Congress on Mass Media

Mayawati's strong attack on the Maharashtra ruling coalition -- while daring Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan to resign from Manmohan Singh government as their voice was not being heard -- came a day after a youth from Sant Kabir Nagar was lynched in what was dubbed as another "hate crime" against North Indians in Mumbai.

The offensive from the dalit leader, while reflecting an obvious concern for a resident of the state she rules, stems from an assessment that MNS violence had a tacit support of NCP-Congress combine to weaken the tightening grip on voters of BSP and Shiv Sena.

It is felt a return of "safety concerns" as dominant theme could stop a drift of "lower class" migrant voters, who are in the Congress stable, towards BSP -- which observers say has been happening in the Mumbai region lately. At the same time, it could polarise voters along the "local vs outsider" lines in the heartland, and check a consolidation of SCs and OBCs behind the dalit outfit.

Going by the political logic, BSP, as an outfit from UP, has a direct stake in MNS-orchestrated violence not becoming serious as it could undo its four years of campaign on the ground, something which intensified since Mayawati captured power in Lucknow in May 2004.

On the contrary, observers feel the ruling coalition would gain from the MNS campaign as it would not only check the growth of BSP in whatever measure but could also push the hardline cadre from Shiv Sena to Raj's lap. The gain may offset the possible loss of Muslim votes to Congress as the minority groupsare bristling over the alleged "persecution" in the anti-terror campaign and are being wooed by Samajwadi Party.

Mayawati seems to have decided to take a leadership role to pit herself as a player in Maharashtra politics. An unambiguous stand on violence against the"outsiders", while helping consolidate her position within UP, is rooted inthe belief that BSP's mobilisation of SC/OBCs in Vidarbha and Marathwada would not be affected by the bogey raised by MNS.

While survival fears may force migrants from UP-Bihar to stay in Congress fold for lack of alternative, it may be worth gambling if a scathing accusation at Vilasrao Deshmukh could force them to take a relook at their political choice.

If BSP succeeds in bringing the Congress role under a cloud, it may saddle Congress with a negative in the Hindi heartland in coming electoral battles which would undercut its attempts at revival.

Putting the onus of ensuring constitutional rights of citizens on the Centre, Mayawati said, "UPA should immediately dismiss Maharashtra government." She said the Maharashtra CM's statement that he could not do anything to control attackers had given strength to the arsonists. She also said that silence of BJP and Congress showed that they were hand in glove.

These band of volunteers from the Youth Congress and National Student's Union of India (NSUI) would be entrusted with the task of propagating UPA Government's programmes for the consumption of local people across the country.

According to sources in the party, 1,600 volunteers are undergoing training in Delhi in batches for this task. They would be deputed at State, district and block levels and involved in cadre building, training and programme implementation activities run by the UPA Government, sources said.

"The Prime Minister expressed confidence that the people of India understood the significance of the initiatives being taken by the UPA Government and endorse them," said a brief note issued by the PM's media advisor after Singh's meeting with senior television journalists.

In his first public comments after the Left parties withdrew support to the Government, the Prime Minister dismissed allegations by the Left and the main Opposition BJP that the IAEA safeguards agreement would compromise India's strategic programme.

"The agreement will in no way impinge on our strategic programme, which is entirely outside the purview of the IAEA safeguards agreement," he said.

Highlighting the opportunities for international cooperation in civil nuclear energy to meet the challenge of energy security and high technology development, Singh said the IAEA accord would enable India to cooperate in this sector with all the 45 members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

These include USA, Russia, France and China, he said adding concluding the agreements with IAEA and the NSG would end the era of nuclear apartheid against India.

Acting on the recommendations of a disciplinary committee headed by senior leader Pradhyuman Singh, the party decided to expel Jagat, the sitting MLA from Lakshmangarh, after he failed to reply to the show cause notice issued to him on August 18 when he was suspended from the party following his indictment by the Justice Pathak Authority.

Defying the show cause notice after suspension from the party on August 18, Jagat not only involved in the pro-Natwar Swabhiman rally but also openly assailed many senior Congress leaders from the dias on August 23 which was highly deplorable, PCC President Dr B.D. Kalla told reporters here.

The PCC executive committee had on August 23 approved the suspension of Jagat, and now after considering the recommendation of disciplinary committee, he was expelled, Kalla said.

He said that a letter notifying Jagat about the expulsion from the party has already been issued.

The Pathak authority had indicted Natwar Singh and Jagat for misusing their positions to favour some people close to them in procuring oil contracts from the Saddam Hussein regime in 2001.

Following their indictment, both of them were suspended from the party.

• Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy,
• Minister Of State in PMO, Prithviraj Chavan,
• AICC'S Media Chairperson Girija Vyas and its
• Secretary Tom Vadakkan and
• Prime Minister's Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru.

In the first meeting attended by the five members presided over by the Prime Minister, it was decided that the "activities, achievements and initiatives" taken by the Government were put in a proper perspective and context.

Editor's Note: The following article from USA Today newspaper captures the spirit of the remarkably successful "mini-newspapers" called blogs. Blogs Are Weblogs, or online electronic journals.

Congress4India.com provides you the capability to create your own blogs for free. As soon as you log in with your username and password you will see an option called "Your Diary". This is our equivalent of a blog, and anything that you put here will be visible to other users under the "Free Member Diaries " hyperlink at the top of the screen. If you don't see the Diary option just create a user account and provide an email address so that we can send the password to.

The email address does not have to be traceable to you, but just some place from where you can access the password that we send you. With the username you chose, and the password we sent, you can log into your account to access the Diaries or blogs.

Bloggers and traditional journalists feed off each other — it can be a terrific synergy. Newspapers and TV or radio reporters often provide the blogosphere with the initial information. Bloggers then either simply link to stories of interest, or comment on them at length, or use them as the basis for their own reporting — digging up records, memos, other stories, etc. Then it's back to the traditional media. Thanks to the blogs, a smart editor or producer can see what people are interested in.

The blogs are where you find the answer to "What are people on the Net saying?" Bloggers write short pieces and long pieces. Sometimes an entry is just a link and a quip. Other times it's a lengthy and well-researched essay (with lots of links). But bloggers read one another and link to one another, creating that blogosphere — a giant spider web of connected sites. If a news item tickles any part of the web it's not long before it's felt far away. Sounds a lot like newspapers in the early days, don't it?

Not that anyone should get all their news from blogs. But they'd be just as foolish, these days, to simply rely on traditional media. Blogs have succeeded because we the people need them. We didn't know it, but we sense it. Bloggers are filling in where journalists miss. Blogs are filling a role that used to be filled by that mass media: Digging deeper into the news and offering fact-checking, perspective, and doing more than simply reporting.

Later, Chairperson of the department Girija Vyas told reporters that it was an informal interaction between Singh and the department's members. Vyas said that they told the Prime Minister about the difficulties faced by the media in getting information from the Government. Asked about his response, Vyas said "it was positive." Besides her, those present at the lunch were Spokesperson Jayanti Natrajan and AICC Secretary Tom Vadakkan.

Two spokesmen Anand Sharma and Abhishek Singh could not attend as they were out of Delhi, Vyas said.

The magazine said the list had made a refreshing break from the conventional wisdom about women and power by breaking the notion that women can only gain power by working behind the scenes and forging consensus. Forbes said it came up with the list by devising a power scorecard. "For each candidate, we came up with a numerical weight defined by her title and resume, the size of the economic sphere in which she wields power... and the number of global media mentions."

In a brief profile of the 57-year-old Gandhi, the magazine said no other woman in recent times has been more widely revered in India than her. "Gandhi made headlines in May when, after the party (Congress) she led won India's democratic elections, she declined to take over the Prime Minister's seat," it noted.