Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi has been getting a lot of accolades, especially on social media for his speech in Parliament during the No Confidence motion. It was he who initiated the Opposition charge, and not Rahul Gandhi as was widely expected. Gogoi made a passionate speech, keeping the focus on Manipur and the Prime Minister’s “maun-vrat” on the issue. Despite this the Treasury benches kept their focus on the Gandhi family, specially Rahul, directing most of their comments against the former Congress president. This led to some good natured banter on Twitter, with one social media user remarking that the BJP had prepared for Rahul Gandhi, but Gaurav Gogoi came out of syllabus.
A HIGH PROFILE BOOK LAUNCH
Neerja Chowdhury’s book, “How PMs Decide” had a high profile launch in the national capital, with Kerala Governor Arif Mhd Khan, Sharad Pawar, Shashi Tharoor, Prithviraj Chavan and Dinesh Trivedi on the dais. The discussion centred around various Prime Ministers and their work styles. Dinesh Trivedi recalled how he had to resign as the Railway Minister because he presented a pro reforms railway budget that did not suit his then party chief Mamata Banerjee’s politics. It was a game changing budget but he said he was still asked to resign by the Trinamool Congress chief. When he went to submit his resignation to the then Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, he was however surprised to see that Dr Singh accepted it immediately. This example was cited by Dinesh Trivedi as a sign of weakness and the lack of clout Dr Singh had over his cabinet. However, both Tharoor and Chavan pointed out that it would not be correct to label Dr Singh as a “weak” Prime Minister, since on matters of policy and governance he took decisive stands, but his mandate was limited to the government. As Chavan said, it was Sonia Gandhi who had won the mandate to form the government, hence coalition handling was her realm and not the (then) PM’s. Tharoor also recalled another instance, apart from the nuclear deal, when Dr Singh’s views prevailed over the Left (and hence Sonia Gandhi’s) point of view, and that was over a vote against Iran in the IAEA. Clearly, Dr Singh was not far off the mark when he remarked in his farewell press conference as Prime Minister that “history will judge me more kindly” (than the then media and some of his political colleagues). Today, when the 91-year-old Dr Singh makes an appearance in Parliament he gets a very nostalgic and warm welcome by his colleagues, even those occupying the Treasury benches. And that by itself is one for the history books.
THE SUPRIYA SULE FACTOR
The NCP may have broken up, but Sharad Pawar’s daughter still retains her cross-party network. Sule has an equation of goodwill with MPs cutting across party lines, and is often seen clicking selfies with them in Parliament or at social get-togethers. It was interesting to see at least two MPs take her name during the No Confident Motion debate. During their speeches, both Dimple Yadav and Nishikant Dubey referred to her by name (though Nishikant had a message for each of the Opposition leaders questioning their alliance with the Congress). When it was her turn to speak, Supriya spoke about Manipur and wondered why the Centre did not act against the state Chief Minister, given the fact that the Modi government has a track record of destabilising nine state governments in nine years.