Pre-Truth — snappy, witty and significant snippets from the world of politics and government.
‘Sab theek ho jayega’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while being seen off after his rally in Ajmer Saturday, asked some Rajasthan BJP leaders about the party’s chances in the year-end Assembly elections. On being told that the BJP was staring at a possible defeat, Modi immediately told the bearer of the bad news not to talk about it anymore. “Sab theek ho jayega (everything will be alright),” he told the person. The PM’s cryptic response left the BJP leaders wondering if he knew something that they were ignorant about.
Chautalas’ rift the talk of the town
The cold war between the Haryana leader of opposition, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD)’s Abhay Chautala, and his nephew, party MP Dushyant Chautala, has become the talk of the town. At the INLD’s Samman rally held at Gohana in Haryana Sunday, where party supremo Om Prakash Chautala also spoke, Abhay was hooted during his speech by Dushyant’s supporters.
In the run-up to the rally, posters with Dushyant’s picture did not carry Abhay’s picture and the ones with Abhay’s picture did not have Dushyant’s picture. Om Prakash Chautala, who is on furlough from jail for 15 days, was visibly upset. He issued a strict warning to the hooting crowd, saying clapping and hooting never led to poll victories. He also warned that those trying to weaken the party will not be spared and will be thrown out.
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Placating the rebels
The BJP brass knows that while its home-grown leaders are important, rebels who have joined from rival parties are equally crucial to its electoral ambitions. This thought process was on display at the ‘Destination Uttarakhand: Investors Summit 2018’ Sunday — the first in the state — inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
After finishing his speech, Modi got off the dais and went out of his way to greet former Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, who was seated in the second row. While the PM greeting senior leaders during such summits is not uncommon, what caught everyone’s attention was the effort Modi made to go up to the second row to greet him. Even though there were other former CMs, top ministers and stalwarts of the state’s politics, it was Bahuguna who got special attention from the PM.
Bahuguna, the son of former UP CM and veteran Congress leader H. N. Bahuguna, quit the Congress along with several rebels to join the BJP in May 2016 after he was removed as CM. His son is now a BJP MLA. His sister, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who was president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, also left the party and joined the BJP in 2016, and is now a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government in UP.
Sensing the winds of change?
The Congress may not have much to show in terms of its electoral comeback but it appears that it has done enough to impress Delhi’s party circuit. At a dinner event in the national capital last Friday, marketing consultant and socialite Suhel Seth was seen trying to draw Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s attention but the latter didn’t seem to notice.
When a woman sitting right next to Gandhi left for a minute, Seth rushed to occupy her chair. For the rest of the evening, Seth was seen constantly trying to engage the Congress president in a conversation. Given that Delhi’s elite is known to shift loyalties with the shift in power equations, Congressmen attending the dinner were obviously pleased to see Seth’s sudden fondness for Rahul.
A bemused ED
A letter from the British government’s Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in London to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has left many officials here amused. The SFIO wants the ED to restrain Indian journalists and let it do its job. The communication appears to have been prompted by the visit of a TV journalist to the SFIO office in London to inquire about the ongoing investigation in the Nirav Modi case and the status of his properties in London. ED officials are not sure how to follow up on the SFIO letter.
Also read: The mysterious disappearance of Divya Spandana and her Twitter bio
Bowing to the PMO
When Union Information Technology and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was going on an official trip abroad recently, he was keen that IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney accompany him. However, the Prime Minister’s Office, which has the last word on who goes where, decided against allowing the secretary to accompany the minister for the entire trip. Eventually, Prasad had to make do with a junior officer.
Cryptic judge
At a recent event, Supreme Court judge, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, was repeatedly asked if he is a “feminist judge”. Chandrachud, the lone male panellist among women lawyers and academics at the event, initially ducked the question. But when the audience persisted, he smiled and said he would not answer as someone might use it against him to seek his recusal from women’s rights cases. Later, he added that the Constitution itself is feminist, hinting at which way he rolls.
(Contributors: Chitleen Sethi, Ruhi Tewari, Maneesh Chhibber, D.K. Singh, Ananya Bhardwaj and Apurva Vishwanath)