Tag: Mohan Bhagwat

RSS and Nitin Gadkari

India
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When IAC headed by Arvind Kejriwal came out with accusations against Nitin Gadkari on 17/10/2012 BJP took it lightly. Arun Jaitley said a mountain is made of what is not even a molehill. Nitin Gadkari said he felt laughing. Many journalists were disappointed that the expose was not explosive. IAC members defended themselves. Kumar Vishwas on Times Now said this is not a T20 match.

TV channels began their investigations into Purti Power and Sugar Ltd (PPSL). They discovered a web of companies in which driver, accountant, astrologer, and other workers of Nitin Gadkari were directors. There was demand that Nitin Gadkari step down as BJP President. Nitin Gadkari said he was ready for any probe. RSS was behind him. They wanted him to continue as president.

On 30/10/2012 IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd came out with an advertisement denying any link between IRB Group and Purti Group.

Ram Jethmalani spoke against Nitin Gadkari. Mahesh Jethmalani on 5/11/2012 quit from national executive committee of BJP. Next day Ram Jethmalani’s letter to Lal Krishna Advani became public. Ram Jethmalani had written that he, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant, and Shatrughan Sinha wanted Nitin Gadkari to quit. On 8/11/2012 L. K. Advani turned 85. Nitin Gadkari met him to wish happy birthday.

S. Gurumurthy got into the act. As chartered accountant he went through papers related to PPSL and other companies and said there is no case against Nitin Gadkari, met L. K. Advani and briefed BJP leaders. Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj prepared a joint statement which Ravi Shankar Prasad read out. The party was behind Nitin Gadkari.

RSS defends Nitin Gadkari means RSS is corrupt. RSS officially says it is for BJP to decide about its president, unofficially it tells BJP leaders what to do. Nitin Gadkari was RSS choice. Mohan Bhagwat wanted him to be BJP President. He wanted him to get second term. BJP constitution was amended to favour Nitin Gadkari.

Apart from Atal Behari Vajpayee no other BJP leader has been able to defy RSS and remain in BJP. L. K. Advani had to quit as president for his Jinnah remark. There is the question of next prime ministerial candidate. Narendra Modi has many supporters, one of them is Ram Jethmalani.

IAC revelations led to copycat revelations by Y. P. Singh and Subramanian Swamy. Y. P. Singh spoke about Sharad Pawar and Salman Khan. Subramanian Swamy targeted Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. He said Congress loaned 90 crore rupees to Associated Journals Pvt. Ltd. (AJPL) that published National Herald. AJPL was sold to Young Indian through transfer of shares. The deal was done to acquire Herald House. Young Indian wrote off the debt for 50 lakh rupees.

Manmohan Vaidya blogged Narendra Modi was behind the campaign to oust Nitin Gadkari. RSS said it was his personal view. S. Gurumurthy’s tweets about Nitin Gadkari created confusion. It seems there is confusion within RSS.

Pranab versus Purno

India
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Pranab Mukherjee and Purno Albert Sangma are the two candidates for president of India. When UPA announced Pranab as its candidate some journalists said he will get 82% of votes, Purno will get 6%. NDA and Left Front had not decided on candidates, CPI had said it will oppose Congress candidate, many other parties had not declared their support to any candidate. The journalists added NDA and Left Front votes to Pranab. Instead of being objective they behaved like Pranab’s cheerleaders.

TMC wanted A. P. J. Abdul Kalam to contest. JD(U) was in favour of Pranab. When NDA’s meeting ended inclusive Kalam did not want to contest. RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat spoke in favour of Kalam but that was too late. Ram Jethmalani said if BJP did not put up a candidate he will contest.

There was talk that Purno will be offered the post of high commissioner to Mauritius and he will not contest. That infuriated Purno. NCP did not want Purno to contest. Purno quit NCP. Along with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar he was a founder of NCP.

On 21/6/2012 BJP and SAD decided to support Purno. JD(U) and Shiv Sena were on Pranab’s side.

There was no Breaking News when many meetings happened. After Mamata and Mulayam rejected the names of Pranab and Hamid Ansari and suggested the names of Manmohan Singh, Abdul Kalam and Somnath Chatterjee, Mulayam met Sonia Gandhi. There was no Breaking News. Next day Mulayam met A. K. Antony and Ahmed Patel. There was no Breaking News. After that Mulayam met Sonia Gandhi. There was no Breaking News. When Pranab came to Bombay he met Bal Thackeray. There was no Breaking News. It is not good when TV channels suppress news.

In a democracy elections should be contested. Two candidates are ideal. More candidates means someone gets elected with less than half the votes. Something is wrong when there is no contest and someone is declared elected unopposed. Consensus is not democracy.

Pranab as minister has held various portfolios except that of home and did not become prime minister. Purno was labour minister and speaker of Lok Sabha.