By Nora Chopra
Contrary to the general perception that Jawaharlal Nehru was born with a silver spoon, he was born to a struggling lawyer Motilal Nehru in a rented house in Mirganj, a red light area in Allahabad. 77 Mirganj, where Nehru was born, was a double-storeyed house which belonged to some Gujarati and next to it was Seva Samit hospital, a part of it has been converted to Keshwani Vidyapeeth school and adjoining the house was the imambara of the Shia prostitute Lali Jaan, the remains of which are still there. Both Nehru and his sister Vijay Lakshmi Pandit were born in this house. A little farther was the famous courtesan Chappan Churi and thumri singer Janalki Bai also lived in that locality. Motilal came to Allahabad after the high court shifted from Agra to Allahabad. In 1926, the house was acquired by the Improvement Trust, the chairman of which was Kanta Prasad Kakkar. The improvement trust became the nagar nigam (municipal corporation) after independence. To broaden the road the improvement trust demolished a part of the house. The remains of that house were also removed after Indira Gandhi became PM. The records of that house were there with the nagar nigam till late seventies, but they too were removed from there as the Nehrus were not interested in that part of their history to be exposed. Jawaharlal was two years old when the family shifted to 9 Elgin Road in the posh Civil Lines area. Again it was a rented house where Motilal Nehru lived for 15 years and bought Ishrat Manzil in 1899, which later became Swaraj Bhawan, the seat of India’s independence movement. The land of Swaraj Bhawan was initially given to Sir Syed Ahmad khan by the British. His son Mohd Mehmood sold it to Parmanand Pathak, who in turn sold it to Raja Kishen Das. Motilal Nehru bought it from Kishen Das in 1889. By this time he was an accomplished and well-known lawyer. The model of Nehru’s 77 Mirganj house was kept in Allahabad museum for many years till mid seventies till Indira Gandhi got it removed. This part of the history has been blacked out by most historians.
Pranab gives Manmohan some clandestine wisdom
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is missing Pranab Mukherjee. Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee were political friends and rivals simultaneously for the last eight years till Mukherjee became President of India. Now that Mukherjee is gone from the political scene, he is being missed by both Sonia Gandhi and the PM. As there is no one of Mukherjee’s vision and stature on whom these leaders can depend and take advice from. Two weeks ago, when the Congress party was debating the issue of two power centres followed by the debate that whether Singh would get the third chance or not, whether he would lead the party in 2014 or not, Singh was reportedly very worried. He wanted someone he could turn to for advice. He needed Mukherjee’s shoulder to cry on. But Mukherjee as the President of India cannot give advice to any political leader. The PM is supposed to have conveyed to Mukherjee the need to meet. So the President two weeks ago devised a plan and invited Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur over an informal lunch. The PMO logbook has no record of this meeting. The Rashtrapati Bhawan, however, just informed that it was an informal meet, so they cannot divulge any details as nobody was privy to it except the three of them — Pranab Mukherjee, the host, and his guests Manmohan Singh and his wife. Both the PM and his wife stayed on for more than three hours. What did they chat on was anybody’s guess. PM had gone there to take his ex-colleague’s advice on crucial issues facing him and the nation.
Behind Ranjit Sinha’s confessions
Questions are being raised about why the CBI Director Ranjit Sinha spilt the beans about the fact that he shared the report with the law minister Ashwani Kumar, as it was not the first time that any CBI director was summoned by any law minister and who are the others with whom he shared the report. Reliable sources reveal that it was Ashwani Kumar’s arrogance and rudeness that offended him so much that even Sinha, not known to be averse to paying obeisance to his political masters, got so miffed that he leaked the truth himself, saying he was forced to share his report on coal scam with the law minister. If this is true, then the buzz or a joke making rounds is that Kumar told Sinha, ‘Tumhe kis gadhe ne CBI director banaya?,’ pat replied Sinha ‘The PM, of course.’ But jokes apart, Sinha is said to have reportedly shared his report with several others, both in the PMO and the Congress too. According to reliable sources, among those who have seen the report are Kutty Nair and Pulok Chatterjee in the PMO and even Digvijay Singh of the Congress. Diggy has neither confirmed nor denied his meeting with Sinha. If reports are to be believed, Sinha is quite used to visiting political leaders cutting across party lines. He has been seen quite frequently at Laloo Yadav’s place. He has reportedly met even BJP leaders like Yashwant Sinha, Sushma Swaraj, Sharad Yadav and Kamalnath. He has also been meeting corporate bosses like Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, and recently, Rajesh Adani, the brother of Gautam Adani also called on him.
General elections might happen earlier
The Lok Sabha elections scheduled for 2014 can be preponed. They can be held any time between September to December 2013. The government PSUs Bharat Electronics Ltd. in Bangalore and Electronic Corporation Ltd. in Hyderabad have been getting conflicting signals from the government. Both these companies have been manufacturing the EVMs in collaboration with the Election Commission of India, which initially devised and designed the EVMs. So after getting those signals, the two companies have started preparing to manufacture the EVMs. Some time ago, the companies were asked if elections were held in December, how soon could they provide the electronic voting machines? Again, the companies were asked after some time that how soon can they give them the electronic voting machines if elections were held in September, or if elections were held in October-November.
Contrarian jaitley miffs BJP
Arun Jaitley, the leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha, was at the receiving end of the BJP leadership in the recently held Parliamentary party meeting. Yashwant Sinha raised the issue saying that our colleagues in Rajya Sabha are not following the party line. How can you have different strategies in both houses? How can one house be stalled on one issue and the other runs on the same issue? LK Advani supported Yashwant Sinha. Ticking off Arun Jaitley, Advani said he fully supported Yashwant Sinha. On Monday, when the opposition stalled the house not allowing any discussion on the child rape issue, Arun Jaitley in Rajya Sabha agreed to debate the issue. This is not the first time Jaitley has differed from Lok Sabha. Earlier on Mayawati’s SC ST Bill, while the BJP opposed the bill in Lok Sabha, the party supported it in Rajya Sabha leaving most in the party seething in anger. The general perception in the BJP and even in other political parties is that since he is a serious contender to the BCCI president’s post, he is playing footsy to the government to keep Rajiv Shukla in good humour. (IPA)