New roots make inroads only after breaking through the earth’s tough layers. If you leave aside the name of Om Mathur, the other two, namely Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, have already played their party president’s role. The only grouse Sangh has with Amit Shah is that in his tenure, he has hardly encouraged any party person from grassroots. UP’s heavyweight leader Rajnath Singh is finding himself unfit in the present Central government’s outlook. Tales of his differences of opinion with the PMO and Arun Jaitley can be heard in the passing. The Central home minister is said to be ready to resign and that is why his name is foremost in the above mentioned list. The Sangh and Nitin have an unbreakable bond, but Gadkari is said to be reluctant to relinquish his post at present, because he has introduced several projects worth lakhs of crores in road transport, national highways, and shipping ministry. Prime Minister Modi has supported and vetoed Om Mathur’s name. But the Sangh leadership is not excited about his name for now, which means if Shah goes, there are a lot of chances that Rajnath might come back.

Modi government is set to complete one year in power on May 26, but the strategists in the government are choosing to call it 365 days rather than a year. Initially it had been decided that a formal press conference will be called on May 26, where the government’s various achievements will be talked about. Then it was said that all ministers in the Centre will call for individual press conferences and speak about the government’s achievements. This started on May 22, with ministers such as Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Manohar Parrikar, and Ravi Shankar Prasad. Ministers who are not being to hold press conferences are inviting media people. Ministers are inviting the press in different state capitals and talking about the government’s various creditable achievements. But the Congress is ready with a reply this time. About 135 prominent Congress leaders are heading for state capitals and bigger towns and cities, engaging in dialogues with the press, taking part in debates, and are talking about laying open Modi’s secrets. Unperturbed by all this, the Central government is all set to launch Kisaan TV on May 26 amidst a lot of pomp and show.

Life sings its own tunes and celebrates its own occasions. The event was a programme organized at Vigyaan Bhavan, which had been organized to celebrate national poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s immortal creations, Parshuram ki Pareeksha, and Sanskriti ke Chaar Adhyay. Bihar’s prominent leader C P Thakur was in-charge of the programme and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief guest. Modi was supposed to come to the programme at 10 am in the morning, and at about 9.40 am, Arjun Munda, former chief minister of Jharkhand arrived at the main gate with a lady friend. But the security officials at the gate did not let him enter, because although Munda and his friend had a formal invitation, they did not have an identity card. After about a half-an-hour of back and forth, they were allowed to go inside, but by then their pent up anger had come out.

In the quest of changing the nation, the need to change oneself may not be a priority anymore, but the Sangh wants big changes in the UP leadership. Expectedly, the market is rife with speculation about a new party president in the state. In Sangh’s opinion, Varun Gandhi may be the most miraculous face for the party in UP. But Modi and Shah have their personal opinions regarding this. Thus, Swatantra Dev Singh’s name is also in the fray; he has also been a MLC and has a fair bit of influence in Bundelkhand. Apart from this, the names of Shivpratap Shukla from Gorakhpur; Dinesh Sharma, who is the party’s national vice-president and in-charge of the party in Gujarat, and party’s former president Lakshmikant Vajpeyi’s name is also in the race. While Varun Gandhi has emerged as the name preferred by the party’s state workers, Swatantra Dev Singh has the advantage of Sangh’s support. Dinesh Sharma has the blessings of Amit Shah, and Shivpratap Shukla is in the race based on his money and clout. At the same time, Lakshmikant Vajpeyi’s doings are on record for the Sangh to see and that is an albatross around his neck.

The memories of the past are colliding against the yet-unwritten reality, and are opening up their secrets, one by one. A prominent minister from the BJP witnessed this when he was going to Ambedkar Nagar by the same road on the day Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi was supposed to reach Amethi. The BJP leader saw hordes of crowds in thousands to see Rahul Gandhi in Haidargarh, Gauriganj, Inhona, and Musafirkhana, which fall on the way to Amethi. On the other hand, the BJP’s local leader had been working hard for the past 15 days to make his leader Smriti Irani’s tour to Amethi a success. Local farmers were told that the agriculture minister will also be coming with Irani and will distribute compensation cheques to farmers whose crops have perished. A meeting was organized for the minister in a village of a veteran BJP person in a Thakur village, where only a handful of people came. A veteran freedom fighter was given the mike to speak at the same meeting, but the minute he got the mike, he started speaking against the Modi government. When he started to call the government names for the rising cost of living, he mike was forcefully taken away from him, and the entire meeting was one of confusion. The minister had to go back to Delhi with little but these bitter memories.

Nothing in this world stays the way it is – there are constant cues that new things will happen. BJP President Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah is not only his father’s pet, but is known for giving his honest opinion on political matters every once in a while. During the election campaign days in 2014, when the Modi-Shah duo was busy selling dreams of acche din to the Indian population, Jay decided to do something about his hair fall situation and opt for hair transplant around the same time. It was also because he was due to get married eight-nine months after. The election results of Delhi came on the same day Jay’s wedding drums rolled. At a time when talks of acche din surround us, it’s not just acche din for Jay Shah, but for his head full of hair, too.

The matter of a BJP-led state’s young chief minister going to Sweden on an invitation from a big ammo company, along with an industrialist close to Modi, is going to gather a lot of attention. This company also gave a joint presentation along with “Sa’ab”. The most significant point is the hotel bills of these two prominent Indians were also paid by the ammo company. Sensing a storm, some birds anxiously come out of their nests, while others try to get back to their nests in a hurry; both have their own perspectives.

Failure always calls out from behind, while success speaks from in front of you. Manoj Ladwa, who sharpened the 2014 election campaign for Modi, failed to sense which way the political winds were blowing in Britain. A resident of London, Ladwa had put all his clout behind the Labour Party and Ed Miliband; there was a time when the pre-election surveys indicated Labour Party was getting a slight edge. Due to Ladwa, several prominent BJP leaders had become acquainted with the Labour Party and were backing it. Several attempts were also made by the saffron party to get non-resident Indians on the side of the Labour Party. However, as soon as the people there gave its decision in favour of James Cameron and its Conservative Party, Ladwa has vanished from the political stage completely. No one knows where he is nowadays.

A recent report by the IB indicates Naxalism’s reduced influence in present times. Sources reveal this intelligence organisation has recently submitted a sensitive report to the home ministry. This report says that welfare and employment oriented government schemes by the Central government, such as MNREGA and Gramin Sadak Yojana come into effect had declined sharply the joining of new cadres in Naxal outfits operating in states like Odisha, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. A prominent Maoist leader Ganapathi has also admitted that in recent times, a new tradition has emerged wherein several tribal groups connected with Maoist organisations are surrendering before the state. Naxal groups are also trying to investigate if people, especially tribals, are indeed becoming disenchanted with the Naxal movement. It’s true then that when sorrow becomes heavy upon us, and the heart’s restlessness can’t find a way out, a new ray of hope emerges.

Who knows how to use words as weapons better than Modi? Thus, when his expensive clothes became a controversy, the ever clever and witty Modi quipped that he has a God-given talent when it comes to “designer sense”. This time while on his tour to Germany, France and Canada, he realised in Paris it will get much colder in Berlin and Ottawa. The responsibility of arranging warm clothes was given to an industrialist he is close to. Sources say that keeping in mind the Prime Minister’s designer taste, a dozen or so coats and long coats from prominent Italian designer Lorno Piana’s store at Avenue Montaigne were brought to Hotel Plaza Athenee where he was staying. The clothes cost between euro 4,000 and 20,000. The coat that the Prime Minister liked along with a scarf cost about Rs 12 lakh in Indian rupees. The Prime Minister later wore the long coat in Berlin and Canada and got rave reviews for his dressing sense. Democracy in India is truly one where fates change fast.