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New BJP team by month-end

	January 29, 2007

BJP President Rajnath Singh is expected to announce his much awaited new team of office bearers by Jan. 31. He said on Jan. 25 that the new office bearers would be in place by the month-end.



Party sources said that there could be two new faces - Gopi Nath Munde from Maharashtra and Jual Oran from Orissa as general secretaries. Arun Jaitley and Anantha Kumar are expected to continue as general secretaries.



In the meantime senior leader L.K. Advani has admitted that the BJP did have organisational disputes and restraint was needed so that such things do not come out in the open. Speaking at a party workers’ meeting in New Delhi, Advani cautioned ticket aspirants not to speak against the organisation if their candidacies are rejected.



Observers say that Advani’s remarks come close on the heels of BJP chief Rajnath Singh’s statement at the party national executive meeting in Lucknow last month that those not authorised to speak to the media should refrain from making public comments on the party’s internal issues.





Hema Malini forced to withdraw remarks



Another embarrassment for the party came from Mumbai when actress-turned politician and BJP MP Hema Malini was forced to retract her remarks asking north Indians to leave Mumbai. She said on Friday, Jan. 26 that her remarks had been interpreted wrongly by the media and blown out of proportion.



The actress said she had great respect for north Indians and held them in high regard and she had no authority to tell or advise them to leave the city.



She also asked the parties not to politicise the issue any more. The Congress and the NCP had reacted strongly to the comments, burning her effigy and said Hema should remember she was a politician first and an actress later.





Thackeray praise for Indira Gandhi



Praising late Prime Minister India Gandhi for her ability to take “firm decisions”, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has described her as the best PM when it came to decision-taking. “No other Prime Minister used to take such firm decisions like she had done,” Thackeray said in a television programme when he was asked what place he gave Indira in India’s history.



Citing the Kashmir issue, he contrasted Indira with her father and the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, saying, “Today you see Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Army had actually marched inside the territory (PoK), but Pandit Nehru stopped them.”



“It became PoK. This Indiraji would not have done,” he said.





George Fernandes’ supporters decide on Samata Party’s revival



Though National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convener George Fernandes himself did not attend the convention, his supporters at a meeting on Jan. 21 decided to revive the Samata Party, which had earlier merged with the Janata Dal (United). Former Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitley was in the forefront of the Fernandes’ supporters along with current Samata Party president Brahmanand Mandal. Speaking to newspersons, Jaya Jaitley said erstwhile Samata members in the JDU were attending the convention to reaffirm their faith in George Fernandes. She refuted the charge that the revival move was triggered by the JDU leadership denying her a Rajya Sabha nomination from Bihar.



The convention adopted a resolution attacking the UPA government for the nuclear deal with the United States, farmers’ suicides, high prices of essential commodities and loopholes in the National Employment Guarantee Scheme. It also criticised alleged hypocrisy of the Left parties ‘in league’ with the Congress on setting up special economic zones.



Observers say that the move to revive the Samata Party may not make much headway as the bulk of George Fernandes loyalists spread over the country have chosen to stay back in the Janata Dal United instead of joining hands with Jaya Jaitley to revive the Samata Party.



There are reports that JDU leadership led by party president Sharad Yadav and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is pressing for removal of George Fernandes as the NDA convener. JDU sources say that they have already spoken to BJP president Rajnath Singh asking him to take a clear stand on the issue.





Karnataka gets a full-fledged cabinet



At long last, the BJP-JDS coalition in Karnataka has put in place a full strength 34-member Ministry, as outlined during the Government formation in Jan. 2006. In the Cabinet expansion last week, three Ministers from the JDS and two from the BJP were sworn in. With this, the JDS strength in the cabinet has gone up to 16 and of the BJP to 18.



But the expansion does not mean that the problems facing the Kumaraswamy government have ended as there is heart-burn among several legislators in the coalition, especially among women, since they have not been represented in the Ministry.





A reprieve for Navjot Sidhu



With the Supreme Court staying both the conviction and sentence of BJP leader Navjot Singh Sidhu in a road-rage homicide case, he has been put up by the party as its candidate in the byelection to the Lok Sabha from Amritsar. The byelection was made necessary after Sidhu resigned from the Lok Sabha after he was convicted in the Patiala road-rage case and sentenced to three years in jail.



If the apex court had not stayed the conviction, Sidhu would not have been able to contest the byelection. While suspending the conviction, the Supreme Court said Sidhu set “high standards” in public life by vacating the seat.



A bench headed by Justice G.P. Mathur said Sidhu could have continued as MP till the end of his term by filing an appeal, but had set high standards in public life by resigning immediately.



“The grant of stay on conviction... can be resorted to in rare cases,” the bench added.



Some lawyers felt that the order would trigger appeals for a stay from other convicted politicians till their appeal is decided.



Rakesh Dwivedi, the lawyer for the family of Gurnam Singh who died in the brawl in 1988, said two Uttar Pradesh politicians got in touch with him to see how a similar stay could be secured.



Political leaders and others have expressed the fear that tainted politicians can misuse the verdict of the apex court staying Sidhu’s conviction. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, “I do not want to comment on merits of the individual case, but clearly the SC’s distinction between murder and culpable homicide charges on the one hand and corruption or misuse of office charges on the other was unnecessary and indeed erroneous. The `praiseworthy’ mention about Sidhu’s conduct may have been equally unnecessary for the simple reason that there was no question of a fresh election arising if he had not resigned.”



Some lawyers fear that by drawing a distinction between murder and corruption cases, the SC may have opened the doors to applications coming in from those convicted in heinous murder cases seeking a stay on their conviction pending appeal.



Senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi said, “The stay of conviction is a different matter, but showering praise on the accused, especially at an interim stage where the court is not deciding the final appeal, appeared to be inappropriate.”