By Nora Chopra
Rahul Gandhi recharged after long vacation
It is a new look Rahul Gandhi. AICC reshuffle is on cards but will only take place when Rahul Gandhi takes charge of the party. But Rahul Gandhi’s coronation is unlikely immediately. it will take some time between June and September depending on the family what it decides and when it decides. For the time being, Priyanka‘s joining politics has been ruled out. Meanwhile Rahul is a changed man. Even his critics in the party can feel the change. According to one senior pro Sonia Gandhi Congress leader, the sabbatical has done him good. Unlike other times when he hardly met people now the doors of his house are open to all. A senior Congress MP remarked it looks as if he has just returned from a rehab centre. However there are questions making the rounds about the timing of his return. Officially he returned on April 16 as per the Congress schedule but questions are being asked whether it is true or not that he returned by a Thai Airways flight. But nobody saw him and none went to airport to receive him. If you go by the buzz Rahul had returned to Delhi a week before and was staying in Satish Sharma’s house.
PMO not providing correct inputs to Narendra Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi should sack the officials in his grand office the PMO that cause him the embarrassment when he visits a foreign country. Questions are being asked as to why the PMO did not provide the PM the required inputs when he went to Germany and Canada. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s relative in India, the TMC MP Sugato Bose and his mother Krishna Bose who was a minister in the Vajpayee cabinet have raised the question that when the prime minister was in Germany why did he have to meet a distant relative of Netaji when his daughter Anita Bose Plaff, a direct blood descendent also lives in Germany. PM could have met her.. An embarrassed home minister Rajnath Singh later in the afternoon on Tuesday invited Sugato to his room in parliament and told him that we were not aware that Netaji also had a daughter. Similarly the faux pass PM committed in Canada is also because of the inputs provided to him by the PMO. In Canada he said that in forty years he was the first PM who had visited Canada. The PMO did not inform him that Manmohan Singh was the first PM who had visited Canada in 2010 during UPA 2.
Rahul Gandhi determined to remove Janardhan Dwivedi from AICC Office
Janardhan Diwedi‘s survival is at stake. The senior Congress leader Diwedi suddenly disappeared. He was conspicuous by his absence during the Kisan rally that celebrated the return of Rahul Gandhi. Dwivedi was the most sought after general secretary of the Congress, known as Hindi guruji of Sonia Gandhi and till very recently he was the Congress president’s speech writer. Dwivedi was also a permanent compere at the Congress functions. Right from Narasimha Rao’s time, he was compering the programmes of the Congress but this Sunday eyebrows were raised leaving everyone surprised to see Digvijay Singh had replaced Diwedi as the compere at the Congress rally. Forget that he was not compering the programme, he was not even allowed on the podium. JD as he has acquired the nickname has actually fallen out with Rahul after he said that the Congress lost the elections because it lacked Indianness. Dwivedi was one on whom Sonia and Rahul fought as Sonia did not want to sack a senior person of his stature but Rahul is said to be adamant. But now with Rahul back and his mother having surrendered to him giving all the powers to him, Dwivedi will be one of the first to get the boot. Now it has to be seen how long can Sonia save him.
Mukesh Ambani influenced Modi in concluding French deal
Regimes may come and regimes may go but some people continue to enjoy same power in each regime and if you happen to be a Mukesh Ambani, India’s most richest man no government can afford to ignore him Does India’s top industrialist Mukesh Ambani have an MOU with Dassault the French. Sources say it was on the initiative of Mukesh Ambani that Narendra Modi struck the deal about purchase of Rafale. Mukesh Ambani is said to have interest in the French deal and the group may have some participation once the manufacturing programme starts.
Free hotel dinner for Union Minister
A powerful cabinet minister in the Narendra Modi government took his wife and children out for dinner last week to a five star hotel. Even before the minister’s family had finished taking their dinner, the owner of the hotel started getting frantic calls from the office of the minister requesting him that the bill should be made complimentary. The hotelier was even more amazed when he was told by other hoteliers that this was an old habit of the minister. He never pays for his food. Even if he goes to Pandara Road to have kulfi, his office calls asking the kulfi wala not to bill him.
Smriti Irani fast losing clout in Modi Government
Smriti Irani was invited to the prime minister’s programme at the banker’s forum. Her bureaucrats informed her, that the prime minister is giving a speech at a financial forum and that she was also invited and should reach the venue one hour in advance or the SPG will not allow them in. Irani just looked at the officer and asked him, ‘ Do you think that the SPG will ever stop me?’ But Irani was conspicuous by her absence at the function. Meanwhile Smriti Irani is actually fast losing her clout in the government. The personnel department has rejected her choice of candidate for her OSD position. (IPA)