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National / Cover Stories MAGAZINE | J UL 15, 2013

Mukesh with Modi

RELIANCE

Lips And Purse-stringsMoney talks; it also gags. A 2014-fixated BJ Ps muteness on the gas-pricing issue proves that.

ANURADHA RAMAN , PRARTHNA GAHILOTE

I am sitting in front of the papers, Im studying them and the party will have a response

Arun Jait leyBJ P leader.

Im away in Bihar, will study the issue and revert

Ravi Shankar PrasadBJ P spokesperson.

This is not my beat

Rajiv Pratap RudyBJ P spokesperson.

In the worlds largest and noisiest democracy, high-decibel debates on decisions madeand those not madeby the government are only to be expected. Thats why,perhaps, the silence by the principal opposition party about the gas price hike by the UPA raises such a stink. By now, its mahila morcha should have hit the streets, whileits main leaders would have invaded our drawing rooms via TV. Yet, the loud silence sounds like a neat compact between the ruling party and the BJ P (with the exceptionof the Left, the AIADMK and a smattering). Whats going on?

The BJ Ps reaction is not without reason. Highly placed sources in the party have told Outlook that the deal to keep quiet was struck at the highest level, keeping in mindthe impending 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Senior BJ P leaders confirm that the decision was taken around the time the UPA government cleared the gas pricing for Reliance. Ahandful of senior leaders in conjunction with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modinow heading the BJ P campaign committeedecided that the party couldnt afford tooppose the policy, given the short span of time left before the 2014 polls.

Even as a faction in the BJ P led by a veteran leader continue to insist that it must lead a nationwide agitation against the UPA over gasprices and even stall Parliament in the monsoon session, the BJ P has decided to keep quiet. Why? The party is in dire need of finances,especially since we have to face an election next year. There is no way we can afford to upset such a huge corporate group if we hope toget any funds for 2014, says a senior leader.

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I wonder if the

electronic media is

the main culprit in

shutting out

debates on the

issue. There hasnt

been a single

discussion onit. Arvind Kejriwal, AamAdmi Party

Theres such a

huge context to the

debate on the

pricing of natural

resources, yet

theres no sign of

protest. The silence

is intriguing. PratapBhanu Mehta,President, Centre ForPolicy Research

So, what does the party have in mind? Senior leaders tell Outlook: The party is clear there will be no real opposition to the gas pricing

matter. Yet there is a need to register the protest coming from some quarters in the party. The same will be conveyed in sporadic, smallmeasures here and there. You could call it token protest. Little wonder then that the first signs of this has come from Gujarat itself. As CMModi is seen to be close to Mukesh Ambani, Modi cronies like energy and petrochemicals minister Saurabh Patel are criticising the UPA overnatural gas prices.

The hypocrisy is immediately evidentlook at how quickly the BJ P opposed the Right to Food ordinance, on the ground of parliamentarypropriety. Why has it not thought it fit to ask the government to debate the gas pricing issue on the floor of the House? The silence isconspiratorial and almost like the main opposition party is rallying around UPA. It is like the opposition by the political parties to the directiveof coming under the ambit of the Right to Information Act, says Madabhushi Sridhar, professor of law at nalsar Hyderabad.

The ingredients for a groundswell of dissent are all there. There is the simmering faceoff between CAG andReliance over the audit process for the D6 wells in Andhras KG Basin. There are questions that naturally

followwhether all this was being done to benefit one company, namely Reliance? Or, if the decision to hikegas price was hastened by impending electionsconsidering the model code of conduct would have kickedin.

Also, a few months ago, Arvind Kejriwal of the fledgling Aam Admi Party had held a press conference,accusing the government of buckling to the pressure of RIL by shunting out its Union petroleum minister J aipal Reddy as he had opposed aprice hike. Today, Kejriwal says he is not at all surprised at the silence that envelops the media and political parties. I wonder if theelectronic media is the main culprit in shutting out debates on the issue. There has been no single discussion on such a crucial topic, sayshe. The party is currently on an enrolment drive and misses no opportunity to raise the issue in the neighbourhoods of Delhi. The media hasnot turned its attention to the most pressing issue before the people, says Kejriwal, who warns of the pressures of being owned bycorporates.

The silence is intriguing, agrees Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president, Centre for Policy Research and a columnist with the Indian Express. Atone level, it is easy to talk about ownership of the media and the self-imposed silence among the political parties. There is such a hugecontext to the entire debate on the pricing of natural resources, and yet there is no sign of protest, he adds. It is also, he points out, asimple political story to follow. Sadly, there is ample evidence to show that this is a story that many in politics and media simply dont want tofollow.

By Anuradha Raman and Prarthna Gahilote in Mumbai

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