Read this piece in Gujarati here

Ahmedabad, 6 October 2012

Keshubhai and Congress

The secret association between Congress and Keshubhai Patel is evergreen topic discussed in the media circle. A few days back the timing of Keshubhai’s press conference was clashing with the timing of the press conference organized by the Union Minister of Congress. It is believed that after having a conversation with Congress, Keshubhai compromised and changed the time of his press conference. But what happened this week, was more interesting. Keshubhai Patel organized a press conference in Ahmedabad’s Westend hotel which is owned by a Congress leader. When the Paldi based Gujarat Congress headquarter was under construction, Congress used to organize most of the press conferences in Westend hotel. In past, many times Westend hotel had sent food parcels to the booth workers of Congress on the election day. So when from a large number of prime hotels in the city, Keshubhai picks only the hotel owned by a congress leader, what else can you accept but gossips on his secret deal with Congress party?

It should be mentioned here that the media hall of Gujarat Parivartan Party’s new office is ready for use, but I have already mentioned in Andar Bahar Gujarat series earlier that the elevator of GPP office building is not working and Keshubhai is unable to climb stairs. Else Gordhanbhai Zadaphia had organized conference on the very next day in the media hall of GPP office.

Clever Dilip Sanghani

Clever Dilip Sanghani: It seems like a title of a story, doesn’t it? Read ahead to find out why Dilip Sanghani is clever. Few months back reporters from three leading newspapers had claimed that the MLAs of BJP had watched vulgar pictures on iPad in Legislative Assembly. After the incident, while leaving the assembly floor during interval, Dilip Sanaghani sternly glanced at the press gallery and commented, “You people have sold yourselves for money.” From that day onwards, all these journalists in lay man’s terms “did not miss even a single opportunity to criticize Sanghani”. May it be morning or evening, open the news paper and there was something negative written about Sanghani. What could Sanghani do if the newspapers keep criticizing him for one reason or the other? Clever Sanghani first embraced another way of communicating- direct to people. He got pamphlets published and made sure that each house has one copy of it. Not only this, Sanghani also organized a car rally of his supporters and later he also addressed a huge assembly. But how long this can go? Newspapers are published every day and every day some criticism was published! So annoyed Sanghani then registered defamation case against a leading newspaper. This worked well. The rival newspapers were happy and stopped publishing news against Sanghani after that. The newspaper against which Sanghani has registered the case cannot publish even a single word of criticism against Sanghani as long as the case is going on. If it does, Sanghani can give statement to the court that as he has filed a case against the newspaper, he is facing harassment from the newspaper outside the court, as the newspaper is misusing their machinery by publishing news against him in the paper. In such case, the Court can give an order to the newspaper not to publish such negative news until the judgement comes. Few years back, Yatin Oza also took a sigh of relief after registering case against the same newspaper. Oza requested the Court to order this newspaper not to print single news against him as long as the case is running. The court immediately agreed to this and passed suitable order.

In Somnath, Veraval

Recently during my Somnath visit, I casually met few common people. A range of people I met included a group of Leuva Patels while returning back from Somnath in train. youngsters, coconut vendors, rickshaw drivers, businessmen and even middle class common men. I asked each of them their political opinion during casual talk. I earlier wrote that a few days back I visited Sabarkantha, and whatever people I met randomly were supporting Narendra Modi. Now after paying visit to Somnath, I have to say it again that people favor Narendra Modi very much. After interviewing so many people in Somnath/Veraval, I could not find even a single common man supporting Congress or Keshubhai. Only one young man running a cold drink shop in Somnath said, “You just cannot trust people living in coastal areas. They can vote for anyone.” Otherwise, somebody talked about Modi winning 150 seats and somebody elaborated examples of Keshubhai defeating Leuva Patel leader with the help of funds collected from Congress party(to say in particular, the example was about defeat of Bhavnaben Chikhalia). Like it happened in past, it seems the ground reality is different from what media represents. Taking opinion of a small group of people is not at all a scientific survey but I still believe that the voice of common man is the voice of God when it comes to elections. When you meet random people and ask for their opinion, the final result of this opinion poll reflects the inclination of masses. At least my past election experiences support this method.

Dialogues mixer

Let’s conclude today’s ABG with the dialogues of some political leaders. Addressing a small gathering in Anand in central Gujarat, Union minister Bharatsinh Solanki said that Congress kicked out even the Britishers from this country, these BJP people are not bigger than Britishers, correct? Congress would kick out them now from Gujarat. In a TV discussion leader of opposition Shaktisinh Gohil said Modi himself now says that the PM is Singham. Modi is true, Gohil said, adding that the PM is Singham and the CM is chewing gum glued to selected industrialists in the state. In Congress rally in Sanand, Patan MP Jagdish Thakor said that Modi could manage attack on self to win the election. BJP leader Purushottam Rupala in his speech said that Modi has given 108 ambulance service to Gujarat which reaches earlier than Yamraja. ‘Modi naa vikaas naa fal Gujarati maane chhe, desh jaane chhe, duniyaa vakhaane chhe,’ Rupala said.