BOTH THE Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been witnessing fireworks between the ruling NDA and the Opposition INDIA alliance during the Budget debate. While the INDIA bloc members have attacked the Budget for “ignoring” Opposition-ruled states and the common people, the Treasury benches have hailed it for ensuring “benefits” for the entire country. The death of three UPSC aspirants due to the flooding of a Delhi coaching centre marked another flashpoint between the two sides. These heated parliamentary debates dominated the coverage of the Urdu dailies over the week. SIASAT With former election strategist Prashant Kishor all set to turn his Jan Suraaj campaign into a political party on Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary, and planning to contest the 2025 Bihar Assembly polls, the Hyderabad-based Siasat, in its July 29 editorial, notes that Kishor had played a key role in helping several parties clinch various elections, before deciding to take the plunge himself. “Kishor had made his intention clear some years ago when he joined the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) and was appointed its national vice-president. However, this did not work out for him then, leading to his exit from the party,” the edit states. “Kishor later founded his Jan Suraaj outfit and criss-crossed Bihar to connect with people as part of preparations for launching his political party.” The daily writes that although Kishor has worked for different parties across the country, his “leaning has been perceived to be more towards the BJP”. He tried to make his way into the Congress, but his attempts could not fructify, prompting him to distance himself from the party. “On the eve of the 2024 Lok Sabha poll results, Kishor claimed that the BJP will form the government with an absolute majority by securing over 300 seats. However, his prediction proved to be wrong,” the editorial says. “Kishor was off the mark about the Congress, too. Contrary to his dismissal of it, the grand old party showed resurgence, nearly doubled its tally, and created a resonance among the people,” the edit says. “It seems Kishor is now struggling to read the pulse of the people.” Bihar’s political landscape is complex and crowded, the daily notes. “Kishor can still create some space for his party in Bihar politics. It cannot be vouched at this stage with even Kishor appearing to test the waters, but his party could have some impact on the state's electoral scenario. The JD(U) has its base in the state, where the BJP is a formidable force. The RJD is another leading player. The Congress also has its pockets of influence. And then, there are a slew of smaller parties,” the edit says, adding that it remains to be seen how much public support Kishor is able to garner in Bihar. URDU TIMES Referring to the war of words between Union Home Minister Amit Shah and NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar, the Mumbai-based Urdu Times, in its leader on July 28, writes that a measure of the change in the country’s political atmosphere could be gauged from the difference in the Opposition’s attitude to the Narendra Modi-led dispensation in its first term after 2014, when the BJP got an absolute majority, and its third term after the 2024 polls, when the party cobbled up a majority with its NDA allies after stalling behind the magic number. Unlike the Modi government’s earlier terms, the Opposition leaders are not fighting shy of taking on the BJP top brass now, the editorial says, citing the instance of a verbal duel between Shah and Pawar. The daily points out that while addressing the Maharashtra BJP executive meeting recently, Shah called Pawar the “kingpin of corruption” in politics, who, he alleged, has “institutionalised graft” in the country. Rejecting his charges, Pawar’s daughter and MP Supriya Sule asserted that Shah was part of the Modi government when it had conferred the Padma Vibhushan to Pawar in 2017. “On his part, Pawar, addressing an event, hit back at Shah, saying it was strange that a person who had been externed from Gujarat by the Supreme Court is currently the Home Minister of the country. Pawar also said we should think about where we are headed. 'The way the people ruling the country are steering it, we must be alert about it, or they will take the country on the wrong path', he said,” the editorial states, adding that Shah had been externed from Gujarat for two years in 2010 in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. He was later acquitted in the case. The daily notes that during his Lok Sabha poll campaign in Maharashtra, PM Modi had called Pawar a “bhatakti aatma (wandering soul)”. Joining issue with him then, Pawar had recalled how Modi had once talked about having got guidance upon entering politics from him. The rising confidence and aggression of the Opposition leaders vis-a-vis Modi government 3.0 could be attributed to the INDIA alliance’s resurgence witnessed in the Lok Sabha polls, the edit says. “Pawar is a seasoned political stalwart, giving strength and purpose to the INDIA bloc.” SIASAT Commenting on the Centre’s notification removing the RSS as a political organisation, thereby allowing the government officials to participate in the Sangh’s activities, Siasat, in its July 24 editorial, writes that despite returning to power for the third consecutive term with critical support of its NDA allies, the BJP-led government “does not seem to have changed its tack”. “Notwithstanding the Modi dispensation’s ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' slogan, there has been a rise in cases of targeting of minorities,” it states. The Centre’s recent directive paving the way for the government employees to take part in the RSS’s activities was “unprecedented”, it says. The daily points out that there has always been a conduct rule for the government employees that bars them from being associated with politics or any political organisation. Also, the government does not have any religion as our State is secular. “However, the RSS is the BJP’s ideological parent. And any association with the RSS could be construed, by extension, as an indirect affiliation to the BJP,” the editorial says. “The RSS had not hoisted the national flag at its Nagpur headquarters for 50 years,” it states, adding that the “government’s controversial notification has drawn fire from the Opposition parties”. The question that arises now is whether the Modi government 3.0 would be bound by the coalition principles that would also involve the policies of its key allies TDP and JD(U), the editorial asks. “In this context, it is incumbent on TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar to spell out their stand over this row. They need to come clean on whether they endorse the Centre’s notification and if they would allow their state employees to join the RSS’s activities or not,” the edit states. “The TDP and the JD(U) would also have to reckon the political repercussions of the government staff being allowed to participate in the Sangh’s programmes as it could lead to the BJP’s expansion in their respective states, possibly at their peril,” it says. “The Centre should reconsider its decision and withdraw the directive.”
