This worry by the BJP has been accepted by all that victory might make it commit mistakes, but no lessons are learnt from defeats. Until such time that the BJP was in the Opposition, its central office at Ashoka Road had no less than 50 cells operative. And the cells were such that they would give then frank opinions on important matters such as foreign policy, defense affairs, farmers’ policy, and so on. But ever since Modi has taken over as the nizam in Delhi, the cells have vanished. The chiefs of these cells have been told that now that the BJP is in power at the Centre, what was the need for making separate vision documents on different subjects? These cell prabharis have been told to give their advice directly to the government. But what has the government done in these two years? Why ignore the voices connected to grassroots? Foreign policy was something that was being talked about the most, but why have our relations with neighbouring countries stagnated? Until two years ago, it appeared all will be well between India and Nepal, but today Nepal is rocking in China’s lap, almost. Sri Lanka also seems to be leaning towards China, and our relations with Pakistan are as strained. All in all, it is only with Bangladesh that our relations are somewhat warm, and that too because of Sheikh Hasina.

Sensing significant reshuffle in the Cabinet, BJP leader and Central Minister Kalraj Mishra is also busy doing the rounds to save his post. The news that is trickling in from political gossip is that nearly 75 ministers will lose their posts in the probably Cabinet reshuffle. But the bigger question is, when will the reshuffle take place? After the election results of the five states, the prime minister has started his foreign travels yet again. Someone told Mishra ji that he should go and meet P K Mishra in the PMO, since he is currently the eyes and ears of the prime minister. So Kalraj ji went to meet Mishra ji, and told him about his misgivings. Sources say P K Mishra told Kalraj that the PM gives importance to work over experience and age. So he should get out of this hand-wringing phase and set his ministry in order. This will make sure his post is safe. It is said Kalraj Mishra has repeated the guru mantra to Najma Apa as well.

These two friends of yore are pretty active in helping the prime minister realize his secret mission. Incidentally, both have been law ministers in the past. The new entrant to Rajya Sabha Subramaniam Swamy, and Hansraj Bhardwaj, have started
a new round of meeting-up; they meet at either at Bhardwaj’s home in Defence Colony or over a quiet dinner at Taj Man Singh Hotel. So be it the National Herald case, or Augusta Westland, Swamy is seen consulting with Bhardwaj. It is worth noting that Bhardwaj and Modi’s friendship is an old one, and it is Bhardwaj, who was the law minister of Gujarat while Modi was the chief minister, and had advised the CM to start a night court, and Modi has agreed to it promptly. Sources say that Bhardwaj also has good relations with BJP head Amit Shah. When Bhardwaj was the governor of Karnataka, and would stay at Karnataka
Bhavan in Delhi, Shah could be seen going to visit him and see how he was doing. It is worth mentioning that Gujarat Bhavan and Karnataka Bhavan are next to each other in Delhi. Sources say that the duo have given a secret report to the
Prime minister about the present attorney journal and solicitor journal.

Despite a bitter political face-off between the BJP and the Congress, the present budget session of the Parliament is being considered a significant one. That is because not only did the Parliament function without any disturbances, 20 important bills were passed in the Lok Sabha, and 24 in the Rajya Sabha. Not just that, the Parliament abolished 1175 non-important laws and created a historical milestone. Questions have always been asked about Venkaiah Naidu’s efficiency in floor management in the Parliament, but it seems that he has learned from his mistakes and in the current session, he made changes in his strategy in dealing with the Opposition. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also gave full support to his senior minister. Sources say the prime minister himself called Naqvi about this and patted his back. It will be interesting to see if the prime minister will put more responsibilities on Naqvi in the much-awaited Cabinet reshuffle after this.

Shining like a blazing comet on the Indian political horizon, Sharad Pawar’s stars are telling a different story nowadays. So, away from cricket and its strokes, Pawar is paying full attention to the politics of farmers. Nowadays, Pawar can be seen networking with several political parties about the formation of a new policy for farmers. He has even got the consent of nearly three dozen Parliamentarians to join the farmers’ forum. The first core meeting of these Parliamentarians was held by Pawar at his official residence, and those such as Trinamul’s Sougat Roy, NCP’s Tariq Anwar, BJD’s Tathagat Sathapathy, and Bhratahari Mahtab reached on time. Then came news that the flight by which Pawar was supposed to come to Delhi from Mumbai had been delayed. Pawar gave his Parliamentarian daughter Supriya Sule the duty to play the hostess to the Parliamentarians and discuss the new farmers’ policy with them. Sources say Sule took good care of the Parliamentarians, but the discussions got diverted. Seeing wine glasses clinking everywhere Mahtab got a little angry and said, “We were under the impression some serious discussions were to take place.” The answer was, “This wine is made from the grapes of Nasik; we are doing a good thing for at least those farmers in Maharashtra who are growing grapes.” Several Parliamentarians chose to leave early. Sensing the delicacy of the matter, Pawar sahib called for the next meeting of the same people in the Parliament Annexe, where serious discussions about the farmers’ policy were held.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows. In the recent survey held by “Parliamentarian” and “Punjab Kesari”, ever since Mayavati and BSP is being considered the single-most powerful party for the 2017 elections, the hand and the elephants equations have changed entirely. When the Congress was going through a tough political time in Uttarakhand, a decisive and important meeting between Sonia and Mayavati took place in Delhi. Right after the meeting, Mayavati sent her special aide Naseemuddin Siddiqui to Dehradoon, with a message. The BSP MLAs were given the message by him. Sources say this important meeting between Mayavati and Sonia has also led to an agreement between the two that a friendly fight between the Congress and the BSP might take place in the coming Assembly elections in UP and Uttarakhand. As least 28 seats in Uttarakhand might we witness to it.

Prominent north-east leader Purno Sangma’s home is witnessing upheavals regarding his legacy. Both his daughter Agatha and son Conrad are staking a claim to the important Meghalaya seat. While Conrad wants to go with the BJP or BJP-supported parties, Agatha, who has been a minister in the UPA government in the past, wants to go with the Congress. Sources say she met with Sonia a few days ago and asked for her support. Agatha also wanted Sonia should speak to her mother at least once. But Sonia refused to get involved in the matter and said, “Get a consensus within your home. I don’t want to get involved in your domestic matters. We have no problem in giving you the Congress ticket, but your family should come to a conclusion on whether it wants to go with the BJP or the Congress.” Agatha came back with a small face.

It seems Kailash Vijayvargiya, who has emerged as the BJP’s new Chanakya, had the egg on his face in the Uttarakhand matter. He visited each MLA who was not in the BJP, and tried to cut deals with them. Harish Rawat had his people shadow these people intensively, so whoever’s house Vijayvargiya would go to, Rawat would follow. The same happened in the Madan Bisht matter. Rawat is also an ace at communication skills, and managed to get each and every MLA to his side. And thus, BJP’s game was ruined. Voices of dissent can also be heard in Uttarakhand BJP. For instance, the state’s senior BJP leader Bhagat Singh Koshyari called Vijayvargiya. Sources say Koshyari was upset that the BJP had lost face in public and this will impact the elections. To this Vijayvargiya tried to pacify Koshyari saying, “Please don’t worry; we have exposed the Congress as a corrupt political party, which will go to any extent to stay in power. He have shown Harish Rawat’s sting operation to prove it, and have shown the reality to public.” But Koshyari didn’t seem to buy the argument.

You can identify an Indian moneybags by his penchant for estimating what might be, and changing his strategy accordingly. Looking at the US presidential elections and seeing how Donald John Trump and his real estate empire might boom in India, several Indian real estate companies from India are in competition for the same. One of India’s prominent builder Lodha has gone to the extent of signing a MoU with Donald Trump’s company to build a Trump Tower in Mumbai. Builders such as Unitech, who are not doing financially well at present, are also keen on a joint venture with Trump’s company. Several big builders from Mumbai and Delhi are in constant touch with the big officials of “The Trump Organisation”. It is worth remembering that Donald Trump is not only in the fray of presidential elections, he is also a noted businessman in the US. Apart from real estate, his company has interests in gaming and hotel industry as well. His two big companies – The Trump Organisation and Trump Entertainment Resorts – are not only into real estate, but casinos, golf course, resorts and hotels as well. It is another matter that Trump is on cloud nine, but his own Republican Party is opposing him.

Thumbing his nose at several prominent saffron party leaders, ever since Subramaniam Swamy has made it to the Upper House, the political winds seem to be changing. From the ruling to the Opposition parties, everyone’s attitude towards Swamy is one of “Handle with care”. For instance, a few days ago when Swamy was present in the Upper House, Congress heavyweight Jairam Ramesh happened to come face to face with him. Ramesh jokingly asked Dr Swamy, “Apart from our party people, who else is on your hit list?” Dr Swamy’s reply was worth listening to. Sources say that Swamy, very candidly, said, “Your party’s leader is number two on my list. But number one is my own party’s Shakuni, who has betrayed the party, and has favoured and helped your party time and again. I am here to teach him a lesson.” Swamy’s reply meant an uncomfortable silence all around.