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The Rediff Special/A Ganesh Nadar

Strange coincidences

Our current prime minister has a new knee and our former prime minister is on his knees.

Rajiv Gandhi's assassination and the sympathy wave that followed catapulted P V Narasimha Rao to the prime minister's chair and J Jayalalitha to the chief minister's chair. Poetic justice that years later, they both get three years in jail in the same week.

There the similarity ends. While the Congress party has deserted Narasimha Rao, the AIADMK is firmly behind Jayalalitha. This is not because the AIADMK cadre loves Jayalalitha more and the Congress loves Rao less. The Congress has already found an alternative in Sonia Gandhi while the AIADMK has none.

In the Olympics hockey event -- India had to play Poland. India had to win for a place in the semi-finals, for Poland it did not matter whether it won or lost. Wish we had sent at least one former cricketer with the hockey team.

In Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had a tiff with his son -- M K Alagiri. Karunanidhi would brook no outside interference, he said it is a family matter. Alagiri's supporter's burnt a few state transport buses in Madurai. I guess it is their family property.

In our country, teachers always go on strike during the final exams. And in Mumbai, the municipal corporation went on strike when Vajpayeeji was in town. Mumbai is the money capital of India. Normally the buck stops here, this time the sh** also stopped here.

In Tamil we have a saying: Mullay mullal than edakannum, ie, to remove a thorn you have to use another thorn. So to rescue Rajakumar from Veerappan, if we have to use P Nedumaran -- so be it.

In Kerala, the panchayat elections have just concluded. The BJP and the Congress have helped each other in quite a few panchayats. Is this a trial even for the state elections in the other Communist-ruled West Bengal? Or maybe the Kerala BJP is not communal like the BJP in the rest of the country. That is, from the Congress' point of view.

During elections I have heard about candidates vanishing. But the Congress is different. In the run-up to their organisational election, their returning officers are vanishing. Maybe now they should advertise themselves as being a "Party with a difference."

In Tamil Nadu, a caste-based party is being formed every week. And the next day they look for an alliance. And sadly, even the so-called secular parties have no problems about alliances with casteist groups. As if communalism is anyway different from caste-based division.

In my village two elders were discussing the JMM bribery case. Their opinion was: "When we get Rs 50 to vote in the panchayat election, MPs will naturally get Rs 50 lakh, after all they are voting in Parliament."

In Punjab, the government has decided to buy sub-standard paddy from the farmers. The FCI is making pious noises that it will not accept sub-standard rice finding its way to the ration shops. And the poor will not complain because the rice in the ration shop has always been sub-standard.

In Tamil Nadu the teacher/student ratio is 1/40. The teachers wanted a 1/20 ratio. The chief minister agreed to a 1/30 ratio but with a rider. He said he would implement it after the next election. Wise move, because most of the officials in election booths are teachers.

Petrol, diesel and LPG prices have been raised because the international price of crude oil has gone up. Sounds reasonable. But when crude oil was selling at ten dollars per barrel, prices were not reduced here. Now we have to rely on the antics of Mamata Banerjee for a roll back.

Vajpayeeji was in hospital. All those who wanted to wish him could e-mail him at a specifically registered e-mail id: at yahoo.com. I don't have anything against Yahoo but how come the Swadeshi Jagran Manch didn't insist that Vajpayeeji should be registered only at an Indian portal?

Talking about wishing Vajpayeeji, everybody else was praying for him. Except one Union minister who wrote a poem for his recovery. No prize for guessing who -- the minister belongs to Tamil Nadu.

Everybody insists that the BJP talks in different voices. But a definite pattern is emerging. Vajpayeeji talks to the moderate voter. The RSS and Bajrang Dal to the fundamentalist voters. The VHP to the religious voters. Bangaru Laxman to the Dalit and Muslim voters. The finance minister to the liberalisation supporters, and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch to the Swadeshi supporters. They think they have all the angles covered. But the Indian electorate has time and again proved that it is not all that gullible. The BJP will realise this after it is too late.

The Rediff Specials

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