King of Bhutan didn’t invite any head of state or prime minister for his wedding. India has a special place for him, but despite that he didn’t think it necessary to invite Congress Rajmata Sonia Gandhi. He sent a personal invite to Rahul Gandhi and Dushyant Singh (Vasundhara’s son). Bhutan is a country that shares border with China, and naturally, the US is also interested in it. Because Bhutan’s royal family has had good relations with those of the UK, Norway and Denmark, the US has been constantly trying to get an entry into Bhutan, and if now directly, then through the UK or Norway. Obviously, it wants to operate through Bhutan to keep an eye on China. But due to strategic reasons, India does not want the Western powers to have a lot of leverage in Bhutan, because the most active US becomes in Bhutan, as a reaction, China will become more aggressive towards India. And America’s policy has always been to fight battles in other lands, and India does not want that the same should be repeated in Bhutan.

Considered to be Dawood’s right-hand man, Iqbal Mirchi was arrested in London and his interrogation has revealed some shocking facts. Sources reveal that during the interrogation, Mirchi has confessed that he and D-company have deep ties with a prominent political Indian leader. Mirchi has also specified that he has met the man several times at a hotel in London and the politician would take their help to bully his political rivals. It is worth mentioning here that the dossier British government has prepared on Mirchi already has a mention of the politician.

After the famous fast at Ramlila Maidan, Anna Hazare was admitted to Gurgaon-based Medicity Hospital to recover, where Haryana Chief Minister Hooda tried to meet him thrice, but without success; Anna was not ready to meet the Congress leader. Through a worker in the hospital, Ajay Chautala had been successful in meeting Anna, although his supporters had booed and hooted at Om Prakash Chautala at Jantar Mantar and had been stopped from sitting with Anna during the fast. But for this by elections in Hissar, Anna’s blessings seem to be more with Kuldip. And in any case, Kuldip is a friend of Arvind Kejriwal and so think he has a slightly more right over Anna than Chautala.

UP’s Chief Minister Sushri Mayawati has kicked up a new storm about Anna’s cast. He is a Kurmi and wants to know what the man has done to uplife his caste? Political leaders from Bihar and UP have a penchant for seeing everything through the caste looking glass. And since UP elections are round the corner, and because Kurmi voters have bearing on a few seats, Mayavati has sensed the same and added, “Sahu Ji Maharaj was also a Kurmi but he sent Baba Saheb Ambedkar to study in a foreign university with his own money.”

Before he left for Kolkata for Durga Pooja, Pranab da and Sonia had a crucial meeting. It is believed that Pranab da became overtly emotional during the meeting and got carried away with his emotions. He opened up his heart and mind to Sonia said that he feels that the PMO is targeting him for the past few days. Dada also took on the prime minister’s former chief secretary TKA Nair (who, now as a state minister, is the PM’s advisor), and said that the so-called 2G letter was a mere note that the PMO leaked only so that he and Chidambaram get into a tussle. According to Dada, it was “Because Nair and Anil Ambani get along really well, because of which I was also made a target, even though I hadn’t sent the letter to the JPC. Now Pulak babu (Pulak Chatterjee) has come and come and he will make everything clear.” Sonia carefully listened to everything Dada had to say but didn’t give him an assurance about the same.

If this is the lull before the storm in Congress politics, this lull may soon be broken. The news that is being given from the inner circles is that Priyanka Gandhi may start her political innings soon. The only glitch being how certain BJP leaders, and a certain Subramaniam Swamy is going hammer and tongs after her husband Robert Vadera and has collected several documents against him. Together they are sifting them and are sharpening their political weapons. This could prove to be the biggest challenge for Priyanka but it is a question what she considers her real big challenge.

BJP’s National President Nitin Gadkari seemed to be on his own trip. On Friday during the party’s National Working Committee meeting, when a south Indian leader continued to ask him about Modi’s absence during the occasion, Gadkari was blunt and said that he didn’t care about those who didn’t come (Modi, Yeddyurappa, Nishank and so on) but was concerned that no stone should be left unturned in the hospitality for those who did come.

In his reincarnation, Narendra Modi has shaken the very core of the BJP. Advani is just an excuse; Modi’s problem is actually with the party president. He hasn’t been able to come to term with Sanjay Joshi joining back the party. Maybe that is the reason he hasn’t even been answering Gadkari’s phone for the past 15 days. That was also the reason why Gadkari wasn’t present at Modi’s much-popularized fast – he didn’t want Gadkari to be there, and since Gadkari also realized it, he too made an excuse about his health and the recent operation. Modi’s not coming to the party’s National Working Committee’s meeting was just a culmination of the entire episode.

With a dirty packet tucked under his arm he walked quietly, but it wasn’t easy to escape the eyes of others, and so he was made to run and was hunted down. His integrity lay splattered in blood, the same integrity he has tucked under his arm. The Congressmen are cursing the day when Arvind Kejriwal had come to their doorstep with a simple demand. The then Central minister Prithviraj Chavan refused to give the assignment to Kejriwal’s NGO. Kejriwal had approached Chavan with a request to start the RTI through a phone and online. But Chavan turned down the proposal. Nitish, on the other hand, invited Kejriwal for the project and offered it to him. It is doing great in Bihar today, and more than that, it is Nitish’s ambitions that have got a further boost because he knows he has the support of Team Anna.

It is nothing new in Tamil Nadu to depict political leaders as the avatars of gods and goddesses. In February 2006, Jayalalithaa came forward on her 58th birthday as the Goddess of food, Annapurna. Sitting on a lotus like seat, Jayalalithaa had a bowl full of grains in one hand and a ladle in another. Some Hindu organisations had spoken against it back then. Before this, when poster depicting her as the Virgin Mary were pasted in the city, Christian organisations spoke up against it and the posters were removed. Karunanidhi portrayed himself as Arjun in the political battlefield and showed his son Stalin as Kirshna, who pulled his chariot. When Karunanidhi’s eldest son and a central minister Azhaigiri wasn’t content with showing himself as Shiv and Rama, he portrayed himself as Pope Benedict XVI in 2008. He faced severe criticism from all over for the same, and the posters were removed within a couple of days. But when it came to portraying Chidambaram as Lord Krishna, no one dared to talk against it and nor were the posters removed.