Blog: Not so mulayam with Mulayam

21

It's a decision, which defies logic and political sense. Mulayam Singh Yadav is a politician for whom you cannot even shed crocodile tears but the Congress has no explanation why it wants him out so badly. So badly, that the Congress Working Committee which met on the evening after the Samjhauta Express blasts, dwelt a passing moment on the explosions and focused essentially on the pros and cons of enforcing President's rule in Uttar Pradesh. Every political step is born out of a careful appraisal of gains and losses. The Congress must have done that umpteen times before it firmed up its decision on Uttar Pradesh. But if you ask who really profits from President's rule in the state, the Congress standpoint is simply inexplicable. First, the Supreme Court decision disqualifying 13 MLAs, (Science and Technology Minister and the party's eminent legal advisor Kapil Sibal insists that the disqualification should....

Defection dementia

2

One of the country's oldest, most wretched and most primitive lunatic asylums is located in Ranchi. As though that identity tag wasn't enough, now Jharkhand's politicians are infusing lunacy into Ranchi's politics. It is in this eastern province that democratic fixers and political wheeler-dealers are making hay with or without the sun shining on them. And they are deliberately doing so because the present electoral arithmetic gives an Independent MLA the advantage of being on the top of a pile of mercenary politicians. Chief Minister Madhu Koda, country's first Independent Chief Minister, is ruling the state with a strategically thought-out policy of appeasement since September last year. No, he is not a please-all populist. He is gratefully doling out favours to fellow-politicians who are helping him stay in power. Not that this strange and rather convenient policy of satisfying political co-passengers can last for long. Madhu Koda will soon run....

The importance of being Sidhu

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You just have to spread the message anywhere in Punjab that Sidhu is expected and that his name is there on the guest-list. There is no easier way of collecting a crowd. The Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment, handing him the suspended sentence of three year's imprisonment, has not really worked against him. There were jubilant celebrations in Amritsar when the Supreme Court granted the former cricketer that rare stay on conviction. It is not for nothing that the BJP sees enormous possibilities in the Sidhu phenomenon. Not that Sidhu has grown into his political role like the Sialkot willow moulds itself into a cricket bat (that's definitely not a Sidhuism). He has been a late entrant and probably wouldn't have taken the plunge if former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee hadn't convinced him. He was bowled over by the irrefutable argument that his idiomatic stroke-play should....