SCRIBES can extract an apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi if the Special Protection Group (SPG) men guarding her get a mite too rough with these august personages, but party stalwarts certainly cannot. This is what happened during the day-long AICC session held at Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium on November 17.
Mid-morning – at a quarter past eleven, to be precise – as the Congress chief finished her speech, a large number of senior partymen was denied entry by the elite security force. They included Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the state’s Finance Minister, Birender Singh, Union Minister for Minority Affairs AR Antulay, MPs Sajjan Kumar and C Apok Jamir, a dozen other current and former MPs, and a large number of delegates with valid identity cards. The reason cited by the SPG was heightened security threat to Rahul Gandhi.
The SPG actually just stopped short of manhandling Antulay, Hooda and Singh. While Antulay turned away and waited for his car to escape the embarrassment, the other two walked away from the scene. Noticing the fracas, Ahmed Patel, political secretary to the Congress president, rushed out of the stadium and grabbed Antulay’s hands, pleading with him not to leave. Patel said he would verify everyone’s identity so that they could be allowed entry. But the SPG would not budge. Predictably, the delegates became exasperated and stormed the gate – breaking it. As they surged in, the SPG chased them out again with a shower of blows. Meanwhile, on the dais, the induction of the Gandhi scion went on uninterrupted.
Earlier, some journalists had also been prevented entry by the SPG, but the Congress president’s speech had included some words of apology for the incident.
Arjun’s heir in the wings
CONGRESS veteran Arjun Singh has now realized that the Prime Minister’s throne is a distant dream, notwithstanding his proximity and loyalty to the Gandhi family. And so, like other politicians across the board, he has given a clear hint of his political heir in the family on the occasion of his seventy-seventh birthday on November 5.
Of his two sons, Abhimanyu Singh is a businessman in Bangalore while Ajay Singh (known as Rahul) is a Congress MLA in Madhya Pradesh and a former Cabinet Minister in the state. However, the youngest sibling, Beena Singh, is politically more active than Rahul. Though married to an exporter in Delhi, for all practical purposes she lives with her father and works closely with her mother to further her political ambitions.
Unlike Arjun Singh’s last birthday, celebrated with pomp and show in Delhi’s Asiad Village, this one was noticeable for the lack of celebration. He was closeted in his room the whole day at his official residence on Akbar Road and did not meet anyone, citing poor health. When Congress workers and leaders started pouring into his residence, they found Rahul and Beena accepting greetings on their father’s behalf.
This was enough indication for partymen to begin choosing Arjun Singh’s heir. Some in their political wisdom went to Rahul while others made a beeline for Beena. Whether the Gandhi family saga will be reenacted or Beena will outsmart her brother is the million-buck question.
Shotgun’s current target
SHATRUGHAN Sinha, the old-time Bollywood star who turned a crowd-puller for the BJP, had to see his hopes of chief ministership of Bihar or a Central ministry berth dashed during the NDA regime. Now, he is worried on a new count. His Rajya Sabha tenure is due to expire soon and securing another term currently tops his personal and political agenda. If denied renomination, he knows his isolation within the party will be complete.
There are slim chances of his becoming a nominee from Bihar because his caste, Kayastha, is of little use for the BJP under the present political dispensation. Though party stalwart Yashwant Sinha now officially belongs to Jharkhand, his stakes remain high in Bihar and he will obviously not like someone from his caste becoming a threat to him.
Shotgun, knowing all this well enough, approached party president Rajnath Singh and offered his services for the Gujarat polls in order to later stake a claim to a Rajya Sabha seat from the state. Singh called Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and asked if he needed the star’s services during electioneering. Thank you very much but no, said Modi. And Shotgun does not know what to do next.
Coal is Murmu’s goal
THE yield from Rajmahal coal mine of Eastern Coalfields is vital in meeting fully the requirements of National Thermal Power Corporation’s mega plants at Farakka in West Bengal and Kahalgaon in Bihar. To match the expanding capacities of these thermal plants, Eastern Coalfields decided to increase the mine’s production capacity and floated a global tender two years ago but did not receive any acceptable bid. It then outsourced coal transportation to private contractors. When work began in full swing, the inevitable followed. The local Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP, Hemlal Murmu, stepped in and stopped the work on the grounds that the outsourcing took away jobs from the local people. Both coal production and transportation were severely affected.
Murmu was on the Parliamentary Committee for coal when JMM president Shibu Soren was Union Coal Minister before resigning owing to his involvement in a murder case.
Eventually, Murmu yielded and the private transporters are back in business. The word in the coal ministry is that he has allowed them to operate in return for a share of the profits. And now that Soren has been acquitted of the murder charge by the High Court, Murmu is hopeful of securing the coal portfolio as a Soren nominee in the next Cabinet reshuffle.
