By Nora Chopra
US Security curtail many Obama programmes in India
The Indian establishment was highly upset with the security persons of the US president Barack Obama despite the fact that Narendra Modi ensured that there was no security lapse turning the capital into a fortress for three consecutive days. But despite this the US secret service did not allow him to travel in the same car as the President of India. Not stopping at that, they even created problems for the president Pranab Mukherjee. But this year the guests were not allowed inside the VVIP enclosure. They were segregated and stood behind the barricades. The entire area of the Rashtrapati Bhawan wore a festive look and red carpet was laid out right up to the entry gates for Obama who according to the plan, was supposed to go around meeting every one. But the secret service people opposed it and he was not allowed to come anywhere near the media enclosure or where the guests stood falling over each other to have a glimpse of the US president. Even the ministers of state were not permitted in the VVIP enclosure. but some of them managed to get in via the back door forcing the Rashtrapati Bhawan staff to keep adding chairs. President Pransb mukherhjee looked visibly upset. The day before, he gave a dinner to the US president where the guests were made to stand in a queue to shake hands with president Obama. But as each one was taking time in talking to Obama,. Mukherjee lost his cool.
Obama’s daughters were keen to see Taj Mahal
It was not Narendra Modi who first suggested to Barack Obama to come to India during his first visit to US. Obama told Modi that his daughters have never been to India and they are keen to see the Taj Mahal. When Modi returned, he consulted his officers an the US ambassador and decided to invite Obama for the Republic Day. Again during his G 8 summit visit when he met Obama he extended the invitation verbally to the Obama family which was readily accepted. After he came back, he tweeted about the visit, which was not taken kindly by the US media. Anti India visit and anti Obama stories started appearing in the US media forcing Obama to cancel the visit of his daughters. Compounding the problem came the news of the death of the Saudi king whose funeral he had to attend.It was only after it was decided that his daughters will not be coming, Obama’s trip to Agra to see the Taj was cancelled.
Janardhan Dwivedi draws flak from Rahul for praising Modi
Congressmen seem to be discovering virtues in every other party excepting their own. Perhaps that is why Kapil Sibal has taken up cudgels on behalf of Trinamool Congress. And before that the party has faced problem with the likes of Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh who fail to understand that their praise of Narendra Modi is not doing anything to help the confidence of the Party vice-president Rahul Gandhi. The latest to have gone their way is the Congress general secretary Janardhan Diwedi. Once a speech writer and confidante of Sonia Gandhi, .Dwivedi got little carried away during a media interaction to a Gujarati journalist well known to be extremely close to Modi and Amit shah while extolling the virtues of Bharatiyata and went on to say that Modi was the man who understood and represented Bharatyata. Rahul Gandhi who is normally not bothered about partymen speaking in differing voices, has taken strong exception in this case because he feels that Diwedi’s remarks have gone against the Congress take on Indianness . Diwedi feels let down by the Gandhis as he has not been given enough chance to defend himself. In fact it was Diwedi who walked over to the Congress monitor A K Antony to give his side of the story. But then there are Congressmen who allege that this is not the first time that he has praised Modi. He has been doing it for he the last several months in informal chats to journalists .
Congress High Command upset with Harish Rawat
A battle of sorts has broken out between the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat and Kishore Upadhyaya. The Congress leadership in Uttarakhand is extremely upset with the chief minister Harish Rawat because of his growing proximity with the BJP propped yoga guru Ramdev and is charging him of anti party activities. Ever since Rawat took charge of the state, factionalism has been on the rise. In fact Rawat himself is known as a leader of a particular faction and has been charged of promoting factionalism in the state. After he took over, factionalism has only increased. Kishore Upadhyaya was appointed Party chief practically along with Rawat who replaced Vijay Bahuguna as the CM. Upadhyaya was appointed within consent of Rawat but now Rawat is totally against the state party president. Soon after he took charge he started to clip the wings of Upadhyaya. The first signs were seen when Upadhyaya started lobbying for Rajya Sabha nomination but despite the nod of the high command, Rawat was successful in convincing the high command against Upadhyayay. Rawat however sent a woman leader to Rajya Sabha. She had once been the president of the mahila Congress. Rawat went a step further to show Kishore Upadhyaya his place. To the utter horror of Upadhyaya, In the last cabinet reshuffle, he inducted some independents to strengthen his government which included Dinesh Dhaney the independent MLA who had defeated Kishore in the assembly elections. Besides his growing proximity to Ramdev has raised many eyebrows in the party Ramdev who was implicated in several land and corruption cases, has now been freed of all these cases The central leadership is said to be finding itself helpless in acting against Rawat as there are indications that he can change loyalty and join the BJP.
(IPA)