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Pre-Poll Gambits April 7, 2013 S Established 1946 Price : Rupees Five Vol. 68 No. 11 Pre-poll gambits April 7, 2013 S. Viswam Both the Congress and the BJP Modi’s instance that Varun Gandhi Travails of Pakistan spent the last few days mapping out who has emerged as an anti-Muslim Kuldip Nayar strategies incidental to the beginning campaigner in the party brought in as of the run-up to 2014. The Congress a general secretary? is still in two minds about formally World Social Forum, naming Rahul Gandhi as its prime Modi is the only chief minister to Tunisia - Few Reflections ministerial candidate. The general have been elevated within the BJP Dr. Sunilam notion within the party is that any hierarchy as a reward for winning announcement in this regard needs to three assembly elections in a row. be made only ahead of the actual poll. Other chief ministers with the same India needs In the BJP, the situation is somewhat achievement have been ignored. All democratic socialism different. With the induction of in all, the 2014 Rajnath Singh team Brij Khandelwal Narendra Modi into the central seems to confer special status to parliamentary board and the central hard core party workers and leaders election committee, the issue seems at the cost of the tried and tested World Bank’s to have been resolved. Modi ought leaders. L. K. Advani has been put Sham Consultations to be the BJP’s official candidate if in his place, while Yashwant Sinha, President Raj Nath’s reshuffle makes Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie sense. The assumption is that he will have been sidelined. What all this Socio-Economic Profile of be acceptable to all allies barring Bihar will do to the BJP fortunes remains to Muslims in Maharashtra CM and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar. be seen. In the public eye, however, Secondly, Modi’s induction into the the BJP will be seen as a party which top echelons has also witnessed the has a lot of inner-party differences downgrading of a handful of hitherto and a lot of candidates with prime Editor : top leaders of the party not all of ministerial ambitions, all of whose G. G. Parikh whom may find Modi acceptable. aspirations have been checked by That Modi will have a large say in Modi’s advance. Managing Editor : Guddi preparing and executing strategies is already evident. It was at his instance Let us come to the Congress. First, D-15, Ganesh Prasad, (or should we say insistence?) that Rahul Gandhi allowed his status to Naushir Bharucha Marg, Amit Shah has been named a general be upgraded from that of general Mumbai - 400 007. secretary. It is public knowledge secretary to that of vice-president but that Shah faces charges of criminal encouraged the notion that he still Email : [email protected] conspiracy in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh would prefer to remain a worker than fake encounter case. Was it also on the prime minister. When this idea 2 JANATA, April 7, 2013 was received with bafflement and Between the lines incredulity, the party bosses swung into action and spread the story that Rahul was very much in the prime Travails of Pakistan ministerial race. At the same time, the very thought of Rahul Gandhi losing out to Modi seems to have scared a Kuldip Nayar section of the rank and file. This led to the party officially endorsing the Pakistan after a self-imposed exile, Sonia-Manmohan model of power It is boisterous, even maverick. Pakistan thy name is uncertainty. gives confused messages. He would sharing as being valid and applicable Yet, it is strange that whenever like to have impartial elections but to the future also. Which means it is posed with pressing problems he is the one who has interfered that the party wants to keep all before elections, the country with polls in the past to get his options open. Two power centres are has always surprisingly found favourites retained. In fact, his entry acceptable and now being promoted solutions to them. This time it has into Pakistan’s politics is going to as a workable mechanism. While chosen an interim Prime Minister in be quite a disturbance. I do not rule the party commends Manmohan’s former justice Hazar Khan Khoso, out that he would use some methods cryptic remark that by implication who will be conducting free and fair (even the army) to get himself suggested that he could accept a elections. elected from Karachi and few of his third term as PM, the line is open colleagues from elsewhere. to Rahul also to become PM in case There were pulls from several he wants to. parties and it seemed impossible It is strange that the first statement at one time that some name would that Musharraf made on reaching In sum, it would seem that the emerge as a unanimous choice Pakistan is that Kargil was a BJP is also delaying the official for the interim prime ministership “victory for the Pakistan army.” It nomination of Modi as the official before the elections on May 11, is understandable that Musharraf candidate. For present, he is on top announced recently. It was a good wants to placate the army but he of the list, with a strong element practice which even Bangladesh cannot mutilate facts that he and his of winnability. In the case of the has done away with and India does army were squarely defeated and Congress, everything depends on not need any because the Election for him to deny the reality is the the party’s performance in 2014. If Commission has developed enough same kind of thinking which has teeth to bring the errant parties under it can cobble a coalition together, brought him to contest the elections. some discipline. it can provide leadership as it has People know who won Kargil and been doing for the last nine years. This does not mean that the no amount of Musharraf’s claim can In which case, the ball would be in coming elections in Pakistan would undo the truth. Rahul’s court. If he says no, then the be impartial. Pakistan Army Chief Sonia-Manmohan “arrangement” Pervez Kayani has promised the The unpopularity of Musharraf can be revived. country that the elections would be could be gauged when an angry independent. It is, indeed, strange lawyer threw a shoe at the former that the army wants a fair poll. But it President as he headed to court to Madhu Dandavate is an open secret that the army which face legal charges after returning from his four-year-long exile. In By holds sway over Pakistan will not interfere in the elections. Still it is any case, this was not the first time B. Vivekanandan unfair to contend that all members that Musharraf had to face such a Price: Rs. 20/- of the National Assembly of Pakistan humiliation. Two years ago, a man Janata Trust would get elected through genuine tried to hurl a shoe at him when D-15, Ganesh Prasad, methods. The past does not say so he was addressing a gathering in Britain. Naushir Bharucha Marg, and the future does not hold any promise. Grant Road (W), A retired Pakistani Lt. General, Mumbai 400 007. Former President General Pervez Saheed Aziz, has brought out a book Musharraf, who has returned to to nail the lie and he has alleged that JANATA, April 7, 2013 3 the army “put our children in the line of fire.” But the point that Musharraf World Social Forum, Tunisia - refuses to see is that reality may Few Reflections complicate matters. Was it the entry of Musharraf that has pushed the Imran Khan phenomenon into the Dr. Sunilam background because at one time it was taken for granted that Imran’s World Social Forum (WSF) in various debates and programmes Tehreek-e-Insan party would sweep started with the aim to build a better organized by VK, SADED, Via the polls? world in 2001. WSF is a meeting Campesina, Global Progressive The old political complexion place for democratic discussions of Forum, FES, Jubilee South, etc. may continue after the next election. ideas, for deep reflection, formulating Punjab looks like going the Nawaz proposals, exchanging experiences The programme started with a Sharif’s way and Sind would stay and strengthening social movements, grand rally on 26 March from Clock- with the Pakistan People’s Party networks that oppose neo-liberalism Tower, which had witnessed the (PPP). The North Western Frontier and the domination of capital. assembly of revolutionaries on 14 Province may again be back with WSF activities and processes are January. Most of the programmes Awami National Party (ANP), governed by a Charter of Principles. were held in the Tunis University reminding one of the red shirts It is not a religious governmental or El Manar Campus. The issues of under the leadership of Khan Abdul partition body, but it is characterized liberation of Philistine and Western Ghaffar Khan during the freedom by plurality and diversity. It is Sahara were seen as key issues. struggle. The fourth province, neither an organization nor an Nepal Situation Baluchistan, is categorically against association. It only provides an open the PPP and may therefore return and democratic space to the peoples’ Discussion on the Nepal situation either ANP or any amalgamation movements and organizations for was organized by VK, in which of some nationalists who are still discussion. They decide their own Dr. Uddhab Pyakurel, eminent fighting against the army for their subjects and discuss them during writer and lecturer in Kathmandu identity.
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