The Nizam of Delhi might have changed, but Doordarshan, which comes under the ambit of the Prasar Bharti, has neither changed its look and appearance, neither its fate. While he was the minister, Prakash Jadvekar had talked a lot about DD’s independence, but nothing really happened on the ground. Ever since Arun Jaitley had become the new information and broadcasting minister, he has no time for Doordarshan, and his junior Rajvardhan Rathore stays in his own world. Former journalist Surya Prakash, who has also had a job with Zee News for two-three years, was the reason for several hopes by the DD officials. For instance, when the religion conversion news was hogging headlines, Doordarshan wanted to make a special programme on it, and wanted to organise a big debate on the same. But the matter was put into the cold bag after some feedback from “above”. When Surya Prakash himself comes to Doordarshan’s meetings, he is seen talking more about the feel and look of the channel. For instance, at every meeting, Surya Prakash raises the question of Doordarshan’s female presenters and their make-up. “The make-up is becoming a little heavy; eye make-up, especially eye shadow stands out,” he says. Now the people at Doordarshan have realised that more than the content, Surya Prakash is one of cares more about the aesthetics.

BJP National Conference and the PDP are in constant touch with each other about forming a government in Jammu and Kashmir. But Narendra Modi personally thinks an alliance with the NC will work better than with the PDP. Along with BJP’s 25, NC’s 15 and six independent members, Modi wants to make Jitendra Singh the chief minister of the state. He was ready to give the post of the Deputy chief minister to the National Conference and talks about this had already taken place with Omar Abdullah. Sources reveal that the BJP had also promised Omar that he will be inducted into the Rajya Sabha by February, and he might even be made a minister at the Centre. But of the six independent members, some are in touch with the PDP, and this is a worrying thought for Modi and the BJP.

The Prime Minister is gradually becoming disillusioned with his Cabinet colleagues. It has been seven months since his government has taken over at the Centre. But in several ministries such as finance, health, human resources, energy, petroleum and commerce, the decisions and work is becoming more situational caused. Modi’s suggestion about the 2015 Budget was that it should be looking more towards farmers. Modi wants that the Budget should talk about rural India and totality of the country. The PMO has a keen eye on all ministries and the ministers and their report card may be made public on the occasion of the government completing a year. Several ministers might see their posts being taken away then.

Looking at Modi government, Shivraj Singh Chauhan is also preparing a report card of his ministers. This is the third consecutive time Shivraj has come to the power and his hat-trick government has completed a year this December. But Shivraj’s mental state is in shreds after seeing his minister’s report cards. For instance, his education ministry under Education Minister Paras Jain could not make use of the Rs 850-crore fund. At the same time, several government school buildings are coming apart; there are 19,000 such schools where there not even a toilet. The agriculture ministry’s report card shows that there is a paucity of fertiliser in the state, and there will be none left to give to the farmers from February. And after that, the farmers will not need any, even if given. The home ministry report card is showing that there are 21 districts in Madhya Pradesh where SIMI has penetrated its roots deeply. Naxal activities are on the rise in Balghat. And Shivraj had hoped that he will win praise from these report cards – what is happening is quite on the contrary.

Janta Parivar has not even got together and the voices of internal opposition among the parties are gradually raising their voices. A big division of the SP is of the opinion that the new party that has been formed by the alliance of Lalu, Nitish, Chautala, Deve Gowda and their parties should have cycle as their party symbol. But socialists such as Lalu and Nitish feel are not ready for this ride, and want a new symbol for their party. A few days ago, a large group of Rajya Sabha members of the Samajwadi Party met at The Oberoi’s Chinese restaurant in Delhi, under the leadership of Jaya Bachhan. All the MPs along with Naresh Aggarwal and Ramgopal Yadav were seen enjoying their Chinese meal at the hotel’s terrace floor. The dinner menu might have been Chinese, but the thinking and discussion menu was purely socialist and all the Parliaments agreed on one fact that without cycle as its symbol, the Janta Parivar’s journey may prove to be a tough one.

If politics mirrors the changing times, then it will also be easy to see how the dark faces are unmasked. Congress Supremo Sonia Gandhi is not keeping too well nowadays – she has respiratory trouble. Much like her, the Congress is facing a similar problem. Sonia’s treatment is being done at Gangaram Hospital in New Delhi, while an ailing Congress is Rahul’s responsibility. In the past, if Sonia would get admitted for something as normal as a routine check-up, those wanting to meet her and ask her how she is doing would form a serpentine queue. But ever since the Nizam of Delhi has changed, several other things have changed with it. The list of those wanting to meet her has shrunk, and overreaching ambitious plans have also sunk to the ground. This time, against the background of the devastation caused by the floods in Jammu and Kashmir, Sonia had made an announcement in front of her party workers that she will not celebrate her birthday this year. Thus, for her birthday, Sonia arranged for a personal programme of a small dinner with Priyanka and Robert Vadra at an Italian restaurant Artusi in Greater Kailash. But when she arrived, it did not create any ripples in the restaurant, no one came to “disturb” the Gandhi family, there was neither a long line of people asking for Sonia’s autographs, neither was there a rush to get photographed with Priyanka and Robert. And it is not so long ago, when Sonia went to La Piazza at the Hyatt for her last birthday. A big crown gathered in the restaurant for Sonia’s autographs and a desire to get photographed with her. In just a year, Sonia and the Congress have seen several political distances being made with them.

The BJP has its keen eyes on what is cooking between the Congress and AAP. Sources reveal that several prominent Congress leaders have met Arvind Kejriwal at Lodhi Road’s Aman Hotel for several rounds of negotiation. It is also believed that both parties have come to an unsaid understanding that both parties will get together and pose a big challenge to the BJP in the coming Assembly elections. And if everything goes as planned, Kejriwal might consider the fusion of AAP with the Congress in the next one-and-a-half or two years. Maybe that is the reason that the Congress’ and AAP’s e-army is targeting the BJP instead of attacking each other. But compared to AAP, Congress campaign is still less than lukewarm in Delhi.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs in Modi government, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, is having to face greater challenges in the Rajya Sabha than the Lok Sabha. That is because there are several more Congress members in the Upper House. Several Congress biggies, as well as political personalities such as Sharad Yadav, Mayawati, Sitaram Yechury and others tend to congregate here. In such a scenario, the government is not finding it easy to run the Upper House. While the Opposition parties seek an explanation or comment from the prime minister for every small and big thing, Naqvi and the BJP’s biggest challenge is to ensure that Modi’s image and reputation is unscathed. So, Naqvi was seen cashing in on his personal relations with opposition bench in the Rajya Sabha but if we look closely, we see that work and sessions kept getting disrupted due to ruckus created by the Opposition parties. But Naqvi deserves credit where it’s due – in just four days, he managed to pass 11 significant Bills from the Rajya Sabha.

Sanjay Dutt is said to be pretty unhappy with the delay in getting parole from the prison. Dutt’s lawyers also say that it is his legal right to get 30-days parole twice a year. His much-awaited movie PK released last Friday and is creating waves at the box office and even when he wants to, Sanjay can’t take part in its promotion. It is worth mentioning here that Dutt is in the egg-shaped cell at the Yerwada prison in Pune. Keeping him company is a 75-year-old prisoner, and Dutt takes care of him as well. He might not be able to stretch his legs in his cell, but he takes great care of his food and exercise. He prefers to eat fruits and vegetables instead of dal-chawal and uses two buckets full of water as dumbbells. He does his pooja and religious rituals without fail, and pays particular attention to the Shiv Purana. His application for forgiveness is lying with the home ministry, but since it’s only eight months before he is free, he isn’t particularly interested in the application with the ministry.

No less than 177 countries have supported the World Yoga Day on June 21, an initiative that Narendra Modi and the Sangh have been trying to pull off for some time now. Happy with this, non-resident Indian business man Anshuman Mishra, who is also said to be close to the Sangh, wrote a letter to the prime minister and made a demand saying that all major airports and railway stations in India should have a ‘yoga room’. According to him, it is not an irrelevant demand because all airports in Middle East countries have a prayer room for Muslims and the same is done in the airports in Japan, where there is a prayer room in all airports. Not just this, the airports in San Francisco, Albuquerque, Dallas, Chicago and Raleigh Airport in North Carolina in the US already have yoga rooms. The same facility is there in the Helsinki airport. North Carolina, which is heavy Bible belt and a catholic dominated state in the US has a meditation room as well as a yoga room in its Raleigh airport. One step ahead, Anshuman Mishra, who was once close to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is also asking the prime minister for a Zen room for Buddhists in Indian Railways stations and airports. Now it is up to the prime minister to gauge the extent of spirituality and politics in these demands.