Suitably sombre
Air India’s display pictures on social media usually sport its red and white logo and a golden window frame. Following the plane crash in Ahmedabad, its signature profile pictures have been blacked out across social media platforms. Generally, black colour signifies respect and mourning. Even its subsidiary, Air India Express, has changed its profile picture on X. While it has not opted for a complete blackout, it has chosen to update its profile picture with a monochrome version with its emblem and a banner behind it with the word, AI-171, the number of the ill-fated aircraft that crashed.
Game’s afoot
Ashwini Vaishnaw, who handles three heavyweight portfolios, was the busiest minister when the Narendra Modi government marked 11 years in office earlier this week.
He was tasked with anchoring an hour-long PowerPoint presentation outlining the “transformative” achievements of the government. For two days in a row, Vaishnaw made two presentations before journalists, commentators and influencers, who were divided into four groups. In order to engage the audience, the minister moved up
and down the hall, a smile on his face, as he extolled the achievements of the prime minister.
Vaishnaw, who has already made a dramatic political ascent — he went from being a bureaucrat to a technocrat to a politician with heavy portfolios — seems to be aiming higher. Currently, he is the minister for railways, information & broadcasting, electronics & information technology. The buzz in political circles has it that he is hoping to become a mass leader and get elected in a direct election to the Lok Sabha. The former Odisha cadre IAS officer is currently a Rajya Sabha member of Parliament from the same state. Originally from Rajasthan and belonging to a family deeply associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he has been striving hard to connect with the masses at rallies. At two recent rallies in Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir, respectively, in the presence of the PM, he resorted to voice modulation and occasionally urged the crowd to chant “Bharat mata ki jai”.
Rock and a hard place
Two Rajya Sabha candidates from the National Democratic Alliance, Asom Gana Parishad’s Birendra Prasad Baishya and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kanad Purkayastha, got uncontested entries to the upper House with Opposition parties not fielding candidates either on their own or jointly. This was the first election under the new Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president, Gaurav Gogoi. Perhaps the Grand Old Party remembers its bitter experience of losing the 2022 polls despite having the numbers because members of the legislative assembly from the Opposition All India United Democratic Front and the Congress allegedly cross-voted to let their joint candidate down. However, this time it was not about the numbers. It was about public perception. Observers said that the Opposition was caught in a Catch-22 situation after the AIUDF and the Congress parted ways after the 2022 Rajya Sabha debacle. Coming together to win a lone Rajya Sabha seat, overtly or covertly, would have exposed both parties to charges of being in cahoots by the BJP-led ruling alliance despite their bitter public divorce.
Win or lose, a united approach involving the AIUDF would have harmed the Opposition’s prospects in the state polls, especially in Upper Assam where the AIUDF is seen as a ‘communal party’. The Opposition would have been at the receiving end of ridicule till next year’s assembly elections, something it avoided by not contesting. The Congress is spending its energy on strengthening its organisation before the state polls. It is better than contesting and getting bad press in an election year, said a Congress insider, adding that any sort of AIUDF-Congress collaboration would have severely dented the Opposition’s prospects in the upcoming polls.
Image management
The staff of the Election Commission of India worked overtime last week during the visit of the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance’s Stockholm Conference. Kumar’s trip to the global conference of poll panels coincided with the Opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, writing a scathing op-ed alleging foul play in last year’s Maharashtra polls — allegations that the EC had denied when they were raised. Not wanting to openly become a party to the dispute, the EC sent a slew of off-the-record rebuttals that flooded the WhatsApp chats of reporters. These were interspersed with publicity of Kumar’s routine bilateral meetings at the conference to drive home the point that the EC’s stature remains high among its peers.
Star campaigner
On previous occasions when Kerala had bypolls, the Gandhi scions had never come down to campaign. But this time, the Wayanad MP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, came to campaign for the Nilambur assembly bypoll in Malappuram. She arrived to a rousing reception. Nilambur falls under the Wayanad constituency and she is here to campaign for the United Democratic Front candidate, Aryadan Shoukath. The UDF camp is upbeat with almost all the Congress and UDF leaders making a beeline for Nilambur to ensure that Shoukath stomps home with a thumping majority.
