Old new guard

Pollster Prashant Kishor is facing resistance in the Congress not just from local bosses in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, but also from a section of the central leadership. A popular misconception is that it is the Congress old guard whose noses are out of joint because of Kishor’s entry, when, in fact, it is Rahul Gandhi’s one-time close aides who feel sidelined.

Ajay Maken, CP Joshi, Mohan Prakash, Madhusudan Mistry and Randeep Surjewala all feel Kishor is intruding into their space. For instance, Kishor has already started preparing a constituency-wise analysis in UP, a task earlier entrusted to Mistry.

The buzz is that Surjewala could be asked to get approval from Kishor before he takes any poll-related decision. The man actively promoting Kishor is Rahul’s close aide K Raju. He is the link between Kishor and the party.

Raju, along with Rahul and Kishor, was present at meetings with UP and Punjab leaders. Kishor knows that knives will be out if he doesn’t swing a victory for the party in these two states.

Common interest

Finance minister Arun Jaitley and IMF managing director Christine Lagarde met in Delhi last week at the IMF’s Advancing Asia conference. The two hit it off since they have much in common. Both were well-known lawyers before joining politics, both have been finance ministers of their respective countries, and both talk of economic reforms. They share another interest: shawls. Jaitley is a connoisseur of Kashmiri shawls, particularly jamawars, and has a large collection.

At Lagarde’s request, Jaitley’s wife Sangeeta sent her shawl seller to the IMF MD, who finds Indian shawls unique.

Canine menace

After earning notoriety for pollution and the high incidence of rapes, another black mark against the capital is the danger of bites by stray dogs. Last week, famous Israeli Indologist David Shulman was bitten by a dog in JNU. Doctors abroad suggested he fly out of the country immediately since he was unable to procure the latest anti-rabies treatment, HRIG (Human Rabies Immuno Globulin) injection, which generates antibodies instantly.

In India, the treatment usually involves four or five injections of Rabitur, which generates antibodies to the disease only after seven to 10 days. Fortunately, Shulman finally got HRIG at a hospital in Gurgaon.

Human rights first

Minister of women and child development Maneka Gandhi’s demand that BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi, who is accused of causing a police horse in Dehradun to lose its leg, should be expelled from the party is justifiable. But several measures introduced by the animal rights campaigner with the sanction of courts are increasingly seen as anti-human.The dog and monkey menace in Delhi and other cities has escalated dramatically. There are 8,000 dog bites a day in Delhi alone. Because of the fear of Gandhi and the courts, the civic authorities refuse to put to sleep or re-locate stray dogs who are known to bite.

Some years ago, when their neighbour in Jor Bagh mounted a horse as part of his wedding baraat, Gandhi’s sister, Ambica, threatened to call the police, accusing the family of cruelty to animals.

Shrewd advisers

Some leading lights of the Indian business community were obviously more clued in than our banks on the murky state of affairs of Vijay Mallya’s business empire. A few years ago, former cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra and leading banker Deepak Parekh avoided joining the board of any of Mallya’s companies. Chandra and Parekh were non-executive advisory board members of one of the world’s leading liquor companies, Diageo. The company had formed an advisory council of Indians when it bought shares in Mallya’s company. Chandra and Parekh were offered directorships in the company which manufactures Kingfisher beer but they politely declined.

Tit for tat

The cancellation of the Indo-Pakistan match in Dharamshala may be due to a long-standing rivalry between two powerful political dynasties of the state. Chief minister Virbhadra Singh tacitly encouraged ex-servicemen to mount a campaign against a visit by the Pakistan cricket team to snub Anurag Thakur, a BJP MP and BCCI secretary who is the son of former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal. Singh has not forgiven the Centre for sending the CBI to raid his house on his daughter’s wedding day.