Clearly nervous about the possible revelations contained in former foreign minister Natwar Singh’s forthcoming autobiography, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are learnt to have dropped in on him recently for what was ostensibly described as a courtesy call. However, the real purpose was to prod Mr Singh into omitting any embarrassing details about the Gandhi family. Mrs Gandhi has reason to be worried. After all, Mr Singh has had a long and close association with the Gandhis, having done a stint in the Prime Minister’s Office during Indira Gandhi’s regime and as a minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s Cabinet. He was also Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s key adviser, a member of the Congress Working Committee and a minister in the UPA-1 government. He was stripped of his ministry after he fell from grace when his name surfaced in the oil-for-food scam. Extremely bitter over the treatment meted out to him, it is widely expected that Mr Singh’s book, One Life is Not Enough, could stir up trouble for the already-beleaguered Gandhi family. While Mrs Gandhi and Ms Vadra have done their bit to mend their relations with the former family insider, Mr Singh’s publishers are also said to be scanning the contents carefully to avoid any trouble.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its alliance partner, the Akali Dal, are locked in a bitter political battle with the Aam Admi Party, but Bhagwant Mann, AAP Lok Sabha member from Sangrur, makes no bones about his admiration for finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley. A comedian-turned-politician, Mr Mann has a way with words and he gave ample demonstration of his skills when he ran into Mr Jaitley recently. Mr Mann first showered praise on Mr Jaitley, even going to the extent of saying that he considered the BJP minister as his political guru, and then trained his guns at the Akali Dal’s first family: Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Badal. An embarrassed Mr Jaitley listened in silence as Mr Mann accused the Badals of blanking out his comedy shows from the state-controlled cable network in Punjab and then went on to blame the BJP’s ally for Mr Jaitley’s defeat in Amritsar. “But don’t worry, you have been well rewarded by Modi… you lost to a former Army officer but look, the Prime Minister has now made you the boss of the entire Army,” Mr Mann remarked. Mr Jaitley made a hurried exit before word went around that he was encouraging the Akali Dal-baiter.
When the Rajya Sabha was plunged into chaos last week over the Opposition’s demand for a discussion on the escalating violence between Israel and Palestine, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had refused on the plea that any discourteous comments made in Parliament could have an adverse impact on India’s relations with the two countries. It so happens that it was not the Israel-Palestine conflict but the conflict within the Bharatiya Janata Party that was the root cause of the standoff between the Opposition and the government. Ms Swaraj was apparently miffed that junior parliamentary affairs minister Prakash Javadekar had agreed to list the discussion without consulting her first. Finance minister Arun Jaitley, who is also the Rajya Sabha leader, was seen as a prime suspect given the history of rivalry between him and Ms Swaraj. Although Ms Swaraj stood steadfast on her decision, she had to give in eventually after Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari rejected her request to cancel the discussion. Her case was further weakened by the declaration adopted by Brics leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressing concern over the escalating violence in West Asia and even asking Israel not to construct settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Over the past decade that the BJP was in Opposition, its former finance minister Yashwant Sinha hardly got an opportunity to open the debate on the Union Budget for his party in Parliament. He was invariably beaten to it by BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi. So it was a matter of great satisfaction when his son Jayant Sinha, first-time MP, was picked to initiate the debate on the Budget last week. The young Sinha did his father proud as it was unanimously acknowledged across the political spectrum that the IIT and Harvard-educated former investment banker was well-acquainted with the subject. The BJP was naturally thrilled at having discovered a new star from among its large batch of newcomers. Finance minister Arun Jailtey even called up Mr Yashwant Sinha to tell him, “Your son has achieved what you could not in all these years… initiate the Budget debate.” Sinha senior was not complaining.
Narendra Modi has discovered that both his offices in South Block and in Parliament House, have a major problem. While the bathroom attached to the office in Parliament often runs out of water, the one in the PMO is so designed that a person has to twist and contort himself to enter it. No wonder former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee preferred to work out of his 7, Race Course Road office.
The writer is a Delhi-based journalist
