Old wine, new bottle

WHEN Narendra Modi took over as chief minister of Gujarat, he bought himself some fancy designer kurtas with pearl-stud buttons. His stylish wardrobe, chic rimless glasses, matching sandals and expensive foreign watches and pens were part of his new look.

But the RSS pracharak could not change his old communal mindset. His insensitive and prejudiced remarks during the Gujarat riots are a major embarrassment for his politically correct colleagues in the BJP and NDA in Delhi.

But Modi himself is not a whit abashed. In fact, he was annoyed with a foreign TV network which blacked out his comments trying to compare the World Trade Center attack with Godhra and the death of two Sikhs in the US in the WTC aftermath to the mayhem in Gujarat.

While in Delhi Modi is seen as a handicap, back in Gujarat where a vicious communal wind is blowing, he is perceived as a hero and compared to Gujarat’s strongman Sardar Patel!

Poll plot

IS it merely a coincidence that some of the worst affected regions in the communal violence which swept Gujarat recently were in the constituencies of the Congress party’s key leaders Shankersinh Vaghela, Naresh Rawal and Amarsinh Chaudhury? Sabarkanta, Vaghela’s assembly constituency, is also the parliamentary constituency where the Congress won the by-election last September. On the other hand, the BJP’s strongholds of Saurashtra and South Gujarat were largely untouched.

The Congress had been rapidly gaining lost ground in the state in the last six months. In September, it won both the Sabarkanta parliamentary election and the Sabarmati assembly poll. In last month’s by-elections, it captured two of the three assembly by-elections. Modi was elected from Rajkot with a margin of only 15,000 votes.

Unfortunately, the recent communal violence has polarised voters along religious lines so that the BJP, at least temporarily, has regained its edge. Small wonder that the party is now talking in terms of dissolving the assembly, whose term expires only in February next year, and calling for fresh elections next month.

Shower of babble

AT the prime minister’s meeting with some NDA allies, who were angry for not being consulted in advance on the attorney general’s plea before the Supreme Court, there was a slight communication problem. Mamata Banerjee, while praising the prime minister for his secularist beliefs, targeted Soli Sorabjee in disjointed Bengali Hinglish. Ram Vilas Paswan in his Bihari Hindi also attacked Sorabjee.

The AG, most comfortable in English, could not quite comprehend the politicians’ remarks and responded in Parsi-Gujarati Hindi, which they in turn, could not understand.

Additional Solicitor General Kirit Rawal had to act as interpreter. In the midst of the heated exchanges, Vajpayee tucked into his meal with remarkable composure.

Success-or slight

THE BJP leaders have made it clear that L K Advani is Vajpayee’s natural successor not just in the party but in the NDA alliance as well. But it is a moot point whether the prime minister sees Advani in that light.

Vajpayee dispatched defence minister George Fernandes to Gujarat as the government’s emissary to control the law and order situation.

Advani as home minister and an elected representative from Gujarat had surely more reason and right to be sent. Meanwhile, over the VHP’s Ayodhya agitation, Vajpayee has had to counter the home ministry’s orders to the UP authorities on Ayodhya more than once.

Sonia’s choices

SONIA Gandhi’s total control of the Congress was evident from the party’s Rajya Sabha nominations. The final selections were made by the party president without consulting pradesh congress chiefs and state chief ministers, as is customary. Sonia struck off aging veterans like S B Chavan, K K Birla and Shiv Shankar from the list.

Obeidullah Azmi, nominated from Madhya Pradesh, was not recommended by either Chief Minister Digvijay Singh or Arjun Singh.

Azmi, who till recently was with Laloo Yadav, seems to have been inducted because he had campaigned in Amethi. Similarly, Prabha Thakur and Natwar Singh in the Rajasthan list, Murli Deora from Maharashtra and Motilal Vohra from Chhattisgarh owe their selection entirely to Sonia and not their respective CMs.

Goel-Malhotra baby

VAJPAYEE made clear that the UP assembly polls were not a referendum of his government, but MoS in the PMO, Vijay Goel, brashly declared that the forthcoming New Delhi municipal elections are a referendum on the central government in a desperate bid to muster support for the BJP’s flagging campaign. Sensing that the party is on a losing wicket, most Delhi BJP stalwarts from Jagmohan to Sushma Swaraj have largely kept away from the civic poll campaign.

Former chief minister Sahib Singh Verma has confined his efforts to the large number of Jat candidates from rural Delhi, while former Delhi strongman Madan Lal Khurana has announced his boycott of the campaign, upset that Goel had the major say in ticket allotment and his old friend Vijay Kumar Malhotra has been made campaign in-charge. Considering the way things are going, it is a responsibility Malhotra could have done without!

Earlier Columns