Road to fame
The Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament, Aparajita Sarangi, has zoomed in on the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs — it is chaired by the prime minister, Narendra Modi — giving its nod to the Rs 8,307.74 crore Bhubaneswar Bypass. The ambitious project, which Sarangi was aggressively pursuing, finally received the green signal with state leaders hailing it as a major achievement. Even her rivals in state politics have grudgingly acknowledged her contribution to the project. While acknowledging the importance of the project and keen on ensuring that Sarangi does not run away with all the credit, the chief minister of Odisha, Mohan Charan Majhi, called a special meeting of his ministerial colleagues and adopted a resolution thanking the PM for green-lighting the project. Currently, the entire state is talking about it with newspapers carrying full-page government advertisements underscoring the importance of these infrastructure projects for the state. Not one to miss the opportunity to keep herself in the limelight, Sarangi — till some time ago, she had become a virtual pariah for a section of BJP leaders — too has been waxing eloquent about it.
Popularity contest
The BJP MP, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, is brimming with a new-found vigour after his victory in the Constitution Club elections. A powerful section of his party had gone all out to dislodge him but Rudy survived. He has termed the club elections as “historic”. His backers went a step further and projected the victory not just of an individual but a community. Slogans of “Jai Sanga…” were raised. Rana Sanga, a 15th-century Rajput ruler, is seen as an icon of upper-caste Rajputs. Rudy seems to have smelt a political opportunity in the twist. He has started undertaking “Jai Sanga” yatras in Bihar. Many in the BJP feel that given his fraught ties with the party’s current dispensation, he was trying to emerge as a powerful leader of his caste. His move also seems aimed at aligning with the Uttar Pradesh CM, Yogi Adityanath (also Rajput), to strengthen his position. Rudy, however, has claimed that he is only trying to get votes for the BJP in the upcoming elections.
Spot of trouble
The Congress in Kerala has been embroiled in a bitter controversy over the allegations that the Kerala Youth Congress president, Rahul Mamkootathil, sent obscene messages to a slew of women. The incident led to his resignation but this controversy occurred at a time when the party leadership was burning the midnight oil over preparing the final list for an organisational revamp. Deepa Dasmunsi, the AICC general secretary in-charge of the state, was sent by the central leadership to Kerala to complete the process. With the BJP and Communist Party of India (Marxist) baying for blood, the state Congress leadership is seething. Political detractors are keen to see whether VD Satheesan and his trusted lieutenant, Shafi Parambil, will be held accountable for shielding Mamkootathil at first.
Known agenda
Two words, ‘unknown’ and ‘unfamiliar’, have entered Assam’s official and political discourse owing to the CM, Himanta Biswa Sarma, who used them to flag the danger of indigenous people losing land, jobs, rights and political power to “unknown and unfamiliar” people. He has not specified who these people actually are but the context in which he has used them made it clear that he was alluding to the Bengali-speaking Muslim migrants from erstwhile East Pakistan. However, Opposition leaders have started calling his bluff. The former Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president, Bhupen Kumar Borah, says that just because Sarma does not know everyone “does not mean they are unknown or unfamiliar or infiltrator” and the ongoing eviction drive is a diversionary strategy from the government’s “failure” on multiple fronts. Another leader, Debabrata Saikia, says that Sarma is trying to confuse the public. If they are actually infiltrators, they should be detained and deported instead of allowing them to shift from one place to another in the guise of eviction. But political observers feel that the BJP’s obfuscation is winning the day and the Opposition needs to do more than pointing out motives and mistakes.
Shields up
The IAS Association has come out in support of the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, after several social media users hinted at the misuse of his position to get his daughters — both civil servants — sought-after postings. The association said, “The IAS Association notes with concern that unwarranted criticism has been directed against the family members of the Chief Election Commissioner, who also happen to be well reputed civil servants. The IAS Association strongly deprecates such personal attacks unconnected with the discharge of official duties.” Kumar is in the eye of the storm over the citizenship-based Special Intensive Revision in Bihar as well as for his combative response to allegations of voter fraud in other states.