How Sushma, Modi, RSS bypassed Advani to push Telangana Bill

Sushma Swaraj wants to be Telangana's chinamma.

"While you give credit to Sonia-amma, don't forget to give credit to this chinamma (little mother)."

Here's one silver lining to the "black day" in Indian democracy when mysterious "technical problems" knocked Lok Sabha Television out just as the government pushed through the Telangana bill.

Don't forget Chinamma: PTI

At least television viewers were spared cringe-inducing statements like that one from Sushma Swaraj.

Swaraj, the Telegraph reports, has finally come out of LK Advani's shadow with the Telangana bill.

Advani as is well known was keen on a discussion on the bill instead of pushing it through. The BJP was trying to walk the fine line between supporting the bill but opposing the way it was being passed.

However the time for such nuances was well past. BJP sources told The Telegraph, Advani was "overruled" and it was Sushma Swaraj who "vociferously" made the point that the BJP could not go back on its word.

Party leaders including Advani had made the promise years ago including his 1997 Swarna Jayanti Yatra. The BJP had in fact gone on record promising Telangana within 100 days of coming to power.

The Hindu had reported that while addressing the Telangana Praja Garjana public meeting in September, Swaraj had reiterated that the BJP would not take a U-turn on Telangana, "even in its dreams", irrespective of who it tied up with on the political front.

She had also threatened to come back to Hyderabad to either celebrate the Telangana victory or "take part personally in the second round of mass agitation if the Centre goes back on its word."

The BJP was in no position to accommodate Advani's misgivings. The leaders felt Advani was "unduly influenced" by the party's Seemandhra representatives. Five central ministers from Andhra Pradesh, including Chiranjeevi, Pallam Raju and Purandeswari, had met Advani and asked him to oppose the bill. Jagan Reddy had told NDTV "We will support anyone who helps us keep Andhra Pradesh united and Narendra Modi is not an exception."

Modi had given some hope to the likes of Jagan Reddy. The Deccan Chronicle reports that at a rally in Meerut Modi spoke of his party's concern about how the UPA government had failed to address the issues that were being raised by the people of Seemandhra. BJP Seemandhra leader Kambhampati Haribabu said, "Unless 75 percent of our demands are met I don't think the BJP will support the Bill in its present form."

But the Modi wing of the party has been quick to claim that the final push to support the bill came from Narendra Modi himself. It was his phone call that tipped the balance reports the Hindustan Times.

Modi had met with TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu who had told him that the BJP leadership's statements were sending out conflicting signals. Naidu wanted to clarify what the BJP's stand was before hammering out a pre-poll pact with the party.

It was Modi's phone call to party leaders on Sunday that prompted the three-hour meeting at LK Advani's house say party sources.

Despite Advani's reluctance, the BJP, at least on the floor of the house claimed party unity. "There was clear division inside the Congress party and their MPs were not listening to their Prime Minister and party president Sonia Gandhi. There was no division in our party over Telangana," asserted Swaraj. She went out of her way to say Advani was not opposed to the bill, just sad about the fracas in Parliament, painting him even more as the BJP's Bhishma figure.

But Sheela Bhatt reports on Rediff.com , that Advani did demonstrate his dissent clearly when the various amendments were carried forward. He did not stand up for the head count.

Bhatt says the BJP was in fact caught unawares by the Congress actually taking up the bill and pushed into a corner.

Bhatt writes:
Sushma Swaraj looked dwarfed by the game played by Congress. It was Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen who moved amendments and rose to talk about people of Andhra Pradesh. He moved amendments that made sense. But, the BJP was looking dumb. Some of the BJP's amendments were incorporated in the final draft of the bill but not all.

This is contrast to BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu's earlier bluster as reported by the Deccan Chronicle when he said, "The Telangana Ball is in the Congress court. We have already submitted our concerns on the Bill. Let us see how the Congress is going to bring amendments to the Bill, we will respond then."

It will now be left to Arun Jaitley to do some face-saving in the Rajya Sabha by talking about a revenue package to pacify the Seemandhra lobby and promise justice to them at least in economic terms if the NDA comes to power.

So was it Modi or was it Swaraj who made the final call?

Perhaps neither, according to The Telegraph . It quotes BJP sources as saying "the directive from RSS was clear". The RSS is in favour of small states and said Telangana therefore had to be supported "without ifs and buts."

For now Sushma Swaraj's supporters will be claiming credit for her for holding the party together unlike the Congress' implosion. Of course the tragedy for poor Chinamma is that she "came out of Advani's shadow" into a television blackout.