Trusted deputy
Before the prime minister, Narendra Modi, visited the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Nagpur, the second-most powerful leader of the current regime, the Union home minister, Amit Shah, paid a visit to the RSS’s newly-built Delhi headquarters, Keshav Kunj. Shah’s visit, too, was seen as an effort to mend bridges with the ideological parent. Rumour has it that more than the ‘ahankar’ of ‘divine’ Modi, the RSS leadership is upset with Shah.
Many BJP leaders are learnt to have told the RSS that Shah continues to control the party despite stepping down as party president in 2020. He holds important party strategy meetings and plays the most crucial role in appointments in the government and also in the organisation. All this has led the RSS to firmly root for the next Bharatiya Janata Party president to be a strong organisational leader and not a ‘rubber stamp’. Despite the RSS’s annoyance with Shah’s dominance, he continues to be Modi’s most trusted lieutenant. It was visible in Parliament recently during the passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill. Shah led from the front in pushing the bill in the absence of Modi, who is busy with his visit to Thailand and Sri Lanka. The bill pertained to the minority affairs ministry led by Kiren Rijiju but Shah sat in the first row and micromanaged everything. One BJP MP was heard saying that Amitbhai is Modiji’s “Hanuman”.
Back on the fence
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik during flagging off of first non-scheduled flight service between Bhubaneswar-Rangeilunda airstrip (Berhampur) of Ganjam district, at Biju Patnaik International airport. PTI photo
What makes the Biju Janata Dal supremo, Naveen Patnaik, change his stance frequently vis-à-vis the BJP? After the shock defeat of the BJD in the general elections at the hands of the BJP, it was almost certain that Patnaik would never ever support the BJP. State BJD leaders had also started targeting the BJP. Political pundits were happy when the BJD announced that Patnaik would attend MK Stalin’s Chennai meet on delimitation on March 22. But everyone was baffled when he skipped the meeting and sent his emissaries instead. Similarly, he first directed the BJD members of Parliament to oppose the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in Rajya Sabha but suddenly changed his stand and allowed them to cast their votes according to their conscience. Earlier, the BJD had supported the candidature of the railways minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, to the Rajya Sabha unconditionally, sacrificing its seat in the process.
Several party leaders met Patnaik on this issue and lodged their protest. What unseen hand is making him do this? Political pundits wonder whether the threat of a probe into the chit fund scam or the mining scam has forced Patnaik to soften his stance towards the BJP. Is this why BJD leaders continue to maintain that they are neither part of the National Democratic Alliance nor INDIA?
Caught out
The government’s claim of promoting Hindi got a reality check in the Rajya Sabha when the minister for fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying, Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, said that replies to questions in Parliament prepared in English are translated to Hindi by Google Translate. Singh was replying to a question by the Congress member, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, on funds allocated and utilised under the National Dairy Plan-Phase 1. The English version of the written reply gave data on outlay and utilisation. The reply in Hindi used the word ‘ vyay ’ for both outlay and utilisation. The Congress member also pointed out that the first two lines in the English version were missing in the Hindi version of the reply. The minister promptly blamed Google Translate for the discrepancies, prompting Jairam Ramesh of the Congress to assert that translations were never done in this fashion under the United Progressive Alliance.
Faded presence
The Aam Aadmi Party’s debacle in the Delhi polls continues to exact a cost on the party apparatus elsewhere. In Assam, the state president, Manoj Dhanowar, and the women’s wing president, Masuma Begum, resigned from their posts ahead of the crucial panchayat polls next month. Begum, who also quit the party, went to the extent of saying that she was not hopeful about the party’s future in the state. Being the only elected AAP member in the Guwahati municipal polls and seen by many as a promising face of the party, she probably knows what she is talking about. Like the Trinamool Congress, the AAP’s story in Assam seems to be petering out.
