Mathihalli Madan Mohan, Senior Journalist and Columnist
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HUBLI, Sept 21 2011
Vacancy at the top slot appears to be the bugbear as the political combinations big or small get busy with a dress rehearsal for the ensuing next round of battle for ballots for parliament. As the things stand today, the next elections are not immediately due. But the possibility of an early poll cannot be ruled out in the view of the present state of political flux in the country.
For the Congress led UPA, its second stint in loksabha has been nothing but a disaster, drawn as it is into the vortex of mega scams with one minister and two MPs for the ruling combination in jail and needle of suspicion hovers around others as investigation progresses. And it is now crystal clear that UPA is going to dump its present helmsman in the government Mr Manmohan Singh and is keeping the seat warm for Mr Rahul for his political arangetram. Or would Mrs Sonia take a plunge she has been avoiding so far?
Obvious hints to this effect were clearly discernible in the manner in which the Congress party and the government fumbled in handling the Anna Hajares two stage fast in favour of the enactment of Lokpal bill. The government which got tough with Hajare and went out to arrest him without any valid reasons caved in to toe a soft line, with people in authority showing hints that the change in the attitude came about as result of the intervention of Rahul Gandhi. The first batch of ministers, Messrs Kapil Sibal, Chidambaram and Ambika Soni were law unto the themselves and kept hardly in the picture. The second batch with Pranab Mukherjee Salman Khurshid were comparatively more courteous and it was totally unclear as to whose voice was authoritative, with series of flip-flops of one or other reneging on what other had said. The Anna team was so exasperated with the changing stand of the ministers. Ultimately the Prime Minister had to depend on much discredited Central Minister like Vilasrao Deshmukh to convey back and forth his views to Anna team. While the negotiations were on the nature of the resolutions to be passed by the parliament, Rahul came out with an outburst against the agitation by Anna Hajare.
The problem with the next political combination, the BJP led NDA is still worse. The post Vajpayee/Advani era has not been able to throw up a new leader capable of leading the party to the victory. The second line combination of Nitin Gadkari as the national president, and Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, as the leaders of the two houses of parliament, has been singularly uninspiring. While Gadkari appears to be totally lost in the logjam of national politics, the other two appear quite tentative and uncertain. Between the three of them they have made a mess of the things in Karnataka. The manner in which the threesome winked that the happening in Karnataka, with a Chief Minister besieged with allegations of corruption and nepotism, has blunted the BJPs main political instrument of corruption, which it wanted as the main plank of corruption to fight congress in the next poll outing. The leadership of demurred over the change of leadership even as the Karnataka Lokayukta handed down on indictment of the Chief Minister and conceded even as Advani reportedly intervened and threatened to stay away. It also exposed the fragile nature of the leadership, with Yeddyurappa in a rebellious mood challenging the leadership and refused to quit unless his protégé was put in his place for obvious reasons. The party leadership is begging the question of who exactly is being projected as the Prime Ministerial face for the next election.
It is in this context that that the two developments within the party have evoked lot of interest in the political circles, namely the decision of patriarch Advani to go on Ratha Yatra to lead a nationwide campaign against corruption and a three day good will fast undertaken by the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Damodar Modi.
What is surprising has been there has been absolutely no provocation whatsoever for them to take this precipitated action at this juncture. The elections are still far away and it is highly unlikely that any hype raised now would last till the elections are announced. The inference is obvious that they have set their eyes on the Newdelhi throne. There have been few takers for the latest statement by Advani who prodded by the RSS leadership has denied that he was in the line for the post of the Prime Minister.
Apart from, the timing, the issue of corruption chosen by Advani for his nationwide campaign is hardly expected to bring any fresh political laurels to the party. The fly in the ointment for the party has been misdeeds of the party government in Karnataka and the allegations of corruption flying left right and centre around Yaddyurappa, the Chief Minister who was forced to quit office. What conviction can Advanis campaign against corruption, can carry?
It is a mystery as to why Advani, who is regarded as Chanakya of the party, has to undertake move, which is certainly not going to set the river Ganga on fire at the this juncture, unless he has been nursing ambitions, to try once again at the coveted post, which he tried and missed last time.
And the same has been true of the fast undertaken by Modi to “spread good will and communal amity”. The Supreme Courts recent pronouncement has not exactly exonerated him to make him celebrate the victory. But it is obvious that he wants to shed the image that has clung to him for handling post Godhra situation and wants to put on face of being sober person acceptable to everybody including the minorities.
As for as the third party partners are concerned they are all in disarray. Mamata Banerji and Left parties are more interested in West Bengal . The UPs Mayavati , who has a penchant for sending a plane to pickup footwear from Mumbai is preoccupied with the imminent assembly elections rather than bother about parliament poll. So also has been the plight of Mulayam and Lalu who are more worried about regaining the lost political ground than worry about the Delhi
