New Indian Politics: 01/23/14

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Election Tracker: Mood in Rajasthan is deeply, unshakably anti-Congress

As with everything else the Congress in New Delhi is now trying, making the young and well-spoken Sachin Pilot the face of the Congress in Rajasthan is apparently a case of too little too late.

In fact, not only has Firstpost argued earlier that Pilot is the one person who could stand between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the 25 Lok Sabha seats of the desert state but this piece also predicted that Pilot has the skills to eclipse Vasundhara Raje in the next election. Not in 2014.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. Reuters

The findings of the Lokniti-IBN Election Tracker survey bear that out.

Barely a month after BJP's resounding victory in Rajasthan despite the torrent of freebies the Congress government under Ashok Gehlot had fallen back upon, the mood in Rajasthan is still deeply, unshakably anti-Congress. If elections are to be held now, the Congress party's vote share in the state would fall dramatically from 47 percent in the 2009 election to an estimated 33 percent now, a rapid decline even from a July 2013 survey when the vote share was pegged at 44 percent.

The BJP, on the other hand, will see its share rise from 37 percent to 54 percent of the votes polled.

Notably, the survey also found that many more Rajasthan residents believed that the BJP owes its win in December's Assembly polls to Narendra Modi than to now Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. Of those surveyed, 21 percent believed Modi was at the root of the BJP's resounding win, 11 percent believed it was Raje who deserved the credit.

While that may be so, Modi has reposed complete faith in Raje, letting her staff her Cabinet with loyalists just like he supported her choice of candidates. The results of that cohesion are expected to be near identical too.

The rest of the data from the survey follows a now familiar trajectory -- the UPA's ratings are down, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's personal ratings are down too. As much as 54 percent of respondents don't want the UPA to get another chance, and 49 percent are dissatisfied with Dr Singh's performance, almost twice the percentage who were dissatisfied with the PM during a July 2013 survey.

Again, Modi's own popularity has grown. From 30 percent in 2013, 48 percent now want him to be prime minister. Rahul's own ratings have grown somewhat -- from 20 percent to 23 percent, but again perhaps a case of too little too late.

Not even the AAP factor threatens the BJP in Rajasthan this election. Though a large number of respondents had heard of AAP, only 12 percent were inclined to vote for a candidate from the debutante party.

AAP takes on Modi, says farmers don’t get power 24X7

Ahmedabad: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday said power tariffs in Gujarat were among the highest in the country and debunked claim that the farmers in the BJP-ruled state were getting round-the-clock electricity.

The party also contested Chief Minister Narendra Modi's oft-repeated assertion that Gujarat was a power surplus state.

Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. AFP

"Modi tours the country and says Gujarat is power surplus. But in reality, private power suppliers are selling energy to the state government at a high rate. The power tariff in Gujarat are among the highest in the country," AAP's Gujarat unit Convener Sukhdev Patel said.

He did not provide figures.

Patel raised the issue of Gujarat farmers not getting round-the-clock supply of electricity, an issue on which several representations have been made to the Modi Government by Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), the BJP's farmer wing.

"If Gujarat is power surplus, why are farmers not getting electricity round-the-clock. Why is the State government not listening to BKS' representations?"

He said Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO which analyses Indian elections, has brought out a report stating that private power distribution companies were among the highest donors to BJP and Congress in Gujarat.

He said the Gujarat Government often tables the report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) at the tail-end of Assembly session to avoid debate on crucial issues raised by the financial watchdog.

"The CAG has pointed out several loopholes in Gujarat Government's programmes. It has also highlighted corruption in these programmes. Even then, its report is nor debated on the floor of the Assembly," Patel said.

PTI

Election tracker live: Want of change may be wiping out Cong in Delhi

8.24 pm: Want of change may be wiping out Cong in Delhi

Congress dominated urban India in 2009. What has changed now?

"The economy growth story has failed. Everyone wants a change," says Manini Chatterjee.

She says that people have decided that Congress is not the party of the future at the moment.

"The three generation of urban depth has helped Kejriwal," says Dipankar Gupta.

But does Kejriwal Congress to bring down his government before the Lok Sabha elections?

Bhupendra Choubey says there is no doubt. "Kejriwal says she will act against Sheila Dikshit on the CWG scam. If her reall does that, what is the option left before the Congress?"

8.17 pm: 'Kejriwal is the attraction in Delhi'

Are the numbers in favour of AAP surprising?

Dipankar Gupta says, "Most of urban areas of India has changed because they are now more educated. That is why the AAP is so attractive. Kejriwal is an educated person who gave up riches to go to rags unlike other politicians."

"People are hoping that Kejriwal will do something better in the next few months," says Gupta.

8.13 pm: BJP needs bigger ideas than Kejriwal, says Swapan Dasgupta

Bhupendra Choubey says, "When was the last time you say a CM sitting with the people on street. Kejriwal seems to be connecting with people and touching a chord, like Modi."

But why is there a swing toward AAP, while in the rest of India it is swinging towards BJP?

Sandeep Shastri says, "You see a swing towards BJP only where they are in power."

Also, Dasgupta says that it is because Kejriwal has been able to dominate the mindspace of the people. "Kejriwal has an idea, unless the BJP comes up with a bigger idea in the context of Delhi it will be in trouble," he says

8.07 pm: Delhi may vote differently for LS polls

Meanwhile Manini Chatterjee was of the opinion that while Delhiites may like Arvind Kejriwal as PM, things might be different during Lok Sabha elections.

Dipankar Gupta says that a large number of people may vote for Kejriwal. "His party looks much more viable today," Gupta says.

8.05 pm: AAP edge won't go easily, says Swapan Dasgupta

Sandeep Shastri says it is clearly seems to have the AAP wave during the time when the polls was done

However, Swapan Dasgupta says that the honeymoon period of AAP may be longer than we think.

"I don't think that the edge that they have will go away so easily," he says.

8.00 pm: 74% of Delhi says they are satisfied with AAP

Arvind Kejriwal, for a person quite new in the political scene, got brilliant results and is not the CM.The numbers in favour of him and his Aam Aadmi Party, in a poll conducted by CSDS for the Lokniti-IBN poll tracker are almost gushing in their support. A massive 74 percent of Delhi's polled respondents say they are satisfied with the performance of the AAP government over the last few weeks, while 76 percent say that they are satisfied with Kejriwal's performance as the Chief Minister for Delhi.

8.00 pm: Congress takes a beating in Hindi-heartland as well

After taking a look at east, south and west India, the Lokniti-IBN National Tracker for Lok Sabha elections today looks at which party will fare better in north India if the polls were held right now. And like the other states, except for Karnataka, it seems that in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh too the Congress has taken a beating.

Meanwhile in the national capital it is Arvind Kejriwal who seems to have captured the fancy of the Delhiites, but this was of course, before the dharna.

Representational image. Reuters

What seems to be a death knell for the Congress and its allies is that the important state of UP with 80 Lok Sabha seats, is leaning towards the BJP.

The Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government, at the moment, is not really making the people of UP happy and Mulayam should be a worried man.

Somnath Bharti must be sacked, it is AAP-Cong match fixing: BJP

New Delhi: BJP on Thursday stepped up pressure on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for action against his controversial Law Minister Somnath Bharti saying law should prevail and proceedings against him for his "misdemeanour" should reach their logical conclusion.

Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti. Facebook image

"Somnath Bharti must be sacked. He has got no moral constitutional right to remain in office even for a moment," BJP leader Ravishankar Prasad said a day after an African woman identified him as allegedly having led a group of assaulters in a mid-night raid at their South Delhi residence.

BJP Spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said, "We condemn Somnath Bharti's behaviour towards the Ugandan women and seek his removal."

A delegation from Delhi unit of BJP met Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi and demanded immediate action against Bharti and Kejriwal for repeatedly breaking the law.

Lekhi said the law has been breached by the AAP-Congress alliance and said the new outfit that has come to power in Delhi is like a "khaas (special) leaders' party" who considered themselves above the law.

"The shadow boxing game is being played between the Congress and AAP. The action of the Aam Aadmi Party has been defended by the Congress leaders and the present Chief Minister is returning the favour by not pressing charges against the previous government.

"Somnath Bharti has violated the law and it is a law which should be followed up to its logical conclusion to deal with such misdemeanour," she said.

Bharti was involved in a row with the police last week when they refused to raid an alleged drug and prostitution racket.

One of the Ugandan women, who recorded her statement before a magistrate, had said she identified Bharti as having led the group that barged into her house and attacked them.

Various women rights activists and Delhi Commission for Women have sought action against Bharti for allegedly taking law into his hands.

Alleging match-fixing between AAP and Congress, Prasad said, "there is a fixed match between AAP and the Congress party to somehow stop Narendra Modi... But I could never imagine the bubble of aam aadmi would burst soon."

PTI

Election tracker live: ‘Kejriwal is the attraction in Delhi’

8.17 pm: 'Kejriwal is the attraction in Delhi'

Are the numbers in favour of AAP surprising?

"People are hoping that Kejriwal will do something better in the next few months," says Gupta.

8.13 pm: BJP needs bigger ideas than Kejriwal, says Swapan Dasgupta

Bhupendra Choubey says, "When was the last time you say a CM sitting with the people on street. Kejriwal seems to be connecting with people and touching a chord, like Modi."

But why is there a swing toward AAP, while in the rest of India it is swinging towards BJP?

Sandeep Shastri says, "You see a swing towards BJP only where they are in power."

8.07 pm: Delhi may vote differently for LS polls

Meanwhile Manini Chatterjee was of the opinion that while Delhiites may like Arvind Kejriwal as PM, things might be different during Lok Sabha elections.

Dipankar Gupta says that a large number of people may vote for Kejriwal. "His party looks much more viable today," Gupta says.

8.05 pm: AAP edge won't go easily, says Swapan Dasgupta

Sandeep Shastri says it is clearly seems to have the AAP wave during the time when the polls was done

However, Swapan Dasgupta says that the honeymoon period of AAP may be longer than we think.

"I don't think that the edge that they have will go away so easily," he says.

8.00 pm: 74% of Delhi says they are satisfied with AAP

8.00 pm: Congress takes a beating in Hindi-heartland as well

Meanwhile in the national capital it is Arvind Kejriwal who seems to have captured the fancy of the Delhiites, but this was of course, before the dharna.

Representational image. Reuters

What seems to be a death knell for the Congress and its allies is that the important state of UP with 80 Lok Sabha seats, is leaning towards the BJP.

The Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government, at the moment, is not really making the people of UP happy and Mulayam should be a worried man.

Election tracker live: BJP needs bigger ideas than AAP, says Swapan Dasgupta

8.13 pm: BJP needs bigger ideas than Kejriwal, says Swapan Dasgupta

Bhupendra Choubey says, "When was the last time you say a CM sitting with the people on street. Kejriwal seems to be connecting with people and touching a chord, like Modi."

But why is there a swing toward AAP, while in the rest of India it is swinging towards BJP?

Sandeep Shastri says, "You see a swing towards BJP only where they are in power."

8.07 pm: Delhi may vote differently for LS polls

Meanwhile Manini Chatterjee was of the opinion that while Delhiites may like Arvind Kejriwal as PM, things might be different during Lok Sabha elections.

Dipankar Gupta says that a large number of people may vote for Kejriwal. "His party looks much more viable today," Gupta says.

8.05 pm: AAP edge won't go easily, says Swapan Dasgupta

Sandeep Shastri says it is clearly seems to have the AAP wave during the time when the polls was done

However, Swapan Dasgupta says that the honeymoon period of AAP may be longer than we think.

"I don't think that the edge that they have will go away so easily," he says.

8.00 pm: 74% of Delhi says they are satisfied with AAP

8.00 pm: Congress takes a beating in Hindi-heartland as well

Meanwhile in the national capital it is Arvind Kejriwal who seems to have captured the fancy of the Delhiites, but this was of course, before the dharna.

Representational image. Reuters

What seems to be a death knell for the Congress and its allies is that the important state of UP with 80 Lok Sabha seats, is leaning towards the BJP.

The Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government, at the moment, is not really making the people of UP happy and Mulayam should be a worried man.

Election tracker live: Delhi may vote differently for LS polls

8.07 pm: Delhi may vote differently for LS polls

Meanwhile Manini Chatterjee was of the opinion that while Delhiites may like Arvind Kejriwal as PM, things might be different during Lok Sabha elections.

Dipankar Gupta says that a large number of people may vote for Kejriwal. "His party looks much more viable today," Gupta says.

8.05 pm: AAP edge won't go easily, says Swapan Dasgupta

Sandeep Shastri says it is clearly seems to have the AAP wave during the time when the polls was done

However, Swapan Dasgupta says that the honeymoon period of AAP may be longer than we think.

"I don't think that the edge that they have will go away so easily," he says.

8.00 pm: 74% of Delhi says they are satisfied with AAP

8.00 pm: Congress takes a beating in Hindi-heartland as well

Meanwhile in the national capital it is Arvind Kejriwal who seems to have captured the fancy of the Delhiites, but this was of course, before the dharna.

Representational image. Reuters

What seems to be a death knell for the Congress and its allies is that the important state of UP with 80 Lok Sabha seats, is leaning towards the BJP.

The Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government, at the moment, is not really making the people of UP happy and Mulayam should be a worried man.

Uddhav targets ‘weak’ PM, ‘divisive’ Congress at Sena rally

Mumbai: Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the "weakest" ever to hold the post and claimed that days of his party are numbered as an anti-Congress wave is sweeping the country.

"I don't think the country ever had such a weak Prime Minister," he said, adding Singh does not get respect even from his own party.

Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray. PTI

Uddhav was addressing a well-attended public rally at KG Somaiya Grounds in Mumbai organised on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackeray.

Virtually launching his party's campaign for the Lok Sabha polls, due before May, Uddhav called upon Sena workers to work towards dethroning the Congress from power.

Raising the Hindutva issue, he said it was a very important matter for the saffron outfit. "When we raise the issue of Hindutva they call us communal. Is it a crime to call us Hindus in our own country?"

Lashing out at the Congress for "creating divisions" in the country for the sake of power, Thackeray said the Sonia Gandhi-led party's policies were "destroying us".

"Your (Congress-NCP's) days are numbered both at the Centre and in the State," he said.

Without naming NDA's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, he said the next Premier of the country and Chief Minister in Maharashtra will be from BJP and Shiv Sena.

Taking a dig at Congress for not naming its PM candidate, Uddhav said the fear of losing the upcoming polls made the party to do so. "There is an anti-Congress wave in the country and in such a scenario who (in Congress) would like to sacrifice for that post."

The Sena leader also slammed Union Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who hails from Maharashtra, saying he has not lived up to expectations of the party.

"We should be proud the country's Home Minister is from Maharashtra but he has not lived up to our expectations," Uddhav said without elaborating.

PTI

Election tracker: In a pre-dharna Delhi, Kejriwal was king

Riding high on a wave of unexpected success and the euphoria that comes with it, mere weeks after he stunned Delhi's established political players to emerge king of the mountain, Arvind Kejriwal himself could have not picked a better time to conduct an opinion poll on voter sentiment in Delhi.

The numbers in favour of him and his Aam Aadmi Party, in a poll conducted by CSDS for the Lokniti-IBN poll tracker are almost gushing in their support. A massive 74 percent of Delhi's polled respondents say they are satisfied with the performance of the AAP government over the last few weeks, while 76 percent say that they are satisfied with Kejriwal's performance as the Chief Minister for Delhi.

Arvind Kejriwal during the AAP dharna. PTI

AAP's decision to go ahead and form the government with Congress support gets a similar nod of approval. Only 14 percent of those polled say that AAP took the wrong decision, while 40 percent felt that the decision was 'absolutely right' and 38 percent felt it was 'somewhat right'.

This was, of course, before Railway Minister Somnath Bharti led a mob into the house of four Ugandan women, accusing them of being involved a 'drugs and sex' racket and tried to use his 'I am a law minister' muscle power to force personnel in the Malviya Nagar police station to arrest them without a warrant. AAP's decision to not only justify Bharti's vigilante actions but also hold a dharna outside rail bhavan demanding the suspension of the SHO at the Malviya Nagar police station found very few takers.

Although there were plenty of AAP supporters who converged on the spot, bearing flags to wave and stones to throw at the Delhi police, the many of Kejriwal's middle class supporters who shook off their lethargy to actually stand in line and vote for him, were conspicuous by their absence at the dharna. This is a constituency that has come out in droves previously for the Lokpal agitation and the Delhi gang rape protests. A history that makes their absence all the more conspicuous.

And although AAP may pretend to write off this section of the population as a bunch of 'elitist' people who don't want the corrupt system to change because they benefit by it (as charged by AAP media spokesman Ashutosh), Kejriwal cannot afford to alienate them completely.

The CSDS poll tracker gives us some indication on as to why. One of its main findings is that the level of optimism about AAP fulfiling its promises was highest among the upper and middle classes than among the lower class and poor. And even more tellingly, the data shows us that Kejriwal has done the unthinkable and even overtaken Narendra Modi as the PM preference of Delhi. This could well have been due to a shift in perception and opinion among the middle and upper classes - who have traditionally supported the BJP in general and its Prime Ministerial candidate in particular. How the situation stands post the events at rail bhavan remain to be seen.

There are already signs of trouble brewing. The Economic Times has done some basic number crunching and claim that AAP's online donations declined sharply the day after Somnath Bharti's midnight shenanigans were revealed in the media, and continued to drop as Kejriwal went on his dharna.

According to the report, "On 17 January, the day when news of Bharti's activism in Khirki Extension on the midnight of January 15 hit the newspapers, the party collected just Rs 1.6 lakh, down fromRs 4.45 lakh the previous day. Since then, as the party and Kejriwal came out on to the streets raising various demands and evoking imagery of protests in the days before the anti-corruption movement became a political party, donations have remained low."

Of course it is much too presumptuous to suggest that Kejriwal's dharna could have changed the tide of numbers that are currently in his favour. And for every middle class vote he lost, he probably managed to garner a few more lower class ones. It is after all these people who tend to suffer much more at the hands of a corrupt police establishment. But given AAP's national ambitions and the fact that the middle class vote is a crucial part of his support base, this is something he needs to watch out for.

The good news for Kejriwal, is that it is not too late for him. The support for him at this point is simply too high. Even his biggest detractors, the Congress party is under no illusion about his popularity. The Economic Times reported that Congress sources agreed that the failure of the protest did not reflect a dip in Kejriwal's popularity in the constituencies he poached from Congress.

But Kejriwal should not look at these results as a guaranteed bank of votes, but as a base that he needs to grow -- and certainly not erode this close to the Lok Sabha elections. This has already taken a hit as a result of his dharna. He simply cannot afford another mess up.

AAP protest and our curious love for the ‘system’

The chaos on the streets of Delhi is over and the AAP has been admonished enough for its misadventure. It is time to find the takeaways from the vociferous media debate that followed the party's 'rash', 'thoughtless' and 'anarchic' action.

We love the system: Here's a very late discovery by the chattering classes: Delhi police are saints, they won't say it in as many words though. They seem to have bought the police's position in the Somnath Bharti case that they never make arrests without warrants, they never harass slum-dwellers and innocent Muslims, they never submit themselves to political influence and they never stray from laid procedures. If at all they are wrong, they must be dealt with the terms of engagement the 'system' provides.

Security personnel caning a AAP member in New Delhi. PTI

The procedures might be ineffectual and beneficial for the corrupt and the criminal—which it has been—but that is how it is. Former chief minister Sheila Dikshit had been demanding greater control over the police for 15 years, but she failed. She stuck to the rule book. Arvind Kejriwal decided to go beyond it and have paid the price. Obviously, he hurt the collective self-interest that provides legitimacy to a rotten system.

The 'system'—that invisible, all-pervasive entity—has to be protected as must be the entire gamut of rules and procedures that constitute it. Once in office, a chief minister or a minister becomes part of the system. They have to stick to the rules of decorum. They no longer can protest too much nor can they upset about procedures even when they work to the detriment of the ordinary masses and are designed to excluding the powerless and the disprivileged. In short, a man in office is expected to become a different beast altogether.

It's about class, silly: Have you noticed the crowd at Kejriwal's dharna? It had too many slum-wallahs, people who looked they did not belong to the upper crust, women in slippers and crumpled sarees - just too ordinary for the media talking heads to be comfortable with. How could this bunch be allowed to have its way? Of course, they are harassed by the police, criminals make their lives miserable and they have no recourse to justice. All their complaints about their state of existence are justified, but how dare they change things on their own? If it's the suspension of police officials today, it could be anything tomorrow.

Doesn't that mean rearrangement of power equations within the society? Doesn't that make the middle class irrelevant? What was missing in the dharna was the middle class, the media favourites. It was angry but it had no way of attacking the core, substantive principle behind the protest. Thus it had to be about governance, the lack of sense responsibility in a chief minister and what not. Kejriwal may have crossed the limit this time, and his minister many times over, but let's not forget they were giving voice to the underclass. Expect the conflict of classes to get sharper over time.

AAP is a threat, for everyone: Recollect the shrill noise the political parties have been making about the dharna. The pussycat has started roaring and it has started growing stripes too. Nobody knows how big, but there's discomfort in several circles over the development. Not long ago, the BJP was happy that the new outfit was cutting into Congress votes and causing it immense damage. Now it is wary. The AAP plans to go national and it threatens to hijack its youth and urban votes, cultivated assiduously by Narendra Modi.

The Congress knows the AAP poses an existential threat to it. Its traditional voters across the country could now switch to the new outfit and leave it in a more sorry state than it already is. It has given the party a long rope to hang itself in Delhi, but the AAP is proving too smart. It has upset all calculations on both sides. It is a legitimate threat now and has to be handled thus.

The AAP has been in power for barely three weeks. Nobody, not even the media, is prepared to give it time to settle down. Everyone has been living with anarchy—albeit a silent, corrosive one—for long, but all perceive a non-violent dharna on the streets of Delhi a great threat. Something has to be wrong somewhere.

Manish Tewari slams Modi, says his Gorakhpur speech ‘unoriginal’

New Delhi: Union Minister Manish Tewari today slammed Narendra Modi's speech as "unoriginal" and raised the 2002 Godhra incident to question the Gujarat Chief Minister's claim that train travellers felt safe on entering his state.

Picking on Modi's speech at a rally in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, in which he had attacked Congress, Tewari said he thought the most "amusing part" of the speech was that "even the rhetoric is unoriginal."

Manish Tewari. PTI

He said in 1991, former Prime Minister Chandrasekhar had given a slogan 4 months qua 40 years.

"And now, 23 years later, the Chief Minister of Gujarat repeats those same lines, 60 months qua 60 years. The fact is, if you are in politics, at least you should come up with original lines rather than relying on a borrowed script which has been rejected by the people," Tewari said.

He said the opposition party should reflect on why the country is prepared to give Congress 60 years and "not even six months to BJP".

Criticising Modi further for claiming that train travellers felt much safer after entering Gujarat, Tewari said the country had not forgotten the incident involving a train that left Ayodhya and reached Gujarat.

"And, insofar as trains leaving Uttar Pradesh and coming through Gujarat are concerned, I think this country has not forgotten a train which left Ayodhya, what happened to it when it reached Gujarat and the subsequent aftermath of the destruction and the mayhem which then ensued," Tewari said.

He said before talking about trains and prosperity, Modi should reflect upon the carnage which was orchestrated in 2002 in Gujarat during his rule.

Earlier in the day, Modi had hit out at Congress, saying the ruling party was mocking the poor, whom it has used only as a vote-bank without doing anything for them.

PTI

Congress has nothing to sell or show to the electorate: Jaitley

New Delhi: Hitting out at Congress for 'decrying' its opponents, BJP on Thursday said the ruling party was doing so as it has nothing to sell or show to the country's electorate ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley. AFP

Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley slammed Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Law Minister Kapil Sibal for attacking BJP and the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

"The party may choose to decry its opponents as salesmen and showmen. Regrettably, the Congress Party has nothing to sell and certainly nothing to show to the electorate of this country," he said in an article.

Attacking Sibal for describing Modi as a 'salesman' and Arvind Kejriwal as a 'showman', Jaitley said Sibal and the Finance Minister have not only overlooked the fact that Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Goa were today regarded as one of the better administered states where the GDP growth is much higher than the national average even though three of them were considered as 'Bimaru'.

On Chidambaram, he said he was expected to market the Indian economy before political and trade leaders of the world gathered at Davos, but he chose to hit out at BJP instead.

The BJP leader said while the Finance Minister chose to speak about BJP and Modi at Davos, his utterances coincided with rating agency Moody's India report that says "the industry is today waiting for a political change led by Narendra Modi for a major turn-around to take place".

On the Finance Minister's admission that his party goes into elections as an underdog, Jaitley said, "Congress may end up getting its lowest figure in the history of Indian parliamentary elections."

Replying to Sibal's poser to Modi on why he was quiet on B S Yeddyurappa's entry in BJP, Jaitley said the moment the chargesheet was filed against Yeddyurappa, the party asked him to resign that caused a split in its Karnataka unit and eventually cost it the state government.

He said that Yeddyurappa has unconditionally joined BJP and the party has not offered him any position.

Giving a contrasting picture, Jaitley said Congress has decided to enter into an alliance with a convicted Lalu Prasad Yadav and shield its former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan from prosecution by refusing to grant sanction.

He accused Congress of being involved in big corruption cases like 2G spectrum and coal blocks allocation, and alleged it was unable to take action against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh against whom "unlawful gratification through cheques stands established".

In an apparent reference to Robert Vadra's land deals, he reminded Sibal of business transactions of sons and sons-in-law of his leaders and charged his party of giving a government which he termed as the "most corrupt".

Jaitley said the enthusiasm of investors in Indian economy has disappeared and a reverse flight of capital has increased, with inflation and corruption causing a rout of Congress in the recent assembly elections.

"Leadership of both the party and the government is perceived to be non-inspirational," he told Sibal.

PTI

People will come and go, but we will stay: Rahul in Amethi

Amethi: Facing criticism from AAP leader Kumar Vishwas, Rahul Gandhi today said only those who were anti-democratic were against him.

"Only those who are anti-democracy and don't believe in the system are standing against us. Our work is development of Amethi. We have a long relationship from where, people will come and go, but we will stay," the Congress Vice-President said in a reply to a question here.

Rahul Gandhi. PTI

Vishwas is likely to contest from Amethi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Rahul is the sitting MP from here.

The Congress MP arrived here along with his sister Priyanka Vadra on a two-day tour on his first visit here after he was made the Congress campaign chief for the Lok Sabha elections.

On a query about Kumar's allegations of improper use of MP local area development fund in the development of the area he said, "I am ready to give an account of my funds before the people."

He claimed that maximum work in central schemes had been done in Amethi and Rae Bareli, constituency of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, in the country.

PTI

Two Cong legislators likely to contest RS polls on United Andhra platform

Hyderabad: Congress legislators from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh are seeking to embarrass the party by defeating it in the biennial elections to Rajya Sabha slated for 7 February.

An MLA and an MLC are planning to jump into the contest with the support of their party colleagues in the name of 'Samaikya Andhra Pradesh' (united AP).

Reuters

Senior-most MLA JC Diwakar Reddy, who rebelled against the party and went to the extent of seeking replacement of Sonia Gandhi as Congress president, has announced today that he was entering the fray for Rajya Sabha.

"I am certainly in the fray," he told reporters in the Assembly lobbies.

MLC Chaitanya Raju, who hails from East Godavari district of coastal Andhra, too said he would contest the RS election.

Raju is said to be backed by a minister from coastal Andhra while JC Reddy is entering the fray on his own.

While JC Reddy claimed to have obtained signatures of at least 10 MLAs in support of his candidature, Raju is in the process of mustering the required numbers.

The Rajya Sabha elections have come at a time when the Seemaandhra Congress MLAs were seething over the high command's decision to bifurcate the state by ignoring their views.

The legislators seeking to contest the biennial election are said to be banking on the support of majority of the 100 Congress MLAs from Seemaandhra region.

The Congress is yet to announce its official candidates for the Rajya Sabha election from the state.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana are expected to discuss the prospective names with high command leaders in New Delhi tomorrow.

PTI

Delhi dharna: AAP failed to take the lower classes with them

by Saroj Giri

For a change, AAP had finally 'gone crazy'. In taking the entire state government to a protest by night, promising the 'government from the streets' to be indefinite protest, AAP very much acted like it has no clue where it is headed. Many of its vocal, 'thinking' middle class supporters were scratching their heads and thinking that they had miscalculated in voting this party to power. Big media was already turning its back on AAP.

However, Kejriwal's protest enthused the lower classes. AAP supporters from lower income areas of Delhi were increasing while middle class professionals were shying away. It is true that Kejriwal's own demands for the suspension of the policemen clearly was trying to tap middle class anger about corruption in the police. However in spite of AAP, the poor saw a different aspect of it, a different need to corner the police. Here was a chance for AAP to allow a true articulation of lower class agency and challenge middle class hegemony, but it happily let slip away.

The upper middle class might have problems with corruption among the police but they do not face police brutality - harassment, torture and intimidation. This is, however, the everyday reality for the poor and lower classes, particularly those in 'unauthorised colonies' or among 'Bangladeshi migrants' or lower class Muslims. Near Delhi, in Gurgaon-Manesar, 148 Maruti workers are in jail in framed charges even as scores are on the 'to be arrested' list of the police. AAP pays lip service but refuses to take this issue seriously even though Maruti workers have approached the leaders.

Arvind Kejriwal at his dharna. Agencies.

Arvind Kejriwal at his dharna. Naresh Sharma/Firstpost.

Kejriwal's protests gave the poor a chance to recount their experience: 'When people die here, the cops don't come but the moment someone starts construction, the beat constable turns up asking for money'. This is the experience of regular harassment by police faced by the poor and the lower classes who have to do 'construction' just to provide a roof over their heads. And here the problem is not the police per se but the rich and poor divide - which has little to do with the much feted corruption and has everything to do with inequality and capitalism.

Kejriwal's demand for punishing the police officers had a very different, more middle class orientation. And the Khirki case involving African residents, it was downright racist and right-wing. But the poor were seeing it in a different light - they found their own anger against the police expressed in Kejriwal's protests which Kejriwal himself seemed to have no clue about. There was a chance that Kejriwal's dharna could go in a different direction, now with the involvement of the poor and the lower class on an agenda which could be their's and not a mobilisation on an essentially middle class agenda, which has been mostly the case so far.

However, that was not to be. As soon as it properly dawned on the AAP leadership that they are now losing middle class support and big media is looking the other way, they wound up their 'anarchism'. Big capital interests too could not be affected - hence ex-Infosys Captain Gopinath's dissent about the dharna must have influenced the course of events.

Kejriwal's dharna could have been successful if only he was interested in giving real voice to the poor and the lower classes -- a different kind of a 'success' which would involve alienating the upper middle classes and the big media. He had inadvertently taken the right step, even though his motivations were perhaps purely to embarrass the Congress or to steal the limelight from Modi's campaign. He was surely spot on to declare that the Republic Day parade is a show of VIP culture and that the real republic will be amassing people into the Rajpath.

Indeed why should the muscular display of guns and big missiles, or of showpiece culture from the states, have anything to with a vibrant people's republic. Instead a real republic of the people must be constituted, outside of the Constitution which is what 26th January wants to celebrate. Let us have a left wing republic dislodging the bourgeois Indian constitutional order, not just 'giving voice' to the poor and the working classes but where they 'take over'. Not some secular and democratic order (as against some textbook 'sectarian communal order') but an end to the rule of the propertied classes (the real way to end the very possibility of a 'sectarian communal order') and the idea of India. Let us here also finally go beyond the secular-communal divide - not in the direction of 'good governance' and 'transparency' but towards a new republic.

However, it is clear that AAP does not want to consolidate lower class support and power. It does not want to stay with the lower classes, only solve their 'problems'. This solutionism of AAP runs counter to treating the poor as real political subjects. AAP mobilised the poor to enervate upper middle class hegemony against the established parties whose hegemony in turn consisted of fixing (not mobilising) the poor in the subsidy model. One hegemony mobilised, the other immobilised the poor.

In thus mobilising and activating the lower classes, AAP hates the khas admi, 'VIP culture', but does not allow these classes to build their own power, their own organisations. It wants to retain the propertied classes and imagines it can magically curtail their powers. It wants to keep the masses in a state of splintered mobilisation, a movement of the people aimed at winning popular consent for those in power. The lower classes are kept wedded to the forms of power and state machinery of the upper classes. A clean and corruption free society becomes a way to keep the lower classes mired in social conservatism and the social power of community elites. The righteousness of anti-corruption ultimately immobilises the lower classes.

AAP mid-wifes a process where a mobilised mass replenishes the veins and arteries of a repressive capitalist order choking in its own corruption, with fresh blood, with lower class agency. Vampirish capital now is ensured a supply of what Marx 'living labour'. Hence corporate capital asks: will AAP help 'reboot India'? Mass mobilisation and plebeian politics, in a word, 'living labour' here becomes 'the power of Shunya' - the decimation and invisibilisation of precisely living labour or its enchainment to 'wage slavery'.

Mobilise labour, extract surplus but decimate its independent political power - this formula is what got disrupted with Kejriwal's anarchic misadventure. Now that the AAP has formed a government, the middle class and the radical entrepreneurs like Gopinath or the 'clean capital' of Infosys want business as usual.

However the poor who everyday face harassment from the police and cannot be satisfied by mere anti-corruption want the struggle to continue. This is where we see that AAP and in particular its leadership is giving in and finally revealing how much their movement is dependent on the resources of the middle class and the big media. That the moment the movement goes towards real radical ends, when far more basic classes could have joined this movement, we see it drifting towards a closure and a reversal back to the capitalist mantra of 'good governance'.

Precisely the blacks of Delhi, the working classes and perhaps the hijras who face police brutality could have joined Kejriwal's protest and ushered in a real republic. But he feared precisely that and the resultant 'alienation' of the well heeled classes. So now he can continue the elitist administrative talk about the powers and freedoms of the Delhi Police. And he can now deliver 'good governance' and 'transparency' and make his chosen constituency happy.

Modi takes dig at Cong ‘chai wala’ remarks, takes on Mulayam as well

Gorakhpur (UP): Narendra Modi today hit out at Congress for 'chai-wala' barbs, saying the ruling party was mocking at the poor whom it has used only as a vote-bank without doing anything for them.

The BJP leader also took a dig at Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for saying that Modi will not be able to convert Uttar Pradesh into Gujarat.

Narendra Modi. AFP

"Netaji, do you know the meaning of coverting to Gujarat? It means 24-hour electricity in every village and street. You can't do it. It requires 56-inch chest," Modi said, apparently suggesting that it requires decisiveness.

The BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate appealed for a mandate for a minimum of 60 months, promising to convert the country's huge potential into a reality so that it matches the most developed countries of the world.

"This country is not poor. The people of this rich country has been kept poor for the sake of politics... You give me 60 months and I promise you a life of happiness and peace," he told a large rally in the eastern UP town.

Congress governments have failed to eradicate poverty despite repeatedly projecting it as a main plank for the last 060 years, he said.

In a sarcastic tone, he said he has been wondering for long as to why the poverty has been increasing despite the poor voting for the Congress all these years.

"Now I have got the answer. The Congress' political future lies in keeping them poor... Its mentality is anti-poor," he added.

Apparently referring to the 'chai-wala' barb at him by Congress leaders, Modi said it was because of the party's mentality that "no Congress leader is ready to tolerate a tea-vendor, son of a poor mother holding his head high. They mock at the poor."

PTI

You’ll commit atrocities and massacres in UP: Mulayam tells Modi

Varanasi: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday took a dig at BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi over his remarks that BJP will turn Uttar Pradesh into a Gujarat, reminding the BJP's prime ministerial nominee that "atrocities and massacres" were carried out in the state ruled by him.

Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

"A rally is on in Gorakhpur where the chief guest is the BJP's prime ministerial candidate. They say, they'll create a Gujarat (here). But please think again, you will not be in a position to do a Gujarat. You'll do a Gujarat, commit atrocities and massacres. Because this is what you have done there," he said addressing a rally in Varanasi.

Comparing the performance of the Gujarat government with that of UP, headed by his son Akhilesh, Yadav asked the assembled crowd to find out whether the Gujarat government had given unemployment allowances, waived loans of farmers or given special facilities to women.

"They have not done any of these....You know BJP doesn't have any other work but to spread rumours," he said.

Attacking Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, the former UP Chief Minister said scams and high inflation have severely hit the economy.

"Now who is responsible for the situation even after such a long time since the country gained independence. In Delhi, barring some time, it is Congress that has been ruling and it still in power.

"What have they done in these five years? What has happened apart from scams? There have been scams, atrocities, inflation and corruption. Inflation and scams have brought the country to a standstill," Yadav said.

The SP supremo said he has been a witness of several discussions on scams and inflation in Lok Sabha but it has not given any result.

"So many discussion were held on scams. And in every session there was a discussion on inflation. But they could not control inflation. It is because of inflation that thousands lost their lives and with regret I say, this happened even in UP," he said.

PTI

Swaraj is great, but can AAP make Delhi a village republic?

One Gandhian maxim that Arvind Kejriwal swears by is "Swaraj" or "self-rule"; but has he taken it to a level where it not only doesn't make sense any more, but also has begun to erode his reputation?

Or is it the unique status of Delhi, which is both a state and the administrative capital of a nation, that makes the demand for complete self-governance appear anarchist and hardline?

Arvind Kejriwal should learn from seasoned politicians such as Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu. PTI

Reporters had seen bundles of Kejriwal's book on "Swaraj" being taken into Delhi's Constitution Club hall where his legislators were in a quick training after the elections. Going by the dogmatic conduct of his cabinet and core group of supporters, it looks as if the AAP has been able to only doctrinate them, but not teach them the nuances and applicability.

Indian constitution paves the way for self-governance through its Directive Principles and the 73rd and 74 amendments, but as the sixth report of the Union Government's Administrative Reforms Commission notes, "local democracy is sometimes treated as synonymous with 'decentralisation', but the two are in fact quite distinct."

Is this where Kejriwal is getting it all wrong?

Given Delhi's complex duality — as a city state and as the administrative capital of India — if one lacks tact and clarity, the entitlement to local-governance will certainly come into conflict with the authority of the national government. And the conflict can be bad, when there are political gains for the national government. The demand that Delhi police should be with the Kejriwal government is legitimate because policing is a state subject every where else, but seeking to achieve it the way the AAP did is tricky and can put off people.

Unless one steps back and sees the duality of Delhi and negotiates, even existing freedom of self-governance can be in jeopardy. This is in fact a problem in the overall process of decentralisation in the country — the lack of certain crucial powers. In Gandhi, Freedom and Self, Bunker Roy is quoted as saying that the "gram sabhas" which were strengthened after the constitutional amendments lacked the power to replace corrupt and incompetent panchayat officials. It has legislature, judiciary and executive powers, but not magistracy powers.

Kejriwal's situation is something similar. He has no control over the most important responsibility of his state, namely law and order because Delhi police doesn't need to listen to him or his officers.
But, can anarchy on the streets be an answer to resolve this contradiction? Most certainly not.

Kejriwal should learn from seasoned politicians such as Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu. She systematically took on the Centre within the framework of the Constitution on issues that are important for the state. She passed three resolutions in the assembly against the Centre on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue and always made a political plank out of it. Today, the Congress is an electoral untouchable in the state because it didn't have the wisdom to read the political message in her protestations.

Kejriwal should certainly raise the heckles, but within the assembly and in whichever forums available. Politically, he should prompt the people of Delhi demand for "Poorna Swaraj" or complete self-governance, which should obviously include law and order.

Meanwhile, he should also realise that this "Swaraj" is not a right to indulge in nonsense such as profiling people, including foreign nationals, because it impinges on the responsibility of the Indian Republic to its citizens and other nations.

Self-governance is both a philosophy and process. Getting the philosophy right is crucial, but not without the processes — skills and tools — that make it work. Unfortunately, Delhi is not a village republic as envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi's idea of "Swaraj" and it can behave like one only by carefully exercised responsibility.

Delhi: Congress meets LG, wants police to take action against Bharti

New Delhi: Congress, which gives outside support to the AAP government, on Thursday asked Lt Governor Najeeb Jung to direct the police to take action against controversial Law Minister Somnath Bharti for allegedly leading a group of assaulters in a mid-night raid last week.

Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti. Facebook Image

A delegation of Delhi Congress leaders headed by DPCC Chief Arvinder Singh Lovely met Jung, seeking an impartial probe into the case and action against Bharti based on "available evidence".

"Delhi Police is not probing the case thoroughly. We have demanded that the Lt Governor direct Delhi Police to proceed as per law in this case. The Law Minister is not above the law. Whatever legal action is to be taken, should be taken. The LG has assured us of a fair probe," Lovely told reporters after the meeting.

Asked if Congress demanded sacking of Bharti, the DPCC president said that the party "only" sought Lt Governor's direction to Delhi Police to take action in the case as per law.

Bharti was involved in a row with the police last week when it refused to raid an alleged drug and prostitution racket.

One of the African women, who recorded her statement before a magistrate, said she identified Bharti as having led the group that barged into her house and attacked them.

Lovely said the Congress delegation also took up the issue of violation of Section 144 of CrPC by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by staging a two-day protest outside the Rail Bhavan in Raisina Hills area.

Asked why Congress was not withdrawing support from AAP-led government if the party thinks that Bharti was at fault, Lovely said that Congress gave outside support to AAP on 18 issues related to public welfare.

"If AAP government doesn't work on these issues, then we would definitely consider withdrawing support," Lovely said.

Delhi Congress leader Mukesh Sharma, who was also part of the delegation, said the law minister should be arrested for what he had allegedly done during the late night raid in Khirki Extension area.

PTI

Court seeks police’s answer on Somnath Bharti raid

New Delhi: A Delhi court Thursday sought a reply from Delhi Police on a fresh plea seeking that a complaint be lodged against "unknown accused" for creating a ruckus during a midnight raid led by Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti.

Earlier, police was instructed by the court to file a First Information Report (FIR) in the matter after a complaint was made Jan 19 by an African woman about the raid, conducted between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., Jan 16.

Somnath Bharti. Image courtesy Facebook

Metropolitan Magistrate Chetna Singh, on a fresh plea in the matter filed by another African woman, Thursday directed the deputy commissioner of police of south Delhi to file a report by Jan 25.

"An FIR has been registered against unknown accused in the Malviya Nagar police station under various charges dealing with wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation and acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman," a police officer said, speaking of action taken since the first complaint was made.

Police said Metropolitan Magistrate Chetna Singh has ordered the registration of a case against a few unknown people, who were part of the raid team led by Bharti.

A police officer said Bharti is not named in the complaint on which the court was issuing instructions Thursday.

"We will ask the complainant to identify the law minister and others in the video footage," a police official said.

The minister had gone to a house in Khirki which falls under the jurisdiction of the Malviya Nagar police station last week after receiving complaints about a prostitution and drug racket in the area.

Early Thursday, Bharti said he had no information about the orders of the court. "I have no idea of any case being registered. If anyone has filed such a case, I will go and present my stand," he told reporters.

Bharti maintained that the entire episode had been recorded on camera and it was clear that "none of our volunteers touched anyone".

"No one is paying attention to the impact of drugs on the youth. No one is paying attention to the rackets that are operating," he said, accusing Delhi Police of being hand-in-glove with those involved in the racket.

IANS

Will consider PM post if party wins and MPs want me: Rahul

Amethi: Amidst clamour among Congress workers that he should be named the Prime Ministerial candidate, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said he would definitely consider it if the party comes to power and the elected representatives select him for the post.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

"In Congress, elected MPs select the PM. After elections if our party comes to power and the MPs select me then I will definitely consider it," Rahul told reporters on the second and last day of his two-day tour to his parliamentary constituency Amethi.

He was asked whether he would be ready to bear the responsibility of the top post.

Rahul said even Manmohan Singh was selected by the elected representatives as in Congress there is no system of selecting the PM candidate before polls.

"To select a PM is the right of the MPs and it should stay with them. Selecting a PM nominee before polls is not a democratic system, but part of personality cult," he said.

At the CWC meeting held recently, party chief Sonia Gandhi rejected demands by leaders from various states to anoint Rahul the PM candidate before elections, saying there has been no such tradition in the party.

Rahul on Thursday told reporters in Amethi that "democracy is not strong enough" in Uttar Pradesh and there is too much of personality cult.

"There is too much of personality cult in Uttar Pradesh. In BSP Mayawati distributes the ticket and in SP only one family distributes it. In UP there are only MLAs and they do not have freedom to work properly," Rahul alleged.

When told that even Congress is being run by Gandhi family, he said the party was not run by 10 Janpath and has maximum democracy.

"Democracy is not strong enough in UP. Without associating people, neither the democracy will get strong nor development will take place in the state. I am confident that I will bring Congress government in the state," he added.

Evading direct reply to a question that the party was leveling allegations against the state government, but why it was not opposing it, Rahul said recently the party staged demonstrations against the SP regime and even the state president Nirmal Khatri faced lathis.

Rahul alleged that while the previous Mayawati government halted the entire development of Amethi, the current SP regime overlooked the area on power and road front.

"UP was deprived of development from the last 30 years and unless Congress government comes the situation will remain the same," he said.

PTI

Excess baggage: Five reasons for Kejriwal to get rid of Bharti

Somnath Bharti, AAP's portly, hyper-aggressive law minister, is rapidly becoming the pied piper of the Aam Aadmi Party, in danger of leading its leadership over the cliff to its destruction.

Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal today met Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and discussed the controversy surrounding Bharti, who is under attack for allegedly heading what was essentially a mob in a midnight raid on a private residence in south Delhi. The meeting came a day after various women rights activists and Delhi Commission for Women sought action against Bharti for allegedly taking the law into his hands. Bharti has quickly become a massive liability for the party which is already suffering after its badly-choreographed dharna in Delhi.

Somnath Bharti. Image courtesy Facebook

The AAP is, of course, attempting damage control. The party has reportedly advised Bharti to be "careful and humble" while making public statements.

But there is a silver lining in all this bad news. Bharti's legal woes offer AAP the perfect excuse to dump him. And if Mr Kejriwal still needs a good reason to do so, here are five that prove that the AAP would be better off not dragging Bharti along with them if they are serious about their ambitions of garnering mass support on a national scale.

Firstly, the law minister has to actually follow the law. After the events of the recent past, Bharti has lost all credibility when it comes to upholding the law.

As Firstpost columnist Dhiraj Nayyar pointed out: "The fact is that one section of AAP personified by Somnath Bharti genuinely believes only in a politics of vigilantism, blackmail and brinksmanship. In the end, such a politics will only create the same kind of cynicism as the system AAP rages against – the kind which revolts against "the minister is always right" attitude."

Bharti's recent actions go completely against the grain of the ideology AAP is attempting to project: one without reckless vigilantism, corruption and coercion.

Secondly, loudmouths are bad news, literally. Political leaders have no choice but to be media-savvy and self-disciplined in this 24X7 news era: this is something AAP leaders are clearly yet to learn - especially Bharti.

It was this Monday when Bharti courted controversy yet again with a quotable quote. Bharti said that he would want to spit on the faces of BJP leader Arun Jaitley and senior lawyer Harish Salve. "I want to spit at the faces of BJP leader Arun Jaitley and senior lawyer Harish Salve to tell them to mend their ways... I warn you, the public is going to hound you and beat you," the minister reportedly said.

He was reacting to Jaitley and Salve's criticism of the Aam Aadmi Party government for their unilateral action against foreign nationals and holding a dharna outside Rail Bhawan.

The AAP, which has made a virtue and electoral selling point out of a more enlightened kind of politics, cannot have its leaders making such irrational, bombastic statements.

Thirdly, mob politicians are political deadweights.

Somnath's antics contributed to the public sympathy being aligned with the Delhi Police, which takes some doing. The dharna became a sprawling mess which possibly irreparably damaged the AAP's reputation - a mess further worsened by Somnath's foray into a brazen, illegal and misogynistic assault on women.

Fourthly, aam aurats are watching. The raid proved that the 'aam aurat' has become less than an afterthought in the AAP's scheme of things.

A targeting such as that carried out by Somnath goes against the sense of security and human rights of all women in general, and of single and working women in particular. Television footage of the incident including Shri Somnath Bharti's own detailed statements, CCTV footage from AIIMS and the complaints by the women themselves, clearly indicate that Bharti endangered the women and instigated the crowd to violate their human rights, by branding them as prostitutes and asking the crowd to catch them.

The AAP risks losing the aam aurat vote: and the only action that can retrieve those votes is coming down heavily on Somnath's actions.

Lastly, it is time for the AAP to soothe the middle class feathers which were ruffled by Somnath's actions.

The Economic Times did some basic number crunching and discovered that AAP's online donations declined sharply the day after Somnath Bharti's midnight shenanigans were revealed in the media, and continued to drop as Kejriwal went on his dharna.

Kejriwal is in danger of losing his most enthusiastic constituency. There is nothing wrong with being pro-poor, but alienating regular middle class folks will undermine the underpinnings of his brand - built on the back of the lokpal movement. The sight of angry men invading houses and surrounding cars is the ultimate middle class nightmare - a big reason why they didn't support Kejriwal's dharna -- which instead made them lose faith in Kejriwal's leadership.

Sacking Bharti will go a long way in sending the message that Kejriwal has learnt from his mistake.

Live: You’re incapable of making a Gujarat out of UP, Modi tells Mulayam

3:05 pm: Modi goes after Mulayam Singh, says he's incapable of ensuring progress

It's been a part of every speech in Uttar Pradesh, and Modi raked it up again saying that people in Uttar Pradesh migrate to Gujarat for work and it was a result of a lack of progress in their own home state.

"Where ever I go, the father and son (Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh) follow me. Today they said that Modi does not have the right to make Uttar Pradesh into Gujarat...Netaji do you understand what it means to make Gujarat?" he said to cheers.

"It means 24 hour electricity in every village and town. Netaji you are right. You cannot make a Gujarat here. For that you need a 56 inch chest," Modi said to cheers. (Wonder if Mulayam's going to counter that one in the same manner)

"I will be happy if Uttar Pradesh becomes like Gujarat and people from there come to work here. You cannot make a Gujarat out of Uttar Pradesh," he said.

He criticised the Samajwadi Party chief's record for failing to ensure the progress of the state, safety of women and progress.

"I have taken a vow to ensure that Uttar Pradesh progresses. This state alone can take the nation forward," Modi said.

Its unlikely Mulayam was talking about economic progress when he referred to Gujarat but its not like Modi will let the opportunity pass.

2:50 pm: Modi rakes up Mani Shankar Aiyar's bard again

"They don't want the poor to come out of poverty...They have a mentality which ignores the poor," Modi said.

He's back on the chaiwallah theme and though he's not saying it Modi said that the Congress doesn't have the attitude to deal with the fact that a son of a poor family could take them on.

"They could take me on economic policy or anything else but instead they chose to mock the poor background that I hail from," Modi said.

The BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate said that the Congress is voted out.

He also took on the Samajwadi Party saying that they also couldn't bear to see a man from a poor family take them on.

"Isn't it time that we battle against poverty?" Modi said to cheers from the audience.

The Prime Ministerial candidate seems to have made Mani Shankar's barb a crucial part of all his speeches and we can expect him to talk about it as part of his anti-poor rhetoric against the Congress.

2:40 pm: Modi says BJP enjoys trust of Congress traditional vote banks

"How will the 2014 elections be? There was a trailer recently. There were elections in 4 states and in all four the BJP received the maximum support," Modi said.

He pointed out that the Congress had constantly treated the Dalit and other communities as vote banks but hadn't won any seats in the constituencies it had cultivated as vote banks.

"In Chhattisgarh there are 10 seats for reserved categories but the Congress won only one seat," the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate said.

"Where ever the BJP has got a chance to govern our primary objective has been to uplift those in poverty and ensure that the oppressed are freed from crushing poverty. It is a result of that Dalits, backward castes and adivasis have faith in the BJP," Modi said.

2:40 pm: Modi starts by saying he sees a Congress-free India, praises UP for helping building Sardar Patel statue

The BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate started by promising that he foresaw the Congess being kicked out of power and also thanked the farmers of Uttar Pradesh for contributing to the building of the humongous Sardar Patel statue in Gujarat.

He also told the hundreds at the rear of the ground to stay where they were rather than trying to push forward.

Modi's speech seems to be on lines similar to previous ones where he listed the historical importance of the place he was at and said he bowed to it.

2:00 pm: Modi's rally to take on Samajwadi party at their home turf

BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will address a massive rally in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh at noon today. Around three lakh people are expected to attend the 'Vijay Shankhnad Rally'.

Security has been stepped up in Gorakhpur ahead of the event. PTI Before reaching the rally site, Modi will halt at the Gorakhnath temple and perform 'puja' there, the district magistrate's office in Gorakhpur said. A state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson said on Wednesday that Modi would also make a brief stopover in Varanasi where he will arrive in a special aircraft from Ahmedabad.

PTI

After interacting with party workers at the airport, he will leave for the rally to be held in Manbela, Gorakhpur, in a chopper, party leaders said.

Gorakhpur is 270 km from the state capital Lucknow.

Inspector General of Police (law and order) Amrendra Singh Senger told IANS that four superintendents of police (SP) rank officials, eight additional SPs and 13 deputy SPs have been deployed for supervising the rally. Modi has so far addressed rallies in Kanpur (Oct 19, 2013), Jhansi (Oct 25), Bahraich (Nov 8), Agra (Nov 21) and Varanasi (Dec 20) in the Hindi heartland in a bid to galvanize the party cadres.

He will address one more rally in Meerut on 2 February after which the series of "Shankhnaad" rallies will culminate in a "Maha rally" in Lucknow on March 2.

BJP has 10 Lok Sabha seats from the state and hopes to revisit the 57-seat mark of 1998. Modi is spending considerable time in these rallies and his close aide and former Gujarat home minister Amit Shah has been made the UP in-charge by the party's national leadership.

With inputs from IANS

Bitter divorce: Why the media is so upset with Kejriwal

Some time shortly after day-break on 20 January, an English news channel reporter, huffing and puffing, caught up with a bleary-eyed, muffler-swaddled Arvind Kejriwal and asked him what he has to say about allegations of anarchy against him. The Delhi Chief Minister, who had spent the night sleeping on Rajpath, first declared he didn't mind being called an anarchist since everything he had done had been in the best interests of Delhi.

Then slowly as more reporters swarmed around him, Kejriwal cried out indignantly, "Kya ho kya gaya hai media ko?" After a few seconds of shocked silence, which the CM seemed to share with the reporters, he cried out the exact same words, only in a higher pitch. Amid the chaotic scenes unfolding on Delhi streets and TV anchors spouting a new catchphrase every second, this one fleeting moment of strained silence embodied what lies in the core of AAP's increasingly souring relationship with the mainstream media. Some would call it Kejriwal's naivete about the mechanisms of media, but the mainstream media's metaphor-heavy response to Kejriwal's last dharna points at a baggage of misplaced expectations placed between the two.

Like Shailaja Bajpai pointed out in her editorial on The Indian Express, the fact that mainstream media's response to Kejriwal's protest seemed premeditated right to the words they would use to describe the chaotic nature of the dharna, was evident from the completely antithetical tone of their reportage when it was called off and when the day's events were being discussed during prime time debates. Bajpai writes in her column titled 'Prime Time Sleep-in':

"TV news, caught off guard by the sudden termination of the "police" protest where the AAP and Delhi Police ironically shared common ground outside Rail Bhavan, initially were with the AAP: "Kejriwal has his way"' (CNN-IBN, Headlines Today) as "Centre gives in to AAP" (NDTV 24×7)... By the time the news channels rolled out their big guns at 9 pm, the mood had turned cynical: "Total climbdown by AAP" (Times Now) was the most extreme judgement."

Kejriwal during his dharna. Naresh Sharma/Firstpost.

The question that Bajpai raises in the column is somewhat echoed by media critic Sevanti Ninan in her column Not a worm's eye view, in Mint today. Bajpai points out how by changing stances radically, television news media subjected the viewer to a slightly dubious news viewing experience. While the initial tone suggested that Arvind Kejriwal had indeed wrung out a decision in his party's favour, the tone of news debates later suggested that it was Congress which came out looking better and had willingly let the AAP end the protest with somewhat of a face-saver.

Given that it's rather difficult for television news channels to churn out different arguments simultaneously, unless of course it hosts a raucous debate with invited guests, how does the viewer glean the real proportions of an issue? Chances are he knows he can't and hence his faith in the medium diminishes a little with it.

Like Ninan points out in her article, though television reporters, in tones that best represent hypertension, pointed out that several metro stations had been closed down and Delhi was infuriated, the city's residents when questioned on camera didn't seem to betray such high levels of anger. In fact, Delhi was not as angry as TV journalists in Delhi were.

Ninan also questions in her editorial that though the media was quick to brand Bharti, and Rakhi Birla, vigilantes, they didn't bother to look up the legal provisions available in India, many of which seem to be in favour of Bharti's actions. Ninan observes in her article:

"As for media indignation over the midnight raids which led to the sit-in, how many of the journalists going on about vigilante ministers forcing the police to raid without warrants have looked at the minutiae of the laws involved? Sections of the Delhi Police Act, the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act, and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act all have provisions to this effect."

It is probably slightly difficult to not get swayed by a high tension situation unfolding within inches of you while reporting. And unlike print, or other mediums of news, the immediacy of television doesn't give the reporters at site to process a chunk of information and a multitude of incidents to produce a completely unaffected version for the viewers.

But the extraneous rhetoric that is steeped on the reportage, in way of tickers, banners, etc are manufactured in the confines of an edit room where precision is not a luxury, but a necessity. How then does one explain a ticker #AAPDrama running on one news channel and 'Dharna or Drama' being flashed on another one? Like Ninan asks, "Why does this "anarchic" form of governance bother the press more than it does the people?"

Kejriwal, at one point, during his several interviews, said, "AAP didn't succeed because of the media, it succeeded despite it." While one might call it an overestimation of sorts, there is some grain of truth in it. The vehement reaction of the media seemed more like a hurried cover-up tactic than genuine anger at the events unfolding in Delhi. Interestingly, when Kejriwal won, the same houses had showered the party with plaudits after plaudits, something that even AAP seems to have gotten used to.

The mutual disenchantment, therefore, started when Kejriwal was faced with the idea of governance in its real gigantic proportions. Almost at the same time that he realised that this would be a rough road, he has also realised that his position now doesn't make him answerable to the media anymore. Nor does he need the media to sustain a government which has the mandate of the people, and not only of the media.

While close to his win, AAP never tired of thanking the media for its support, the party, CM included, now repeatedly refers to the times when the mainstream media has indeed written it off as a gimmicky outfit of activists looking for prime time recognition.

The crux of the problem is, both AAP and sections of the media have come to expect that the other will be nice to them, unconditionally. Both seem to have a misplaced sense of right on the other's success.

At one point in the media coverage of the protest, the reporter of a popular English news channel asked AAP supporters blithely, "Kejriwal bol raha hai ki Republic Day ko maaro goli, protest chalega (Kejriwal said that to hell with Republic Day, the protest will be on). What do you have to say to that?" The AAP leader being questioned answered coldly, "You are lying. He never said Republic Day ko maaro goli." Realizing she has indeed made that one up, she jumped on to some other question. The AAP leader answered, "What's the point of asking me. You will anyway make up lies like you did just now."

The gloves are off. But the media needs to ponder, is it really their battle to fight?