Preparations are in full swing for the event marking successful completion of eight years of the Narendra Modi government. A blueprint highlighting the ‘achievements’ of the government is ready. Strangely, the issue of Ram Mandir and Kashi Vishwanath temple is missing. Abolition of Article 370 and renovation of soldiers’ homes are mentioned. The BJP has taken note of this, but it remains unclear whether the omission of temples was deliberate or a genuine mistake.
‘Return gift’
Last Friday, Karnataka governor Thaawarchand Gehlot met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Officially, it is being termed as a “courtesy meet”, but the grapevine is buzzing about Gehlot being a candidate for vice president. Also, it is being pointed out that whenever he has met the PM, he has always been rewarded with a ‘return gift’. After one such meeting, he was appointed as a Union minister and after another, he was elevated to the post of Rajya Sabha Leader. Following another meeting, he was appointed as Karnataka’s governor. So the possibility of ‘zero return’ from this meeting is quite low.
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Waiting for grandson’s rise
Haryana’s former CM Om Prakash Chautala has been sentenced to four years of imprisonment. This has happened at a time when the BJP government in Haryana is being propped up by his own grandson Dushyant Chautala’s party Jannayak Janata Party. Now, there is a lot of talk about what Dushyant Chautala will do next. Even though Om Prakash and Dushyant belong to rival camps, a despondent Congress is still hoping that Dushyant might pull a rabbit out of the hat that would turn things around for the party in Haryana.
Your tweet, my words (and wisdom)
It might be possible that various film stars may come up with tweets in their own words about achievements of the Modi government in the last eight years and display their wealth of wisdom on social media. Again, it is also possible that all of this “wisdom” might be doled out to them by BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya. Actually, Vijayvargiya has been recently reaching out to various film stars through his contacts. Vijayvargiya is an excellent singer himself and keeps hobnobbing with renowned playback singers.
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The 5 am formula
Environment and labour minister Bhupendra Yadav is a big fan of writer Robin Sharma. Yadav is a great admirer of Sharma’s book The 5 AM Club. He is said to have gifted the book to many of his colleagues’ associates. He himself arrives in the office at 9 am and stays for the entire day. The main subject of Sharma’s book is “to wake up early.” He says that once you wake up early, you can finish a lot of work in no time and your desk might be clear by 10 am. Prior to this, Bhupendra Yadav was also a big fan of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.
Two ex-ministers
Reshuffle in the Union Cabinet is now guaranteed. Until the time of writing this column, the BJP had not allocated a Rajya Sabha ticket to minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Its ally JD(U) has already declined to nominate RCP Singh. It means Singh will now have to resign from the Union Cabinet. Naqvi also might be asked to resign, though he will still have options. He might be sent back to the party organisation or fielded for the Rampur Lok Sabha bypoll to be held on 23 June. However, BJP insiders have already concluded that the minister who will be dropped might be selected as a vice presidential candidate. All eyes are now on whether Naqvi gets the ticket or not.
Bharat Agrawal is Executive Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group, and a columnist.
By special arrangement with Dainik Bhaskar and translated by Ram Lal Khanna from the original in Hindi.