Wordsmiths & Newsplumbers

  BY R.K.MISRA There is turmoil in the saffron brotherhood as the old order clashes with an emerging one led by personality dominant Prime Minister Narendra Modi who brooks no opposition and covets complete control. It is this tectonic shift  that is causing friction between the ‘plates’ within the larger saffron-fold.Thus you see the TDP-BJP pact under strain in Andhra Pradesh, the BJP-PDP governance unease in J&K, the Shiv Sena straining at the leash in Maharashtra and the poll imbroglio in Nagaland. As the man in total command of the Government and the party, both national governance as well as the ruling party’s politics rotates on a single axis, Narendra Modi. It is he who exercises a cast iron control over the administration through a network of civil servants-both serving and retired-personally loyal to him. By last count there must be seventy such officers-serving and retired- from Gujarat alone sprinkled all over key governance positions, outside his parent state.

BY R.K.MISRA Why is  Vishwa Hindu Parishad, International president Pravin Togadia fearful for his life in  BJP ruled Gujarat ?. This million rupee puzzle is defying an answer as unfolding events indicate something amiss in the saffron brotherhood. VHP leader Dr Pravin Togadia who mysteriously disappeared on January 15 from the VHP office in Ahmedabad causing consterned cadres to take to the streets leading to stray incidents of violence, re-appeared in a city hospital in an unconscious condition the same evening. The next day,Togadia went public charging that there was an attempt to muzzle his voice for raising issues like the construction of the Ram temple, resettlement of Kashmiri pundits, curbing cow slaughter and ensuring right price to farmers for their produce. Known for his fiery temperament and acidic tongue, Togadia was tearful in his interaction with mediapersons. He said that he had gone into hiding fearing an ‘encounter’ by the police. News of the V