Thanks to George Fernandes, Mukul Vasnik is on a roll in Bihar. Fernandes is one of those who are closest to 10, Janpath and now that there is a war of sorts announced between Anil Sharma and Tytler, Fernandes has given Vasnik the responsibility for being the Bihar party spokesperson. Next on Fernandes’ agenda is to create a new understanding between the dalits, the Muslims and those from the upper caste. For the same, the Congress is all set to cannibalise from the other parties. Efforts are on the have Brahmin leader Jagannath Misra return to the Congress fold, it already has Nikhil Kumar in the form of a Rajput leader, and now that Rajiv Ranjan alias Lallan is also in the party, the bhumihars may also take a liking to the Congress party. Mukul Vasnik is already in Bihar in the form of the dalit leader and spokesperson, and Kaisar has come in as the Muslim party president in the state. Now their ambition is to fill in more communal colour into the state party.

A TV channel is all set to sue the BCCI. Ex-president and ever-opportunist Lalit Modi has signed a contract with the channel that 14 prominent cricket players will be part of reality show “Khatron ke khiladi, a remake of the English show “Who dares wins”. Off the record, the channel has paid hefty fees for the same and except for Dhoni and Sachin, who refused to be a part of the series, was to have included every Indian player from Harbhajan to Yuvi. The channel was so excited about the show that it had politely dumped its host Akshay Kumar, too. But now with the unending series of problems that Modi is facing, the BCCI has also retracted from the commitment with the channel. Now it is throwing the ICCI rulebook in the face of the channel and claims that it can’t send its players to any such show where they might run the risk of physical harm. The channel wants to know what the BCCI didn’t think of it before signing the contract.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s popular chief minister Narendra Singh Modi is in a class in himself. Whenever he leaves Gujarat for a conference, seminar or a meeting, his achievements precede him – in the form of slogans, banners and masks. Modi has a dedicated and professional team of 50 people that arrives a week in advance of Modi’s arrival. This team roams about the place wearing mask cut-outs of him, manages the media, prints out advertisements of him in local newspapers and generally makes the environment a conducive one for Modi to come to. The same happened in Patna.

Nitin Gadkari is fast becoming a big reason for the Sangh Parivar’s deep frowns. He may be summoned by the Sangh to Nagpur, right after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s National Convocation at Bihar gets over. It is understood that during an interview with an English daily, Gadkari had let it slip that since the party will no longer get votes on the temple and Hindutva strategy, it will have to expand its horizons towards development; if need be, it will also try to lure the minority communities in its fold. That’s because it is vital for the party to increase its votes by at least 10 per cent to make its dream of sitting at the Centre after the 2014 election come true. Sangh feels it is an aberration from the Parivar’s well-thought ideology and that Gadkari is playing into the hands of Advani, Anant and Arun. Further, that Gadkari now only sees and says what the so-called secular media wants him to see.

Has nothing untoward happened in your city? Is it true you really haven’t heard the screams?
I’ve been flustered for a while about this city, That doesn’t he see all that is happening here?
These lines by Dr Sheheryar sum up the pain of Bhopal and of that fateful night on December 3, 1984, when the poisonous methyl isocyanate leak from Union Carbide’s Bhopal plant killed 3,500 people and adversely affected as many as 2 lakh people. The irony? Those guilty of the accident were given just two years’ imprisonment by the Supreme Court. That’s because when the Supreme Court heard the trial for the death of so many people, they were booked under Section 304 (A) (Death due to negligence), under which those found guilty were to get a maximum of two years imprisonment. If the Supreme Court retracts from its ruling, the guilty can be booked under Section 304 (Part 2), which could result in their imprisonment of upto 10 years.

Jagan Reddy has posed some real challenges before the Congress. Through his mass awareness campaign and public rallies, these days Jagan has not only made life difficult for Chief Minister Rosaiah but also the Dilli darbar. The Congress had put all its might in giving Jagan’s father Rajshekhar Reddy a larger image than Chandrababu and today the situation has come to such a passé that the same Congress peole are trying to clip the wings of YSR’s son. As per `YSR school of thoughts’ when Rajshekhar was killed in a plane crash, about 644
people had committed suicide in grief. It was then that Jagan resolved that he would go to all these households to express his condolences and Jagan also announced the payment of a compensation of Rs 50 thousand to all these aggrieved families from his own account. And when gradually Jagan began sending the money to all these families, the Chief Minister’s camp began saying that all these families had died of natural causes. Even then Jagan remained unmoved and he kept visiting those houses and organised public rallies there. And even if Jagan has to take some big step, he still wants to wait … till the time the State Assembly elections draw closer.

Jaya Bachchan has after all left her yearning for a Rajya Sabha berth and has stated family matters as the reason. No matter how much the distance may have become between Amar Singh and Big Brother, Big B has still not forgotten that it was because of Amar Singh that he got another lease of life in his journey through the film world. Abhishek and Aishwarya may not be that fond of Amar, but they do not want the Bachchan family to be drawn into an unnecessary political controversy. And at the last moment the most important role was played by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who called up Amitabh over phone and offered that if Gujarat can make him its brand ambassador then it also keeps weight to send Jaya `bhabhi’ to Rajya Sabha. This is what clinched the issue and Jaya apprised Netaji Mulayam about her ideas.

Taking the support of BSP for the `cut motion’ in Parliament is proving to be quite expensive for the Congress in U.P. While earlier the floating voters in the State were drifting towards the Congress as they were angry with the style of functioning of Mayawati, after the cut motion, this trend has halted. The Congress prince was given the task of fulfilling the loss caused by this episode. Therefore in his Mirzapur rally, Rahul calculatedly attacked the BSP and even declared that he would uproot the party in the State. But where did the Congress prince know that in the political cauldron he would burn his fingers.

Mamta’s rail is failing because these days her only agenda is to get Trinamool back on the tracks via Bengal. Her own party is facing a rebellious situation and several MPs from her party have raised the banner of revolt against her leadership – the name of Kabir Suman is known to all. Bute there are several other names where the uneasiness is quite perceptible. There was a stampede at New Dehi railway station and several innocent people lost their lives. In such a situation, there was a very strong statement from Mamta that since she does not have a house in Delhi, so she resides in Kolkata. She has caused quite a bit of embarrassment to the UPA Government. Earlier on the issue of language, the stance of Azhagiri was quite rigid and now Mamta has added fuel to the fire. Now the Opposition insists that it would be better if the Manmohan Government also conducts its Cabinet meetings through video conferencing because the homes of most of its ministers are outside Delhi.

The Congress has got divided into two camps on the issue of which approach would be most effective in dealing with Naxalism. There is one group which believes that a solution to the vexed problem is possible through talks. Sonia Gandhi herself is of this view and Digvijay Singh is also constantly harping on this note. The other group represented by Chidambaram favours a more radical approach. It believes that if India is to be prevented from becoming another Nepal then the lone solution to this problem is the use of Army. This group believes that Naxals are neither short of money nor resources, they are getting money from both within and outside the country. Whatever schemes of the Central Government are reaching the Naxal-affected areas, the Naxals are reaping a windfall out of them and taking a hefty commission. So much so that even the Government officials in
those States have to pay a portion of their salary to the Naxals as commission.