Opinion Municipal Party

Both stressed that the municipal results,where the BJP won 10 of 12 mayoral positions in UP and 36 of 49 urban local bodies in Madhya Pradesh,has “stunned” the Congress in these states. The fact that the Congress failed to win even a single mayoral position in UP and lost badly in the bastions of senior leaders like Kamal Nath and Kantilal Bhuria in Madhya Pradesh has given ammunition to both journals.

A full page report in the Organiser contends that the party’s performance in municipal bodies have given the BJP “a fresh lease of life” after its dismal performance in the UP assembly elections,and is in tune with the party’s “great expectations for the Lok Sabha”.

While the article claims that the municipal results are an indicator of urban India’s support for the party,it has highlighted the BJP’s debacle in UP to suggest that the BJP ponder why it performs well in municipal polls,but fails to repeat that success at the Lok Sabha polls.

“While it (the BJP) kept improving its performance in urban local bodies’ elections,its tally has kept sliding in assembly and parliamentary polls,” says an article in the Organiser,asking the BJP to think about the “contraction of (the) BJP in larger and more important electoral games”.

Underachiever Who?

The RSS’ Hindi weekly Panchjanya seems to agree and disagree with the assessment of international news magazine Time,which described Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as an underachiever. The Panchjanya,instead,found some merit in the arguments advanced by Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid,where he suggested that Rahul Gandhi’s cameo performances were not sufficient for the Congress and that the grand old party needed more of him.

While criticising the PM’s alleged mismanagement of the economy,the article also took Congress President Sonia Gandhi to task,describing her as a “super prime minister” and claimed that she could not abdicate responsibility for the failures of the UPA government. An editorial portrayed Khurshid’s remarks as questioning Rahul Gandhi’s capability to lead,and agreed with the law minister’s assessment that the Congress is directionless.

The editorial and article in Panchjanya together assert that it Singh is not the only underachiever in the Congress,but that “the trio of Manmohan-Sonia-Rahul has emerged (as) underachievers in (the) true sense. The alarming development is that they are turning the country into an underachiever too”.

CBI’s Maya

The Supreme Court’s verdict quashing the CBI probe into former UP chief minister Mayawati’s disproportionate assets on technical grounds has attracted the attention of the Organiser. An article gives chronological details of the case since 2003.

While reporting that the cases were filed against Mayawati “when the NDA was in power”,it has sought to underline that the NDA lost elections “a few months later”. Saying that the Supreme Court’s verdict “robbed” the CBI of “whatever credibility it had”,the article claims that the agency was at wits’ end and was hesitant to admit that “it did what the apex court says is a roving inquiry under political pressure” from the Congress-led UPA.

“It is public knowledge that under duress from the CBI and other government agencies and departments,Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati were ‘persuaded’ to support Congress-led governments on several occasions,” says the article,referring to SP and BSP’s support for the Congress’ presidential candidate,and describes the CBI as the “Congress Bureau of Investigation”.

Compiled by Ravish Tiwari