Wordsmiths & Newsplumbers

BY R.K.MISRA
Political epitaphs have a way of returning to reclaim the hand that buried them.
If the present prime minister of India, spares no effort to berate Jawaharlal Nehru for perceived injustice to his deputy Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, how would Narendra Modi be rated when posterity evaluates him for putting to pasture two of his own party patriarchs-L.K.Advaniand Murli Manohar Joshi? Lot less flatteringly then he desires.
Lack of basic courtesy bordering on utter disdain marked the manner in which the two were sent packing. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the third of the triad that sculpted the BJP to power, had already been reduced to a ritual when he bowed out.
Every dawn comes with a timed sunset but it is the way you treat your revered that shows the moral fibre of a leadership and the pedigree of a party. It is common knowledge that BJP president Amit Shah did not even care to inform the two that their candidature was not in the reckoning in the 2019 general elec…

BY R.K.MISRA
Gujarat is the home state of two of the most powerful people in India today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. 
Both were deeply rooted in state politics before graduating to centre-stage. Both leveraged  their standing in the state to carve out a national niche for themselves. And both wield power with elan and an element of ruthlessness to achieve desired results. Additionally, Shah remains a loyal shadow of Modi and his single most trusted lieutenant. This constitutes the biggest strength of  the BJP in Gujarat and also it s most flawed weakness.
An outright winner in 2014, BJP bagged all the 26 seats in the state. It has nothing beyond this to gain in the 2019 elections  here. It fights to repeat the feat. The Congress, on the other hand, has nothing to lose and everything to gain.  The addition  of even a single seat constitutes a win and  is one less for it’s principal rival.
Gujarat has been the crucible for Indian political experiments for long…

BY R.K.MISRA
When Prime MinisterNarendra Modichose Amit Shah as a replacement for BJP veteran L.K. Advani from Gandhinagar lok sabha constituency for the 2019 general elections, it was more to recreate the Atal-Advani visual imagery in governance than anything else. . Prime Minister Modi is a great one for symbolisms as image building tools . By replacing L.K.Advani with BJP party chief Amit Shah, the obvious message sought to be conveyed is thatthe seat has been given to thenational party president as a mark of respect to the veteran leader who held it for seventerms.
The add-on is thatafter completion of his second term as party chief, Shah may find place in the cabinet as a number two if the BJP comes back to power at the Centre. The most enduring image that still moves the Jan Sangh-BJP imageryis the Atal Bihari Vajpayee- L.K.Advaniduo. Both images off course are a take-off from the original one in the first government of independent India - Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru- to his dep…

BY  R.K.MISRA

The BJP bagged all the 26 lok sabha seat in Gujarat in 2014.  A repeat feat is almost impossible in 2019. So it begs, borrows  and steals !
As general elections 2019 near, the BJP credo of a ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’(Congress free India) , enunciated by its   president Amit shah at the beginning of the term seems to have petered  into a ‘Congress yukt  Bhajap’ (Congress colonized BJP)as it nears the end. This may be less noticeable in other states but is more so in Gujarat , his home state as well as that of  Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The BJP which prides itself on being a cadre-based party sees no problems in cannibalizing from the Congress. After It worked overtime, to win over Kunvarji Bavaliya, a senior leader  of the Gujarat Congress, it had early this February inducted Asha Patel, Congress legislator from Unjha constituency in North Gujarat. Patel quit the party and her seat  to join the BJP soon after. 
Not content, the poaching continued into March when Congress le…

BY R.K.MISRA
Don’t play with fire, it burns.
The caste conundrum has burnt the BJP’s boats in Madhya Pradesh and is set to singe it in Gujarat, even sink it !
Caught in a cleft-stickfollowing the 2015patidaragitation which saw the ruling party nearly toppled fromits power perch in the 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections, successive BJP governments in Gujarat find themselves lost in the reservation alley, sinking further every time it seeks to beat its way out.
It’s latest move came on December 8 when it put out a list of 69 castes and sub-groups among, hindus, muslims, Christians, jains, parsis as well as jews who wouldbe defined as “unreserved classes”.
Officially the list is designed to provide caste certificates to those from theunreserved castes so that they can get benefits under the Gujarat Unreserved Educational and Economical Development Corporation Scheme of 2017.”This in effect means that the government has now created a new caste category called the ‘unreserved castes’. It’s like the pr…

BY R.K.MISRA
In a rare show of solidarity over the transfer of Justice Akil Kureshi to Bombay High Court, the Bar in the Western India state of Gujarat went on strike and relented only after a meeting with Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi.
Rarely has the transfer of a High Court judge created the sort of upsurge in thelegal fraternity in Gujarat as was witnessedwhen Justice Akil Kureshi was moved to Bombay. The Bar struck work, and in one voice urged the apex court to reconsider it’s decision.
On October 29,the supreme CourtCollegium had recommended transfer of justice Kureshi, the second most senior judge of the Gujarat High Court to the Bombay High Court. It also cleared the elevation of Gujarat High Court chief justice R.Subhash Reddy as a Supreme Court judge. Ideally, after justiceReddy’s promotion, Justice Kureshi should have been made acting chief justice. But on November 1, the Centre issued a notification appointing Justice A. Dave to this post and asked Justice Kureshi to ta…