Coomi Kapoor
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Inside track: From Mohan Bhagwat’s speech to Rahul Gandhi’s extended CWC; all you need to know
Political analysts are scratching their heads to decipher the implications of Mohan Bhagwat’s recent lectures. For the first time in its history, the RSS sarsanghchalak has spoken in a more liberal vein than its political wing.
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Inside Track: From Sitharaman’s PC to Digvijaya’s ‘Sangat mein Pangat’; all you need to know
After Narendra Modi’s Chai pe Charcha and Amarinder Singh’s Coffee with the Captain, Digvijaya Singh has launched Sangat mein Pangat (Community feast and chat).
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Inside Track: From Modi-Mohanlal meet to Ratnakar Pandey’s demise; all you need to know
The BJP high command and the PMO have been pressing the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states to furnish statistics of the beneficiaries of different central and state government schemes at the state, district, block and village level.
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Inside the track: From Mamata Banerjee’s pro-active role in putting anti-BJP front to Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s 1.5 lakh rakhis to women
Mamata Banerjee’s pro-active role in putting together an anti-BJP front has prompted speculation that she could be the all-India face of the alliance. Banerjee had remarked that she was small fry but likened herself to the squirrel in the Ramayana.
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Inside Track: From what Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s old friend reveals on former PM to Ahmed Patel’s position in Congress hard to match
NM Ghatate, a lawyer and close friend of Atal Bihari Vajpayee since 1957 who visited him regularly, says that two facts frequently mentioned about the BJP leader are ‘incorrect’.
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End of an era: 1923-2018 – Between The Lines: Fearless Kuldip Nayar, journalism’s conscience
Kuldip Nayar wore so many hats in his eventful life that the tired old cliché, ‘a doyen of Indian journalism’, does not really fit.
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Inside Track: From ‘Spy’ Chandraswami to keeping fit with former Vice-President Hamid Ansari
Political hustler and influential guru Chandraswami, who helped bring down the Morarji Desai government and was accused of trying to tarnish VP Singh’s reputation by faking documents from a St Kitts bank, was also a ‘CIA spy’.
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RIP Atal Bihari Vajpayee: A statesman who soft spoke his mind
Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s liberal admirers sometimes described him as the right man in the wrong party. His critics called him a “mukhauta”, a mask which hid his party’s harsh uncompromising Hindutva agenda.
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Inside Track: From Tamil Nadu Government not granting permission to bury M Karunanidhi at Marina beach to Sushma Swaraj creating stir in BJP Parliamentary Party meeting
Tamil Nadu chief minister E Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam disagreed on the issue of granting permission to bury DMK leader M Karunanidhi at Marina beach.
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Inside Track: From Mamata Banerjee’s nephew’s birthday to Modi’s media rules
Mamata Banerjee’s parliamentary brigade had flown to Kolkata to attend the birthday party of five-year-old Azaana Banerjee, daughter of Mamata’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee.
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Inside Track: From Rahul Gandhi’s hug to Congress-BSP alliance in Maharashtra, All you need to know
A section of the Congress is furious that a veteran like Kamal Nath should have publicly displayed his eagerness to tie up with Mayawati’s BSP in Madhya Pradesh.
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Inside Track: From Lord Alexander Carlile reaching Delhi to Kumaraswamy’s emotional outburst at Hubli
HD Kumaraswamy’s emotional outburst at Hubli, pulling out his red handkerchief and wiping tears saying he felt he was being poisoned, has Congresspersons seeing red. Kumaraswamy has inherited from his father Deve Gowda the talent of keeping allies on their toes.
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Inside track: From Prashant Kishor, Mahagathbandhan to Ambani family and Rahul Gandhi
Campaign strategist Prashant Kishor seems to have travelled full circle. He took credit for Narendra Modi’s success in the 2014 general election and Nitish Kumar’s victory in Bihar in 2015. However, he had to eat humble pie when the Congress was routed by its worst margin ever in Uttar Pradesh in 2017.
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Inside Track: From Sushma Swaraj to the appointment of Supreme Court judges
Most in the BJP have chosen to ignore the fact that Sushma Swaraj was recently trolled by virulent Hindutva-BJP sympathisers. Their hands-off attitude is reflective of the division in the BJP high command.
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Inside Track: Not So Tweet
Sushma Swaraj was crudely and unfairly trolled by the Hindutva brigade because a Lucknow passport officer was summarily transferred on the basis of a tweet that he humiliated a Hindu-Muslim couple.
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Inside Track: From Varun Gandhi’s hitting out at Jairam Ramesh to Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with Ahmed Patel
Normally Rahul Gandhi celebrates his birthday abroad, disappointing his party workers keen to pay homage. But this week on June 19 Rahul remained in Delhi to celebrate his 48th birthday.
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Inside Track
The Gandhi family wants Narendra Modi to be defeated in 2019 at all costs. The Congress war room is working on a strategy that an anti-BJP alliance should field joint candidates for 403 seats in 15 states in the next elections.
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Inside Track: Modi-Shah duo planning to roll back diktat that people over 75 have no place in politics
The Modi-Shah duo is planning to roll back its diktat that people over 75 have no place in politics. The party high command wants to guard against dissidence from disgruntled seniors.
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Inside Track: From Nitin Gadkari being only minister not overshadowed to President Ram Nath Kovind paying tribute to Subedar Major Rajeev Kumar Rai
Gadkari gets credit for ensuring the expressway was completed in record time.
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Inside Track: Coomi Kapoor
While HD Kumaraswamy was in Delhi handing out bouquets to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, his 85-year-old father Deve Gowda was photographed speaking to the Karnataka chief secretary and police commissioner at his Bengaluru residence. This was a major embarrassment for the JD(S)’s new ally.
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Inside track: From speed with which JD(S)-Congress stepped in to stake claim to form Karnataka government to Congress performance a blow to Rahul Gandhi
The speed with which the JD(S)-Congress stepped in to stake claim to form the Karnataka government is thanks partly to Sitaram Yechury and Mamata Banerjee, who gave the Congress a push, but largely to HD Kumaraswamy.
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Inside Track: Coomi Kapoor
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah has been nicknamed ‘Neendha Ramiah’ by his adversaries, who accuse him of being sleepy and a non-performer.
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Inside track: From CAATS Act signed by US President Donald Trump worrying India to Laxman Singh tweet surprising Congress state unit
The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act signed by US President Donald Trump this year has worried the Indian government.
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Inside Track: Coomi Kapoor
Many Congresspersons are unhappy with the party decision to back the motion for impeachment of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. They feel Rahul Gandhi was unduly influenced by CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, whom he sometimes addresses as “chief’’.
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Inside Track: Coomi Kapoor
There is a notice on the front door of Arun Jaitley’s residence at 2, Krishna Menon Marg: ‘No Visitors Allowed’. This has triggered off the rumour that the finance minister’s health is serious and he is kept in total isolation.
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Inside Track: From dousing Jeevan Jyotis to speculation of SM Krishna joining Congress
Rahul Gandhi and SM Krishna met at the Bengaluru airport last week and chatted cordially for a few minutes, leading to speculation that Krishna might be rejoining the Congress.
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Inside Track: From Smriti Irani blaming Frank Noronha to JDU leader KC Tyagi’s son’s new-found media attention
Smriti Irani blames the retiring chief of the PIB Frank Noronha, and two senior broadcast journalists for her humiliation in having to back down over the draconian guidelines on media accreditation, which had the entire journalist fraternity up in arms.
