Tough nut

The chief minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, has a reputation for being a tough nut. His government has tried everything in the book to get its tax dues from the Union government, which has been ignoring the state. The communist leader has now decided to take the fight to Delhi with a day-long sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar along with Left Democratic Front lawmakers on February 8. Strapped for funds to pay social security pensions to about four lakh beneficiaries, the government has accused the Centre of not releasing Rs 57,000 crore of GST compensation, revenue deficit grant and other funds. While the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s INDIA partner, the Congress-led United Democratic Front, refused to join the protest, Vijayan has declared: Delhi Chalo!

Show stealer

A commercial van bearing the signage, “BJP on Duty”, appeared at the venue of a Ram leela performance by Delhi’s Hindi Academy, which is funded by the Aam Aadmi Party government. The van was carrying props for the show that is running till Monday, when the Ram temple at Ayodhya will be inaugurated. The Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal, has tweeted that he would not only go for the play but also visit the new Ram temple in Ayodhya with his kin after the inauguration.

Arvind Kejriwal

Kejriwal is skipping the inauguration, claiming that his family wasn’t invited. After the Supreme Court verdict in 2019 in favour of a temple at the site of the Babri masjid in Ayodhya which was razed in 1992, AAP changed its earlier stand to welcome the judgment. Yet, the BJP seems to have stolen the show at Ayodhya.

Loyal soldier

It is no secret that politicians mean business every step of the way. HD Kumaraswamy is no different. The Janata Dal (Secular) leader, who was rumoured to be joining the Union cabinet as a reward for taking his party to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, has denied that such a plan was ever on the cards and called the whole thing a mystery. Why would there be, he insisted, especially when the general elections are just months away?Kumaraswamy further argued that he won’t be able to serve the people in such a short span of time in office, which would be further shortened once the model code of conduct is imposed. For now, Kumaraswamy and his son, Nikhil, will accompany HD Deve Gowda to the consecration of the Ram temple.

Deluded confidence

The Assam CM, Himanta Biswa Sharma, must be lauded for his chutzpah. While visiting Odisha to attend a programme last week, Sharma exuded confidence that the BJP would come to power in the state, replacing Naveen Patnaik’s 23-year-old government. He said the people have made up their minds to bless the BJP in Odisha.

To back his claim, he mentioned that the two parties have only a marginal difference in vote share in Odisha, so the BJP does not have much ground to cover. When asked whether he was certain that the BJP would come to power, the CM replied that he would come to Odisha for the swearing-in-ceremony. He also asked BJP leaders to give an alternative model of governance to people. While his supporters lauded his confidence, detractors continue to maintain that he is unaware of the ground realities in Odisha given how the BJP has so far failed to establish itself in the state.

Spot the truth

When the Janata Dal (United) president and Bihar CM, Nitish Kumar, rejected the position of INDIA convenor at its virtual meeting recently, everybody in the political field started speculating. Several reasons were proffered for his refusal, out of which the most popular ones were the following: the Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge, became the chairman of the alliance before the lesser post was offered to Kumar; several Opposition leaders like the Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee, the Samajwadi Party chief, Akhilesh Yadav, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Uddhav Thackeray and others did not attend the meeting, which made it necessary for him to reject the post of the convenor to save face; the Congress, the Trina­mul Congress, the Dravida Mun­netra Kazhagam are bigger parties with more parliamentarians, so Kumar had to say no to the post; he has become bored of the present alliance. Asked about the most plausible reason, a senior JD(U) leader smiled and said, “just close your eyes and choose one. This is how little one can tell about the incident.”