Of posters, rivalry and resent

Riding high on its electoral victories, the ruling BJP goes out of its way to put down the Congress. Last week, it took this battle to the streets when the BJP attempted to outflank the Congress over the posters it had put up near its party headquarters on Akbar Road to welcome the foreign delegates attending the international conference it organised to commemorate Nehru’s 125th birth anniversary. Two days after the conference, the BJP strategically placed its own posters just next to the Congress poster which carried pictures of the entire Nehru-Gandhi family.

The BJP poster showed a photograph of a triumphant Modi with the catchline: “Vishwa daure se Modi aaye, Bharat ka parcham phairaye”. In other words, Mr Modi had conquered the world and placed India on the international stage. Yet another poster showed Mr Modi in a bearhug with Australian PM Tony Abbott. Mr Modi and his team make sure to grab headlines and eyeballs on every possible occasion, denying any media presence to the Congress. So it was not surprising that the international conference on Nehru was virtually ignored by the news television channels.

Former Union minister Anand Sharma may have lost his ministry but he has been riding high after Congress president Sonia Gandhi entrusted him the responsibility of organising the Nehru conference. He made innumerable trips to the airport several weeks before the conference to check out arrangements for foreign delegates. Mr Sharma was seen ordering the staff there as if he was still a minister. His own colleagues in the Congress were also not spared as Mr Sharma insisted on giving them detailed instructions about their role in the conference as in the case of a former Congress MP who had been asked to rapporteur a session. When he told Mr Sharma that he knew what this task entailed, the former minister said he would then give him a short explanation. Mr Sharma then went on to give him a 45-minute briefing. Little wonder then that many senior Congress leaders stayed away from the conference and those who did attend, shrugged off any queries saying, “Anand Sharma is the first and last word on this conference.”

Former chief ministers Digvijaya Singh and Ajit Jogi honed their political skills under the tutelage of the late canny Congress leader Arjun Singh but his protégés are constantly clawing at each other. In fact, the conflict between Mr Digvijaya Singh and Mr Jogi dates back to their early days in politics and even today, they never miss an opportunity to bait each other. This rivalry was on display during AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh’s recent trip to Chhattisgarh when he insisted on dishing out unsolicited advice to Mr Jogi. Expressing concern over the bitter infighting in the Chhattisgarh Congress, the former MP Chief Minister publicly counselled Mr Jogi to cooperate with the party’s state president Bhupesh Bhagel, who incidentally is known to be Mr Digvijaya Singh’s protégé. Obviously not pleased at being patronised by his longstanding rival, the former Chhattisgarh CM was quick to hit back. While telling him bluntly to refrain from interfering in the affairs of other states,

Mr Jogi wondered how Mr Digvijaya would react if he was advised to work closely with his bete noire Jyotiraditya Scindia in MP. The recent Cabinet reshuffle was preceded by drama and speculation. While most politicians tend to take pre-reshuffle speculation in their stride, home minister Rajnath Singh was clearly not amused when television channels kept flashing the news item that Manohar Parrikar was going to replace him. Mr Singh’s aides made frantic calls to the channel bosses to refute this item. Even though the news turned out to be incorrect, Mr Singh has not put this behind him: he is learnt to have asked the IB to find out who was responsible for putting out this false item. Finance minister Jaitley is prime suspect, especially after word went around that he was reluctant to give up defence.

If the conversation between West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and CPM leader Sitaram Yechury at the international Nehru conference is anything to go by, the speculated realignment of political forces is not happening. When the two met, Ms Banerjee berated Mr Yechury about the efforts being made by the Left to stop the BJP in West Bengal, to which the CPM leader replied, “What can we do… your party is responsible for their rise in WB.” That was the end of the story.

The writer is a Delhi-based journalist