The Hindu : National / Elections 2004 : POLL-POURRI

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Thursday, Apr 15, 2004

National

National - Elections 2004

POLL-POURRI

Gang of four

Whatever happened to the infamous `gang of four' of the Emergency days? Ironically, some are dead, most are in the BJP, whose top leadership was sent to jail by these very people, and one had flirted with the BJP earlier, but is now "independent" of both the BJP and the Congress.

Varun Gandhi, the son and heir apparent of Sanjay Gandhi who was the leader of the `gang of four' is now one of the BJP's star campaigners. Maneka Gandhi, widow of Sanjay Gandhi, has joined the BJP and is the party candidate from Pilibhit. As for the others — Jagmohan and V.C. Shukla are very much in the BJP and fighting the elections, the former from New Delhi and the latter from Mahasamund in Chhattisgarh; Om Mehta, who in 1975 was the dreaded and feared Minister of State for Home in the Indira Gandhi Government, is dead, and Bansilal has formed his own political outfit in Haryana after a brief flirtation with the BJP. Well, politics does make strange bedfellows.

Tit-for-tat

Following the latest intervention in the Bofors scam by the Swedish police officer, Sten Lindstrom, who has pointed the needle of suspicion at the AICC President, Sonia Gandhi, the Madhya Pradesh unit of the Congress has decided to launch a counter offensive against the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, questioning "his role" in the freedom struggle.

At a recent press conference in Bhopal, the State Congress president, Subhash Yadav, gave a clear indication of the Congress' strategy. He said that since the BJP was trying to malign the image of the Nehru-Gandhi family by dragging Ms. Gandhi into the Bofors issue after the Delhi High Court had already given a clean chit to Rajiv Gandhi, the Congress would retaliate in kind. Mr. Yadav said Congressmen would target the Prime Minister over his role as a "police informer" in the Bateshwar Movement in 1942.

Minority status

The minority status of the Jain community has become a bone of contention between the two major parties in Rajasthan. The previous Congress Government had accorded the community minority status through an Ordinance promulgated in September 2003.

Though the Ordinance lapsed with the ruling BJP failing to move a Bill in the State Assembly within six months, the Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, says the notification conferring minority status on the influential community is still in force.

However, the Congress has accused the BJP of misleading the people and has alleged that the ruling party deliberately did not take steps to convert the Ordinance into an Act under pressure from the RSS. It has demanded that the Ordinance be promulgated afresh and the Bill tabled in the next Assembly session.

Neena Vyas, Lalit Shastri, Mohammed Iqbal

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