Tag: ravi shankar prasad

RSS on BJP President

India
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It seems RSS wants Nitin Gadkari to be president of BJP again. It does not find anyone else suitable. Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi are too old. Sushma Swaraj has to give up Lok Sabha leadership. Arun Jaitley has to give up Rajya Sabha leadership. Venkaiah Naidu was once president. Manohar Parrikar is Goa chief minister.

RSS has its headquarters in Nagpur and Nitin Gadkari is from Nagpur. There is no problem if Sushma Swaraj or Arun Jaitley becomes president and gives up Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha leadership. If Nitin Gadkari can become president again so can Venkaiah Naidu.

There are many BJP leaders who can make it as party president. Jaswant Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Shatrughan Sinha, Yashwant Sinha, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Muktar Abbas Naqvi, Shahnawaz Hussain, Gopinath Munde are some of them.

BJP has declined under Nitin Gadkari’s presidentship. It lost Uttarakhand. Its tally went down in UP and Punjab. It did badly in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Goa was an exception.

BJP is RSS’ property and RSS can dictate who should be its president but if it persists with Nitin Gadkari its tally in Lok Sabha may come down to two digits. After that it may be epitaph of BJP.

Curious case of Khaled Chisti

India, Media, Pakistan, Terrorism
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On 22/6/2011 on NDTV 24×7’s Left Right and Centre the issue of showing mercy to Khaled Chisti was discussed. PM had written to Rajasthan’s Governor Shivraj Patil to release Khaled Chisti and Shivraj Patil had decided to seek legal advice. The question was whether India should show large-heartedness and release him on humanitarian grounds. The discussion led to some revelations.

Nidhi Razdan first asked audience members. One person said there are many Indians in Indian prisons in similar condition to that of Khaled Chisti. Nobody writes to PM about them. There should be common rule for all. One woman said she was fighting for justice and Pakistanis have carried out many terrorist activities in India. That meant he should not be released.

Nidhi Razdan asked Rajeev Shukla about releasing Khaled Chisti. Rajeev Shukla said Justice Markandeya Katju had sent his letter to PM through him through email and PM had replied to Markandeya Katju through him. So Rajeev Shukla was the intermediary between Markandeya Katju and PM.

The panellists were in agreement that Khaled Chisti be released on humanitarian grounds. Even BJP spokesperson Nirmala Seetharaman did not mention exchanging Khaled Chisti for the release of Sarabjit Singh. Ravi Shankar Prasad had demanded that if Khaled Chisti had to be released it should be in exchange for Sarabjit Singh.

Vinod Sharma said Markandeya Katju was a Kashmiri Pandit and a Kashmiri Pandit getting a Pakistani prisoner released will make Pakistani people happy about India and Markandeya Katju had written to Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari to release Gopal Das. Gopal Das was released after Manmohan Singh invited Pakistani leaders to attend Indo-Pak World Cup Semi-Final. That time nobody said anything about Markandeya Katju’s letter. Vinod Sharma was wrong when he said there was no terrorism 20 years back. Terrorism in Kashmir had got a boost when five terrorists were released to secure Rubiya Sayeed’s release in December 1989. Vinod Sharma is associated with Congress.

Siddharth Bhatia wanted Khaled Chisti released.

Till some days back nothing was heard about Khaled Chisti. How this issue suddenly became important is not clear. Rajeev Shukla is married to Ravi Shankar Prasad’s sister Anuradha. Shivraj Patil was Home Minister. There is more to the case than humanitarian consideration. Judges should not get entangled in such matters.