Pre-Truth — snappy, witty and significant snippets from the world of politics and government.
Family drama forces ailing Lalu Prasad to step in for peace
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad, recovering from a fistula operation in Mumbai, returned to Patna Sunday amid festering tensions within his family.
Lalu’s elder son Tej Pratap has been giving statements against RJD leaders and complaining about being ignored within the party, forcing the former Bihar chief minister to fly back from Mumbai, where he had been advised four months of bed rest and regular changes of dressing.
Lalu is reportedly not in good shape at all. When Congress leader Ashok Gehlot visited him in Patna Thursday, the RJD leader carried out their discussions while staying in bed.
Ashok Gehlot’s rain of letters has earned him few fans
Ever since Ashok Gehlot was appointed the Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation, he has been shooting off one letter after another to the party’s state in-charges and other office-bearers.
Some of the recipients are none too pleased, and complain that a day doesn’t go by without a letter from Gehlot’s office asking for different things.
One such letter, written recently to all state units, sought details of professionals who sympathised with the Congress, including their email ID and mobile numbers, to establish contact with them.
In another, Gehlot sent a format for all office-bearers to file monthly reports on the work done by them. The reports will be forwarded to Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
Modi and Moon hung out together a lot this week. Here’s why
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met South Korean President Moon Jae-in an astonishing 10 times during the latter’s visit this week. The reason is not far to seek. The PM’s ‘Make in India’ project hasn’t had the kind of success he had hoped for, and the South Korean investment for a Samsung mobile phone factory in India was very welcome.
The minister ‘glad to be’ by Modi’s side through a packed week
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a constant companion from his party as he blazed through a packed schedule this week: Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma, who also represents the Gautam Buddh Nagar constituency in the Lok Sabha.
When PM Modi and visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in paid their tributes at Gandhi Smriti Monday, Sharma was present by virtue of being the culture minister. He also accompanied Modi and Moon on their Metro ride to Noida, as the Samsung factory the duo were to inaugurate is in his constituency. He also accompanied the PM for India-South Korea bilateral talks at Hyderabad House, where he signed a cultural agreement with Seoul. Sharma was also in attendance as PM Modi inaugurated the new headquarters of the Archaeological Survey of India in Delhi Thursday, as the agency falls under his ministry.
It is quite rare that a minister gets to share so much time with the PM in public in quick succession. As all these appearances made for prominent photo-ops, some in the BJP say Sharma must be fairly elated.
Section 377: Why a Supreme Court judge shut a lawyer up
As the Supreme Court hears petitions challenging Section 377, those against decriminalising homosexuality face a huge problem – there are few senior advocates willing to represent them. The only notable senior appearing on that side of the divide is Krishnan Venugopal, who said his client finds homosexuality so revolting that he doesn’t even want to talk about it.
Interestingly, his father, attorney general K.K. Venugopal, signed off one of the curative petitions filed last year seeking a review of the 2013 Supreme Court ruling upholding Section 377. K.K. Venugopal is also the third attorney general to have refused to defend the colonial law, along with Mukul Rohatgi and Goolam Vahanvati.
Meanwhile, times have changed a lot in the six years since the issue of homosexuality was last taken up by the Supreme Court.
In 2013, many lawyers (and even judges) openly admitted a lack of knowledge about homosexuality. This time, however, everyone agrees the judges are aware, with lawyers opposing decriminalisation being asked to stick to legal arguments rather than using anatomical explanations to prove their case.
One lawyer was simply asked to stop talking by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud when he began explaining how homosexuality was repulsive to him.
The hearing will be wrapped up in less than a week.
A year ahead of polls, chief minister Khattar is stressed
With a year to go for assembly elections in Haryana, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar is beginning to show signs of stress.
He recently lost patience with a set of journalists questioning him about the working of the CM’s window for grievance redressal, when one of them pointed out that the mechanism he had put in place was not functioning properly. Khattar said journalists should ask questions, not comment. “Your job is to ask questions. You should stick to that,” he said. “Learn ethics of journalism… And learn how to speak respectfully,” he added in his parting shot.
Slogan politics is getting big in Haryana
Slogans derived from an alphabet soup of abbreviations seem to be a big hit among Haryana’s politicians. After former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda labelled GST ‘gayee sarkaar tumhari (Your government is gone)’, his successor has coined a slogan from the abbreviation for the controversial Sutlej Yamuna Link. SYL, Khattar said, was ‘Satta yun loonga (Will win power through this)’. Khattar said the canal issue – a water-sharing dispute between Punjab and Haryana – was only being used by rivals INLD as a campaign plank.
Contributors: Kumar Anshuman, Jyoti Malhotra, Ruhi Tewari, Apurva Vishwanath, and Chitleen Sethi
Bihar Ka pm ban Ka Kya Kiya
Patna me eak hospital nhi bana paya
Yah hai hamra des Ka lalu parade yadab