My Opinion

There are two things that I would like to highlight in this entire CBI-Kejriwal controversy. Arun Jaitley’s adversaries will also agree that he can never be involved in any corruption. I know him for 40 long years. He gave up a lucrative career in law and instead plunged into politics. He is a man of high moral standards. Arvind Kejriwal and his associates are certainly barking up the wrong tree. The Delhi CM infact does not want the corruption charges against his Principal Secretary to be in the headlines and is therefore trying his best to divert attention by bringing in charges against Arun Jaitley without much success.

Arvind Kejriwal is bent upon using diversionary tactics. There are serious corruption charges against his principal secretary Rajender Kumar. The CBI had sought the permission of the Court before conducting the raids. However with Rajendra Kumar being his most trusted aide, the Delhi Chief Minister appears to be in a fix. And in order to save Kumar, he first called the Prime Minister a “psychopath” and then tried to accuse Jaitley but has chosen to remain silent on the real issue!

The main reason behind the Arunachal controversy is that twenty one of the rebel congress MLAs have been in Delhi for the past two months hoping to meet Ms Sonia Gandhi with their complaints against Chief Minister Nabam Tuki. However after the Congress President refused to meet them, these MLAs decided to join hands with the BJP to form a new government in Arunachal Pradesh. And this has triggered a major political crisis in the state.

RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s comments on a review of the existing reservation policy proved costly for BJP in the Bihar Assembly elections. However today the RSS Chief has come out strongly in favour of reservation. He has said that “as long as social discrimination remains in the society, reservation is needed.” However this clarification has come a bit too late…it has come after the damage has already been done!

The big question is whether CBI raided the Chief Minister’s office. Union Minister Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad has cleared the air by categorically stating that the raids have no connection whatsoever with Arvind Kejriwal and that he is unnecessarily getting involved without any basis. Perhaps, the Delhi Chief Minister should have gone through the merits of the case before crying foul. However now that he has jumped into the fray, there is no looking back for him since he has already taken a stand on this.

Rajendra Kumar has always been close to Arvind Kejriwal. The CBI has enough evidences to prove that the Principal Secretary favoured his sister-in-law’s company while granting a tender. It was the Anti Corruption Bureau that had first filed a complaint against him but the Chief Minister chose to ignore it. Arvind Kejriwal would have to explain why no action was taken against Rajendra Kumar despite being charged by the Anti Corruption Bureau. Instead of probing into the charges against Kumar, why did the Chief Minister accord him a room next to his? In his fight against corruption, Arvind Kejriwal cannot have different standards for different people.

Initially the Congress party had decided that they would raise the issue of the National Herald case in Parliament and stall the proceedings in the House. However, when the leaders realised that this would send out a wrong signal that the Party leaders, in order to protect Sonia and Rahul Gandhi were not allowing the Parliament to function, they started reiterating that there was no connection between the National Herald issue and the GST bill or with that of stalling the Parliament proceedings. Rahul Gandhi is of the opinion that by taking his protests to the street, his party would make the most of it but some of his party leaders feel that instead of making it into a political issue, it needs to be fought legally.

Inorder to improve bilateral ties, it is necessary to engage in talks with Pakistan without any third party involvement and both India and Pakistan are ready for this. Border skirmishes have also reduced and both the countries have agreed upon laying a gas pipeline which would run from Turkmenistan to India via Pakistan. India and Pakistan are also keen upon boosting trade across the border. However what is necessary in the first place is that Pakistan would have to make a concerted effort to combat terrorism in its own soil.

Narendra Modi had visited Kyoto during his visit to Japan. Like Varanasi, Kyoto is also an old city. However, Kyoto has been modernised without disturbing its legacy. Modi wants to develop Varanasi on the lines of Kyoto and has sought help from the Japanese government to do this. Shinzo Abe may even lend Modi some advice in this regard tomorrow. Preparing tracks for the Bullet train and getting it to finally run will take time. However, cleaning up Varanasi, improving the condition of its roads and improving systems in the city should not take that long. A beginning, at the least, should be made now.

There is a tactical shift in the strategy of the Congress party, which is faced with several questions over National Herald, the property and the share transfer. The reason behind this shift is that many of the party’s senior leaders are against creating a ruckus in Parliament over the issue, which, they believe, is harming their position. If this trend continues, the Congress may end up being isolated and lose support from other opposition parties as well. However, media reports have said that protests over the issue are continuing because Rahul Gandhi has insisted on it. One newspaper report even claimed that Rahul Gandhi is ready to go to jail in this case, which has silenced Congress leaders, even as the chaos continues.

Danish is that unfortunate victim who happened to witness the gruesome murder of his father Md Akhlaq. Perhaps there is nothing more painful than this. He himself was pushed to the jaws of death but despite having gone through so much, he does not see any pre-planned conspiracy behind this. He blames it at the crowd that was provoked by rumours being spread by certain unruly elements and those elements need to be severely punished. Danish’s comments certainly raise a question mark on those who feel that the country has become intolerant!

The bitter truth is that on the issue of terrorism, Pakistan has been exposed in front of the whole world. Prime Minister Narendar Modi has raised the issue of terrorism in all the countries he has visited. He has even called for isolating those countries that breed terrorism in their own soil. Nawaz Sharif and his adviser Sartaj Aziz have repeatedly tried to corner India but it has not made any impact internationally. Rather they have drawn flak for crying hoarse and therefore it is but obvious that Pakistan has no other option but to engage in talks with India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the ground for it in Paris when he had extended his hand to the Pakistan Prime Minister and then despatched Ajit Doval to Singapore for NSA level talks. Currently the Union Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj is in talks with her counterpart in Pakistan. Now Pakistan cannot claim that India is not ready for talks rather it would have to show to the world that it is indeed serious about tackling terrorism.