Arun Nehru

Mar 31, 2010

Arun Nehru
Chairman, Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd
Mumbai

Watch Gujarat, the game changer

François Hollande taking oath as the President of France is just the beginning of major changes Europe is gearing up for.

A general disarray

Army Chief Gen. V.K. Singh has called the media news report about troop movement “absolutely stupid” (a newspaper report last week alleged that the Central government was “spooked” by the movement of two key Army units towards Delhi on January 16-17, 2012).

Think 2014

A strange situation is developing in the country and senior politicians, already perplexed by the pace of events, no longer have a clear view of the future. Over the last 30 years, many of us have seen and experienced sudden turns of events in coalition politics, but today it has become difficult to predict what is in store in the next 24 hours.
Despite the fact that the UPA can arrange the “numbers” required to maintain its majority in Parliament, there is deep political uncertainty at the Centre.

Tinkering spies

When the Cold War ended, everyone thought that conspiracy theories would disappear, too. However, a return to the untainted past is never possible. For example, 20 years ago few would have believed that political and economic power would shift, even marginally, towards the Brics nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) from the developed West. The 2008 economic crisis accelerated this process, though many nations continue to live in denial. And some, it now seems, in malevolent wait.

To which song will UP play musical chairs?

After the peaceful second phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh, and as we near the climax of the election campaign, I see the Samajwadi Party (SP) sprinting ahead and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) losing ground. However, the BSP is still way ahead of the Congress, with the BJP trailing as a distant fourth.
I do not know whether the Batla House encounter controversy and the Muslim quota issue raised by Salman Khurshid will have any impact on the poll trends, but I don’t think the Congress will jeopardise its upper caste votes for minority gains. The Congress and the BJP dominate the upper caste votes and even a slight shift can cause a major upset.

Smiles and trials

Although the 2G octopus has surfaced again, its tentacles striking in all directions after the Supreme Court cancelled the 122 licences to telecom operators, 2012 seems to be going well for the UPA.

2014, as seen from UP acid test

Election campaigns and forecasts are not new to me. I remember going as an eight-year-old on my first election campaign to Sitapur, from where my grandmother, Uma Nehru, was an MP in 1952. But I recollect little except the “cold water” breaks in a gruelling schedule on dusty roads and was fascinated by the Electrolux refrigerators, which worked on kerosene burners. Things today are very different.

Catchment of cash

The seizures of cash by the Election Commission in four of the five poll-bound states may have tapered off. But money power in the Assembly elections is quite evident. The EC’s election expenditure monitoring cell had seized over Rs 42 crore in unaccounted cash in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur till January 18. In Uttar Pradesh alone the seizure was to the tune of Rs 29.65 crore, while Punjab accounted for Rs 12.11 crore.

Can pink elephants save Maya’s raj?

As the New Year unfolds, high-profile Assembly elections are claiming our attention. Last week, the Election Commission stole all the headlines when it ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to cover up chief minister Mayawati’s statues and those of her party symbol — the elephant — erected in parks and memorials in the state.

In Uttar Pradesh, party abhi baaki hai

The Lokpal issue continues to fester even in the new year. Since the proceedings in the upper House on December 29 have been seen live on TV across the country there is little need for argument for any side of the benches. There are few things which can be seen in black and white in politics, but 24x7 television can on occasion give a very different slant to a very complex issue.

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