P A G E
Sunday, September 5, 1999
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Sunday, September 5, 1999 |
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by Harihar
Swarup |
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Landing
an appointment, in the air
September 5,
1924 |
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THE dust of the electoral hurly-burly has settled down in Bellary and today’s voting will decide the political fortune of Sushma Swaraj, a daughter of Haryana. Never before has a leader from this region contested an election from the South and aroused so much interest nationwide; rarely has a leader hogged so many headlines in a two-week long campaign and focused so many times on TV. Put a dozen photographs of the leaders in the electoral fray in a row and ask a child — who is Sushma Swaraj? The child, in a split second, will point to Sushma’s picture. Irrespective of her victory or defeat, she has come to be known in practically every household as the one who challenged the mighty Congress and its supremo, Sonia Gandhi, in a constituency where the party never lost an election. If she wins, she will establish an all-time record in an electoral battle and qualify to be re-inducted in the ministry (if the BJP forms the government). If she loses, she will be made a sacrificial goat for the second time. Sushma had decided not to contest the elections even before the poll notification was issued and made her intention clear publicly but strange are the ways of destiny. Her fate started fluctuating violently as she received a call from BJP’s chief campaigner L.K. Advani; she was asked by the BJP’s leadership to be ready to file her nomination papers if Sonia Gandhi chooses Bellary as her second constituency. A reluctant Sushma agreed to her party’s dictate knowing well that she is again thrown in a swollen river with her hands and feet tied and asked to swim against the current. She chased the Congress President like a shadow when Sonia headed for Andhra Pradesh en route Bellary in a futile bid to take her opponents by surprise but she was outbidded. This was Sushma’s first victory but her “agni Pariksha” has begun. Exactly 11 months back, she was put at stake in the electoral battle in Delhi Assembly poll. She was forced to quit the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to replace the beleaguered Chief Minister, Mr Sahib Singh Verma, as the last resort by the BJP leadership to resurrect the party’s sagging electoral prospects. She was the most unhappy person at the change of guard in Delhi barely a month before the election and she was quoted as saying. “ I am asked to take over from the besieged Captain of a ship caught in a tossing tempest and steer it safely to the shore”. Reflecting her disgust, she had lamented; “I have declined as long as I was a factor in the decision. Now it is no longer a question of my wish but the party’s decision. There is no question of my choice”. She had known full well that her charm alone was not enough to erase months of woes and sufferings of Delhiites — the perpetual power crisis, water shortage, mustard oil calamity, onion fiasco and rising crime rate could not have been solved in a month. Sushma quit her South Delhi Lok Sabha constituency so well nurtured by her, to contest an assembly seat. She had to virtually struggle to make it to the assembly but her party suffered a humiliating defeat. Since then, Sushma has been in the virtual wilderness, deciding not to jump into the electoral fray when the 12th Lok Sabha was dissolved and a mid-term poll imposed on the nation. Now in her mid-forties, Sushma came to the limelight as an articulate, clear headed and eloquent spokesperson of the BJP. She was able to establish good rapport with Delhi’s press corps. The void left following her induction into the Union Cabinet is far from being bridged and there has been a sharp decline in the BJP’s daily briefings. Sushma made her debut in the electoral fray when she was a young girl. Soon after the Janata Party government was formed at the Centre in 1977, the Haryana government was dismissed and the state went to the polls to elect a new assembly. She was picked up from among the many aspirants, fielded from Ambala Cantonment and was pitted against 80-year old Devraj Anand. The contest turned out to be between the oldest and the youngest candidates. The generations gap was bridged when she trounced her octogenarian rival and hit the headlines. So impressed was Devi Lal by Sushma’s victory that he inducted her into his ministry and allocated her eight portfolios; Sushma became the youngest-ever minister in Haryana. She again contested from Ambala Cantonment but this time on the BJP ticket and again won. She became a minister for the second time in the coalition government headed by Devi Lal. There was a reversal of fortune when she tried to enter Parliament and had to face successive defeat thrice in the Karnal Lok Sabha constituency. The elections in 1980, 1984 and 1989 were not lucky for her even though she was quite popular in the Karnal area. She was, however, a thundering success in South Delhi having won the seat in a byelection held following shifting of Madan Lal Khurana as the Chief Minister of Delhi. She comfortably retained the seat in the 1996 and 1998 elections. Twenty three years ago life was not easy for Sushma and her husband, Swaraj Kaushal, when the couple moved to Delhi and had to maintain two establishments — one in the Union Capital and another in Ambala. Her husband was a socialist and an ardent follower of Jayaprakash Narayan and actively participated in Sarvodaya leader’s “Navnirman” and “Sampurna Kranti” movements. Call it a coincidence but within three weeks of Sushma’s marriage, JP was arrested and her husband plunged headlong into the anti-emergency movement. Sushma, then 23, too became a “bhakta” of the “Lok Nayak” and joined her husband. Belonging to a staunch
RSS family of Haryana, Sushma was influenced by political
thinking of her socialist husband. |
CONGRESSMEN can be trusted for being most innovative in their political manoeuvrings. Praveen Singh Aron, who had sat on a dharna inside the compound of the AICC office on Akbar Road to protest against being denied a ticket from Bareilly, decided to puncture the tight cordon thrown around the party chief, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, by the Congress party’s praetorian guards. The fact that Aron was personally opposed to the UPCC chief, Mr Salman Khursheed, made matters even worse. Aron and his journalist wife kept a close tab on Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s campaign movements. The moment they learnt about her trip to Bellary last week (some say a senior AICC functionary had tipped off), pronto they purchased tickets on the same flight and managed a leisurely audience with the otherwise inaccessible Congress President. No, Aron did not make much headway in getting the seat (the last date for withdrawals is still ahead) however, he managed to spoil some reputations. And that was some satisfaction for a spurned Congressman. The moral of the story: In the Congress, what you can’t do on ground, do it in the air. Even if you don’t succeed, in the end you would have at least grounded some reputations! Who will play “Krishna”? With the end of the first phase of campaigning coinciding with Janmashtmi, a Krishna flavour was added to the Capital’s political grapevine. It was said that Mrs Sonia Gandhi had been misled by some of her advisers into believing that she would be “elected unopposed” from Bellary if she quietly files her papers and no heavyweight opponent is in the field. The seat had been allocated to Mr Ramakrishna Hegde’s Lok Shakti faction of the newly emerging United Janata Dal and it was hoped that it may not be able to field a heavyweight against the Congress President. However, word leaked out and it was Mr Ramakrishna Hegde who alerted his allies in the BJP and the rest is history. The sudden emergence of Mrs Sushma Swaraj in the field put paid to the rumours about an “uncontested victory”. All of a sudden in the Congress the blame for wrong advice is being apportioned on Mr Arjun Singh. Thus the Bellary fiasco too is being sought to be laid on his doorstep. On Janmashtmi day, which coincided with the end of the first phase of campaign, it was heard in the AICC office that if the party takes a lesson from the life of Lord Krishna, then misadventures could be avoided. Krishna drove the chariot of Arjun during the Mahabharata war and literally retained the driver’s seat by continuously tendering advice to Arjun — thus the lesson is, do not listen to Arjun, let him listen to you! But the question is, who will play “Krishna”? “Hand” balloon With Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, dismissing the Congress charge on “Sugargate” as yet another attempt to float a balloon which gets deflated, the Indian National Congress has decided to float one literally — in Bellary. Bellary the constituency from where the AICC President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, is contesting the party’s poll managers have despatched a huge balloon shaped as “Hand”, the Congress symbol. The balloon is indeed towering and in addition the Congress has decided to keep it afloat with a basket dangling for some to take a ride on it. The party managers wish to remind the voters of Bellary of the symbol, that is popular in the rural segments of the constituency. Sukh Ram’s shadow A Tribune correspondent covering the election scene amidst the sand dunes of Rajasthan found that apart from the candidature of Mr Buta Singh and Mr Balram Jakhar, yet another factor from the northern region casting its shadow over the campaign in the desert state was the BJP’s relationship with the Himachal Pradesh stalwart, Mr Sukh Ram. Now that he is out of the Congress, his former ministerial colleagues, Mr Rajesh Pilot and Mr Balram Jakhar, are invoking his name, albeit negatively, to bolster their cause. Mr Pilot, who was a predecessor of Mr Sukh Ram in the Communications Ministry, reminds his voters in Dausa how Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, as Opposition leader, had led the holding up of proceedings of Parliament for 13 long days on the Sukh Ram affair and how today he is not averse to having Mr Sukh Ram’s Himachal Vikas Party as an ally for the sake of power politics. Mr Balram Jakhar speaks in the same vein, “inke muhn mein din mein Ram-Ram, aur raat ko gale lagayein Sukh Ram”. The voters of Rajasthan, incidentally, are not oblivious of the name “Sukh Ram” and some of them respond to the campaign. Ajit’s faith in Sonia Despite ups and downs, Mrs Sonia Gandhi seems to have picked up new admirers and faithfuls during the current election campaign. Perhaps the most vociferous defence of her cause is being made by her new-found ally, Mr Ajit Singh, whose party is contesting eight seats in Uttar Pradesh in a tie-up with the Congress. Referring to the promises made by Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, respectively, to the Jat community about reservations and the grant of Other Backward Classes (OBC) status, Mr Ajit Singh refers to BJP Joint Secretary, Govindacharya’s description of Mr Vajpayee as a “mukhouta” and says “have you ever heard Sonia Gandhi telling a lie?” His contention is that while Mr Vajpayee can go back on his word, the Congress President is not capable of bluffing in order to have political gains. The bard of Sikar Whatever be the outcome of elections, the current campaign has certainly shown that Mr Balram Jakhar is capable of crossing swords with Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee in the field of poetry. He tells the voters of Sikar, from where, a district whose 16 sons were martyred in the Kargil conflict, that he had been to the conflict zone and is of the opinion that loss of lives could have been avoided had the government taken timely steps. Then he narrates a poem: “De Kar bhashan
achchhe achchhe, Ministry of Denials For correspondents covering the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the beat over the past few months has become very hot with innumerable stories emerging from almost every quarter of the armed forces. There is more competition among the correspondents to come out with exclusive stories and also pack in as many details as possible even in the routine news items. Incidentally defence is one area which has probably become the most important over the past few months and more and more space is also being reserved in the newspapers for stories emerging from the MoD. The importance being given to the area was such that apparently the Election Commission also had to write to the MoD to restrain itself and not to issue any releases on policy matters or even take the correspondents on any trips to defence installations. For the EC saw the BJP-led coalition getting advantage from such trips. However, despite all efforts to keep defence matters away from newsheadline, the MoD has not been very successful. In fact MoD has been feeling the heat the maximum with one or the other controversial story hitting the headlines in one or the other newspaper almost on a daily basis. Such has been the flow of stories on defence matters that the MoD has in fact been working overtime issuing denials of these news items. In the past month or so the ministry has been forced to issue denials or rebuttals on a regular basis to one newspaper or the other. Going by this rate the MoD could soon be renamed as the Ministry of Denials. Voters’ dilemma The Ganganagar seat, adjoining Punjab and Haryana, saw a different kind of voters reaction when tickets were declared. There was enthusiasm for Mrs Sonia Gandhi but there was also an equal amount of opposition to her party’s candidate, Mr Shankar Punnu, who won from this Scheduled Caste-Reserved seat last time. The slogan which was in vogue during the campaign was: “Sonia tere se bair
nahin; Whatever be the outcome, here and in many other constituencies, interesting political verse was created during the campaign of 1999. (Contributed by
S.B., K.V. Prasad, Girja Shankar Kaura and P.N. Andley). |
A growing number of Indian girls realising the increased opportunities for women of education and to serve their country are attracted to Europe for education and experience. Many remain in London, others pass through and need a welcome and a temporary home. Their comfort became the concern of the International Service Development Department of the British YWCA and 10A, Newton Road, Bayswater, is a busy hive. During the season when there was a great rush to London the authorities refused as many as 20 would-be residents in one day. But India always has the
first place. This constant stream of new arrivals shows
the importance of giving due notice of arrival. |
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THE dust of the electoral
hurly-burly has settled down in Bellary and today’s
voting will decide the political fortune of Sushma
Swaraj, a daughter of Haryana. Never before has a leader
from this region contested an election from the South and
aroused so much interest nationwide; rarely has a leader
hogged so many headlines in a two-week long campaign and
focused so many times on TV.
