Tag: Nitin Gadkari

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.

Jaitley on judges

India
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On 30/9/2012 Arun Jaitley spoke at a BJP legal cell conference. He said there are two types of judges. Those who know the law and those who know the law minister. Best lawyers do not want to become judges. There is clamour for post-retirement jobs which is adversely affecting the impartiality of the judiciary. Through judicial verdicts post-retirement jobs are being created. When he was law minister he was wary of meeting retiring judges for the fear that they would hand him their bio-data.

Salman Khurshid is the law minister. Arun Jaitley implies some judges have delivered verdicts as desired by Salman Khurshid in return for post-retirement jobs. It will be nice if Arun Jaitley names the judges and verdicts.

Retired judges head various commissions and tribunals. Commissions of Inquiry get extensions. The inquiry that should be over in six months stretches to 20 years or so. Tribunals headed by retired judges should be disbanded. Disputes before them should go to High Courts or Supreme Court. There are other issues. Corruption in judiciary is one. Government amending the law retrospectively when it receives an unfavourable verdict is another.

Nitin Gadkari suggested a gap of two years for retired judges to take up new jobs. That is good for justice.

Most people do not want to retire and judges are no exception. The retirement age of judges should remain as it is and there should be no extension.

Decline of Advani

India
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In 2009 Lal Krishna Advani was the prime ministerial candidate of BJP. After that his leadership declined gradually and at the meeting of national executive of BJP in Bombay it reached the bottom when B. S. Yediyurappa said Narendra Modi is the tallest leader in BJP.

Advani did not stand up for people who stood by him. During Jinnah controversy Jaswant Singh had supported Advani. When Jaswant Singh faced expulsion for his book on Jinnah, Advani did not oppose expulsion. BJP members understood it was foolish to support Advani, he would not support them in their difficult time. Nobody from BJP who wanted to expel Jaswant Singh had read the book. There were reports that some passages in the book were against Vallabhbhai Patel. Narendra Modi wanted Jaswant Singh expelled and he had its way. History was to repeat itself in Bombay and Narendra Modi secured Sanjay Joshi’s resignation.

RSS leaders talked of young leadership of BJP. Manohar Parrikar referred to Advani as rancid pickle. Opinion polls favoured Narendra Modi over Advani. In the tussle in Karnataka BJP, Advani sided with Anantha Kumar and angered B. S. Yediyurappa. B. S. Yediyurappa hit back by endorsing Narendra Modi.

Advani’s criticism of Nitin Gadkari in his blog came late. If Advani wants to become prime minister he has to keep all options open and that means splitting BJP. Leaders split parties to come to power, to remain in power, to consolidate power.