Trinamul MP from Bankura and film star Moon Moon Sen is under the weather for the past few days, and sources reveal that her blood test reports have shown that uric acid levels in her blood have increased unexpectedly. That is the reason both her legs have swollen and the condition has become so bad that the doctor has recommended that she wear hawai chappals (flip-flops). Thus Moon Moon Sen asked her driver to get a pair of those and the driver got his favourite blue and white hawai chappals. When she attended a party meeting wearing those slippers, Trinamul leaders were surprised and asked her if she was imitating Mamata Didi. After all she was wearing Mamata Didi’s favourite footwear in her favourite colour – blue and white! Moon Moon had nothing to say and now she can’t wear the slippers even if she wants to. And the doctors won’t understand everything, will they?

The media that went into town chanting about Modi is in a frenzy of sorts. Modi has completed two foreign trips since he was sworn in and usually, the Prime Minister’s aircraft the A1 has a chance for 30 journalists to go on board with him. But no such luck this time and only the PTI, Doordarshan and the camera person of ANI were invited by Modi. In his tour to Brazil for the BRICS meeting, Modi took only a small group with him, which included Ajit Doval, Vikram Misri, Jagdish Thakkar, joint secretaries of the PMO and finance ministry, the spokesperson of foreign minister and a doctor. The PM gave his take on this to a journalist who covers the PMO and made it clear that he has no ill feeling for the media. He has done some research on the fact and said that the trend of having journalists accompany the PM on foreign tours started with Lal Bahadur Shastri; even Jawahar Lal Nehru, who was considered media friendly, would not take journalists with him for such tours. Modi believes that while Shastri’s decision for this was applicable during his times when the media was not so developed in India, it’s a changed world now and it’s about Twitter, WhatsApp, Google Plus, email and Facebook. Modi and PMO resort to Twitter to have their take heard. Where press conferences are concerned, Modi has made it clear that he will organize the same before and after he has returned from a foreign tour. In any case, the media group that goes with the prime minister is kept at a number three position – first comes the officials, then the delegates and then comes the media. The media group is given separate accommodation in a different hotel. Usually, it is the PMO and the foreign ministry that decides who will accompany the PM and his personal likes and dislikes are also kept into consideration. That is the reason that during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure, those who handled publications by the Sangh Parivar – Tarun Vijay, Kanchan Gupta and Shashadri Chari – would always accompany him. Modi wants a stop should be put to the trend of obliging a chosen few among the media. And even then it a media house wants to cover the prime minister’s tour, it can send a journalist and photojournalist at its own expense and the PMO will give all the information to them there.

It has been more than 50 days since Sushma Swaraj has taken for the foreign ministry but she has not given an interview to a newspaper, magazine or news channel as a minister of foreign affairs. The spokesperson of the ministry, Sayyed Akbaruddin met with her about this a few days ago and told her that more than a 100 journalists from India and abroad have requested for an interview with her and that 35 of them were from prominent foreign newspapers and news channels. Sushma’s reply was a question – has the prime minister given an interview to the media until now? She won’t give an interview for the first six months because at present, her entire concentration is on understanding the work in the ministry. Sushma has also made it clear that all foreign policies are a prerogative of the prime minister and the minister merely tries to implement them. It is also believed that there has been a little softness in Sushma’s relations with Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley.

Master strategist of saffron politics and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh get along with the biggies from several spheres and Mamata Banerjee is one of them and often times, he has even helped her in different ways. When the name of a governor was being finalized for West Bengal, Rajnath had thought of Vijay Kumar Malhotra from his own side. Constitutionally, it is not necessary to consult with the state’s chief minister before appointing the governor there and only the information of the same needs to be sent. So when Rajnath Singh wanted to speak to Mamata Didi about this, she was on leave. Several messages were left at her office but there was no reply from there. Didi is in a habit of changing her mobile number every once in a while. When a person who is close to her and is in Delhi was contacted and he asked Didi to call back Rajnath. Didi immediately asked, “Has Malhotra ji’s name been finalized yet?” Rajnath showed a little politeness and said, “If it was finalized, why would you have been asked the same?” Didi asked, “Do you have any other names?” It was then that Rajnath Singh gave Keshari Nath Tripathi’s name and also added, “He is an efficient man, knows the Constitution well, has been a Speaker of UP assembly and has written several books.” Didi said, “Give me 10 minutes, I’ll get back to you.” Didi asked her sources and they told her that although he cannot be Gopal Gandhi, but he’s all right. And then Didi gave her consent.

The new headmaster of the saffron school, Amit Shah, is busy learning lessons of his own. Sources reveal that Shah is learning two new languages nowadays – Bangla and Tamil. The two states will hold Assembly elections in the next two years. Shah is showing lots of interest in learning Bangla and is busy cramming up the ‘Vidyasagar Varna Parichay’ book. Shah is also anxious because his Bangla teacher is in Kolkata for a week’s leave – it’s been 10 days and he still hasn’t returned.

Now the question is why did Didi not consider it important enough to take Rajnath Singh’s calls? Sources close to Didi claim that she is upset with Rajnath nowadays. BJP’s Bengal chief Rahul Sinha had given a memorandum to the governor about the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. Showing his proactive stance as the home minister, Rajnath Singh had asked an answer to the same from Didi in Bengal. This upset Didi no ends, although the NDA government itself has its own axe to grind with Didi. The prime minister himself wants to get an investigation done by the CBI on the Sharada chit fund scam, and Mamata and those close to her may feel the heat of this. For now, Rajnath Singh had put his in the back burner and is extending a friendly hand to Didi. But how long will this last?

Narendra Modi may have become the new Sultan of Delhi, but he hasn’t been able to bring alive the expectations of several of his economist friends. Neither the Prime Minister himself, nor the finance minister has a formal list of advisors that includes any economist. As a result, two top Indian economists – Jagdish N Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya – who had inspired the love of the subject in Modi, are now unable to hide their disappointment from him. It is worth mentioning here that Jagdish Bhagwati had a big role to play in highlighting the economic growth of Gujarat. Bhagwati was considered to be Modi’s economic philosopher, just like Amartya Sen had a big role to play in the implementation of UPA government’s economic policies. Bhagwati and Sen belong to two different schools of thought. Sen believes in socialist economy and is more pro-poor – the UPA policies of subsidies for the poor are inspired by him, the culmination of which can be seen in the Food Security Bill. On the other hand, Bhagwati is all about growth rate and increasing it; he talks about encouraging the manufacturing sector and creating a job for each able hand so that a government’s work is not limited to subsidies, incentives and assistance. Professor Arvind Panagariya of Columbia University also assisted Modi’s journey from elections to the PM’s post in a significant way. But Modi has not taken any steps to make even him an economic advisor. Disappointed, Panagariya wrote a big article in a well circulated English weekly just before the Budget, discussing what steps the government should take. Goes without saying that the finance minister even tried to implement some of them in the Budget. But just this by the Modi government won’t be enough for significant results, though.

With the amount of time Arun Jaitely is giving to the Modi government, he has hardly any time for himself. Jaitley’s personal doctors have advised him that he should go for a morning walk everyday but his residence in Kailash Hills does not have enough space for him to go out for walks. When Jaitley was the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, he would go to Lodhi Gardens for daily walks and would be joined by a big group of friends. Apart from politicians, this list also included journalist friends. Committed to being a good host, he would even order a breakfast picnic basket for his friends in the park. Ever since the Modi government has come to power, Jaitley’s stature has increased so much that he has been asked not to go for walks in Lodhi Gardens for security reasons. So after much thought, he has asked for a bungalow, 2 Krishna Menon Marg in Lutyens zone to be allotted to him. This is the same house that was once occupied by then Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde. The specialty about this house is that it has a jogging track. But the allotment of the bungalow still does not mean Jaitley is rid of his worries. That is because monkeys are ruling the roost in Lutyens Delhi for some time, especially around the Krishna Menon Marg road. Langoors were brought in to deal with the monkey menace during Shinde’s time, but this has been banned after a High court order. Now who can tell these monkeys that they are messing with a heavyweight in the Modi government?

It isn’t ‘Achhey din’ for Modi loyalists yet. For instance, Bharat Lal, Resident Commissioner, Gujarat Bhawan, who was also considered to be the eyes and ears for Narendra Modi, who has suddenly come under the attack by a lobby of IAS, IPS and IFS officers in the PMO. Hailing from UP, Bharat Lal has a friendship with Modi that spans decades and during the last election campaign when Modi was busy with meetings, Lal in Delhi was busy trying to create a favourable pro-Modi atmosphere for the man amongst foreign journalists and the several embassies located in the capital. That is the reason why first the countries in the European Union and then the US changed their stance. When Modi government came to power, it was believed that Lal, along with Vikram Misri and Rajeev Tukru will be part of the Prime Minister’s team of personal secretaries. The surprising thing is that a room adjoining the PM’s chamber even had a nameplate put in Lal’s name but it was taken down the very next day. There were whispers that since Lal was from the forest services, he would find it tough to adjust in the PMO, and of Modi’s other two secretaries, Vikram Misri is from IFS and Tukru is an IAS. Vikram Misri may have to vacate his post because he has been appointed Indian Ambassador to Spain. Also, PM Modi isn’t quite all right with Tukru’s closeness with a Congress politician and so he has made up his mind to put Tukru on the backburner. On the other hand, Bharat Lal’s assistance Nilesh was also appointed with the PMO’s Information Officer Jagdish Bhai Thakkar. But there was no green signal for Bharat Lal – he is still having to sit in Gujarat Bhawan.

It is believed that Gujarat Chief Minister and Modi confidante Anandiben Patel advised Modi and repeatedly called upon the Gujarat model whose references had paved the way for Modi should not stop and thus the officers in Gujarat who are doing good work should not be asked to join the PMO and should continue their work in Gujarat. Because of this formula, Kailash Nathan had to remain in Gandhinagar. Among Modi’s old officials, only A K Sharma managed to come to Delhi, and it is believed that both Sharma and Bharat Lal don’t share a good relationship with each other. A K Sharma also belongs to UP like Lal and maybe because Sharma is in the PMO, it’s closed doors for Lal there.