Wednesday Happenings

Yesterday I had written about Mamata Banerjee trying for alliance with other regional parties for a front to fight BJP in next general elections.

Today Times of India (TOI) has written editorial on the same topic. TOI mentions that this idea was first mooted by  K Chandrashekhar Rao, CM of Telangana, which was further picked up by Mamata. Their idea is to form Non BJP & Non Congress front to combat BJP and its allies in next general elections. It is all due to BJP’s political dominance  on Pan India basis, which has created this unusual situations, where even regional parties are not interested in aligning with Congress. Till date it has never happened that this type of front has able to form a Govt without the support of either Congress or BJP, for example VP Singh’s Govt of 1989 which took outside support of BJP, then Chandrashekhar’s govt in 1990, Deve Gowda’s govt of 1996 and IK Gujral’s govt of  1997- all these 3 govt took support of Congress. So eventually it is the second front and first front is either of BJP or Congress. So forming the 3rd front and then expecting support of either BJP or Congress to run the govt is half baked and far fetched idea. Knowing that Congress is losing its sheen but it is still the main opposition party and any front which has to combat BJP has to have Congress in it. The problem actually lies else where- the fact is that even the regional parties are not sure about the leadership qualities of Rahul Gandhi and Congress want to project him as PM candidate, because the winning ratio of Rahul Gandhi in elections scene is very dismal and the Regional Parties feel they will not be benefited by aligning with Congress with Rahul as PM candidate. One more problem which can been seen will be- DMK & AIADMK, TMC & Left Parties or even SP & BSP can never be part of same front. So presently third front is only on the paper or in someone’s mind, and so at present there is no threat to BJP.

Other news item which is gaining prominence in the media is Karti Chidambaram’s case which is with CBI.  The Special Court has extended his custody by 3 more days and Supreme Court has also declined to give him protection against fresh summon and possible arrest by Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged money laundering.

Further ED has filed an affidavit in SC alleging that former Finance Minister P Chidambaram ( Karti’s father) was  part of the conspiracy  to give  Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance  to Aircel- Maxis by concealing the facts so that the matter was not referred to Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs(CCEA) and was cleared by finance ministry. Further in affidavit ED has mentioned that Aircel permission to bring FDI of  Rs 3,500 Cr, the finance minister made the case as they are asking FDI of Rs 180 Cr. The rule say the finance minister can clear FDI upto Rs 600 Cr without referring to FIPB and CCEA. The fact is Aircel brought Rs 3500 Cr as FDI against this permission of finance minister.  ED further says that Karti Chidambaram was paid Rs 26 lakh as commission for selling shares of Aircel to Maxis. The amount was paid to company Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL), and this company was controlled by Karti Chidambaram.

Now Chidambarams(father & son) are stating everywhere that this is a Political vendetta by BJP, my opinion is that CBI will not give affidavit to SC, if they do not have proof of all these dealings of Karti and P Chindambaram. Congress is trying their best to save PC and Karti, as their leaders who are amongst the top lawyers in the country Abhishek Manu Sanghvi and Kapil Sibal are representing them in the courts. This case is getting into a very interesting stage, watch for further development.

Awaiting for your views/comments/feed backs.