Opinion Inside Track: 34 questions
The Congress is unable to persuade Captain Amarinder Singh to attend the House regularly.
Office-bearers in charge of different states have submitted their reports and the entire exercise is being collated by Madhusudan Mistry, a Rahul favourite.
34 questions
When Rahul Gandhi returns from his extended vacation, he will be presented with feedback on what the party rank and file and office-bearers feel is the right direction for the Congress. Rahul had met party members from the block level to state PCC chiefs and general secretaries between September and November to solicit their views on the best way forward for the party. After this consultation, PCC members and district Congress committee members were given a list of 34 queries. The first question was what should be the focus of the party without diverting from its core ideology. Office-bearers in charge of different states have submitted their reports and the entire exercise is being collated by Madhusudan Mistry, a Rahul favourite.
Writer’s block
In the wake of Natwar Singh’s book One Life is not Enough, the Congress is rattled at the fact that several party persons, including R K Dhawan, M L Fotedar and Salman Khurshid, are planning to write their memoirs. It fears that there could be more embarrassing revelations for the party’s first family. Recently, when Sonia Gandhi met Dhawan, she pointedly asked about his prospective book. Congressmen joke that now anyone thinking of writing his or her memoirs should first submit a copy to the high command.
No quiet surrender
Persecuted AAP veteran Yogendra Yadav is not planning to quit the AAP quietly. There is a proposal to float a new political party to counter the AAP. A tentative name has even been suggested, the Jan Loktantrik Paksh.
Cordial coffee break
On Monday, Mamata Banerjee and Power Minister Piyush Goyal were chatting cordially with each other in Parliament’s Central Hall. Mamata was in a most affable mood after her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and insisted on plying Goyal and all the journalists present with cups of coffee. The West Bengal Chief Minister asked Goyal to speak to her Finance Minister Amit Mitra. Despite differences between the BJP and the TMC, Goyal seems to have developed a warm working relationship with the mercurial Mamata. On New Year’s Eve, shy of midnight, Goyal received a ‘Happy New Year’ SMS from a Mamata from Kolkata. Since the caller ID was unknown, Goyal telephoned to find out if someone was playing a practical joke. Mamata came on the line herself and explained that she had a new number and hence he had not recognised it.
Maharaja, not aam aadmi
Former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh is not merely demanding the removal of Partap Singh Bajwa as PCC chief but wants the position himself. A discontented Singh has reportedly even explored new avenues. Friends of Singh met AAP representatives to find out if they were agreeable to the idea of him leading the AAP in Punjab in the 2017 Assembly elections. But the AAP, which projects itself as representing the common man, did not feel that it would send the right message if it was led by an erstwhile maharaja. The Congress, meanwhile, is seriously considering permitting Singh to return to state politics and give up his position as deputy leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha. In any case, the Congress is unable to persuade Singh to attend the House regularly. He proffers a string of excuses to explain his frequent absence from Parliament.
Flat-footed solution
There is a feeling in the Narendra Modi government that Home Minister Rajnath Singh overplayed his hand in imposing a ban on the controversial feature film India’s Daughter. The Home Minister did not take Cabinet colleagues into confidence before the ban and he ended up projecting a poor impression of India in the international community, without actually preventing the screening of the film. Singh was swayed by the overwhelming mood in Parliament and turned for advice to Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi, who warned against a public outcry as was witnessed in the aftermath of the December 16, 2012, gangrape. Bassi’s thanedar-like solution was to get a judicial magistrate to issue a stay order, which was clearly not enforceable in these days of the Internet. A section of the ruling party felt that a more effective solution would have been to simply take punitive action against the fimmakers for “violating” the rape victim’s right to privacy.
She doesn’t forget
Her detractors have mocked her lack of academic credentials, but HRD Ministry staff are amazed at Smriti Irani’s memory. Once she has read a file, they say, she can recite intricate details many months later. Irani says her memory for telephone numbers is so sharp that her father would wake her up in the middle of the night to find out a number. Her grandfather worked in the Navy and instructed her when she was a kid of 7-10 years to read all the newspapers and select five topics of the day. She would then recount the day’s events to him. The experience apparently sharpened her memory and improved her general knowledge.
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