Author: Virendra Kapoor
Publication: Afternoon Despatch & Courier
Date: February 05, 2007
URL: http://www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=fromthepress&subsection=editorials&xfile=February2007_insidestory_standard191&child=insidestory
Introduction: The way the conference was organised
left no one in doubt that its real objective was the greater glorification
of Sonia Gandhi
It was a party conference funded by the tax-payers.
The recent two-day meet in New Delhi on the rather lofty theme of 'Peace,
Non-Violence and Empowerment: Gandhian Philosophy in the 21st Century' cost
the Government tens of crores of rupees. Delegates from far and near were
flown in and housed in five-star comfort, far removed from the much-vaunted
Gandhian simplicity. Foreign dignitaries from some 80-odd countries and a
couple of Nobel laureates came down for the conference timed to mark the centenary
of the Mahatma's Satyagraha in South Africa.
The Chinese, Russians and even the Cuban Communists,
who could possibly have no use for the Gandhian philosophy, came in strength,
responding to the invitation from the Ministry of External Affairs.
In fact, the Minister of State for External
Affairs, Anand Sharma, personally coordinated the visit of foreign dignitaries.
And it was the MEA which picked up the tab for the five-star board and lodge
of the delegates to the conference. The protocol ensured that the Congress
President Sonia Gandhi was accorded top billing.
Though the theme was the Mahatma and his philosophy,
the focus was on Sonia Gandhi. The way the conference was organised left no
one in doubt that its real objective was the greater glorification of Sonia
Gandhi. She being the star speaker, she inaugurated the conference on the
first day while the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh got a look-in on the last
day with a brief speech.
The Indian Communists, for whom the Mahatma
back in the 1940s was an agent of the British imperialists, too were accorded
the pride of place at the conference. But the opposition BJP was not invited,
with the conference spokesman, Devendra Dwivedi, conceding under persistent
questioning by newspersons that it was a Congress conference and the BJP could
have no right to be invited to it.
Misuse of AIR and DD
Talking about the Gandhi conference, the State-controlled
AIR and Doordarshan having become an unabashed propaganda tool of the ruling
Congress Party under I and B Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, the two accorded
top priority in news bulletins to the conference. Sonia Gandhi's opening speech
on the first day continued to be blared out aloud on all channels of AIR and
DD even on the second day when the Prime Minister and other dignitaries had
read out aloud their set-piece addresses.
But the worst cut was when AIR news bulletins
in a complete distortion of facts broadcast that "nobody from the BJP
attended the conference." Which would suggest that the main opposition
party had boycotted the conference. But the truth was otherwise. No BJP leader
was invited even though the conference was duly funded by tax-payers' rupees.
Modi unassailable in BJP
Apropos the recent organisational reshuffle
in the BJP, the stamp of the RSS on changes made by the party chief, Rajnath
Singh, is unmistakable. Singh merely carried out the diktats of the RSS apparatchiks,
including the decision to drop the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi from
the powerful parliamentary board.
However contrary to media reports, Modi's
omission did not in any way signify RSS's loss of confidence in him. No, his
removal from the board was meant to be a delicate balancing act since the
RSS had decided to move out one of its top inductees in the BJP, General Secretary
(Organisational) Sanjay Joshi, out of the party. Joshi had attracted adverse
attention after copies of a CD allegedly featuring him in a compromising position
with a Gujarat-based woman had been freely distributed at the BJP enclave
in mid-2005. Since Joshi had fallen out with his one-time protégé,
Modi, it was widely suspected that the conspiracy to embarrass the former
somehow might have had the latter's blessings.
Also, given that Joshi took the lead in downsizing
L.K. Advani following the latter's Jinnah-was- secular certificate, his removal
from the key position as in-charge of the organizational affairs could address
the long-held grievance of the Advani camp against Joshi.
Indeed, by its single act in removing Modi
from the parliamentary board, the RSS had managed to placate several key Sangh
parivar functionaries, including the once high-profile VHP general secretary,
Pravin Togadia. Besides, the sulking BJP dissidents led by former Gujarat
Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel, had reason to feel happy at what the media,
howsoever erroneously, was painting as the diminution in the role and importance
of Modi. Modi, for all practical purposes, carries on merrily despite his
not being a member of the BJP parliamentary board, and his position in the
Sangh parivar is as unassailable as before.
Another path-finder, another centenary
After a long, long time, the RSS is going
out on a limb to put to optimum use its organizational muscle to make the
concluding function of the year-long centenary celebrations of its most controversial,
and magnetic, head, the late, Madhav Sadhashiv Golwalkar, fondly called Guruji
by followers, a grand success. A huge rally is planned for 18th February in
the national capital where everyone remotely associated with the Sangh parivar
is expected to be present. Tens of thousands of RSS volunteers from all parts
of the country are likely to converge in the capital that day to pay tribute
to the man who had steered the RSS during its most tumultuous period preceding
and following the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947.
Volunteers have fanned out in towns and villages
to motivate cadres and sympathizers to 'come and pay tribute to the man who
spent his entire life in the cause of Hindus and Hinduism,' as one leading
RSS functionary put it. The list of dignitaries scheduled to attend is headed
by the Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, with every top BJP leader,
including former Prime Minister Vajpayee, expected to be present at the public
function.
Reliance on agents
Punjab Finance Minister Surinder Singla, who
is contesting the Amritsar parliamentary by-election against the BJP's Navjot
Singh Siddhu, was cut up at being called a 'Reliance agent' by the BJP General
Secretary, Arun Jatiley at a press conference in the city. When a newsman
questioned him about Jaitley's charge, Singla neither denied nor confirmed
his proximity to the industrial house. Instead, he reeled off a slew of names
of the BJP leaders who were 'agents of Reliance.' Of course, neither Jaitley
nor, for that matter, Siddhu, figured on Singla's list of BJP allegedly close
to Reliance.
