Before Ramzan starts, Afazal Guru, who has been found guilty of the Parliament attack, may face capital punishment. Guru’s application for a mercy plea has been sent to the President for consideration. Sources at the highest level have revealed that the President may refuse the mercy plea and return it. In that case, the home ministry will then send the papers to the session judge. Usually, the session judge passes a “black warrant”, a document that has a black border and has the time and date of the hanging clearly written on it. Looks like the terrorist Guru’s days are numbered.

What with the Naxals becoming a cause for grave concern for the Central government, there are new strategies being made everyday to deal with the menace. The government has made it clear that the army will not be used to dig out the Naxals, but that does not mean the armymen will not be included in the project. Thus, there is a lot of frenetic action taking place and Rashtriya Rifles is set to recruit 60 battalions, that is 72,000 jawans, will be included and most of the deputation will include army officers. Looks like the Indian government’s made up its mind and the strategy is in place.

Defeated, Mamata has now forwarded the name of independent leader Digvijay Singh from Banka, suggesting he be made the state minister for Railways. But when the Congress started to make enquiries about Digvijay, they were surprised to learn that the minister was not in India at all – he is away in London getting treatment. Unconfirmed sources have revealed that Digvijay was there for his summer vacations, when he passed outside his hotel, fell and hurt himself and is now being treated for the same. Once he gets back to India, things might start to move.

India’s former Chief Justice Balakrishnan could be the next Chairman of National Human Rights Commission. There is an important meeting on this issue on Tuesday and in the panel too only the name of Balakrishnan has come. So the name is decided, only the formalities remain.

Before the president’s departure on a foreign tour, in a big party forum it was extensively discussed that now the media is getting out of hand. Neither has Ravishankar Prasad got that charisma and nor has Rudy that ability; and Shahnawaz remains absent most of the times. Now there is also a lot of negative news appearing about the new president in the media. At this the president immediately said – `Then why don’t you look at the media?’ And since then Arun Jaitley has officially become the media in-charge of BJP. It is another matter that no order to this effect has been issued till date.

The installation of a new Congress president in Bihar is not almost a certainty. So the sitting president Anil Sharma could be replaced with the Muslim or Dalit face by the Congress. While Ashok Ram is the frontrunner from the Dalit quota, the name of Bakhtiyarpur MLA Mehboob Ali Qaiser is said to be ahead from among the Muslim leaders. Qaiser also enjoys a good reputation. Qaiser’s father, Chaudhary Salahuddin, has also led the party in the State and has been a Minister in Bihar Government on several occasions. The name of former central minister Shakeel Ahmed was also doing the rounds earlier but the general opinion about him is that he is quite short-tempered. Therefore the Congress high command is still not decided on his name. There is also talk in the Congress that if the party would be in a position to form a Government in Bihar then for the post of Chief Minister, the name of the Dalit leader and Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar would top the list.

The nationwide protest of BJP against the misuse of Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI proved to be a damp squib. The way in which the Congress led Central Government is preparing to net Narendra Modi through the CBI made the Bhishm Pitamah of the party L.K. Advani consult his close aides in the party colleagues and come to the decision that if pressure is to be mounted on the Congress then a
simultaneous protest be carried out at all at the State headquarters of the party. But by then Gadkari’s statement using the dog word had come and it hogged the headlines in the media. And this news took the steam out of the new of the party’s protest demonstration and breathed a new life into the Congress.

The Congress has been very generous on two officers of Gujarat Police. One of them is an IPS and the other of the State Police. There is difference of opinion on the track record of this IPS officer. The Congress wants to bring him on deputation to the CBI. The Congress tacticians want that all the cases pertaining to Modi be handed over to this officer in the CBI. But Modi is no less a player. He has placed hurdles in sending this officer on deputation. Modi is clear that this officer cannot be sent because a vigilance probe is going on against him. In view of the cases filed against him, this officer has also filed an appeal with the Services Tribunal. Let’s see what the result would be.

The name of senior Congress leader Mohsina Kidwai is right in the forefront for the post of the new Governor of Rajasthan. The wait now is for the green signal from 10 Janpath. If all goes as per plan then Mohsina Kidwai would replace the late Prabha Rao as the next Governor of Rajasthan.

So who finally prevailed upon Maya Memsahib who was crossed with the Congress? It could be hard to believe, but this job was done by the Minister of additions and subtractions Pranab Mukherjee. Through Satish Mishra, Pranab got into touch with Mayawati. She was made to agree on getting the BSP MPs to abstain from the cut motion. A relief
package was also offered. So while the mood was once hot, the issue was settled in time and the Congress safely reached the shores.