In full control
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi discusses India-Pakistan relations with NSA Ajit Doval and foreign secretary S Jaishankar, Doval does most of the talking. Doval may have had a long stint in Islamabad but ministry of external affairs (MEA) officials claim privately that his experience was limited largely to handling the nitty- gritty of the embassy’s security and not really handling ties, even if a picture has been painted of him as a super sleuth involved in cloak-and-dagger operations. The officials, however, are not really unhappy since they believe that if there is a setback in the India-Pakistan talks, as seems likely, Doval will have to face the flak.
Battle warming up
A journalist complimented Rahul Gandhi for his fiery attack on Sushma Swaraj and Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. “You put up quite a fight,” she remarked. “That was only a warming-up,” Rahul replied. “You haven’t seen anything yet.’’ The Congress leader made it clear they would press ahead with a full-throttle attack on the ruling party.
Guest relations
The choice of the chief guest for the Republic Day parade used to be left to the MEA. The chief of protocol would forward a list of names to the foreign secretary, who would decide. However, PM Modi chooses the guest himself. Last year, it was at Modi’s initiative that US President Barack Obama was invited to be the chief guest. Modi was even first with the news on his Twitter handle. This year, Modi has narrowed down the choice to three names: British PM David Cameron, Swedish PM Stefan Lofven and French President Francois Hollande.
DNA: Do not answer
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s response to the PM’s barb on his DNA is to mount a full-fledged campaign to show that Modi has cast aspersions on all Biharis. The local media has been talking of Nitish’s counter-campaign and Biharis have been asked to send thousands of samples of nail or hair to Modi in Delhi as a sign of their indignation. BJP president Amit Shah, however, has decided to not respond to Kumar’s campaign. The BJP has apparently discovered in a survey that children and women in most districts do not understand what the DNA controversy is about.
Mumbai at sea
Maharashtra is planning a R12,000-crore project to construct an eight-lane coastal highway along the reclaimed Mumbai sea front. The highway, which would extend from Nariman Point to Kandivali, would obstruct the sea view from all the well-known sea fronts, at Chowpatty, Napean Sea Road, Breach Candy, Worli, Dadar, Juhu and Versova, etc. Alarmed Mumbai residents have started a signature campaign to ensure that the environment ministry in Delhi does not clear the project.
Different strokes
A majority of the Congress MPs in the Rajya Sabha did not wear black arm bands to the House last week, unlike their party colleagues in the Lok Sabha. JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav’s explanation was that senior Congress MP Karan Singh refused to wear a black band as he felt it was disrespectful of parliamentary tradition and other Congress MPs had no option but to fall in line.
Nostalgic for NDA-I
The Congress compares NDA-III unfavourably with NDA-I and NDA-II. Congress leaders in Parliament feel that 25 party MPs would not have been suspended for a week if Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani had been in-charge. They were seasoned Delhi-based statesmen familiar with the way the government and Parliament functions, unlike Narendra Modi and Amit Shah who are provincial leaders out of their depth in dealing with national opposition parties, Congress leaders say. At the meeting between opposition leaders and the ruling party to discuss the stalemate in Parliament last week, government representatives failed to offer any concrete proposal to end the deadlock. Modi did not even bother to attend the Lok Sabha debate on Sushma Swaraj. Meanwhile, the government is examining if some of the pending Bills can be deemed money Bills, by introducing some financial implication. The Upper House cannot block a money Bill.