Third Front confident of forming government

This groups calls itself the Third Front and believes that the next government may not be formed if all of them come together. Eight parties including the Left and three southern parties on Monday announced that they wouldn’t go with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) or the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

From H D Dewe Gowda to Chandrababu Naidu to Jayalalithaa to Telengana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Left; it is a group which has done business either with the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the past. But, it is now rallying around an anti Congress and anti BJP stand.

“Next government will be a Third Front government,” says Chandrababu Naidu.

But who is going to be the leader of this group. Without a powerful player like Mayawati, the Third Front would resemble a still born child.

Just before last years trust vote on the nuclear deal the same players had come together in an unsuccessful bid to dislodge the UPA government. Then Mayawati was the prime ministerial candidate but this time she wants to go alone.

“We are all united in our attempts to provide a good government,” says Dewe Gowda.

This is the leader who is actually playing the Third Front card to its maximum advantage. Almost on a daily basis Sharad Pawar is threatening the Congress to fall in line and treat his party like an equal partner. He has one line open with the Shiv Sena and the other with Comrade Karat.

So for the time being the Third Front is looking like one bus with too many potential drivers.

BJP selects its poll issue: terrorism, Afzal Guru

The BJP on Saturday accused the Government of failing to secure the nation and alleged it was soft on terrorism.

LK Advani, the party’s prime ministerial candidate, indirectly accused the Congress-led government of endangering national security at the cost of vote bank politics.

Advani claimed the UPA Government was delaying hanging Afzal Guru, a terrorist awarded capital punishment for his role in the Parliament attack case, because he was a Muslim.

The terrorist has not been hanged because "his name happens to be Afzal Guru. Had he been some Anand Singh or Anand Mohan he would have been hanged," he said in Bangalore.

Advani claimed the common man’s security was a more important issue than unemployment and inflation and wanted India to follow a “zero-tolerance” policy against terrorism.

"Al-qaeda has not been able to carry out any terror attack in the US and Israel post-9/11 strikes as the governments of both the countries adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards terrorism," said Advani at an awareness campaign against terrorism conducted by Karnataka’s higher education department.

He claimed the UPA government had taken a "U-turn on all issues relating to terrorism", citing its decision to scrap POTA, the security law enacted by the previous NDA administration.

Earlier in the day, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley, had accused the government of making India a soft state.

"UPA has made India into a soft state. India from a booming economy is now in a disarray as far as economy is concerned. India as a nation is an insecure nation. It is a naive foreign policy where in you seriously think Pakistan is giving you information. Pakistan's best front... non-state actors are doing it and we cannot help it. And our Prime Minister has already given Pakistan a certificate saying like us poor Pakistan is also a victiom of terrorism," he said in Mumbai.

Diptosh Majumdar, CNN-IBN’s National Affairs Editor, says the BJP’s emphasis on terrorism is a planned move. The party emphasised on terrorism during the five-state elections last year but it didn’t bring it results.

The Congress returned to power in Delhi though elections in the city were held just after the Mumbai terrorist attacks in November. The BJP tried to speak of the economy and inflation for a while but now has returned to its core issue.

Pak Navy chief eats his words on 26/11, Kasab

Pakistan’s navy chief on Saturday tried to calm the controversy created by his statement on the Mumbai terrorist attacks and said his intention was not to contradict his government.

Admiral Noman Bashir told at a press conference in Islamabad on Friday that Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist captured for the Mumbai attacks, didn't take the sea route to the Indian city.

On Saturday, he clarified his statement and said the Pakistan Navy didn’t have the authority to speak about the investigation into the Mumbai attacks.

"We have not been directly involved in the investigation, which is under the domain of the Interior Ministry. Therefore they are better equipped, they have better knowledge and information," said Bashir.

"We have no contradictory opinion on the report prepared by them. Whatever evidence they have is correct. I won't contradict it," Admiral Bashir said.

The Admiral admitted that Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, which is investigating the attacks, may have evidence that Kasab used the sea to reach Mumbai.

India on Saturday dismissed Bashir’s contention that the terrorists did not use the sea to enter Mumbai, saying "thorough investigations" had proved that the men did take that route.

Speaking at a function at the Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL), Defence Minister A K Antony said: "After the 26/11 incident, our agencies have done thorough investigations and come to the conclusion that the attackers had come through the sea route."

Indian Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta reiterated the point at the same function: "We all know our investigating agencies are competent and have provided excellent documents that this (the arrival of the attackers) has happened over the sea route."

BJP edges Congress in cyberspace poll campaign

In what promises to be a keen electoral contest to determine who rules India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already taken an early lead over the Congress -- in cyberspace warfare.

With general elections involving some 700 million voters only two months away, the BJP - perhaps taking a leaf from the Barack Obama style of campaigning - is targeting voters who are mostly young and net savvy.

"Advani for prime minister" is the theme of five campaigns by the BJP on more than 2,000 websites, including those of the US, British and Pakistani media which Indians often frequent.

Prodyut Bora, convenor of the BJP's IT cell, said: "We are the leaders in the use of Internet for elections."

So far there has been no similar effort from the Congress. But the party has shown it can use the Internet if it wishes.

In the Rajasthan assembly contest late last year, it launched an Internet campaign with video ads.

To go with the web ads, Advani, 81, has started a blog -- the first senior Indian politician to do so.

On January 7, he wrote: "My young colleagues who created this website told me that a political portal without a blog is like a letter without a signature. I am excited by the idea of using the Internet for the election campaign."

But the question remains - will the Internet campaign bring in the votes?

V K Malhotra, the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in Delhi last year, launched a website to woo voters. It did not help. Incumbent Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit of the Congress won again.

Arun Kumar of the School of Social Sciences in New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) says the BJP campaign is unlikely to help it garner too many votes because "Internet-savvy people are a small portion of the population".

According to him, what really matters are face-to-face interactions based on issues that matter to the people. Similarly, he says, the lack of an Internet campaign is unlikely to harm the Congress.

All major parties such as the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have their official websites.

The CPI-M website has comments on a whole range of issues.

On the coming Lok Sabha polls, it says: "The party should conduct a vigorous political campaign in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls.

We should call for the defeat of the BJP and the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) to ensure that the communal forces are kept out of power at the centre.

The campaign should attack the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government's anti-people economic policies.

The Left parties, along with the secular parties, should work together to make a non-Congress, non-BJP alternative realisable."

The Samajwadi Party's official website says: "This website aims to communicate with the masses and let people understand the party better. As time changes, technology changes; Samajwadi Party believes in staying up to date with technology and using it for betterment."

The website of Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's NCP welcomes visitors to "join our cause and make a difference".

Navneet Kaushal, founder CEO of Page Traffic, told IANS: "Political parties have been using online media since 2003. The online Congress campaign in the last state elections showed it can gather a momentum of its own.

However, Advani's campaign is the first of its kind on a national scale and borrows heavily from Barack Obama's style. We will have to see if it connects with the Indian people."

Dipankar Gupta, also of the School of Social Sciences in JNU, says: "The Congress seems to think there is not much advantage to be had by going for an Obama-style Internet campaign.

The BJP campaign is unlikely to help it secure too many votes, just as it is unlikely that Congress's prospects will be harmed as most real voters don't surf the Internet."

Pakistan heading for unfortunate situation: Nawaz

Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif has blamed the Pakistan government for the political turmoil in the country set off by a court order barring him from elected office and warned Islamic extremists could exploit the unrest.

Sharif, in his first interview since the ruling on Wednesday, accused President Asif Ali Zardari of "declaring martial law on democracy," a charge echoing the complaints that forced former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to give up the presidency last year.

Sharif's interview with The Associated Press on Friday came amid a surge of political squabbling that is sure to distract the government of this nuclear-armed country from grappling with the Taliban and al-Qaida threat spreading from the tribal areas along the frontier with Afghanistan.

Pakistan also is in the middle of a tense time with neighboring India over the deadly militant attack on Mumbai, and Sharif said Zardari's pro-Western government isn't going to be able to face any of its key tasks if it continues to wage political war on him.

"It cannot concentrate on the very big issues we are confronted with," he said. "We have issues going on in the tribal area, we have this big issue in the Swat area, and we have a very ugly situation on our eastern border after the Bombay (Mumbai) killings."

The political uproar set off by the court ruling against Sharif is lining up influential civic groups led by disgruntled lawyers with Sharif's increasingly popular Pakistan Muslim League against Zardari. It's a confrontation that will also feed worries about military intervention, a frequent result of political turmoil in Pakistan.

"I think we are heading for some sort of unfortunate situation," Sharif said at his villa near Lahore, without elaborating. "There are a lot of forces — the militants, the extremists — they are all there to take advantage."

The Supreme Court ruling upheld a ban on Sharif from contesting elections because of a past criminal conviction related to the 1999 military coup that ended his second term as prime minister and put Musharraf in power.

Sharif's brother also was disqualified from continuing as head of the provincial government in Punjab, the nation's biggest and most populous region. Zardari ousted the government there and installed a loyalist as governor.

Parliament was not a priority for some MPs

The 14th Lok Sabha came to an end on Thursday and all eyes are now on the General Elections.

Even though the 14th Lok Sabha was one of the most acrimonious but there were many MPs who just did not made it a habit to attend its sessions on a regular basis.

Quite a few MPs revelled in giving the House a miss during the 14th Lok Sabha.

On top of the absentee list was Govinda Arun Ahuja who was busy romancing his first love - Bollywood - and forgetting that he had business in Parliament.

Dharmendra was more interested in his son's career than welfare of the neglected Bikaner constituency.

Shibu Soren was in and out of jail and stayed away from Parliament while Mamata Banerjee fought the Nano and the Tatas but didn't want to take on her opposition in Parliament.

So is there any self-introspection among the MPs?

"I promise my constituency people and my party that of next time I get a chance I am going to do better and better," Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav said.

The above list is of just a few of the famous absentees. But there is a comprehensive list of people with less than 30 per cent attendance during the 14th Lok Sabha.

It includes Ateeq Ahmad (20 per cent), Babu Lal Marandi (29 per cent), Dayanidhi Maran (10 per cent), Dharmendra (24 per cent), Govinda (12 per cent), MH Ambareesh (27 per cent), Mamata Banerjee (18 per cent), Mohammad Shahabuddin (24 per cent), Pappu Yadav (four per cent) and Shibu Soren (14 per cent).

It is an appalling figure and therefore some MPs have taken a pledge to improve it.

"Public wants the MPs to attend Parliament," BJP MP Shahnawaz Hussein said.

In the barely pass list are also some notables. Sonia Gandhi had an attendance percentage of 36, HD Deve Gowda 39, Priya Sunil Dutt 46, Navjyot Singh Sidhu 45 and Jaya Prada at 43.

But the Class of 2004 was not without the good boys and girls. Eighty-year-old Abdul Rehman Antulay headed the group that registered a 95 per cent attendance.

Pawan Bansal, Krishna Tirath and Sajjan Kumar also belonged to this club of exemplary MPs.

It was not only the attendance that mattered. Errabelli Dayakar Rao of the Telegu Desam Party had a 100 per cent attendance record.

But it was of hardly any use because his debate records show he never aksed any question or took part in any discussion.

There's a saying 'absence makes the heart grow fonder' and with almost 11 per cent of MPs earning an attendance of less than 50 per cent, it's hard to say if the Speaker or fellow parliamentarians grew any more fond of them.

What's certain though is that the voters will not remember them fondly.

(Data provided by PRS Legislative Research. Data till December 2008)

Govt wakes up, to stop auction of Gandhiji's items

After a public furore, the government has decided to acquire Mahatma Gandhi's personal belongings including his iconic glasses which were to auctioned in New York early March.

The government is still exploring options as to how to go about the process. Gandhiji's grandson Tushar Gandhi has already been trying to get those items back.

Five personal belongings of Gandhiji including, spectacles, glasses, sandals, a pocket watch and some utensils are slated for auction in New York on March 4 and 5.

Now the Indian government is expected to make a formal request to return them citing honour and respect for Indian sentiment.

But if this request is unheard, then the government hopes to convince some organisation to buy them and gift them to India. The government is also toying with the idea of buying them at a reserve price.

The Indian mission in New York and Washington has already been briefed about it.

But what is intriguing is that even after the auctioning of Gandhiji's letters by Christies in London in 2007 had to be withdrawn following loud protests and an appeal from India, the government has been caught unawares over the this one.

"It was a national shame that somebody that we refer to as Father of the Nation and his personal belongings are being auctioned off in a foreign land. This kind of concern should be for every national heritage," says Tushar Gandhi.

Especially so since the Minister of Culture Ambika Soni has been proposing for some time a law prohibiting auction of belongings of leaders like Gandhiji.

The government's worry now is understandable as in the election season Gandhiji is a powerful emotion.