Delhi Confidential: Remembering Jaitley, who helped BJP win Himachal in 2017

When BJP national president J P Nadda launched the party’s vision document on Sunday, ahead of the November 12 Himachal Pradesh elections, one leader whom he remembered fondly and repeatedly referred to was late party veteran Arun Jaitley.

BJP national president J P Nadda

When BJP national president J P Nadda launched the party’s vision document on Sunday, ahead of the November 12 Himachal Pradesh elections, one leader whom he remembered fondly and repeatedly referred to was late party veteran Arun Jaitley. In the beginning of his speech itself, Nadda talked about how Jaitley prepared and launched the party’s vision document in 2017. He said the manifesto played a role in the BJP winning the state. Nadda, who referred to Jaitley at least six times in his brief address, claimed that all the promises made in the 2017 vision document and more were fulfilled by the BJP government. Many party leaders took Nadda’s speech as a tribute to the contributions made by Jaitley to the party.

Millet Push

WITH PRIME Minister Narendra Modi calling for encouraging millet cultivation and usage, there appears to be an effort by BJP leaders to include millet in the food they serve to guests. Several party leaders also promoted items made out of millet in their Diwali gifts. Last week, when BJP media cell head Anil Baluni hosted a dinner to celebrate Igas, the Uttarakhandi Diwali, in the national capital, most of the dishes had millets. The guests were told about the different kinds of millet crops – finger millet, barnyard millet, black soybean and horse gram among others – that were cultivated in Uttarakhand.

Raising Day

THE BSF, which started the trend of celebrating its Raising Day outside Delhi by holding the event at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan near the India-Pakistan border last year, will celebrate this year’s Raising Day at Attari-Wagah border in Amritsar. Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to be the chief guest at the event. Notably, the event, to be celebrated on December 3, will fall bang in the middle of Guajarat elections and anything the Home Minister says vis a vis the force and India-Pakistan relations would be interpreted in political context. Since the BSF celebrated its Raising Day at Jaisalmer, the government has asked all forces to celebrate such events outside Delhi.