Yes, Prime Minister

The Prime Minister is unhappy, and he has good reason to be. No one responds to my ‘good morning’ messages, he cribbed at a meeting of party lawmakers the other day.

That’s fair. It is not about sycophancy, or the social media analog of kids jumping up and going ‘good morning Miss’ when the teacher walks into the room. It is about common courtesy, about basic good behavior. And decency, good behavior, these are important, yes, in any civilized society, in any culture?

Right. Meanwhile, in Parliament, Mr Arun Jaitley made an important intervention:

On Wednesday, making a statement in the Rajya Sabha, leader of the house and finance minister Arun Jaitley said: “The PM in his speeches did not question, nor did he mean to question the commitment to this nation of either former PM Manmohan Singh or former VP Hamid Ansari. Any such perception is erroneous. We hold these leaders in high esteem, as well as their commitment to India.”

Any such perception that Modi was attacking both his predecessor and a former vice president of India was “erroneous”, Jaitley said.

Apres Gujarat

A small news item from the day before yesterday — the day before the counting of votes in Gujarat and Himachal, the day before Parliament belatedly went into its much-delayed winter session — deserves your attention. The Prime Minister, it said, was in Mizoram to kick off the election campaign in that state. Today, he is in Karnataka and then on to Kerala and Tamil Nadu to “extensively review” the damage caused by Cyclone Ockhi, never mind that the storm hit the Indian coast over two weeks ago. (Nothing — not Parliament, not the responsibilities of government, not even natural disasters — ever come between Modi and an election campaign.)

A constant trope during the Gujarat election cycle is the political rejuvenation of Rahul Gandhi. The celebration of his political comeback was at times almost Shakespearian, echoing the transformation of ‘Prince Hal’, the intimate of Falstaff and his set of scoundrels, into the King Henry V who would lead England to glory at Agincourt when the time was right. Remember?:

WTFJH: October 26

#1. When the most powerful man in the country takes time out from the onerous task of building a New India to reach out to a lay party worker, it sends a message — the prime minister, like democracy itself, is of and for the people. Here, watch this chicken soup for the political soul moment:

#ViralVideo
Watch PM @narendramodi's private conversation with a BJP worker in Gujarat #ITVideo pic.twitter.com/6oseJQomoq

— India Today (@IndiaToday) October 25, 2017

Post-script to strategery

Well, what do you know?! In response to my post on the BJP’s wonky strategery, I get three different emails, in the space of under an hour, all essentially asking the same thing: Am I reading too much into one case being withdrawn and one warrant in another case being issued, both involving Hardik Patel?

Like I said at the outset, when I restarted my blog, I prefer to keep all discussions here, and not one-on-one in email — I’m fine voicing my opinions in public, no reason you need to be wary about voicing your questions to me. So. In response to the above question — I am, am I? Reading too much?

Headline #1: Govt to withdraw 90% cases against agitating Patidars

Headline #2: Eye on elections, Gujarat govt to drop most cases against Patidars

Where’s the catch? Headline #1 is dated August 1, 2016. Headline #2 is dated October 13, 2017

That is what I meant when I said the BJP uses, and withdraws, cases not because of its vaunted law and order credentials, but because of political expediency.

The case in which a non-bailable warrant has been issued against Hardik Patel relates to damage to property and related sections. In response to my comment, I got this on Twitter:

Government should refrain from punishing criminals to collect political brownie points, some think! https://t.co/IzlZmqo5tW

— Be'Havin! (@WrongDoc) October 25, 2017

Yeah, some think. And remember. Like, so (Dated October 18, 2017):

Continuing its populist announcements, Gujarat government on Wednesday declared to withdraw criminal cases registered under the provisions of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and other relevant penal sections against 22 farmers of Sanand region in Ahmedabad district. Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja made the announcement in an official release.

While on which, you really can’t fool all the people all the time. As witness:

The announcement came barely a week after the Bharatiya Janata Party government promised to withdraw all “non-serious cases” filed against members of the Patidar community after their protest rally in August 2015 had led to rioting and violence across the state. The land-owning Patidar or Patel community, which accounts for 14% of Gujarat’s population, is fighting for reservation in jobs and education under the Other Backward Classes category.

However, neither the Sanand farmers nor the Patidar leaders are moved by the BJP’s attempts to placate them. Dismissing the announcements as pre-poll bait, they claimed the government had yet to address their main problems and demands.

Shailesh Thakkar, one of the 22 farmers from Upardal village in Sanand, doubts the government will keep its word. “We have been seeing in the media that the government has claimed it will withdraw the cases against us,” he said. “But will they actually withdraw the cases? I doubt it.” Thakkar spent 16 days in jail before he was released on bail in March.

If you still think the latest action against Hardik Patel has to do with law and order, can I interest you in a big bridge?

 

What price strategery?

Serious question: Just what is the belief that the BJP is the master of the political strategy based on? Certainly not recent activities south of the Vindhyas and in Gujarat.

Kerala was doing its thing when the RSS/BJP combine decided to stir things up in the Kannur/Kasargode region. When that particular kitchen became too hot for comfort the party apparatus pulled out its default stunt — the yatra — and ended up with the dampest of damp squibs. So much so that in order to get some media attention, Amit Shah had to transplant the Kerala yatra to New Delhi.

45 days to go

Finally, we have dates. December 9 for the first phase, and December 14, for the second phase, of the Gujarat elections.

The lead-in to the announcement had its share of controversies, the confusion being compounded by the Election Commission’s self-serving statements at various points in time. For instance, the CEC said the reason the dates for Gujarat were not announced at the same time as those for Himachal Pradesh was that flood relief work was still ongoing in the former. Not true, NDTV found when it spoke to officials on the ground.