gfiles magazine

September 10, 2012

Rahul as PM Now or Never!


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
COVER STORY
inside the congress renu mittal
 
Rahul as PM Now or Never!
Is Rahul Gandhi reluctant to take up the post of Prime Minister of India or are there bigger, and more wily players conniving to keep him out of the prized chair?
 
Is it time to ask the question – Is it now or never for Rahul Gandhi to take over the Prime Ministership of India? And if its now, then who are the people preventing Rahul from taking on this big role? Are there bigger forces at work, forces that have ensured that Sonia Gandhi has been put on the back-foot and has allowed Dr Manmohan Singh to continue as the Prime Minister, knowing full well that the longer he continues, the swifter would be the decline and downfall of the Congress Party.
 
Congressmen assert that the first mistake was when P V Narasimha Rao was made the Prime minister after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. If one analyses in retrospect, it appears that Rao had a clear game plan to continue in power, never mind what happened to the Congress Party. Through the decisions he took and the path he trod – which ended with the demolition of the Babri Masjid – the Rajiv Gandhi assassination probe was put on the back-burner. Rao almost finished the Congress Party. So much so, that it took eight long years for the Congress to find its feet and come back to power in 2004.
 
Sources inform that there are murmurs in the party today that whether Sonia Gandhi committed a mistake by bringing in Dr Manmohan Singh as the man for the top job. She perhaps thought that Singh being a non-political man would go when Rahul was ready to take over. What she probably forgot or overlooked was the fact that Dr Singh had always been an integral part of the power machinery, whether as a bureaucrat, an economist or a politician. Sonia Gandhi also overlooked the fact that Dr Singh got his political moorings under the umbrella of Narasimha Rao. Manmohan Singh has just unfurled the Indian Tricolour for the ninth time this year, clearly.......READMORE

Manmohan is the boss


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
COVER STORY
politics rahul Gandhi
 
Manmohan is the boss
Though there is a clamour in the Congress for putting Rahul Gandhi in charge, an increasingly assertive Manmohan Singh may come in the way
 
by Anil Tyagi
 
Immediately after AICC General-Secretary Digvijay Singh’s statement in July that Rahul Gandhi would be ready to take up a bigger role in the Congress party by September, a well-orchestrated effort was launched within the party to make him the leader of the Lok Sabha. A group of 10 MPs even sent a representation to the Congress President demanding this. Perhaps these MPs were not aware that the Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha has to be a minister first. But more than a sycophantic step, it was more like a trial balloon to assess the reaction of such a step, as even these signatories did not know what kind of larger role Rahul Gandhi would like to play.
 
Perhaps the thinking behind catapulting Rahul Gandhi as the leader of the Lok Sabha was to project someone who could be acceptable to the party and be seen as a person who would lead the party in the next Lok Sabha polls. Since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was not a Lok Sabha member, Rahul Gandhi could fit in the role and make his presence felt.
 
Taking on the role of the leader of the House could also give Rahul Gandhi an opportunity to hone his skills as an orator as he would have had to intervene and speak on a variety of issues on behalf of the Government. Pranab Mukherjee performed that role for a long time by taking a definite position on sensitive.......READMORE

Rahul’s Political Thriller


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
COVER STORY
congress b n uniyal
 
Rahul’s Political Thriller
Party leaders feel that what they need most at this juncture is the awe, aura and authority of the Nehru-Gandhi family rather than experience
 
RAHUL GANDHI is working at it as if he were acting out a political thriller. Everyone is sure one day he must – and he will – but no one knows when! Congressmen are concerned that it may be too late by the time he does; the oppositionwallahs are happy that the longer he dithers, the better for them. Others are wondering whether he is being timid or canny, or whether he will seize everything in one go or act out his destined role in stages. Old Delhi hands are calling up parallels from the past to refresh each other’s memories. How long did Nehru hesitate to take over the Congress and how long did Indira Gandhi or Rajiv, for that matter? None of them rushed in to sort out the mess in the Congress, the government or the country just like that. They all bided their time, waiting in the wings, until they found the moment opportune or when they were left with no option but to seize what in their times everybody believed was rightfully theirs. Each one of them faced a vastly different situation but one thing was common: they cogitated, almost agonised themselves for long, before taking the plunge into the larger volcanic political world of their days.
 
Journalists on the political beat say that the Congress leaders who have met and urged Rahul in recent months to take over command of the party and the government have often failed to give satisfactory answers to his searching questions. He has, for instance, asked them as to what they think he should do in the current situation once he is in command. None of them have been able to give him a post-takeover gameplan. There is talk in some Congress circles that he has agreed to be the party working president in a sort of dyarchy with his mother. Others say that he has not and that he fears that a mother-son duo in command of the largest national party may not go down very well with the voters at large. There are still others who feel that his taking over as working president alone may not be enough because the real mess is not in the party organisation but in the government. Such party leaders feel that what the coalition government needs most at this juncture is the awe, aura and authority of the Nehru-Gandhi family rather than experience in running ministries.......READMORE 

Agenda for RAHUL


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
COVER STORY
strategy shubhabrata bhattacharya
 
Agenda for RAHUL
It would be a good idea if he focuses on ways to create employment
 
If political pundits are to be believed, come September the wait for Rahul Gandhi will be over. They say that he is likely to take the plunge by accepting higher responsibilities in the Congress organisation and perhaps enter the Union Council of Ministers. So will he, or won’t he? And if he does, what should his agenda be?
 
So far, as AICC General-Secretary Rahul Gandhi has looked after youth organisations. According to Indian Youth Congress (IYC) president Rajiv Satav, organisational elections have been completed in IYC. This is a singular achievement .In living memory, with the exception of the communist parties, no political organisation in India has managed to hold nationwide internal elections. With IYC elections, the fiefdoms of many established political families have been challenged. Those who passed the litmus test of the ballot survived; those who could not, have been sidelined. The elections of IYC were held under the supervision of legendary former Election Commission expert K J Rao, who ensured a stringent yardstick.
 
Thus, if Rahul Gandhi opts to take on new responsibilities, he would be doing so after having delivered. He would have the backing of a team of young enthusiasts who have come to occupy positions through elections. His efforts in the IYC are reminiscent of the rejuvenated Youth Congress which emerged after the late Sanjay Gandhi organised the first meeting of Block presidents of the Youth Congress on August 10, 1976, in New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan. The Emergency and the subsequent defeat of the Congress in 1977 is remembered by everybody. What is not remembered is that in the days out of power post-1977, it was the rejuvenated Youth Congress which played a major role in the events leading to the return of the Congress to power in 1980. .....READMORE

Distinct persona


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
APPOINTMENT
supreme court justice altamas kabir
 
Distinct persona
 
by Sarita Bhatnagar
 
It is a period when the country is facing a crisis of governance in most of its statutory and constitutional establishments, and when a spate of litigations over corruption and arbitrary use of discretion are pending before the highest judicial forum. It is also a period when there will be change of guard in the office of the Chief Justice of India.
 
As the current workaholic and disciplinarian, Chief Justice S H Kapadia, lays down office on September 28, the senior-most judge, Justice Altamas Kabir, will take over the hammer from one of the most efficient judicial figures to have headed the top judicial position in post-Independence India.
 
Before Justice Kabir’s expected elevation as the Chief Justice of India, there have been three more CJIs belonging to the minority Muslim community—M Hidyatulla (1968), Mohammad Hammedullah Beg (1977) and A M Ahmadi (1994).
 
But it has never been felt that caste, creed or faith ever weighed in favour of any party. What has been the main concern for dispensation is the rule of law, equity and natural justice. Known for his sobriety and soft speech, Kabir enjoys a distinct persona. As some court watchers put it, he belongs to a world that.....READMORE
 

Three unforgettables in Austria


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
MANDARIN MATTERS
ambassadors club k l dalal
Three unforgettables in Austria
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi mentioned three matters which were of special concern to her and which she wanted me to keep in mind while in Austria
Before going to Vienna in May 1980, to take up my new appointment as Ambassador to Austria, I had made the customary call on Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Without spending much time on formalities, the Prime Minister said that while the different ministries would be briefing me, she wanted to mention three matters which were of special concern to her. First, she mentioned that Miraben, a lifelong trusted disciple of Gandhiji, had left India after his assassination in 1948 and settled down in Austria. The Prime Minister asked me to extend all possible assistance especially in her health-related problems. Second, the widow of Subhash Chandra Bose, an Austrian lady, was also living there. We wished to keep contact with her and also extend courtesies and if necessary help to her as and when required, but the Bose family had not favoured this as they had not fully recognised her status as Netaji’s spouse. The Prime Minister expressed the wish that I should discreetly keep contact with her. Third, she referred to Bruno Kreisky, the Chancellor of Austria. The Nehru family had very friendly contacts with him, but some misunderstanding had taken place during the Emergency in 1975. Since I would be meeting him, the Prime Minister.....READMORE

In public interest


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
MY CORNER
rti amitabh thakur
In public interest
The RTI Act has done much for the achievement of a transparent
form of governance and we need to remove every impediment in its functioning
 
The Preamble of the Right to Information Act 2005 was absolutely correct when it said that democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to its functioning. This is also necessary to contain corruption and to hold the Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed. But at the same time, revelation of information in actual practice is likely to conflict with other public interests, including efficient operations of the Government, optimum use of limited fiscal resources and the preservation of confidentiality of sensitive information. Hence, there is an immediate need to harmonise these conflicting interests while preserving the paramountcy of the democratic ideal. This Act was passed with the assumed purpose of harmonising these two conflicting purposes.
 
Now, seven years later, the RTI Act has been able to bring a sort of revolution, having transformed the public mind and public spirit. It has brought many activists and public-spirited persons to the fore. It has percolated right down to the village level. But, on the other side of the fence, not everyone seems to be equally happy with the RTI Act. It is not that each Government servant has taken the RTI Act in the same spirit. While there are few Government servants who really enjoy working as a public information officer under.....READMORE

The rise and fall of TEAM ANNA


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
SILLY POINT
humour mk kaw
 
The rise and fall of TEAM ANNA
 
NOTHING can be more instructive than an objective and systematic study of the factors which led to the meteoric rise and fall of Team Anna in the political firmament of this nation. There was a time when people who should have known better were carried away by the euphoria of the moment and seriously compared Anna Hazare with Mahatma Gandhi.
 
The problem with Bapu is that he is so easy to caricature and copy. Ask any cartoonist and he will draw a fairly recognisable sketch of the Mahatma, with a quick careless childish scrawl. Tell a school teacher and she will produce a hundred Bapus, complete with a bald pate, round spectacles, pocket watch and stout stick.
 
Every Indian will like to be a Mahatma Gandhi. He is the dream icon of a billion lives. Each village and town has dozens of people who look like Gandhi, walk like him and try to follow his footsteps by fasting unto death or resorting to satyagraha, just as every city has its own Mahatma Gandhi Road. If it were that easy to manufacture clones, we would be a nation of 1.2 billion Mahatmas.......READMORE

Money: Bliss or Misery


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
PERSPECTIVE
Sadhguru
 
Money: Bliss or Misery
 
Questioner: In our day-to-day life, we need a lot of money. Is earning money a sin?
Sadhguru: Money is just a simple tool. We are making it too big for nothing. Is it bad? Is it good? It is neither; it is a tool that we havecreated. Without money, we would otherwise be dealing in a barter system, but now we have a more effective mechanism.  
 
One thing we must understand is that nobody is aspiring for money. When I say this, it looks ridiculous, but I am saying it is not the money that they want. It is just that money has become the means for what they consider to be a better life.
 
Everybody wants their life to be pleasant. When we say pleasant, pleasantness happens in different ways. If your body becomes very pleasant, we call it pleasure;if your mind becomes pleasant, we call it peace; if it becomes very pleasant, we call it joy; if your emotions become pleasant, we call it love; and if they become very pleasant, we call it compassion. If your life energies become pleasant, we call it bliss, and if they become very pleasant, we call it ecstasy. If your surroundings become.......READMORE

Stock-specific approach


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
STOCK DOCTOR
dr gs sood
Stock-specific approach
MOST investors are baffled at the continued rally in the markets as concerns relating to the economy do not seem to be receding. So, the question that is uppermost in the minds of everyone is, why are the markets rallying, especially when the economy is floundering? The explanation put forth by some for this continued rally is that the downturn in the economy appears to be bottoming out, there is the Chidambaram effect that comes with high expectations of reforms and the expected release of liquidity by the European central banks, which are better known as QE3 (quantitative easing round 3). However, these explanations may not hold much water, if one looks at the fiscal mess that the economy is in, the current political scenario, and the failure of QE1 and QE2 to herald a bull run.
The only reason that appears to justify the current rally is the liquidity brought in by FIIs, for they see India as being amongst the few oases of growth, one which promises vibrancy in a scenario where other countries appear to have given up the growth path. What appears to be driving FIIs is the theory of relativity. They see more things bad in their own economies compared to India. Also, the Indian market offers the most diversified basket of stocks across sectors and corporates.....READMORE

Mafia rules in Daman?


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
...by the way
 
Mafia rules in Daman?

NEWSPAPERS recently carried news emanating from the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) that their discussions with major states to ensure a minimum fixed tenure of two years for IAS officers have been completed. But, the DoPT is day-dreaming that their fiat would be followed unscrupulously. The Home Ministry in the same building where from DoPT operates continues to be arm- twisted by political bosses to transfer senior IAS officers at their whims. A case in point is the pre-mature transfer of Narendra Kumar (AGMUT, 1988) who took charge of the post of Administrator of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli last year in March and that of BS Bhalla (AGMUT, 1990) who just completed one year in Andaman & Nicobar. On the sultry afternoon of July 31, 2012, the outgoing Home Minister called for the file relating to the transfer of these officers, signed it and moved to North Block to take charge of Finance Ministry. If reports are to be believed, Congress leader Mohanbhai Sanjibhai Delkar, ex-MP, Ketan Patel, Congress General Secretary Jagmeet Singh.......READMORE

Brigadier defies DM Kokrajhar!


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
...by the way
 
Brigadier defies DM Kokrajhar!
 
If the sequence of violent events in Assam’s Kokrajhar district is traced, it appears that there is a gross administrative failure. Under Section 130 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) 1973, the District Magistrate is empowered to call in the Military to disperse suspected violence creators. Bipul Saikia, Executive District Magistrate, smelled that there may be violence and so requested the Area Brigadier to send in some forces. The Brigadier thought otherwise; he could not sense the urgency of the official in the field. Instead of sending the forces, he informed the Divisional Commander, who informed the Eastern Command who informed the Chief of Army Staff. As per the law, the Brigadier had to comply but it is a mystery why the......READMORE

Dilli door hain


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
...by the way
 
Dilli door hain
 
Sunil Arora, a 1980 batch IAS officer from the Rajasthan cadre, is the talk of the town in Raisina Hills these days. If the events of last month are monitored, it appears that he has more enemies than friends. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had approved Arora’s name as Development Commissioner (Handlooms) under the Ministry of Textiles. Officials and politicians who are the helm of affairs could not digest this and were even surprised about how his name had been proposed for the coveted post. If insiders are to be believed, it was Commerce Minister Anand Sharma who consented to have him as Development Commissioner, Handlooms. Not surprisingly, as Anand Sharma is a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan. But the following week itself, the ACC cancelled the transfer order. One reason may be that Sunil Arora was close to former Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and served as Secretary under Vasundhra Raje Scindia when she was Chief Minister, Rajasthan. Arora comes from a family of bureaucrats, many of whom are in high ranking positions in Haryana and at the Centre.....READMORE

ONGC in a fix


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
...by the way
ONGC in a fix
Leighton Welspun Contractors, a private sector Indo-Australian joint venture, has been allegedly caught red-handed trying to persue public sector oil giant ONGC into a multi-million dollar contract. Leighton Welspun is a spinoff of Leighton Offshore, which itself is a subsidiary of Leighton Holdings, Sydney, Australia. Leighton Welspun had bid for a contract for which it has signed an integrity pact with ONGC. The pact requires that the bidder would face immediate disqualification if it is found to have concealed any charge of corruption slapped on it in any country. Leighton Welspun bid for the contract but concealed the fact that it was facing bribery charges in Iraq for which it had to even sack one of its senior executives. Now, another senior executive has gone. Leighton Welspun Contractors chief Russell Waugh, in the wake of an internal inquiry into corporate governance practices in its overseas operations, has left the company....READMORE

Delhi love foundation


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
Bric-a-brac
likes & dislikes
 
Delhi love foundation
azad’s son to marry into dlf family
 
POLITICS and business can be a heady combination. The coming together of a top political family and a leading business house is a cocktail which few can resist. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s son Saddam is all set to marry the granddaughter of DLF chief KP Singh. When it comes to real estate, there are few who are bigger than KP Singh and when it comes to politics, Ghulam Nabi Azad is no small fry either. He has spent a lifetime in the Congress party and after having adorned all manner of posts in the party and the government, is now a Union minister as well as an AICC general secretary. According to a little bird, the two families came close during the days when Azad was the Urban Development Minister... READMORE

No love lost


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
Bric-a-brac
likes & dislikes
 
No love lost
the tale of mamata and deepa
 
WEST BENGAL Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was once a close friend and ally of Congress leader Priya Ranjan Das Munshi. Both were youth activists in the Congress and were known to be close. Today Mamata is the head of her own political party, the Trinamool Congress, while the dynamic Priya Ranjan Das Munshi is in Apollo Hospital in a coma for the last many years after he suffered a major heart attack. He was the Union minister for I&B. His wife Deepa Das Munshi contested as an MP from Priya’s Lok Sabha seat and won the election. She is known to be a strong critic of Mamata Banerjee and Mamata is known to dislike Deepa. But the situation took an interesting turn recently when two of Mamata’s close lieutenants went to Apollo Hospital and visited Priya Ranjan Das Munshi. They were Sudeep Bandopadhyaya, the Minister of State for Health, and Kunal Ghosh, a journalist and Rajya Sabha MP from Mamata’s party. Sudeep sought details of how much money has been spent on Das Munshi’s treatment and said he should be taken home since the hospital....READMORE

Virbhadra back at the helm


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
Bric-a-brac
likes & dislikes
 
Virbhadra back at the helm
is anand sharma sulking?
 
THE tough talking Himachal Pradesh leader Virbhadra Singh almost quit the Congress and joined the NCP but as word leaked out that he had met Sharad Pawar, a nervous Sonia Gandhi immediately sat up and asked her political secretary Ahmed Patel to meet Virbhadra and ensure he did not leave. Virbhadra, as the tallest Congress leader in Himachal, naturally wanted to be made PCC President simply because he wanted a lion’s share in the distribution of tickets. He had been kept out of the screening committee for Himachal Pradesh and if he had no say in the selection of candidates, he could not have forcefully put in his bid to become the chief minister. After two meetings with Sonia Gandhi, A K Antony was asked to meet the senior leader and assure him that his demand was being met and that PCC President Thakur Kaul Singh was being asked to put in his papers. Even after that, the Congress leadership did not want to announce his name alone and finally it was coupled with that of the new UP PCC President. Just a few days before this, Virbhadra’s bĂȘte noire Anand Sharma was overheard telling people that Virbhadra’s heydays were over and there was no question.... READMORE

Concerted action


Vol. 6- Issue 6 - Sept 2012
Bric-a-brac
likes & dislikes
 
Concerted action
javed akhtar shows his mettle
 
IF one were to ask who is the most well networked MP in Parliament, it would be difficult to answer. But one name does come to mind, that of Javed Akhtar, lyricist and scriptwriter who was nominated by the UPA to the Rajya Sabha. His wife, actress Shabana Azmi, was a Rajya Sabha MP earlier courtesy the Left parties. Javed Akhtar managed his nomination courtesy Sonia Gandhi when he read out his poems on Indira Gandhi’s martyrdom day and then again in the Central Hall of Parliament. At the same time, he is known to be extremely close to BJP leader and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The buzz is that he is also close to RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat. Given his relations with parties of all hues, it is no wonder that he managed to get support for the Copyright Bill and when it finally came through after a two-year struggle, he has now organised a concert in the Parliament auditorium to say thank you. Shabana will play the master of ceremonies for the concert, which is expected to see the presence of top dignitaries like the PM, the Congress president, Leaders of the Opposition and top Ministers.....READMORE