While campaigning in the poll-bound state of Madhya Pradesh, the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Amit Shah, was all praise for the chief minister of the state, Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Shah claimed that he had not seen a more hard-working chief minister, and reportedly even indicated that Chouhan was a symbol of development. This remark, however, has puzzled many in the BJP. After all, neither Shah nor the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, have a reputation of giving other leaders in the party credit for good work. All the accolades are supposed to be saved for showering upon on Modiji and Amitbhai.

For a change, however, the Prime Minister is not the face of the ruling party’s campaign in any of the three states slated to go to the polls — Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. Instead, the images of the chief ministers of those states — Chouhan, Raman Singh and Vasundhara Raje Scindia, respectively — dominate the party’s billboards. There are speculations now as to why this is, given that past state assembly elections were contested by projecting Modi as the face of the party. Leaders in the BJP suspect that this is a clever strategy at play, in the light of the party’s fears of losses in all three states on account of simmering anti-incumbency sentiments. If these fears are realized, then Modi and Shah are likely to be spared the blame for the defeats.

Funny bone

The Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, is known for his solemn exterior, so much so that even senior lawyers seldom speak more than a few words before his bench. However, a glimpse of Gogoi’s sense of humour was evident during the proceedings of the case involving the Central Vigilance Commission’s probe against the director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Alok Verma. The first individual to get a taste of that humour was the solicitor-general, Tushar Mehta, when he sought a copy of the sealed cover report on Verma submitted by the CVC. A bemused Gogoi remarked, “But... you are the author of the report,” pointing out that Mehta must already be privy to the contents of the report, given that he was representing the CVC.

On the receiving end next was the senior advocate, Rajeev Dhavan, who was representing Ajay Kumar Bassi, as officer who was abruptly transferred by the interim director of the CBI, M Nageshwar Rao. When Gogoi asked Bassi about being transferred to the Andamans, the senior advocate said, “no, Port Blair.” This prompted a quick repartee from Gogoi, who evoked guffaws when he said, “Port Blair is a good place to go.”

Not enough

The state unit of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh — which is gearing up for the assembly elections towards the end of this month — is worried about the outcome of the polls. The party president, Amit Shah, has reportedly even been requested to stay put in the state for the last few days before the polls commence on November 28.

Along with this, the PM, Narendra Modi, will be addressing about 11 public meetings to muster up support for Shivraj Singh Chouhan. A section of the BJP, however, is troubled about the quantum of these addresses, given that Modi had spoken at many more meetings in Karnataka and Gujarat — 21 and 34, respectively. Might the truncated number of addresses in Madhya Pradesh — as some party members seem to fear — have a bearing on the results?

Top secret

In the meantime, the highly-publicized wedding of the Bollywood actors, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh, at Lake Como in Italy really tested the creativity of the Indian news media. The star couple did their best to ensure that no photographs or video footage of the wedding could be obtained by the TV news channels. For this, resorts and water taxis around Lake Como were booked by the wedding planners in order to keep the media at bay. Reporters and camerapersons were only able to capture some sounds of the wedding party’s cheering as well as a few photos of a wall of Villa del Balbianello — where Singh and Padukone took their vows — and its parking area.

The security measures in place were so stringent that a speed boat reportedly kept moving around at all times. As a result of this, no photographer in any water taxi was able to take a single ‘stable’ picture of the wedding proceedings in the villa, even from a distance.

Priyanka Chopra Telegraph file picture

Footnote

Piggy Chops may have found work and love on foreign soil but she remains a desi girl at heart. Many of her peers have had destination weddings abroad. Anushka Sharma tied the knot with Virat Kohli in Italy. The ‘DeepVeer’ wedding, featuring Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh, too, took place there. But Priyanka Chopra, whispers suggest, is set to wed Nick Jonas in Jodhpur like the good desi girl that she is.