India’s best known industrialist Ratan Tata has never been so entangled in the political dealings until now. He usually maintains a distance with political parties and its people. But the present 2G scam and Radia tapes have proved to be a bone caught in his throat. After a face-off with BPL’s Rajeev Chandrashekhar, he has directly attacked the BJP and the NDA. He has also been unable to show his anger with Chidambaram. He feels that in this corporate war, the home minister has personally tried to see that Anil Ambani benefits. He has made this known to the Congress. It is possible that in the days to come, there will be more tapes leaked that will uncover more names of people who benefited.

Subramanium Swamy has written an explosive letter to the prime minister on November 24. The letter directly attacks Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her two sisters, Anushka and Nadia, in the 2G spectrum. Swamy alleges that each of the sisters got a bribe to the tune of Rs 18 crore. He has also raised questions about the sisters and their families’ trips to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Dubai, European countries and especially London. According to him, Sonia and her family travels up to Dubai in a scheduled flight but from there on it takes a chartered flight from a business group. According to the DGCA laws, this is illegal. Swamy has also written to the PM saying that it isn’t clear what passports do the family travel on?

It was the day Lucknow’s Subrata Roy’s niece was getting married, and the event had three such friends come together who were once thick as thieves. Amar Singh, who had come to Lucknow on Anil Ambani’s private jet, his yesteryear elder brother Amitabh Bachhan who had come directly with his wife after tilling his land on a tractor, and Mulayam Singh, who was once the apple of their eyes, who sat in a corner. None of them wanted to face each other and was meant on avoiding each other. If there was someone who was very happy, it was Raj Babbar, who had been talked down by all three of them at one point in time.

Goa Film Festival is being inaugurated by Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee instead of Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambica Soni. It is a tad shocking but Ambica isn’t keeping too well and suffers from a heart ailment. Looks like giving Big B such a big award was too risky for her. The problems that the Gandhi family has with Bachhan family are no secret. As a Cabinet Minister, Ambica showed a lot of courage and handed out the award to Big B. But the day the national awards were organized, she fell ill and fainted on the stage itself. The President promptly made her sit in the chair next to hers. But when has a chair been a constant companion?

If the complex wheeling-dealing is given the garb of straight talk, you can say that Sharad Pawar’s nephew seized the vice-chief minister’s post at “gun point”. Ajit Pawar had the support of at least 60 members from Rakanpa, and Pawar had nothing to do but agree to it. Is that the reason for Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel not being present for the Ajit Pawar’s oath-taking ceremony? Only Supriya Sule was present there as a part of formality. None of the posters, banners or kiosks bore Sharad Pawar’s name or picture. Only Ajit Pawar could be seen. NCP may well be on the way to a political Mahabharata yet again.

In his book “The life of Mahatma Gandhi”, Louis Fisher has said that Gandhi may have said “Hey Ram,” after falling to Nathuram Godse’s bullet but this wasn’t the first time he used the words and he had said it once in South Africa, too. Quoting Gandhi himself, “Before I could complete, I received a blow to my head and I could only say, ‘Hey Ram,’.”If he was alive today and saw the loot party at the Commonwealth Games, wouldn’t he have said the words once again? The probe committee has, until now, not contacted Kalmadi, Bhanot, Sheila Dikshit or Jaipal Reddy. But investigation is on. One thing is for sure, though. In the next elections, Kalmadi is not getting the party ticket from Pune. But those in the know realize that even in such a situation, he had found a way to get to the Rajya Sabha. It is being said that Sharad Pawar is bent on teaching Kalmadi a lesson although Kalmadi learnt the ropes of politics from Pawar himself. And Gadkari’s closeness with Pawar is known to all. It is clear that in the coming days, the BJP will not let Kalmadi live in peace.

This column has already mentioned how there will be proper probe on all the scams and scandals regarding the Commonwealth Games after the tournament is over. It’s come true. The prime minister has set up a committee for the same, which will submit its report in the next three months. Not only the small fry but the big fish might also be caught in the net. The needle of suspicion is not only pointing towards Kalmadi and Bhanot but also at Sheila Dixit and Delhi’s Lt governor. He may not get another extension and Kapil Sibal is being considered for Dixit’s post. The winter session of the Parliament is due to start on November 8 and the BJP is all set to corner the Congress about corruption charges at the Commonwealth Games. The Congress high command, as a result, is in no mood to forgive anyone, no matter what the post.

No matter how much Modi was towing the Advani line recently, he was pretty excited about campaigning in Bihar. He wanted to talk to the state CM Nitish Kumar regarding the same but a miffer Nitish didn’t come to the phone, and obviously Modi didn’t like it either. The Sangh Parivar wanted that both Modi and Varun Gandhi should go to Bihar and campaign, but Nitish didn’t relent. The BJP then submitted its list of 40 campaigners to the Election Commission. Right after that Gadkari is said to have personally spoken to Varun and Modi saying that this was only being done because of the coalition condition – the party fully supports both otherwise.

Whenever the Congress headquarters has to welcome Sonia Gandhi, as it is the Congress men are overjoyed at the prospect of meeting her and there is a race among all to show themselves to the party president. During one such visit recently, the rains in Delhi had converted the mud close to the dais of Sonia Gandhi and the prime minister to slush. So any sentry or minister who wanted to have himself seen by Mrs Gandhi had to step into that wading slush. Take Jaipal Reddy for instance – feet sunk deep into the slush, clad in dhoti-pajamas or trousers and a smile to kill. We have all heard about the lotus flowering in the mud, but such smile, too? Kudos to Sonia madam.

Vedanta need today is to have an effective PR company. That is because the PR company that handled the Vedanta account has been hired by Mukesh Ambani for a hefty fees. And all know that Vedanta did not get a green signal from Jairam Ramesh only because Anil is considered to be closer to the BJP. Surprisingly, present Home Minister P Chidambaram had been on its board of directors for a long time. Jairam also knew that Rahul was going to meet the tribals in Odisha and he wanted to play a role in announcing the young Gandhi as a messiah for the state tribals. The world knows about the Ambani and Congress connection. Then how can any minister from the party go against that principle?