Quote:BJP Govt remains on the edge

October 16, 2010 1:29:49 AM



Kestur Vasuki | Bangalore



While the BJP Government has won the vote of confidence in the Assembly, it remains on the edge because of the uncertainty surrounding the disqualified legislators who have gone to the court. A group of political managers of BJP, advisors, intellectuals and RSS representatives are now engaged in understanding the cause of growing discontent against the leadership of Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa, and charting the roadmap ahead.



According to the group's assessment, the fact remains that the Karnataka Government is in truth a minority one and needs to tread cautiously to survive for its full term in office.



A member on condition of anonymity pointed out to The Pioneer that most of the 11 rebel party MLAs disqualified by the Speaker belong to the backward classes, while the Chief Minister belongs to a dominant community in the State. He said, "We are in the process of assessing many reasons. We feel the Government must tread cautiously as it is a minority Government. We are also looking at the conspiracy behind it all".



The Government has been in peril since its inception 28 months ago. First it was the rebellion led mining barons, the Reddy brothers, and now the recent one where the Reddys played the role of saviour. The recent revolt was more serious since the rebels even went to the extent of joining hands with the Congress and the JD(S).



The Government has for the moment survived due to the efforts of Tourism Minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, who stood by the Chief Minister and helped bring back an Independent MLA, Varthur Prakash, back into the BJP's fold.



Meanwhile, BJP insiders feel that the Central Congress leaders, who were earlier upbeat about dislodging the Yeddyurappa Government, became reluctant later as they were worried by the dominance of JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, who had emerged as the rallying point for the dissidents. The Congress did not want the JD(S) to seize the initiative.



The informal BJP group is also looking at the possible role of the mining mafia behind the effort to topple the Government, something that the Chief Minister has been repeatedly asserting.



In a related development, addressing the BJP MLAs at his residence after his victory, the Chief Minister indicated that he would take steps to strengthen the stability of his Government.

Quote:Anatomy of a failed coup

October 17th, 2010



R. Jayaprakash



Former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who was at the epicenter of the high voltage political drama, could have scripted a new chapter in Karnataka if he had not committed political hara kiri. The man in a hurry made three grave tactical errors that worked to the advantage of the BJP which, at the end of the day, breezed through the political storm.



Political pundits point out the blunders that left the JD(S) high and dry:



Stratagem



1 HDK had the numbers, but lacked foresight: As the drama of resort politics unfolded on October 5, with 17 MLAs — six Independents and 11 of BJP — camping in Chennai, HDK sent out a strong message to the nation that he was going to successfully pull the second coup of his life and bring down the BJP government. On October 6th, Governor H.R. Bhardwaj received letters from these 17 withdrawing support to Yeddyurappa. Acting swiftly, the BJP, through the Speaker, issued show cause notices to the 17 MLAs. In addition, the Governor directed the Chief Minister to prove his majority in the house on October 11. The BJP which pressed its troubleshooters to bring the rebels back faced a serious threat of defeat as none were successful. With no options left, at 5 am on October 11, the speaker disqualified the 16 MLAs and barred them from the trust vote.



WHAT HDK SHOULD HAVE DONE: If HDK had led only 10 MLAs, 6 Independents and 4 BJP MLAs to the Governor, that would have been more than enough for the Governor to direct trust vote. The other 7 MLAs could have remained in the BJP fold but could have voted against the government and defeated BSY on the floor. By exposing all 17 MLAs, he opened the doors for the BJP to draw up a strategy to bar 17 members from voting.



2 It is no secret that Governor Bhardwaj wanted the BJP government dismissed. The day 17 MLAs forwarded the letter to him, he directed the Speaker to conduct the trust vote with all the 224 MLAs in the House and warned him that in the eventuality of an “unfair” trust vote he would have the final say. But the Speaker moved quickly and disqualified the 16 MLAs under the anti-defection law.



WHAT HDK SHOULD HAVE DONE: Kumaraswamy could have gained the upper hand by boycotting the trust vote. HDK and co. could also have petitioned the Governor on the pre-dawn disqualification of MLAs. The chaos such an action would have created would have been enough for the Governor to recommend President’s rule. But HDK blundered by going to court against the Speaker’s decision, hoping for a stay order, which he didn’t get. By doing so, he painted himself into a corner as any action in this connection would become sub-judice.



3 On October 11, Yeddyurappa in a house of 208 proved his majority through a voice vote amid a ruckus, with Independents barging into the well of the Assembly. As the Governor called the trust vote a farce and recommended President’s rule, and the high court did not stay the disqualification of 16 MLAs, the BJP taking advantage of the crisis and confusion took the battle to Delhi, raging against the Governor and embarrassing the UPA government.



WHAT HDK SHOULD HAVE DONE: On October 12, the Governor, in an unprecedented move, called for a quick press conference and offered Yeddyurappa a second chance to prove his majority. While it is still a mystery what prompted the Governor to do so, he gave all the clues to HDK and co. that his offer was not according to the law of the land and the rule book. The man who drafted the 10th Schedule that, ironically, deals with anti-defection law actually gave enough hints to HDK to go to court against the second trust vote and ask for a stay. Luckily for the BJP, neither JD(S) nor Congress did so. Instead, they tried frantically and in vain to advance the date of hearing on the petitions of the 16 disqualified MLAs.

Quote:After its poor showing in the municipal polls in Gujarat, the Congress has been wiped out in the panchayats polls, results of which were declared on Saturday. The ruling BJP won 22 of 24 district panchayats, 178 of 208 block panchayats and 47 out of 52 municipalities that went to the polls on October 21.



Congress’ debacle in the local bodies’ elections forced state Congress president Siddhartha Patel to tender his resignation.



“I have sent my resignation to party president Sonia Gandhi, accepting moral responsibility for the party’s poor performance,” Patel said.



The BJP, which had swept the six municipal corporations polls two weeks ago, repeated its spectacular performance and won in places such as tribal district Dangs and Anand in central Gujarat, which were Congress strongholds.



CM Narendra Modi thanked the people for voting BJP.



In the Dangs, BJP fielded five Christian candidates for the first time.



The party also won in other tribal dominated districts such as Narmada, Dahod, Panchamahal and Sabarkantha. Only two district panchayats, Gandhinagar and Tapi in South Gujarat, have gone to the Congress.



“Of the 24 district panchayats, 18 were under control of the BJP while six were held by the Congress, but the BJP has improved its performance and wrested district panchayats in Dang, Anand, Rajkot and Bharuch from Congress,” said state BJP general secretary I.K. Jadeja.

Quote: [url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/292074/Holes-in-ATS-story-expose-plot-to-implicate-RSS-man.html"]Holes in ATS story expose plot to implicate RSS man[/url]

October 25, 2010 11:15:57 AM

Lokpal Sethi | Jaipur

Gaping holes in the Ajmer bomb blast case chargesheet have exposed the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) design to somehow implicate senior RSS pracharak Indresh Kumar in the case.



In its 806-page chargesheet filed in an Ajmer court on Friday, the ATS claimed that on October 31, 2005, a meeting of about half a dozen persons was held in room number 26 of the Gujarati Samaj guesthouse in Jaipur. According to the ATS, the room was booked by Sunil Joshi, one of the accused, under the fake name of Manoj Kumar.



It added that the meeting was attended, among others, by Sadhvi Pragaya Thakur of Vande Mataram and Swami Aseemanand of Abhinav Bharat. The chargesheet also claimed that the meeting was addressed by Indresh Kumar, who told the others to use the cover of some religious organisation to avoid police suspicion.



While the ATS has claimed that guesthouse manager Aruna Jain had admitted during the investigation that Sunil Joshi booked the room, she denied on Sunday that anyone from the ATS had ever approach her. There was no question of her providing any such information, she added.



[color="#FF0000"]Talking to The Pioneer on Sunday, she said, “Since lots of people come to the guesthouse every day, I cannot remember if anyone of this name had stayed here about two years back.”



Interestingly, some ATS cops landed at the guesthouse on Friday evening after the chargesheet had already been filed in the morning. “We provided the guest register sought by the ATS personnel,[/color]” Gujarat Samaj secretary Ramesh said.



Question marks have all along been raised over the credibility of the ATS investigation in the case, in which three persons were killed near the Ajmer dargah on October 11, 2007. Within a week, ATS sleuths claimed they had cracked the case. They claimed that it was the handiwork of HuJI and they had arrested from near the dargah a shopkeeper, who belonged to Hyderabad. They also arrested a teacher-cum-cleric at a madarsa in Khandela and said he was a HuJI activist and frequently visited the dargah. The ATS changed its line of investigation after the Congress came to power in the State in December 2008.



Before his current responsibilities, Indresh Kumar was looking after Rashtravadi Muslim Manch and used to visit Rajasthan frequently. He had addressed several Muslim gatherings in Jaipur and other parts of the State to bring the community close to the RSS.



Those who understand the RSS functioning say some individuals within the Sangh were not happy with its approach of reaching out to Muslims. “Those who have been arrested or whose names figure in the chargesheet are the same elements who were opposed to such an approach and were now blaming Indresh Kumar,” these people say.



Meanwhile, asserting that Indresh was not involved in any anti-national activity, former RSS chief KC Sudarshan has charged the Congress with hatching a conspiracy to defame the Hindu organisation. “It is incorrect that Indresh is somehow linked to the Ajmer blast or involved in any kind of anti-national activity,” he told reporters at the sidelines of a function here. “The truth (that he is not linked to terrorism) will come out soon,” Sudarshan added.

Quote:Embarrassed over a UPA Government report ranking NDA-ruled States of Gujarat, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Punjab as the four best performers in implementing the 20-point Programme (TPP), the Congress on Thursday rejected the findings which the Government it leads has come out with. Not surprisingly, the BJP patted its back.



“All this is baseless. We consider it wrong and reject the report,” Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said while reacting to the higher ranking of NDA-ruled States in implementing TPP meant for poverty eradication and empowering people. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has come out with the report.



Furthermore, according to the report, non-UPA ruled States like Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have also shown impressive performance in implementing TPP both being ranked at fifth place, while the Left Democratic Front-ruled Kerala and BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh have both achieved the seventh place.



Delighted by the findings, the BJP said the main focus of the programme is poverty eradication and the report proves NDA Governments were serious in doing that.

Quote:Karnataka HC upholds rebel BJP MLAs' disqualification

[url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/293052/Karnataka-HC-upholds-rebel-BJP-MLAs-disqualification.html"] link[/url]

October 30, 2010 1:31:57 AM

PTI | Bangalore

In a major boost for the BJP government in the state, a third judge in the Karnataka High Court on Friday upheld the disqualification of 11 rebel BJP MLAs, concurring with the decision of the Chief Justice.



Justice V G Sabhahit, to whom the division bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar had referred the matter, upheld Speaker K G Bopaiah's order disqualifying the dissident MLAs.



The Speaker's order of disqualification was in accordance with Para 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution--anti-defection law, observed Justice Sabhahit, who has concurred with the ruling given by the Chief Justice earlier.



The division bench, which also consists of Justice N Kumar, had earlier given a split verdict with Justice Kumar setting aside the Speaker's order. The bench had then referred the matter to the third judge.



Justice Sabhahit today placed his order before the division bench for delivering its formal orders.



Today's order of the court comes as a major victory for the BJP, which has been plagued by dissidence and scraped through a confidence vote in the Assembly on Oct 14 after 16 disqualified MLAs were kept out of the Assembly.



BJP counsel Satya Pal Jain hailed the third judge's order saying this gave a good signal to defectors.