The “One drop of life” of the Pulse Polio movement proved to be fatal for Al Qaeda’s Laden. A British newspaper has recently reported this. All that the CIA knew was that someone important from the Al Qaeda lived in Abottabad, but didn’t know who it was. A known doctor Shakeel Afridi, who lives in an area in the Khyber Pass on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was given a big funding by the American agencies. The doctor went there with his nurses and tried to find out more through phone via the Pulse Polio movement but failed. The doctor’s nurses then started home visits on the pretext of Hepatitis-B. In the focus came Laden’s most trusted bodyguard-cum-courier. Laden lived on the top floor and the courier lived on the ground floor with his wife and child. The courier came to the medical centre with his wife and child, and the nurses came to his with the excuse of vaccination. They didn’t see Laden but noticed the SUVs parked there and the security arrangements. What followed was a green signal to Operation Laden.

Sources close to Rahul have revealed that the change of guard at the centre is almost sure. Rahul baba is just waiting for his Mission UP to bear fruit. If the Congress gets anywhere close to a 100 seats during the 2012 UP elections, the nation’s control will be in Rahul’s hands. If the party does not get more than 50 seats, one of Rahul’s loyal aides will be given the top seat, no matter what house he belongs to. Which means bidding adieu to Manmohan Singh in 2012 is almost final.

The “Cash for vote” issue hasn’t suddenly reared its ugly head. Someone has given it a shot in the arm and that is why the prime minister’s pulse is fast. Ever since he has started to find his feet in the UPA-2 regime, the sky has laughed at his desires to use his wings and fly. Everyone knows that the Congress queen is unhappy with her puppet prime minister and all she is waiting for is the UP elections. The Nizam will be replaced and preparations for the coronation ceremony for Rahul baba are on. In the coming days, a lot of allegations may be made on the honest prime minister and for him it could be a case of “Bade beabru ho kar tere kuche se hum nikle”. But he can’t even cry out loud about dishonesty.

The monsoon session will start on the usual date – August 1. Pranabda wanted to change it to July 25, but the Opposition wasn’t in support of the same.

Gadkari got three different surveys done by agencies regarding UP. Rajnath Singh was number one in terms of popularity, then came Varun Gnadhi, followed by Uma Bharti. Then pressure was put on Rajnath that he should be made to contest the next elections as the prospective chief minister, but Rajnath wasn’t ready for the same. He is still focusing on the 2014 elections. He wasn’t even ready to become the UP head (his disciple Narendra Singh Tomar already holds that post). Rajnath’s reasoning was that after becoming the party president, becoming a prabhari doesn’t hold any meaning, and even Kushabhau Thakeray and Jena Krishnamurthy didn’t hold the post once they had become party presidents (Venkaiah Naidu being the only exception here). So the centre has asked him to stress on UP and Uttarakhand, and maybe that is why Kalraj Mishra is telling everyone with aplomb that Rajnath is not the state prabhari.

There is something there that no matter what, the Sangh just doesn’t seem to lose its faith in Gadkari. Instead of asking Gadkari be given a second term, they are asking for the President’s working period to be increased to five years. Obviously the party constitution will have to be amended for the same. It is worth remembering that Gadkari’s tenure ends in December 2012.

After the Cabinet reshuffle, a governor shuffle is on the cards. Karnataka’s Bhardwaj, Bihar’s Devanand Kunwar and Tamil Nadu’s Barnala may be shifted. Ten Janpath wanted to see Shivraj Patil in the Rajya Sabha but he refused, and wants to be transferred to a neighbouring state of Maharashtra.

Salman Khurshid knows the art of not sullying his clothes in a coal mine. Several corporate houses are thus happy with him being made the law minister, for instance Anil Ambani’s ADJ. When Salman was the corporate affairs minister, he had given a clean chit to Anil’s company regarding the 2G scam. Now Anil is convinced he will see him through several legal wrangles.

Jat leader Ajit Singh is miffed with the top command in the Congress and is saying it everywhere that he is becoming the victim of the cold war between two Congress biggies Digvijay Singh and Ahmed Patel. Because it was almost sure Ajit will come into the Cabinet fold, and this arrangement had been done by Rahul’s gatekeeper Digvijay. And if Ajit is to be believed, Patel, through a well though-out strategy broke this sand castle. The Congress was even ready to give a Cabinet and a state ministry berth, because of the way Rahul had recently worked politics in Jat-important areas for farmers. To bring this to fruition, they wanted someone like Ajit Singh to be on the fore. Now things have come to a stage where Rahul isn’t even giving time to meet Ajit despite him having asked twice to seek a meet with Rahul. He did meet with Ajit’s son Jayant but that wasn’t enough.

After the Sohrabuddin and Ishrat Jahan issue, what is the problem that seems to be plaguing intelligence? If some information does find its way to us, (sometimes with the assistance of the US and sometimes through police interrogation), necessary action isn’t taken. A prominent source associated with the intelligence revealed, “What can we do? For some time, case after case has been slapped on our police officers and they are being put behind bars while the terrorists are roaming free. They are getting a lot of support from those in politics. In the Punjab jail alone, 438 police officials are behind bars, and the numbers are larger in Gujarat jails. Until there is enough need from the politicians to battle terrorism, things will be as they are.”