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How Readers responded to Saisuresh Sivaswamy's recent columns

Date sent: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 08:04:17 PDT
Date sent: "Vaidyanathan R." <vaidya99@hotmail.com>
Subject: Winter of discontent

It was an excellent analysis but did not take into account two factors. Slowly but surely we are moving towards a two-party system. The saffron is losing its colour after spreading in the south. And the Congress is mildly saffroning itself after V N Gadgil's fulmination against the ISI and its agents in India, and the need to send back Bangladeshis.

The second point is the Italian madam's total lack of political acumen. Newspapers have shied from publishing her bio-data. I think she is not more than plus-two equivalent. She is worried and perhaps knows that a George does not make a Cabinet. It is simply not in her to fight and/or scheme politically. Her aim is to wriggle out of all the cases, preferably with the present government's connivance. She cannot go with the RLM crowd and she cannot align with the commies because that will make the BJP the main opposition in Kerala and Mamata/BJP the main party in Bengal.

Surjeet/ Basu do not lose anything with the Italian joint venture but the Italian knows (or, maybe, have been told by Manmohan) that any link with the commies will finish her party in the two states. Plus, her party is being resurrected by Salman Kursheed in Uttar Pradesh, which is a hilarious thing to happen as the party has only a handful of MLAs in the state (half of whom are sulking due to Salman's five-star style).

In Bihar the letters written to the Patna Congress unit would be returned stating 'addresse not traceble'!! In Tamil Nadu and Bengal her party is in a shambles. In Karnataka it has 35 -- repeat 35 -- secretaries and still a lot of dissension.

The Congress will take at least 2 to 3 years to recover, assuming younger elements take over and run it. People forget the fact that after her campaign in '98 even the Uttar Pradesh home seats (Amethi etc) were lost. Her charisma is a media and Delhi-based poll forecasters' creation. You need a party to convert support to votes unless there is wave-like situation, a la post-emergency.

So Atal Bihari Vajpayee will carry on not due to the TINA factor but due to TMSA (Too Many Small Alternatives). Till the Congress gets its moorings and/or the RLM, and the commies fully merge with the Congress, Atal can carry on. Of course, he has a hopeless ministry, half of which does not know the difference between a BJP crisis and a BOP crisis.

Vaidya

Date sent: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 11:42:45 PDT
Date sent: "srinivasan vijayaraghavan" <svr@hotmail.com>
Subject: Circle of Treason

I have read several reports about the uneasy relationship between Vajpayee and Advani. Almost all of them were based on guesswork and wishful thinking. I have no real reason not to believe that the two are friends still. Both leaders have expressed mutual respect for each other in public speeches and interviews. The BJP's second rung leaders like Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj and Jaswant Singh are considered close to both.

I personally believe that if both leaders are working against each other, it is bad for the country (also for the BJP). I request the writers to clearly spell out why they suspect a war between the two.

Vijay

Saisuresh Sivaswamy