My Opinion

SP supremo Mulayam Singh’s situation vis-a-vis Akhilesh appears similar to that of Emperor Akbar, when the Mughal king’s son Salim revolted. A father may be unwilling to harm his son, but an emperor has to shoulder responsibility and cannot bow before his son’s intransigence. People who know Mulayam closely, and personally, have been saying that the patriarch is facing bad times in the autumn of his life. It was Mulayam who single-handedly built the party, helped others, made his son Akhilesh the CM, but the very same party is now slipping out of his control. Whatever may be the reasons, or merits, his well-wishers say that this should not have happened to Mulayam in old age. The patriarch has still not lost hope. He does not want to fight against his son. On Monday, he said at least thrice that his son Akhilesh will be the CM after the elections. Clearly, Mulayam wants that the entire party should put up a joint fight, and he fears that the Election Commission may freeze the party’s poll symbol – the bicycle. If the party breaks up, it will severely damage its poll prospects, and party workers would be fighting one another in districts. Mulayam Singh does not want this to happen.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly praised his political rival Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Thursday for enforcing prohibition in his state. It is true that there are no permanent enemies or permanent friends in politics. Friendship and enmity in politics change with times, circumstances, and above all, necessities. Nitish Kumar was a political ally of BJP for 17 years. He and Lalu Prasad were sworn political enemies, but circumstances forced Nitish Kumar and Lalu to join hands before the Bihar assembly elections. And, Nitish Kumar was proved right when the results were announced. Similarly, Nitish Kumar avoided Narendra Modi to such an extent that he objected to the BJP using their images together on a poster. He even refused to lunch with Modi in Patna. But times have changed. Nitish Kumar has publicly supported Modi’s demonetization move, and on Thursday, it was Modi’s turn to return the compliment. This was not a question of political nicety. Political pundits have already begun to interpret the meanings behind these gestures.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, nicknamed Mr Cool, has been one of India’s best cricket captains. Under his captaincy, Team India won the T20 World Cup, ODI World Cup and became World No 1 in ICC rankings. After quitting Test cricket earlier, Dhoni has now taken a right decision at the right time to quit captaincy of T20 and ODI teams after the England series. A new leadership is emerging in the ranks of Team India with Virat Kohli as the Test team captain. Virat has performed par excellence, there is a huge surge of aspirations among the players, and Team India has won the England series with the help of fresh, new players. So, Virat Kohli seems to be the natural claimant for T20 and ODI captaincy. It would not be correct to predict now that Dhoni may retire from cricket altogether, because he still has much of cricket left in him. A great wicketkeeper and batsman, Dhoni can still be useful for Team India.

The manner in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke at the Lucknow rule about working for the interests of poor people reminds one of former PM Indira Gandhi’s electoral style. Modi’s speech on Monday reflected shades of Indira’s style of campaigning.

There was a time during the Sixties and Seventies, when Indira Gandhi used to tell at her rallies, ‘they (Opposition) are saying Indira Hatao, I am saying Garibi Hatao’. On Monday, Modi said, ‘they (Opposition) are saying Modi Hatao, I am saying Bhrashtachar Hatao’.

In her time, Indira Gandhi had abolished privy purses of ex-rulers and nationalised 14 major banks.

On Monday, if one carefully goes through Modi’s speech, his claim on demonetization was also made in a similar vein. And the result was evident. Huge crowds that thronged the Lucknow rally will definitely give a boost to the Prime Minister’s self-confidence level and shore up the morale of BJP workers.

Even the BJP had not expected such a big turnout, and since it was the first big rally since demonetization, the Prime Minister wanted to send the message that his demonetization step has the backing of the masses.

Apart from demonetization, the BJP in UP faces the added benefit from the split in Samajwadi Party. Both the SP factions, instead of uniting to fight the BJP, are now battling to sideline the other.

Probably Prime Minister Narendra Modi never expected such a strong opposition to demonetization from Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee. The Prime Minister had expected that most of the opposition leaders would never oppose any strong action against black money hoarders, but on Tuesday, when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee came on a single platform to oppose demonetization, it surprised even a seasoned politician like Modi. It is, however, coincidence that the CBI on Tuesday sent notices to two Trinamool Congress leaders, Sudip Bandopadhyay and Tapas Pal, summoning them for questioning related to chit fund scam. Among the public, Mamata has carefully cultivated her image of an honest leader, a fighter and aggressive leader. But in the last few years, several of her party leaders including MLAs and MPs have gone to jail on charges of being involved in chit fund scams. Mamata Banerjee has to openly defend her leaders, and there lies her dilemma.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati deposited more than Rs 104 crore in her party bank account in Delhi, and with this disclosure, it will now be her turn to raise questions about other parties. Out of Rs 104 crore deposited in a single bank account of her party in Delhi, nearly Rs 101 crore were in Rs 1000 old currency notes, now no more legal tender.

Mayawati may now come forth with the explanation that this money was raised through small donations collected from party supporters before elections, and were duly deposited in the bank.

As per law, political parties can accept cash donations from each individual for a maximum of Rs 20,000, and there is no necessity of maintaining records of such donations. Mayawati may also allege that this leak was deliberately made to tarnish her party’s image before the polls. She is bound to ask questions about how much money was deposited in the bank accounts of BJP and Samajwadi Party.

There is another angle to this. The Income Tax department has sent notices to Mayawati’s brother Anand Kumar about benami properties. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already announced that his government would now launch a campaign against benami property owners. One should hope that action will now be taken on this front.

My earnest request to the politicians in Kashmir valley, both mainstream and separatists: For God’s sake, please do not play politics over the issue of West Pakistan refugees. They are not outsiders. After the Partition in 1947, nearly 6,000 families came over from Pakistan and settled in Jammu and Kashmir. At that time, their number was less than 50,000. After staying here for 70 years, several generations have passed, and their present number is roughly 1.5 lakhs, most of them poor Dalits. It would be incorrect to say that the Centre is planning to change the demography of Jammu & Kashmir. These West Pakistan refugees can vote in Lok Sabha elections, but they cannot vote in state assembly polls, since they are not considered subjects of the original princely state of Jammu & Kashmir. These refugees can apply for recruitment in central paramilitary forces, but cannot apply for jobs in J&K government. They are Indian citizens, but they have no rights in Jammu & Kashmir. It was for their benefit that Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs 2000 crore rehabilitation package, and the current process of issuing them identification cards is towards that end. After Partition, millions of people came over to India, and resided in Delhi, Punjab, UP, Bihar, Bengal and Gujarat, but there was no discrimination against them. If we fail to give equal status and rights to West Pakistan refugees, then we cannot morally raise our voice over atrocities on minorities in Pakistan. It would be better if politicians in the Valley understand this, and stop playing into the hands of Pakistan.

It was not merely the subject matter of allegations, but the manner in which Rahul Gandhi first created an atmosphere to level charges against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that he has now become the butt of ridicule and jokes.

It was Rahul himself who first said, if I disclose the “personal corruption” charges against Modi, there will be an earthquake, and that “the balloon will soon burst”. But the charges that he levelled against Modi were nothing new.

These charges were already levelled by Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan. That is why nobody has taken Rahul’s charges seriously. It was because of this, that on Thursday, Prime Minister Modi, in Varanasi, joked and joked about Rahul, and deflated Rahul’s balloon.

It would have been better if Rahul had refrained from levelling old charges against the Prime Minister if he had nothing the substantiate the allegations.

Rahul actually depended on some documents which are already before the Supreme Court and the court has observed that these were not sufficient even to order and inquiry.

I am told some senior leaders did advice Rahul to refrain from making such unsubstantiated charges but he did not pay any attention.

On Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi levelled charges of corruption against Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally, but there is nothing new in these charges. The charges, based on some diary entries, were first levelled by Trinamool Congress two years ago in Parliament, later by Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi Assembly, and lawyer Prashant Bhushan in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, in course of its hearing, remarked thrice that there were insufficient evidences to prove these charges, and no inquiry can be ordered based on these papers. The apex court, in another case, had clearly observed that levelling of charges against persons in higher, constitutional posts, can lower the dignity of the post and sully the nation’s image. One should keep the court’s observation in mind. Now, coming to the charges levelled by Rahul Gandhi, let me share that the papers, from which he quoted Prime Minister Modi’s name, also has names of many political leaders, even from Rahul’s own party, and several chief ministers. There is hardly any big political party, whose leaders have not been named. To put it in brief: Rahul revealed less, and concealed more.

There were millions of people across India who did not rush to banks to deposit their demonetized Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, since there were long queues at almost all banks soon after the announcement. Many of them were waiting for the queues outside banks to lessen. On November 8, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Rs 500 and Rs 1000 as no more legal tenders, he had clearly told the nation to keep calm and not rush to banks to deposit their old currency notes, as the 50-day deadline given was to end on December 30. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had also told public that there was no need to rush to the banks to deposit old currency and people should wait for the rush at banks to reduce. But on Monday, the RBI came up with fresh instructions saying anyone depositing more than Rs 5000 will be questioned on record, in the presence of at least two officials of the bank, as to why this could not be deposited earlier. This is not fair. Similarly, the government on November 8 had promised that no questions would be asked of individuals depositing old currency notes upto Rs 2.5 lakhs, but four days ago, it was notified that such individuals will also be questioned. By constantly changing regulations and announcing fresh restrictions frequently, the government is creating confusion in the minds of people, and people’s trust is being gradually eroded. This is causing unnecessary woes for people who had accumulated savings through honest means.

It is true that the 10-year UPA rule was infamous for a string of big scams, it is also true that the UPA government did not take any step to curb corruption and black money, it is also true that a cashless economy will be beneficial for the nation, but the fact remains that in large parts of our country, villages do not have electricity, what to talk of wi-fi and bandwidth. Until and unless these things are in place, digital payments will not be possible in rural areas. It is good that raids are being carried out in Navi Mumbai, Thane, Guwahati, Faridabad, Gurugram, Churu, Bhopal, Vadodara to seize old and new currency notes, but this also creates suspicion in the minds of bonafide customers queuing in for long hours to get a paltry Rs 2000 from ATMs. One suggestion that has been given is that the new currency notes that have been seized in raids should be put back in circulation, by securing court orders, so that people can get much needed relief.

The only silver lining in the current demonetization scenario across India is from Bihar, where cash is available at most of the ATMs and there are fewer queues. People of India had been supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetization move, but even after 34 days they are facing cash crunch in most of the cities and towns. The RBI had sent adequate amount of new currency notes to the banks, but all of it, did not reach the common people, standing in queues at banks and ATMs. Due to the three-day break in bank work due to holidays, the situation had become acute. It would have been better if other chief ministers had followed the Bihar CM in asking banks to keep open on holidays. In another interesting fact, Rs 242 crore in new currency notes have so far been seized since November 8. This seized cash could have filled at least 141 ATMs across the country. The decision of government to set up a task force headed by a CBI officer to probe all currency seizures is thus welcome.