by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
How Modi ticked off his Cabinet Minister
Harsimrat Kaur Badal who quit as Cabinet Minister for Food Processing in protest against 3-farm-related bills, had a taste of Prime Minister Modi’s style of functioning. She tried hard to persuade Modi to defer them and failed. When she sought an appointment, she was politely told by the PM’s aide to contact the Home Minister or party president J P Nadda. Amit Shah was convalescing after returning from the AIIMS and not available. Left with no option, she knocked at the doors of Nadda. She told Nadda that if these bills were passed, she would be left no option but to quit the government and maybe even the NDA. She wanted the bills to be sent to “Select Committee of Parliament” as a last ditch effort. An ever smiling Nadda had a tough task in hand as Akalis are BJP’s oldest ally for five decades. What transpired between Nadda and the government is not known. But Harsimrat Kaur was told that if she tendered her resignation from the Cabinet, it will be accepted without delay. When the bills were finally passed in the LS on Friday last, she sought an urgent appointment again as she wanted to tender her resignation. The PM was sitting inside his Parliament House chambers and she walked up to the room. She told the PM’s aide that it's urgent for her to meet the PM. But the worst was in store for her as the PM refused to meet his own Cabinet Minister when she went to his office as he was extremely busy. A frustrated Harsimrat Kaur handed over her resignation letter in a sealed cover to a junior aide in Modi’s office. Rest is history. Modi accepted it without blinking.
BJP looks for life without Akalis?
Many in the BJP are upbeat who say it is time the party should dump the Akalis and reinvent itself in the key Northern state. It dumped Chautalas in Haryana and emerged victorious. The Akalis have lost miserably, barely winning merely 17 Assembly seats and two Lok Sabha seats in Punjab. S S Dhindsa and several senior leaders have quit the “Parkash-Sukhbir-Harsimrat private limited company”. But some in BJP have cautioned not to risk the border state in over enthusiasm and go-slow. The BJP suffered huge setbacks in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and yet to gain ground in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu etc. It is thriving on defections in Manipur, Goa, Madhya Pradesh etc. Even in Bihar, it is playing second fiddle to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Therefore, efforts must be made to consolidate alliances not break them. However, there are no takers of this contrarian view in the BJP.
Race for new TRAI Chairman
All eyes are set on the next chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as R S Sharma demits office on September 30. The TRAI plays a crucial role in making and breaking the fortunes of telecom companies. During Sharma’s 5-year tumultuous tenure, the “Punjabi lobby” lost a lot of its clout and the “Mumbai lobby” emerged Number One. The new chairman will decide on spectrum pricing, entry of 5G players, predatory price and many more. Of the 88 applicants, the selection committee headed by Cabinet Secretary is reported to have short-listed Rita A Taeotia’s name for the post. If appointed, she will be the first woman to become TRAI chief. Teotia is a tough bureaucrat and a former Commerce Secretary belonging to the Gujrat cadre of the IAS.
CBI groping in the Dark
For six years, the CBI has been going after the “FAM” (Gandhi Family) and “AP” (Ahmad Patel) in the AgustaWestland helicopter Rs 3727 crores deal. It was alleged that AP got 3 million euros while FAM got 15 million. The deal was clinched during the UPA regime for the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters. When the charges of bribery surfaced, Dr Manmohan Singh canceled it and a CBI inquiry was ordered. The country was rocked over the scandal and hogged headlines. The CBI filed two chargesheets against former Indian Air Force Chief and other officials, middlemen including middlemen Christian Michel James, Rajiv Saxena and others. But lately, there is a silence of the grave and as no politician was found to be involved in the second supplementary chargesheet. The CBI continues to be groping in the dark. The BJP says “wait for the third chargesheet!”.
