The Rs 11,330 crore Punjab National Bank scam, in which Nirvav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are being highlighted, finds its roots somewhere in politics, too.
Nirav Modi’s younger brother Nishal Modi was married to Mukesh and Anil Ambani’s neice Isheta a year and a half ago, lavishly at the traditional bungalow of Raj Salgaonkar (Isheta’s father) in Goa, JW Marriott of Panjim and Grand Hyatt Hotel of Bebolin. High profile people were enthused to join this marriage ceremony. The famous designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla had designed the bride and groom’s clothes. The marriage was in news for its pre wedding ceremony that Mukesh Ambani had organized for the couple at his Mumbai residence in which every shining star of Bollywood was showing-off their talents.
In this PNB scam case, Mukesh Ambani’s son-in-law Nishal Modi is also an accused, but not a single media headline dare highlight his name. Even after such a big scam today, the ruling party’s indifference is narrating a different tale.

One must learn the art of flipping over that silence upon ledge with the colours of ambitions from Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. When the Modi government took over the Delhi sultanate, he was offered a mere state-ministership. This buzzed a lot of fuzz into media, but Naqvi dared not to spill a bean over it. Time flew in its natural course, and, alas! Naqvi stepped up as a full-time union minister. As he became Minister of Minority Affairs, thus were visible his imprints on the ministry. In a bid to give a new face to the Minority Affairs and undo some of the most unpleasant decisions from past, vis-à-vis Haj subsidy, et al, Naqvi on-boarded many big names from the Opposition clan. From madrasa reforms to taking the minority youth to new high of intelligence, not only did various schemes of the Ministry come up, but also major steps were taken to provide qualitative education to Muslim girls. Perhaps that is the reason why in comparison to last year’s Budget, the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley provided an additional amount of around Rs 550 crore to the Naqvi Ministry in this Budget, and thus the allocation of the ministry increased to Rs 4700 crore in 2018-1.

The newly constructed Ekana International Cricket Stadium in Lucknow has earned accolades from all over, and beyond a shade of doubt more than just passes muster in meeting internationally set norms of the ICC. It has drawn applause also for its architecture that blends with the capital of the former princely state of Avadh. Naturally, it was expected that the stadium would host at least five of the matches in the coming IPL edition. But Providence and Politics must have their own! Thus is that when the deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Dinesh Sharma visited it with his entire battery of sycophants to review the completion, he went red in seeing the green colour on the walls. He threw such a massive tantrum at the colour that he actually blurted out: Why green… it is ‘their’ colour. And no one was left guessing who he meant. Anyway, he had to be placated, so in a huff, it was ordered that the outer walls be repainted with a biscuit hue. But repainting and entire massive stadium takes time, and as time passed by, the inspection team from IPL-BCCI went for a spot visit. They were shocked, to say the least, to see the part biscuit, part green stadium with bamboo poles sticking from all over. If the stadium has not even been handed over, how can matches be held there, the experts wondered! So now IPL matches in Lucknow are patched between biscuit and green, creating a deep shade of grey in the horizon.

The Badshah of Bollywood, Shahrukh Khan is currently in the crosshairs of the Modi-Shah government these days, although he is giving out the message of unconcern, being seen mostly playing football with inseparable soul-mate Sanjay Passi at the St James Park in London’s top address, the Hyde Park neighbourhood. Though he is being trolled in the social media over the so-called attachment of his prime Alibaug farm house last week, his confidants say that the fact it that the Income Tax Department has merely sent a ‘provisional attachment’ order. Besides, they quickly point out that the property is in the names of Shahrukh’s wife Gauri and his in-laws, as well as his brother-in-law.
His friends have also questioned how come the Income Tax Department is raising the issue of change in land use pattern, stating that farmhouse stands on a piece of agricultural land. The Badshah’s legal team say that the issue of land use pattern is a state matter, so how is the I-T Dept concerned with that? Besides, they have pointed out that the Alibaug area where Shahrukh’s farm house is located also is home to farmhouses of many top BJP leaders, but why is the I-T department silent on them? Shahrukh had apparently met the PM during the latter’s Davos show-up, and it is learnt that the latter was full of praises for the PM. But it is learnt that the bouquet of praises had been preceded by some soft brickbats between the two already.

The resounding victory of the Congress in the Rajasthan has not only given much more power to the elbows of newly anointed party president Rahul Gandhi but has afforded him the space to sort out some old rankling issues. The surveys conducted by the party in Madhya Pradesh in the context of its upcoming polls have also added higher hopes to the Congress. The surveys show that the forward classes in the state are mighty peeved with sitting chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. This gives Congress a clear advantage. It is now possible that the party might hand over the state mandate to either old warhorse Kamal Nath or the Young Turk Jyotiraditya Scindia. The biggest hurdle in Madhya Pradesh for Congress was Mohan Prakash, who was heading the party’s state unit. Since Kamal Nath, Scindia and Digvijay Singh were all against Prakash, he was quickly given the bye, and initially, Kamal Nath’s name, boosted by Singh, was declared as the state chief. But it is learnt that Rahul is not taking Scindia’s name lightly either, so for the moment the issue of Madhya Pradesh chief has been sent to the backburner.

Having put the BJP on the mat in two Lok Sabha and an Assembly seats in the recent Rajasthan by polls, the Congress is naturally much upbeat. Now party president Rahul Gandhi has to finalise the name of either Sachin Pilot or Ashok Gehlot as the ‘CM face’ in the state. That is going by conventional poll politics. But party boss Rahul has other things in mind. He has made it clear to his confidants that there will be no pre-poll ‘CM face’ announced. Instead, the party would go to the polls with both the faces of Gahlot and Pilot, and post elections, if the party wins, it will be the elected MLAs there who would chose the CM finally.

Transparency in governance is a fundamental mantra of the Modi Government and for this, from time to time, BJP-ruled state governments are encouraged. In the same regard, a new software ‘Priya’ has come to light with efforts of the Central Government as an attempt to eliminate corruption from Panchayats.
Generally, a trend has been observed the fund government allocates to the Panchayats, is usually misused on many levels and rather than reaching the right schemes, it lands into the pockets of officials and elected representatives of Panchayats.
One of the major features of Priya is the money is released from banks only when the vouchers of actual works are updated in computers through this software.
The software was implemented as a pilot in Yamunanagar district of Haryana. The results were visible to the public. With this, the heads of the districts and the Sarpanchs suddenly rebuked a rebellion. They did not like this method of government control. The rebellion scaled to the level that the matter reached the CM’s court. Although the image of Manohar Lal Khattar is that of an honest CM, keeping in mind the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana, Khattar withdrew this order, and once again the Yamuna of corruptions flows in Yamunanagar.

Come March, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) Akhil Bharatiya representatives meet is on the cards in Nagpur. Sources reveal the meet may consider giving a new face to the Sangh. In 2025, the Sangh is going to complete its 100 years of establishment and to celebrate the centenary year across the world with joy and enthusiasm, the meet will also consider the formation of a Core Committee. But the most important decision from this meet might be on the future of Sangh’s general secretary and BJP relations coordinator Ramlal.
There have been speculations on the election of Ramlal’s successor for a long time now, but the union and BJP have been unable to agree on any one name so far. Sources say that Sangh’s number three man, Dattatreya Hosabale – who is handling the coordination with the Modi government – has himself talked to Narendra Modi about this. It is said that amid conversations, Sanjay Joshi’s name has also been suggested whom the Sangh now seems to be favouring to trust with a great responsibility in the BJP. It is said that Modi’s resentment towards Joshi has also reduced slightly.
The Sangh might also consider a new representative of the house in this meet and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s International Executive President Pravin Togadia’s alternative can also be elected. As a substitute for Togadia, former Himachal governor B S Konkana is being considered, while Dattatreya Hosabole is being considered for the new representative of the house by the Sangh.

The biggest challenge facing UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is the maintenance of law and order in the state. Apparently, in the recent days, he clashed directly with the PMO for the appointment of his favourite officer Om Prakash Singh as the new Director General of Police.
OP Singh was the DIG of CISF when Yogi announced to make him the state’s next DG. Following this, the Home Ministry and PMO interrupted his decision and instead asked to consider another person – Anjani Kumar Singh – for the post. But Yogi did not bow down. He directly spoke to the PM on the matter and green-signalled the name of OP Singh.
Now the atmosphere in UP is such that the ill-fated criminals are afraid of bails and not being in jails. Sources reveal that at least 700 criminals who have been languishing in various jails in UP have cancelled their bail pleas, as they are afraid of stepping out. According to sources, within a period of nine months of Yogi government, around 1000 criminals were encountered. The trend is continuing as the Yogi administration first wants to curb big criminals in the state.

The off-notes of Digital India track are disturbing the general public on many levels. The extensive use of plastic money brings along with it various hidden dangers of misuse. Cybercrime too is spreading across the lengths and breadths of India. Let alone the general public, even the celebrities are getting trapped in these frauds.
Eminent writer Taslima Nasrin had recently visited an African country to deliver a lecture. Here, her State Bank Debit Card was cloned. By the time she reached India, an amount of more than Rs two lakh was debited from her account. She rushed to the Parliament Street branch of the bank in New Delhi and blocked her card. The incident was also reported to the police. But after many attempts, when cyber cell failed to catch the fraudster, the State Bank transferred the case to the SOP (Standard Operative Process) Committee, and after the recommendation of the committee, the bank compensated Taslima with the stolen amount.