Opinion No place for watermelons

Bird in hand

Shibu Soren did not give up his Lok Sabha seat,even though he never showed his face in Parliament after becoming Chief Minister of Jharkhand in November last,except on the day of the vote on the NDA’s cut motion. Soren received special permission from the Parliament secretariat to skip the House on grounds of ill health. He was,however,very visible in his home state,presiding over the government. An MP who misses 60 continuous sittings of Parliament is automatically disqualified,unless special permission is granted. Soren,aware the chiefministership could slip out of his hands at any point,clearly believed in the old proverb that a bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

Cast aside census

Significantly,it was not Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who ticked off his ministers,Veerappa Moily and Ajay Maken,for speaking out publicly for and against the caste census. It was the party general secretary and chairperson of the media cell,Janardhan Dwivedi,who talked to them. Dwivedi was obviously acting at the instance of Sonia Gandhi,but the fact that he was the messenger suggests his growing clout.

The government,by indicating that the proposed national survey of castes might be linked,not to the regular door-to-door census but to the biometric data preparation exercise,wants to buy time. The latter is a long drawn-out and open-ended exercise. The government has second thoughts on the promise it made to Lalu Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav on a caste census,with senior partymen asserting that the census would negate the Congress’s longstanding position on caste.

Doctor not in the House

Dr Anbumani Ramadoss,son of the founder of PMK,had reached an agreement with DMK boss M Karunanidhi that the party would pass a resolution against his former ally J Jayalalithaa and in return the DMK would support Anbumani for a Rajya Sabha seat. But the DMK backed out of the agreement because of pressure from the Congress. A senior Congress functionary phoned Karunanidhi,warning him not to bring the PMK back into the UPA fold. The officebearer pointed out that the PMK has no MPs,only 18 MLAs and ongoing CBI investigations into the mounting scandals in the Medical Council of India could eventually point a finger at Ramadoss,who is a former health minister. The DMK,however,remains suspicious of the Congress’s motives in scuttling its deal with the PMK,which after all still retains the support of some 10 per cent of the voters.

Jagan’s juggernaut

In return for the Praja Rajyam’s support to its Rajya Sabha candidates,the Congress did not concede any ministerial berth in K Rosaiah’s Cabinet. It merely agreed that Chiranjeevi’s men could head a state corporation or two. The Congress is keen for a tie-up with Chiranjeevi’s party since it’s nervous about Jaganmohan Reddy’s intentions and does not know how to deal with his juggernaut. Congress MP KVP Rao,who was YSR’s principal adviser,claims that YSR’s son no longer listens to him. The state government is slowly cutting down advertisements to Jagan’s formidable media empire. It is also wooing some of Jagan’s supporters and financiers. But the party is conscious that it is sitting on a powder keg. Apart from Jagan,the Telangana issue could explode once again.