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Sunday, October 05
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BJP`s Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani on Saturday reportedly told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that his party wanted
best of relations with the US but opposed the nuclear deal after the Hyde Act was passed as it closed India's strategic options.
Advani also discussed the recent clarification issued by the US State Department on denial of US visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi "without the latter even applying for it".
"Advani told Rice that BJP developed strong objections to this present treaty only after the Hyde Act was passed because we believe that it impairs our nuclear programme and we cannot have co-operation at the cost of closing our strategic options," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
Advani accused the Indian government of assuring the BJP that the Hyde Act will not be applied but now it is clear that it applies, Javadekar said.
"Promises by the Indian government have fallen flat. Now we learn that after passage of 123 Agreement President George Bush will certify to the Congress and Senate that 123 Agreement is in consonance with provisions of NPT," Advani told Rice.
The senior BJP leader said this was the reason for BJP's objection to the deal but added he wanted co-operation and strategic relationship with the US in future.
"Advani told Rice that BJP wants the best of relations between the two largest democracies of the world. Despite Pokharan II and sanctions by the US, relations between the two countries improved within a year and remained the best for the next five years," Javadekar said.
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The Gujarat government may be claiming that the Nano unit is headed for a site near Ahmedabad but there are indications that the race to host the plant is far from over.
Senior Tata Motors officials said on Saturday that its MD, G Ravikanth, will be in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh on Sunday to meet ministers. He will weigh up options for rolling out the Rs 1-lakh car from a site in either of two states.
Ravikanth will be in Dharwad on Sunday to inspect a site for the Nano plant, officials in Karnataka confirmed on Saturday.
This will be followed by a meeting between Karnataka major- and medium-scale industries minister Murugesh R Nirani and Tata Group CEO Ratan Tata during the week. "I am meeting Ratan Tata soon. We are confident the Tatas will select Dharwad for relocating their Nano manufacturing unit," Nirani said. Ravikanth will also be visiting Andhra Pradesh.
Gujarat officials, however, claimed on Saturday that a site near Sanand in Ahmedabad was the frontrunner in the race. In what could be a personal triumph for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi — and add insult to injury for communist Bengal — senior Gujarat officials said Ratan Tata had agreed to relocate the Nano plant. The site is located 25 kms west of Ahmedabad.
A formal announcement is likely next week, most probably on October 7, when Modi completes seven years in office. At present, the 2,200-acre site serves as a college and cattle-and-seed farm for the Gujarat Agriculture University.
Things are already moving fast within the Gujarat government. The university has been informed about the decision to transfer the land to the Tatas. The necessary paperwork for the transfer has been completed. The revenue department on Saturday issued a notification to acquire 60 acres of land in Chharodi and Iyawa-Vasna villages for building broad approach roads to the site.
While pulling out of Singur on Friday, Ratan Tata had mentioned that locations in "three or four states" were being considered. While Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were in contention, what finally swung the decision in Gujarat's favour were Modi's incentives to the Tatas.
Modi had struck a personal rapport with Ratan Tata at the Vibrant Gujarat investor summit in January 2007 when the business baron made the famous statement, "You are stupid if you are not in Gujarat." The chief minister has been personally in touch with Tata ever since the situation worsened in Singur.
Modi has steadfastedly resisted doling out concessions to industry, but when it came to Ratan Tata's dream Nano project, he agreed to roll out the red carpet. The Tatas had made it clear that concessions were needed to maintain the Rs 1 lakh price tag.
The special incentives are said to be on the lines given by previous Gujarat regimes to mega projects like the Reliance and Essar refineries, as well as General Motors. While officials refused to divulge the kind of concessions being chalked out for the Tatas, a senior official conceded, "Gujarat had to match other states and give up its seven-year-old policy of not offering special incentives to industry."
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Rising expectations gave way to utter frustration in Singur after the Tata’s exit on Friday with motley crowds blocking Durgapur Expresswa
y, digging up village road and beating up their neighbours all through the night till Saturday noon.
Life in Singur resembled Nandigram that the villagers had never dreamt of. Trouble broke out on Friday night when "willing" landlosers held traffic on Durgapur Expressway to ransom, hurling invectives at Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee who had come in the way of the Nano project. CPM zonal leader Uma Ghosh took the lead in digging up the village road at Ruidaspara like the Trinamool did in Nandigram.
Later in the night, hundreds of "willing" landlosers threw off party flags and entered Ruidaspara from the camp set up at Joymollah. They went berserk near Beraberi bazar. They had tacit support of local CPM leaders who dubbed it as a "spontaneous outburst."
The defiant crowd wouldn’t listen to Hooghly CPM leader Dibakar Das when he intervened more than 12 hours after the blockade on Durgapur Expressway under instructions of senior party leaders. CPM supporters abused Das, and finally lifted the blockade after SDPO Kalyan Mukherjee reached the spot at 2.30pm. The road blockade triggered a chain reaction in villages. Getting the news, some demoralised youths headed towards Kamarkundu station and sat on the tracks. "We have lost everything," said CPM supporter Moloy Chakrabarty.
The rail blockade continued for hours from six in the morning with nerves running high on the rival camp. Around 9.45 am, a group of passengers lost their patience and bashed up the agitators. Some shopkeepers at the Kamarkundu station and local Trinamool leaders followed suit. They roughed up Chakrabarty. But this was not a one-off case. Unknown faces beat up Akul Chandra Das while he was strolling on the road in the morning. The reason: Akul changed camps and has taken the compensation cheque recently. A complaint has been lodged with the Singur police.
The tension soon spread to Beraberi bazar where the red brigade was trying to enforce the bandh. Trinamool leader Becharam Manna was waiting there with his group. And, while Uma Ghosh was going to visit his relative in the area, the Trinamool supporters pounced on the CPM’s Haripal zonal committee member and started beating him. "Ghosh has been rightly served. Everyone saw what he did all through the night on Friday," convenor of the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee Becharam Manna said. Manna fears a CPM backlash in the area.
CPM, on the other hand, will mobilise the landlosers yet again on Sunday. Trinamool leaders are marking time and will be back on the agitation mode after the pujas. "We will resume our agitation for return of land as Didi (Mamata) told us," Manna said.
The political tension apart, it was an end of a dream for the Singur farmer. Not because they all expected a job at the Tata factory, but they had expected a better price for the land. "I went to the BDO office and the collector’s office in Chinsurah asking the officials when the government will disburse the cheques for the extra 50%. Nobody bothered to answer," said Swarup Barui who gave 25 acres for the Nano project.
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Friday, October 03
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be able to claim the India-US nuclear deal as a signal achievement, even though just how much political mileage he and Congress can derive is clouded by the challenge of combating terrorism and dealing with inflation.
The success over the deal has led to the PM being viewed with new respect by his colleagues in the government and the party. The shrewd aspect of his personality came to the fore in dodging the Left pack and putting together an alternative arrangement with Samajwadis. The Left did not rumble onto his plans until it was too late.
The PM’s patience in dealing with the Left was remarkable. He was able, apart from his injudicious dare in mid-2007, to weather the aggression of the comrades. It was a regular feature, say officials, for CPM leaders like Brinda Karat and Gurudas Dasgupta, to turn up at PMO to rant and rave on their pet peeves. Sometimes it took the PM a few minutes to figure out what his visitors were agitated about.
Being repeatedly reminded that he was perched on Left support could have tested a saint, but the PM maintained a polite facade. When he did make his move, he struck with stealth and the element of surprise was all his. While he still makes placatory noises about the Left, his erstwhile allies are yet to stop smarting from the peremptory manner in which they were asked to get off the bus.
His self-professed love for US president George Bush might embarrass his party, but the PM has been steadfast in pursuing a deeper relationship with America and his personal rapport with Bush is evident. Though experts will comment on the terms of the deal, India did get the better of both Pakistan and China, its inveterate rivals, in wresting the nuclear waiver.
While the PM can beam at presiding over a historical inflexion point, Wednesday’s blasts in Agartala might be sobering. In his last six months in office, the PM faces his hardest test. He has displayed a sense of urgency after Indian Mujahideen-SIMI set off serial blasts across the country and now needs to follow up by reassuring voters that he is not, as the BJP claims, “soft on terror”.
His office is involved in drawing up a note on options to make laws to tackle terror stronger. The exercise may not make much headway as political considerations come into play at election-time. The conundrum for the government is that opting for tougher laws can be politically unviable. As it is senior leaders like Kapil Sibal have informed Congress president Sonia Gandhi of their “reservations” about the Batla House encounter.
Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh has even suggested an inquiry into the encounter which claimed the life of Delhi Police officer Mohan Chand Sharma. The PM himself wavered, having first spoken of legislative measures and then saying he had not made up his mind.
The rub lies in the demand that Hindu extremist organisations like Bajrang Dal be banned. The problem for PM and Congress is that this might give BJP an opportunity to argue that while jihadi groups had not been checked, Hindu outfits were targeted. Not being able to strike a “political” balance, the government was unlikely to do more than tinker with some laws.
All this leaves the PM with a tough job of being strong on countering terror while having to keep Congress’s political priorities in mind — an exercise that prevented aggressive intelligence and police work in the past. And while terrorism is on top of the political agenda, inflation remains a worry. The PM has himself said that India cannot be insulated from global financial instability and if investment is hit, India’s growth story might lose some momentum.
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