Quote:Karnataka Governor HR Bhardwaj on Tuesday asked for removal of the controversial Reddy brothers from the state ministry on allegations of "illegal mining", a demand that riled the BJP which hit back at him saying he was acting as a "rank agent" of Congress. The issue, which has already rocked the Karnataka legislature for the last two days, escalated into a



l scale war between the BJP and the Congress. The Reddy brothers also threatened to take legal action against the Governor for his remarks against them.

Quote:Double trouble in Deccan



Kalyani Shankar



Jaganmohan and the Reddy brothers of Bellary have more in common than their surname: They are a headache for their respective Government



The Congress and the BJP appear to be sailing in the same boat in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The three Reddys — Mr YS Jaganmohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh and Mr Janardhana Reddy and Mr Karunakara Reddy in Karnataka — hold the key to the survival of the two State Governments.



Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa is unable to drop the powerful Bellary brothers from his Cabinet while the Congress high command is hesitant in taking action against the defiant Mr Jaganmohan Reddy, son of the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister.



Interestingly, Mr Jaganmohan Reddy is believed to be the business partner of the Reddy brothers whom his father had allegedly promoted earlier. Both have enormous clout in terms of money and muscle power and enjoy the support of a section of MLAs whom they had financed during the previous election. The Reddy brothers also have powerful backers in New Delhi.



The Congress is facing problems from Andhra Pradesh after the untimely death of YS Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter accident last September. Since then, the Andhra Pradesh Government has had to contend with law and order problems due to the Telangana agitation as well as floods and financial crisis. Now with the Telugu Desam chief, Mr N Chandrababu Naidu, raising the Sriram Sagar barrage issue in Maharashtra, the Opposition, too, is turning on the heat.



Mr Jaganmohan Reddy has become the latest headache for the Congress. When he and his mother met the Congress president, Ms Sonia Gandhi, some time ago, he was warned not to create problems for the party. But the adamant young MP is continuing his Odarpu Yatra, ostensibly to console the kin of those who died after his father’s death. The Congress high command is reluctant to install him as the Chief Minister, induct him in the Union Council of Ministers, or give him a position in the AICC.



Mr Jaganmohan Reddy’s support base among legislators may have dwindled considerably as compared to last year but there is still danger for the K Rosaiah Government if he orders his supporters to resign. If Praja Rajyam chief Chiranjeevi, with whom the Congress has made up ahead of the recent Rajya Sabha elections, decides to bail out, the numbers are quite precarious. The first priority for the Congress is to save the Government using every trick in the book.



Why is Mr Jaganmohan Reddy testing the patience of the party leaders? First of all, Mr Rosaiah has not been able to settle down so far. He has proved to be a weak Chief Minister who looks up to the guidance of the Centre for every step. Second, Mr Jaganmohan Reddy is testing the waters by undertaking the Odarpu Yatra before floating his own outfit if nothing else works. With his enormous monetary clout he has been able to draw good crowds despite the Congress stopping legislators from attending his meetings. Third, forces against the Congress are trying to help Mr Jaganmohan Reddy indirectly.



Expectations are that Mr Jaganmohan Reddy may not be touched for some time. For one thing, the Congress high command does not want a sympathy surge for him even before the first death anniversary of YS Rajasekhara Reddy in September. Second, by-elections are scheduled in a dozen constituencies. The Congress does not want to create any confusion just ahead of the polls. Third, saving the Government is more important than anything else. If Mr Jaganmohan Reddy revolts, the 30-odd MLAs with him may also resign. Fourth, the party does not want to trigger any revolt during the ongoing Assembly session.



Is there any connection in the political developments in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka? BJP insiders claim that the drama, which unfolded in Karnataka last week is an extension of politics in Andhra Pradesh. According to them, the Congress is targeting the Reddy brothers because it wants to kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand, the Reddy brothers would face the music for their friendship with Mr Jaganmohan Reddy and on the other they could react and destabilise the Yeddyurappa Government.



The Reddy brothers have been in the centre of controversy for a while. First, the Chief Minister, himself, wanted to clip their wings last October but they won the first round. Now, the Congress is alleging illegal mining of iron ore by the brothers.



The Congress feels that by cutting off the Reddy brothers, Mr Jaganmohan Reddy could be weakened. The crisis reached a crescendo when the Governor, Mr HR Bhardwaj, took the battle to New Delhi by complaining about the alleged irregularities to the President as well as the Home Minister.

Quote:28 July 2010: While the government successfully has managed the Delhi media to make the united opposition campaign in Parliament against price rise a non-event, the Congress party is proving harder to tame, with fast-paced structural changes in the leadership feeding the frenzy against the wayward economic policies of Manmohan Singh & Co. The order gagging Congress leaders from speaking against government policies is keeping the war within from blowing out. But it is not clear how long dissenting leaders can be silenced, especially when they see the party's future prospects disintegrating.....



Anyhow, the Congress party today broadly is divided into two camps: those that are in government and those that are not. Camps, perhaps, is a strong word because the division is not formal in any sense although it is slowly becoming pronounced. Those in the government and therefore ipso facto in that camp want to preserve the status quo. There are exceptions to this. Pranab Mukherjee is one, who still commands wide respect within Congress party circles. Then there are ministers like Jairam Ramesh who prefer their closeness or perceived closeness to the Congress leadership more than any government position, which anyway does not reward their brilliance or dedication. Many of the other ministers do not want to rock the boat, regardless of who leads the government, for reasons of power and jobbery.



Just as the government camp has no leader (power bringing its own glue and purpose), so the Congress non-government grouping has no designated chief, although Digvijay Singh is becoming fairly active in that circle. Digvijay's power draws from his two terms as Madhya Pradesh chief minister when he dealt directly with the Congress central leadership without intermediaries. As Rahul Gandhi's political advisor, Digvijay Singh has further entrenched himself. Congress insiders say that only Digvijay has the kind of clout that permits him to take on the Union home minister, P.Chidambaram, and his counter-Naxal policies, and get away. "Anyone else saying all that would have had his head chopped off by now," said a keen party observer.



Two fundamentally significant developments have strengthened the hands of the Congress group vis-a-vis the government camp. The first is that the Manmohan Singh government has lost its moral authority following the deep distortions produced by its Washington Consensus economic model, one of whose consequences is the runaway food and fuel inflation. Despite the worst attempts of the government to divide the opposition, it has not succeeded. For the second day today, Parliament has shut down on the price rise issue. Congress party leaders are not unhappy at the crisis faced by the government, and they wouldn't be bothered if the government fell. Because with the current economic policies of Manmohan Singh, they know they stand nil chance of reelection. "We are abused when we go to our constituencies," a Union cabinet minister was heard telling some senior Congress leaders. Indeed, Mani Shankar Aiyar's vitriolic attack on the Commonwealth Games (perfectly justified, in this writer's view), and his allegations of corruption by the Games' organizing committee (its venal face being Suresh Kalmadi), reflect both general discontent of the party and particular resentment against Manmohan Singh's economic policies. It is no exaggeration to say that the PM and his rightist economy policy czar, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, are loathed in Congress party circles.



The second development that has strengthened the party group against the government is the leadership transition in the Congress. Sonia Gandhi, the party president, has moved to the National Advisory Council (NAC), where she will put checks on government policy. In this, the Congress leadership hopes to be both the ruling and the opposition force, a ploy which may or may not work. But in transferring to the NAC, Sonia Gandhi has verily vacated the political space for Rahul Gandhi. This has jolted the coterie around Sonia which feels orphaned and it has put the government camp on notice. On the other hand, politicians like Digvijay Singh who are close to Rahul Gandhi find themselves strengthened. The party bigshots would not matter if the government was delivering. But the fact that the Manmohan Singh government is tottering after barely a year in power has shocked the leadership and strengthened the anti-government lobby within the Congress party.



As of last week, there were strong whisperings that Manmohan Singh would be promoted as President of India and Pranab Mukherjee brought in his place as interim prime minister till Rahul Gandhi was ready. This writer does not believe Rahul Gandhi can run this country for a day considering the enormous complexities of India, and that is the rub. With the failure of a technocrat like Manmohan Singh, one would imagine the Congress leadership looking at the issue of prime-ministership with dispassion, clarity and wisdom. The dynasty experiment failed with Rajiv Gandhi and it will wreck with his son, but the country seems condemned to it. Meanwhile, the Congress and government leadership have come to believe that no news (about the opposition and peoples' agitation against the unprecedented price rise) is good news. Managing the media (whose current credibility crisis eventually will destroy it) is a lot easier than fixing elections, and terrified Congress grassroots leaders know that only too well.