Political Gup-Shup: Party tricks & party poopers

Rattled by former Union minister Arun Shourie’s sharp criticism of the Modi government in a recent TV interview, the BJP’s spin doctors quickly went into damage control mode. They would have ignored  Mr Shou-rie’s stinging remarks, but since his views got wide coverage and were also endorsed by several columnists and editorial writers, action was necessary. As a result, a special media outreach was organised over dinner at finance minister Arun Jaitley’s residence last week.

Prime Minister Modi, who was the chief guest, chatted amiably with the special invitees for nearly an hour about a host of issues, including the land acquisition bill, his upcoming visit to China and the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s new-found belligerence and his constant attacks on the government did not figure in the conversation, but there was a lot of light hearted banter as Mr Modi launched a charm offensive to dispel the widespread public perception that he does not feel the need to interact with the press. The reason for NDA government’s sudden desperation to woo the media is obvious. It would not like its first anniversary celebrations to be clouded by negative publicity.

The media coverage Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi received on his recent visit to Punjab would suggest that his tour was a huge success. But this is far from the truth. Party insiders say that Mr Gandhi’s visit was thoroughly mismanaged as the infighting in Punjab Congress was in full play. Far from ensuring that Mr Gandhi was able to meet a large number of farmers, the two rival groups in the party’s state unit, one owing allegiance to former CM Amarinder Singh and the other to Punjab Congress chief Pratap Singh Bajwa, were busy jostling with each other to get close to the party vice-president. Embarrassing scenes were witnessed at the dinner hosted by the party’s state unit where Mr Gandhi was given no opportunity to interact with workers as he was constantly being pulled in different directions by Singh and Bajwa loyalists.

The upshot was that both farmers and party cadres went back disappointed. In fact, the two groups were so engrossed in their game of one-upmanship that they forgot to make arrangements for Mr Gandhi’s stay in Chandigarh. When they realised this, local leaders ran around like headless chicken and they finally managed to find a room for him at the Himachal Bhavan.

Known to be confident and self-assured, it is unusual to see minister of state for parliamentary affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy wandering around with a piece of paper looking lost. Apparently, Mr Rudy has a major problem at hand. Having been entrusted with the unenviable task of seeing that MPs do not play hookey, the junior minister has to round up lawmakers to ensure that they attend their parliamentary duties regularly.

But that’s where the rub lies. With more than 300 new lawmakers in the Lok Sabha itself, Mr Rudy is finding it difficult to identify them. This can often prove embarrassing, especially when he’s dealing with MPs from his own party. To make his task easier, Mr Rudy has asked his office to prepare a list of all lawmakers along with photographs. He consults this chart before hunting around for the MPs he has to contact in the corridors of Parliament. A sensible act given the MPs egos. They are known to take strong umbrage if ministers fail to recognise them.

Like Mr Rudy, senior minister for parliamentary affairs M. Venkaiah Naidu, who also doubles as minister for urban development, is a harassed man. On one hand he is at the receiving end of irate MPs who have not been allotted a bungalow of their choice, and, on the other,

Mr Naidu has to deal with angry Opposition leaders as he goes about his duties. BJP Lok Sabha MP and media baron Ashwini Minna, for example, is convinced that Mr Naidu is refusing to allot him a bungalow because his newspaper had carried negative reports about him when he was rural development minister in the Vajpayee government. Mr Minna has even attempted to reach out to Mr Naidu through Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj who are related to him, but to little avail. Not only has Mr Naidu denied him a bungalow, the minister has also come down hard on him for his absence from important party meetings.

The writer is a Delhi-based journalist