CAFE
COM:PORT
CHAT JOCKEYS
EVENTS

The A R Antulay Chat

Keshav Baliram: Well, the common people in India are more tolerant and more secular than any you can aspire to find in any part of the world. The common worker at the grassroot level of the Congress party too is equally secular and tolerant. Had they not been so, they would not have consistently elected me from my own home constituency, Raigad district to the Lok Sabha and to the assembly from the Shrivardhan constituency which is also in Raigad district and is now a segment of my Lok Sabha constituency. The electorate comprises of more than 90% of my Hindu brothers and sisters. And they have been supporting me both in my elections to the assembly and to the Lok Sabha. How can I then subscribe to the view that the common worker of the party and common man who is a voter is communal? The difficulty unfortunately stares in your face when you come to the upper echelons of the party; thereby I mean the higher rungs of the organisation. The higher a person in the party hierarchy, unfortunately he is less secular as is seen and experienced by me. It is therefore a previous question of a friend of mine which I replied in the positive and affirmative is the answer here also. The smaller a worker in the hierarchy of the party, greater should he have the say in both chalking out programmes and choosing the leader.

Hey RAVI WILLYA stop putting those cartoons in the chatroom, some people are trying to talk out here. I'm sure Antulayji reads newspapers and he has already seen your sense of humour pal. So Why don't you ask some questions instead.

always wondered abot this .. The UF always expects the Congress to support them yet when the Congress expects the UF'ssupport the Congress becomes an untouchable. If both forces claim to root out communal forces what is this double standard ? Your comment

It seems you wanted to vote according to conscience in the recent parliament session. So what happened? Why did you vote against the Gowda government?

Naren: That has unfortunately been the practice for the past few years. The working committee members decide since I don't in their view deserve to be even an invitee to that 'apex body' I have no effective say in putting or deposing the Congress president. I wish at least the AICC, which comprises of near about 700-800 members, was convened. It ought to be convened under the Congress constitution to elect a president, either by converting the provisional president which Kesriji continues to be or elect a new president.

Did the senior congress leaders know that Kesri had planned to pull the rug from under Deve Gowda's feet? What does the congress plan to do in this regard?

You said you booted out Deve Gowda in the larger interests of the country, Wouldn't it have been better to boot out Kesri for much the same reason? Wouldn't a leader like Pawar or you have been better to lead the party than let someone like Kesri jeopardise the chance that secularism had?

Mr Antulay why is that the Congress broke up after the fall of the UF government saying that they thought that Kesri's move was unjust. Were the Congress party members blind during the vote of confidence????

It seems you launched a vitriolic attack on Kesri in the meeting held at Sharad Pawar's place? Why don't you do something more concrete instead of just verbally abusing that ambitious old cretin?

Why did Narasimha Rao succumb to the party whip? Between you people, you had enough support to help the Gowda government win the vote of confidence. Why didn't you help him?

Dear Mr Antulay will you tell me the reasons why you dedcided not to support Sita Raam Kesri anymore and tie-up withsome one like Pawar who is a DEALER NOT A LEADER???

What an irresponsible step your party president took. And senior guys like you backed him, claiming the party should stick together. Rot! The better thing would be to get him to backtrack. No?

Mr Antulay why is that the Congress broke up after the fall of the UF government saying that they thought that Kesri's move was unjust. Were the Congress party members blind during the vote of confidence????

Mr Antulay why is that the Congress broke up after the fall of the UF government saying that they thought that Kesri's move was unjust. Were the Congress party members blind during the vote of confidence????

My family always used to vote Congress, even in Andhra elections -- because of the faith they had from Congress leaders from the past
What happened to the Congress of old ? No one seems to possess those qualities anymore ..

Sometimes it makes sense to play possum. Why couldn't the Congress do that or threaten the UF before backing out. Has the Tanwar case something to do with it?

Antulay Saheb, why does Congress treat BJP as some untouchable party. They have more seats in Parliament than any other party. Therefore they are more acceptable to people than the other parties. Face it.

ALL POLTICIANS ARE SCUM .. ALL THEY WANT TO DO IS LINE THEIR OWN POCKETS , MR. ANTULAY YOU CANNOT DISAGREE WITH ME CAN YOU ?

Devi: I did not vote in consonance with the dictates of my conscience simply because I was not permitted by the floor leader, Shri Sharad Pawar, to defy the whip and vote as per my conscience which in other words means not against the motion of confidence but in favour of it. Whereas the conscience is upper most in the life of an individual like me, the individual conscience unfortunately is subservient to the 'conscience' of the party to which that individual belongs. Now, this particular 'liberty' of making the individual member's conscience to subserve the party's conscience is part of the Constitution of India after the anti-defection law with the best of intentions and noble sentiment became a statute as a part of the Constitution of India. When Mrs Gandhi gave a call to vote as per the conscience during the election of the then President in 1969 this constitutional constraint was not there. It was only brought in to effect after 1985. And since it is a part of India's Constitution which I have sworn to uphold I had no other option but to go by the whip which again I repeat has unfortunately become an inalienable and indivisible part of the Constitution of India itself. I did not want to defy the Constitution of India even though I could defy the constitution of the Indian National Congress.

Arre, some opinion poll says that Vajpayee is the choice of most people. In the Congress only the non-functional sonia got more votes. Apne hi perr pe kulhadi kyon marte ho, bhai?

a)politicians are not relevant. b)rich Congress politicians are not relevant at all. c) rich Congress politicians who had humble backgrounds like BPT crane operators for brothers and are now part of leading multi-millionaire familes are not relevant at all AT ALL. Sir : Even politicians of 9-10 election standings like our current Home Minister cannot afford a car, their children and family have jobs for a living, how are you and Deora types able to live in such opulent and visible luxury? Are you not afraifd that the Arabian Sea will one day swallow you up??? The Courts may have absolved you but thew people know. So, back to the question : Are politicans relevant today, in India's primitive democracy system????

CHANDRABABU NAIDU FOR PM !!!

LET THE BJP RULE

a)politicians are not relevant. b)rich Congress politicians are not relevant at all. c) rich Congress politicians who had humble backgrounds like BPT crane operators for brothers and are now part of leading multi-millionaire familes are not relevant at all AT ALL. Sir : Even politicians of 9-10 election standings like our current Home Minister cannot afford a car, their children and family have jobs for a living, how are you and Deora types able to live in such opulent and visible luxury? Are you not afraifd that the Arabian Sea will one day swallow you up??? The Courts may have absolved you but thew people know. So, back to the question : Are politicans relevant today, in India's primitive democracy system????

Ravi: The Congress extended unconditional support to the UF government and gave a letter to Rashtrapatiji to that effect, to support the Deve Gowda government unconditionally. I was fielded by the Congress party to pledge its support on the first confidence motion on 11 June 1996. And I was given a mandate to declare that there won't be any kind of withdrawal of support for a full tenure of five years. I complied with the directive and confined myself to that mandate on the floor of the House. Now, precisely on April 11 1997, the motion came for discussion and voting within 11 months. Now one can appreciate the pitiable position in which a small worker like me was put by this sudden avalanche. Now, it is up to you to come to any conclusion you consciously choose to. Whether there was double talk, double think, double deal on the part of Antulay as a member of the Congress party. I have no right to speak about others.

Excuse Ravi, everybody. Kids go on this attention-seeking trip...

Antulay Sahib : Thank you for quoting the Indian Constituition to all our participants. With your kind permission, would you like to, tommorrow, on TV or in the newspapers, quote certain other parts of the Constituition selected by me and then ensure applicability by firstly yourself, secondly all Congress MPs and thirdly all other MPs? An open challenge, Sir, and I will fax you those relevant excerpts of our Constituition, and then you come on TV/papers and swear to uphold let us see?????

with a name like osteoporosis , how can you comment? dont have much strength in those bones do you ?