Pre-Truth — snappy, witty and significant snippets from the world of politics and government.
Last man standing
With last week’s gubernatorial appointments and reshuffle, all Raj Bhavans in the country, barring one, are occupied by appointees of the NDA government. The single exception is E.S.L.Narasimhan, the governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
He was among only three UPA-era governors — K.K. Paul (Uttarakhand) and N.N. Vohra (Jammu & Kashmir) being the others —to survive the change of regime in 2014.
The tenure of Paul, the husband of Omita Paul, a close aide of then President Pranab Mukherjee, ended in July; he was replaced by Baby Rani Maurya in the last reshuffle. Vohra, whose term had also ended, was succeeded by Satya Pal Malik.
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Narasimhan was first appointed the governor of Chhattisgarh in 2007. In December 2009, he was given additional charge of the Andhra Raj Bhavan, which he continues to occupy till date.
Narasimhan had also served as the director of the Intelligence Bureau between February 2005 and December 2006, when UPA 1 was in power.
He had succeeded Ajit Doval, the current National Security Advisor, and his equations with his predecessor in the IB seem to be holding him in good stead.
Headless Congress panels
Last week the Congress announced the setting up of three panels — a core group, a manifesto committee and a publicity committee — as part of its preparations for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Members of these committees, however, find themselves in a peculiar situation. While forming the committee, party president Rahul Gandhi did not appoint any chairperson or convenor. He himself is not part of any of them. Therefore, the members are not sure who will convene the meetings. Some of the outstation members even came to Delhi to seek more details but no one has any idea.
Scouting for friendly faces
The Press Information Bureau (PIB) is preparing a list of government-friendly journalists, including those from regional media, who would be given an opportunity to interview Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. Two PIB officials have been keeping a tab on the news coverage by senior reporters from different media organisations and preparing the list accordingly. It is, however, not yet clear whether these ‘friendly’ journalists would be given face-to-face interviews or be asked to send questionnaires for email interviews.
The Andhra first family plagued by road mishaps
Former TDP MP Nandamuri Harikrishna, son of the late N.T. Rama Rao, died in a road accident early this week. There is something about such accidents in this prominent political family of Andhra Pradesh. In 2009, Harikrishna’s son, Junior NTR, met with a road accident, which kept him out of the election campaign. Incidentally, Harikrishna’s eldest son, Janaki Ram, died in a road accident about four years ago.
All three accidents took place in Nalgonda district. In fact, the two fatal accidents took place on the same highway and the victims were travelling in a car with the same number-2323. Harikrishna was very close to his brother-in-law, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who carried his funeral bier. Former Supreme Court judge Jasti Chelameswar, who is close to the NTR family, was also present.
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For PR in Mumbai, politicians travel local
Local trains in Mumbai have somehow become a favourite instrument of politicians to project themselves as common men. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Chief Raj Thackeray, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis have all taken rides in these trains. Maharashtra Energy Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule is the latest to join the list Thursday as he took a train from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in South Mumbai to Thane, about 38 km away. He said he wanted to avoid traffic congestion on the roads and reach in time for a meeting at Kalwa, near Thane. He, however, successfully made it a PR exercise with journalists informed of the travel plan well in advance through Whatsapp messages.
(Contributors: Ruhi Tewari, Kumar Anshuman, Amrita Dutta, Apurva Vishwanath and Manasi Phadke)