Through the third eye

Costly Liaisons

The downsizing of Vilasrao Deshmukh in the Union Cabinet has an interesting angle. His exit from the rural development ministry to land in the science & technology ministry has surprised many. The ‘official version’ has that Deshmukh was not staying focused in a ministry which has many Congress’ pet social sector schemes. But then, who doesn’t know Deshmukh’s 24X7 focus is, and will be, Maharashtra politics, no matter what role he has in Delhi? So, what happened?. Well, a fly on the wall says the day Deshmukh inked a ‘cricket pact’ with his bete noire Sharad Pawar to grab the Mumbai Cricket Association, many political eyebrows went up in Congress inner circles. Remember, Deshmukh’s USP has been his proven political skills and mass appeal to fight Pawar on his home turf. But once Deshmukh crossed the Rubicon to fix a match with Pawar, the Congress brass had to register its disapproval which it did on the day of the cabinet reshuffle.

Yours Loyally

The fact that Matang Singh’s reentry into the Congress after an 11-year exile went almost unnoticed in Delhi is commentary on how much he has been eclipsed by life in the political margins. As a minister of state in P V Narasimha Rao’s PMO, Singh was avery influential/controversial man during the 1991-96 period. Post-Rao, Singh’s troubles culminated in his suspension from the Congress for attacking Sonia Gandhi. Since then, Singh had been unsuccessfully knocking on the doors of many leaders, pleading for his return. He even withdrew his Rajya Sabha candidature from Assam last time to make Dr Manmohan Singh’s re-election hassle-free. His stars started looking up finally when he agreed to the two conditions set by Digvijaya Singh, in-charge of Assam: Matang ended his hostility towards Tarun Gogoi and delivered handsomely for the Congress in the two upper Assam districts where Digvijaya had deployed him as the party’s informal pointsman during the assembly polls. So, Matang Singh met Sonia Gandhi last Saturday to ‘apologise for his past mistakes before his re-entry was cleared. Given Matang’s instincts/expertise, many Congressmen are watching his next move. The CBI raid on his offices is just a twist in the tale.


Chinese Puzzle

Given his good political chemistry with West Bengal CPI-M leaders — who like nothing better than needling Prakash Karat these days — it was a forgone conclusion that the Bengal Left would prefer Sitaran Yechury to Brinda Karat to fill the lone Rajya Sabha seat the communists could win. In any case, Yechury has a better profile/performance in the RS than his party colleagues.Yet, on the eve of the Bengal Left announcing its RS candidate, rumors hit Delhi saying the Bengal party will prefer “insider” M Salim to ‘outsiders’ Sita and Brinda. Now the joke in Left circles is that many have traced the source of that short-lived rumour to certain aggrieved souls around Delhi’s Gole Market. Since the re-elected Yechury immediately left for Beijing for the scheduled meeting with Chinese comrades, many are now closely watching whether there is a newfound confidence in Yechury’s body-language on his return home since the CPI-M brass are busy (re)positioning themselves for a critical party congress.

Veteran Quitter

Gurudas Kamat is a veteran at quitting in a huff. His maiden show was in 1984 when he quit as Maharashtra Youth Congress chief only to return as a ‘disciplined party soldier’. He then quit as Mumbai Regional Congress chief in 2006, hoping to bag aministership, but didn’t get it. In 2009, he quit as state party campaign-in charge only to become loyalist soon afterwards. Imagine, after all these’selfless abdications’ all that the party could allocate for him was “drinking water and sanitation”! At least the speed with which the PM forwarded Kamat’s resignation to the President has made our Srikanth Jena roll back his own planned post-reshuffle rebellion.

Food for Thought

Ever since Milind Deora made his ministerial debut as part of a family employment guarantee scheme that the AICC worked out with the outgoing Deora Sr, two questions have started doing the rounds. Many Andhra Pradesh leaders wonder why, in that case, the high command could not have suitably accommodated Jaganmohan Reddy too to avert the post-YSR mess! Second, a Tamil Nadu politician wondered, what would have crossed Karunanidhi’s mind had A Raja been blessed with a son or a daughter old enough to be an MP and a minister!