By Sidharth Mishra

One of the main driving forces behind the promulgation of the Anti-Defection Law by the Rajiv Gandhi government in the 1980s was the brute majority enjoyed by the Congress party in the LokSabha. It had won more than 400 seats in the 1985 General Elections thanks to the sympathy wave which followed assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.The Congress strategists loyal to Rajiv Gandhi at that point of time had advised for bringing such law which would keep the folk together lest the old school veterans carry out a coup against the reformist agenda of the ‘young’ Prime Minister. The law has withstood the trial of time and survived to end the politics of “Aya Rams, Gaya Ram”, which had come to make mockery of people’s mandate.

By Sidharth Mishra

At the media briefing last week to announce the party candidates for the three RajyaSabha seats from Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party’s number 2 and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia made two very important observations. First that the party contacted 18 politically neutral persons for nomination, and that all refused to bite the bait. Second about ND Gupta, the chartered accountant who is helping AAP to handle its income tax matters, getting the party’s boarding pass for passage to Rajya Sabha.

Political parties have a tradition of paying the fee of their saviours before law by way of a nomination to the Rajya Sabha. If one needed evidence, there are cases of advocates Kapil Sibal and RK Anand being sent to Rajya Sabha from Bihar and Jharkhand respectively. In the former’s case Lalu Prasad Yadav was the sponsor, whereas in the case of Anand it was veteran tribal leaderShibuSoren.

By Sidharth Mishra

In August 2012, three reports submitted by then Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)VinodRaion the allocation of coal blocks, functioning of the Delhi airport and allocation of additional coal blocks to Reliance Power had drawnimmediate and sharp criticism from then government. The counter was coordinated from the Prime Minister’s Office. The Minister of State in the PMO, V Narayanswamy, was quick to state that the CAG was not following its constitutional mandate, rather over-stepping it by questioning government policy.

By Sidharth Mishra

There is no way that the BJP could have afforded to lose the assembly polls in Gujarat. Nobody understood this better than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Despite the party ruling the roost in the state for the past three decades, the opposition Congress has maintained a fair share of votes all the while. Therefore when he bequeathed the office of the chief minister for job at South Block in the national Capital, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed his most trusted lieutenant as head of the party.

By Sidharth Mishra

We are in the midst of a very crucial battle of ballot being fought in political significant western state of Gujarat. The protagonist of the battle, Prime Minister NarendraModi cannot afford to lose here for that would impair his image of remaining unbeatable in his home turf. The first round of polling is over. Another round remains.

By Sidharth Mishra

A few weeks back in these very columns, at the height of debate on Vikas (development) agenda, your reporter had penned that it was only matter of time when the “Hindu issues” could come to take the centrestage. The tone and tenor of the election campaign in the past week has shown that characters like Aurangzeb and themes like sacred thread are dominating the script. While the attempt from the Congress is to stop polarisation of votes on communal lines, the BJP is finding the new avatar of the rival quite amusing.Development is something on which Prime Minister NarendraModirode to power at the Centre in 2014. Development is something about which he talked about at the beginning of both the 2007 and 2012 assembly poll campaigns in Gujarat. But subsequently, the narrative on both the occasions turned towards communal polarisation.

By Sidharth Mishra

We living in the capital seldom try to look inwards and are always ready to find excuse for our follies. Last week newspaper headlines screamed putting the blame on West Asia for the hell that we have created for ourselves, which has in turn helped pharmaceutical companies see their sale graphs soar. Delhi has been covered with smog, a layer of polluted air for a fortnight now and none seem to be worried about the way the whole city is turning sick. We have been going through our lives as usual at best the arguments now focus on which is best gas mask in the market. Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal has done what he does best, blamed the world for the smog in the city and has tried turning the misery into an opportunity to once again demand more powers for his government. One wonders if Ministers know only one way to get even with the problems of the capital -- by acting in an odd manner, thus the plea to bring in the odd-even car rationing scheme.

By Sidharth Mishra

A few weeksago the officials of Delhi Traffic Police had a torrid time when both the, as Bollywood potboiler was titled, ‘Raja AurRunk’(the ruler and the ruled) decided to queue up at the Raisina Hills for a plate of Khichdi, the ubiquitous Indian two square meal for the poor. The occasion was World Food India Congress, a jamboree of leading investors and producers from food processing industry. But what caught the eyeballs, the camera bytes and twitter snipes was about the making of the poor Khichdi leading to a massive traffic jam. When Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker would have set out to design New Delhi and planned the grand avenue down from the Viceregal House to War Memorial Arch (the present day RashtrapatiBhawan to India Gate) and named it Kingsway, they would have never dreamt of it being anchor for a food festival that too under the government patronage.