Room for a berth
bjp office leads to rs
If you happen to be a BJP member looking for a gateway to the Rajya Sabha, look for a room instead. And yes, there happen to be two rooms available in the coveted 11 Ashoka Road headquarters of the party – the proverbial road to the RS for those who came in late. It was former BJP ideologue Govindacharya who first turned his drab office room there into a home. But his fall from grace in the eyes of Atal Behari Vajpayee put paid to his hopes of making it to the Upper House. But plenty of others – JP Mathur, Jana Krishnamurthy, Kushabhau Thakre, Mahesh Sharma, Om Mathur, Prakash Jawdekar and Prabhat Jha (not your fault if you haven’t heard of these “national leaders”) – have successfully made their way to the Rajya Sabha from these Spartan rooms.
The last occupants of the rooms, usually meant for unwed pracharaks, were much-married ones but carefully kept their spouses out of sight to give an impression that they were bachelors wedded to the party. For all the talk about modernity and equality of women, the party and its string pullers in nearby Jhandewalan still prefer single (read available) males. So, if you are single or willing to live away from your wife for a year and seeking entry into the Rajya Sabha, queue up at HQ to get into the rooms behind the cabin of office secretary Jajoo. He, incidentally, is living in the office compound with his family. He may have to wait for quite some time for his accommodation.
No money, no honey
why rao got the boot
In the Union Council of Ministers, those who do not contribute to the party fund are persona non grata, never mind if they are in the PM’s good books. The case of Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao, who was dropped from the Council of Ministers in the recent reshuffle, is testimony to this brutal rule. Rao is a film celebrity in Andhra Pradesh and had introduced various e-reforms, bringing in transparency in coal transactions. The procedure for allotment of coal blocks was made transparent and decentralized during his tenure.
Sources reveal Rao had requested the Prime Minister almost six months earlier to relieve him from the Ministry as he wanted to concentrate on his home state. But the Prime Minister, impressed with his performance, asked him to continue.
However, the powerful coterie in the Congress headquarters at 24 Akbar Road never liked Rao because he failed to contribute to the party coffers. Knowing very well that the Prime Minister would be reluctant to drop Rao, the coterie cleverly kept bombarding 10 Janpath with fabricated complaints against him. Ultimately, he was jettisoned – much to the chagrin of the Prime Minister.
Dollar windfall for party
world bank aid diversion
India’s northern states receive considerable financial assistance from the World Bank for development of rural and urban infrastructure under various poverty eradication programmes. After the country head of the Bank announced billions of dollars’ worth of financial aid to one such state recently, the political boss of the state summoned his most trusted colleague and asked him to ensure that more than half of the incoming fortune went to the party fund. The remainder could be utilized for development work with a provision of incentives for a select few, the boss said. He is considered the architect of social engineering that brought the party to power.
A couple of years ago, the World Bank almost threatened to stop funding of ongoing projects due to poor performance and frequent transfers of project officials under the same political regime. After a short gap, the party captured power again through social engineering and, intriguingly, the World Bank has altered its stand and now found the governance of the state and nature of development work worthy of financial aid.
Win some, lose some
arjun outwits coterie
Here’s at least one instance of the coterie running the show at the Congress headquarters having to eat humble pie. All its scheming and plotting to send veteran Arjun Singh into political oblivion as Governor of Maharashtra failed. He proved yet again that he is more than a match for the entire Congress flock put together.
Singh’s detractors advised the party high command to appoint him Governor of Maharashtra as he had not been keeping well for quite some time. The moment Singh got wind of this, he projected Rahul Gandhi as the future Prime Minister of India. Attention got diverted away from him and senior party leaders, including Sharad Pawar, joined the chorus over Rahul’s future. The issue of Maharashtra’s next Governor was transformed into a debate over India’s next Prime Minister.
The strategy also served to endear him further to the Gandhi family, despite its official denial of any plans to make Rahul the PM. And, totally outwitted, the anti-Arjun lobby in the Congress also joined him in his demand.
