So, the tigress has been tamed. Every time Mayawati raised her hackles, she thought the BJP would succumb. But this time, she miscalculated her prowess. The BJP told her that by all means it is still the leader.

By seeking Union Minister Jagmohan’s dismissal, Mayawati tried to transcend on the Prime Minister’s prerogative to make or keep ministers. And, this she realised a little bit too late. Jagmohan is someone whose stakes are too high for the BJP to lose—more than Mayawati.

Further, the behaviour of BSP MPs in Parliament was the last straw which infuriated the BJP to the level of threatening to withdraw support from the already fragile coalition in U. P. The U. P. CM is believed to have been firmly told that such impudence will not be tolerated, even at the expense of the coalition.

Maya then realised she cannot afford to lose power for this would give a chance to arch-rival Mulayam Singh Yadav to form a government, something she would never have been able to bear. And, she retracted her demand.

A sulking Maya has now told her party men to prepare for fresh polls. Is this the beginning of the end of the BJP-BSP honeymoon? Only the coming days will tell.

The recent political upheaval in Arunachal Pradesh has shown up the intentions of the BJP vis-à-vis the North Eastern seven sisters. Present at the swearing in of Chief Minister Apang were some senior BJP members from New Delhi, Tulsi Ram Aggarwal and Surya Prakash. This let the cat out of the bag and people were adding two and two together and making five-and-a-half: that is, the BJP had a hand in the fall of the Congress government.

The politics of the North East is so easy and clear that even 3C cretins would find it easy to understand. The BJP is determined to make its mark felt in the North East and establish itself there more firmly. After all, Tulsi Ram Aggarwal, to whom Delhi BJP chief Madan Lal Khurana would not even give a seat in the Delhi Municipal Corporation, is the man who pulls the strings for the BJP in Orissa, Arunachal and Chhattisgarh. The BJP with Aggarwal at the helm of affairs there may soon have a 10 or 12- member group in the Arunachal Assembly.

Meanwhile, P. Sangma, George Fernandes and Pramod Mahajan have launched a joint frontal campaign to ensure that the ‘lotus’ grows wildly in the lush and luxuriant vegetation and greenery of the North-Eastern States. And looking at the success of their efforts till date, Sikkim, Manipur and Mizoram may also become victims of the ‘lotus’ epidemic. Added to this is the fact that the BJP may get a few more Lok Sabha seats in Assam. The ‘hand’ may pick the ‘lotus’, but the lotus may leave a scar on it.

The Lok Sabha has been like a see-saw. First, it was Mayawati, then Ayodhya, and then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s requiem to Sant Paramhans, head of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas. The Lok Sabha saw Vajpayee defending his funeral oration at Ayodhya in which he became so sentimental that he was forced to say that if he was ever pressurised to take a decision as claimed by the opposition, he would give up politics and take up sanyas.

With U. P. figuring so much in the national Parliament, there were bound to be repercussions in the most populous State of the country having the most members in the Lok Sabha. Every one was thinking that Mayawati, having been exposed and forced to retreat on not only the Taj Corridor affair but also her demand for the dismissal of Union Tourism Minister Jagmohan, which earned her a verbal lashing from Vajpayee, would surely find a way to wreak vengeance.

The thinking in the corridors of power was that she might call an emergency meeting of the U. P. cabinet, dismiss the BJP members of her ministry and then request the State Governor to dissolve the Vidhan Sabha. Fearing that she might implement this line of action, U. P. BJP chief Lalji Tandon met the Governor and handed him a letter requesting him not to accede to Mayawati’s request in case she asked for the dissolution of the Assembly. It is evident that Mayawati will not be able to work this out as the Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha and the Governor are both BJP men. Yet as Shakespeare put it, ‘Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned’, and so people are keeping their fingers crossed not knowing what Mayawati may come up with.

It seems that the Lok Sabha, having pased two Constitutional amendment bills and sent them to the Rajya Sabha is now falling into the all-too-familiar drill, that is, protest, uproar, din, pandemonium, walking to the well and then walking out. After all, this will be probably the last session of the Lok Sabha before the ‘hand’ and the ‘lotus’ fight it out for supremacy in four State Assemblies.

One strategy that the BJP is trying to implement is sticking charges of corruption on Buta Singh. The party thinks this would spread the taint of corruption over the entire Congress Party and may make a dent in its vote-bank. Therefore, of the 22 members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the BJP is trying to enlist the support of at least 12 of them to append their signatures on the report against Buta Singh. In a bid to persuade or ‘brainwash’ the MPs, George Fernandes, in his avatar as convenor of the NDA has filed applications in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha stating that he wanted to make statements.

This is where the problem begins. The Opposition has boycotted George Fernandes over his alleged involvement in the Tehelka episode, and has been walking out of the House whenever he gets up to speak. Now, if they listen to him, their boycott will have been presumed to be lifted. If they do not listen to him, there will be no discussion and they will not be able to say anything on the subject. In this way Buta Singh may get censured by default. For the Congress, it is really a question of being impaled on the horns of a dilemma. While it is trying to work out a solution to this, it is quite likely that the BJP may boycott Sonia Gandhi and give her the same treatment that the opposition has been doling out to good old George.