Political Gup-Shup: Of defensive Sitharaman & sidelined neta

Although a relative newcomer in politics, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman made the cut as a minister in the Modi government primarily because of her stint as BJP spokesperson in the run-up to the 2014 elections. Ms Sitharaman, along with Meenakshi Lekhi and Smriti Irani, was at her aggressive best while demolishing the Congress-led UPA government. Predictably, she was constrained from donning the party spokesperson’s hat after she became a minister except when she was specially called to the BJP headquarters to speak on a specific subject. Ms Sitharaman has grown in stature after she was elevated to Cabinet rank and moved from the commerce ministry to the high-profile defence ministry.  It was, therefore, baffling to see Ms Sitharaman participate in a television debate last week on the ongoing battle between the RSS and the ruling Left Front in Kerala. Not only was the defence minister shouted down by the other panelists, what made it worse was that she was pitted against second-rung spokes-persons from the Opposition. At one point, questions were even raised about the par-ticipation of a minister in the debate, to which a defensive Sitharaman maintained that she was there as a political worker of her party.

Ms Sitharaman is unable to  decide which role she wants to play: minister or party spokesperson. Even at the best of times, there is a scramble for rooms among the office bearers in the Congress headquarters on Akbar Road. The senior general secretaries are usually allotted a room in the front portion of the main building while the others have to do with space at the rear. However, the space crunch has got much worse after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi decided that general secretaries were overburdened with the charge of too many states and that each office bearer should look after one state or department. The result is that there is no room for the growing tribe of office bearers, necessitating the sharing of office space. So one finds that veteran leader Kamal Nath had to accommodate new Rahul Gandhi-appointee Avinash Pande in his room while Ambika Soni and Karan Singh now have to make space for their senior colleagues Ashok Gehlot and Sushil Kumar Shinde. Returning to the party fold after a gap, senior leader Kishore Chandra Deo was horrified to find that he would have to share a room with a far junior functionary Asha Kumari. Party general secret-ary B.K. Hariprasad now has R.P.N. Singh, another Rahul favourite, as his office mate. 

With most offices converted into virtual common rooms, their occupants prefer to work from their homes. This appears to be best as there have been occasions when the occupants have landed up at the same time. R.P.N. Singh, who likes holding forth in his new office, had to hurriedly vacate the place on several occasions when Mr Hariprasad arrived for some pre-scheduled meetings. It’s little over six months since he took charge but Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat is already feeling the heat. There is disenchantment with his performance as people in the hill state tend to compare him with the more high-profile Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.  Although there is no move to replace Mr Rawat, his detra-ctors and other CM hopefuls believe they stand a chance. Parliamentary affairs minis-ter Prakash Pant, a strong contender, has become very active, making innumerable trips to the capital  on the pretext of an official meeting or a discussion on a pending project. The real purpose is to fraternise with BJP bosses. 

Well aware of Mr Pant’s gameplan, Mr Rawat is taking no chances. Each time Mr Pant visits Delhi, the beleaguered CM follows a few days later. It is to be seen how long this game lasts. It is well known that Makhan Lal Fotedar, a one-time confidante of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, who died recently, did not have the same equation with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Although he was a permanent member of the Congress Working Committee till the last, he did not enjoy her confidence. And this goes back many years ago.  Fotedar had lobbied hard with Digvijay Singh, when he was Madhya Pradesh CM, for a Rajya Sabha nomination from his home state. Mr Singh was powerless to help his old friend as he had instructions from Mrs Gandhi that Fotedar should not be accommodated. Mr Singh expressed his helplessness to Fotedar but the latter understood the real reason. He is learnt to have sobbed like a baby in Mr Singh’s presence at this humiliation.