Target practice

The discussion on Operation Sindoor in Parliament saw the Union minister of home affairs, Amit Shah, go after the Congress leader, Gaurav Gogoi, who is the deputy leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. “You have been to Pakistan many times but have you ever gone via the border Gogoi? Do you understand the conditions our soldiers face?” Shah asked Gogoi, who is also the Assam Congress chief. This is the first time a central Bharatiya Janata Party leader referred to Gogoi’s Pakistan visit. This was not an off-the-cuff comment. Shah made the remark hours after Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, claimed on X that Gogoi’s speech in Parliament on Operation Sindoor “proved beyond doubt that he acts on behalf of Pakistan”, and could “leave India anytime”, and was a “disgrace” to Assam. Sarma has been repeatedly claiming since February that Gogoi and his wife have close ties with the Pakistan administration. The Sarma-led government has also constituted a special investigation team to probe the alleged link. Sarma later indicated that the MHA will take over the case as the SIT has “limited reach” in gathering technical evidence. Political observers feel that the Pakistan angle will become a key poll plank against Gogoi and the Congress in the run-up to the assembly polls in Assam next year. Gogoi is being viewed as a threat to the BJP’s continuance in power in Assam. Gogoi was made the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president despite the SIT case registered in February.

Dramatic change

When Shivraj Singh Chouhan was replaced as the Madhya Pradesh CM by an unknown Mohan Yadav despite the BJP winning big in the 2023 state polls under the former, it was expected that the veteran would not take it lying down. Chouhan’s remarks then betrayed anger. But ever since he was made the Union agriculture minister, Chouhan has undergone a transformation. He has been going out of his way to please his boss.

While replying to every question in Parliament last week, Chouhan asserted, “yeh Modi sarkar hai”, hailing Modi’s leadership. His submissiveness has surprised people across the spectrum. Many are wondering what could have led someone like Chouhan, a contemporary of Modi and once a contender for the PM’s post, to sound like Modi’s sycophant.

For the cameras

Delhi’s politicians are back to playing publicity and blame games over waste management. The CM, Rekha Gupta, launched the ‘Delhi Ko Koode Se Azadi’ drive by sweeping the cluttered office of the women and child development department — in a hub of colonial-era government offices at Kashmere Gate — in front of TV cameras. A Trinamool Congress MP reacted to this by posting pictures of a large, open-air garbage dump in Lajpat Nagar. Delhi is infamous for its landfills that often catch fire and cause pollution. Over the last decade, both the Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP promised to get rid of the garbage hills. Gupta, while ordering a campaign on the lines of Swachh Bharat, chose the easy way out by sweeping an office.

Unexpected
blow

The Rajya Sabha members of the Biju Janata Dal heaped praise on the National Democratic Alliance during the debate on Operation Sindoor in Parliament. This has upset many BJD workers in Odisha who want the party to take a tough stance against the BJP. They had thought that the party’s parliamentarians would pose some difficult questions to the government on Operation Sindoor.

Contrary to their expectations, the party MPs congratulated the government. Sasmit Patra, a BJD MP, said India managed to conduct a high-risk and high-precision operation. He noted that countries across the globe have praised India for such a restrained operation. Patra was part of the Centre’s all-party delegations sent overseas to mobilise opinion in Operation Sindoor. Other BJD members also spoke along the same lines. However, the BJD also wanted to know whether Donald Trump played any active role in bringing about the ceasefire.

In the
news

Rahul Mamkootathil, the youth Congress president in Kerala, is always in the news for the wrong reasons. His recent war of words with the veteran Congress leader,
PJ Kurien, created a stir in the
party. The 35-year-old Mamkootathil came under fire when questions arose on the promised 30 houses for the kin of the victims of the Mundakkai and Chooralmala landslides. To make matters worse, Mamkootathil, the legislator from Palakkad, has been allegedly embroiled in a sexual molestation case. But the youth leader remains unperturbed, claiming that such campaigns have always been going on against him and that he is unaffected by false propaganda.