private operators benefitted by Rs 1.86 lakh crore in the coal block allocations.
With the Congress rejecting the demand for the PM’s resignation, the opposition is prepared for some trench warfare. Although the Congress found some succor in SP chief Mulayam Singh supporting the government’s offer of a debate, the Left and regional parties like the BJD and AIADMK have made common cause with the BJP. Heated politics over the CAG reports have seen the BJP pitch its demand at a level it knows cannot be accepted by the Congress.
The BJP insists it is not looking for a compromise and that it is for the government to find a resolution to ensure Parliament functions. The BJP intends to keep Parliament disrupted, perhaps for the rest of the week, as it feels allowing a statement—even if by the PM—will let the government off the hook.  The government also dug in its heels, with parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal saying the BJP’s demand for the PM’s ouster was “preposterous”.
Offering to debate the CAG report, the PM said, “We can give satisfactory answers to all issues being raised.” But the bid to break ice left the BJP cold as the party feels the CAG report only reinforces the UPA’s scam-hit reputation. BJP sources said the party believes the CAG reports give it an opportunity to keep the Congress on the back foot over corruption. “Along with handling of the Assam riots,, the scams complete a picture of incompetence and drift,” said a BJP leader.

There are some cracks in the opposition with BJD declaring that it is not in favour of supporting BJP’s tactics of blocking Parliament.
The Odisha-based party’s view that the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report on coal allocations should be debated also found the support of Janata Dal (United), a major ally of the BJP.
JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav said Coalgate should be debated, but added that the party would not break with NDA, at least not just yet. He said he was consulting other parties like those of the Left and regional outfits about their views.
BJP remains determined to turn down the government’s offer to debate Coalgate. The party is not relenting on disrupting proceedings, insisting on raising its demand for the resignation of the PM over coal allocations made when he held charge of the coal ministry.
The divergence with other political parties weakens BJP’s position but may not prevent it from persisting with its tactics for a couple of days more.