Hello and welcome back to our Political Theatre, dear readers!
This week, Karnataka's CM Siddaramiah is cast in the lead role, with his plea to dismiss the Governor's nod to a probe against him dismissed by the high court. Alongside him are—back again this week—the Tirupati laddus, as Jagan Mohan Reddy cancelled his much-hyped trip to the Tirupati temple citing potential unrest.
Jammu and Kashmir has also played its part, having finished another phase of polling ‘peacefully’, though it seems cracks have started to appear in the NC-Congress alliance. A special guest is a Marxist leader who has risen to the top in Sri Lanka, which might become an issue for India in the future.
Let's take a deeper look at this week's events.
Siddu’s mood maligned by MUDA
All eyes were (uncomfortably) on the Karnataka CM after the state High Court dismissed his plea against the Governor’s decision to approve a probe against him in the MUDA case. Allegedly, rules were bent when MUDA allotted 14 sites to Siddaramaiah’s wife in exchange for the land acquired from her.
But a defiant Siddaramaiah announced loud and clear that he will not vacate his chair, claiming that this was a conspiracy against his ‘Mr Clean’ image. “We will face them (opposition) politically because it is a conspiracy," Siddaramaiah said. Curiously, while the order came on Tuesday, the Lokayukta police took until Friday to register the FIR.
Kamla ka Hamla(Attack)?
The BJP, as most political opposition usually does in such cases, was very vocal in their demand for the Karnataka CM’s resignation following the HC’s verdict, going so far as to try and lay siege to the Vidhana Soudha and the CM’s residence in protest. Attacks against him came from everywhere, with even PM Modi slyly taking shots at Congress and Siddaramaiah all the way from Haryana. He has no moral ground to stay in power the opposition said.
Siddramaiah, in turn, pointed out that Kumaraswamy was currently out on bail, while Modi himself never resigned after the Godhra incident. So, the opposition has no right to talk about moral grounds.
Kumaraswamy himself, maybe for the reasons above, said that he won’t insist on Siddaramaiah’s resignation. But he did ask why senior Congress leadership were mum over this.
A Backing Hand
Congress, in contrast, of course, were extremely supportive of Siddaramaiah. Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal accused the BJP of adopting "insidious ways" to destabilise and topple elected governments.
And while D K Shivakumar could have taken the opportunity to make ground for his promotion to the CM's chair, he instead backed his senior and said there was no question of Siddaramaiah’s resignation and no leader has staked claim to the CM post.
The grand old party also sees this as a great opportunity to turn a disadvantage into an advantage by projecting Siddaramaiah as being targeted for being a ‘popular Dalit leader’. As the issue now snowballs, ‘Mr Clean’ will have to utilise a lot of his mental detergent to maintain the image for at least the next three months.
Bye-Bye CBI
Perhaps in response to the sanction against Siddaramaiah or simply to exercise caution, Karnataka withdrew its general consent to CBI to investigate cases in the state. The official reason is that they believe the central agency is being ‘misused’. Nothing to do with MUDA, they say.
Congress chief Kharge agreed with the decision, as Karnataka joined West Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu to become the 4th state to take this call. All non-BJP states, one must note.
The opposition called Congress “professional thieves” for taking this decision, with BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla saying the decision depicted a "guilty mind" in itself.
The question is, is the Hand finally levelling the field politically against the Lotus?
No Tirupati Laddu for Jagan
Former Andhra CM Jagan Mohan Reddy, in retaliation to the accusations of adulteration in the laddus of the Temple of Tirupati starting in his rule, was all hyped up to visit the holy site. And then, decided not to. Why? The reason is unclear, although security issues are being thought of as the main ones.
Earlier this week, while the issue was fresh and boiling, Jagan had accused Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu of being a habitual liar in a letter he wrote to PM Modi.
The YSRCP supremo told Modi that Naidu wanted to hide the failures of his first 100 days. So the best solution? A hugely controversial issue that will divert attention from his government.
Jagan also said that there was much ado over nothing in the Laddu row, as the adulterated ghee was never used to make the Laddus, something the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams themselves confirmed.
Amidst all this, the chief priest of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Acharya Satyendra Das, has claimed that the laddus from Tirupati were also distributed during the Ram Lalla consecration ceremony on January 22 this year as 'prasad' among the devotees.
As the temple priests held purification rituals, probes have been ordered into the issue, and petitions have also been filed in the SC. But interestingly, the whole row seems to have not affected devotees at all, who bought 14 lakh laddus from the temple in 4 days. Much ado over nothing indeed…
End of Act 2 in the J&K show with tensions rising
A 54 per cent turnout is not bad for Jammu and Kashmir, although many of the constituencies, including the ‘boycott capital’ of Kashmir- Srinagar, saw a sharp decline in voters from 2014. Which is surprising given the enthusiasm for elections in the Union Territory this time around. It was also below the 58 per cent of the first phase. This might have been because Phase 2 turned into a sort of tourist show for foreigners.
A delegation of diplomats from 16 countries, including the US, Norway, and Singapore, observed the second phase of polling in Jammu and Kashmir. If word got around about the delegation, many who might have voted perhaps decided against it.
“They made another mistake of bringing those diplomats to show the higher percentage of voting, but people of Srinagar didn't want that to happen,” NC leader Omar Abdullah told reporters.
Speaking of whom, it seems the NC-Congress alliance is starting to show cracks. Omar told reporters that Congress’ campaign in Jammu is yet to take off. He advised Rahul Gandhi to instead focus on Kashmir now. Which seems counterproductive given that most of Congress’ seats are in Jammu.
Meanwhile, BJP continued its campaign’s triad of ending terrorism in all forms in Jammu & Kashmir, with Amit Shah asserting “Those who would promote terrorism will meet the same fate as that of Afzal Guru.”
Of rats and lions
Jharkhand is set to go to polls soon. Resultantly, political parties are stepping up their barb game too.
The recently out-of-jail Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren compared the BJP’s ideological parent, RSS to ‘rats’, accusing both organisations of creating communal disturbances and tension ahead of elections for political gains. When they come to you with liquor, chase them away, Soren said.
In response, BJP proudly defended RSS as ‘Hindu lions’, not ‘rats', while also accusing Soren of attempting patronising politics with Bangladeshi infiltrators.
Once this died down, the BJP took their turn to fire at Soren, with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh criticising him for "pretending to be a martyr" after his imprisonment on corruption charges.
Not wanting to miss out on the action, Kalpana Soren hit back at BJP, alleging the saffron party of bringing “impostors” into the state to mislead people ahead of the assembly polls.
Expect the back and forths between JMM and BJP to continue and even increase in number and volume as the elections draw closer, with other parties joining along too.
Sulking Selja snubs saffron
With elections close, it was surprising to see Kumari Selja not actively campaigning in Haryana. One might have sensed something was wrong within Congress.
BJP certainly did, going all out to get the Congress leader to switch. But she rubbished any rumours of her turning saffron and has joined Congress’ campaign now.
Selja reportedly wanted to contest the elections, and even run for the CM’s post. But Congress decided against allowing current MPs from contesting in the elections, which led to a dispute between her and the party.
A temporary truce came after Selja met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday for a long meeting to hear her grievances and on Tuesday on her birthday. Selja has announced her decision to restart her campaign.
And so, with civil war on hold in Haryana Congress, Rahul Gandhi finally decided to join campaigns in the state too.
The FM and EY's stressed-out employee
When Anna Sebastian Perayil's death became the talk of the town, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman called for stress management lessons to increase students' inner strength. Sounds eerily like Mr Murthy’s call for 70-hour work weeks…
Anna, an EY employee, reportedly died due to a ‘back-breaking’ workload. Congress, accusing Sitharaman of victim-blaming, said that the ruling regime can only see the pain of Adani and Ambani, not that of youth like Anna.
The FM later clarified that she had not shamed the victim in any way and her comments were neither intended to do so, but the damage was already done.
Badla in Badlapur?
In a shocking turn of events, the Badlapur sexual abuse accused reportedly stole a cop’s gun while travelling for investigation, and fired at the cops before being shot dead.
The whole incident seems a bit perplexing, with many, including the accused’s kin claiming it was an encounter. The Bombay HC too questioned why the accused was shot in the head.
Maha CM Shinde defended the police, asking what if the accused had run away, while the opposition claimed that there were many loopholes in the cops’ version of the incident.
UN Unchained?
India, this week, asserted that the UNSC is a prisoner of the past, which leaves the Global South short-changed. The rest of the world seems to agree, with France backing India for a permanent member position. Others want to see the veto removed and give the SC its power back.
Anura Marx a new start
Anura Kumara Dissanayake took oath as the ninth President of Sri Lanka after winning a much-anticipated election in the island country. Anura is part of the Marxist JVP of Sri Lanka, which had previously fought with Indian Peacekeeping forces. While India has established contact with him, it will take time for trust to build, as Anura is known to be close to China too.
Elsewhere, Shigeru Ishiba is set to become the next PM of Japan, having defeated eight other candidates.
Nukes, Netanyahu & the world
Ceasefire with Hezbollah doesn’t seem to be on Israel’s to-do list, although they claim to be working on it. The Jewish state rejected proposals from the United States and France calling for a 21-day ceasefire.
On the Russian front, Putin warned the West that Russia could use nuclear weapons if it was struck with conventional missiles given to Ukraine by the West, which the United States and Britain deliberated about permitting.
That's all folks!
We will be back with more next week in the same space.
Until then, Au revoir!
DH Newsletters Team