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Shivraj Patil goofed again. He “forgot” to get President Pratibha Patil to revoke President’s Rule in Karnataka so that the newly elected chief minister, BS Yeddyurappa, could be sworn in at a time of his choosing. Now, how does a home minister, who is armed with a battery of seasoned advisors, “forget” something so elementary? Surprisingly, that’s the explanation prime minister Manmohan Singh gave LK Advani when the latter called to ask about the procedural wrangle that had developed in Karnataka. Sorry, Advaniji, the home minister forgot to move the relevant papers. And now, the President is now holidaying in Manali. So, she can’t sign the communiqué anyway. Tell Yeddy to ask his astrologer for another auspicious date.
Astrologers are amazing people. They have a solution for every problem. Can’t take oath at 12 pm on May 28? Chill. May 30 at 2:30 pm is just as good. The point to remember is not to let it spill into June. That would be an inauspicious start.

Yeddyurappa is a deeply superstitious man whose every action is guided by a family astrologer. It got him to the point where he’s the BJP’s first chief minister in south India, didn’t it? And so, the wheels were set in motion. The PM, who must have been deeply embarrassed by the blunder, got the paperwork done in record time, even faxing the communiqué to Manali for the President to sign. The private plane that was booked to fly the BJP’s top brass to Bengaluru on May 28 was hurriedly cancelled and rebooked for May 30. The party’s National Executive Meet was rescheduled to begin on June 1 instead of May 31. And Yeddy was finally anointed chief minister.

Doubts are now surfacing. Is Patil really as incompetent as he’s made out to be? Or was this goof-up a deliberate act by the Congress party’s dirty tricks department? An extremely competent bureaucrat heads the home ministry. He must have been aware of the procedures that need to be completed to facilitate an incoming elected government. Yet, the Centre didn’t lift a finger to get the process moving. The answer for the seeming incompetence probably lies in the Congress party’s abysmally wrong assessment of the ground situation. At the UPA’s fourth anniversary dinner, its leaders were confident that a hung assembly was on its way and the Congress would probably tie up with Deve Gowda’s JD(S) for a coalition government. That was the theme song of Congress spokespersons even on counting day, till the results showed the BJP marching ahead decisively. The ruling party was probably expecting an
extended period of horse-trading and bargaining, which is why the paperwork to revoke President’s Rule was never completed. The Congress desperately needs to repair its political antenna. It committed the same folly in Gujarat where also it had expected an anti-incumbency mood to throw up a hung assembly and give the Congress a chance to play. There seems to be a terrible disconnect between the leadership and the voters. Unless the Congress gets more real and tunes into voices from the ground, it could find itself on the wrong side of the ballot box in the next general elections.

TAILPIECE
His team may have crashed out of the BCCI’s IPL tournament, but Sachin Tendulkar is all set to star in another cricket final. On June 2, he will be in Amethi as chief guest at Rahul Gandhi’s IPL final. The Gandhi cricket tournament has been running simultaneously with the BCCI series. Eight teams drawn from the villages of Amethi are participating with the promise of a celebrity presence at the finale. It was a toss up between Shah Rukh Khan and Tendulkar. Rajiv Shukla had the final say. He decided it was high time the Little Master joined the Gandhi family’s stable of celebrities.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net