Manmohan Singh will against speak at the Red Fort on August 15. It is speculated that as the prime minister, this will be Manmohan Singh’s last address to the nation. The Gandhi family has always been well represented on August 15. So Rahul Gandhi has left his mother recuperating in a hospital in Houston to be here. It is being said that he has returned to India for the Independence Day celebrations as well as to take part in Rajiv Gandhi’s birthday’s celebrations. Also, he knows that next year he has to stand in the same place and address the entire nation.

What happened in the last week of July at the library of the Gymkhana Club in Chennai was quickly hushed up in a hurry. And it has to happen since it involved the son of one of the strongest ministers at the Centre. If the father is Yashasvi, the son’s tejasvi. So when he was found with a Page 3 woman in an objectionable position in the library, the police was summoned. But the police couldn’t dare to register a case against the man. The matter was hushed up saying that both of them were adults and since they are free to do what they want to, a case can’t be registered against them. Even if it happens in a public place? The son owns as much as Rs 5,000 crore and has invested his money in several media groups all over the world and so the newsmakers also chose not to make a news of it.

It is said that the governing powers are usually hard of hearing but Manmohan Singh’s ministers aren’t ready to listen to anything at all. Even a junior minister like Ajay Maken was seen throwing his headphone in the Parliament, Harish Rawat was seen trying to stop him, Rajiv Shukla was caught by his channel sleeping in the Parliament, Salman sa’ab has got a mother with a beard (Manmohan Singh) and his entire body language has changed. Sibal sa’ab’s body language as well as the tongue seems to be speaking well beyond their means. The Congress’ behaviour in the Parliament is becoming anarchistic and self-willed every day. It is enough to embarrass the democracy and Chidambaram’s haughty behaviour is making up for the rest. A bullet for helpless farmers’ protests, a threat to Anna’s fasting and lathi-charge on protestors is a normal thing for Chidambaram. So, the BJP too has decided it will directly attack the Gandhi family. A prominent BJP leader, along with a big English newspaper based in Delhi worked hard for eight months and has prepared a dossier about Robert Vadera. Clearly, this will be the biggest attack on the Gandhi family in an open way. From land, malls and hotels, there is a full file on everything. The newspaper was just about to start a series on the investigation, when the Rajmata of the party fell ill. As soon as she’s back, a lot of secrets will be out in the open and hollow relationships stuck together with weak threads will also be brought out. It will be the real test of Manish and Nirupam’s acumen.

There is speculation that the Raja and the Rani, that is A Raja and Kanhimozhi may be bail, and it could happen right after the case about the 2G scam is decided.

The PM is getting wary of his image becoming threadbare among the general public. He is said to be upset with his media advisor Harish Khare. So along with Vinod Sharma, several media people and known journalists are vying for the post. But sources close to the PM say that for him it is still Sanjay Baru whom Manmohan Singh can’t see beyond and who had earlier serve the PM. That means Baru may be back, again.

The deputy chief minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi has been made the chairman of the Goods and Service Tax Committee. Before this, the CPI-M’s Aseem Dasgupta held the post. He was also the finance minister of West Bengal government then. When things were going against the party in the state then, Trinamul Congress was hoping that it will get the post. But the central Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had something else in his mind. Actually, the Congress wants uniformity of the GST in Congress-ruled states. The party believes that the sales tax in all states should be the same. BJP-ruled governments in states such as Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are totally against it, so much so that Sushil Kumar Modi himself doesn’t agree with this line of thinking. But the BJP has made him the chairman of the committee. The party wants that as a chairman of the committee, Modi junior should express his views against the idea.

So, recently when the BJP’s firebrand politician Uma Bharti went to Advani’s residence with her grievance, in a way Advani looked very helpless in front of her. Bharti dared to open up about Rajnath Singh’s alleged Thakurvad in front of Advani, and told him that since Rajnath has been given the duty of taking extra care of Uttar Pradesh, Thakurvad is reigning rampant in the party since then. The trio of Rajnath Singh and his disciples Narendra Tomar and Saudan Singh have taken over the state party unit completely. To Uma’s disturbance, all Advani could mouth was, “All right, I will talk to Gadkari ji about this.”

Advani is hurt, hurt at the treatment meted out to him for his loyalty to the party. Those who consider the Sangh agenda their prime priority, are trying with all their might to make Advani redundant in the party. Advani has read the writing on the wall and knows that the Sangh is of the view that Advani shouldn’t contest the Lok Sabha elections due in 2014. Advani is preparing himself to get ready for the same, and most of his time is spend in reading and writing. He is very active in the blog space and al his blog compilations are now going to be brought out as a book by Rupa and Company as “As I see it”. What all does this veteran leader need to see more?

During the rule of UPA I, when Sushma Swaraj was the president of the standing committee of the home ministry and Advani was the member of the committee, to show respect to Advani, Sushma would go to Advani’s home to present a report to him – she would also brief him about the meeting. She never thought it was necessary to call Advani for the meeting. But during UPA2, when Venkaiah Naidu became the president of the committee, he would call Advani for every meeting of the standing committee, so much so that when the standing committee members went to the police academy in Hyderabad, Venkaiah took Advani along. Seeing Advani at a place where he had laid the foundation stones for several projects during his rule as a deputy prime minister, several people were shocked and said, “Advani ji, you here, as an ordinary member?” Advani said, “I don’t breed egos. I respect the democracy and that is why I am here.” Actually he wanted to put on display his physical capabilities even at that age. It was almost like he was challenging his opponents in the party and the Sangh and saying, “Buddah hoga tera baap!”

Elections are soon going to be held for the Hissar Lok Sabha seat left empty because of the death of Haryana’s veteran leader Bhajanlal. A new alliance may be born in Haryana with these elections. The BJP and the HJK (The Haryana Janhit Congress party launched by Bhajan’s son Kuldeep Bishnoi) may come together for the first time; in the last Vidhan Sabha elections, the BJP had contested the elections in Haryana with Chautala’s party. Back then Kuldeep had tried hard to form an alliance with the BJP but nothing came of it. In the Hissar elections, late Bhajanlal’s wife Jasma Devi may be the joint contender from the HJK-BJP alliance.