A hush-hush deal took place between the US and the Indian governments, which paved way for Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade to come back to India. The Indian political climate for the US was taking a turn for the worse. Even small towns and cities saw effigies of Obama and Michelle being burnt, sensing which the US got ready for an out-of-court settlement, too. The settlement has happened on three major points and India has deposited close to Rs 1.75 crore as penalty fees that India will not have the power to claim back and which may be seized – which means India is ready to give pre-guilty compensation. India has taken this route in the past, too. Two, all cases filed against maid Sangeeta Richard will be withdrawn and an out-of-court settlement with her will also take place (It is surprising to see the US’ interest in Sangeeta. Was she America’s agent in India?). The third and most important point of negotiation was that the US will not take back the cases it has filed against Devyani and proceedings for the same will be on. Devyani will not be posted in any other country because the Interpol may take action on her anywhere except India. Has our secular country finally bowed down to the US?

If Rahul is announced as the next prime ministerial candidate around January 17, he is sure to come forward as the Congress’ new face that symbolises a sea of changes. He will also give place to young politicians with a clean career and character in his group of ministers. In order to reach the cause of inclusivity, those who are working with people at the grassroots will get preference. If necessary, Rahul and his team will also not shy away from attacking Manmohan Singh and his policies. The Supreme Court’s Attorney General’s statement can be seen in this same light that the Congress’ take on Manmohan Singh is changing. When the Attorney General agreed to it in the court that something or the other had gone wrong with the allotment of coal blocks, it brought to light a change of perception and meant that it would grow; that is because the AG usually has the same take as that of the government. Rahul may take some hard decisions that will change people’s opinion of him. Bills, as many as possible, will be passed in the Parliament and Women’s Reservation Bill and Whistle-blower Bill to be tabled in the Parliament. This goes on to show that the Congress is committed to introduce its crown prince in a new avatar.

The political temperature in Delhi is shooting up. In his recent press conference, the prime minister has already shared his fears with the people of the country that if Modi comes, the country will reach the verge of destruction. This may be the echo of Congress’ fears about how important it is to limit Modi’s ambitions. So Snoopgate has emerged from the Congress’ Pandora’s Box and the formalities of having an investigative commission set up have been completed. The next natural question is who has done the tapping. The CD Cobra Post and Gulail have released show the conversation between G L Singhal and Amit Shah. Informed sources say that this tapping couldn’t have been done by Singhal since he has been in prison for a long time and if he had the tapes, he would have released the tapes a long time ago. And all that has been taped about Singhal don’t show him in a good light either. The third most important thing is that if Singhal had tapped the conversation, the girl’s conversations with “sahib” would have come to light, too. Informed sources claim that the government has given the shape to the phone tapping and it has been given away on Singhal’s behest.

Sultanpur Parliamentary constituency may see an exciting competition in the coming elections. The Congress’ elected Parliamentarian from the seat Raja Sanjay Singh is ready to move over to the BJP and may contest the coming elections against Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi from Amethi. Gandhi family’s saffron leader Varun Gandhi is ready to contest the elections from Sultanpur instead of Pilibhit. He is being challenged by two heavyweights from there – one is SP’s notorious  Ateek Ahmad, and the second is BSP’s Bahubali Pawan Pandey. Ateek has already said that the number of cases against him is the same as Varun’s age. In any case, there are no more than two to 2.5 lakh Muslim votes; on the other hand, Pawan Pandey is BSP MP Rakesh Pandey’s brother. Pawan used to stay in Mumbai and was attached to the Shiv Sena and thus, his name come up during the mention of Babri Masjid demolition. AAP is pitching its spokesperson Sanjay Singh from there. With a diploma in mining engineering from Odisha, Sanjay is a seasoned man and has been an associate of SP MLA Anoop Sanda. Sanjay used to handle his petrol pumps and PR. When the rape charges on Sanda were proved, Sanjay sided up to Amar Singh and he found solace in Loktantrik Samajwadi Party. He then formed his own non-government organisation and Manish Sisodia brought him into AAP. It seems that Varun Gandhi may indeed become the Sultan of Sultanpur.

The UPA-led government at the centre won’t let go off Snoopgate. If sources are to be believed, the Central government is soon going to form a commission and hand over the matter to it. Under the Telegraphy Act, the Centre may hand over the matter to the commission because the recording of the entire incident is available. Which means as the election dates approach, the more will such matters dog Modi. For now the government is looking for a retired judge to head the commission.

It’s a classic case of once bitten, twice shy. Defeated by huge margins in four states, the anti-crown-prince winds are now blowing over Amethi as well. Very recently, to gauge the public mood better, the Congress has conducted a public opinion poll in Amethi and Rae Bareli; Rahul Gandhi has a very nominal edge over BJP’s Sanjay Singh, despite an unsaid support from the SP and the BSP. At the same time, the public in Rae Bareli still has some confidence in mother Sonia. So now a big question being tossed around in the Congress is if Rahul should be asked to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 from Rae Bareli instead of Amethi. That is because Priyanka has invested a lot of time in Rae Bareli and is in constant touch with the people there. In any case, if Sonia contests the elections against raja Sanjay Singh in Amethi, she may get a psychological advantage because she has, in the past, defeated Sanjay by more than three lakh votes. The Aam Aadmi Party is also eyeing the seat in Amethi and wants to put Kumar Vishwas from there; Vishwas is adept at political games. But even AAP may find it difficult to challenge Sonia than Rahul.

The race for the next vigilance commissioner is heating up and for now, two names are running neck-to-neck for the post. These names are of Salim Ali who recently retired as CBI’s special director, and IAS Officer Pradeep Sharma, who handled the entire operation against Modi by the Congress. Other names that feature in the list include NSG’s former director Rajan Medhekar, SSB’s former director Arun Choudhury, IPS Vijay Kumar who came to fame after killing Verrappan and CBI’s former special director Vinit Gupta. But Congress wants to place its bets on Pradeep Sharma – that will mean killing two birds with one stone.

The Tehelka journalist who was molested comes from a well-educated family. Her father has also been a well-known journalist and Tarun Tejpal is considered to be one of his close friends. This woman journalist always gave Tejpal due respect as her father’s friend. But the Goa incident has shaken her up to such an extent that she is taking every step with much deliberation. For instance, she recorded all the phone calls that she got after the incident. One of these conversations is with NDTV’s well-known journalist Srinivasan Jain. Also available is her conversation with Shoma Choudhury, where Shoma is telling the journalist, “Tarun is a handsome man, you shouldn’t mind coy with him.” The journalist has given a CD of all the recorded conversations to the Goa police.

Jayalalithaa is ready to once again put Kanchimath’s Shankaracharya in a spot. The court is going to come out with a ruling on the Shankar Raman matter soon. If the ruling goes in favour of Shankaracharya, Jayalalithaa will come up with some other matters to frame Kanchimath. He could get Kanchimath in trouble about the funds that organisation gets from abroad. If the court’s ruling goes against Shankaracharya, he would have to continue staying in jail.

Tehelka magazine editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal, who is currently facing heat for sexual assault from his junior colleague of the same paper, is a person with big credentials. As association, thus, Tehelka has some bonds with Law Minister Kapil Sibal, who is also one of the main shareholders of Tehelka of the Anant Media Pvt Ltd. This famous magazine also has support from famous criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani. Rajasthan Patrika is also one of its shareholders. Apart from this, Nitin Shah and Anu Agha also have stake in the company. The control of Tehelka group is in the hands of Rajya Sabha Parliamentarian and industrialist K D Singh; it is worth mentioning here that this is the same K D Singh who has close association with Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool. Connections to Tehelka also lead to several prominent Congress leaders, too, and if sources are to believed, this is the reason the Central government allegedly get on about brushing the matter aside. According to claims by the BJP, if the incident hadn’t take place in BJP-ruled Goa, the matter would have long been hushed up.