When Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office came out with a strong defence of home minister Rajnath Singh last week, vehemently denying reports of impropriety by the latter’s son, it took everybody by surprise. That’s because Narendra Modi’s PMO has not been particularly forthcoming with comments on burning issues of the day except to tweet about the Prime Minister’s meetings and speeches. The alacrity shown by the PMO in this particular instance was officially put down to the excellent rapport which Mr Modi and Mr Singh enjoy. But it later transpired that Mr Modi was pushed into issuing the statement after he learnt about the anger building up among the Thakurs about the humiliation being heaped upon fellow caste member Mr Singh.
Thakurs are apparently fuming that the home minister was not allowed to choose his personal staff and has no say in the appointment and transfer of government personnel. Not only are Thakurs known to be a well-knit caste grouping, but they also yield substantial influence in Uttar Pradesh despite their small numbers. Mr Modi apparently did not want to alienate the Thakurs with crucial byelections in Uttar Pradesh coming up.
Ever since it was routed in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress is having a tough time fielding senior leaders and spokespersons to defend the party and participate in television debates. Former Union ministers Anand Sharma and Salman Khurshid are called in occasionally to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government, but the Congress is represented by relative political lightweights like Sanjay Jha, Rashid Ali and Meem Afzal on prime-time television talk shows. Seniors like Renuka Chaudhary and Abhishek Singhvi do put in an occasional appearance but in most cases there is no political face to represent the Congress.
The party’s list of spokespersons has also shrunk. While Haryana minister Randeep Surjewala, who doubled as party spokesperson, is busy with the upcoming Assembly elections in his home state, another spokesperson, Sandeep Dikshit, has disappeared after he lost his east Delhi Lok Sabha seat. He has told the party’s communication department that he will no longer be available to address media briefings. Several reasons are being cited for Mr Dikshit’s lack of interest in party matters. The more charitable explanation is that
Mr Dikshit wants to keep a low profile after his defeat. But the other is that the former Congress MP does not want to publicly attack the Narendra Modi government. Maybe, it has something to do with the ongoing cases against his mother and former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit.
They might be battling each other in the political arena but cricket has proved to be great unifying factor among politicians belonging to rival parties. For instance, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley, who are both active in the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), are good friends and on the same page when it comes to issues concerning the BCCI. Similarly, the BJP’s Lok Sabha MP Anurag Thakur and former Union minister of the Congress Jyotiraditya Scindia bond well because of their shared interest in cricket administration. Recently, party differences were set aside when Mr Scindia was unanimously elected chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association. The smooth takeover was made possible after Mr Scindia’s arch-rival, Madhya Pradesh’s urban development minister Kailash Vijayvargiya of the BJP, and his supporters decided not to contest the elections to the state cricket association.
The two groups had fought a high-voltage contest in 2012 when Mr Scindia had trounced his rival. According to the Delhi grapevine, Mr Vijayvargiya did not withdraw his candidature voluntarily but had to be dissuaded from entering the fray by Mr Jaitley, whose proximity to Mr Scindia is well known. As compensation and reward,
Mr Vijayvargiya was given charge of poll-bound Haryana in the latest organisational reshuffle in the BJP.
Former Union minister and Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Shukla was among the Congress ministers who was asked to vacate the ministerial bungalow allotted to him on Safdarjang Road as he is no longer entitled to it. Mr Shukla, however, continues to reside in the coveted premises. He maintains that he wrote back saying he will vacate the bungalow as soon as he is allotted alternate accommodation. As an MP, Mr Shukla will have to move to a smaller bungalow.
Several BJP ministers have their eyes on this bungalow as it has been renovated extensively by the present occupant. But nothing further has been heard about this case after the initial flurry of activity. It is, in fact, highly unlikely that he will move out. You could put that down to Mr Shukla’s excellent relations with BJP leaders, including law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who is his brother-in-law.
The writer is a Delhi-based journalist
