My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

BJP-NCP: Secret Deal ? By  Deepak Parvatiyar November 17, 2014 One man’s loss is another man’s gain! The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has gained as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) antagonised the Shiv Sena over the issue of share in the government. Discredited and doomed before the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the NCP grabbed its chances and catapulted itself into the position of kingmaker in the state with some smart decisions such as severing all ties with the Congress before the state elections and thereafter, lending unconditional support to the BJP that fell short of majority in the state and was being arm-twisted by a demanding Sena. NCP: From Marginal Player to Kingmaker From being completely written off, the NCP has rather scripted a great comeback on the Maharashtra political scene under Sharad Pawar. Consider how the NCP had been outrightly dismissed in the pre-poll surveys by the pollsters. There was no succour post-election either. The party p...

Getting high on an encounter with a don -- Underworld tales more fascinating than political stuff By Deepak Parvatiyar (This article was published in the October 2011 edition of Critique - A Review of Indian Journalism)  Way back in 1993, I got a call in my newspaper office from someone posing to be from the customs department, complimenting me for refusing to accept the parceled gift from him. The voice on the other side of the phone was unfamiliar to me. “Aapke taraf yeh hamara dosti ka haath tha. Par hamein aapse yahi ummid thi. Aapko kabhi koi problem ho to hamein bataiyega. (We had extended our hand of friendship to you but we had the same expectation from you (that you won’t accept the gift). If you face any problem, please tell us)”. Thereafter, when I went to the customs office to meet my sources, there were murmurs that Bhai had called me up. But Dawood was still not as big as he is now. I had been running a series on the Bombay blasts, exposing the of...

Delhi Assembly Elections : Top 10 Facts By  Deepak Parvatiyar November 15, 2014 The momentum for election to the 70-member Delhi Assembly, expected to be held in February next year, is gradually picking up. Delhi has been the quintessential seat of power from time immemorial. Its origins are traced to the Mahabharata period and the city remained the preferred capital of many empires and dynasties that ruled India for centuries. The British took control of the city in 1803 A.D. but during the rule of the British East India Company, Calcutta, being a port, was chosen the capital city till King George V decided to move the capital back to Delhi in 1911. Following are some of major points that characterize its electoral history : 1. Delhi became a Part-C State after Independence Being the national capital, certain kind of autonomy was envisaged for Delhi after Independence and it was accorded the status of a ‘C’ category state. Part-C states had limited legislat...

BJP’s new political strategy for Maharashtra November 13, 2014 05:01 PM punjabnewsexpress.com http://punjabnewsexpress.com/news/36241-bjps-new-political-strategy-for-maharashtra-.aspx By Deepak Parvatiyar NEW DELHI :  The way the Bharatiya Janata Party manoeuvred during the trust vote in Maharashtra Assembly on Wednesday is a lesson in political brinkmanship.  Consider how the party, despite being in minority, managed to get its Speaker elected unopposed and thereafter went on to win the trust vote through unconventional tactics that caught the Opposition unawares and forced them to cry foul. In the process, the BJP also promptly showed its estranged partner, the Shiv Sena –that till the last was hopeful of arm-twisting the Lotus in the name of common ideological heritage, its place in Machiavellian politics! The BJP, with 121 MLAs (down from 122 after its MLA Govind Rathod died of a heart attack on after the election on October 26) in the 288 (effec...

Five Major Issues in J&K Elections By  Deepak Parvatiyar November 13, 2014 The 2014 state elections in Jammu & Kashmir are different from the previous elections in the state because of several reasons. To name a few, they are being held on the sidelines of the devastation wrought by unprecedented floods in the state; intermittent cross-border firing has aroused sentiments particularly in the Jammu region; Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spent considerable time in the state ever since assuming office; anti-incumbency factor has resulted in the breakup of the ruling alliance of the National Conference and the Congress, and prompted the NC’s failed bid to postpone the elections; and most significantly, the issue of development has got precedence over politics of separatism and violence. Such developments are set to impact the poll in the state to be held in five phases between November and December 2014. Some of the major election issues revolve around the foll...

Jharkhand Assembly Polls : Five Major Issues By  Deepak Parvatiyar November 12, 2014 elections.in Jharkhand is among the youngest states of India. It was carved out of Bihar on the 15 November 2000 during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime at the Centre. The whole idea of self-determination of the tribals was behind the creation of the new state, which has a sizeable 26.34 per cent tribal population. Since then, Jharkhand has witnessed political instability and its economy has plunged under the debt burden of Rs 36,000 crore. Today, it has become a hotbed of the naxal violence. As the state goes to elections for the third time since its inception for electing its 81-member house in five phases on November 25, December 2, 9, 14 and 20, following are some of the major issues that may influence the electoral outcome:  1. Vote for Stability Fractured mandates in 2005 and 2009 have largely been responsible for political instability in the state, wh...

Non-Tribal Chief Minister for Jharkhand ? By  Deepak Parvatiyar November 11, 2014 Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha recently called for the need of a non-tribal chief minister in the poll–bound Jharkhand. The statement of Sinha, an influential upper caste leader from the state, has more than one political undertone – You may also like to read Candidate list for Jharkhand Assembly elections 2014 ● The tribal leadership has failed the state ● Sinha senses an opportunity either to himself or for his proxy to have a go at the CM-ship in case the BJP wins the elections Jharkhand: Politicizing Tribal Identity At a time when the mineral-rich Jharkhand has empty coffers largely because of political mismanagement and governance issues, Sinha may be chancing his arms. Yet, what seems beyond the obvious is that Jharkhand should embrace the reality that it is not a tribal-dominated state that it has been ma...

Role of Black Money in Indian Elections By  Deepak Parvatiyar November 8, 2014 There is much more than what meets the eye on the black money issue. Recently, when the government selectively revealed eight names of Swiss bank account holders who are accused of stashing black money overseas, it backfired on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too as it was found that five of these foreign bank account holders belonged to the same family which had funded the BJP as well as the Congress quite regularly – a total of Rs. 1.9 crore to the BJP in nine instalments and Rs. 65 lakh in seven years to the Congress, until 2011-12. The revelations bring back the issue of the opaque handling of funds by political parties. They also cement the fact of dubious sources of income for the political parties and well explain the unholy connivance between the law makers and the law breakers that gives rise to crony capitalism. Black Money Issue Runs Across the Political Spectrum The issu...