Won’t comment on President’s R-Day speech before hearing it, says AAP

New Delhi: A day after President Pranab Mukherjee's veiled criticism of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in his address to the nation, the party today said it will carefully consider whatever he has said.

"Whatever President said, we don't want to make comments in this regard as he is the first citizen of this country. If he has said something about us, we would carefully listen to him and consider it," Ashutosh, a senior AAP leader and journalist-turned politician, told reporters here.

Representational image. PTI

Mukherjee had yesterday made a veiled attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's street protest saying the government is not "charity shop" and "populist anarchy" cannot be a substitute for governance.

"Government is not a charity shop. Populist anarchy cannot be a substitute for governance. False promises lead to disillusionment, which gives birth to rage, and that rage has one legitimate target: those in power," Mukherjee had said while addressing the nation on the eve of Republic Day.

Minutes after the address, AAP senior leader Yogendra Yadav had said the President's speech was not about AAP.

"I have full belief that President must have greater things in his mind. When he talks about anarchy, he looks towards the nation. He must be thinking about what is happening in Gujarat, Punjab and the entire country," Yadav had said.

Meanwhile, slamming Kejriwal for staging a two-day dharna outside Rail Bhavan defying prohibitory orders, BJP president Rajnath Singh said his party welcomed President's remark on AAP.

PTI

Advani scotches reports about RS nomination, but LS polls ‘in mind’

New Delhi: Scotching reports that he may be nominated for Rajya Sabha, senior BJP leader L K Advani today made it clear that he will contest the next Lok Sabha elections, saying this is "in my mind".

"I have not said anything (about going to RS) and if somebody offers me this suggestion I will think about it. But it is natural, I think, that if I had to consider it I would have done it earlier," Advani told reporters after unfurling national flag at his residence.

Asked if he would fight the Lok Sabha elections, he said, "this is what in my mind".

LK Advani. AFP.

There have been some unconfirmed reports that BJP was considering nominating Advani to the Rajya Sabha in an apparent bid to consolidate its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's position in the party.

Advani, who represents Gandhinagar from Gujarat in the Lok Sabha, had opposed Modi's elevation and, though, he showered praise on him during the party's recent National Council meeting, many Modi supporters remain wary of the veteran leader's moves.

On President Pranab Mukherjee's Republic Day-eve speech, Advani said it was "significant" that Mukherjee found it imperative to speak against "populist anarchy" in his address to the nation yesterday. The BJP leader, however, declined to comment any further.

"I will only say that on today's occasion I will not comment on anybody even though it is significant, more so as the President found it necessary to comment on this," he said.

Mukherjee's remarks were seen as a dig at the AAP government in Delhi whose Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had launched a dharna outside Rail Bhawan to press for action against some police officials. He later withdrew it after his demands were partially met.

The BJP leader also agreed with Mukherjee's appeal against a fractured mandate and said he hoped that the country would have a government with a complete majority after elections.

PTI

AAP’s graph dips after dharna: Will BJP stop playing copycat?

By Iconoclast

With the Delhi theatre winding down briefly and the AAP graph in a sharp decline, the question now is what happens to the various parties who were suddenly enamoured of the disingenuous gambits of symbolism that the party had spawned.

The signature tune of AAP was giving up of the Lal Battis, thus symbolically giving up VIP culture and staying in humble dwellings, another symbolism for humility. The veneer that the party sought to put up has been torn apart by the sheer arrogance and hubris involved in the #AAPdharna, as the twitterati called it, which degenerated into #AAPDrama and #AAPShame. This precipitous turn of events creates difficulty even for the parties such as Congress and BJP which had quietly filched the good points which AAP stood for and were at pains to demonstrate that they were more AAP-like than even AAP.

Arvind Kejriwal during his dharna. PTI

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the BJP Chief Minister of MP, and Raman Singh, the BJP Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, were always known to be common men's leaders, but even they felt compelled to hastily repackage their efforts at creation of an anti- corruption helpline. Even the doyen of the anti-corruption crusade, the redoubtable Narendra Modi, let it be discreetly known that their anti-corruption helpline had been functioning since 2011. Narendra Modi also got a chance to flaunt his SWAGAT system of public grievance redressal when the much touted Janata Darbar of Arvind Kejriwal came a cropper. Even though Shivraj had been holding a very successful Janata Darbar for years, he had to suddenly dust up his efforts and proclaim himself as the Aam Aadmi's lieutenant. One could see discomfiture writ large on the face of various chief ministers. Even such simple folk as Nitish Kumar and Naveen Patnaik, largely untainted and clean, and enjoying good popular support and even good track records, could be seen writhing with discomfiture at the upstart's proclamation of a copyright over all that the common man stood for. This was becoming apparent in the actions of many politicians.

The most curious case was that of Vasundhara Raje, the resident royalty of Rajasthan. She famously sets more store by style than substance, but was seen trying to show herself off as a vegetarian tigress, however unconvincing the effort. Having lost her previous government in 2008 , after taking over this time, she immediately brought back all the officers back who had run her previous government, including a Chief Secretary who was her Finance Secretary. She  generally reinstalled all the systems which brought her so much infamy. Lalit Modi's wife came and stayed with her after she took over as CM, but the moment the AAP government was installed in Delhi, even Raje started showing the effects of the AAP virus.

Though it fools no one as she had already spent crores of government money on this bungalow as leader of Opposition, she tom-tommed that she would not shift into the designated CM Bungalow, and that she would reduce her security, and that she would stop at traffic lights. However, everyone is watching her as she has left key positions vacant, waiting for the Lok Sabha elections to be over before she can get back to her old style.

Then there was the even more curious case of Priya Dutt and Sanjay Nirupam, who suddenly discovered that their nearly 15-year-old government was overcharging the public for power. So they have started their own version of the AAP Dharna in Mumbai. They did not realize that the original common man's CM, Mamata Banerjee, despite all these gimmicks, is now having to contend with a very poor governance record.

Now that the AAP drama has started giving diminishing returns, it is interesting to see how these copy-cats are going to react. It must be said, however, that while a number of state governments were going head over heels to copy AAP ideas, including its topi, Narendra Modi showed no signs of panic. Down south, Jayalalitha seems to be unconcerned too. It is reported that even RSS got flustered by AAP's surge in Delhi and its pan-India membership drive, but Modi and Jayalalitha seemed to have had a sense of déjà vu, and the denouement that struck AAP through its own intrinsic lack of direction seems to have vindicated them. AAP's actions in espousing and marketing these symbolisms now appear to be what they were, mere totems and symbols. Ultimately, there is no getting away from robust governance.

People have very sharp antennae, and you can keep up the pretence only for so long. As Abraham Lincoln famously said:
"You can fool some of the people all the time, you can fool all the people for some time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time".

(Iconoclast is an insider with a ringside view of matters that matter. He is a keen observer of political and administrative intrigues as also of sports and culture. He tweets @IamIconoclast)

Populist anarchy cannot replace governance: Pranab Mukherjee

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee today made a veiled attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's street protests saying government is not a "charity shop" and "populist anarchy" cannot be a substitute for governance.

Without taking the name of AAP leader, who earlier this week staged a two-day dharna outside Rail Bhawan against the Central government, he was critical of Kejriwal's style when he said "elections do not give any person the license to flirt with illusions".

President of India Pranab Mukherjee. PTI

Addressing the nation on the eve of 65th Republic Day, the President said corruption was a cancer that eroded the democracy and weakened the foundation of the state.

If Indians were enraged, he said, it was because they were witnessing corruption and waste of national resources. If governments do not remove these flaws, voters will remove governments.

"Equally dangerous is the rise of hypocrisy in public life. Elections do not give any person the license to flirt with illusions. Those who seek the trust of voters must promise only what is possible.

"Government is not a charity shop. Populist anarchy cannot be a substitute for governance. False promises lead to disillusionment, which gives birth to rage, and that rage has one legitimate target: those in power," he said.

Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues had staged a dharna outside Rail Bhawan defying prohibitory orders demanding action against some policemen. They ended it after two policemen were sent on leave.

The President said the rage will abate only when governments deliver what they were elected to deliver: social and economic progress, not at a snail's pace but with the speed of a racehorse.

The aspirational young Indian, he said, will not forgive a betray of her future. Those in office must eliminate the trust deficit between them and the people. Those in politics should understand that every election comes with a warning sign: perform or perish.

PTI