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Congress : Shivraj Patil to be Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha

	November 12, 2001

After much speculation and lobbying, Shivraj Patil was finally appointed Deputy Leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha. A letter to this effect was sent by party president Sonia Gandhi to Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi. Patil has beaten the other front-runner, N D Tiwari, largely because of his parliamentary and assembly experience. Patil was Lok Sabha Speaker during the Narasimha Rao Government. He was also the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly in the late ’60s before he entered Lok Sabha. His knowledge of parliamentary rules and procedures is believed to be formidable and this will come in handy for Sonia who is still learning.

Patil succeeds Madhavrao Scindia who died in a plane crash on September 30. Although he holds the post, Patil may not carry the same clout as Scindia on whom Sonia depended too much. The contenders for the post included N.D. Tiwari, Shivraj Patil, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi and Kamal Nath. Arjun Singh, not being a Lok Sabha member, seemed to have influenced Sonia’s decision. Both Kamal Nath and Tiwari got out of the list. It is obvious that Arjun actually had his say. He wanted a leader who might not threaten his position as Sonia’s ‘’advisor’’. Arjun has always been very close to 10 Janpath, and has been Sonia’s trusted lieutenant ever since she took over as Congress president.

He and Makhan Lal Fotedar were once permanent fixtures at 10 Janpath but lost their clout following the controversy surrounding the Congress president’s personal secretary, Vincent George. Now, once again Arjun wants to regain his lost position. Following the death of senior leaders like Scindia, Jitendra Prasad, K. Kumarmangalam and Rajesh Pilot, he is the seniormost CWC member and has his advantage. But since Sonia generally prefers loyalists and is usually not at ease with people with high political ambitions, Arjun’s return may not be a smooth one. Of late, her “durbar” has acquired a new look with more docile CWC members such as Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Natwar Singh and Manmohan Singh.



Sonia carries war to Gujarat

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is busy trying to dispel the impression that the party was soft towards the BJP-led NDA. In recent days, she has been hitting out at the BJP on issues like POTO, witch-hunting of minorities by the Sangh Parivar and the saffronising of school textbooks. The response to public rallies has been encouraging for the party bosses. Though UP will be the focus for the Congress campaign, Sonia has been touring the country addressing meetings hitting out at BJP policies and its “misgovernance.”

Last week, she went over to Mehsana, Gujarat and addressed a well-attended rally. The crowd response at the citadel of the BJP was meant to stress that the BJP was no longer as invincible as it had been claiming. Following the humbling of the BJP in the civic polls, the Congress has been upbeat. Sonia obviously wanted to hammer in the point that even the change of guard with Narendra Modi replacing Keshubhai Patel may not be enough to improve the image of the BJP.

A sea of humanity cheered Sonia Gandhi, in a space of 15 minutes, when she made a virulent attack on the BJP’s claim of providing better governance and leadership. She cited instances of lack of coordination between the Central and the state governments and mocked the induction of RSS pracharaks (RSS activists) as Chief Ministers. In recent weeks, the CMs of Gujarat and Uttaranchal had been replaced to make way for RSS-backed men. Though she was delayed by two hours at the Kisan Sammelan, a two lakh-strong crowd waited for her, while people continued to pour in throughout her address at the aerodrome grounds in Mehsana.

Carefully selecting her theme, Sonia asserted that the Bt cotton controversy exposed the complete lack of co-ordination between the Centre and the state. ‘’The Centre wants Gujarat to destroy the Bt cotton crop grown by farmers at high costs. And Gujarat simply cannot do anything about it,’’ she said. Knowing well that there are many cotton growers in north Gujarat, she touched a chord with the audience. ‘’Even the Union Textiles Minister is from Gujarat, but is a mute spectator to the entire controversy....BJP governments at the Centre and in Gujarat are playing havoc with farmers,’’ Sonia said, drawing loud applause.

The biggest applause came when Sonia mocked RSS pracharaks becoming chief ministers throwing to the winds their pledge to stay away from political posts. ‘’These people who can’t keep their promises; can’t be trusted), she mocked. The Congress chief said the BJP was facing a severe crisis of leadership which is why RSS people were being chosen for positions of power. ‘’They have no programmes, no vision and no intention to work for the betterment of society,’’ she said. She alleged that the saffron brigade was out to stoke communal passions in the land of the Mahatma. The work of the government is to douse the fire and not ignite it, she pointed out, obviously hinting at frequent attacks by the VHP and the Bajrang Dal on minorities, including Christians..

Referring to the US fight against terrorism and the casualties in the air strikes in Afghanistan, Sonia Gandhi said: ‘’We are also against terrorism and we should try to root it out but not at the cost of innocent lives.’’

Meanwhile, taking a firm stand against groupism in the Maharashtra unit of the party, Sonia has snubbed Maharashtra PCC chief Govindrao Adik again. She has made it clear that the party leadership will not approve of any rebel activity against the Chief Minister. Just one Adik loyalist figured in the State Parliamentary Board of the party which was announced last week. This was the second blow to Adik.Earlier, the demand for the removal of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was rejected by the Congress high command. The 37-member panel, which Adik heads and has been set up for the civic elections, is packed with the Chief Minister’s nominees. MPCC General Secretary Vijaya Patil is the sole exception.

However, Deshmukh’s trusted aide and Minister of State for Home, Kripashankar Singh, does not find a place. The other notable omissions are Najma Heptullah, Deputy Chairperson, Rajya Sabha, Sunil Dutt, the only Congress MP from Mumbai, Ram Rao Adik, Ishaq Jamkhanwala, Vilas Muttemwar and Shrikant Jichkar. All of them had been members of the panel for over a decade. The new board includes Vilasrao Deshmukh, S B Chavan, Shivraj Patil, A R Antulay, Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar, N K Tirpude, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Prabha Rau, N K P Salve, Satish Chaturvedi, Murli Deora and Gurudas Kamat. A senior Congress leader said discontent is brewing within the party over the board. Minority communities, women, scheduled castes and Uttar Bhartiyas have been ignored, he added. Soon after the list was released, the unhappy leaders sent letters to Sonia Gandhi to protest against the non-inclusion of Singh, Sunil Dutt and Heptullah.



Strains in Congress-RJD relations

There are clear signs that relations between the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal are worsening. Congress sources are wondering whether it will be politically sensible to side with RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, who is likely to end up behind bars soon in Ranchi. Ever since the fodder scam cases were shifted out of Patna to Jharkhand, which is under BJP rule, the possibility of Laloo remaining free for long on bail had receded. The apex court’s recent directive to the RJD chief to present himself in a Ranchi court has made it possible for the CBI to seek cancellation of the bail to him, so that he could be sent to jail. A special jail is being prepared in Ranchi further fuelling the rumours of Laloo being put in detention. Unfazed by the possibility, the RJD chief has termed attempts to send him behind bars as politically motivated. Displaying his noted sense of humour, he has said “Laloo is the anthrax in BJP’s mail!”

He is confident of the minorities support, so much so that he had not bothered to inform the Congress, the party that had kept his government in power for long. Now, he is not banking on the Congress support as after the creation of Jharkhand, the Bihar government cannot be easily destabilized, even if the Congress pulls out.

‘’Protect secularism and you will get our support’’ was what the Congress had told Laloo Prasad Yadav’s RJD. But when it came to identifying itself with the minorities’ cause, the RJD preferred to ignore its ally, leaving the latter seething with rage. It all started with the meeting of the state’s minority ministers called on November 6 by Chief Minister Rabri Devi to discuss problems faced by madrasa teachers. While invitations were sent to all Muslim RJD ministers, Bihar PCC chief Shakeel Ahmed, a senior minister in the RJD government, was not invited. So Ahmed protested.

The state Congress has alleged that the RJD has been working hard to discredit it in the eyes of Muslims. Ahmed has sought to know from the RJD chief whether his party had carried out his orders to keep the Congress away from minority issues and sent the message across the RJD that the Congress was not their well-wisher.

Ahmed was in Patna the day the meeting was called. This made him more angry and he blamed Laloo who he feels had ensured his absence. He said he would talk to party chief Sonia Gandhi about the RJD’s efforts to alienate the Congress from minorities. Ahmed, in his two-page letter to Laloo, has threatened to go to Sonia. He charged the RJD chief with ignoring the Congress while deciding on minorities’ issues. He said: ‘’While the Congress had decided to extend support to your government in the face of criticism, you try to damage the Congress’ reputation.”



In-fighting in Punjab

The battle for the turf is hotting up in Punjab as the Assembly elections draw near. It is getting clear that the political parties are having their share of problems While the state Congress is riven with infighting for leadership, the issue in the Akali Dal-BJP alliance has settled in favour of Parkash Singh Badal.

The battle in the Punjab Congress took an ugly turn last week, when party’s state vice president Jagmeet Brar launched a blistering attack in public on PCC chief Amarinder Singh and the latter rushed to meet Sonia Gandhi to complain. While Brar, a protege of CWC member Arjun Singh, is a member of the Lok Sabha and also a member of the Congress Co-ordination Committee, Amarinder is being projected as the state’s next Chief Minister, in the event of Congress winning the polls in February.

Speaking in Amritsar, Brar, with an obvious hint at Amarinder, had said that the party high command before allotting the ticket must find out whether the people claiming that they had helped the state in its fight against terrorism had actually done so or not. Brar also said that the party high command was against projecting Amarinder as the next Chief Minister and that it was the prerogative of the newly elected MLAs.

At his meeting with Sonia Gandhi, Amarinder handed over papers containing statements made by Brar, which he said were weakening the party. He pointed out that Brar, once a Congress member, had himself left the party to join the Congress (T) and later even quit that for support from terrorists in the Punjab polls.