Pre-Truth — snappy, witty and significant snippets from the world of politics and government.
Amit Shah’s outreach to former Army chief has personnel worried
Serving and retired Army personnel are concerned about BJP president Amit Shah’s meeting with former Army chief Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag as part of the party’s ‘Sampark se Samarthan’ campaign.
Suhag, who was the Army chief during the surgical strikes against Pakistan in September 2016, is believed to have not been in favour of releasing footage of the strikes to the public as “proof”. His advice was heeded at the time.
But this week some strike videos were released to TV channels. While the authenticity of the videos has not been questioned so far, there is growing concern that the BJP has begun to use the Army for its own political purposes.
Sushma Swaraj’s brush with trolls has left her lonely
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj’s outing of her vicious online trolls Sunday night has left her pretty lonely. Although Swaraj is one of the Modi government’s top four ministers, her own colleagues haven’t come out in her support. Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman – also part of the quartet – hasn’t tweeted in support of her fellow woman minister. Nor have other women ministers at the Centre – Smriti Irani, Maneka Gandhi, Harsimrat Badal or Uma Bharati. Who said women are much more collegial than men?
Ramvilas Paswan, the ally BJP can count on
Union minister Ramvilas Paswan, who had quit the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government over the post-Godhra riots in 2002 and demanded the resignation of the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, is turning out to be the most dependable ally of the BJP in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
On Thursday, when there were jitters in the NDA about Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s phone call to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, Paswan was fielded to declare the NDA was “intact”.
The union minister said he had called up Nitish, who assured him that he had dialed Prasad not once but four times to enquire about his health. Nitish’s party, the Janata Dal (United), however, maintained a studied silence.
Rain didn’t go away, threw the PM’s plans in disarray
While much of northern and central India continued waiting for them, rains seemed to have played spoilsport for Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday.
For a public meeting to mark the death anniversary of poet-saint Kabir, Modi was scheduled to fly to Gorakhpur and take a short, 20-minute chopper ride to Maghar, and then one back to Gorakhpur before taking off for Delhi.
However, due to heavy rains, the Gorakhpur air strip was rendered non-functional and changes had to be made to the PM’s travel programme the evening before.
Under the revised schedule, the PM and his entourage had to fly to Lucknow and board a helicopter for Maghar – a ride that takes over an hour – and follow the same drill for their return.
With the choppers currently in use being non-air conditioned, the idea is to minimise the duration of travel to reduce discomfort. The rains, however, meant the PM had to spend over two hours in a chopper.
The rumour mill has B.S. Yeddyurappa on edge
Differences between Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and his predecessor, Siddaramaiah, are keeping the political circles abuzz.
This should have pleased state BJP chief and aspiring chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, but for the rumours circulating about him too.
Grapevine has it that the RSS wants Yeddyurappa, 75, to be replaced with a young leader who is “dynamic”. One of the names doing the rounds as his replacement is Chikmagalur MLA C.T. Ravi. The BJP is in a dilemma, though.
The party leadership is not very impressed with the septuagenarian leader who has been having run-ins with party colleagues, but any action against him might alienate his community, the Lingayats, who constitute 17 per cent of the state’s population. The fate of both Kumaraswamy and Yeddyurappa seems to be linked with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Contributors: Jyoti Malhotra, D.K. Singh, Ruhi Tewari & Rohini Swamy