Even as the opposition ranks remain divided over the best way to corner the UPA government on FDI in retail, the Sangh Parivar has already anticipated fireworks in Parliament’s winter session. While Panchjanya has carried an editorial highlighting the “difficult situation” the government finds itself in on this issue, the Organiser has devoted its cover story to it. The editorial in Panchjanya claims the government was engaged in “bargaining” with the SP and the BSP, and apprehended that even UPA partner DMK’s silence on FDI in retail was a kind of “bargaining tactic”.
The Organiser report, however, appears confident that “FDI in retail grinds the government to a halt” and hoped that the “stormy winter session will dwarf Congress grandstanding”. The cover story also suggests the opposition’s “focus will shift to policymaking and economic reforms” during the winter session, despite the fact that the issue of alleged irregularities in coal block allocations washed out the last session.
Hail Mamata
While she continues to focus less on her governance in West Bengal and threatens to force the UPA at the Centre to a floor test, it’s the Sangh Parivar that has come to TMC chief Mamata Banerjee’s defence against the criticism she has faced over police firing in her state recently.
The editorial in the Organiser describes the “overdrive” of the CPM and the media “to damn Mamata” over the issue as “unjustified tirade” and appeals to everyone to “give her time, if not support” because Banerjee has “inherited an empty coffer, a corroded industry, a society that had been suppressed by the Red cadre terror and a system completely infiltrated by communist loyalists, fellow-travellers and sympathisers”. Extending its claim of communist infiltration to the deepest corners of government, the editorial loudly thinks that “it would not be surprising if it turns out that the police fired on the villagers at Nadia and elsewhere in the state only to besmirch her governance”.
The editorial points out that Banerjee never claimed to possess any “magic potion” to heal the state from the ills of 34 years of communist rule overnight. It appeals to others to not join the ranks of the Left and the Congress, which were “doing more a job of termite” as her ally.
“The Congress and the Communists are watching from the pavilion to see her trip and fall. We must not add chorus to it,” the editorial says, adding that Banerjee is a “rare breed” of politician in a country that “need dozens like her”.
VHP behind Modi
While Narenrda Modi’s recent visit to the Sangh Parivar headquarters in Nagpur was seen as an attempt by Modi to rope in active Parivar support for his fourth consecutive chief ministerial bid, he appears to have succeeded. Both Parivar weeklies have reported a Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha meeting in Ahmedabad recently where VHP patron Ashok Singhal had lauded Modi saying his government not only brought development but also “enhanced the power of Hindu community”. Singhal’s remarks are likely to motivate his followers.
Compiled by Ravish Tiwari