Strained relations
The relationship between the President and the government has cooled a little of late. The government is piqued that Pranab Mukherjee has raised the issue of tolerance in society on four separate occasions. The BJP feels that Mukherjee, by implication, finds merit in its detractors’ charge against the party. The President has also reportedly indicated that he is disinclined to issue a fresh ordinance on the land reforms Bill, which could not be passed in Parliament. However, Mukherjee has also cautioned the Congress over its obstructionist role in Parliament and urged the passage of the GST Bill. It is not on policy alone that there are differences between Rashtrapati Bhavan and the PMO. It is learnt that two trusted senior officials who have worked with the President have to be given new assignments as their tenure with Rashtrapati Bhavan has ended. The President has recommended they be given plum posts, but the government has not followed through so far.
Varanasi defeat
Despite several ambitious schemes for Varanasi conceived by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP was routed in the Varanasi panchayati polls (even though the schemes were mainly for urban Varanasi, the rural population which votes in the panchayat polls also benefits). Modi’s projects include constructing a ring road linking two highways, integrated power development and a metro line. But the public is in the dark as to whether it is the Centre or state government that’s pushing these schemes. The Varanasi mahants are up in arms over the beautification scheme that meant razing some old structures next to the crowded Kashi Vishwanath temple. The mahants argue that Lord Shiva travelled on an ageing bullock and there is no need to make space for fancy vehicles to reach the temple. Even the scheme to paint all ghats in the same colour has been criticised on the grounds that Varanasi stands for unity in diversity and the varied colours add to its ambience. The desilting of the ghats has its critics too, with some arguing it is a short-term measure and the long-term solution is to stop building bridges.
Mr & Mrs Fadnavis
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s wife Amrita is a professional banker but she has a passion for singing classical and light music. Amrita, who practises classical music on weekends, never misses an opportunity to sing. When the results for the Maharashtra Assembly elections were declared, she sang Aayega aanewala for a private TV channel. FM channels regularly broadcast Amrita’s rendition of a Marathi song on the issue of female foeticide as part of a campaign. She has now debuted as a playback singer and sung the title track for a movie on Gopinath Munde. Whenever the CM and his wife attend a function, there are always requests for Amrita to sing and she happily obliges. She also gets fulsome praise.
Settling scores
At the release of the paperback of his autobiography, The Score of My Life, in Delhi last week, conductor Zubin Mehta recounted an interesting anecdote on how former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger once got even with him for interfering with his arrangements. Mehta was to inaugurate a United Nations General Assembly session with a concert. The conductor always insists on a rehearsal before the actual performance. Unfortunately, the day the rehearsal was scheduled, then US president Richard Nixon was to deliver a speech at the UN. Since he happened to meet Nixon at a dinner, Mehta mentioned his difficulty to the US president, who spoke to Kissinger and asked him to change the date of his speech. Kissinger was unhappy and warned Mehta that he would settle scores with him. On the night of the concert, Kissinger organised a dinner thrown by Nixon for all visiting heads of state who had come to New York. Consequentially, they all missed the Mehta concert. Even then prime minister Indira Gandhi had to write to Mehta expressing her regrets.
Scent of trouble
The Congress in Assam has received another setback after its chief strategist Himanta Sarma defected to the BJP. Now, Badruddin Ajmal, the perfume baron who heads the All India United Democratic Front, has indicated privately that he will not enter into an understanding with the Congress for the Assembly elections due next year. Ajmal is believed to have reached an unofficial agreement with the Congress in the 2014 parliamentary elections, a strategy that helped chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s son Gaurav win his Lok Sabha seat. It was Sarma who brokered the deal between Ajmal and the Congress.