In June this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi created ripples by making his first public push for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) at a meeting for party workers in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. It triggered heated debates in the media on the UCC. It is noticeable that of late, BJP representatives avoid speaking on the contentious issue. It is believed that they have been instructed to keep silent till after the 2024 poll. The BJP fears that the Opposition would try to make capital of the BJP’s stand on UCC among the sizable tribal vote. The party view is that if at some later date a UCC Bill is to be considered, tribals ought to be first kept outside its purview.
Himalayan sojourn
At a time when crucial Assembly polls are round the corner, the adventurous Rahul Gandhi left for a short motorbike trip to mountainous Leh. His party spin doctors’ explanation was that Gandhi would pay tribute to his father at Pangong Lake on his birth anniversary. When the tour was extended by another four days to Nubra and Kargil, the journey was described as a “hybrid version’’ of Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Billboard apology
The Delhi High Court recently pulled up PWD engineers, filed contempt notices against them and threatened them with jail for cutting trees while streetscaping. The PWD was ordered to plant hundreds of new trees and issue a public apology. To make clear that it is suitably contrite, the PWD has put up large billboards stating “Maafinama Delhi High Court’’ and “Apology for past Errors: Pledging to do Better’’. The billboards not only overshadow the tiny, freshly planted saplings, they clutter the pavement. PWD engineers have clearly never read poet Ogden Nash’s immortal lines, “I think that I will never see/ A billboard lovely as a tree. Indeed unless the billboards fall/ I’ll never see a tree at all.’’
Tiger tourists
Vishwajit Rane and Pramod Sawant are old rivals in Goa politics. Chief Minister Sawant has the edge as an old BJP hand who has the backing of the RSS, but Rane, originally from the Congress, recently developed a close relationship with Amit Shah while he was made in charge of the Karnataka Assembly constituencies abutting the Goa border. However, for once, both men find themselves on the same side. They are united in opposing the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court’s order that the Mhadei forest sanctuary be notified within three months as a tiger sanctuary. The Goa CM and the Forest Minister have adjacent constituencies in north Goa and Rane protests that if it is declared a tiger sanctuary, development work will come to a standstill and thousands of villagers in his constituency would be displaced. Rane’s argument is that the tigers are not native to the region but transiting and he plans to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.
Secrets from past
R K Dhawan was Indira Gandhi’s most powerful factotum who was abruptly removed by Rajiv Gandhi soon after his mother’s death. But four years later, he was mysteriously brought back to Rajiv’s PMO. The reason, according to Mani Shankar Aiyar in his autobiography Memoirs of a Maverick, was Dhawan was required to patch up the bitter falling out with President Zail Singh which had snowballed into a major political-constitutional crisis. Dhawan, Aiyar claims, was also instrumental in eventually shaping Rajiv’s perspective on the Babri Masjid issue by playing both sides against each other. Aiyar’s wife Suneet was to remark presciently about Dhawan’s arrival: “You guys (referring to the apolitical Rajiv aides) are now finished.’’ By then both Arun Singh and Arun Nehru, once regarded as Rajiv’s closest lieutenants, had fallen from grace. Aiyar is uncertain why Singh was transferred from the PMO. He speculates, however, that Nehru was removed because Rajiv had discovered that he had instigated the riots against the Sikhs and had overreached himself both on the Babri Masjid issue and the Bofors scam.
Allies standoff
The BJP rumour mill has been active claiming that the Akalis and the party may tie up once again. The Akalis apprehend that the BJP game plan is to demoralise it when it is down into conceding a larger share of seats in an alliance than it yielded previously. Akali chief Sukhbir Singh Badal is firm that there is no question of changing the original seat-sharing formula, especially as the BJP’s farm policy eroded much of the Akalis’ traditional support. The Akalis are presently tied up with Mayawati, a valuable partner in a state with over 32 per cent SCs, and a massive 44 per cent in the Doaba region. If the Congress and AAP fail to ally, as appears likely, a three-way contest could help the Akalis more than the BJP.
