Fly on the
wall
By Harish
Gupta
Slowly and
quietly, realignment is taking place within the BJP. Party chief Nitin
Gadkari and Gujrat Chief Minister Narendra Modi are now best of friends and exchanging
views on a regular basis. It was Leader of the Opposition, Arun Jaitley who
brokered this peace between the two who were not even on talking terms. Though
Balbir Punj, BJP Rajya Sabha MP was working as a broker between the two. But
the two never came together. Finally, Jaitley entered the arena and as a party’s
trouble-shooter he clinched the deal. Ravi Shanker Prasad, Prakash Javdekar and
chief ministers are of the BJP and Akali Dal and JMM are with this faction. Once
this happened, former BJP president Rajnath Singh, M Venkiah Naidu and fence
sitters fell in line. The RSS leadership has also thrown its weight behind
Gadkari-Jaitley-Modi trio. On the other side of the fence are Sushma Swaraj,
leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha,
Ananth Kumar and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. L K Advani is still their mascot.
All eyes are set on Gujrat and Himachal Assembly polls and
Nitin-Jaitley-Modi-Dhumal together will call the shots while others watch
helplessly. Advani has reasons to be worried.
How SS Ahluwalia became Meira’s
Adviser
Remember S S Ahluwalia ! He was part
of Rajiv Gandhi’s shouting brigade for 12 years and then moved towards the BJP and
for the next 12 years he was BJP’s vocal face in the Rajya Sabha. But times
changed with the arrival of Arun Jaitley at the helms. He wanted debate not
disruption should prevail in the House of Elders. No slogan shouting, no
shouting. The BJP gave him rest. He was lucky to get ticket in the bye-election
in Jharkhand after it was countermanded. But he ran out of luck and lost.
Desperate to get a house as he had no money or flat in Delhi, he knocked at
every door. But got no relief from anywhere. Finally, he went to the Prime
Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, an old Narasimha Rao protégé. It is learnt that it
was the PM who requested the Speaker of the Lok Sabha Meira Kumar. She decided
to appoint Ahluwalia as her adviser for digitalization of the Parliament’s
library. Ahluwalia will work for free. But will get rent free accommodation for
one year. The BJP leadership is worried as four of its MPs in the Lok Sabha
wrote letters to the Speaker to appoint him.
Sibal buys peace with BJP
Its another coup. This time, its
between the floor leaders of the BJP and the Congress..Fed up of veteran leader
L K Advani refusing to bow out, the BJP leaders in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha
have devised a mechanism to ensure that there is no boycott of P Chidambaram.
Even the bills pending of HRD and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal be allowed to
pass the Opposition muster in the Rajya Sabha where the UPA doesn’t have a
majority. During the last session, Advani had forced a decision on the party
that it would boycott P Chidambaram. The directive came under the influence of
S Swamy, S Gurumurthy and others who have nothing to do with the BJP. Even
Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley were upset as to how the outsiders are
influencing Advani’s decision making process. Leader of the Opposition in both
houses had separate meetings with PC and Sibal and the matters were sorted out.
It’s a different matter that both the ministers paid a courtesy call on Advani
too. But Advani was only a silent spectator this time. The protest will only be
symbolic – for a day only.
The crusader shown the door
Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan may
be a crusader against corruption and blasting the BJP. But when it comes to
land or favours, he forgets even the “Corrupt Mayawati” or “communal BJP”. How land
was allotted at throw away price by the Mayawati government in NOIDA to him and
his father is history. As if this was
not enough, in Himachal Pradesh, the Dhumal government violated land laws
by granting permission to Prashant Bhushan to purchase a huge chunk of land
that was meant for a tea estate in the name of Kumud Bhushan Educational
society. But this alone was not the catch. Dhumal even appointed him as the
standing counsel of the state in Delhi. When the matter came to the fore, the party
high command took Dhumal to task. He was asked how an anti-BJP person was
appointed and for what purpose. Dhumal was directed to terminate the
arrangement. Finally, Dhumal gave in and removed Prashant Bhushan.
