Inside Track: Fair-weather MPs

Incidentally, the BJP has its eye on breaking two other parties in the Rajya Sabha, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar’s NCP. Tellingly, MP Sanjay Jadhav has been missing from recent party meetings with Uddhav Thackeray.

If SEVEN AAP Rajya Sabha MPs have quit the party, the blame cannot be attributed entirely to the BJP’s ruthless tactics in mobilising enforcement agencies to intimidate AAP’s MPs. Arvind Kejriwal erred by nominating individuals not on the basis of loyalty or legislative skills but on their monetary contributions. Of the seven defectors, one manufactures fertilisers, the other towels and a third runs a large private university in Punjab. One defector admitted on TV that he and others had met Amit Shah before the switch! Incidentally, around two million unfollowed Raghav Chadha on his Instagram account within three days of leaving AAP. His large social media presence was one of his strengths. Signs of his fair-weather followers drifting away was evident to Kejriwal in March 2024 when he was arrested for alleged involvement in the liquor scam. Chadha mysteriously left for the UK for dental treatment instead of joining the solidarity protests against his leader’s arrest. The businessmen MPs, who had little to do with AAP all along, were also absent from rallies in support of Kejriwal. Incidentally, the BJP has its eye on breaking two other parties in the Rajya Sabha, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar’s NCP. Tellingly, MP Sanjay Jadhav has been missing from recent party meetings with Uddhav Thackeray.

It is not as if traditional political parties have not awarded RS tickets on the basis of a candidate’s financial standing, but earlier, such nominees did not change affiliations midstream because of anti-defection laws. The late pharmaceutical magnate, King Mahendra Prasad, a seven-time RS member from Bihar, for instance, was affiliated variously to the Congress, JD(U) and RJD, but in different Rajya Sabha terms.

The recently appointed vice chairperson of NITI Aayog, Ashok Lahiri, kept a low profile even when he was a member of the West Bengal Assembly. A respected economist who has held many distinguished positions, including Chief Economic Advisor in both the Manmohan Singh and Vajpayee governments, Lahiri caught the attention of the Modi government in 2021 when he wrote a paper suggesting that BJP had a fighting chance in the West Bengal Assembly elections if it implemented certain steps. To his surprise, the BJP election managers got in touch and urged him to stand for elections. The BJP lost that election, but Lahiri won from Balurghat. In fact, this was not Lahiri’s first brush with electoral politics. In the late 1970s, he partnered with Prannoy Roy, both freshly out of the Delhi School of Economics, to form the Policy Group, a pioneer in psephology in India. They based their election prediction analysis on both the swing in voter mood and the index of opposition unity. The Policy Group created waves by accurately forecasting Indira Gandhi’s defeat in 1977, her victory in 1980 and Rajiv Gandhi’s massive mandate in 1984. Roy then went on to build a television empire, Lahiri focused on a career in economics.

Legendary lensman Raghu Rai’s political photographs, which were back in the public eye after his death last week, captured an intimate slice of India’s history. His iconic photos were because of his intuitive genius, but his additional advantage was that there was barely five feet between the photographer and his subject in those days. Today, the distance between news photographers and those in power has increased exponentially. Parliament House, Rashtrapati Bhavan, party meeting rooms, VIP aircraft, and government offices are out of bounds. The practice is for photographs of political bigwigs to be taken largely by the VIPs’ own media team or select agencies. It is not just one way of erasing any embarrassing moments or comments but also photoshopping to convey the politically correct message.

The Congress is reluctant to vacate 24 Akbar Road in Delhi, its headquarters for nearly half a century till it moved reluctantly to its new multi-storey building on Kotla Marg. To retain the type VIII government bungalow, some suggest that it be allotted in the name of an MP, a manoeuvre the BJP adopted to hang on to its former Ashoka Road headquarters. The problem is that the only Congress MP presently entitled to be assigned the ministerial category bungalow is P Chidambaram, as a former cabinet minister. But Congress office bearers are too intimidated by the party’s eminence grise to make the request. (Even Supreme Court lawyer Abhishek Singhvi, who has just won a record-breaking fifth consecutive Rajya Sabha term, qualifies only for a class VII bungalow. Singhvi, who loaned his government house to the party earlier, has decided to occupy his allotted bungalow this time.)

Kamal Nath and Ashok Gehlot as former chief ministers also qualify for the largest sized bungalows but are not currently MPs. They are reportedly flogging their eligibility for a type VIII bungalow to push for a Rajya Sabha nomination.