• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013 DAILY EXCELSIOR, JAMMU daily Excelsior Lalu's conviction Established 1965 Modi magic or myth ? Arun Jaitley Founder Editor S.D. Rohmetra ver since Narendra realized that Modi had made a Delhi and cause so much antici- should not think he had the Modi’s very successful huge difference to the BJP’s pation, tension, fear and position or the right to insult the rom 1990 to 2005 Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav and his party gave Erally in Delhi last chances of winning in 2014 but loathing that even officialdom prime minister of a country of to Bihar the worst possible Government. His Government was Sunday a new political game were worried that he may not be has begun to be afflicted by the 125 crore people. And, they lis- Fpopularly referred to as the ‘Jungle Raj’. It was governance at U-turn on Ordinance has started being played in this able to help them cross the 200 Modi factor. Last week I met an tened carefully when he spoke its’ worst. Ministers and civil servants barely attended the city’s murky corridors of mark which is the barest mini- official who said to me, in so of how power plants capable of Sachivalaya. Vulgarity was a political style. Corruption was ram- n a dramatic U-turn, the Government on Wednesday pant. A new ideology was born which emphasized that growth and power. Let us call it arithmetic. mum needed for him to become many words, that he believed producing 22000 megawatts of decided "unanimously" to withdraw the Ordinance development do not get votes. It is only caste and community polar- Congress politicians play it prime minister. Conversations the ‘ horrible mess’ created by additional power were lying idle and the Bill seeking to overturn a Supreme Court isation which are an instrument of getting and retaining political I openly, BJP politicians play it usually go this way. ‘We have UPA-II could only be resolved for want of fuel while ‘even in judgment disqualifying MP and MLAs convicted for power. When Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav was arrested for the fodder furtively and us hacks play it in to win more than fifty seats in by Modi becoming prime minis- the Prime Minister’s own home case there was no second in command in the party. His wife became crimes punishable with a jail term of two years or more. fits and starts in newsrooms U.P. if we are to cross that 200 ter. He added that in his view they used generators.’ They lis- Bitter criticism of Congress Vice President, Rahul the Chief Minister. A caste polarized state accepted her as the Chief across Delhi. What the game mark and there are no signs yet UPA-III would be a disaster. For tened even more attentively Minister. She even won an election. Gandhi that Government's action in the matter was basically involves is calculating of this happening.’ As for con- those unfamiliar with the ways when he talked of the need to 2005 was a water-shed year for Bihar. This regime was over- "nonsense" and that the Ordinance deserved "to be how many seats Modi’s magic versations in news rooms, suf- of Indian officials let me add create millions of jobs for a thrown by the electorate. By then Lalu Prasad had moved to the torn and thrown away", led to frenzied but docile is going to be able to material- fice it to say that they are varia- that it is very unusual for offi- country filled with young peo- Centre as a Union Minister. He became a balancer for the UPAin its’ response from Government and the Congress Core ize in the next Lok Sabha. And, tions of these two themes cials to express political opin- ple and how to do this India pursuit of coalition politics. He had a vested interest in supporting it has become the most impor- doused heavily with secular, ions in such clear terms. needed a new dream, and a new Group, finally succumbing to its withdrawal. the UPA. Besides being in power he could manage to manipulate the tant game in town, so important leftist sentiments on the ineligi- They say a week is a long resolve that by the time of Insights into the processing and recommending the CBI which was prosecuting his case to sabotage the prosecution. In that I would go so far as to say bility of Modi to be prime min- time in politics so three weeks is India’s 75th birthday as a mod- the year 2004 the first major attack on the UPA government was on ordinance for submission to the President show that the that there is no other game ister of India on account of his an aeon. Three weeks ago I ern nation this country must the issue of seven tainted ministers being a part of the Council of main opposition party, meaning BJP, had, in the begin- being played in Indian politics 2002 record. Secular, leftist wrote in this column about my become a better place. Ministers. The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh defended the ning, agreed to the changes in the Representation of at the moment. So even in the hacks are so terrified of Modi impressions of Modi’s first polit- Somehow nearly all these tainted. Lalu Prasad was the foremost among the tainted who were Peoples' Act but had refused to cooperate over amend- week that Rahul Gandhi did his things were missed in the being prosecuted. Some of his cases were successfully killed by the ing the Constitution. However, the Minister for little drama about tearing up his reports that appeared in the next prosecution itself. The disproportionate assets case witnessed a Parliamentary Affairs said that BJP reneged over the own government’s ordinance ON THE SPOT day’s newspapers that appeared change of Judge, a change of the prosecutor, a special bench of the and ‘throwing it away’, wher- to have been written by Income Tax Appellate Tribunal and a judgement which hardly latter also in the Rajya Sabha. The UPA and its allies ever I went I seemed to meet TAVLEEN SINGH reporters who watched the rally inspired confidence. The CBI decided not to appeal against the moved forward and processed the Ordinance. people who talked only about on television. So there was Judgement. When the Bihar Government appealed against the Defending the decision of the Cabinet to withdraw Modi’s prospects. making it that they have lately ical rally in northern India, undue attention paid to whether Judgement the CBI successfully challenged the locus of the Bihar the Ordinance and the Bill, Minister for Information When I talked to Congress taken to praising Rahul Gandhi. which was in Jaipur on Nawaz Sharif had compared our Government to file the appeal. The disproportionate assets case was and Congress Spokesman, Manish Tiwari said that friends to get their reactions to It stunned me to hear col- September 10. I wrote that this Prime Minister to a village given a Judicial burial. One can manage the system on some occa- Rahul Gandhi had very wide ranging feedback from the rally in Rohini that nobody leagues and fellow travelers rally reminded me of political woman or not than to what sions. It is not possible to manage all the people all the time. There had expected to be so huge or describe his ‘nonsense’ press rallies in the 1977 elections Modi said about the political are some men of integrity in every institution. There are many in the the public on the question of Ordinance, and Judiciary who still cannot be bent. The accused were uncomfortable Congress, a diehard upholder of democratic process, so enthusiastic I found that they conference as a historical event, when an unspoken consensus and economic mistakes that had embroiled me immediately in up there with his grandmother seemed to form among voters brought India to a situation in with the Presiding Judge, efforts to get him changed failed. The pros- had to concede the massive public opinion. But the arithmetic game. breaking the Congress Party across north India to remove which the national mood had ecutor was changed but the Supreme Court intervened and prevent- observers point out that how come the Congress Vice Conversations went like this. and his great grandfather com- Indira Gandhi from power in become one of despair. Was this ed that from happening and finally a historic verdict holding the 45 people guilty. They include politicians, civil servants, middlemen President had the "wide ranging feedback" to which ‘You see no matter how popular ing up with his ‘Kamraj plan’. order to punish her for the deliberate? I am not sure and so and contractors. neither the Congress President nor the Prime Minister Modi is personally you must Some of these worthies have Emergency. Is there now a con- I am prepared to attribute the It has taken 17 years for Justice to be done. Public spirited liti- had access? They sadistically comment whether there remember that the BJP has no written paeans in praise of sensus to remove Congress from poor reportage of Modi’s most gants who put the process of law into motion succeeded in getting the is no rapport among the three. But we are told that the presence in southern and east- Rahul in their columns in which power and install Modi as prime important public rally so far to case transferred from the Bihar police to the CBI. They succeeded entire subject had been thoroughly discussed at party ern India.

Load more

  1

Copy Link