The Enforcement Directorate has so far questioned Abhishek Prasad aka Pintu, the press advisor to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, for almost 45 hours. Illegal mining, illegal stone lease and cases related to several companies are the charges. Apart from handing over bags full of papers, ‘Pintu boss’ has also been delivering ‘dialogues’ to the ED team—‘even the CM calls me boss’. Now, how the officials responded is a different matter. But Pintu boss’ penchant for tantrums is not too far from his dialogues. He started reciting Hanuman Chalisa as soon as ED officials popped in for questioning. This led the officials to ease up a bit because they had already witnessed the majesty of Hanuman Chalisa in Maharashtra.
Let the secrets remain under wraps
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has refused to attend the meeting of the NITI Aayog. He said that since his suggestions in the last meeting were not accepted, he sees no point in attending another. However, the real reason behind KCR not attending this meeting is something else. In a recent presentation about the current economic situation in Sri Lanka, it was pointed out that the Telangana government’s economic conditions are more or less similar. KCR was fully aware of it and he was apprehensive that if he attended the meeting, then one of the BJP chief ministers might bring it up.
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Half of the troops are with him
Haath mein rakhne di bandook to samajhne lage khud ko thanedaar (We allowed them to hold the gun and now they consider themselves a police officer)—these days, this Bihari proverb is being used for Nitish Kumar by those BJP office-bearers from the state who do not like him at all. However, a section of the BJP is still happy with Nitish. For example, the party’s state president subverted all expectations by saying that Nitish babu will continue to remain the leader of the NDA and fight the 2025 Bihar assembly election together. After that, a carefree Nitish Kumar began playing on his own terms. Nitish jolted one of the strong leaders of his own party, RCP Singh, so much that the latter quit JDU. Two BJP Ministers in the Bihar government were also rebuked over the issue of delayed projects. It’s his attitude that has led several people in the BJP to use the Bihari proverb. Now, who will tell them that there are many soldiers who continue to side with him?
A chair without a house
Jagdeep Dhankhar became the Vice President of India and also the chairperson of Rajya Sabha. He will take his oath on 11 August. Either on the same day or on the next—12 August—he will adorn the chair at 11 o’clock when the Rajya Sabha proceedings begin. This is what has been decided till now and the entire Rajya Sabha staff has been busy preparing for this. But there are also whispers that the monsoon session of Parliament will end prematurely. Those who do not concur with this are being told that even if the House continues to be in session, it is not certain if it will continue to function. And even if the House proceedings go on as usual, will the chairperson be welcomed with all the furore that goes with it? But it would be too much to expect the entire ordeal to happen without any noise whatsoever.
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Amit Shah style
Is it really difficult to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah? Of course not. If someone is extorting money or threatening you in his name, then he will meet you without delay. Recently, someone associated with the BJP tried to defraud a businessman of Rs 5 crore on the pretext of getting his work done through Amit Shah. When the work was still not done, the businessman was told to deposit Rs 3 crore more as this amount was to be given to the home minister. But the businessman got suspicious and called the home minister’s residence to inform him about it. Amit Shah promptly called the businessman to meet him and dialled the Delhi Police in his presence and asked them to register a case and recover the money from the fraudsters. Interrogations and arrests are taking place for this case now.
This is not the proper channel
Just as the Congress was chalking out a strategy to protest against the issue of inflation in Parliament, the chief of a newly created state was repeatedly trying to say something to Rahul Gandhi. When other leaders were giving their suggestions, Gandhi asked this leader if he too had some. In response, he said, “No, I want to hold a bigger rally in Karnataka than Siddaramaiah’s rally.” Congress’s state in charge (who is also an MP) was also standing there. When Gandhi asked him what this matter was, the in-charge pleaded ignorance. After this, Gandhi asked the state president to contact him through ‘proper channel’ and prepare for demonstrations on the inflation issue in his own state. So the state president, who had approached Gandhi to build his reputation, returned empty-handed after being told off about the proper channel.
Bharat Agrawal is Executive Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group, and a columnist.