Maun vrath
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has to maintain maun vrath on Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s Lalit Modi connection. The PM cannot speak out in her favour for fear that some further scandal may emerge. Nor can he speak out against Raje at this stage since the chief minister is no pushover and if asked to quit, she could stage a revolt (remember, it took more than a year to remove Raje as the leader of opposition after the 2008 Assembly defeat). The BJP has 163 out of 200 MLAs in the Rajasthan Assembly and as many as 110 are said to be Raje loyalists. The BJP has learnt not to take too hard a line in state politics on the corruption issue. It lost Karnataka after BS Yeddyurappa was ordered to quit and earlier, after removing Kalyan Singh, it saw UP slip out of its hands. The party strategists argue that even if Raje is removed it would not silence the opposition, which would then gun for Sushma Swaraj, Smriti Irani and Pankaja Munde. The BJP feels its best strategy is to ride out the storm, at least till after the Bihar assembly elections.

Upper hand
The Congress high command believes there is need to induct a heavyweight speaker in the Rajya Sabha in addition to the two seniors, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma, who are already in the Upper House. The likely choice is P Chidambaram, who, it is felt,would be a suitable counter to the BJP’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley.

Wild goose chase
Lalit Modi has not only led politicians a merry dance but has also given a run-around to the media. When Indian television journalists telephoned him pleading for an interview, he told them to come down to Montenegro, a tiny Balkan republic and tourist destination for the super rich. India Today anchor Rajdeep Sardesai, who was granted the first interview, had to reach Istanbul, from where he took a flight to Podgorica, and then drove for over an hour to a tiny village along the Adriatic coast. The TV interview was further complicated since the cameramen had to be flown down from neighbouring Serbia since there were no television professionals in Montenegro. Journalists from three other channels, who also made the arduous journey because Modi promised to talk to them, were turned back after they reached their destination. Modi refused to give subsequent interviews because his lawyer advised him to keep mum for legal reasons. The only one who managed an interview subsequently was a sports journalist with an old connection with Modi.

Feuding CMs
The ongoing feud between the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana surfaced even during President Pranab Mukherjee’s recent visit to Hyderabad for a vacation. Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu refused to go to Hyderabad to receive the President and said he would greet him when he landed at the Tirupati airport since Mukherjee was visiting the temple of Lord Balaji in Tirupati Tirumala. As a counter, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao wanted Mukherjee to also pray at the 1,000-year shrine of Yadagiri Gutta in Telangana. The Centre hopes that the President might bring about a truce between the two chief ministers.

Politically incorrect
Assam governor PB Acharya does not display the political correctness expected of his office. At a time when the Prime Minister was on an official visit to Bangladesh, Acharya criticised the Bangladesh government as a theocratic state. The 83-year-old constantly repeats that he is a proud Hindu and an RSS man. His signature greeting is ‘namaste’ which he is quick to insist is an acronym for the north-east states—Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Tripura. The Congress is unhappy at what it considers his overtly partisan attitude.

Snake charmed
The President’s security guard was rattled after a 4-ft-long cobra was discovered in the compound of Rashtrapati Nilayam, Hyderabad, the President’s southern holiday retreat, where he is staying for 10 days. The locals who are used to the snake menace, since the presidential retreat is located in the middle of a 90-acre forest, summoned a snake charmer who managed to inveigle the reptile from the roots of a tree into his basket.

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