By Nora Chopra
Mulayam builds bridges with Modi
The erstwhile chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had earned himself the sobriquet ‘Maulana’ because of his ‘pro-Muslim’ stand, has suddenly rekindled his Hindu vestiges. Mulayam came to be known as Maulana Mulayam only in 1989 after the VHP and RSS started the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, pledging to build a Ram Temple at Ayodhya after demolishing the Babri Mosque. Seeing an opportunity to consolidate and monopolise the alienated Muslims, Mulayam the then chief minister Uttar Pradesh took an anti-RSS-VHP stand and said, “Whoever sets his eyes on the Babri Masjid, I will take his eyes out,” adding, “Parinda par nahin mar sakega”, when he ordered firing at VHP volunteers in November 1990. That had earned him the title of Maulana; as a result the Muslims became his vote bank. Now after 15 years of being the messiah of the Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, he has again changed his colours. First he broke the jinx surrounding Narendra Modi, who was considered a pariah in his state, by inviting him to the wedding celebration of his grand nephew at his native town. And now recently giving a speech at the birth anniversary function of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia in Lucknow, he has apologised for opening fire at the kar sevaks. He has said that it was a mistake to have opened fire.
Page -Patel tames Jairam Ramesh
Jairam Ramesh should have learnt by now that he can take panga with anyone but certainly not with Ahmad Patel. Congress leaders as well as the Congress beat journalists were taken by surprise when some TV channel ran the news of the resignation of Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmad Patel. Nobody but the said channel ran the news. It was later learnt that the news was planted by Jairam to please one of his pro-BJP anti-Congress neighbouring country cousin, who, day after day, has been shrilling and shrieking against the grand old party. Little investigation revealed that it was Jairam behind the mischief. Ahmad Patel is believed to have caught Jairam in Parliament lobby. And in front of all those present in the lobby is supposed to have asked Jairam, “Why did you choose one person to plant this khabar? You should have given this to others also! In becharon ne tumhara kya bigara tha inko kyon nahin di tumne ye khabar?” Despite frantic denials by Jairam, Patel went on to say, “Why should I resign? If I had to resign, I would do it openly, not secretly. Then next day was the youth congress rally at Jantar Mantar where Jairam tried his best to make up for the earlier mess. He was seen embracing Patel. He held him tightly for more than five minutes demonstrating bonhomie between him and Patel till Ahmad bhai extricated himself from his clutches. Despite the long hug, Patel knows well how to take his revenge. Just the next day, Sonia Gandhi had to march to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Patel was overheard telling Jairam, “Sonia’ji has to march tomorrow and you just go and see how much time it takes to reach the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Poor Jairam had no option but to jog upto the president’s house and when he returned panting he said it took 18 minutes for him, then for the Congress president it would take a maximum of 20 to 25 minutes. It seemed Jairam had learnt his lesson by then and after a few days when he came to AICC to join in the strategy meeting on the land act issue, journalists tried asking him about what happened inside and his answer was simple: “Ask Ahmad Patel.”
Sonia teaches Hooda a lesson
Even after he led the Congress party to its worst ever defeat in Haryana, ex CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda is refusing to learn from his mistakes. Politics of negativity is ingrained in his blood and he just cannot resist doing what he can do best: scuttle and sabotage his detractors. This week on Saturday when the Congress president went to meet and empathise with the farmers of Haryana, she had to tour five villages per constituency. But when her entourage neared Bhiwani, the constituency of the CLP leader Kiran Choudhury, Hooda got the route changed and out of the six Bhiwani villages, three were skipped. Kiran’s daughter Shruti, who was accompanying madam in another car, after realizing what happened called up the Congress president from her mobile and informed her about the development. On learning this, Sonia lost her temper and stopped the car. She came out and started screaming at the SPG personnel. She asked them on whose behest was the route changed? She said she had to visit all the villages. Showing Hooda his place, Sonia then saw to it that the route was rectified.
Modi bent on isolating Congress
The one-point programme of the BJP leadership is to break the opposition unity and isolate Sonia Gandhi on the land acquisition issue. When Sonia Gandhi led the opposition delegation to Rashtrapati Bhawan, she had 14 parties with her and created quite a flutter in the BJP. The prime minister started the operation to break the opposition unity in which he has partly succeeded. He has personally met Mamata and struck a deal. It is on her advice that the coal bill was sent to the select committee. The SP and the BSP too are opposing the land bill but they too supported the coal and mining bill. By visiting Sefai for Mulayam Singh’s grandnephew’s wedding celebration, the prime minister has already won over the SP supremo. Mulayam is going soft on the BJP; his cousin and the leader of the Samajwadi Party in Rajya Sabha Ramgopal Yadav is on record saying, “We will neither support the land bill, nor oppose it.” The JD(U), one of the most vocal opponent of the BJP, indirectly supported the coal and mining bill by walking out in Rajya Sabha. Last Saturday, Sharad Yadav, the president of the JD(U) threw a party to celebrate the first birthday of his granddaughter and people were amazed to see more BJP leaders than the leaders of his own party present to bless the little girl. From LK Advani to Rajnath Singh to Ravi Shankar Prasad they were all there. In fact, Rajnath Singh sat there nearly two hours. The buzz is that the BJP leaders are working overtime to win over Sharad Yadav, who they think is more amenable and was opposed to severing ties with the BJP in Bihar on the issue of Modi’s takeover. (IPA)