Recently renowned preacher Murari Bapu had a katha on “Gandhi and manas’’. The speciality about this story series was that in this Bapu did not only speak about Mahatma Gandhi and common people but he also delivered a half-an-hour sermon on Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Mumbai. Besides, Bapu recited that ghazal of Allama Iqbal which he had written on Ram. Was it a mere coincidence that among those who heard this katha of Bapu were Congress leaders Ahmad Patel, Rajiv Shukla, Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Shakti Singh Goel, Siddharth Patel and party national secretary Irshad Mirza. Is this the political weave
that would provide the answer to Modi in his own style?

In a program in Mumbai, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan came across his Marathi counterpart Sharad Pawar. Then they began talking in Marathi. During this conversation, Chavan asked Pawar why he was not controlling the price of sugar? What Pawar said in response was surprising – `Keep quiet. It is after so many years that the sugar mill owners – who had been running losses all these years — have been able to make some profit. You also have three mills and you are asking such a meaningless question?’ Now the country’s people will have to ask them something.

It seems that P. Chidambaram has been unable to read the changing political scenario, or what transpired that 10 Janpath for which he was always the cynosure of the eyes today does not appear equally fond of him. The thought of 10 Janpath abandoning him is constantly
worrying the lungi-wearing man. Recently P.C. went along with his famously notorious son Karthik to Kolkata to attend the wedding of an industrialist friend’s daughter. But officially it was shown that he had gone to Kolkata to attend a meeting called to discuss the problem
of Naxalites. As per reports, P.C. got badly caught attending this wedding. Because the BJP link of industrialist O.P. Goenka’s son Sanjeev Goenka is no longer a secret and it is also known to all that Sanjeev is very close to a number of senior BJP leaders. Vajpayee’s
foster son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya is among the closest friends of Sanjeev. Sanjeev had also personally invited Sonia, Prime Minister and Pranab Mukherjee to attend his daughter’s wedding. But the only people who came from the Congress were P.C., Sushil Kumar Shinde, Sriprakash Jaiswal and Wasan. On the other hand Murli Manohar Joshi and Ravishankar Prasad were present from BJP. Despite all the efforts of the Goenka family, neither Manmohan Singh nor Pranab reached Kolkata because they know that the saffron leaning of Goenkas is not liked by Sonia Gandhi. But it seems that P.C. is is a clever political
tactician failed to grasp this matter. Sooner or later, he may have to pay the price for this.

Digvijay Singh has again warmed up the Batla shootout incident. The eyes are affixed on the forthcoming Assembly elections in Bihar. It is an exercise to woo the Muslim voters, but the Congress has distanced itself from the views of Digvijay Singh. Congress is in a quandary, if it holds the Batla encounter to be fake then Shahzad’s arrest will
also prove wrong and if it holds it to be true then it would have to contend with the anger of the Muslims. The Delhi police has nabbed a former MLA and in questioning him. But this man has taken the Delhi police to task warning that if he was interrogated at length then he would take the shelter of the court. So it is a case of the thief
chiding the police.

Pranab Mukherjee has turned 75 so to turn the moment into a memorable one, a known publisher of Kolkata printed a memoir in which the through the recollections of well known political personalities the persona of Pranab was brought out. From Congress president Sonia Gandhi to Mamta Banerjee, there were a number of big personalities in it. In the World Book Fair at Pragati Maidan, this book was released by Vice-President Hamid Ansari. The most interesting aspect about this book is the recollection of Mamta Banerjee in which she has mentioned how in Rajiv Gandhi’s time he had left the Congress and formed his own party. Despite trying his all, the published could not get this portion deleted because it was with great effort that he had got Mamta
to write it. And whatever didi has written has really left the dada surprised – what if madam Sonia were to read this text.

Advani’s eyes have been operated upon, for cataract. When the age is 84 then such big and small problems can come in the body. But Advani has always been quite cautious about his health and Advani’s family had also absorbed the fact that he would have to go through such medical procedures. But Mumbai designer and Advani’s dearest Shaina N.C. called up Advani that morning and invited him to a special show “My Name is Khan’’. Now how could Advani tell that his eyes had bee operated upon that very day and so he quickly made an excuse to Shaina – `Because there is lot of controversy surrounding the film, so it would not be right to attend its show.’ So Advani did not go for the show, but his message did.

Amar Singh had then gone for campaigning to the Firozabad by-election. When after completing the campaign he boarded a helicopter for Delhi, it is said that SP’s former regional general secretary Ram Asre Kushwaha passed an uncharitable remark that `if this helicopter would crash then SP would be saved from plunging into a crisis.’ Someone apprised Amar about these inner thoughts of Kushwaha and then Amar wasted no time in raising a furore. A panchayat was hastily convened in Mulayam’s court and netaji (Mulayam) took Kushwaha’s resignation from the post of party general secretary. But later somehow Ram Gopal Yadav managed to prevail upon Mulayam and not only saved Kushwaha from being shown the door but also got him back his post of general secretary. Now that Amar has been uprooted from the party, Mulayam has promoted Kushwaha to the post to national general secretary of the party in place of Sanjay Dutt. So through Kushwaha, netaji wants to send a different kind of message to Amar.

Living people and living communities have never figured in the priority of behnji. So her love for statues is not hidden from anyone
and the extent of passion is such that a special force has been constituted for the protection of such statues in U.P. So along with
behnji, the love for statues has also arisen among the other BSP leaders. Recently, a minister of Mayawati’s Cabinet received an
invitation from a village in his constituency that he has to unveil a statue of his “own’’. Happily the minister reached the village and in great haste unveiled his statue. But when the curtain came of the statue, he was surprised to find that it had been made in an awkward manner with one leg standing unusually higher. The villagers explained to the harried minister that there was nothing to worry about, the horse that was to be placed underneath the statue was yet to arrive and that collections were being made for it. Once the money was
gathered, the horse ride would become possible.

The colour of shame, anger and blood is always one – dark red. Though the friendship of Pranab and the red brigade or communists has always kept the political observers interested, but nowadays seeing Pranab turn red every now and then over even small issues has become commonplace. It is as if this has become his nature. In the last Cabinet meeting, dada got so angry with two of his colleagues that it even left the Prime Minister shocked. Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad only wanted a special package for the doctors of AIIMS so that their exodus could be stopped and they could be made to stay despite lucrative offers from private hospitals. At this Pranab go so angry that everyone was left perplexed. In the same Cabinet meeting, a proposal was also kept by Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal that in special incentives be given to universities to open in rural areas. At this too the dada got angry and why not, the coffers of the Government are with him and whenever money would have to flow out, it would pain him.

Keeping pace with the times in changing political scenarios, S.S. Ahluwalia is known to be an expert in shifting his loyalties as per the needs of the hour. When he was ousted from Congress, he turned saffron, rose the political ladder along with Sushma Swaraj, as times changed he got close to Jaitley and then gradually came to be counted among the courtesans of Advani. When Advani lost the post of Leader of Opposition, a worried Ahluwalia met Ahmed Patel and submitted a proposal that the way Sonia Gandhi has a Cabinet rank while being Chairperson of the UPA, in a similar manner Advani too should be given
the rank considering that he is the Chairperson of the BJP parliamentary party. Ahmed agreed and he also got the proposal approved by the Congress high command. But it was at the eleventh hour that on the directions of the Sangh, Nitin Gadkari did not agree to the idea. The reasoning of Sangh and Gadkari was one – this would give an impression that Advani was still eager for a post. So Advani missed out on getting a Cabinet rank.