In a meeting called by the RSS in Vrindavan last Saturday attended by BJP President Amit Shah, Sangh leaders took Modi government and its economic policies to task, opening eyes of both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Sangh was especially worried about reducing job opportunities. Under these circumstances, it was but natural for them to recall Kamaraj Plan. That is why the recent Cabinet reshuffle is being called Kamaraj Plan.
The original plan was initiated in 1963 by the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru on the advice of then chief minister of Madras province, Kumaraswami Kamaraj, by effecting a massive cabinet reshuffle. It was in the aftermath of the loss we suffered in the war against China in 1962 and Nehru Government’s foreign policy was being questioned. Then finance minister Morarji Desai had imposed heavy taxes to overcome the losses suffered during the war. People were obviously angry with the Government.
This had resulted in Congress losing three Lok Sabha by polls in 1963 as three prominent opposition leaders Ram Manohar Lohia, J.B. Kripalani and Minoo Masani entered the hallowed precincts of the Parliament. This was enough to infuriate Nehru.
In such a scenario, one of the most popular chief ministers Kamaraj convinced Nehru that all senior ministers should resign from their post and work for the organization, to regain people’s confidence. Kamaraj himself voluntarily resigned from the post. He was followed by six Cabinet ministers including Lal Bahadur Shastri, Morarji Desai and Jagjivan Ram. Five chief ministers of Congress ruled states too resigned. These included Biju Patnaik, SK Patil besides Kamaraj himself.
Like them, Modi too wants to send out a message from his cabinet rejig that there is no place for inefficient and corrupt people in his cabinet. A senior minister of his cabinet has been shown the door because he was facing allegations of a scam worth hundreds of crores. People like Rajiv Pratap Rudy were unable to come out of his page-3 type image while Uma Bharti wasn’t interested in cleaning Ganga. Sanjeev Balyan too was unable to prove his mettle while services of people like Bandaru Dattatreya and Nirmala Sitharaman were needed in improving party’s prospects down South. Sitharaman was born in Tamil Nadu and is married to an Andhraite, which is why BJP seems keen on betting on her to make a mark South of Vindhyas.

Relations between Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik are souring fast with state chief minister Yogi Adityanath. People close to Yogi have been accusing Naik of impending Yogi’s work. This is evidence they say, from the way Naik has withheld files pertaining to several important decisions taken by Yogi. These include the appointment of chairpersons of some important public sector undertakings which was meant to patronize some of his close confidantes. But, all such files are still stuck in Raj Bhawan. A section of bureaucracy too isn’t supporting Yogi. Whatever be the reason but there is a definite change in style of deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, known for his proximity with party chief Amit Shah. Yogi is aware of the subtle changes. He himself has often defined saffron politics in his own style, but today finds himself on the other side of the divide.

State Governments in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi had already been warned by intelligence agencies about a possible outbreak of violence in case Dera Sachcha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was arrested. It is a matter of investigation as to why state governments, especially the Haryana Government headed by Manohar Lal Khattar did not pay heed to this warning. It speaks volumes about Ram Rahim’s political clout. A delegation of BJP leaders and ministers led by Haryana’s senior minister Anil Vij had not called on Ram Rahim on his birthday on August 15 but also presented an amount of Rs 51 lakh as a gift. BJP chief Amit Shah’s photographs seeking Ram Rahim’s blessings by touching his feet have already gone viral. Ram Rahim had reciprocated by congratulating Shah on his victory in Rajya Sabha election last week.
Famous cricketers like Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan are already brand ambassador of Baba. It is a matter to ponder that how such a heinous criminal can be included in the list of 36 most influential Indians and provided Z-category security. A fan of Bollywood movies, Baba used to be the cynosure of all eyes when he used to go out of his 700-acres Dera campus in a cavalcade of more than 100 vehicles. His clout was so much that owner of a small newspaper ‘Pura Sach’ Ram Chander Chhatrapati was killed because he published all black deeds of Ram Rahim. He had published accounts of the Sadhvis who had accused Ram Rahim of repeatedly raping them for years. Chhatrapati after being shot, struggled for life for 22 days, before succumbing. But, police did not record his statement nor did it register a case of murder, because of Ram Rahim’s political clout. The proverbial last straw was Ram Rahim’s glorification by BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj in the name of nationalism. How long will this continue?

Are you aware of 30-feet tall grass being grown in Manohar Parrikar’s Goa and even fruits being harvested from it? Can’t believe? Then kindly read on. Parrikar is keen on the rapid industrialisation of the state. He has constituted an all power Industrial Promotion Board (IPB) for it. Anybody wanted to set up an industry or invest in the state needs to go through the board. But, all these things need land. Majority of empty land in Goa has coconut trees on them and to cut them one requires permission from several agencies including forest and environment. Parrikar has cleverly circumvented the need by reclassifying coconut tree as grass. One can cut as much this new grass as needed as enjoy water as a bonus.

Narendra Modi is a such PM who is always cautious about his name and credentials and is very careful that none of his close relatives could use his name unnecessarily. Some time ago, the CBI arrested one JP Singh, who had been running an organisation named Narendra Modi Vichar Manch. Singh had enrolled some seven to eight lakh people as subscribers and had been fleecing them. Likewise, one of the top bosses among the highest TRP-garnering Hindi news channels was under the scanner because he was taking advantage of his closeness to the Modi-Shah duo and minting tonnes of greenbacks by getting students admitted to medical colleges. Interestingly, a few months earlier, when this editor’s daughter got married in a multi-billion, glittering wedding ceremony in a Five Star hotel, both Modi and Shah, and their top cabinet ministers, had been in attendance, and Modi spent an inordinately long time there. Despite that, the editor is under immense pressure now. Albeit, due to his immense clout, the CBI has yet not put his name formally in the FIR related to the case, and has placed him as one of the persons to be questioned. However, the channel concerned has shown the door to the man who once was their darling. What is laughable is that the channel has told this former editor that the company has a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy on corruption. So is this what Modi had referred to in his Independence Day addressal as cutting out middlemen?

Is the election magician Prashant Kumar, aka PK, on his way back home as the prodigal son of the BJP? Seems so, seeing that he had no less than two meetings with the Modi-Shah duo in the last few weeks. Birds and bees from NK Singh’s farmhouse sing that PK was instrumental in getting Nitish Kumar and Shah to meet. It is also being heard that it is Nitish who played the usher in getting back PK to patch up with Shah, after the two had fought to a ‘divorce’ more than three months ago. It is said that Nitish told Shah, “This boy is a very useful chap.” It is known that it was Priyanka Gandhi who had engineered PK’s entrée into the Congress fold, but of late, she had been upset with his operations. Her ire was because someone had cooed to her that recently, PK had divulged many Congress secrets to the BJP, including to fact that the party is in dire straits financially of late, pinning down the point by stating that he still owes the Congress Rs six crore. Sources say that Priyanka is so upset with PK that she has actually put his phone on ‘call barred’ list on her phone. But then the ultimate investor in politics-management has little worry, as he has managed to prise open the door back to his old ‘home’.

If silence could speak, then the silence maintained by usually vociferous BJP cadre and leaders, has revived memories of the loss suffered by the BJP, in 2015 Bihar Assembly elections. Though both BJP president Amit Shah and union minister Smriti Irani won their seats comfortably during Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls, the cadre is unusually quiet. Ahmed Patel’s victory has dampened their spirits. Sources confide that arrangements had been done at BJP offices both in New Delhi and Gandhinagar for massive victory celebrations with garlands, bouquets and brass bands. But, Patel’s victory by half a vote, made them crestfallen. Three huge garlands had been arranged at Gandhinagar BJP office and Congress rebel Shankar Singh Vaghela had declared that he too would join the victory celebrations of BJP’s three candidates Shah, Irani and Balwant Singh Rajput. But, Rajput’s defeat by half a vote upset all calculations. The party meanwhile, received another news – that of the demise of its Ajmer MP, Sanwar Lal Jaat who had defeated young Congress leader Sachin Pilot in last elections. Now there will be a by election in Ajmer and Pilot could be the Congress candidate once again. With people not too happy with the working of Vasundhara Raje government and BJP not having a formidable candidate to counter Pilot, for the moment it seems to be Advantage Pilot.

Amid the rise of BJP’s political fortunes, some media stars zoomed up like a meteor, among them the person who shone brightest was India TV journalist Hemant Sharma. His daughter’s recent wedding was attended by all the high and mighty of Delhi’s power circle. Prime Minister Modi not only attended the function but spend quite some time there. Sharma is said to be having close relations with BJP chief Amit Shah, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav. Ram Gopal was hoping to come out of Yadav Singh case unscathed using Sharma’s clout in power corridors. But, Sharma himself fell in CBI’s net recently.
Sources within the CBI claim that the agency has been unable to ink his name in the case. But, his name figures in the deposition of the owner of an education and medical institute. For the time being, even India TV has distanced itself from Sharma. Even those attending his daily durbar, seem to be wary of him now.
On the other hand, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath wants the Yadav Singh case to be speeded up. This way he will be hitting two birds with one stone. On one hand, he will settle the score with Yadav family and on the other, he will target Hemant Sharma as well since the latter was trying to get his old pal Manoj Sinha installed as Chief Minister in place of Yogi. It’s Payback time now.

For the Modi-Shah duo, a Congress-free India is not merely a slogan. They are hell bent on implementing it, that is clear. After ambushing Congress biggie Ahmed Patel on the Rajya Sabha poll from Gujarat, they are now training their guns on getting Rahul Gandhi done in the Amethi-Raebareli constituency, considered the fief of the Congress. In the 2014 polls, BJP’s Smriti Irani had posed a serious challenge to RaGa in Amethi. This time around, the machinations within the BJP is to find a Fifth Columnist from within the Congress to take on the Prince on his home turf. A while ago, the BJP mandarins had commissioned a famous agency to undertake a secret survey. The results show that if the elections are held today, the BJP is likely to bag some 54 seats, about 20 less than what it had scored in 2014. But the BJP is still buoyant because it seems that in terms of vote share, it is still ahead of the Congress. The reports say that in Amethi, the BJP will pip the Congress to the post by 17 per cent votes. No doubt, if the survey report is correct, it spells doom for the Congress lad.

The RG office is pretty much aware of the anti-incumbency bells tolling in Amethi-Raebareli. If you look at the recent tours by Sonia or Rahul Gandhi, you will realise that their visits to the constituency are becoming rarer. Sources close to Rahul say that he has his lieutenants to look for some other ‘safe’ constituencies apart from Amethi. It seems that to an extent the process has been completed. RaGa, it seems is readying to contest from some other seat other than Amethi. The constituencies that have been identified so far are three. The first is Barpeta in Assam. It is a Muslim dominated seat and has been traditionally been a Congress stronghold. The second is far south, Chikballapur in Karnataka. This too is a Congress fort and currently, Veerappan Moily is the MP from there. Congress sources say that work has already begun in all three constituencies to spruce them up, for, after all, it is a question of Rahul Baba’s prestige.