Spin masters

Apart from accusing the Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, of hurting the sentiments of the Other Backward Classes with his ‘why do all thieves have the Modi surname’ remark, the Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries are spinning a different narrative. After Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha, the information and broadcasting minister, Anurag Singh Thakur, suggested at a media address that there is a conspiracy within the Congress party to get rid of the Gandhi scion. He backed this by questioning why none of the legal luminaries in the Congress immediately approached a higher court to get a stay on Rahul Gandhi’s conviction that could have saved his Lok Sabha membership. Thakur then tried to convince reporters by saying that sections in the Congress are happy that Rahul Gandhi got disqualified. However, in the corridors of power in Delhi, this was seen as a reflection of the saffron party fearing political damage due to its extreme action against the Congress leader. Some party leaders privately conceded that Rahul Gandhi could draw public sympathy owing to the general perception that he had been punished because of his relentless focus on the Adani affair. “People might start believing that there is definitely some truth in the charges against Adani,” one BJP member said.

English trouble

Last month, the Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar, publicly chided a management graduate-turned-farmer for speaking in English at a farmers’ conclave. Thereafter, the CM was seen this week expressing his displeasure over English words being used on the display boards in the state legislative council. Amidst all this, the Rashtriya Janata Dal — the principal ally of Nitish’s Janata Dal (United) — tweeted a video clip of Tejashwi Yadav, the deputy CM and younger son of the party president, Lalu Prasad, speaking in English. Since the programme had been organised a few months ago, the timing of the tweet was not lost on anyone. While some termed it as mischief, others saw it as the RJD’s attempt to project Tejashwi as a more progressive leader in comparison to Nitish. The incident sparked a battle between the RJD and the JD(U). “Though Nitish has studied engineering... he and several senior leaders of his party hold the view that ‘Angrez chale gaye, lekin angrezi chhod gaye’ (The English left, but left English behind in the country). This is a regressive thought in the present age,” an RJD leader opined. On the other hand, the JD(U) leaders pointed out that the CM has no problem with English. “Nitish is the most progressive leader in Bihar since Independence, unlike leaders who tried to remove English from public and academic use,” a JD(U) leader asserted.

Mysterious house

With everything seemingly not going well in the ruling Grand Alliance in Bihar, people have, once again, started discussing the mystery about 5, Deshratna Marg — the official residence of the deputy CM, Tejashwi Yadav. The sprawling bungalow in the high-security zone in Patna has a rather dubious record: all the deputy CMs who have resided there had to make an unceremonious exit from power before completing their term. It started in 2015 when Tejashwi became the deputy CM for the first time and the bungalow was allotted to him. He turned it into a luxurious residence but was ousted from power only two years later when Nitish switched back to the National Democratic Alliance. The next occupant was the BJP’s Sushil Kumar Modi. However, he too lost his position as deputy CM when the BJP dropped him after the 2020 assembly elections. The bungalow was then passed on to the new incumbent, Tarkishore Prasad, but he could only stay till August last year when Nitish decided to quit the NDA and return to the Grand Alliance. The bungalow then came back to Tejashwi. The million-dollar question being asked is how long the RJD leader will last there this time. “.. [t]he bungalow seems to be evicting its occupants regularly and people do love ghost stories,” a senior construction officer quipped.

Controversial appointment

The Union minister of education, Dharmendra Pradhan, continues to hold sway over the Odisha BJP unit. This is evident from the appointment of the former state minister, Manmohan Samal, as the state party president. Samal, like his predecessor Samir Mohanty, happens to be an acolyte of Pradhan. Pradhan’s rivals in the party seemed to be unhappy with the appointment. Their strategy to counter Pradhan’s move to install Samal apparently did not work and, ultimately, Pradhan’s wish prevailed. This shows that Pradhan might be leading the party in the upcoming polls. However, many leaders are not enthusiastic about the appointment given Samal’s past record. Samal had earlier served as the state party president twice. Following his election to the state assembly in 2004, he was made a minister. But he had to resign from the ministry in December 2008 over his alleged involvement in a sex scandal.

Footnote

The rumours about the Aam Aadmi Party parliamentarian, Raghav Chadha, dating the actor, Parineeti Chopra, have become a hot topic. As the party chief, Arvind Kejriwal, launched the “Modi Hatao, Desh Bachao” campaign, the paparazzi had a field day clicking Chadha and Chopra in Mumbai. The following day in the Rajya Sabha, when Chadha notified about discussing Mehul Choksi, the vice-president, Jagdeep Dhankar, teased him: “You already occupy enough space on social media. This may be a day of silence for you.”