26 July,2010 08:47 AM IST | | Surender Sharma and Ali Yasir
The saffron party seeks to forge unity in the Opposition ranks to take on the UPA
For Bharatiya Janata Party the arrest of Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah could not have come at a more inopportune time. The party had been successful in forging an unprecedented unity among the Opposition by successfully raising the issue of price surge. But the party was pushed on the defensive after Amit Shah, the right hand man of BJP's poster boy, Narendra Modi was indicted in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.
This is where it happens: The Monsoon Session of parliament begins
today. file pic
However, the saffron party has yet again fallen back on the price rise to take on the government with leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj demanding an adjournment motion over the issue on the first day of the Monsoon session on Monday. Swaraj said that there would not be any disturbance in the House if the government accepted the opposition's demand. The plea has been seconded by all major parties, including the Communists.
"All opposition parties have demanded a discussion on rise in prices of essential commodities and fuel under adjournment motion. We have said if you want to run the House peacefully don't disagree with the proposal," said Basudeb Acharia, CPI (M) Lok Sabha leader.
Though no BJP leader admitted that the party has fallen upon the matter of price rise to stave off any probable Congress "offensive" on the issue of Amit Shah, sources in the party have confirmed that the BJP has decided to counter the attack by mentioning Warren Anderson and Sajjan Kumar. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar said, "This issue (indictment of Amit Shah) has been raised to divide the opposition parties on price rise and divert attention from other important issues."
Party's deputy leader SS Ahluwalia, however, refused to admit that the issue was discussed at an important meeting of the BJP parliamentary party under the chairmanship of senior leader LK Advani.
"It was quite a coincidence that on the day the Gujarat minister has voluntarily given himself up, Congress leader Jagdish Tytler has got a clean chit for the 1984 Sikh carnage," Ahluwalia added, indicating that the party has already a counter ready to see off the attack on Shah's indictment by exposing the skeletons in Congress' own cupboard.
But Ahluwalia insisted on not spelling it out specifically. "Today's (Sunday's) meeting was scheduled 10 days back," he claimed.
Meanwhile, Congress rejected the allegation of the misuse of CBI being levelled by the BJP as "rubbish".
"Do you think the CBI is full of bunch of fools who will risk their entire career by making false allegations, non-existing allegations which are going to be examined by the Supreme Court?" said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
BJP's deputy leader in Lok Sabha, Gopinath Munde, said: "The opposition was united during the national strike against price rise on July 5 and this unity would continue. Increase in prices of petroleum products would also be an issue."
The Monsoon session is expected to be a stormy affair with the Opposition stacking up all ammunition to corner the government. Apart from price rise, issues ranging from fuel hike, Bhopal gas tragedy and the Indo-Pak talks are expected to come up for discussions. The spate of train mishaps, with Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in the eye of a storm over her absence from Delhi, could also derail proceedings in Parliament, as also the unrest in Kashmir and the Maoist violence.
With assembly elections in Bihar not far away, rival sides are expected to make the best of this session. While the Opposition will seek to embarrass the government on the issue of spiralling prices, the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Lok Janshakti Party could raise the latest alleged scam involving the Nitish Kumar government. Congress, on its part, is planning to target the BJP by digging up the illegal mining scam in Karnataka.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi recently held the first eve-of-the-session consultations with alliance partners since UPA-II returned to power, which showed that the ruling combine does not want to leave anything to chance.
24 Number of sittings in Monsoon Session
33 days Tenure of the session
Who is Amit Shah?
Amit Shah inherited shares of some blue chip companies and made a fortune as a stockbroker and rose to be a veteran of cooperative banks in Ahmedabad before turning full-time politician. And he was no ordinary politician. Like the man who had his hand on
the pulse of the market, Shah had a incredible understanding of the mind of the intractable Indian voter. Probably that is why he was entrusted with the responsibility of managing the election of party veteran LK Advani in his Gandhinagar constituency. Just to make sure that he remained connected to his voters, he stayed for years in an ordinary
middle-class housing colony in Naranpura in Ahmedabad. Known as one of the most well informed politicians in the state, Shah never talked much to the media. His disregard of the media was quite evident from the way he handled reporters before surrendering to the CBI on Sunday.
Known for his close links to the rightist Vishwa Hindu Parishad, development and fast growth are part of Shah's nationalist agenda. Police stations and panchayat buildings are sponsored by private companies and are fitted with marbles and pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which charge sheeted the Gujarat Home Minister, has evidence involving his complicity in the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh's wife Kauserbi at a farmhouse on the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar road. The chargesheet has given a detailed account of how her body was burnt and the remains dumped in the Narmada. As per the chargesheet, Kauserbi's body was taken to Ilol, the north Gujarat village of IPS DG Vanzara, where her funeral was conducted.