Delhi Confidential: In Action Mode

The party is at present engaged in a membership drive, campaign on abrogation of special status to J&K, a ‘Sewa Saptah’ to celebrate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday, a ‘Fit India Movement’, and the newly launched drive against single-use plastic — all this even as organisation polls are on.

Amit Shah

While the Congress held a review meeting for its celebrations to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, BJP president Amit Shah and working chief J P Nadda spoke with thousands of party leaders, including MPs and state-level office-bearers through video conferencing on Saturday. In the presentation made by party general secretary Bhupender Yadav, leaders were told about the proposed activities for the Gandhi Sankalp Yatra. While the Mahatma’s 150th anniversary programmes would put the Congress in action mode after a while, for BJP leaders it will be just one of many going on. The party is at present engaged in a membership drive, campaign on abrogation of special status to J&K, a ‘Sewa Saptah’ to celebrate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday, a ‘Fit India Movement’, and the newly launched drive against single-use plastic — all this even as organisation polls are on.

Split Opinion

Congress leaders spoke in different voices on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Howdy, Modi” event in Houston, Texas. While party spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Anand Sharma slammed Modi for his “Abki Baar, Trump Sarkar” comment, arguing that he violated Indian foreign policy’s convention of not interfering in domestic elections of another country, former Mumbai Congress chief and ex-Lok Sabha member Milind Deora stated that Modi’s Houston address was a “momentous first for India’s soft power diplomacy”. A happy Modi replied to Deora’s tweet with a thank you. In his tweet, Deora recalled that his father, late Murli Deora, was one of the early architects of stronger India-US ties. Modi agreed and pointed out that Deora senior would have been glad to see the strengthening of ties between the two countries.

Partnership In Progress

Even as the BJP is busy stitching up an alliance in Maharashtra, there seems to be a demand emerging for an alliance in Jharkhand, where Vidhan Sabha elections have not been announced yet. Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janashakti Party is learnt to have demanded six seats from the BJP in the contest for the 82-seat Assembly. Following an internal assessment, the LJP is learnt to have sought Jarmundi, Nala, Hussainabad, Barkagaon, Latehar and Panki constituencies to put up its candidates.

Tweet Trouble

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi had some difficult moments online on Monday after tweeting that senior advocate Rajiv Dhavan was “manhandled for a court stance”. The tweet did not give any details of the alleged incident it was referring to. After queries from the media, the tweet was deleted and a fresh one put out: “correction: I meant the old allegation – alleged manhandling — denied in some quarters, asserted in others; all I meant was that matter needs investigation and serious look, if true.” Dhavan, who is appearing for the mosque side in the Ayodhya case, had told the Supreme Court on September 21 that some people had confronted his clerk over his stand in the matter and there was a physical altercation. The clerk had said there was only a verbal exchange.