In the ongoing session of Parliament, the price of sugarcane was a major issue. Rajnath Singh had already told Sushma that he wants to speak on the issue because he wants to represent the feelings of the farmers. But perchance, the discussion on sugarcane got converted into a meeting. In the meantime, the storm over Liberhan was raised and Sushma urged Rajnath that while representing Uttar Pradesh, he should speak on the Liberhan report. So now it is a golden opportunity for Rajnath to prove himself before Parliament and Sangh. So the president has forgotten Jharkhand and got busy learning the chapters of Liberhan.

Ever since Sangh has been insisting with Advani that he give up the post of Leader of Opposition, Advani too has not been letting any opportunity go to show the Sangh its place. In this chain, when BJP MP from Purnea Uday Singh alias Pappu Singh, who owns a big business in engine coolant, delivered a speech against the Sangh, it did not take long for people to understand that the speech was sponsored by Advani. The Advani camp is on the lookout for such MPs-leaders like Uday Singh who may not have their own support base but who are able to stand up against the Sangh.

Ever since the name of Nitin Gadkari has got added to the latest “search for the president’’ of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the saffron party leaders have got busy in exploring the past of Gadkari and it is also being probed that Gadkari fits into the Sangh so-called campaign for finding a young face for BJP. There is now also discussion in BJP on whether the stance of the new president is anti-women, because when the proposal to have 33 percent reservation for women had come up in BJP’s national executive, only one vote was cast against it. It should be remembered that this lone vote was of Gadkari. So what is to be made of this, that in the days to come the role of women would diminish in saffron politics?

Some days ago a strange mishap happened in the Air India flight to Bhopal. This flight from Srinagar to Bhopal takes off from Delhi around 6-30 p.m. and then goes to Indore from Bhopal and from Indore to Mumbai. A serious patient was to be brought to Delhi from Srinagar on a stretcher. For this the Air India engineers opened six seats of the plane and accommodated the stretcher there. After the aircraft reached Delhi, the able engineers of Air India were able to join back only three of the removed seats while the flight was fully booked for the onward journey. So the Air India ground staff appealed to the passengers that three of them should stay back and that they would be sent by the next day’s flight and Air India would bear the expense of their stay and food in a five star hotel of Delhi. There was a lot of commotion as no passenger was willing to stay back. Since the seats in row 22 had not been reinstalled, so the passengers booked up row 20 were allowed to board the flight. The remaining passengers were held back. In the end, Air India prevailed in making three passengers stay back. They were offered some special packages of the airlines. When the matter was settled the remaining passengers were also put on the flight and when the aircraft was about to take off, Madhya Pradesh Governor Rameshwar Thakur and his wife also boarded it. On seeing the Governor, the passengers on the flight began raising slogans as they felt that their flight had been delayed over two hours because of him. The flight attendants on the aircraft explained to the passengers that the Governor had arrived on time and was waiting in the VIP lounge for the flight to take off. It was at this that the matter was finally settled.

Rajnath Singh is unhappy with the over indulgence of the Sangh. Some days ago he hosted a lunch for some select journalists at his residence and during the discussion with them he informed that he would resigned before the expiry of his term and so after leaving the post of president he would focus entirely on U.P. Rajnath also made it clear that he would soon issue an official statement on leaving the post. After this Rajnath called a few influential BJP leaders of U.P. and made his intention known to them. He told them that he wants to launch a people’s awareness campaign in U.P. It is another matter though that all these leaders have for the time being not paid much heed to the word from their leader.

But BJP refused to take Kalyan Singh into the party. Advani is himself stated to be of the opinion that Govind and Uma should be brought to the NDA as soon as possible and for this Uma has even written a letter. But in this entire episode the position of Shivraj Singh Chauhan is being weakened. Chauhan is saying that when in Madhya Pradesh the Government is running well then why disturb it? On the other hand, the outgoing president of BJP Rajnath Singh is not happy with the decisions pertaining to U.P. He is also said to be upset with the mauling BJP got in the recent bye elections in U.P. and now he wants to concentrate fully on the State. So, for these reasons, the homecoming of Uma into BJP has been delayed. Therefore Uma’s well wishers in BJP have advised her to get her regional party into the NDA and later when the situation improved then she could join the BJP.

It was the Ramlila Maidan program in which Bhagwat and Sangh faced the greatest humiliation. While 6,000 chairs had been laid out, only 74 people turned out for the meeting. When the plans for this program were being made, Bhagwat was very enthusiastic and so he issued instructions that no more than four passes will be issued to each office-bearer. On top of it, the pride even led to the announcement that the 6,000 chairs would also be reserved for intellectuals. The swayamsewaks were to either keep standing or else sit on the ground. Now someone should tell the Sangh chief where on earth are there 6,000 intellectuals in Delhi? And even if they do exist, then their view towards the right is not so right.

If the Sangh is tired of Advani then BJP is unhappy with the new leadership of the Sangh. While earlier as per the Sangh tradition, the work of the Sarsanghchalak used to be decided two years in advance, the new Sangh chief is so enthusiastic that he recently issued directions that his 28 programmes be scheduled along with press conferences. It is a case of one bitten twice shy. The BJP leaders have been left shell-shocked. And so no one is showing any interest in Bhagwat’s programs.

In the changed political scenario, BJP has been rechristened – Bharatiya Jamanat Party (forfeiture of deposit party). Look at the irony, it is the party people themselves who have given this name to BJP. In the recent Haryana Assembly elections, in order to show its strength the saffron party was badly mauled that in 72 of the 90 seats the deposits of its candidates were forfeited. Now just glance through the results of the U.P. bye-elections. In 7 of the 9 Assembly constituencies the BJP candidates lost their deposits. In the UP bye-election, on the seat that BJP had left for its alliance party JD(U), that candidate polled only 785 votes. But despite such humiliation, party president Rajnath Singh has been thumping his chest and saying that on leaving the post of party president in December he would concentrate solely on U.P. It is understood that the president has got this instruction from the Sangh and he is keen on implementing it … when on every branch sits an … then what would be the fate of BJP, you can take a guess.

There is an old tradition of the Finance Minister hosting a dinner for the economic editors. Usually this dinner is hosted in the government’s five-star hotel Ashok. But going against the tradition, this time Pranab Mukherjee selected a new five star hotel for inviting the economic editors. This hotel has come up in place of a government hotel where the infamous tandoor episode had taken place. As Finance Minister, Pranab had issued directions for his Cabinet colleagues that they should stop wasteful expenditure on foreign trips and thereby prevent a drain on the government funds. But not practising what he preached, Pranab showed that his directions were only for his colleagues and did not apply to him – because only recently soon after his return from Dubai he left for a meeting of the European Union in Scotland.