Opinion Incommunicado

Adding fuel to fire

Two people close to L K Advani,Sudheendra Kulkarni and Pratibha Advani,have further strained relations between him and the RSS,despite the efforts of intermediaries to bring about a patch-up. The RSS is upset with Kulkarni’s article on rediff.com,where he described BJP president Rajnath Singh as foxy,Modi as autocratic and self-centred and accused the RSS of contributing to the BJP’s defeat in 2009. The RSS presumes that the article was written with Advani’s knowledge,while Advani was not taken into confidence by Kulkarni. Advani’s daughter Pratibha,though not in politics,has been urging her father to take a tough line against his detractors. It is believed that it was on Pratibha’s advice that Advani’s resignation letter,which he later withdrew,was leaked to the media. Whether to cool tempers all round or just by coincidence,Pratibha has left on a 10-day trip to Singapore. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat,meanwhile,is believed to have conveyed to the BJP’s elder statesman that he should not stand for election in the coming parliamentary polls and make way for new blood.

Family feuds

The sibling rivalry in Lalu Prasad Yadav’s family is getting pronounced. Lalu wants his son Tejaswi Yadav,an unsuccessful cricketer,to be his political heir. But wife Rabri Devi is backing elder son Tej Pratap Yadav. Tej Pratap is unhappy that Tejaswi gets to address RJD political rallies. He too wants to be invited to speak. In Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family,Akhilesh Yadav’s step-brother Prateek Yadav is cut up that all the political responsibility has fallen on the shoulders of Akhilesh. Prateek,who prides himself on his muscular body,has not even been made an MLA. There are dissensions even in the Pawar family. Patriarch Sharad Pawar is getting increasingly put off by nephew Ajit Pawar’s behaviour with his colleagues.

Faster on the draw

It was not only Gujarati pilgrims stranded in Uttarakhand who were given a helping hand by Narendra Modi. Ten priests from the Sivagiri Mutt in Kerala,which Modi had visited in April,sent Modi an SOS pleading for rescue. Congress leaders were upset at a news report giving Modi credit for evacuating some 15,000 Gujarati pilgrims stranded in the Char Dham region. The number of rescued pilgrims may have been grossly exaggerated but Modi was certainly faster on the draw than others in organising rescue of pilgrims from his home state. He chartered Boeing planes to airlift passengers from Dehradun to Gujarat,hired a fleet of vehicles and sent a team of 25 officers to the Uttarakhand control room to coordinate timings for chopper landings and take-offs. While the Congress deplored Modi’s interference,which they claimed hampered the Central government and Uttarakhand state relief efforts,belatedly three Congress CMs—Prithviraj Chavan,Ashok Gehlot and Bhupinder Singh Hooda—followed Modi’s example and flew to Uttarakhand. Other states also sent teams to take care of victims. Even the opposition TDP chartered a plane to ferry pilgrims to Andhra.

Disastrous management

THE National Disaster Management Authority held no meetings between 2008 and 2011 and only one after 2011. The vice-chairperson,M Shashidhar Reddy,is a sitting MLA from Andhra Pradesh with little time to spare. The four-time legislator has the status of a Cabinet minister. Other members enjoy the rank of minister of state but also seem to have little time to plan relief and rehabilitation when disaster strikes. It took three days for senior members of the NDMA to visit Uttarakhand.

Relocated not removed

The Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP),which is doing a valiant job in assisting stranded pilgrims in Uttarakhand,has a camp in the mess at Gauchar. But when Rahul Gandhi visited Uttarakhand to oversee the relief work,he and his SPG team were put up at the ITBP camp and the policemen had to move out. Director General Ajay Chadha was quick to explain that his force had simply been relocated,not removed. A small adjustment for a VVIP.