Opinion Inside Track: Not voluntarily
Given the President’s reluctance to clear Ramdev’s name, the BJP had to and urge him to decline the award.
Yoga guru Ramdev’s letter declining a proposed Padma award was not entirely voluntary. President Pranab Mukherjee had reservations about the government’s move to bestow the award on a man who has been investigated by the police and had a major confrontation with the Delhi Police a few years back. Mukherjee himself felt personally let down by Ramdev. As a minister in Manmohan Singh’s government in 2011, Mukherjee along with Salman Khurshid had broken protocol to receive Ramdev at Delhi airport. Mukherjee had been led to believe that the yoga guru could be persuaded to call off his support for Anna Hazare’s agitation on the Lokpal issue. However, Ramdev had backtracked.
Given the President’s reluctance to clear Ramdev’s name, the BJP had to and urge him to decline the award. The upshot was that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar also didn’t accept the award.
‘Cheap’ award
A senior official in the Modi government was miffed to learn that the prestigious Padma awards are made of much cheaper material than the less-coveted Pravasi Bharatiya awards, given recently. The Padma awards are fashioned out of brass, while the Pravasi awards meant for outstanding foreigners of Indian origin are made of 22-carat gold. It is calculated that the cost of the handsome award is some Rs 2.75 lakh while the Padma award is worth around Rs 200 in pure monetary terms.
PMO’s desire thwarted
This year the PMO and Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs were keen to bestow a Pravasi Bharatiya award on astronaut Sunita Williams whose parents went to the US from Gujarat. However, it was discovered that the central screening committee is not empowered to nominate candidates, it can only reject proposals. The nominations are made initially by consulates, embassies and regional NGOs.
Upholding democratic values
It was noticeable at the Republic Day parade that both President Barack Obama and US First Lady Michelle were at some point clutching their own umbrellas. There was a steady drizzle throughout the early part of the parade and the VVIP enclosure did not have a protective awning. The Defence Ministry had deployed attendants to hold the umbrellas, but the Obamas clearly felt that the practice should not be encouraged by representatives of a country that prides itself on its democratic traditions. They insisted on taking the brollies from the flunkeys. However, when seated, Obama had no option but to share the umbrella held over PM Narendra Modi by an attendant.
Pundits’ resistance
Detractors of Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi were so keen to publicly censure him for his remark on Narendra Modi’s “Indianness” that they did not wait to first clarify with Dwivedi whether he had been correctly quoted. The remark was seen as a potshot at Rahul Gandhi for not being “desi” enough. The Brahmin lobby of old-timers which fears that Rahul may soon be made party chief rendering them irrelevant backed Dwivedi privately. One party member compared Sonia Gandhi to Gandhari in the Mahabharata who was blind to the flaws of her son. Dwivedi, however, was not cowed. He was seen chatting away with Home Minister Rajnath Singh at a dinner hosted by a media baron recently.
Not so ungodly
True to his party philosophy, the DMK’s A Raja is an atheist who shies away from religious rituals. Nonetheless, every Tuesday, 108 children queue up outside his house to receive packed lunch boxes. This will continue for 42 weeks on the advice of an astrologer. Raja’s wife is a believer and she wants to ward off “evil influences”. After the 2G scam, the family was badly shaken when a ceiling fan fell on Raja’s daughter in school, injuring her and four others. Incidentally Raja is one more politician planning a tell-all autobiography. He has signed up with Penguin, and the 2G scam will figure majorly.
Mysterious stranger
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi hosted a lunch in the new year for his Congress colleagues and friends in the media at the India International Centre. A gentleman with considerable aplomb approached senior party leaders and was engaged in an animated discussion with them. As he was leaving, a Congress general secretary queried from a journalist the name of the man whom he had been speaking to. The scribe and the host were both clueless as to the guest’s identity. A junior journalist was hastily dispatched to find out the name of the mysterious stranger. The departing guest claimed to be a wing commander. Conscious that some of them had been talking too freely to him, there was a flutter at the party. Some surmised that the uninvited guest was from the military intelligence, others thought he was from the IB, while another conjecture was that he might even be a BJP mole.
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