Madhya Pradesh: Cong ends with egg on face as senior party leader turns turncoat

By Chandna C Arora Bhopal: A pre-orchestrated, scripted-to-the-last-syllable drama nipped the Congress’s proposed no-confidence motion in the bud in the Madhya Pradesh assembly today. A move supposed to embarrass the BJP government boomeranged badly on the Congress when a senior party leader defected to the ruling party. Immediately after Leader of the Opposition Rahul Singh was called upon by Speaker Ishwar Das Rohani to speak, Rakesh Singh Choudhary, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, sprang to his feet and started disputing his own party’s No-Confidence Motion. He said he did not agree with the motion on two grounds: one, it ignored the case of Raghavji altogether and two, a recent tweet allegedly by Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh—"baccha baccha Ram ka, Raghavji ke kam ka"—was an insult to all Hindus. He said 80 percent of us are Hindus, and it is an insult to Madhya Pradesh and an insult to all children. This was even before Rahul Singh could get up and speak. [caption id=“attachment_949595” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan. Image courtesy PIB[/caption] The BJP benches started calling out for the name of the author of the Twitter message, but Chowdhary Rakesh Singh refrained from naming the person. BJP leader Narottam Mishra, who obviously was at the helm of this political engineering, spoke next: “The Leader of the Opposition does not have the confidence of his own party. I would recommend, rather than tabling a no-confidence motion against the BJP government, Rahul Singh should first go and earn that for himself from his own party leaders.” Kailash Vijayvargiya, Minister for Industries and Commerce, pointed out: “The Leader of the Opposition tried to propose a no-confidence motion against the government, but it is for the first time in history that his own deputy has shown his lack of confidence in the Leader of the Opposition. Citing the Assembly rules and codes Vijayvargiya pointed out that since a “member of the opposition has opposed a no-confidence, then the motion is not applicable and annulled”. The shock was evident on the faces of all Congress MLAs and many were found looking askance at Rahul Singh. Rahul Singh had the presence of mind to turn back and ask Congress MLA’s – “Apka hamare mein confidence hai ki nahin (do you have confidence in me)?” And all MLA’s except Choudhry Rakesh Singh answered ‘yes’. After this, neither Rahul Singh, nor any other Congress MLA was allowed to speak. Visible cues were given by Narottam Mishra to BJP MLAs to increase and continue the noise and ruckus. Kailash Vijayvargi and Uma Shankar Gupt were seen moving around in the House openly inspiring MLAs to keep the ruckus on. The House was adjourned by the Speaker for 15 minutes. Suresh Pacahouri, present in the Speaker’s gallery, and visibly upset by his protégé’s unforeseen behaviour, during the break time and again called Rakesh Singh Choudhary to him. His signals were studiously ignored. Rakesh Choudhary did once walk to him, but for a fraction of a moment, and was seen leaving him after brushing Pachouri’s anxieties aside. When the House re-assembled and Rahul Singh got up to speak again, the noise and the disturbance started again. It quietened only when Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan got up and said, “The Opposition does not enjoy the confidence of its own party leaders.” He congratulated Choudhary Rakesh Singh for his courage to speak the truth. He informed the Assembly that any no-confidence motion to be tabled by the Opposition was now groundless and baseless. The din continued until the Speaker adjourned the session, sine die. The drama, however, continued. Choudhry next appeared, not two kilometres from Vidhan Sabha, at the BJP office. He was led by CM Shivraj Singh Chowhan and welcomed and garlanded by the state BJP leadership, along with President Narendra Singh Tomar. That the entire party was waiting thus, shows the planning and precision of the strategy. And here, amidst great pomp and show, Choudhry Rakesh Singh, a senior Congress leader, a Pachouri-camper, a prominent Minister in Digvijay Government, joined BJP. Inside the MP Vidhan Sabha, speaking to media persons, Rahul Singh said, “We have been knifed in the back by one of our own.” When contacted by Firstpost, Rahul Singh said, “A deal surely has been struck. We now care no more for Chowdhary Rakesh Singh. Why talk of a traitor?” The evidence of high-level negotiations also comes from the overtime done in the past few days by Narottam Mishra, BJP minister for legislative affairs, to kill the motion. The question now arises – why, when the BJP enjoys the number power in Madhya Pradesh, and since the no-confidence movement was not to be a success anyway, was this kind of a masterminding required? The answer maybe lies in the fact that the 16-page charge sheet filed by the Congress against the BJP in the Assembly, is one with each allegation backed by documented proof and evidence. If tabled and discussed it could have caused great embarrassment for the BJP. What better way but to turn it ’null and void’, and that too by firing the salvo from the Opposition’s own shoulder?