Yogi’s mounting troubles & Big challenge for Chirag Paswan

Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Yogi’s mounting troubles

There was a time when the graph of saffron-clad Yogi Adityanath was on top of the ladder among all chief ministers of the party. The 47-year young ‘Sanyasi’ had even pushed veteran Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan behind. The whispers in the corridors of power were that the Yogi had joined the club of the likes of Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Chouhan as a potential successor to the PM. Not anymore! Adityanath’s handling of cases particularly relating to crime against women, has hit him hard. Be it Kuldeep Singh Senger case or Swami Chinmayananda, the UP CM failed to act swiftly. No doubt, he has waged a war against hardened criminals. But the Hathras case has damaged Yogi’s image considerably. It also emerged that he may have been a prisoner of a handful of bureaucrats in Lucknow. The charge favouring a community be belongs to is also talk of the town and doesn’t act against them. The Central leadership of the party is also unhappy with him as he doesn’t listen to it in some instances. He doesn’t have a good rapport with Amit Shah either for obvious reasons and most of his baiters in Lucknow find patronage in Delhi. His running battle with Sunil Bansal, organizational incharge of UP, has added to his woes. In a way, he is now fighting a lonely battle when troubles are mounting.

Why Jagan is in deep mess!

If Yogi Adityanath is facing rough weather in Lucknow, his counterpart in Andhra Pradesh Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is in a deep mess too. Ostensibly, he is the first Chief Minister in the country to write a letter against a sitting Supreme Court judge justice N V Ramana and several judges of the AP High Court to the Chief Justice of India seeking probe. Interestingly, the charges have been leveled against the SC judge who is in line to become the next CJI in April 2021. Why did Jagan take such an unprecedented step? Insiders say that Jagan did it as he is perhaps the only sitting CM in the country who has 31 criminal cases against him. Of them 11 are being probed by the CBI and seven by the Enforcement Directorate for amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income. The trial in cases is going on at a snail’s pace. On September 16, Justice Ramana ordered high courts across the country that criminal cases against all sitting & former MPs, MLAs, MLACs be completed within one year. All stays granted by any court in the country be vacated and SC registry will monitor them. Who will be the first to suffer if a trial is launched on a day-to-day basis? Obviously, Jagan woke up one month after the verdict and shot off the controversial letter against the Judge itself. Can Jagan’s letter torpedo action in cases against him? Doesn’t look so! 

Big challenge for Chirag Paswan 

Union Food & Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s death has taken place at a time when his son Chirag Paswan is in the midst of a major political gambit. Chirag’s father played many political gambles in his long political career and luck was always on his side. He was such a political weathercock that whichever alliance he joined before a Lok Sabha, the victory fell on his feet. Now all eyes are set on Chirag Paswan who lay in store for him. Of course, he will get huge sympathy and cut into Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) vote bank. During the 2015 Assembly polls in Bihar, LJP contested with BJP on 42 seats. It could barely win 2 seats and secured 4.38% votes. Pollsters say the LJP is capable of damaging JD(U) in at least 25 seats. This may help BJP emerge as the single largest party in Bihar after the polls on November 10. Will BJP reward Chirag then ? No one knows! Will the BJP give Rajya Sabha seat to Paswan’s widow Reena and induct Chirag into the Union ministry after the polls? No one knows what is cooking in the PM’s mind.

Tushar Mehta next AG

It is almost certain that Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta will be the next Attorney General of India after octogenarian K K Venugopal hangs up his boots. The Modi government was keen for the continuation of Venugopal in the post. But Venugopal declined the offer politely and told the PM that he will have to find a successor sooner than expected. With great difficulty, he was persuaded to continue for a period of one year. Tushar Mehta, a close confidant of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, is next in line. He has gained enough experience ever since he came to Delhi in 2014- first as Additional Solicitor-General and later as SG in 2017. In fact, Venugopal has not been appearing in most of the cases for the government lately. Instead, Tushar Mehta is representing the government and holding the fort.

Fly on the Wall : Modi prods for NaMo App, MP s not worried

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group


Fly on the Wall for Friday publication 

Harish Gupta 

Modi prods for NaMo App, MP s not worried

Ever since Prime Minister Modi castigated his party Mps for not responding to his “Namaste” every morning, there is virtual panic among them. When Modi disclosed that of the 330 BJP Mps only five respond to his NaMo App daily. Top ministers present at the meeting were sheepish while others rushed to download the NaMo App so that they join the “Namaste” club. While the BJP opened a special counter at the parliamentary party office to enable the Mps to download the App, the Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha internet cell also went out of its way to help the Mps. Some of the Mps are using not one but three phones; one for people in their respective constituencies, the other for party leaders and third for private use. Secondly, they have at least ten What's App groups they have to deal with every minute. The Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha secretariats have one group for their Mps, the other is for BJP parliamentary party, the third is MPLAD, fourth is parliamentary party committees and so on and so forth. In addition, they also have to deal with the problems of family and constituents. As if this was not enough they also tell Modi ji and Amit Shah desperately as to what they have done in their constituencies, upload photos of their visits, update on PM's 20 welfare schemes etc etc. Majority of Mps are not well-versed in technology either and find it difficult to communicate. They cannot hire the services of a full time technical hand as their salaries and perks has not been enhanced. Some of the vocal BJP Lok Sabha MP s made it clear that they will not reply on NaMo App come what may. “If our performance is to be judged by whether we do Namaste every day, then we are better off without a ticket,” said at least five Lok Sabha MP s belonging to Haryana, Maharashtra and even Rajasthan. Surely, the PM may be getting better feedback. At least three ministers say that they don't use smart phones.

Mayawati plays pricey

BSP Chief Mayawati has signaled that she will neither contest in a byelection for the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat and nor seek re-nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat. The byelection for the Lok Sabha seat can be announced by the Election Commission anytime and biennial poll for Rajya Sabha is due this April. The Samajwadi Party and Congress have sent feelers to the BSP that “Behanji” contest a common Opposition candidate from the seat vacated by the BJP MP Keshav Prasad Maurya who resigned to become deputy Chief Minister. Mayawati has not responded but her party sources say that opposition unity cannot be a onetime affair. Secondly, she doesn't want to contest in a byelection. With regard to Rajya Sabha seat, Mayawati said she had quit the Rajya Sabha to fight for the Dalit rights and the battle has ended. She will keep away, say party sources. Perhaps, Mayawati is playing pricey. Mayawati has given any clue whether her party will support the Samajwadi Party in the Phulpur and Gorakhpur bye-polls.

New Solicitor-General ? Modi knows

The appointment of new Solicitor General has been hanging in the air for months after Ranjit Kumar quit the post months ago. Ranjit Kumar quit a couple of months after Attorney General Mukul Rohtagi quit without assigning any reasons. It is said both were uncomfortable and could have stayed on if persuaded. But finding successor to Ranjit Kumar has raised eyebrows in legal & political fraternity. After great difficulty the government was able to find new AG, K K Venugopal. But the new Solicitor General is nowhere in sight. It was speculated that Gujrat's Advocate General Kamal Trivedi be brought to Delhi. But the idea did not find favour with powers that be. Then the name of senior advocate Rakesh Trivedi cropped up. It is learnt that some of the senior advocates considered close to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley didn't find favour somewhere in the Law Ministry. The Law & IT Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad wouldn't say anything except that the new SG will be appointed shortly. There are a couple of vacancies for the post of Additional solicitor general as well. It now transpires that a section in the government favours promoting Tushar Mehta as the new Solicitor General. Mehta also hails from Gujrat and is ASG for almost three years now. It is said that the file pending somewhere in the Prime Minister's Office.

Rahul Gandhi to travel to West Asia

If Prime Minister Modi goes to Davos to address the plenary on January 24 to woo the global investors, Congress president Rahul Gandhi plans to travel to West Asian countries. It is learnt that he had finalized his plans to visit Dubai and Bahrain during the year-end. But he had to change his plans in view of delay in Parliament's Winter session dates. Secondly, he didn't want to give an elbow room to the BJP which always harps on his foreign visits. In fact, Rahul Gandhi is perfecting the art of Modi who garnered support from NRIs long before the announcement of Lok Sabha polls. This biggest constituency was never nursed by the Congress for the past 20 years by the Congress and even her mother Sonia Gandhi. He thinks its a barren land which was wisely cultivated by the BJP and its leader Modi. Realising the tremendous response that Rahul Gandhi received of his interaction at the Berkeley university back home in India, Rahul Gandhi has decided to target NRIs as a policy. Sam Pitroda is his foreign policy adviser and none in the foreign affairs cell of the AICC is aware of what's happening.

Harish Salve may replace Rohtagi

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Special report

Speculation over new Attorney General

Harish Salve may replace Rohtagi

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, May 27,

If Prime Minister Narendra Modi has to select the candidate for the President’s and Vice President’s post during the next fortnight, he also has a difficult task of decide as to who will be the next Attorney General and other law officers.

The tenure of AG Mukul Rohtagi, Solicitor-General of India Ranjit Kumar and dozen other ASGs is ending in June. There is strong speculation that noted lawyer Harish Salve may be brought in as AG in place of Rohtagi and Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitor General may be promoted as SG. Tushar Mehta is considered close to BJP president Amit Shah and a Gujrati. IN any case, Ranjit Kumar wants to return to active practice once again after three years of stint in the government. He was sounded out to be elevated to the Supreme Court as a judge considering his seniority in the profession. But he is reported to have declined. Thereafter, L Nageshwar Rao, an Additional Solicitor General was elevated to the SC bench.

It may be mentioned that Harish Salve was sounded out by the Modi government in May 2014 itself. But Salve had prior commitments in London then in a series of arbitration cases and he sought excuse. Recently, he appeared for India at the international court of justice and made a mark. But Mukul Rahtagi has extremely impressed the Prime Minister during these three years by his legal acumen and argumentative skills in the Supreme Court. He is considered an upfront and aggressive legal luminary. But Modi has not taken a call on yet on the issue and the suspense continue.

Modi also has to take a call in concultation with the Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on appointing some of the new ASGs also . ASG Parminder Singh Patwalia has already quit and another ASG Neeraj Kishan Kaul has conveyed his desire to relinquish the charge.