Business of the Day: Story on Indian parliament members' conflict of interest

Left without power

Shafi Rahman
INDIA TODAY July 31, 2008

Last week the Left leaders went into a sulk on a draft released by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Thundered a CPI(M) statement, "The US is exerting pressure upon India to fall in line and facilitate the adoption of an iniquitous agreement. The US President had called up the Indian prime minister in this connection. The UPA Government should not compromise India's stand at the WTO talks in Geneva."
Rousing words. Just a month ago, they would have been replayed on more than a dozen news channels, sending UPA's muddle managers into a twirl.
This time the UPA Government didn't bother to clarify its position. "We don't expect to get answers nowadays," sniffed a Left leader. Yes, and neither can they count on airtime.
Result? The stars of the Left anti-Government gaggle, who once hung around the Capital waiting to assuage the insatiable appetite of 24x7 television, have now left the air-conditioned comforts of TV studios and the pleasures of pounding Delhi podiums to feel the heat and dust of ground-level campaigning.
So while CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat went to West Bengal and Kerala to explain Speaker Somnath Chatterjee's ouster, his wife and Politburo colleague Brinda Karat travelled to Khammam district in Andhra Pradesh.
Her agenda? To oppose the state Government's plan to suspend the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme during the peak agriculture season, in the process negating her own comrade and Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, who advocates a similar suspension of the programme.
Another favoured talking head, Sitaram Yechury, went on a hopping spree to Tiruchirappalli, Bangalore and Mumbai, all within a week. Senior Politburo member M.K. Pandhe, who has been muted by the party after his not-so-pleasing comments on Muslim displeasure over the Indo-US nuclear deal, will travel to Puri in Orissa to attend a CPI(M) function.

It's a story repeated in other Left establishments, once buzzing with hyperactive sound byte warriors. The Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) office, formerly a haven of insider stories, is deserted and its General Secretary Chandrachoodan is firmly ensconced in the backwaters of his home state, Kerala.
All India Forward Block (AIFB) leader G. Devarajan is travelling in Kerala and West Bengal. The CPI's D. Raja-for whom the DMK rolled out the red carpet each time he landed at Chennai in the last four years-was arrested and thrown behind bars for protesting outside the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in the city on July 30. Only RSP Secretary Abani Roy is in Delhi and is available for interviews. Sadly, few are willing to bite the bait.
Now that television's Circus Maximus is through, the CPI(M) has decided to take its carnival to the streets. The Left trade unions have called for a nationwide industrial strike on August 20 to register their protest against the "anti-people" economic policies of the Congress-led Government at the Centre. The party will also use the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Day on August 6 to protest against the deal.
In Kerala, the CPI(M) has already started its campaign in the Muslimdominated areas, deploying star campaigner and Manjeri MP T.K. Hamza.
The CPI is pitting youth leader Suneer against Indian Union Muslim League leader and Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed, who is expected to seek re-election from Ponnani constituency.
On its part, the UPA Government is moving ahead with its plans to push through economic reforms, including disinvestment of navratnas, once blocked by the Left.
In the past 45 months, the Left had played its role of the enemy within with flair. Of the 300 statements issued by the CPI(M) during its unhappy marriage to the UPA, most of them were peppered with words like "opposing", "criticising" and "advising", meant for the "wayward policies of the Manmohan Singh Government".
Much ink was spilled to demonstrate its pathological distaste for the nuclear deal, while over 50 statements were issued to warn the nation of its foreign policy complications.
The nuclear deal fallout has meant many things to many people. OB vans that stalled traffic at Delhi's Gole Market, where the CPI(M) office is headquartered, have moved on to the next big thing.
Karat, the steel-in-the-spine stalwart, has now been reduced to Mayawati's bhai-that is how the BSP chief addressed him at their last media briefing, recalling how BJP leader Lalji Tandon had received a similar honorific only to be described as Lalchi (greedy) Tandon soon enough by the changeable politician.
If the CPI(M) is unsure about the way Mayawati will behave, fearing she could end up with the BJP, they have less reason to trust their once-and-future-enemy's other former allies as well-the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Janata Dal (Secular) and Asom Gana Parishad.
In Andhra Pradesh, the CPI(M) and CPI are yet to reach an agreement over supporting the TDP in the state. A major faction of leaders in the CPI is against teaming up with the TDP and is for continuing ties with the Congress in the state. Well known actor Chiranjeevi, who is planning his entry into electoral politics, is seen as a potential Left ally.
The Left parties, in turn, are yet to decide on withdrawing the support of their legislators to the M. Karunanidhi Government in Tamil Nadu after DMK MPs voted in favour of the UPA Government. The central leadership, considering its longstanding friendship with Karunanidhi, is weighing various options.
The CPI(M) will also try to turn the popular sympathy for Somnath Chatterjee into a symbol of its strict disciplinarian ways to offset its political isolation and to show that its leadership is in control of the party apparatus-if not of events in Parliament.
The CPI(M) top leadership will also travel to various zonal party units to explain the decision. In the process, it will reassure everyone that its Leninist organisational structure is intact.
The addition to their frequent flier miles won't hurt. Some compensation at least for the hours lost lambasting the Government on nationwide television screens.

It is 275

Shankkar Aiyar with Priya Sahgal and Shafi Rahman
July 24, 2008 INDIA TODAY

It was the Eureka moment for the Congress. A little over 30 minutes after the trust vote was over and just before the results were declared, Congressman Pawan Bansal excitedly shared a scribbled note with party President Sonia Gandhi.
Even as she read the note, Kamal Nath and P. Chidambaram, sitting right behind her, leaned across to look and let out a collective "wow" which was caught by Rahul Gandhi right behind.
As he whispered the magical 275 figure to his young colleagues, the thrill of the victory, it would seem, was transmitted across the UPA ranks. Victory, though, didn't come easily.
They say a week is a long time in politics and the UPA had to not only keep its flock together for two weeks but weather the gathering storm of unnatural alliances.
The combination of Left and Mayawati on one side and the BJP on the other, particularly at the fag end of its tenure, could have led to complete decimation.
Unshackled from the bondage of the Left, the Congress, it would seem, discovered a sense of purpose just when its survival was under dire threat.
In the two weeks after the Left pulled the plug on July 8, the party found its core and political relevance as its core team worked round-the-clock to get the arithmetic of its politics in place.
The crack team of Ahmed Patel, Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar, Vayalar Ravi at the centre and chief ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Y.S.R. Reddy and B.S. Hooda put together a dossier on 40 MPs across the political spectrum.
These included five from Uttar Pradesh, four from Madhya Pradesh, three each from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, eight from Karnataka and five from the North-east.
The list was culled using friendly political contacts, chief ministers in UPA states and friendly dissidents in the Opposition ranks. The bottom line seemed to be "impossible is nothing" and their credo was "just do it".
Armed with a war chest of promises and promissory notes, MPs, ministers and general secretaries worked the speed-dials on their mobile phones and the country to lure the vulnerable and the amenable. And displaying an astounding strike rate, they got 24 of the 40 targeted in the bag-10 abstaining and 14 voting across the political fence in defiance of party whips.
To get a sense of the magnitude of cross voting organised, consider this: if these 24 MPs were to have voted with their parties, the UPA score would have been 251. Even if one were to dub abstentions as genuine, the score would have been 261, well short of majority.
The contrast was stark. If the UPA team displayed an uncanny sense of purpose, the NDA was in total disarray. Of the 24 MPs, eight were from the BJP, including four from Karnataka where they had just won the Assembly polls riding a popular wave.
If the NDA was missing the presence of a Pramod Mahajan amidst them to effect split second acquisitions, the UPA seemed to have found its version in Amar Singh. The blend of gut-wrenching reality unleashed by the Samajwadi Party MP and the sophisticated but ruthless methods of the Congress brought dividends.
Unlike BJP, the Congress used its best players, not mid-level functionaries and independent Rajya Sabha MPs. The BJP's failure is best reflected in how the Congress snagged JMM leader Shibu Soren right out of the NDA net to add five MPs to its tally.
Soren had been wooed by the BJP which had offered him the post of chief minister of Jharkhand if he delivered five MPs. But even as he dwelled on it, the Congress got his chief whip to threaten a split and offered the post of deputy chief minister to the son and Union Coal Ministry to the father.
It helped though the Congress also reminded Soren that the appeal against his acquittal in the Jha murder case was open to debate. The combination of carrot-and-stick worked.
What helped was that the targets and interlocutors were intelligently chosen and aligned. If Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and P.A. Sangma networked successfully to convince the single-MP parties from North-east, Sharad Pawar was used to crack the complex equations.
Getting Omar Abdullah to vote on the same side as PDP was no mean task but it was Pawar who worked on him. Of course, it helped that Abdullah used to stay with the Pawars while studying in Mumbai.
Take the case of the Karnataka MPs. It is no secret that the BJP was uncomfortable living under the support of the Bellary miners. Its solution was to beef up its numbers by getting Congress MLAs to resign and contest as BJP candidates, a replica of how the Congress wrecked the Shiv Sena using Narayan Rane.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S.R. Reddy, who has known the miners, read this as an opportunity to tap and got the Bellary MLAs to work with him to lure four BJP MPs.
Interestingly, barring one, all were former Congressmen and even H.T. Sangliana was lured with a ticket from Mizoram. In their efforts, the party managers have combined arithmetic and politics. The Congress got the numbers and also succeeded in puncturing the euphoria created by the BJP's victory in the Assembly polls.
The campaign was not without hiccups. The weekend before the trust vote, they lost JD(S) and RLD as both Deve Gowda and Ajit Singh found the idea of the third front alluring to dump the promises made to the Congress. Indeed the emergence of Mayawati and the power play by a couple of corporate houses almost derailed the campaign.
Two tactical errors-the unveiling of the CBI case on Mayawati by spin masters and the open attack of Amar Singh on corporate interests almost created a new wall of resistance. Thinking on their feet, the Congress sent emissaries to the corporates.
A senior minister close to the tycoon assured immunity from the SP even as he read the riot act, armed as he was with some "interesting" documents. Just in case the tycoon got ideas. Amar too exercised discretion in his tirade on the battle between the Ambani brothers.
Once money power was neutralised, they worked on the political angle. Almost on cue, CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan anointed Mayawati as the future prime minister. That was the political equivalent of setting the cat among the pigeons.
Using the dissident network in the BJP, they spread the word that the emergence of UNPA would threaten the future of the NDA. Suddenly the idea of toppling the UPA Government didn't look all that attractive.
What was amazing is the persistence of the core team. Even though by July 20 evening the UPA was convinced that it had the numbers, it did not stop pursuing its quarry.
An emissary went and met Gowda and Ajit Singh just in case they would change their minds. They didn't but others did. Hooda got Arvind Sharma back while Reddy managed to break two of the five TDP MPs.
In both cases, the chief ministers aligned their local interests and that of the UPA at the Centre. For Hooda, it was important to quell the rise of the Bhajan Lal-clan while for Reddy, cracking the TDP ranks delivered dividends in Hyderabad.
The strategy of the Congress was both offensive and defensive in nature. Even as it worked on bagging new MPs, one group was focused on denying the Opposition the resources. Maheshbhai Kanodia, the MP from Patan in Gujarat, was strongly advised by doctors not to travel but his party needed him.
Former BJP MP from Mumbai, Kirit Somaiya, who was assigned the task of transporting the MP for the trust vote suddenly found no private aircraft available. Wary of the risks, he eventually moved the MP on a regular Kingfisher flight that reached Delhi just before the trust vote. Somaiya believes even the medical advice was doctored by the Congress.
The prime minister, however, kept out of the vote-catching exercise except for one call to the Akalis for support via a "negotiator". But Sonia played her part well meeting only those she wanted to and calling those who needed to be spoken to.
For instance, she made calls to some single-MP parties and to upset Congressmen like R.L. Jalappa, who assured her of his vote. Ajit Singh, who the Congress had tried to soften by naming the Amausi airport after his father Charan Singh, and JD(S) supremo Gowda waited in vain for an invitation to 10 Janpath.
Obviously for Sonia, Gowda was a one-horse party as of the three JD(S) MPs, Veerendra Patil was committed to the Left point of view and Shivanna was in the bag. The saga is not without its share of delicious irony.
While Amar emerged as the face of "horse-trading", it was the Congress that inflicted the maximum damage. Amar Singh caught in the worry of keeping his flock together eventually delivered just one BJP MP while seven were snared by Congress operators.
Considering the desperation and the means adopted, much could have gone wrong. Indeed, it did seem for sometime on July 22 afternoon that the campaign had come unhinged when the BJP MPs walked in to the well of the House with a wad of notes alleging horse-trading by Congress and the SP.
Even as the three MPs hurled charges at Ahmed Patel and Amar Singh, the Congress core team took charge. As the House adjourned, two teams were put to work. One was engaged in damage control in the media engaging those who had done the sting while the other team ensured that the trust vote was not delayed. The BJP, by then realised, it had been outwitted.
The trust vote saw Sonia in full control. It was almost as if her seat was the control console in the final hours of the trust vote. It was pre-arranged that those shy to press the "wrong" buttons in the presence of their party colleagues would not use the electronic voting system.
They would use the voting slips and vote in the lobby. That plan too was not without drama. Just before the vote, TDP MPs-D.K. Audikesavulu and M. Jagannath- bagged by Reddy to vote for UPA got cold feet. While Jagannath managed to use the electronic voting machine, Audikesavulu was cornered by Yerran Naidu.
Abdullah and another ally, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, who spotted this and signalled Sonia. She then despatched two Andhra Congress MPs, Renuka Chowdhury and Madhu Yaskhi to bring back the lost vote. Audikesavulu managed to defy the party whip and add to the UPA tally of 275.
The victory won't be without a price though. Already the signs are visible. The DMK has extracted a new affidavit in the ongoing Sethusamudram project case throwing up a new controversy on the Ram Sethu. In a few days, Manmohan Singh will have to accommodate Soren and the SP demand sheet is yet to be attended to.
Then there is the "notegate" scandal, which the Speaker will have to address. Already the CPI(M) and the BJP have both demanded that the tapes be made public and called for a high-level probe into the charges raised by the three BJP MPs.
It is early days yet but the Congress is clearly prepared to pay the political price of this arithmetic victory. After all, in free market economics or politics, there is no gain without attendant risks.
—with Shyamlal Yadav, Stephen David and Amarnath K. Menon
ENTERTAINMENT DEMOCRACY
As politicians get transformed into art forms, a country fixated on Bollywood and cricket celebrates the elevation of another spectacle.
There was Lalu Prasad Yadav asking his cow who would win the vote of confidence-for the record, the sacred but silly animal picked the wrong hand. Here was Amar Singh deploying all his poetic skills-the UPA was in a bloom and would wipe out the Opposition with a broom.
And yes, that was indeed L.K. Advani saying the Government was in the ICU. In the two-day television event that the vote of confidence became, ratcheting up the viewership of the otherwise somnolent Lok Sabha TV, the Bollywoodisation of Indian politics was complete.
Both in the Lok Sabha and outside, politicians stuck to the film formula. There were vintage songs, delivered by the nautanki specialist Lalu; an angry young man speech flung at his detractors by Omar Abdullah; the unveiling of a bashful beauty in Rahul Gandhi (sorry about the gender but the Lok Sabha doesn't have enough women); and repeated assaults on the great patriarch (so what if Somnath Chatterjee looks like a giant teddy bear and sits on what looks like a shaadi ki kursi?).
There was even the BJP rushing to the Speaker with a kahaani mein twist—their displaying of Rs 1 crore in the House being the equivalent of the bride's father yelling, "nahin, yeh shaadi nahin ho sakti".
Add to that a cast of fringe spoilers (Ajit Singh, H.D. Deve Gowda, and N. Chandrababu Naidu) who would do any true Ram Gopal Varma underground noir proud, and it was a blockbuster that was made to order. So was it a hit or a flop?
For those expecting politicians to have higher standards than the rest of this unsettling country, the tele-event was a flop. For those who know that we now live in a performance culture, where each individual is an art form, the drama had everything that was over-the-top, across-the-broad, and beyond-belief.
The joker in the new Batman, The Dark Knight, asks all his victims-to-be: "Why so serious?" Our politicians obliged by making laughing stocks of themselves. Mayawati declared with complete confidence that USA was going to attack Iran while K. Yerran Naidu was convinced that Manmohan Singh had sold India to "The Bush".
Is it any wonder that Lalu is a regular on television reality shows, especially when they require a little help with the TRPs? And that Omar Abdullah is playing himself in a new release this week?
With our actors increasingly behaving like politicians (the number of camps in Bollywood beats the number of political parties) and actor MPs having nothing to say (it was a surprise Govinda turned up at all), it's a good swap. About time television rating points got converted into television-rated politicians.
—Kaveree Bamzai

Karate Kattas

Shafi Rahman
INDIA TODAY July 17, 2008

Last week when Prakash Karat drove his mud-splashed white Ambassador car to meet with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati in a surprise political move, it seemed like a new journey for the CPI(M) general secretary-from the walled garden of AKG Bhavan into the wilds of heartland politics proper.
Karat's move came at a time when he was being increasingly isolated, with even leaders from his own flock raising objections to his decision to vote alongside the BJP against the UPA Government.
By aligning with Mayawati, once the Left's bete noire, it seems Karat is trying to mold himself into a street smart politician to ensure the Congress does not end up winning the numbers game.
Emerging out of the meeting, Karat declared: "Mayawati reiterated her opposition to the deal. It was decided that there should be cooperation to stop the deal, and in the struggle against the UPA Government."
Karat is matching the brave words with some brave actions. He expects to fracture the Samajwadi Party (SP), a "natural ally" which ditched him midway, with the help of BSP.
With the Left breaking away from the SP for the first time since 1989 and joining hands with Mayawati, the BSP will be able to scrape off some of the "anti-minority" patina earned with its association with the BJP.
Though it will not mean much electorally for the Left, the move would embolden the Mayawati camp planning to woo fence-sitters prior to the crucial trust vote on July 22. The flowering political romance with Mayawati is only part of the picture.
Karat's gameplan also includes wooing smaller parties which could swing the confidence vote away from the Congress. Parties like the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Janata Dal (S), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and National Conference (NC), with a total of 13 MPs, are also being wooed with equal fervour.
While TDP leaders Chandrababu Naidu and Yerran Naidu have been entrusted with the task of wooing JD(S) chief H.D. Deve Gowda and TRS leader K. Chandrashekhar Rao, Karat himself is trying his persuasion skills with the NC.
Karat's plunge into street politics comes with a price. It has made him retract on contentious ideological issues. The CPI(M) had once termed Kanshi Ram a CIA agent and the BSP founder had returned the compliment by describing the Left as "green snake in the green grass".
Even the draft of the political resolution circulated in the recent 19th party congress of the CPI(M) had said that "the victory of the BSP in Uttar Pradesh highlights the challenges posed by the growing political mobilisation based on caste identities".
The reference to the BSP was diluted later when the political resolution was adopted at the party congress which, however, said that "a serious challenge is today posed by the growing political mobilisation based on caste identities".
Yet, so desperate is Karat to prevent the nuclear deal with the US from going through that such ideological compromises are now acceptable. That also comes with a price.
As the dust settles on Karat's decision to withdraw support to the UPA, his party is barely holding together. Karat is having to battle growing uneasiness among some party leaders over the decision to vote alongside the BJP.
West Bengal Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty said that voting with the BJP would be against the party's policies "that will take years to explain the blunder".
With his political opponents also taking up Chakraborty's arguments, Karat says that the Congress has no right to blame the Left as it had voted with the BJP to bring down the V.P. Singh government in 1990 and later "conspired" to remove the governments of H.D. Deve Gowda in 1997 and I.K. Gujral in 1998.
"We have never said that we are voting with the BJP. We have talked to other parties, not to the BJP. If other parties want to talk to us, we cannot push them out. We are voting against the UPA because of its policies. If the BJP wants to vote against (UPA), they have a right to do so," says Karat.
The air of desperation will grow more evident if Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee decides to light another fire. He rebuffed Karat for not consulting him before adding his name to the list submitted to President Pratibha Patil by making public his plans to continue in the office.
He also shot off a stinker to Karat, which said that voting with the BJP triggered his decision to hold on to the Speaker's post. Chatterjee's decision, unusual in the party known for cadre discipline, has also diverted Karat's focus from his high-stake fight against the UPA.
Karat, on a fire-fighting mode, faxed Chatterjee's letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya who rushed to Chatterjee's mentor Jyoti Basu asking him to intervene on the behalf of the party.
The issue of voting against the Government alongside the BJP is expected to come up for discussion in the Central Committee meet scheduled on the weekend.
That doesn't mean the long knives are out for him, and Karat is expected to ram his decision through the CPI(M)'s most powerful body, when the party congress is not in session.
Known for wariness to engage in political manoeuvres, Karat has transformed himself into a street fighter in a matter of a few days. Whether that new avatar makes him a better politician will be revealed on Tuesday.

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GO CLIMB A VOLCANO

Tokyo, Jan 10, 2007

Tokyo has everything one always imagined of the city -- urgent rhythms of consumer life, shoe-box residential flats and punctuality freaks. Japanese professor Masaru Narisawa, a Tohoku University Professor of Korean Ethno Cultural System, took me on day one to a Sushi Bar. Raw fish, rice soaked in soyabeen sauce, horse radish. He places order for Sake, Japanese wine. There are two types of wines -- hot and cold. He threatens to blow me hot and cold. He asks me about India "Devis" and "Devas". I give him chartbusters from Hindu Pantheon of Gods. After an hour he is poorer by 8746 Yen. Our combined effort adds to Japans 3 trillion dollar eating-out industry.

My hotel has friendly staff as they promised in the brochure. It has a huge bath tub. An urban chlorine bouquet. I step in and spills water on carpet and prove Pythagorus again at Koraku Garden hotel.

Even though winter is in, cherry blossoms linger on. Public announcements follow you everywhere you go – in trains, shopping malls. Metro trains has announcements in Japanese with a peculiar tone – as if MS Subhalakshmi singing through a electric shaver.

I visited Tokyo Tower. Over 300 meter high. A tourist trap. A neon assault. Moon hits eye like a pizza pie.My trip to Kyoto was nice. I bought a 5-day travel pass for 11500 yen. It offers five day unlimited travel.I arrived at Kyoto after traveling in a night train. Winter fog is blotting its morning stars. Kyoto, the imperial capital between 794 and 1868, has all the old world charms. 1500 budhist shrines, 1000 Shinto shrines and a wayward Muslim.

Himmeji castle, built by Norimura Akamatsu in 1933 A relic from feudal era. Harakiri rooms and all. Kurosova shot The Magnificient Seven here. Rie Ito, an English teacher who moonlights as a tourist guide tells me. "Now people read comics. Nobody watches Kurosova," she laments. One could spot Geishas and apprentice geishas in streets of Kyoto. Vibrant restaurant scenes here. I stroll through famous path of Philosophy, a 6km walk in numeric terms. Plenty of chill down the bones and loads of chlorophyll.

Nijo-jo castle nearby has 'nightingale floors,' floors that are designed to creak and squeak when you walk on them. They were designed to trap enemies. During my stay in Osaka, near Kyoto, my friend Abhilash takes me to a popular Malayali dining spot, run by Job from Alappuzha. Japanese Rajani fans meet here regularly. Nara was the best spot I visited. The ancient capital, Nara Heijokyo, established in 710 A.D. and modeled on Changan, Capital of Tang Dynasty China. People, and even cats, seem to be on Valium and walks in slow motion. I managed to see a full-length village festival.

No matter how much rice and fish you eat, my friends say it is difficult to fit in Japan. Always sets of eyes burn on you when travel in train. Foreigners are seen as a freak, not one among by them by Japanese. I couldn't get a perspective of my own on these things. People look friendly in a distant way. But I also share some of my friend's doubts. So I follow the cardinal principal of journalism. When you are in doubt, take the risk and climb a volcano. I will visit Mount Fuji, a scenic volcano tomorrow. Bye for now.

The M-factor

Farzand Ahmed and Shafi Rahman
INDIA TODAY July 10, 2008

When in desperation, put on your skull cap. The nuclear deal hitherto debated away from its communal implications, has been gaining the good ol' Muslim angle.
Though the deal is yet to be signed, community organisations and politicians are revving up for the occasion. It all started with CPI(M)'s senior politburo member M.K. Pandhe inserting the nuclear deal into the list of grievances of Indian Muslims and announcing that "an overwhelming majority of the Muslim masses" opposed it.
He urged Samajwadi Party (SP) president Mulayam Singh Yadav not to alienate them by supporting it.
Though the Left party quickly distanced itself from his comments, the debate gained momentum as political parties jumped to the conclusion that the deal with the "Satan" can be a big ticket item in around 100 constituencies, where Muslim votes are decisive.
Last week, as her arch rival Mulayam extended support to the Congress-led UPA over the nuclear deal with the US, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati felt political tremors under her feet and followed up Pandhe's comments with vigour. She targeted Mulayam by saying that his secularism had been a tamasha.
"Remember, it was Mulayam who had stopped Sonia Gandhi from becoming the prime minister and helped the BJP-led NDA to rule for six years. Now the Congress and SP are cosying up for the deal," she said.
She firmed up her "anti-Muslim" theory by inviting influential Sunni and Shia clerics to discuss the deal's impact on the community and the problems the Muslims faced.
It was due to the efforts of former Union minister Akhilesh Das and Siraj Mehdi, both of whom had recently resigned from the Congress to join BSP, that a group of ulema and maulanas including Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Fringi Mahali and Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman, many of whom were with 'Maulvi' Mulayam till recently, walked into her house to thank her for her bold stand on the deal and to pledge their support to her.
Mahali even declared that through her clear stand, Mayawati has won the hearts of Muslims even as Rahman, the firebrand Imam of Tilawali Masjid, warned Mulayam that if he did not desist from joining hands with the Congress, a fatwa would soon be issued against him.
In response to this, SP General Secretary Amar Singh, the main architect of the SP-Congress deal, said that the whole world knows that Mayawati has been hobnobbing with the BJP by sharing power with the saffron party thrice in the past.
However, Mayawati's move to win over the Muslims suffered a serious setback when Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi, the deputy rector (naib mohtamim) of Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband and Hazrat Maulana Tauquir Raza Khan, the spiritual head of the Barelvi school of thoughts supported the nuclear deal and snubbed the handpicked clerics of Lucknow for supporting Mayawati who had "never cared for Muslims".
And these men head two of the highly-revered Islamic institutions that can influence many Sunni Muslims in north India.
The Congress, which has been wooing Muslim votes with a slew of schemes, is now trying to diminish the stirring nature of the anti-Muslim theory.
The party claims that the Muslim opposition is restricted to the policies of outgoing US President George W. Bush and not with the deal.
"Muslims may have an issue with the shopkeeper but not with the product," said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi.
But like the Congress and RJD, SP leaders too seem to have turned the table upon Mayawati and the Left by trying to convince the Muslims that not only is the nuclear deal in national interest but that the BJP was a bigger threat to them.
Uttar Pradesh, with 19 per cent Muslim votes, plays a key role in deciding the fortunes of political parties in the Lok Sabha polls.
The community had been a strong pillar of Mulayam's Muslim—Yadav combination till Mayawati forged her rainbow coalition successfully. SP is, therefore, planning to announce its Muslim candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, before the trust vote in Parliament to keep its flock together.
The party is also making use of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's endorsement of the deal to counter the anti-minority perception.
Leading Urdu weekly Nai Dunia, ironically, owned and edited by SP MP Shahid Siddiqui carried a survey that showed that 70 per cent of Muslims in the country were opposed to the deal.
It also said that 85 per cent Muslims considered America their biggest enemy while about 70 per cent felt that the UPA Government has done nothing for the Muslims.
The party under the changed situation has rubbished the survey. But the tragedy is that the survey was "conducted" when the party had been against the deal but was published when it had reversed its stand.
Major political parties of Jammu and Kashmir, the National Conference (NC) and People's Democratic Party have said that the deal is not against the community.
"We do not consider it against Muslims. The deal is either good or bad for the country. Where does the issue of Muslims come here?" said Omar Abdullah, NC president.
The CPI(M) in West Bengal and Kerala too is planning to hit the poll turf with the nuclear deal issue. In northern Kerala with a sizeable Muslim population, the party will play to community sentiments by raising the issue.
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), part of the Congress-led front in Kerala, will find it difficult to hold its turf. The IUML, whose sole representative in Parliament is Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed, will be meeting in the coming days to finalise its stand on the deal.
The party has been caught between risking electoral backlash and pulling out its man from the Government. The youth wing of the Indian National League, a Left ally, has already demanded that Ahamed should resign from the Government.
Pandhe's fresh gift to Muslim grievance roaster will surely add up to the election planks in the coming Lok Sabha elections. But, so far, there are no clear winners in the first stretch run towards the corridors of power.

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Blind Left Turn

Shafi Rahman

July 10, 2008 INDIA TODAY

The urban legend has it that a certain CPI(M) politburo member lives in the bunkers of AKG Bhavan, the party headquarters in Delhi, with no permission to travel beyond its premises.
This bunker comrade—untainted by the world outside—provides the party its last word on ideological issues.
As the UPA-Left relations went into a downward spiral through the year, and hit rock bottom with a resounding thud this week, it was clear that party General Secretary Prakash Karat had done at least one job well— that of imitating the intellectual aloofness of his imaginary colleague from the bunker and showing none of the pragmatism of his predecessors.
Not only did Karat miscalculate the Congress battle plan, but he also allowed natural ally Samajwadi Party (SP) to drift away and failed in living up to the mandate given to him in two consecutive Party Congresses in 2005 and 2008 to build up the Third Front.
As he anchored his plans in a no-government-without-us belief, Karat, the policy wonk, saw his dream of being taken seriously as a street-smart politician dissolve as quickly as his party's plans to emerge as a national player.
Even as his comrades were perhaps busy mailing miss-you notes to Marxist veteran Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Karat tripped badly on delivering his baby, the Third Alternative.

Karat blocked UPA�s market-led reforms at every pointHis grand statement to the cadre at the party's 19th Congress at Coimbatore in April that "on the nuclear deal also, we were able to rally the SP and the Telugu Desam Party", now sounds hollow with Mulayam Singh Yadav opting for expediency over ideology.
"By raising common issues and initiating joint campaigns and struggles, the way can be paved for building a Third Alternative," he had told the Party Congress in April.
But on the ground, he failed to cosy up to the SP on the nuclear deal. His party's push for the Women's Reservation Bill did nothing to better the relations, with Karat failing to understand SP's concerns in the Hindi heartland and playing to what one MP called "urban feminist slogans".
Even bigger problems lie ahead. Mulayam's call to "strengthen secular forces" by joining Congress's fold leaves the CPI(M) with the unpleasant task of defining which is the bigger enemy— imperialism or communalism.
Early this year, Karat himself had warned against BJP's politics, saying the Party Congress would work out "appropriate tactics" to isolate communal forces and prevent any opportunistic alliances for electoral gains. Now not only is Karat left waiting for the deal to happen, but he also runs the risk of seeing the BJP back in power at the Centre.
With Surjeet bedridden and Jyoti Basu now available only for birthday celebrations, Karat has a free run over the party's affairs.
West Bengal Chief Minister Budhadeb Bhattacharya has been lying low since the Nandigram fiasco while Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan is busy securing his turf in a factional feud.
But it cannot be denied that his primal instinct-that of protecting the "Left-leaning vote bank" in the two states-has kept the party relevant in India long after the world has booted out communism.

Even Karat's staunchest critics can't deny the ferocity with which he had successfully prevented any reforms that pro-market advocates may have wanted to pursue in the 49 months of the UPA's rule.
"It was the firm stand of the party and the Left which prevented a full-fledged entry of FDI in retail trade, the opening up of the private banking sector to 74 per cent FDI and stopped a legislation which would have allowed privatisation of government employees' pension funds. We can claim that we have checked some of the harmful measures and retrograde policies which the Government wanted to pursue in the name of reforms. Further, we have also been able to slow down the pace of implementation of neo-liberal policies," he had said, with fierce pride, in the organisational report in April.
His critics charge him with the lack of political skill to script a working arrangement with the UPA Government, while continuously blocking the UPA's reform initiatives.
Yet, though many moan the iron-clad ideologue, Karat has restored the Left's pet concerns to the mainstream from where they had been banished by the market-driven din and Surjeet's somewhat flexible interpretation of communist dogma.
Within the party though, many insiders feel Karat has failed to steer political debate over controversial issues to help the organisation grow.
His dissent notes to government policies may have been vehemently worded but they did not articulate a coherent ideological perspective.
While leaders like E.M.S. Namboodiripad wrote reams defining the party's ideology in relation to contemporary issues, Karat's legacy may well be the literature he has generated on arcane details like pension reforms.
He has also come under attack from his own colleagues for "outsourcing opinion" to Left intellectuals on vital issues like external loans for Left-led governments.
It hasn't helped that his much-hyped Hindi-heartland plans are yet to take off. Instead of rising, the party membership in Uttar Pradesh fell from 6,346 in 2006 to 6,175 in 2007, while in Punjab it fell from 10,508 in 2006 to 10,140 last year.
With the party now at pains to explain a possible future scenario where the Congress may seek its support to stop the BJP from coming back to power, Karat seems to have lost his golden boy sheen.
And while he is not headed irrevocably for the exit, it may well be that when the Marxists make their habitual appraisal of current events a few years down the line, this will be yet another historic blunder on the Red Brigade's road to redemption.