Pre-Truth — snappy, witty and significant snippets from the world of politics and government.
MEA objected to Karmapa’s return to India
The decks are finally clear for the Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s return to India in November. He has been in the US for a year. Grapevine has it that the ministry of external affairs had reservations against his return but home minister Rajnath Singh’s opinion prevailed. The opposition to his return had its genesis in the commonly held belief, especially in the intelligence fraternity, that China had facilitated Karmapa’s escape from Tibet to India in 1999. He is the head of the largest Buddhist sect in Tibet, Karma Kagyu. Singh was said to have argued to naysayers that Karmapa’s return to India would only strengthen New Delhi’s hands at the time of the Dalai Lama’s succession.
Lengths Rahul Gandhi & Kejriwal go to avoid each other
Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal may be working for a common objective — to defeat the BJP in the 2019 general elections — but they can’t stand each other’s shadow. Or so it seems from the way they try their best to avoid each other’s company. At H.D. Kumaraswamy’s swearing-in ceremony in Bengaluru in May, both Gandhi and Kejriwal were on the stage but chose to sit in opposite corners.
Last Saturday, both were invited by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav to participate in his protest against the Bihar government’s apathy to the Muzaffarpur shelter home alleged rape cases at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Just after the AAP leader came to the venue, he was given the mike to speak. Congress leaders present there kept updating the Congress president’s aide, Kaushal Vidyarthi. The moment Kejriwal stepped down from the stage, Gandhi’s convoy arrived.
Also read: President Kovind leaves many amused, & how a wedding invite changed Rahul Gandhi’s plans
Politicians turn to business leaders as polls draw closer
As elections draw closer, political leaders are getting busy reaching out to all possible constituencies, including entrepreneurs. Coincidentally, both BJP national president Amit Shah and Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra recently addressed competing business leaders’ platforms. Vadra completed the Mumbai leg of a multi-city lecture tour for the Entrepreneur’s Organisation at the end of July.
Shah, meanwhile, addressed a Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO) programme in Delhi in July-end. However, the similarities ended there. Both Vadra’s and Shah’s addresses reflected their personalities and their political roles. While Vadra — who has not taken any defined political role — kept her interaction largely non-political, Shah, BJP’s key election brain, talked at length about the BJP.
Sandeep Dikshit’s fall from grace
Sidelined in the party and seeing no signs of rehabilitation, Congress leader and son of Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, Sandeep, has shifted his base to Bhopal. Once a confidante of Rahul Gandhi, Dikshit is suddenly out of favour as he has been given no organisational responsibility. The former East Delhi MP has, therefore, decided to focus on social work in Madhya Pradesh. He comes to Delhi every Monday to meet his mother. Grapevine has it that Sandeep Dikshit’s fall has something to do with the rise of Ajay Maken, a known detractor of Sheila Dikshit. Maken has worked his way up into Gandhi’s inner circle.
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Now, Rahul meets journalists covering Congress
Rahul Gandhi met journalists for the second time in a month Saturday, this time with only male reporters who cover the Congress. Two lines of chairs were kept in a semi-circle while Gandhi’s chair was placed at the centre. The Congress president didn’t like this arrangement. The moment he arrived, he said, “aise nahi chalega” (this won’t work). He would prefer interacting with them in groups seated in different tables, as he had done during his interaction with women journalists last month. Saturday’s interaction became chaotic as there were questions flung from all directions and journos starting hooting one another. Gandhi instructed the Congress communication in-charge, Randeep Surjewala, to organise another meeting with reporters, but with a different seating arrangement.
‘The crippled CM, super CM and supreme CM’ of Karnataka
Deve Gowda family’s political detractors have come up with a new description to deride the so-called family rule in Karnataka. The BJP taunts them, saying that there are three chief ministers in the family — H. D. Kumaraswamy, the crippled CM; H.D. Revanna, the super CM; and H.D. Deve Gowda, the supreme CM. The description is meant to highlight the interference of chief minister Kumaraswamy’s father and brother in running the government. Recently, Revanna who is the PWD minister announced that there would be elevated highways every two kilometres inside the Bandipur Tiger Reserve. Kumaraswamy had to quickly issue a clarification saying that there was no such plan.
Dalit activists, thinkers invited for lunch at Rajnath’s residence
There was a Dalit Thinkers’ Meet organised by India Foundation in the national capital which was attended by more than 50 bureaucrats, social thinkers, activists and academics from across India. After the meeting, they went to union home minister Rajnath Singh’s house for lunch. They were assured that suggestions made at the Dalit roundtable would be discussed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A section of BJP leaders were, however, pointing out later that they had been asked to eat at Dalits’ houses as part of the party’s outreach programme, and not vice-versa.
Contributors: D.K. Singh, Kumar Anshuman, Ruhi Tewari, Rohini Swamy and Pragya Kaushika