The first ‘expose’ against the Narendra Modi Government has given a new edge to the Congress attack. Party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has set a new line of opposition after raising a demand to sack External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. He has directly targeted the Prime Minister, claiming that he is defending lalit Modi. So, the Central Government is going to face big problems in the near future.
The Congress, left, JDU and some other Opposition parties will raise this issue in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. In this Session, the Government will try to get many important Bills passed, including the land Bill and GST Bill. But the Congress is expected to create ruckus in Parliament on the Sushma issue. Sources in the Congress say the party will do the same in the lalit Modi case as the BJP had done on the Raja issue, and had not let many sessions be conducted smoothly.
After that the issue will also be raised in the Bihar elections. Though at present lalu Prasad Yadav supports Sushma, but might start attacking Modi later. The lalit Modi issue will be directly linked to Narendra Modi. This attempt to save and help a man who is allegedly involved in the black money issue will cost the BJP dearly, and its edge to attack lalu will weaken too.
lAlIT MODI & CONTROVERSIES
Problematic days of UPA 2 Government had started due to lalit Modi. It was lalit Modi who had given rise to the first issue of controversy. In 2010, lalit, who was the IPl commissioner, had a confrontation with Central Minister Shashi Tharoor over the IPl team of Kochi. To teach him a lesson, lalit exposed many secrets of the IPl Kochi team in the public domain through his tweets. He was the one who disclosed on Twitter that Sunanda Pushkar had a share of Rs 70 crore in the team. The controversy escalated to the point where Tharoor had to resign.
later, Sharad Pawar was also embroiled in a similar controversy. His son-in-law Sadanand Sule had a share in an IPl team, but somehow he managed to sell his shares.
History seems to be repeating itself; the first controversy of the NDA Government involves lalit. Sushma had helped him and there is hullabaloo over this in the country as well as abroad. labor MP of England Keith Vaz has also landed in trouble.
In India, the Government, the party and RSS, all are backing Sushma, but the matter will not die down so easily.
The Opposition has got a big issue against the Government. Whenever the BJP will raise the issue of black money and corruption, the Opposition will raise the issue of lalit. On the very first day, the Congress sought to know that when a minister would help a person alleged under FEMA, how would it continue the battle against black moneyIJ Help on humanitarian basis is in fact a weak argument.
UNCERTAINTY IN CONGRESS
Will the organisational election of the Congress be deferred till Rahul Gandhi takes command of the partyIJ This question was being asked by many leaders at the AICC headquarters. Most of the leaders were not aware that the elections had been postponed again, and were in fact informed by some journalists. Party leaders still don’t know what will happen in future.
Congress leaders are puzzled because they have been completely removed from the decision-making process. Worse, they don’t even get information about the decisions taken. Janardan Dwivedi doesn’t inform them formally or informally. Only selected people from Rahul’s team take part in the decision-making process. However, there is speculation that the organisational election can be deferred till the next Parliament Session.
The committee led by M Ramachandran, which was looking after the membership drive, is finalising new dates for the organisational election. Probably, the election will be held just before the election of the new president. Till then, the membership drive will continue. In fact, Congress leaders want Rahul to visit all States before the organisational election to collect the reports of leaders.
BJP’S SEAT FORMUlA
The BJP has shown the mirror to its alliance partners in Bihar. Of the 24 legislative Council seats, the party has given only six seats to its partners. lJP of Ram Vilas Paswan will fight on four seats, while RlSP will contest from two. The election will be held on July 7.
The RJD and JDU are fighting on 10 seats each and have left three seats for the Congress and one for the NCP.
However, it is being said that by way of the legislative Council election, the BJP has fixed the formula for Assembly Elections. In this election, the BJP has given 25 per cent seats to its partners and 75 per cent seats have been retained. Probably, the same formula will be applied in the Assembly Elections, maybe with a little modification.
Though after Jitan Ram Manjhi’s coming to NDA, the BJP will have to change this formula. If the formula of 25 per cent is applied, then the partners will get only 60 seats. But sources in the BJP say that despite Manjhi joining the NDA, the BJP will not change this formula much. The party can at best add 10 seats to what it thought it would give to its partners. This means the BJP will leave 70-75 seats for partners and will fight on around 170 seats.
JUDICIARY, GOVT lOCK HORNS
Several new problems have crept in over the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) controversy. Direct confrontation has started between the judiciary and Government. The Government has told the Supreme Court that if NJAC is declared unconstitutional and the collegium system is reinstated, then a new law would be made to quash the step. The Government had required the support of the Opposition on this issue and that’s why it is giving the warning of a new law. The State Governments also fully support the issue.
On the other hand, judicial appointments are stuck due to this row. NJAC can’t be constituted till the controversy is sorted out, and till then no appointments will be made. At present, five High Courts — Karnataka, Punjab and Haryana, Gujarat, Assam and Andhra Pradesh — don’t have regular Chief Justices. Acting Chief Justices are looking after the day-to-day affairs.
Apart from this, almost all courts are facing a shortage of judges. Three posts of judges are vacant in the Supreme Court. Uttar Pradesh needs 81 judges; this means almost half the seats are lying vacant in the State. There are only 33 judges in Karnataka instead of 62. There are only 41 judges in Delhi HC of the required 60. In Punjab and Haryana High Court, 30 posts for judges are unoccupied. Bombay HC needs 29 more judges, while Gujarat HC needs 23. Due to shortage of judges, pending cases are piling up day by day. If the problem is not sorted out before the vacation ends, the situation will get worse.
lAND BIll VS STATE GOVTS
State Governments have started opposing the land Acquisition Amendment Bill. In the Joint Parliamentary Committee, almost all parties, including the Congress, have been opposing the Bill. But now even the States are raising a voice against it. The Central Government has been saying that amendments to the 2013 law are being done on the request of States.
One more fact has come to the fore: After the land acquisition law came into effect in 2013, only Punjab and Orissa acquired land. As many as 20 States have given their reports to the Central Government, 18 of which say they haven’t done any land acquisition in the past two years. So, there is no question of facing problems with the law made in 2013. However, last week a proposal was passed in the West Bengal Assembly against the land Acquisition Amendment Bill. The TMC, left and Congress brought the proposal against the Bill one by one, and the House supported it.
The Government of Assam is also going to make a new land law. In that law there will be a provision that a company that has taken land will give a share of the company to the affected family. This will be the permanent source of income of the affected family.