The Congress pulled out all stops to ensure that party president Sonia Gandhi’s iftar dinner on Monday, July 13, was a success. Those entrusted with organ-ising the party followed up on the invitations to other Opposition leaders with personal calls to request their presence at the dinner. Despite their efforts, the left parties and Samajwadi Party decided to give it a miss, setting off speculation that they were not interested in forging Opposition unity. It later transpired that they kept away from the iftar not because of ideological differences, but purely ego issues.
While the CPM was wary of being seen in the company of its rival Trinamul Congress, the CPI was upset that the invitation was not sent to the party secretary-general, but to its Rajya Sabha MP D. Raja. Congress insiders maintained that they had sent the invites to the parliamentary party leaders and not party heads. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had assured his hosts that he would be attending the dinner, but changed his mind after a Congress leader from UP criticised the SP chief publicly for threatening a senior police officer. Mr Mulayam was in Delhi till late afternoon but rushed back to Lucknow after dashing off a letter to Mrs Gandhi.
There appears to be some confusion in the CPM about its stand on iftar parties. When FB, its partner in West Bengal, hosted an iftar recently, CPM lea-ders chose to stay away on the plea that they did not attend religious functions.
In Delhi, the CPM did not turn up for Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s iftar on the ground that a social evening had been converted into a political event. Given the CPM’s differing positions, people were hard put to understand why its leaders were not spotted at President Pranab Mukherjee’s iftar dinner. Did they decline the invitation because it was a political event or a religious one? There are no clear answers from the CPM to these questions.
Three-time Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan remained untouched by controversy all these years. But the script has gone horribly wrong for him after the Vyapam scam. His personal image has taken a beating. Nevertheless, Mr Chouhan has been trying to keep a brave face and is going about his routine as if the controversy never erupted. He was recently seen sauntering on a street in Bhopal with colleagues and having a paan at a roadside kiosk. But Mr Chouhan’s carefully-cultivated care-free demeanour was shaken when the attendance at his iftar dinner was much thinner this time. Several senior ministers did not attend even though many of them were in town. Clearly, Mr Chouhan’s detractors in the BJP are waiting for him to fall.
There are innumerable stories about people in positions of power making generous donations to their alma mater, usually huge sums of money for
a new laboratory or a library wing or a hostel. But commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman has presented an unusual gift to her old university, the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Since the Coffee Board of India functions under her ministry, she ensured that it opened a Coffee House on the JNU campus. The new place was inaugurated last week and halwa was served free along with its famous coffee.
It is only appropriate that a university like JNU, which thrives on political debates, has got a Coffee House which has been made famous across the country as a meeting place for artists, students, politicians and acad-emics to indulge in freewheeling discussions over endless cups of steaming, hot coffee.
Congress circles these days are abuzz about the growing proximity of former Punjab MP from Sangrur, Vijay Inder Singla, to party VP Rahul Gandhi. Mr Singla has been seen regularly at Mr Gandhi’s Tughlaq Lane office and has also accompanied him on his recent trips. In fact, Mr Singla was entrusted with the responsibility of coordinating with the media during the Congress VP’s two-day trip to Rajasthan. Mr Singla is clearly the flavour of the season, but nobody in the party can figure out how he managed to become a member of the charmed circle considering there is an army of wannabes waiting to get an entry. K. Raju, the bureaucrat-turned politician and head of the party’s SC cell, is the other favourite. Mr Raju gives Mr Gandhi advice on how he should reach out to groups like hawkers. It was apparently his idea that Mr Gandhi undertake padyatras to connect better with the public.
The writer is a Delhi-based journalist
