Recently, an NGO named ‘Capital Foundation Society’ organised an award ceremony in Delhi. Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan was the chief guest at the event. Several people received awards. Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, a retired IAS officer of the Haryana cadre, was invited as the guest of honour and keynote speaker. The banner on the stage bore his name too. But he was nowhere to be found. Quraishi had recently become the star in the eyes of the liberal sphere, but none of the organisers or speakers at this ‘liberal’ event even bothered mentioning his name or discussing his presence or the lack of it. Even the awardees who spoke to the press did not mention his name.
Ambassador’s magic
Danish Ambassador to India, H. E. Freddy Svane, is considered among the most influential diplomats in New Delhi. He is now in his second tenure in India and is considered quite close to PM Modi. The word in diplomatic circles is that it was because of the rapport between Svane and PM Modi that he visited Denmark earlier this month.
BJP’s outreach, is it?
President Ram Nath Kovind’s tenure is going to end on 24 July and a new President must be elected before that. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the National Democratic Alliance is about 60,000 votes short of the required majority. To bridge this gap, it needs non-NDA votes to fall into its kitty. Under these circumstances, the million-dollar question was: who, on behalf of the BJP, would talk to leaders such as Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chandrashekar Rao and Naveen Patnaik? Stalwarts in the party and the government were hoping that perhaps the top leadership would give them a chance to serve. But in a recent meeting held at party president J.P. Nadda’s residence, it was made clear that the party has now gone past the stage of taking the initiative on its own to start such talks. Instead, negotiations must be directed toward those who benefit from helping the NDA candidate. Now, the water well might not come to the thirsty, but it has to decide who is thirsty.
PK advising PK
Who, better than Prashant Kishor, can differentiate between a well and a ‘thirsty’? After all, he has crossed so many lands but never taken more than a few sips (of water). His deal with Congress fell through. There was some chemistry with Nitish, but the party’s vice-presidency did not suit him. For now, acting on his own advice, he has been digging a pond for himself and is undertaking a padayatra. That too, when it is widely believed that Nitish Kumar is holding the reins of Bihar for the last time. Nitish babu has himself suggested that he would not accept the responsibility of CM’s post after 2025. So in the next three years, he (PK) wants to establish himself as the CM face. This discussion is taking place more frequently within the BJP and people who quote Prashant Kishor’s statement that he was inducted into the JD(U) at the behest of Amit Shah are more involved in it.
While there have been some murmurs about it, speculation that the NDA might consider choosing Nitish as its Vice Presidential candidate has also come to an end. Shahnawaz Hussain, a Bihar government minister and senior BJP leader, recently asserted in a press conference that Bihar will continue to progress under Nitish’s leadership until 2025. This means that the BJP wants to put Nitish in a fixed deposit in Bihar until 2025.
Also Read: Nitish Kumar has changed. It’s as if Bihar has a whole new CM
Search for a new Bhojpuri script
After the Nitish question, it was Shahnawaz Hussain questioning Mumbai filmmakers. He is hurt by the fact that the Mumbai film industry has always referred to Biharis as villains and Bihar as a badland littered with goons. He says that film producers should now show the good image of a changed Bihar. Just like how The Kashmir Files brought to the fore Kashmir’s old truth, ‘Bihar Files’ must also reflect the state’s new reality. However, it’s not Shahnawaz, but his supporters who are more excited.
Happy parotta
You may find Malabar parotta at any roadside eatery in Kerala. But if you are BJP president J.P. Nadda, you can only get it on a plane. It so happened that Nadda was recently on a tour in Kozhikode. He was informed that the monsoon might arrive in Kerala as early as 20 May this time. Nadda expressed happiness, but because he does not eat sweets or confectionery, he expressed his desire for the ‘mildly sweet’ Malabar parotta—his way of wishing everyone a happy monsoon. However, due to a delay in the programme, the Malabar parotta could not be arranged. Eventually, senior state BJP leader and former Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan got the Malabar parotta delivered for Nadda’s return flight. Anyway, happy monsoon.
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.
(Edited by Srinjoy Dey)