Congress wants to size up Modi before the next Assembly elections in Gujarat. Recently when Chidambaram met Sonia Gandhi, Sonia made a
rather scathing remark about Modi which was indicative of the fact that Sonia has still not pardoned Modi from her heart for calling her names like “goongi gudia’’ (dumb doll) and “boodhi budhiya’’ (old woman) during the Lok Sabha elections. So in the days to come, the noose of the rule of law can be tightened around Modi in the Sohrabuddin matter. It is understood that the then Gujarat BJP president Om Mathur could also come under the ambit of the
investigation. It is even being said that Mathur had direct links with the marble traders.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram is being described as a Minister who takes decisions. Congress people themselves say that in 1980 when Giani Zail Singh was the Union Home Minister, he was famous for taking independent decisions. Now Chidambaram is also working on the same lines. Following 26/11 he so fell out with M.K. Narayanan that he forced the latter’s exit. Chidambaram has also made it clear that now the Home Secretary would not report to the National Security Adviser. Ideally, the time has come to ask if Mr. Chidambaram is taking forward the agenda set during the NDA regime? Because during NDA rule, Advani had created a flutter by stating that there was a need to rearrange the Home Ministry and that an Internal Security Ministry should be set up separately.

A senior leader of the Congress went to Sonia’s court with the appeal that why should Amar not be taken into the Congress? At this proposal Sonia, like an injured lioness, got really annoyed, and retorted – `Whoever would talk of bringing him (Amar) into the Congress, would also go out of here like him’. So now there is no one to take the name
of Amar in Congress. The friendship of Mulayam and Amar is gradually becoming thicker. Perhaps this is why the pace of investigation of the CBI cases going on against Mulayam has been slowed down so that this new friendship could run fast on the new political turf of U.P.

But no, this matter is much more political than personal. Something is definitely cooking somewhere between Congress and SP. It is understood that an undeclared understanding has been reached between Congress and SP that to oust Maya from U.P. it was very essential that these two parties should come together. And for this it is also necessary that Congress and SP fight the 2012 U.P. Assembly election together. For this a 50-50 formula has also been discussed. So on half of the seats in the State, the Congress would field its candidate and on the other half SP would contest. In this matter, the Congress had a special condition that Amar Singh would not participate in the deliberations. So as per a plan, Ramgopal Yadav was given the charge to hound out
Amar. It can be comprehended that the fire that Ramgopal spewed
against Amar was being fanned by Netaji. And when SP could win just
one of the 36 seats in the State Legislative Council, then Mulayam
realised that how deep in troubled waters he was. So Netaji wasted no
opportunity in making Amar feel the heat.

There is no equal to Amar Singh in writing a new chapter on friendship. But what went so wrong that such old die-hard friendship turned sour. Mulayam and Amar are no longer friends. And Amar’s saying in his trademark threatening style that several secrets of Mulayam would remain buried in his heart till his death also means a lot. But what are these secrets — information on some savings accounts or a colourful CD of Netaji with a known actress who moves around in the political circles?

For years there was an important post in the BJP of general secretary
(organisation) and from the view point of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh,
this post always used to be of much importance because it was with
this “remote control’’ that the Sangh always tried to hold on to the
reins of this wild party. Many aggressive leaders with a Sangh
background have in the past raised the stature of this post; for
example Kushabhau Thackeray, Sunder Singh Bhandari, Sanjay Joshi,
Ramlal, etc, etc. But as soon as Nitin Gadkari was made the new party
president, this post was merged into the post of the president. And
even otherwise, after Gadkari’s appointment what need is there for the
Sangh to run BJP with a remote control, on the biggest seat of BJP now
a Sangh nominee has been installed. The Sangh can press any button
now, Gadkari is willing to implement every direction of the Sangh.

It is said that everything new is born over an impression of the past.
So in the new year 2010, Congress president Sonia Gandhi is busy
writing the new mantra of “transfer of power’’. She knows full well
that the more she would restrict herself, the rise of the son would be
equally magnanimous. Rahul’s new year resolution is that he wants 1
crore youth to join the Youth Congress. So far 15 lakh youngsters have
taken up the membership of Youth Congress. Rahul is also pressing hard
for the organisational polls in the party and he wants to have them
completed on time. Rahul knows very well that when a big political
battle is to be won, the role of the foot soldiers or ground workers
is crucial.

George Fernandes has taken to a different kind of journey of despair
and isolation. Once he was associated with combative socialism but the
game of life is strange, at this juncture of his age, he has become
childlike. His life is moving ahead on the support of just three
servants who work diligently for him. It is said that he has
development the Alzheimer’s ailment in which one forgets everything.
He now fails to even recognise people were very special to him till
not so long ago. But in the last few days, George’s life has improved
somewhat. He has got the Government compensation for some land of his
– about Rs 12 crores – which has got credited into his account. An old
friends of George tells us that he has so far not made a will. So
several other people, who had moved away have now returned to his
life. For example his wife Leela Fernandes, who had left him and
become Laila Kabir. But these days, she prefers in having herself
called Mrs. George. Laila also comes with her son to meet George at
least once a day. As a rule, Jaya Jaitley also comes for at least two
hours every day. The eyes of all these remains firmly on George’s
thumb to ensure that no one is able to take George’s thumb impression
on a will. But unaware of all this George is only poking a thumb at
all of them, that too with all sincerity.

The season of transfers of party offices in Delhi’s Lutyens’ Zone has begun. The main party office of BJP is at 11 Ashok Road and of the Congress at 24 Akbar Road. So now the Congress office is shifting and relocating to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg. Now you can well imagine the inconvenience that would cause to the Congress people. From a road named after Deen-e-Elahi or Akbar they are moving to a road named after one of the founders of Bharatiya Jansangh, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. So in the name of the party office, for no reason there would be publicity of Deen Dayal and the flag of hindutva would unnecessarily
continue to fly. So when efforts were made to find a way out of the situation, it was realised that the name of the back lane was somewhat Islamic – perhaps 9A Kotla Road. So at the instance of the Congress stalwarts the back wall was pulled down and the main entry was made from there by citing security concerns. The celebration of 125 years of Congress would start from here and on Monday the new office building is to be done as they say in Hindi by the `kar kamlon’ (hands) of Sonia Gandhi (Congress people may please pardon us, here the word kamlon or lotus – symbol of BJP- has been taken in the same breath as Sonia Gandhi and so they may read it differently if they like).

Usually, Manmohan Singh never makes his emotions public, as he did in his meeting with his External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna. The issue was of Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao. Actually Singh is quite peeved at Rao’s love for the media. The Prime Minister said Rao is so keen to show her face on the media that it appears that she is not the Foreign Secretary but the Information and Broadcasting Secretary. The Prime Minister also rebuked Krishna slightly – `You please explain to her the limits and restrictions of this post.’’