Ever since Najma Heptullah has got wind of the fact that her days as a minister are numbered, and that she is also going to be trapped in the 75-and-out conundrum, she is concentrating little on her work. Sources go to the extent of saying that the all-powerful head of the government has even asked her in a conversation about her preference for a state as a governor! Now it has come to this that when a journalist asks for Najma aapa for her time over the phone, leave alone an appointment, the journalists don’t even get a reply from her. A similar strange situation saw itself being played out a few days ago, when Najma Heptullah reached the Parliament and she didn’t even realise that the session has been adjourned because of a ruckus created by the Opposition parties. As a result, she had to go back to her room in Parliament.

Modi government seems to be trying to include public aspirations in each of its decisions. The most recent matter is about the talk of getting India’s former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee the highest civilian honour – ‘Bharat Ratna’. It is believed that this announcement may be made on Atal ji’s 90th birthday, 25th December. But the corridors of power are also replete with whispers that there is another name in the race – that is Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, who is the founder of Sulabh Sanitation & Social Reform Movement; the government has already conferred the honour of Padma Bhushan on him in 1991. There is also speculation that Prime Minister Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is somewhere inspired by the same movement by Dr Pathak. Dr Pathak’s name was first introduced for Bharat Ratna in the first-half of 2012, when the UPA-2 was in power. Sources reveal that a committee was formed under then Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, and also included the likes of politicians such as Vilas Rao Deshmukh and S M Krishna. The committee had put forward Dr Pathak’s name and when the matter came to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his reasoned that since he had accepted the Sulabh’s “Honest Man of the Year” award, it would not seem right to give Dr Pathak’s name. It is believed that at that time, Manmohan Singh had said to Sonia Gandhi that since Dr Pathak’s name was doing the rounds for the Nobel Peace Prize, once he does receive the prize, a natural announcement of conferring the Bharat Ratna on him could be made. Reliable sources even claim that at that time, Manmohan’s own eyes were set on the Bharat Ratna. Sources reveal that he had passed on a message about it to Sonia through his reliable aide Montek Singh Ahluvalia, but Sonia chose to remain quiet about it. Sulabh had chosen Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s name for “Honest Man of the Year” when the latter was the Opposition leader and he gladly accepted the award after he became the prime minister. Dr Pathak has got international acclaim for his two-pit-pour flush Sulabh toilets, as well as his commendable work in rehabilitating untouchables those who used to carry night soils on their heads, and for working towards giving a new lease of life to widows in Varanasi, Vrindavan and Uttarakhand. It is also believed that his name is constantly in the fray for the Nobel Peace Prize. It is worth mentioning here that the Prime Minister himself recommends the name for Bharat Ratna to the President and the award can be given to maximum three civilians in a year. For 2014, apart from Dr Pathak and Vajpayee, the other names in the race for the Bharat Ratna award include that of Subhash Chandra Bose and Kanshi Ram.

Ever since the Nizam of Delhi has changed, the entire working strategy has changed as well. Otherwise, was it a mere coincidence that neither India’s foreign minister, neither the foreign departments of India or the US came to know about it and US’ all-powerful President Barack Obama agreed in a blink to attend India’s Republic Day parade on January 26? It is believed that the basic idea came from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he spoke about it with his close confidante Ajit Doval. Doval relentlessly started to work towards making his wish come true and he directly contacted US National Security Agency Chief Admiral Michael A Rogers and it worked. The most surprising thing is that the American state department itself was unaware of this and got a hint about it only when the formal announcement was about to be made.

A big change is going to take place in March next year. The Sangh leadership intends to bring about a new image makeover and make it look like a younger, modern and progressive body. Sangh’s number two and its general secretary Suresh Rao Joshi, that is Bhaiyaji Joshi will see an end to his term in coming March. The name of a joint general secretary may be put forward for the post. At present, Sangh has three joint general secretaries – Dattatreya Hosabale, Suresh Soni and Krishna Gopal. Gopal has already been made an incharge for BJP from Sangh; he has taken this position from Suresh Soni. For now, Dattatreya Hosabale seems to be ahead in the race for the general secretary’s post. From Sangh, he is considered to be the closest to Narendra Modi. Dattatreya Hosabale belongs to Karnataka, is a post graduate in English literature and has been a protege of Sangh’s prominent personality Late H V Seshadri. Sangh Sar Sanchalak Mohan Bhagwat will not find it easy to look for his own successor; Sah Sar Karyavahs (joint general secretaries) naturally takes over as the general secretary. But the All India Pratinidhi Sabha has a big role in the general secretary election. The Sabha has a meeting every year, but the elections for post-holding positions happen every three years. So, if Hosabale is appointed number two in the organisation, Prime Minister Modi will find it convenient to take certain significant decisions.

Middlemen and lobbyists are finding it tough to make a go with Modi government at the Centre. Their intentions are not bearing any results. A known figure, who runs a big PR company and has direct access to Sonia and Rahul had to cancel his Christmas party for the first time, because no prominent BJP leader or any minister from the government agreed to attend his party. His wife, too, didn’t succeed in her attempts, where earlier her parties were the talk of the town in page-three sections and she had direct access to the Sonia’s son-in-law Robert Vadra. Similarly, a prominent businessman, who lobbied under the garb of running an advertising agency, is seeing bleak times. His lobbying business has crashed, his future seems bleak and his Twitter account, too, is not able to hold anyone’s attention anymore. In the same way, a known Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand, who is a point man of a prominent industrialist, has lost his knack; in fact, ministers in the government are avoiding meeting him.

Narendra Modi agrees whole-heartedly to the suggestion by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh that politicians who are more than 75 years of age should retire from active politics. Not only does this infuse young blood into politics, it also gives a chance to new faces to come in. Under this thought process, preparations are being made to send Najma Heptullah as a governor to an important state. In the coming days, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandi Ben Patel will become a part of the same link. At present, Anandi Ben is 73 years old and she might have to bid adieu to active politics after she hits 75. She might also be made a governor of some state. In such a scenario, Modi would want Anandi Ben’s place to be taken by a close confidante. Amit Shah’s name is ahead in the race for this.

Madan Mitra, the transport minister in Mamata Banerjee’s government, is the first such minister who has been arrested by the CBI in the Rs 2,000-crore Sharada Chit Fund scam. But he is not regretting going to prison one bit. After his arrest, he proudly proclaimed, “It is not new for a leader to go to prison. Several such leaders had to go to prison for India’s independence struggle. Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose also went to prison. Now I am going. What is so shocking about it?”

The foreign wing of RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh is working overtime nowadays, to blend Modi’s global ideas with Sangh’s basic principles. The foreign arm of Sangh has been relying on hisjoint general secretaryMadan Das Devi for a long time. For some time, however, Madan Das ji has not been keeping well and thus he is getting full support from DattatreyaHosabale and Nagendra. Also, relations between Madan Das and NarendraModi are on a different level. For a long time, Madan Das has been supporting Modi and a possible reason for this may be that both he and Modi hail from the same village. A few months ago when Dattatreya Hosabale was on his tour to Europe, he got full support from Ram Vaidya and SoumitraGokhale to make Sangh more visible in the Western continent. Dattatreya made use of public transport in London and Paris. It is worth mentioning here that Hosabale has an extensive knowledge of religion and culture. So during his visit to Paris and the Netherlands, a lot of his time was spent in museums. Sangh plans to observe June 21 as International Yoga Day, when the day will be observed all over the world. For this, people who have pro-Sangh leanings in different countries are being identified. For instance, a Swayamsevak from the Sangh has been a minister in Norway, the chief justice of Trinidad has been close to the Sangh, and at least two MPs in Britain have been close to the organisation, too. To increase the reach of Sangh, work is being done to bring the youth, especially software engineers, in the US and European nations to bring into the Sangh fold. For instance, the responsibility for the same in the Silicon Valley has fallen on Yelloji Rao, while the same in Washington DC is being handled by Radheshyam Trivedi, Ved Prakash Nanda and Sanghs affair in Britain is being look after by DheerajBhai Shah. All in all, Sangh is doing all it can to go global.

Narendra Modi was so hurt and upset with his Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjana Jyoti’s controversial remarks that he wanted to show the minister the door right away. But the minute he saw the Opposition’s stubborn stance against her, he changed his mind. Reliable sources close to Modi believe that the prime minister is of the firm opinion that if he listens to the Opposition even once, the latter will bay for the ruling party’s blood. And at a time when all Opposition parties are getting together against the ruling coalition, giving an inch away to them will mean a lot of scope for them to try and get more. That is reason Modi decided that come what may, the government will not bend before the Opposition.

In prison, Sanjay Dutt’s current craze is reading the Shiv Purana. A source close to the Dutt family claims that till now he has read the entire book three times. But it seems Bholey Baba is yet to hear him; Sanjay Dutt has put in an application for a parole of 14 days because PK, his movie with Aamir Khan is expected to release in coming days. Sanjay has played a significant role in the film and he has a lot of responsibility to promote the film. At the same time, the IG jail feels that because the Parliament session is on, and the jail administration does not want to create any kind of controversy right now. As a result, Sanjay Dutt may have to wait for the Parliament session to end for his parole to come through.