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New Delhi: With fewer than ten weeks left until India’s next national government is announced, political leaders aren’t getting much sleep – least of all in Goa.
Soon after midnight on Tuesday, March 19, Pramod Sawant was sworn in as the state’s new chief minister.
Opponents called it unseemly haste, but the hurry was necessary to firm up the BJP’s precarious rule. It has fewer members in the assembly than the Congress, but has held together a ruling alliance with nine other parties.
Hardball negotiations, led by Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari, had occupied the previous day and much of the night.
The eventual solution was to appoint not one, but two deputy chief ministers – one each for the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and the Goa Forward Party – and to give cabinet posts to two independent MPs.
By 5 pm, Sawant was telling the press that he had the support of 21 MLAs, and was looking forward to a floor test the following morning.
Lessons for the Grand Old Party
The Congress Party should be taking notes. A couple of months ago, a massive, pan-national grand alliance was parading on every stage, with the Congress in an almost casual position of command. Today – three weeks from the first voting date – the mahagathbandhan is in shambles.
Andhra Pradesh is one large state that goes to polls on April 11, to elect 25 MPs. On Tuesday, both the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) produced separate candidate lists for nearly all 25 seats.
M. Chandrababu Naidu, chief of the TDP, had been one of driving forces of the new mahagathbandhan – his meeting with Rahul Gandhi last November elicited a high-minded promise from Rahul that “all opposition forces are going to work together to defend India, our institutions and our democracy”.
Four months later, the conversation was less elevated – on Tuesday, Naidu was accusing Janata Dal (United) leader Prashant Kishore of conspiring to remove lakhs of voters from the rolls in Andhra, and called him ‘a Bihari dacoit’.
In Delhi, staring contest goes on – and on
Meanwhile, the agonies of consolidating the anti-BJP vote dragged on in Delhi.
As recently as Monday, the Aam Aadmi Party’s Gopal Rai said the door was now shut on any further talks with the Congress. The arithmetic makes it just too clear, however, that the BJP could carry all seven of Delhi’s seats in a three-cornered contest.
Also read: All Eyes on Rahul Gandhi for Final Decision on Congress-AAP Alliance
So Tuesday morning brought new vacillations from the Congress, as P.C. Chacko informed the press that Rahul Gandhi would make a decision “in a few days time”.
PC Chacko,Congress on party leaders wrote to Rahul Gandhi over alliance with AAP: As far as I know there are senior leaders in Delhi who think that defeating BJP is party’s immediate responsibility;for it we should form alliance with AAP,that’s the thinking of majority of leaders pic.twitter.com/Yhjy1Tu3PN
— ANI (@ANI) March 19, 2019
By noon, Sharad Pawar, chief of the National Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra, was personally attempting to broker the arrangement in Delhi.
Rahul Gandhi, meanwhile, was some distance away – campaigning in Arunachal Pradesh, where he promised to restore the state’s special-category status if Congress wins the election.
Supporters of an anti-BJP alliance, like former BJP finance minister Yashwant Sinha, voiced their frustration.
Unsolicited advice to Rahul Gandhi,” pl finalise your alliances in Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi and elsewhere today. It is already too late.
— Yashwant Sinha (@YashwantSinha) March 19, 2019
Meanwhile, in Tamil Nadu – where rival alliances are more or less set up – the DMK revealed a typically benevolent and expensive manifesto.
Chowkidar finds corruption watchdog
The BJP national executive are now all self-proclaimed ‘chowkidars’ – but the actual ‘corruption watchdog’ promised to the country has only just appeared.
Narendra Modi rode to power in 2014 on a popular movement demanding an empowered anti-corruption ombudsman. In the first 45 months of Modi’s term, however, he did not chair even a single meeting of the Lokpal selection committee.
In July 2016, however, his government did find time to pass the Lokpal and Lokayuktas (Amendment) Bill, which transparency activists said “fundamentally diluted the Lokpal Act” of 2014.
On Tuesday, with convenient timing, the exiting government finally appointed the vaunted Lokpal. Former Supreme Court judge Pinaki Chandra Ghose is now chairman of the committee, which has eight other members, all retired judges and bureaucrats.
But first, a watchdog for your WhatsApp
In the immediate future, the most relevent ‘chowkidar’ will be the Election Commission (EC). It has its work cut out for it, managing the first national election in a country newly plugged-in to digital media – and the threats that come with it.
Briefing the press earlier this month, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said that the EC would hold candidates’ and parties’ social media accounts to the model code of conduct.
It will have its hands full.
On Tuesday, the EC met with representatives of seven companies (Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Google, Sharechat, Bigo TV and Tiktok) to review their numerous concerns. Those include creating channels to swiftly remove any content on the EC’s directions; and also improving transparency around political advertising.
The EC proposed that no political ads should be published on social media without being certified by its Media Certification and Monitoring Committee. A special concern is guaranteeing that political ads are suspended during the ‘silent period’ – the 48 hours prior to polling – in line with Indian law.
Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra optimistically suggested that the platforms evolve some form of punitive action against users misusing social media. The seven companies promised to draft a ‘code of ethics’ to address the EC’s concerns.
Meanwhile, the EC was given a new chance to take on the challenge of moderating Twitter. The Delhi BJP said it would complain about AAP leader’s tweet “politicising the cow”:
Door to door campaigning by BJP pic.twitter.com/nUOWAAwVL8
— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) March 15, 2019
