STUTTERING START
Modi must repair, then build
EXAGGERATED and palpably orchestrated were the BJP&’s efforts to project an image of solidarity and fervour after Narendra Modi&’s “elevation”: so over-hyped they only confirmed that divisions ran deep, and there might be more snide efforts at preventing the anointed leader of the 2014 campaign taking the next logical step. For all the popular support the man enjoys among the party&’s grassroots workers he will first have to assuage in-house resentment. L K Advani, Uma Bharati, Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha might be the face of the resistance to Modi, they have their backers too. The once-famed discipline of the party (RSS enforced?) might prevent open revolt, but they can inflict serious damage by not involving themselves wholeheartedly in the Modi-directed campaign. But it must be admitted that the party had few options other than Modi. While Advani may have nursed ambitions, he could not in his mid-80s have expected that voters would accept him. Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley lead the party in the two Houses, but have severe limitations. Modi truly is the only person the party could have picked, once it had reconciled itself to his personality and the baggage he carries.
It is in this context that the dissent may have a positive dimension: it will compel the authoritarian, bulldozing Chief Minister of Gujarat to learn to carry others with him. That may appear incompatible with his track record, yet will serve as his first challenge to prove he is more than a bully in a small sphere and possesses “national” capabilities that go beyond forceful media interactions. He may have contrived to create an image of development-oriented effectiveness; he is yet to dispel his other image of an arrogant, ruthless and insensitive megalomaniac, brazenly contemptuous of the minorities who do matter on the national stage. Only if he can bring himself to put his pride in his pocket and build bridges with detractors will he have graduated to prime ministerial aspirations. Such is the political jigsaw puzzle that it would be bravado for the BJP to think it can do without the rest of the NDA ~ it is more than a Modi-Nitish face-off (or a “look through each other” as they did in the Capital last week) ~ and recent history will confirm that the “iron man” had less national appeal than the gentle-giant that Vajpayee was during his active political innings. Will the fact that the BJP&’s campaign did not start firing an all four cylinders force Modi to think differently, accept that both for him and the Gir lions, there is more to India than Gujarat?
The jocular comments from the Congress’ loudmouths over the last few days only confirm they are jittery. Indian politics has ever been personality-driven ~ the BJP has chosen a charismatic, if divisive, campaign spearhead, the Congress has a reluctant Rahul, a spent bullet in Manmohan and an “iffy” Sonia. It&’s best hope would be that fears of Modi might translate into support for it. That could well be the game-changer.

NASTY, BRUTISH AND…
Trinamul assault on the media
THE goons of Mamata Banerjee&’s party have struck again, and the hideous attack on press freedom has seldom been so gut-churning.  There are at least two additional facets of last Friday&’s outrage at Barrackpore, near Kolkata. One was the intra-Trinamul conflict leading to murder that the party&’s footsoldiers wanted hushed up. This is testament to the degree to which the party has slid in the two years it has been in power. Those of the electronic media who nonetheless ventured to report the murder were beaten up with iron rods. Nay more, even doused with petrol! Indeed, Trinamul activists attempted to burn at least one journalist alive. It was fortuitous that the journalist&’s desperate cry for help was heard by a police party. Mercifully, the mockery of press freedom didn’t turn out to be mortal; yet such travesty must be without parallel even under repressive regimes. It would be no exaggeration to suggest that  under the Trinamul dispensation, the Right to Information or very simply the citizen&’s right to know is on course to be reduced to ashes… whatever the Central Information Commission might decree. Is intolerance of criticism and embarrassing coverage inching towards a fatal conclusion? The brutal assault on the television journalists shall not airbrush the crisis within.
The other issue must be the piffle, dutifully articulated by minister Partha Chatterjee ~ “Carrying Trinamul flags is no proof that the men belong to our party.”  This is once again a feeble defence of a painful truth and the spin-doctors have tied themselves up in knots. The vacuous reasoning is of a piece with Chatterjee&’s statement in the aftermath of the Trinamul vandalism at Presidency University in April, indeed a bluff that has now been called by the inquiry committee appointed by the state Human Rights Commission. In Barrackpore, the industry minister&’s bluff has been called at the threshold by the police ~ those arrested have confessed that they were Trinamul activists. And this knocks the bottom off the minister&’s thesis. He could have spared us such expressions of injured innocence ~ “Our party doesn’t allow anyone to beat up others.” Oh, really?  The reign of terror, perpetrated by the party&’s goons, stretches from Garden Reach to Barrackpore. The 14 arrests in Barrackpore have extended the loop ~ Arabul Islam, Mohammad Iqbal, Sambhunath Kow et al. To put it bluntly as we must,  the Trinamul Congress rule has thus far has been nasty and brutish. Will it turn out to be short as well?

IMPROVED SITUATION
Tripura showing pragmatism
TRIPURA has come a long way since the days of killings, kidnappings for ransom, rampant extortion and growing belligerency by numerous tribal militant groups that made the border state one of the most ungovernable and volatile in the 1990s. Both the Congress, which ruled from 1988-1993, and the Left Front had lost grip on law and order. The All Tripura Tiger Force had instilled fear of an ethnic war by serving notices on aliens in mixed areas to leave. The tribal chief minister, Dasrath Deb, felt no particular urgency in chastening militants and took an indulgent view that the armed rebellion was the result of both economic deprivation and cultural invasion of the tribal areas and that his government was trying to bring them back to the mainstream. The Centre wanted the situation to degenerate so as to justify invocation of more areas under the Disturbed Areas Act, to enable it to deploy the Army. The Act then covered 19 of the 44 police stations.
The Left Front council of ministers’ recent decision to withdraw the Act from nine police station areas is indication of further improvement in the law and order situation. In fact, Tripura has been comparatively peaceful after the dominant National Liberation Front of Tripura signed a ceasefire with the Centre in 2004. Tripura police have even claimed that there are no permanent rebel camps in the state. The credit for restoration of the people&’s confidence must go to Chief Minister Manik Sarkar who, since taking over in 1998, has been able to successfully intensify political and administrative efforts in the rural areas. The government must only see that no new ones come out for fun and games to take advantage of the attractive government rehabilitation scheme.