Ajit Doval’s PR stunt in Kashmir
After its drastic move to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and its bifurcation, the Narendra Modi government is now walking extra miles to show it is reaching out to Kashmiris and that all is well in the state.
As part of this attempt, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval seems to have gone on a public relations (PR) overdrive, offering Kashmiris ‘peace’ on a plate, quite literally.
In a near-viral video clip, Doval — who is in J&K to review the present situation — can be seen relishing a meal on the streets with some ‘locals’ in south Kashmir. This is perhaps the first time an NSA has pulled off such a stunt — this isn’t surprising given this government’s tendency to opt for PR exercises.
While Doval is attempting to appear casual and impromptu, few will be fooled into believing this isn’t a carefully orchestrated drive to try and show that there is ‘normalcy’ in the Valley. But does Doval’s unabashed effort really mean something beyond just optics? That is some food for thought.
The common factor between Modi and Rahul Gandhi
While tweeting a condolence message on the passing away of former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended it with ‘om shanti’. Many other leaders and Twitter users also prefer to write ‘Om shanti’ instead of ‘RIP’ while posting a condolence message.
Late Tuesday night, while tweeting for the veteran BJP leader who passed away the night before, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, too, ended his tweet with ‘om shanti’.
This has left many in the political circles wondering if this trend is catching on and whether Gandhi decided to take a leaf out of Modi’s book.
Also read: No, Modi’s Kashmir policy isn’t new. He’s only continuing what Nehru started in the 1950s
MHA’s food fix
Bureaucrats at the Home Ministry nearly spent a day brainstorming a burning issue — whether or not to include non-vegetarian food on the menu for the dinner to be hosted by Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his Bangladeshi counterpart Asaduzzaman Khan Wednesday.
The file went from one room to another for comments, but no one, including the home secretary, was willing to take that call — it was finally put before Shah himself.
However, while non-vegetarian delicacies did make it to the menu that was finalised, the dinner was eventually cancelled.
Khan is on a three-day visit to Delhi to attend the 7th India-Bangladesh home minister-level bilateral talks. He is leading a 16-member delegation for the talks.
Yediyurappa’s not so fruitful Delhi visit
The planetary constellations have had a great influence on the political career of Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa. One may call it an astrological error that two weeks have passed since he took his oath as the chief minister, but his cabinet is yet to be formed.
A week after taking oath, Yediyurappa had discussed with his close party members about cabinet formation. But when he finally reached Delhi this Monday with the list of his cabinet members, he was told that Home Minister Amit Shah couldn’t meet him as he was busy with the Kashmir issue.
Though Shah’s office asked Yediyurappa to meet him Wednesday, his meeting was postponed due to the untimely death of former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj Tuesday evening. An idle Yediyurappa, who had been in Delhi for two days, then used the time to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other party leaders.
Yediyurappa has recently changed the spelling of his name, which he had done earlier too. But every time he forms the government, he is unable to complete his tenure. This time, however, he seems confident of completing his term. This is the fourth time BSY has taken oath as the CM.
The snippet, ‘MHA’s food fix’, has been updated to reflect that the dinner to be hosted by Amit Shah was cancelled.
(Contributors: Ruhi Tewari and Ananya Bhardwaj and Shanker Arnimesh)
Also read: A fighter with a stern smile, Sushma Swaraj could easily have been the Indira Gandhi of BJP
There are news reports coming out of Kashmir that the poor are starving inside their houses made into prisons by the curfew. The brutal imprisonment of the entire population has been going on for three days now without respite.
It’s ironical that Ajit Doval is eating Brayani in front of houses, where hidden hungry women and children are imprisoned inside.
The Telegraph reported that due to panic buying before the curfew shops were stripped of food, many could not buy anything. Many did not have money to buy food because of ATM being cashless due to numerous withdrawals, many are too poor to have more than two days savings to buy food.
Please help these poor people.
Ms Swati Chaturvedi has tweeted that the folk enjoying that impromptu lunch are actually IB operatives. Since the only spooks I have seen are Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan, will have to take her word for it.