The view changes with eyes and everyone changes when there is a change of guard at the Centre. The idiom is coming out truer than expected for Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi. What is the reason otherwise that Naveen Jindal, who used to wait hand and foot on Rahul and would use Navin’s chartered plane to travel anywhere in India, has changed? A few days ago when Rahul’s office tried to contact Vivek Mittal , who takes care of the aviation division in Jindal’s office and asked for an aircraft, they were told that Jindal has given all his aircraft on commercial lease and is incapable of making available an aircraft for Rahul.

Nitish’s party is seeing on revolt after another. Now the party President Sharad Yadav is ready to follow suit. Actually, Sharad got an indication from Nitish he is considering other names apart from Sharad Yadav for the Rajya Sabha. Sharad was really upset with this and he clearly told Nitish that if he does not get a seat in the Rajya Sabha, he might choose to cross over the BJP side along with his follower MLAs.

The question is still echoing in the political corridors about how Nripendra Mishra got appointed as the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary. Especially after the ruling that if a person becomes the chairman of TRAI once, he or she will have no connection with the government nor accept any government posting after retirement. Everyone has their own claims on how Mishra got the position; BJP’s sharp leader from Godda, Nishikant Dubey, is taking the credit for the posting. The Rajnath camp, on the other hand, is calling it their victory. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval feels this has been made possible because of his own efforts, and several people are giving the credit to India TV’s Hemant Sharma for this, since it was Sharma who first introduced Mishra to Modi. There is another big claim that Nripendra Mishra’s name had been nominated by Vivekanand Foundation, which means several Sangh leaders put their stamp on his name. It is true – success has many fathers.

It is being said that Jayalalithaa is ready to be a part of the NDA and if that happens, two of her loyalists – M. Thambidurai and V Maitrayan might get a place in the Cabinet expansion.

Arun Jaitley had the biggest role to play in the giving the present look to Modi’s Cabinet. Jaitley had his own reasons for appointing leaders such as Smriti Irani, Dharmendra Pradhan and Piyush Goyal being appointed as ministers of important portfolios. On the other hand, he got away with handing over less important posts to politicians such as Maneka Gandhi, Ananth Kumar, Uma Bharti. Ram Vilas Paswan and Nitin Gadkari. It was initially decided that like the American model, Railways, Civil aviation, Surface transport and shipping will be merged to form one ministry and the portfolio will be handed over to Gadkari. But Jaitley somehow felt that in a diverse country such as India, this strategy might not work quite as well and he was successful in making Sangh’s prominent leaders see his point of view. Thus, Gadkari had to satisfy himself with Surface transport and Shipping.

It is matter worth noting that it is not only Congress crown prince Rahul Gandhi who is impressed with Singapore’s Founder Lee Kuan Yew, but Narendra Modi’s Gujarat model is also inspired by Lee Kuan’s policy for the modern Singapore. Rahul Gandhi considers Lee Kuan his political guru and keeps visiting the country to meet his mentor for political tips and understanding. At present Lee Kuan’s son is leading Singapore. It will be interesting to see if Narendra Modi will consider Singapore’s growth model as an ideal for new India.

K Chandrashekhar Rao has taken the oath as the first Chief Minister of Telengana. Rao has an unshakeable belief in Astrology and Vastu Shastra. Rao is not agreeable to the idea of making CM Camp house 3 and 4 in Hyderabad’s Begumpet area as his office because he doesn’t think it complies with the tenets of Vastu Shastra. According to the experts of the science, the most favourable bungalows are the two that are in Kundan Bagh. One of them is occupied by IPS Mahendra Reddy and IAS A K Paridha lives in the other one. Both of them have been told to vacate their government accommodation and both of them will be combined to make the chief minister’s office. A tourist house in Begumpet is being turned into the CM House. All in all, Chandrashekhar Rao blindly trusts all that his astrologers and experts in Vastu Shastra have to tell him.

“Rahul, tum jahan bhi ho ghar aa jao,Maa bahut pareshan hai, koi kuch nahi kahega , sari zimmedari Manmohan uncle ne le li hai-Priyanka”(Rahul, wherever you are please come home as mother is getting worried, nobody is going to accuse you as Manmohan uncle has taken the blame on his shoulders.-Priyanka) This joke has gone viral on Whatsapp. Despite this, Rahul, alongside his mother, has taken the responsibility for the party’s biggest loss so far.

The way Ananth Kumar networked far and wide and made alliances with big and small political parties down south, he has a solid claim for a seat in Modi Cabinet despite Yeddyurappa’s opposition. And although Ananth barely scraped through from his constituency in South Bengaluru, sources reveal that he might get a berth in the Cabinet, but for a less important ministry.

It is said about Sushma Swaraj that her entire political outlook is inspired by Israel’s first woman Prime Minister Golda Meir. Meir is also known as Israel’s ‘Iron Lady’. She has also been the country’s Foreign Minister and her tenure is remembered commendably to this day. Maybe that is the reason Sushma is asking for the foreign ministry for herself. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also been pretty good friends with Sushma. As the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, her contact with foreign delegates is a regular thing.