O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Musharraf’s musings
Find an honourable exit, General
WITH rumours galore about President Pervez Musharraf’s plans to leave Pakistan and live in exile, he has reacted, ostensibly, to tell his political opponents that he should not be treated as a spent force. The former Chief of Army Staff gave the impression that he was as capable of defending his interests as ever. 

Chargesheeted at last
JBT recruitment scamsters must not escape
THE CBI seems to have done its homework thoroughly in the infamous JBT recruitment scam. It has filed the chargesheet after full four years of investigation. The long time taken, hopefully, would ensure that those guilty of appointing over 3,000 teachers on the basis of fraudulently prepared lists would not easily find loopholes in the case.

Mulayam meets Maya
Hard battles and soft illusions
IT is precisely the kind of situation that — psychologists would say — calls for a reality check. Two political heavyweights who are inveterate foes, forever shooting from the lip at each other, finally meet — no, not their comeuppance — on common ground. Facts can be stranger than the fiction that sustains Bollywood potboilers.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

Unfriendly allies
Coalition woes of the Congress
by Amulya Ganguli
In the aftermath of the series of electoral setbacks which the Congress has suffered, it should not only look at its own faults, but also ponder over the less than helpful role which its allies have played ever since the Manmohan Singh government took office. It is more than likely that an honest appraisal will make it realise that with such friends, one doesn’t need enemies.

MIDDLE

Sahil is no more
by Ehsan Fazili
I had heard of him during my high school days in the early 1970s. He was known as an outstanding student, poet, vibrant and loving personality in Degree College, Sopore. Scores of miles away, many of my likes would love to know about him from our seniors or relatives, who happened to be the junior college mates of Ashraf Sahil.

OPED

Rollback in Pakistan
Army poised to return to bad old ways
by Ahmed Rashid
KABUL, Afghanistan – Relations between the US military and the Pakistani army, critical allies in the “war on terror,” are at their worst point since Sept. 11, 2001, senior Western military officers and diplomats here say, as Pakistani troops withdraw from several tribal areas bordering Afghanistan that are home to Taliban and al-Qaida leaders and thousands of their fighters.

Delay in curbing emissions will prove costly
by Bharat Dogra
There is now greater agreement among scientists on the seriousness of the threat of climate change than at any time before. Unfortunately, however, despite the availability of growing scientific evidence since 1990 of the very serious threat of climate change, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have actually increased since then!

Chatterati
Hot and cold
by Devi Cherian
Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav stole the show with his wit and humour at the ‘Paanchvi Paas’ Shah Rukh Khan show. Well, may be Lalu was invited thinking that he might reverse the fortunes of the (almost) flop show. Laluji made a dramatic entrance in a dummy train. Though he could not manage to get the whole score he did take back a whopping sum of Rs 1 crore.

EDITORIALS

Musharraf’s musings
Find an honourable exit, General

WITH rumours galore about President Pervez Musharraf’s plans to leave Pakistan and live in exile, he has reacted, ostensibly, to tell his political opponents that he should not be treated as a spent force. The former Chief of Army Staff gave the impression that he was as capable of defending his interests as ever. After all, Article 58 (2) b of the constitution is still there which the PPP, leading the ruling coalition, has proposed to remove through a reform package offered to its allies. The retired General did not say it openly that he could use the controversial provision if any effort was made to clip his wings. But there was enough hint that he would not take this lying down.

The president has no objection to the move for the reinstatement of the deposed judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. He knows that restoring the judiciary to its pre-November 3, 2007, position will amount to putting in jeopardy the interests of PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari too. That is why he does not appear to be as much scared of bringing the sacked judges back to their courts as he is of a situation that may arise after he loses his extraordinary powers under Article 58 (2) b. Though he says that those who want to impeach him must follow the procedure laid down in the constitution, he will never allow this to happen so long as he is armed with the power to sack the government and the national and provincial assemblies.

However, it would be dangerous for President Musharraf to adopt such a course. The people will not tolerate any move to derail democracy. Though the coalition government has so far remained almost dysfunctional, this has in no way affected the strong anti-Musharraf sentiment raging throughout Pakistan. Mr Zardari’s latest statement that the president cannot escape impeachment if he refuses to see the writing on the wall says enough about what is there in store for the former dictator. He must look for the exit door in his own interest as well as in the interest of Pakistan. Any attempt to prevent the restoration of democracy will be suicidal. 

Chargesheeted at last
JBT recruitment scamsters must not escape

THE CBI seems to have done its homework thoroughly in the infamous JBT recruitment scam. It has filed the chargesheet after full four years of investigation. The long time taken, hopefully, would ensure that those guilty of appointing over 3,000 teachers on the basis of fraudulently prepared lists would not easily find loopholes in the case. The chargesheeted persons include former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, his MP son Ajay Chautala and two IAS officers. The case is one of the most infamous to emerge during the Chautala regime. The CBI has claimed that Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh was paid as bribe for selection of each of the 3,032 candidates in 1999-2000. Mr Chautala, who was also education minister at that time, had himself asked the then Director (Primary Education) Sanjeev Kumar to come up with a second set of interview list and those who paid to be included in this forged list got between 17 and 19 out of 20 marks in the interview. The candidates who could have been selected on merit out of the about 8,000 applicants were only given marks between 3 and 5.

Ironically, the self-styled whistle blower Sanjeev Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer, is himself a co-accused. He had filed a writ in the Supreme Court alleging that the Chautala government had resorted to corrupt practices while recruiting JBT teachers. He, too, was not found above board by the CBI. The agency had on February 17, 2005, carried out searches at 16 places and claimed to have unearthed disproportionate assets amounting to Rs 80.33 lakh acquired by him in his own name and in the name of his family members.

Now that the matter is before a CBI Special Judge, the candidates who were not selected can be hopeful of justice. Mr Chautala, on his part, cannot blame the state agencies of hounding him for political reasons. The CBI has already submitted before the Supreme Court that it would go ahead with the prosecution without securing the sanction of the Haryana Governor and the Lok Sabha Speaker. 

Mulayam meets Maya
Hard battles and soft illusions

IT is precisely the kind of situation that — psychologists would say — calls for a reality check. Two political heavyweights who are inveterate foes, forever shooting from the lip at each other, finally meet — no, not their comeuppance — on common ground. Facts can be stranger than the fiction that sustains Bollywood potboilers. So we have this meeting, after the proverbial 13 years between Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajwadi Party and Ms Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party. They met at the chief minister’s residence in Lucknow for a full hour and neither breathed a word of what transpired. The less they say, the more will be the speculation. Silence is the best way to keep tongues wagging, as they both know.

The official reason for their meeting was to nominate members of the Uttar Pradesh State Human Rights Commission. Both are members of the selection committee: Ms Mayawati as Chief Minister and Mr Mulayam Singh as Leader of the Opposition. The last time the two met, observers remind us, was on June 2, 1995. Stranger political bedfellows have got together in Indian politics. So, what’s the big deal?

The big deal is that when two such biggies meet on their own stamping ground and desist from political sniping and wrestling, it is certainly no small deal. Something must be afoot. It could be anything from burying the hatchet to sizing up each other as potential allies or opponents. Or, contrary to such interested speculation, they were strictly business-like and, with curt nods and clipped sentences, decided the names of the UPSHRC. What reports say about the meeting doesn’t say much. What reports don’t say about the meeting is a lot. And, there don’t seem to be any grapevines to gather from in this season of mangoes. Ah, for the juicy delights of speculation! Sooner or later, something has got to give, be they only straws in the wind.

Thought for the day

To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely. — Edmund Burke

ARTICLE

Unfriendly allies
Coalition woes of the Congress
by Amulya Ganguli

In the aftermath of the series of electoral setbacks which the Congress has suffered, it should not only look at its own faults, but also ponder over the less than helpful role which its allies have played ever since the Manmohan Singh government took office. It is more than likely that an honest appraisal will make it realise that with such friends, one doesn’t need enemies. The most prominent among the parties and groups which seemingly guide the Congress in accordance with an often misinterpreted coalition “dharma” are the Left, the RJD, the NCP and the DMK.

To start with the last, the southern party appears focussed on ensuring that its partisan interests are looked after rather than dictate policy options to the government, as the far more dogmatic communists do. Apart from scuttling the disinvestment of the Neyveli Lignite Corporation under pressure from the trade unions, the DMK hasn’t interfered in any major way as long as its two ministers — Mr T.R. Baalu and Mr A. Raja — are left alone to pursue the interests of their own, their families and their ministries, in that order. The only negative impact of such laissez faire tactics of the Prime Minister is the dent in the government’s reputation for probity, which may be one of the reasons why the Congress is faring badly in the polls. But compared to the damage which some of the other allies, such as the Left, are inflicting on the Grand Old Party of Indian independence, the DMK’s contribution isn’t much.

The role of the NCP, which is closer to the Congress than the others since it is one of its offshoots, is on a par with the DMK where undercutting the Congress is concerned — neither too much nor too little. Its ministers haven’t been involved in questionable deals like Mr Baalu, but the performances of neither the vastly experienced Mr Sharad Pawar in agriculture nor of the personable Mr Praful Patil in aviation has been much to write home about. As such, their failures have damaged both the Congress and the UPA. What is more, doubts about the durability of the Congress-NCP partnership, whether at the Centre or in Maharashtra, have persisted throughout the UPA’s tenure. Not surprisingly, Mr Bal Thackeray lost no time in muddying the waters by expressing his preference for Mr Pawar as the Prime Minister.

If the RJD has been somewhat more steadfast in its alliance with the Congress, the reason evidently is that its defeat in Bihar has robbed it of the chance of playing too many games. The seemingly secure position of Mr Nitish Kumar in Patna has also helped in cementing the Congress-RJD tie-up, which may prove to be more long-lasting than any of the other alliances formed by the Congress. Mr Lalu Yadav’s legal troubles have also undoubtedly cramped his style and made him stay close to the centres of power in Delhi. But where the RJD let down the Congress was in teaming up with the DMK and the NCP to negate the possibility of the government okaying the nuclear deal and bringing the general election forward.

All these three parties were seemingly guided in taking this decision by, first, their reluctance to face the electorate earlier than was strictly necessary and, secondly, by the typically blinkered outlook of regional outfits which not only lack a national vision, but are also incapable of appreciating what is of value to the country. Although none of them are ideologically opposed to the nuclear deal like the communists, their myopia makes them oblivious of what the end of the nuclear apartheid, in force against India since Pokhran I of 1974, will mean for this country. Or perhaps they do not care for, deal or no deal, their interests that are more in Bihar, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu than in India as a whole.

However, by helping the Left’s obstructionism on the nuclear pact, and being unenthusiastic about economic reforms, these parties have tended to convey the impression of a Congress bound hand and foot by its friends. And it is possibly this view of a hapless Congress which is responsible for its electoral misfortunes. While the man-in-the-street may not be able to understand the intricacies of the deal or its international ramifications, he can see that notwithstanding all the strenuous efforts of the Prime Minister in explaining his case, he cannot move an inch forward because of the roadblocks put up by the allies. His party, too, does not stand by him either because it is not fully convinced about the importance of the matter, or because it is scared to offend its partners and face an early election on its own, or because of the machinations of old warhorses unhappy with Mr Manmohan Singh’s elevation to the Prime Minister’s post.

What is true of the deal is also true of economic reforms, which has enabled India to scale the heights of the growth chart by breaking out of the stranglehold of the licence-permit-control raj. Yet, in this field, too, the government has been paralysed by the Left’s obstinacy although, curiously, the opposition of the comrades to the so-called market-oriented neo-liberal policies does not extend to their own backyard of West Bengal, where both Mr Jyoti Basu and Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharjee have openly extolled capialism. At the Centre, however, a whole range of reforms from disinvestment to insurance, pension fund, banking and labour laws to FDI in the retail business to the entry of foreign universities, etc, has been held up by the Left, leaving the government looking like the frightened victim of a bully. It is obvious that such an impression of timidity does not help a party to win friends and influence people.

What the comrades, who also run regional outfits, and the other regional parties do not seem to understand is that by making the Congress appear weak and helpless, they are subverting their own much proclaimed cause of secularism since the only beneficiary of a feeble and vulnerable Congress is the BJP. In fact, this is exactly what has happened with the saffron outfit winning one election after another and even feeling reasonably confident of bucking the anti-incumbency factor at least in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, if not in Rajasthan. Strangely, even as the Congress is growing weak, the Left, too, has fallen prey to the same wasting disease, as its recent reverses in the West Bengal panchayat polls show. Clearly, a partnership which has helped neither is a deeply flawed one.

The primary fault for bringing the electoral misery down on its own head is obviously that of the Congress. In its eagerness to sustain its first coalition at the Centre, the Congress forgot to tell its putative friends that as the first party in an alliance, it had the right to draw a Lakshman rekha beyond which it could not be pushed. Nor could it articulate, as Mr Jyoti Basu and Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharjee have done, that the end of socialism meant that the market could no longer be ignored since it played a predominant role in the economy. Only occasionally has Mr P.Chidambaram plaintively complained of the anti-growth stance of 60-odd MPs who seemed to believe in distributing poverty. It would have been better if he had named the Left by name, but such boldness is apparently equated with impoliteness in the Congress. But the end result of such diffidence and uncertain policies is that the Congress will continue to court electoral disaster.

MIDDLE

Sahil is no more
by Ehsan Fazili

I had heard of him during my high school days in the early 1970s. He was known as an outstanding student, poet, vibrant and loving personality in Degree College, Sopore. Scores of miles away, many of my likes would love to know about him from our seniors or relatives, who happened to be the junior college mates of Ashraf Sahil.

He had joined the college at Sopore after traversing a distance of more than 100 km from Gurez, which still continues to remain cut off during winter months. Time and things kept on marching ahead, many of us moving out of the high school, degree college and the University of Kashmir.

While I was in the post-graduate department of English at the University of Kashmir in the early 1980s, I could find that he was remembered though he had completed his post-graduation from the department a decade ago. By then he was already in the electronic media, and remained associated with Radio Kashmir or Srinagar Doordarshan.

In the summer of 1982, I happened to meet him for the first time. Having been associated with Doordarshan, he had to conduct an interactive programme with a visiting Professor from London at the Department of English, Kashmir University. It was recorded in one of the guest houses of British vintage on the right bank of the Jhelum at Sonwar, the place now dotted by concrete ministerial bungalows.

The serene and silent atmosphere befitted the literary taste of the teachers, Dr G.K. Das, then Head of the Department, and Dr Tej Nath Dhar, while a few of the students, including this writer, comprised the little audience, specially brought together by the programme producer.

His professional expertise coupled with literary taste was distinct as he gave technical tips to the participants for conducting the programme. The producer got a compliment from his old classmate and our teacher, Dr Tej Nath Dhar. All smiles, the half-an hour or so programme was over and was telecast a few days later.

Eight years later when I met him as a journalist in the chilly winter of 1990 during the days of militancy, it turned out to be like reliving a decades-old acquaintance. He was then heading Srinagar Doordarshan. His keenness to bring out the hidden talent in anybody has been unparalleled. He never disappointed me whenever I was in need of a quote from any distinguished artist from Bollywood, a local musician, a poet or an intellectual, or a top political leader. During all these years I never got a negative reply from him. Everybody in the media felt the same way.

“What is the media scene?” happened to be Ashraf Sahil’s first question at every meeting. Alas! That voice is no more. Sad came the news on Tuesday. Few words and more gestures conveyed it all among his colleagues and friends.

OPED

Rollback in Pakistan
 Army poised to return to bad old ways
by Ahmed Rashid

KABUL, Afghanistan – Relations between the US military and the Pakistani army, critical allies in the “war on terror,” are at their worst point since Sept. 11, 2001, senior Western military officers and diplomats here say, as Pakistani troops withdraw from several tribal areas bordering Afghanistan that are home to Taliban and al-Qaida leaders and thousands of their fighters.

General Ashfaq Kiyani, chief of the Pakistani army, has told U.S. military and NATO officials that he will not retrain or reequip troops to fight the counterinsurgency war the Americans are demanding on Pakistan’s mountainous western border.

Instead, the bulk of the army will remain deployed on Pakistan’s eastern border and prepare for possible conflicts with traditional enemy India - wars that have always been fought on the plains of Punjab. More than 80 percent of the $10 billion in U.S. aid to Pakistan since the Sept. 11 attacks has gone to the military; much of it has been used to buy expensive weapons systems for the Indian front rather than the smaller items needed for counterinsurgency.

There are also signs that Washington is delaying delivery of US arms meant for the eastern front and is asking Western allies to do the same.

In recent weeks, Islamic militants in Indian Kashmir, restrained by Islamabad since Pakistan and India conducted peace talks in 2004, have revived their attacks against Indian forces. Extremist bombings in Jaipur, India, on May 14 killed more than 80 people. Relations between India and Pakistan have improved dramatically in recent years, but tensions could again escalate.

Pakistani army officials have told Washington that they will continue to deploy the Frontier Corps and other paramilitary units along the long, porous border with Afghanistan, but they are poorly equipped, badly trained and have lost every major engagement with militants so far. The US military is training and equipping these nearly 100,000 troops but has rejected Pakistani requests to equip four to five new units.

The Taliban virtually rules the seven tribal agencies that make up the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Growing frustration among U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has led to a crescendo of calls by U.S. and Afghan officials, NATO officers, European leaders and the United Nations urging Pakistan to continue supporting the fight against extremism.

But the Pakistani army is shaken. It has lost more than 1,000 paramilitary and other soldiers since its first offensive against the Taliban in 2004. Recently, it has reached unofficial peace deals with Pakistani and Afghan Taliban leaders in the tribal areas in which they have promised not to attack Pakistani forces.

These deals do not stop the Taliban from attacking NATO and Afghan forces in Afghanistan. Taliban attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan have risen dramatically this spring; in April, incidents spiked to more than 100 a week, up from about 60 a week in March.

Attacks probably rose in May, according to NATO officials, who report a sharp increase in the number of Pakistanis, Arabs and those of other nationalities fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan.

One effect of the peace deals became clear last month, when 30 journalists were invited to an unprecedented news conference in South Waziristan with Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban and the main host for Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida leaders in the tribal areas. Journalists saw few signs of the military, with the Taliban occupying army posts that had been abandoned.

Mehsud vowed that “jihad in Afghanistan will continue” and declared that “Islam does not recognize any man-made barriers or boundaries.” Last month, a Taliban Web site called for a general uprising in Afghanistan “till the withdrawal of the last crusading invader.”

Early victims of the Pakistani army’s strategic shift are the civilian governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is under severe international pressure to improve governance and fight corruption, told me during a long conversation that he was deeply frustrated by Pakistan’s attitude. “We have to succeed in convincing the world to end the sanctuaries for terrorism,” Karzai said.

The stepped-up Taliban insurgency in southern and eastern Afghanistan, he said, makes it difficult to provide the security needed for improved governance and faster reconstruction.

In Peshawar, the largest city in northwest Pakistan, senior government officials said that the army has not shared details of the peace deals or intelligence information but that they were not in a position to contradict the army or the deals. Peshawar is virtually besieged by Taliban-style militias to its north, south and west, which carry out bombings and kidnappings, despite the agreements.

It was hoped that after elections in February ended nine years of military rule, Pakistan’s civilian government would take charge of foreign policy and persuade the army to share national security policy toward India and Afghanistan.

But the government has been plagued by problems and is paralyzed on several fronts. Getting the army back on track to fight extremism is vital if Pakistan is not to be swamped by Taliban-style rule and become a haven for al-Qaida.

Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist, is the author most recently of “Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.”

By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

Delay in curbing emissions will prove costly
by Bharat Dogra

There is now greater agreement among scientists on the seriousness of the threat of climate change than at any time before. Unfortunately, however, despite the availability of growing scientific evidence since 1990 of the very serious threat of climate change, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have actually increased since then!

Compare this record with the daunting task ahead. In order to keep the threat of climate change to somewhat tolerable levels, leading experts have given developed countries the task of reducing GHG emissions by 30 per cent till year 2020, and by almost 80 percent till year 2050, compared to 1990 levels.

This is not an impossible task but certainly quite a difficult one, particularly when one sees that the USA, which is responsible for the most GHG emissions, has adopted quite an unhelpful attitude. Noble Prize winner Al Gore squarely blamed his country (the USA) for the failure at the Bali Summit recently to reach GHG reduction targets.

The European Union has indicated that it can agree to the target of reducing 30 per cent GHG emissions by year 2020, subject to certain conditions that its international competitiveness is not disturbed. However, as the USA is not willing to commit itself to legally binding emission reduction targets, this leaves open the question of whether other developed countries will also back out from ambitious targets saying that their international competitiveness vis-a-vis the USA will be adversely affected.

Another contentious issue is the responsibility of fast-industrialising developing countries. On the whole it is widely agreed that since developed countries have been mainly responsible for creating the problem of climate change by their high levels of per capita GHG emissions, they have the main responsibility to tackle this problem by reducing their per capita emissions.

This is why so far developing nations have not been asked to meet any legally binding targets for reducing GHG emissions. However, some countries like the USA have been saying that as developing countries like China, India and Brazil are fast industrialising and also have huge populations, their overall emissions are high (even through per capita emission is low) and this is likely to increase at a fast pace with stepped-up industrialisation.

Developing countries like India reply that the crucial indicator is per capita GHG emission and in this respect they are far from the levels reached by developed countries. Developing countries also point out that the assistance given by developed countries to help developing countries to help them to meet the challenge of climate change is very low.

International development organisation Oxfam recently estimated that in developing countries, adaptation to climate change will cost at least $50 billion each year, and far more if global emissions are not cut rapidly. According to Oxfam's new Adaptation Financing Index, the USA, European Union, Japan, Canada, and Australia should contribute over 95 percent of this finance. This should be separate from the normal aid flows that already exist. However, till a few months back rich countries had delivered just $48 million to international funds for least-developed country adaptation. In other words they have contributed just 0.1 per cent of what is needed every year.

In addition, developing countries are apprehensive that existing WTO rules and particularly rigid intellectual property laws will stand in the way of getting cheaper technology from developed countries to reduce GHG emissions. At the same time the rapid escalation of international trade promoted by organisations like WTO will lead to higher-levels of transport-related GHG emissions.

There is also growing concern over the misuse of the carbon credits system. At times ecologically destructive projects have been launched in developing countries under this system while on other occasions its overall benefits for combating climate change have been far from clear. There are serious apprehensions by environmental groups that this system is being used as a cover by many vested interests to make some quick money.

Organisations like Greenpeace have highlighted studies which say that while per capita emissions in developing countries like India may be low, the emissions of the richest groups in these countries can be very high and there is a need to curb emissions at least in these top-income groups.

The world can not afford to forget that ultimately this global problem which can threaten the survival of all of us can only be controlled by the cooperation of all. Already adequate response has been delayed for too long. More delay will be simply too costly.

Chatterati
Hot and cold
by Devi Cherian

Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav stole the show with his wit and humour at the ‘Paanchvi Paas’ Shah Rukh Khan show. Well, may be Lalu was invited thinking that he might reverse the fortunes of the (almost) flop show. Laluji made a dramatic entrance in a dummy train. Though he could not manage to get the whole score he did take back a whopping sum of Rs 1 crore.

The Bihar leader answered all questions correctly in the rapid-fire round of the mock session. He did not need the help of the ‘Cheaters’. An impressed SRK told him: “Laluji, you are a walking-talking encyclopaedia. I am a big fan of yours.” To which Lalu quipped: “And I am the air-conditioner of Shah Rukh bhai, not just a fan.”

His knowledge of his department was impeccable. Lalu refused to mouth the usual “Main paanchvi class se tez nahin hoon” at the end of the show. He has decided to use the amount for the Railway Welfare and Relief Fund. The hall was full of railway officials. Also present were Minister of State for Home Kripa Shankar Singh and police officers.

Lucky matters

BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa is to retain his house on Race Course Road in Bangalore, as he considers it lucky. Yeddyurappa, who led his party to a spectacular victory in the assembly elections, was wearing a white-coloured silk ‘panche’ (dhoti) as he took oath as chief minister of Karnataka.

He recited a mantra in praise of his family deity Yediyuru Siddalingeshwara. Yeddyurappa always keeps a silver Gandaberunda (an Indian mythological bird with two heads said to possess magnificent strength) in his pocket. In the evening, he went to his residence on Race Course Road, which he was occupying as a deputy CM, and not to Anugraha, the CM’s official residence.

He did not take a single non-orchestrated step the whole day, as advised by his astrologers. Party sources say Daivajna K.N. Somayaji, the astrologer who used to advise H.D. Kumaraswamy, has been advising Yeddyurappa too. Somayaji had advised Kumaraswamy to wear a ‘panche’ and a white half-sleeved shirt during his swearing in ceremony. Somayaji says his advice to the CM is too personal to be shared with others. But one wonders how things get leaked out.

Leadership tussle

BJP leader Vijay Goel is busy projecting himself as the party’s best chief ministerial candidate in the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls. He is now a national general secretary. He is busy trying to woo the media and lead dharnas. Rajnath Singh is trying to portray Arun Jaitley’s name as CM of Delhi.

But L.K. Advani is banking on Jaitley’s proven electoral skills to deliver a BJP win in the states going in for elections. He does not want the lawyer to be wasted in Delhi. Advani also seems to know that the current confusion is masterminded by a veteran Delhi leader, who is known as the “adjournment master” in the Lok Sabha.