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Union Home Minister Amit Shah is so convinced that the BJP is in a position to defeat Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Bengal that he wants to concentrate more on the state than in Tamil Nadu. Once elections are over in Assam, Kerala and Puducherry on April 9, Shah will spend more than two weeks in Bengal. PM Modi is likely to address two rallies within a week. The BJP has pressed a battery of leaders into action, hoping to unseat the TMC government. “A number of our senior leaders are camping in the state, and more are set to join once the elections in Assam are over…” says a senior BJP leader. Work is being carried out in silos — at the level of both assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies. The BJP has divided West Bengal into nine zones, each zone is being handled by senior leaders, including ministers such as Dharmendra Pradhan, Nityanand Rai, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Sanjay Jaiswal, and Nishikant Dubey. Most of the leaders deployed so far are from Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, among others.”The fact that Amit Shah ji has himself announced that he will campaign and stay in West Bengal for 15 days shows the party’s commitment and seriousness,” a senior leader said. The BJP is also making sure to counter any ‘negative narrative’ by the TMC to ensure such a depiction does not affect its prospects. For instance, soon after Mamata Banerjee claimed that the BJP would ban fish, meat, and even eggs if it came to power, Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar claimed that Bengal’s next CM from the BJP will be a ‘non-vegetarian’ when it comes to food habits. Shah has said, “I have a shortcut for bringing change to the state. Just make Suvendu Adhikari win from Bhabanipur (against Mamata), and the change is bound to happen.”
Raghav Chadha had been the AAP’s face on national media for years now, but recently the MP came into prominence for taking up “quality-of-life issues”, most of which largely concerned the middle- and upper-middle class. Each of his interventions in the Rajya Sabha was crisp in its own way. Chadha, a technocrat with good communication skills, knew exactly how to highlight them. He has 123 lakh followers on Instagram, and almost 10-lakh on X. He went on to become the Aam Aadmi Party’s leader of the House, and later the deputy with the return of senior colleague Sanjay Singh. It may seem odd that the AAP has stripped Chadha of his post as deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha. It is being said that Arvind Kejriwal suspected that Chadha may shift to the BJP ahead of the 2027 Punjab assembly elections. Kejriwal noticed Chadha was not critical of PM Modi or Home Minister Amit Shah. He hasn’t been very vociferous on issues against the BJP. Besides he was found missing in action when AAP may have needed him most. Like when Kejriwal was arrested Chadha was in the UK for eye surgery. Chadha was also absent at the recent “Jan Sabha” at Jantar Mantar, which was Kejriwal’s first public address following his discharge, along with Delhi’s former deputy CM Manish Sisodia. But Chadha has been far from idle and was always present and voluble in Parliament. Chadha campaigned against high samosa-and-chai prices at the airport. Nobody likes paying Rs 350 for a samosa and Rs 150 for a cup of chai. It is an issue that affects at best 5% of people in India who can afford to travel by air. Yet oddly, the government began to work on Chadha’s ideas. Within weeks of his raising the issue, UDAN Yatri cafes opened at 17 airports which offered samosas and tea for Rs 20 and Rs 10, respectively.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) is experiencing extreme discomfort following its outgoing MP Priyanka Chaturvedi’s ‘courtesy’ call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Although she has declared that she will remain in the opposition, the praise heaped by her on Modi is viewed as a signal. Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray is already uneasy since two of his Lok Sabha members attended a reception hosted by Maharashtra’s deputy CM Eknath Shinde’s confidant Pratap Jadhav, MP, in the capital a couple of days ago. While Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut has been predicting that several MLAs from the NCP(Ajit) are planning to defect to the BJP in Maharashtra, he has avoided any comment on the two MPs meeting Jadhav. Significantly, this meeting happened soon after Shinde had visited the national capital. Thus, revival of the so-called ‘Operation Tiger’ is being discussed afresh. The two MPs are Nagesh Patil-Ashtikar (Hingoli) and Sanjay Deshmukh (Yavatmal-Washim), who had attended Jadhav’s felicitation last year as well. Both have clarified that it was a friendly visit and that no politics should be searched about it. However, given the fluid phase in the state polity, their defence is taken with a pinch of salt. Newly-elected Sena (Shinde) Rajya Sabha member Jyoti Waghmare had indicated the possibility of some MPs crossing sides but she had not provided any details. As Priyanka Chaturvedi was in the news over the reported tiff in the Sena (UBT) over the denial of another Rajya Sabha term to her, the call on the PM by her is considered fraught with several possibilities.
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar’s entry into the state legislative assembly will not happen ‘unopposed’ since the Congress party is seriously considering the option of jumping into the fray. Voting for the byelection for Baramati constituency, caused by the demise of deputy CM Ajit Pawar, will take place on 23 April. According to present indications, Sunetra will file her nomination on 6 April in presence of CM Devendra Fadnavis and deputy CM Eknath Shinde. Already a member of the Rajya Sabha, she will relinquish the Rajya Sabha seat after getting formally elected on 4 May. As Baramati is the stronghold of the NCP(Ajit), her victory is considered a foregone conclusion. Moreover, the NCP (SP) has pledged its support to her. Hence, any opposition to her will be a token gesture at best. Still, the Congress party has decided not to offer Sunetra a walkover. The Congress candidate will be announced in a day or two. Some fringe political elements have said that they will support the Congress. However, it will not make any difference. Thus, the precedent of not contesting a byelection against the family member of a deceased sitting member will thus be sidelined. The Shiv Sena (UBT) is yet to decide its strategy. The other assembly byelection in the state will be held for the Rahuri constituency, again a BJP stronghold. The ruling party has fielded Akshay Kardile, son of the late Shivaji Kardile. There is no worthwhile opposition to the scion of the former minister. Counting for both will be held on 4 May.
He is a veteran Parliamentarian who opens all the debates from the Treasury bench side. So, it was surprising to see this senior BJP leader, a four-time MP Nishikant Dubey stir a controversy by calling Biju Patnaik, a CIA agent. Dubey is not a loose cannon and this is why clued-in political analysts say it could be BJP’s strategy to assess Odia’s icon Biju Patnaik popularity today. It did backfire with people from within BJP taking strong exceptions to Dubey’s loose remarks. Some BJD leaders walked out of the Parliament to register their protest. Seeing the backlash, Dubey apologised on X saying “My thoughts on Nehruji were misconstrued as being about Biju Babu,” It is learnt that PM Modi has intervened to douse the fire. He wrote to Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi praising Biju babu as a symbol of Odisha’s strength and pride having commitment to nation building. Interpreting Modi’s recent praise for Biju babu, Odia’s are asking will Modi ever confer Bharat Ratna status to the late Biju Patnaik or is this just lip service praise to bring the temperature down?
Nayanthara, after marriage and two kids, is still the “Queen” of female leads in Kollywood. Not just her drop dead gorgeous looks, hit Telugu film directors and producers like Dil Raju and Vamshi Paidipally bet big on her charisma and acting …Nayanthara films have rarely failed and her fans love her regal presence, dignity and talent. Any wonder that this director-producer duo (with five consecutive Telugu hits ) have signed her to play the heroine to Salman Khan? Sixty-year old Salman needs a hit, badly as it’s a long time since Bhai danced to his jubilant fans drum beats. Especially Eid releases …this year he didn’t have much to celebrate. Also his already signed work-in-progress, Battle for Galwan is facing some roadblocks and delays. It has undergone a name change to Maatrubhumi directed by Apoorva Lakhia. Sallu needs that one incendiary hit to keep him going. A South team made Jawan with Nayanthara and Shah Rukh Khan unforgettable. Chiranjeevi, not exactly mothballed but not having frequent films had her as his lead in the recent ‘Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu’, an out and out entertainer. Two decades as a heroine, Nayan is not about to settle for a “blink and she is gone” role. The story with Salman is planned to be a solid plot to showcase two great talents. Pre-production work is almost done and shooting is to commence. The producers are all geared up for 2027 Eid release. Salman Khan is sure to celebrate this Eid with warm Mubarakaan from his huge legion of fans.
The time has arrived for those who missed the World Cup bus (ICC Men’s T20) to exhibit their wares in the shortest format of the sport — the Tata-IPL Season-19. India’s Test and one-day international captain Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant must have been hurt not making it to the showpiece event at home. The selectors provided a window for Gill to make an attempt and fit into the Twenty20 squad; they even made him the vice captain for the Asia Cup in the UAE. But to get the “balance of the team” right, they dropped him for one of the signature events of the ICC-19. The IPL has started with the likes of veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma flaying the bowling in their team’s opening matches. And young Vaibhav Sooryavanshi too has lashed out at the Chennai side. But the world would watch with keen interest the ability of Gill and Jaiswal, the men in blue team’s best opening pair in the Twenty20, but who had to make way for the likes of Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson. Rajasthan Royals’ Jaiswal used the IPL to force his way into the Indian team, but Gill and Pant came through the BCCI’s established domestic system. Gill is an IPL regular for eight seasons and scored 3866 (3626 as an opener) and will be in the running for the next World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2028, and so would be Jaiswal and Pant. While they would target the 50-over World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia next year, they would double down in the ongoing IPL and make the big splash in order to force their way for the bilateral matches.
It was 2019 when a Karnataka cadre cop waded into the murky waters of Tamil Nadu politics with a dream…to bring the BJP beacon to TN, to get its rightful recognition in this Dravidian stronghold, K Annamalai came in with a vision of Camelot…but today his political survival and special status in the BJP is under a big question mark. The very BJP which nurtured and applauded his strength, is ignoring him. What happened to all that mercurial charisma that made Annamalai, Modi’s favourite (remember he was perhaps the only BJP member who got a one-hour car ride with the PM when Modi drove to the Coimbatore airport). But recently, as the PM was on his way to Kerala, he stopped at Coimbatore airport where a 11-member team was waiting to receive him…BJP’s Women’s Wing leader, Vanathi Srinivasan sounded surprised that Annamalai was not there…did they know that the official list did not have his name! What a profile he had etched in TN… Annamalai was here, there and everywhere …he led padayatras, nursed his Coimbatore constituency and was the inevitable face of the BJP…but in his meteoric rise, he rose in strident speech too … making enemies of the established AIADMK and its chief Edappadi K Palaniswami. The internal warfare and jockeying were in full throttle. So when Annamalai lost the election in 2021, the AIADMK broke the BJP ties. Anticipating the need to keep the alliance going, Nainar Nagendran was made TN Chief. The BJP’s compulsion was to have a respectable presence in TN at any cost. Annamalai had to be downsized to please Edappadi. Now it is learnt BJP is making amends, TN in-charge Piyush Goyal has summoned Annamalai to party office to request him to enter the fray from a constituency of his choice. Will he? Annamalai is fired by the RSS ideology …this Knight is sure to find his place at the Round Table like Lancelot.
Trouble for the BJP-led Odisha government headed by Mohan Charan Majhi, in power for close to 21 months, never seems to be ending. The latest is the Opposition’s vociferous demand for the resignation of the state health minister over the death toll in the fire at SCB Medical College Hospital in Cuttack which rose to 13. Ten Opposition parties – Congress, BJD, CPI (M), All India Forward Block, NCP, RJD — and other regional outfits have come together in a rare display of unity against ruling BJP. Massive protest has been organised demanding resignation of Health Minister Nukesh Mahaling. The Majhi government has rejected the resignation demand of the health minister, even as it suspended four of its officials. Naveen Patnaik’s party, the BJD in alliance with the Congress, has made it clear that the protest and agitation are not being withdrawn until the health minister resigns on moral ground. Supporting its argument, BJD sighted the case of its Health Minister Atanu S Nayak who resigned over a similar tragedy in 2016 when BJD was in power. The BJP has turned the tables on BJD saying that because of lapses during their rule, of not making fire safety arrangements during their 24 years rule, the current accident took place.
This Assembly elections, the BJP has launched a focused outreach to women voters, crafting a candidate list featuring women activists and public figures to challenge West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s strong hold over the women vote bank. Over 15 years in power, Didi has built a strong rapport with women through welfare schemes such as Lakshmir Bhandar and Kanyashree. Notably, ahead of the elections, the TMC government increased monthly assistance under Lakshmir Bhandar. In a strategic shift, the BJP has fielded candidates directly associated with protests against alleged violence or injustice, particularly in cases linked to individuals associated with the ruling TMC. Ratna Debnath, mother of the RG Kar Hospital rape victim, has been fielded from Panihati. Rekha Patra, a key figure in the 2024 Sandeshkhali protests will contest from Hingalganj. Tumpa Kayal, known for leading protests after the 2013 Kamduni rape and murder case in North 24 Parganas, has joined the BJP. Together, Ratna, Rekha and Tumpa represent the BJP’s effort to foreground real-life experiences of violence against women and are expected to campaign across the state, including Bhabanipur, where Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari is contesting against Mamata. The BJP has also fielded women candidates such as actors Roopa Ganguly, Sarbori Mukherjee, Papiya Adhikary, and advocate Priyanka Tibrewal, who contested against Didi in the 2021 Bhabanipur bypoll after her defeat in Nandigram. Meanwhile, TMC has raised concerns over a reported drop of nearly 57 lakh women voters after the SIR. It claims numbers rose from 3.59 crore (2021) to 3.73 crore (2024), before falling to 3.16 crore (2026), alleging many women were marked “under adjudication” due to marriage, address, or surname changes, effectively excluding them and weakening participation.
In an apparent move to effectively counter the narrative of Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros and his ilk, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed to be getting his ministers to do all the talking. Doing all the heavy lifting was foreign minister S Jaishankar who was speaking on a range of issues — from army deployment in the LAC to land occupied by China since October 1962; he was exposing the Congress in a detailed interview to ANI. He was the second minister after Union Minister Smriti Irani to be deployed after Soros attacked Modi. Jaishankar who was Foreign Secretary between January 2015 and January 2018 and had joined Tata Sons post retirement revealed how he was surprised when PM Modi called him in 2019 to be part of his government. He said his father K Subrahmanyam, who passed away in 2011, was one of India’s most prominent national security strategists.” He became, at that time, probably the youngest Secretary in the Janata government in 1979. In 1980, he was Secretary, Defence Production. In 1980 when Indira Gandhi was re-elected, he was the first Secretary that she removed. And he was the most knowledgeable person everybody would say on defence.” Jaishankar said his father was also a very upright person, “Maybe that caused the problem, I don’t know”. And after that, he never became a Secretary again. He was superseded during the Rajiv Gandhi period for somebody junior to him who became a cabinet secretary. It was something he felt…we rarely spoke about it. So he was very, very proud when my elder brother became secretary.”
For all the hype about celebrating Bharat Jodo Yatra somehow there is no enthusiasm for the upcoming 85th AICC plenary session at Raipur among Congress leaders. No, it has nothing to do with the ED raids on Chhattisgarh Congress leaders. It is because party leaders feel the Congress is not able to set a strong political narrative and is forever getting bogged down in responding to the agenda set by PM Narendra Modi. Party sources feel there are so many issues affecting the common man but the Congress got trapped into focussing on just one issue – the Adani Group. It was perhaps just as Modi wanted. “We have wasted an entire Parliament session on Adani. Our AICC session will also be lost in the haze of the Hindenburg report. It is possible that there will be no substantial message from the plenary for the cadres,” observed a Congress leader from South. Besides, there is no clarity if elections would be held for 50% of positions in the Congress Working Committee – that is for 12 positions in the policy making body. “It will all depend on what is decided at the steering committee meeting on February 24,”says a party leader. Predominance of the Adani issue has also hit the drafting of AICC resolutions. That is, subjects committees for various resolutions did not even meet once to finalise resolutions.
As long as George Soros remained behind the scenes and quietly backed the Congress or endorsed Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra nobody could complain. However for some inexplicable reason the 92-year old Hungarian-American billionaire investor known for political activism chose to issue a statement attacking Indian democracy and speak against PM Modi using the Adani issue. It clearly showed his deep involvement in the country’s politics. Known for pushing regime changes across the world, Soros claimed Adani’s woes “will spur democratic revival in India.” This sparked a war of words between the BJP and Congress. Even as one Congress leader Praveen Chakravarty shared Soros statement reported by the Financial Times where he said “Modi may dodge answering questions about Adani in Parliament and in India but he cannot escape from foreign investors”. Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh was quick to distance the party from Soros “Our Nehruvian legacy ensures people like Soros cannot determine our electoral outcomes”. In a quick rebuttal to Soros, Union Minister Smriti Irani said “George Soros not only attacked PM Modi but also the Indian democratic system. Soros wants some “hand-picked” people to run the government here “pliable to his needs for making his nefarious plans successful”. She made it clear that the government would be watching with interest the kind of money — one billion dollars that Soros’s Open Society Foundations — would spend to achieve its goals.
Sachin Pilot did not seem his usual spirited self at the kisan lunch that he hosted in Delhi. It was held soon after the launch of a part of Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in his home turf Dausa by PM Narendra Modi. What particularly bothered the young leader was that Modi had addressed a rally soon after inaugurating the expressway. Was he worried by PM Modi dedicating to the nation, the 246 km Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway? Modi had also laid the foundation stone for 247 km of National Highway projects to be developed at a cost of more than Rs 5940 crore. When asked if PM Modi’s forays into Dausa bothered him, the young Congress leader underplayed it. He said that Dausa was his pocket borough; that he could win elections there even if he were to be sitting in Delhi. But then neither the BJP nor Modi are taking the year-end elections in Rajasthan lightly. “For the last nine years, the Central government is continuously making huge investments in infrastructure”, Modi remarked as he noted Investments worth more than Rs 50,000 crore for the construction of highways in Rajasthan. Congress leaders concede that the Modi government has been doing remarkably well in infrastructure. “The Modi government is apparently the best in terms of delivery on infrastructure in the last 30 years. That is how governments like the one in UAE have found, “notes a party veteran.
Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray is on a spree to meet prominent leaders of various communities in a bid to spread the party’s outreach beyond just the Marathi-speaking population. He has been using the visits to castigate the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over different thorny issues. Last week, Modi had inaugurated the new academy of the Dawoodi Bohra community, Aljamea tus Saifiyah Arabic Academy, in Marol in Mumbai’s Andheri area. The event is viewed as part of the BJP’s plan to liaise with sub-sections of minority communities. Uddhav too visited the newly inaugurated campus. He was accompanied by his son and MLA Aaditya, a former minister under him. The Thackerays met the head of the Dawoodi Bohra community, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin. A week ago, Uddhav had attended the Anjan Shalaka Pratishta Ritual of the highly revered 13th Tirthankar (Jin), Vimalnath Bhagwan. The ceremony was held at the Jain Temple near Walchand Heights in Bhayandar West, a BJP stronghold on February 9. He was also blessed by Jain muni Acharya Yashovarma Surishwarji Maharaj. The third such initiative was Uddhav’s presence in Goregaon where he interacted with North Indians at a rally. He roundly attacked the BJP, Modi and former governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. “Uddhav is conveying the message that the Shiv Sena under his leadership is changing,” according to one of his close supporters.
It is interesting that Anusuiya Uikey will exit as Chhattisgarh governor to replace La Ganesan as Manipur governor. Ganesan will assume the post of Nagaland governor. In being appointed as Manipur Governor, Uikey follows in the footsteps of Najma Heptullah, who presided over the Raj Bhavan till August 2021. Like Najma, she too joined the BJP after quitting the Congress. In fact, Congress sources say Uikey chose to quit the party following her differences with senior leader Kamal Nath. At the time of President’s elections last year there was strong speculation particularly among Congress leaders that PM Modi would pick Uikey as she belonged to the Scheduled Tribe community. Since her appointment as Chhattisgarh Governor in 2020, Uikey had several run-ins with the Bhupesh Baghel government in Chhattisgarh. She rejected the state government’s proposal to convene a special session of the assembly to introduce a Bill to circumvent the now repealed farm laws and another Bill to increase reservation for SCs and STs. As for the appointment of Ramesh Bais as Maharashtra Governor, BJP sources say it is a reward for an OBC leader who has considerable influence in Raipur, Chattisgarh, which goes to polls at the end of this year. With the latest appointments, Modi has strengthened state BJP chief K Annamalai’s hands and according gubernatorial positions to three party veterans — La Ganesan (shifted from Manipur to Nagaland), C P Radhakrishnan (Jharkhand) and Tamilisai Soundarajan (Telangana).
In a major gaffe, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot was caught reading last year’s budget in the state assembly for nearly 10 minutes. It was only when the party chief whip stepped in that Gehlot stopped and apologised for the oversight. The BJP was quick to slam him for being callous and “poorly invested in matters of governance”. For a change, BJP leader and former CM Vasundhara Raje Scindia, who has been bailing out Gehlot in the past four years, refused to hold a brief for him. She said, “When I used to present the Budget, I used to check my papers at least thrice before presenting it. Here the CM went on reading for eight minutes.” Gehlot’s gaffe is more or less a throwback to what happened with veteran leader S M Krishna who as Foreign Minister had read out portions of Portuguese Foreign Minister’s speech at the UN Security Council way back in February 2011. Coming to Gehlot’s defence, senior AICC functionary Rajiv Shukla tried to shift the blame to officials. He also tried to point out there were discrepancies in the two sets of figures given by the PM regarding households connected by tap water –“in the Lok Sabha PM Modi had talked about 8 crore households, in the Rajya Sabha the figures were given as 11 crore households. We are not making an issue.”
Union home minister Amit Shah is scheduled to visit Pune on February 18-19, soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third visit to Maharashtra on Friday (Feb 10). Shah’s visit assumes significance in view of the two assembly byelections to be held on February 27, in Pune’s Kasba Peth and Pimpri-Chinchwad. Demise of both BJP MLAs has caused the byelection. While the Pimpri-Chinchwad assembly constituency had just one claimant, the wife of deceased MLA Laxman Jagtap, the scenario in Kasba Peth was somewhat testing for the BJP as sitting MLA Mutka Tilak’s family members were desirous of getting the party nomination after her death. As the party did not do so, rumblings of discontent were heard for a short while. Sensing the opportunity, Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi has fielded Congress nominee Ravindra Dhangekar. The visit of Shah is expected to enthuse the rank and file to ensure the victory of BJP’s Hemant Rasane. Shah has accepted two functions in Pune. In the first, he will release a book, ‘Modi@20,’ on February 18. He will tour the ‘Shiv Srushti,’ a historical complex conceived and designed by late historian Babasaheb Purandare on February 19, the great day for Maharashtra since it is the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Shah’s presence will add colour to the BJP celebrations.
PM Narendra Modi was in his element as he spoke for nearly 90-minute in the Rajya Sabha on the motion of thanks on President’s address. He did not let the din of shouting Opposition MPs affect him and spoke with his sense of humour intact. Referring to how some people had problems with names of government schemes with Sanskrit words, Modi said 600 government schemes were in the Gandhi-Nehru family’s name. In a jibe at the Gandhis, he asked “If Nehru was such a great person, why did the family shy away from using ‘Nehru’ surname.” He was more keen on sending out a message to poll-bound Tripura where the CPM has tied-up with the Congress to take on the ruling BJP in next week’s elections. That’s why he elaborated on the contradictions of the Congress-CPM alliance and pointed out how the first Marxist government in India was dismissed by Nehru within months after it had won a mandate in Kerala. “Elected governments were toppled 90 times! Who were those who did that? A Prime Minister used Article 356, 50 times and that name is Indira Gandhi. In Kerala, the Communist government was elected which wasn’t liked by Pandit Nehru and was toppled in 1959. In Tamil Nadu too, governments of veterans like MGR and Karunanidhi were dismissed by the Congress. Sharad Pawar’s government was toppled too. We have seen what happened with NTR when he was in the U.S. for medical treatment; attempts were made to topple his government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in full form and at his sarcastic best as he took a jibe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for targeting his government on the Adani controversy as he spoke in the Lok Sabha. Rahul, who participated in the debate on January 7, was not present when Modi made his initial remarks. In fact, half way through the speech, the Congress benches had staged walk-out as Modi amplified attack on UPA years of governance. Congress MPs trooped back only when Rahul Gandhi walked in. “I was watching yesterday. After the speeches of a few people, some people were happily saying, “Ye hui na baat.” Maybe they slept well and couldn’t wake up (on time),” said PM Modi. Interestingly, Modi interrupted his speech to thank Shashi Tharoor for staying back and not joining the walk-out.”Those who are drunk in arrogance and think that only they have the knowledge, feel that only by abusing Modi will a way come out, that only through false, nonsensical mudslinging on Modi will a path be paved. It has been 22 years, they still have a misapprehension.” Asserting that trust in Modi was not born out of newspaper headlines, not through faces on TV. “I have given my life, every moment of mine for the people of the country, for the glorious future of the country,” said Modi. He was under no compulsion to reply to Rahul’s specific charge of Modi-Adani linkages as he did not back it with proof. They are no longer part of Lok Sabha records.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi who replied to the motion of thanks on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha was spotted in the Parliament in a sky-blue Bandhgala jacket giving a message about sustainability. The jacket, presented to him by Indian Oil Corporation, was made out of recycled PET bottles. Indian Oil has adopted uniforms for retail customer attendants and LPG delivery personnel made from recycled polyester (rPET) and cotton. Interestingly, Modi sat through Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge’s speech in the Rajya Sabha where he questioned how wealth of one of the closest friends of PM Modi increased by 13 times in 2.5 years. “In 2014, it was Rs 50,000 crore while in 2019 it became Rs 1 lakh crore. I don’t know what magic happened that his assets touched Rs 12 lakh crore in just two years,” Kharge said. Ironically Kharge, who attacked Modi for helping industrialist Gautam Adani was spotted wearing a Louis Vuitton scarf. Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar pulled up Kharge for calling PM Modi ‘Mauni Baba’ an angry Kharge hit back saying “If I speak the truth, is it anti-national? I’m not anti-national. I’m more patriotic than anyone here. I’m a ‘bhoomi-putra”. It took FM Nirmala Sitharaman to effectively put down Kharge for quoting Vajpayee on rajdharma or reeling out data as it was completely infused with insinuation against PM Modi and “that’s why what we are objecting to.”
BJP President J P Nadda held a gala wedding reception for his second son Harish in a Delhi stadium on February 5. It was held in such pomp and style that guests were simply overwhelmed, so were the hosts it seemed. From high profile dignitaries such as President Droupadi Murmu, PM Narendra Modi, Vice- President Jagdeep Dhankar, former President Ramnath Kovind, UP CM Yogi Adityanath to a swish set of foreign envoys to all BJP CMs, MLAs and MPs and the media – there were simply too many VVIPs guests. Unlike Arun Jaitley who would have normally held three to four receptions for comfort of his guests, Nadda went for an overkill — a mega one. Party sources said a record 25,000 invites were sent out. It was as if Nadda had decided to make most of the one-year extension he had secured in office. After all, PM Modi had reposed faith in him to lead the party for 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Never mind if his home turf Himachal was lost by less than 1% votes. Significantly, Modi spent about 40 minutes at the reception. Besides, there were far too many guests than invitees. And there were such long queues at food counters that many guests simply made a hurried exit as they didn’t want to be jostled as at least one dignitary did.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second Mumbai and third Maharashtra visit within 50 days is being planned to highlight the importance the BJP attaches to the city and the state in view of the elections scheduled in the near future. With this visit scheduled on February 10, Maharashtra will be the only state to boast four Vande Bharat trains, two of them just within the state. The other highlight of Modi’s upcoming visit will be the opening of the Dawoodi Bohra community’s Arabic Academy in Andheri East. The sect’s head, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, will be present on the occasion, a community official said. Modi’s acceptance to attend this event will endorse the BJP’s systematic efforts to reach out to various sections of the minority population. One Vande Bharat train that Modi will flag off will be on Mumbai-Solapur route, the other will link Mumbai with Shirdi on February 10. The Mumbai-Solapur Vande Bharat train will cover the 455 km distance within six and a half hours while the Mumbai-Shirdi Vande Bharat train will traverse the 340 km distance in five and a half hours. Already, two Vande Bharat trains ply in Maharashtra. The first started running between Mumbai and Gandhinagar. The second, linking Nagpur and Bilaspur, was shown a green flag by Modi in December.
Efforts to unite Opposition parties ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections may still be at a nascent stage. But then PM Narendra Modi is not the one to take solace from the fact that 15 Opposition parties of the 23 political parties had stayed away from the closing event of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar January 30. Or is he willing to take comfort from the fact that Telangana CM KCR’s Bharatiya Rashtriya Samiti efforts were restricted to inviting just four political parties in Khammam town on January 18. That is why it was significant that President Droupadi Murmu’s first address to the joint session of the Parliament on January 31 had a message. It focussed on the kind of decisive mandate Modi government had received in May 2019 and how such a mandate had helped the country cope with many adverse situations in the last few years. “I express my gratitude to the people of the country for electing a stable government for two consecutive terms… From surgical strike to a firm crackdown on terrorism, from a befitting response to every misadventure from LoC to LAC, from abrogation of Article 370 to Triple Talaq, my government has been recognized as a decisive government…India is in a much better position than the rest of the world due to the decisions taken by my government in the national interest.”
Initially, Gujarat assembly results had a numbing effect on Congressmen in Karnataka. They were particularly worried by the impressive win posted by the BJP — a record 156 seats out of 182 seats. At that time Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had assured state leaders not to worry. He was confident that Modi could be paid back in his own coin in Karnataka. Yes, Kharge was confident he would be able to play the “asmita card “– pride in the son of the soil — that is to seek votes like the way Modi did in Gujarat. Yet, party sources had felt it would be a tall order for Kharge to pull off the asmita card considering he had failed to win the popular vote in 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Gulbarga. And ever since PM Narendra Modi began his public outreach in northern Karnataka on January 19, the Congress hopes came crashing down. In fact, Congress leaders were stunned by the manner in which PM Modi handed the ‘Hakku Patra’ (land title deed) distribution drive for over 52,072 nomadic Lambani (Banjara) tribes in five districts in north Karnataka visiting Kalaburagi. Party sources say Kharge is now more worried about the fate of his son Priyank in the assembly polls after Modi’s outreach. Former CM Siddaramaiah even charged the ruling BJP “feasting on the meals” on the initiative of Thandas revenue villages started during his government from 2013 to 2018.
It has been whispered that the BJP has tasked a private agency with the task of finding out the chances of Prime Minister Narendra Modi winning from a Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu in the coming 2024 elections. Sample surveys are being made in constituencies like Ramanathapuram and Coimbatore already. It seems a stretch that Modi would wish to give up his Varanasi constituency that has far greater meaning in its Hindu spiritual association as well as politically. Rameswaram may be a big abode of Lord Siva too but Uttar Pradesh looms much larger on the political scene of India with its 80 seats in the Lok Sabha. But the TN BJP has been given the task of sussing out the possibilities and they are doing their masters’ bidding. It is a distinct trademark of the BJP that it takes elections as a 24×7 task, and they have begun work already to assess how much Tamil Nadu can give them. Of course, the western parts of the state are more receptive to Narendra Modi and the BJP than the #GoBackModi ways of the young urbanites of Chennai and surroundings. Senior leaders, including Tamilisai Soundarrajan are sounding out their party with their willingness to enter the poll fray. It will be interesting to see if it can even be imagined that Modi would leave the comfort of Varanasi for Dravidian Tamil Nadu.
In a significant move , Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari announced his exit from office on social media on January 23 afternoon, saying he had discussed with PM Narendra Modi during his recent visit to Mumbai his desire “to spend the remainder of my life in reading, writing and other activities”, having discharged all his political responsibilities. Koshiyari’s exit is being viewed as an indicator of a possible Union Cabinet reshuffle and shuffling of governors or fresh appointments, ahead of the Budget Session beginning on January 31. Koshiyari’s exit may also not be good news wherever the Governor is seen as hogging the extra limelight. For now Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi has made course correction, piped down on controversy he kicked up over Tamizhagam. As for Koshiyari, the former Uttarakhand CM was appointed as Maharashtra Governor in September 2019 and has completed a little over three years in office. The BJP leadership was however not too comfortable with his controversial utterances — such as ones like importance of certain sections of voters from Rajasthan and Gujarat to Mumbai. Sources close to the Koshiyari conceded that the Governor was not feeling comfortable after his recent controversies. “He had begun to feel uneasy in Mumbai, he wanted to return to the hills,” conceded a close aide. In a tweet, Koshiyari hoped he would always receive “love and affection” from PM Modi.
Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray’s 97th birth anniversary celebrations have begun in Maharashtra with a verbal and twitter war between the two sides of his supporters, both claiming his rightful legacy. The battle will intensify, the indications suggest. The day started with a tweet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who praised Balasaheb’s contribution. It was followed by a tweet of MNS leader Raj Thackeray, who recalled his last meeting with Balasaheb. “Go, fight, Balasaheb told me,” Raj said in his message. He claimed that he has built up his party on the confidence reposed in him by Balasaheb. He has reiterated that he was unlike others, who had joined other parties after leaving the Sena. On the other hand, attacking the Shinde-BJP coalition, Sena (U) MP Arvind Sawant has appealed to people to demolish “the forces that have stabbed the Shiv Sena in the back and who are traitors to the interests of Maharashtra.” In a stinging retaliation, senior minister Deepak Kesarkar, a confidant of Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde, has reminded the Sena (U) that Modi has fulfilled Balasaheb’s dream to integrate Kashmir with the rest of India. “There can’t be a greater insult to Balasaheb’s memory than embracing Congress leaders, who kept on abusing him, in Kashmir.” The sly reference is to Sena (U) MP Sanjay Raut walking the Bharat Jodo Yatra with Rahul Gandhi a couple of days ago in Jammu.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Thursday (Jan 19) speech in Mumbai was dominated by his direct appeal to the labourers, hawkers and stall-owners, asking them to join the campaign to accelerate Mumbai’s development by bringing in a ‘triple engine’ government. The object of the clarion call was to attract the so-far untapped electors in view of the ensuing Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) towards the BJP and its ally, the Shiv Sena faction led by chief minister Eknath Shinde. Significantly, the word ‘Vikas’ (development) figured 10 times in his 25-minute address at BKC grounds. Modi referred to the downtrodden sections time and again, making it clear that he was looking beyond the traditional vote bank of his party for the next civic election. Modi’s keenness to capture the BMC was evident since his party does not control any of the four metros in the country. The Prime Minister lauded Maharashtra and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and remembered Balasaheb Thackeray. However, NCP leader Sharad Pawar was conspicuous by absence in the speech, which was applauded continuously with ‘Modi Modi’ slogans and drum beats. Modi’s emotional invocation to the working class for support speaks volumes about Mumbai’s changing demography since voting in upper class pockets is usually less while it is higher in blue collar localities.
Preparations on unprecedented scale are underway for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mumbai visit on Thursday (Jan 19) during which he will flag off multiple projects worth around Rs 39,000 crore. Huge police deployment and major traffic restrictions will mark the seven-hour visit that is aimed at boosting the BJP’s electoral prospects in Maharashtra. Infrastructure will be the focus of the PM’s visit as his schedule is replete with various projects that will be helpful in making average Mumbaikar’s life better. Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis inspected the various arrangements accompanied by top police and civic officials to ensure that no glitch remains at the last moment. As this will be Modi’s first Mumbai visit after the installation of the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government, the BJP will exploit its mileage to the fullest extent with an eye on the BMC elections, due any time now. Strengthening the Metro network in Mumbai will be the highlight of Modi’s visit while various civic projects will also be launched by him. Modi, inter alia, will dedicate to the nation the Mumbai Metro Rail Lines 2A and 7. The commissioning of the two lines will connect Mumbai’s northernmost tip at Dahisar East with D.N. Nagar in Andheri (West) and Gundavali in Andheri East reducing the vehicular traffic load in the Western suburbs. Coincidentally, the foundation stone of the two lines was laid by Modi in 2015.
There were no surprises when Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that J P Nadda’s tenure as BJP national president was extended. “The tenure of JP Nadda as national president of the BJP has been extended till June 2024. Under JP Nadda’s leadership, we had the highest strike rate in Bihar. The NDA won a majority in Maharashtra, won in Uttar Pradesh, and our numbers increased in West Bengal. We also registered a landslide victory in Gujarat,” said Shah. He also hoped “under the leadership of Modi ji and with Nadda ji, we will win more seats than 2019 in the 2024 polls.” The BJP national executive meet, which extended Nadda’s presidency, will draw a roadmap for the upcoming crucial state polls that will set the tone for 2024 when PM Narendra Modi seeks a third straight term. Nadda started as the BJP working president in 2019 when then party chief Amit Shah became a Union minister. He took up the full-time party presidency on January 20, 2020 and will complete his one term in office next week. His extension as the national president was inevitable as he has a very good working relationship with both Modi and Shah. In an election year, there was no way Modi-Shah could have opted for a new leader when Nadda had ensured carrying PM’s message up to the booth-level.
US-based billionaire Darshan Singh Dhaliwal, who was conferred with the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Samman’ clarified that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not apologise to him after some media reports claimed that Modi had “apologised” over his deportation from India in 2021 for allegedly supporting the farmers’ protest against the now-repealed three agriculture laws. “Elders never apologise. PM Modi is a man of big stature, and I respect him a lot. He said it’s my big heart that despite once being sent back, I came to India,” Dhaliwal was quoted as saying. He added, “It’s an honour for me to get felicitated with ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Award’…50 years ago people in foreign countries didn’t know about us but now India has become one of the world’s biggest power.” Dhaliwal was deported in October 2021, for allegedly arranging a langar for protesting farmers at Delhi’s borders. His brother is Akali Dal leader Surjit Singh Rakhra. After receiving the honour, Dhaliwal was quoted by the media saying, “PM Modi is really going out of his way to work with the Sikh community, both inside and outside India.” Earlier, Dhaliwal had claimed that Modi told him at a meeting in April 2022 in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Puri, “Hum se galti ho gayi thi jo humne aap ko wapis bheja, aap ka baddapan hai ki hamare kehne par aap phir aye. He added, “PM Modi met me in front of 150 people at his residence.” The meeting that Dhaliwal was referring to was called ‘Sadbhavana: A Gesture of Goodwill’.
Creating infrastructure in non-BJP ruled states for the Centre is increasingly becoming a hazard as it was discovered on January 12. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was supposed to launch the eighth Vande Bharat train of India from Secunderabad to Visakhapatnam on January 19 but his brief visit had to be temporarily postponed. It has however been made known that the PM will launch the Vande Bharat train virtually on January 15 on the occasion of Makar Sankranti. The news of PM putting off his visit came amid reports that Vande Bharat train was damaged after stones were pelted at its coach in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam on January 11. In a repeat of what happened in West Bengal, the incident occurred when the train was going to the maintenance centre at Marripalem. Two glass panes of one of the coaches were damaged in the incident. Besides the train’s launch, the Prime Minister was also scheduled to address a public meeting at the Parade Grounds of Secunderabad. He was also expected to launch various developmental projects. Union Minister of State G Kishan Reddy said the PM would be launching the train at around 10 am on January 15.The train will cover the entire distance in eight hours. The intermediate stops envisaged for the journey include Warangal, Vijayawada, Khammam and Rajahmundry.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled Mumbai tour on January 19 will prove to be a game changer, party rank and file feel since he is expected to make some major announcement during his first visit to the metropolis after the split in the Shiv Sena and the formation of the Shinde-Fadnavis government. According to the PM’s tentative schedule, he will dedicate two Metro routes – 2 A and 7 – to the nation. The state BJP is keen to organise a public meeting to be addressed by Modi but no final decision has been made so far. Another possible event during the visit will be the inauguration of a cancer hospital in Thane, the backyard of chief minister Eknath Shinde. Modi will either go there or open the hospital online; but the modalities are still being worked out. The Mumbai and state BJP units are in an upbeat mood since they are determined to win the first public test through the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election, likely to happen any time soon. The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi constituents are still looking in different directions but efforts are on to face the hustings together. Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis are scheduled to visit Davos on January 15-19 to attend the World Economic Forum. However, if the PM confirms his plans to be in Mumbai, they will rework the schedule, according to party leaders.
Vande Bharat Express is nothing but an old train refurbished with a new engine declared West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee amid reports of Vande Bharat train being attacked by stones on the newly inaugurated Howrah-New Jalpaiguri route. While the first incident happened near Malda, the second also occurred in the state. However, dismissing the claims about the attack, Banerjee said the incidents occurred in Bihar and not West Bengal and said actions will be taken against those spreading rumours. PM Narendra Modi flagged off Vande Bharat Express on December 30. The BJP did not take kindly to Mamata’s running down the concept of Vande Bharat itself. Party co-in charge for Bengal Amit Malviya felt from Mamata’s comments it was “abundantly clear that Vande Bharat was targeted on Mamata Banerjee’s instruction. She is both, incompetent and jealous of the Modi Government working for the state”. He went on to point out that Didi had refused to go on dais at the time of launch not because of Jai Shree Ram slogans. “The problem was never slogans of Jai Shree Ram but BJP taking a lead to improve lives of people. What a disgrace she is!” The blue-and-white train, meant to be the gateway to the northeast, covers a distance of 564 km between Howrah and New Jalpaiguri in 7.45 hours thus reducing travel time by three hours.
By all indications, it looks like this year’s Union Budget will be tabled in the present Parliament House. The new Parliament building is likely to be inaugurated in March, when the House reconvenes for the second part of the Budget Session. Officials say work was going on in full swing on the Parliament building and was expected to be completed by February. PM Narendra Modi had performed the Bhoomi Poojan and foundation stone laying ceremony of the new Parliament House in December 2020. He is known to be closely monitoring progressing work on the building via drones. While inaugurating a drone festival in Delhi last year, Modi had emphasised on the use and importance of drones in governance. He had spoken about how the drones have been useful for him in conducting “surprise inspections of development work across the country”. The design of the Lok Sabha Hall in the new Parliament House is such that a joint session can be held there easily. The new Lok Sabha Hall will seat 1,272 people and it will have no Central Hall. The new Parliament House will have a seating arrangement of 888 MPs in the Lok Sabha. The current Lok Sabha has a seating capacity of only 552 MPs. Thus, when the number of MPs will increase in the coming years, there will be no problem.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi informed the nation via a tweet about the sad demise of his mother Heeraben: “A glorious century rests at the feet of God…“ Within an hour of her cremation, PM Modi was back at work virtually from Raj Bhavan in Ahmedabad. Yes, the dedicated karmayogi was attending to all his official duties such as flagging off a metro from Kolkata to New Jalpaiguri, and chairing the second meeting of the National Ganga Council meeting in Kolkata via video conferencing. The meeting was attended by the Union Minister for Jal Shakti, and other Union Ministers who are members of the council besides the CMs of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Bihar was represented by Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav. Presciently, in a blogpost on Heeraben’s 100th birthday this June, Modi shared a glimpse of his bond with his mother and about how she never accompanied him for any government or public programme. “She has accompanied me on only two occasions in the past. Once, it was at a public function in Ahmedabad when she applied tilak on my forehead after I had returned from Srinagar where I had hoisted the national flag at Lal Chowk completing the Ekta Yatra led by Dr Murli Manohar Joshi. That was an extremely emotional moment for my mother because a few people had died in a terror attack in Phagwara at the time of the Ekta Yatra. She became extremely worried at that time.”
High drama prevailed at Howrah Station as a visibly annoyed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refused to come on stage from where the Vande Bharat express was being virtually flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following “Jai Shri Ram” chants by the BJP supporters present at the spot. Incidentally, both Bengal governor C V Ananda Bose and railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw requested her to join them on the stage. In a way, the controversy helped Didi not to share the stage with Suvendu Adhikari, her one-time aide. While Bengal cabinet minister Firhad Hakim and Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh termed this as misbehaviour and a purposeful act of insult to the state’s chief minister. Besides, Vande Bharat, PM also flagged off the inter-city metro service connecting the southern fringes of Kolkata. However, Mamata made it clear to PM Modi that not only Joka-Esplanade Metro services, but four out of five inaugurated projects were also her brainchild during her stint as Railway minister. Didi categorically voiced that her dream project – the Taratala to Joka Metro, which she laid the foundation stone with erstwhile President Pratibha Patil got inaugurated also. She also reminded that several project proposals during her tenure as Railway minister are now seeing the light of day. Adding to this, Bengal chief minister said that she was the one who earmarked 50 world-class stations across the country.
It is not unusual for estranged foes in politics to bond over death and bereavement. It may seem a bit odd but Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has decided to visit Delhi to personally convey his condolences to PM Modi on his mother Heeraben passing away. This may certainly come as a surprise to many but apparently Stalin recalled how Modi had visited him when his father M Karunanidhi was seriously ill. Stalin is taking an evening flight today (Dec 30) to Delhi. Similarly, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee who was miffed by Jai Shri Ram sloganeering at the metro inaugural function, went out of her way to offer an emotional condolence to PM Modi over his mother’s death. Significantly, Modi had virtually flagged off the Vande Bharat express connecting Howrah and New Jalpaiguri, just an hour after cremating his mother. Just before the inauguration, Mamata said, “Respected PM, today it’s a sad day and great loss to you. I pray to god, may God give you strength. I convey my gratitude to you that you were supposed to come to West Bengal but because of the demise of your mother you couldn’t come but joined virtually. On behalf of the people of West Bengal, I thank you so much for giving us this opportunity. It’s a sad day for you. Your mother means our mother also….”
Karnataka Congress leaders were disappointed with party president Mallikarjun Kharge’s brief visit to Bengaluru. With assembly elections round the corner, many leaders were apparently advised by PCC chief D K Shivkumar to catch up with Kharge. Hoping to push their case for assembly tickets, the leaders were told by Kharge that he would not be able to interact with them as he wasn’t feeling comfortable – he had complained of backache. It was only natural that Kharge was physically exhausted – he had landed in Bengaluru, a day after keeping pace with Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Delhi. The day-long activity must have surely sapped Kharge’s energy. Unfortunately, the Congress chief had to fly back to Delhi to be at the AICC headquarters for the Congress Foundation Day. Meanwhile, what is irking Congressmen is that Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be spending the next two days in Bengaluru and Mysuru and interacting with BJP workers. Asked to comment on Shah’s visit, a Karnataka BJP leader said “With elections coming all our top three leaders—J P Nadda, Amit Shah and PM Narendra Modi — will be frequently visiting the state.Why should anyone mind?” Such coordinated action from the BJP is bound to bother the Karnataka Congress that is in any way in a disarray.
For a change treasury benches were on the offensive in the Parliament. Congress President Kharge’s “chuha” charge against PM Narendra Modi spiced up House proceedings. It provided a breather from a stalemate on Tawang clashes. A day after Kharge called Modi a “chuha” or a mouse at a public rally in Alwar on December 19, there was sparring in the Rajya Sabha over Kharge’s name calling with the Leader of the House & Union Minister Piyush Goyal demanding an apology from him. Kharge naturally stonewalled and insisted that the remarks were made outside the Parliament and should not be discussed in the House. He argued that what he said during Bharat Jodo Yatra in Rajasthan’s Alwar was outside the House and was politically outside the House, not inside. Karnataka Congress sources believe that by continuously attacking PM Modi, Kharge was pitching himself as a PM candidate for 2024. Kharge maintained that if he were to only “repeat “what he said outside it would be difficult for the BJP. “The BJP accused the Congress of holding ‘Bharat Todo Yatra’, to which I responded by saying that Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi gave their lives for the country. Who has given life from your side (saffron party)?” Interestingly, Kharge’s attack on Modi helped the Government shift focus from Tawang clashes in the Parliament.
For a change, the Congress benches were happy that Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla allowed their Virudhanagar MP and AICC in charge for Telangana Manickam Tagore to make a brief special mention in the House the issue of Hyderabad police raid on of the office of its key poll strategist Sunil Kanulogu and detaining of five people for allegedly posting on social media derogatory comments against Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR). Kanugolu, member of AICC national task force, is currently strategising for Telangana PCC. After lodging an FIR in the case, the Hyderabad Cyber Crimes police conducted the raid, seized mobile phones, laptops and other equipment used by the Kanugolu’s team. Tagore said the police barged into Kanugolu’s office on September 13 evening without an FIR and picked up an eclectic team working with the strategist on the instructions of KCR’s son and Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao. After the party got to record its opposition against Telangana in the Lok Sabha, the AICC still decided to equate KCR with PM Modi. ”When it comes to his own daughter K Kavitha in the Delhi liquor scam, KCR demands from the CBI…give me this paper, show me that notice…only then will my daughter be questioned by the agency. However, while raiding the war room of the Congress or detaining members of Sunil Kanugolu the Telangana police behaved like goondas,” charged party spokesperson Pawan Khera.
Rail &Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is not the usual polite technocrat that he seems; he could be even politically savvy given an opportunity. Much of his wit was on display during the Question Hour on December 14 when he was taking a query on network problems of BSNL from a Karnataka BJP MP. Vaishnaw explained that the BSNL went through a very bad phase, primarily because of “certain political parties, especially during the UPA Government” when a lot of its funds were diverted. With DMK benches being empty in the Lok Sabha, there was not much contest on this point though Congress leader Sonia Gandhi was present in the house. Disclosing that PM Modi has approved a package of Rs 164,000 crore for the revival of BSNL. “We should take pride in the country’s engineers. The PM gave this challenge to our engineers, in line with PM’s Make-in-India initiative, today, the 4G and 5G technologies stack are made in India, designed in India, and developed in India. Today, it is recognised all over the world. For certain people — from the other side of the House — BSNL was always a cash cow. Those days are gone.” On questions raised by Congress members on data cost, he countered them saying that under the UPA consumers had to pay Rs 200 for 1 GB, today it is around Rs 20.
The Shinde-Fadnavis government in Maharashtra has received a breather since the Election Commission has postponed a hearing till January over the claims for ownership of the Shiv Sena election symbol, bow & arrow. The first hearing today was over within a few minutes since EC officials explained to both sides the procedure they will follow to ascertain the claim made by the Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray and the one under chief minister Eknath Shinde. Sena (Uddhav) MP Anil Desai told the media that the EC will take a call on whether to proceed on the material submitted to it so far or to ask for any supplementary information. The next hearing is likely to be held in the first week of January 2023. The EC’s decision to defer the hearing will enable the Shinde-Fadnavis government to face the ensuing winter session of the legislature more confidently. The session will be held in Nagpur later this month. Its schedule and other details will be decided at a meeting of the business advisory committee (BAC) to be held in Mumbai on December 13. The government is in an upbeat mood since Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Shinde near him in Nagpur and patted him on the back. The television clip has gone viral. To bolster its confidence, the EC’s decision will be helpful, the ruling coalition feels.
The Narendra Modi Government is believed to be going ahead with its move for a ‘one nation, one election’ plan. Though the plan has not found favour with the main opposition parties. The next Lok Sabha elections is expected to be simultaneously held along with 12 assembly elections. To accommodate this, the Election Commission will have to tweak the dates and even consider advancing the next Lok Sabha elections by a couple of months. The tentative period being considered is believed to be December-January 2023-24, according to informed sources. While the next Lok Sabha elections are due in April-May 2024, the assembly terms of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana will end by December 2023 and Mizoram by mid December 2023. The other states being roped in for the mega election plan are three non-NDA ruled states with BJP affinity — Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim. The term of these assemblies are scheduled to end by June 2024. And also in the mega election plan are two BJP ruled states, Haryana and Maharashtra, where the elections are due in November 2024. If mega election plan fructifies it will bring down the cost of holding elections across India. The cost of the last Lok Sabha elections was around $ 7 bn (approx. Rs 56,000 crore, up 40% from the previous election. The US spend for its Presidential and Congress elections is around $ 6.5 bn.
Gujarat, home to both PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, gave a historic mandate to the BJP as it voted the party for a seventh straight term handing the ruling party a record haul of 156 assembly seats while the Congress was reduced to a humble 16 seats. Endorsing Modi’s call to vote in his CM nominee Bhupendra Patel, Gujaratis clearly showed that they took a lot of pride in him and helped him break Congress stalwart Madhavsinh Solanki’s 1985 record of 149 seats. TaiwindowsUnlike people of Punjab or Delhi, the state steered clear of AAP’s freebies; maybe people were too self-respecting and did not fall for AAP’s promise of doles. Kejriwal had picked a popular TV anchor Ishan Gadhvi as his CM face but he was voted out. However, lmhmod minecraftKejriwal seems to have got what he wanted out of Gujarat polls, a national party status that he desperately craved. AAP had to win two assembly seats and poll 6% votes for this. The state rewarded him — 5 seats and 12.9% votes. The Congress low-profile, door-to-door campaign without involving Gandhis did not work. In 2017, Rahul Gandhi had taken a lot of interest in the Gujarat polls. allwindows4u This time he opted to canvas just for a day. No wonder, the Congress seats plunged from 77 to 17. New government will be sworn in on December 12.
With elections behind them PM Narendra Modi and his team of ministers were back to some serious work. While he was himself briefing aspects relating to India’s G20 Presidency at the all-party meeting. Briefing the leaders, Modi stated that India’s G20 Presidency belongs to the entire nation, and is a unique opportunity to showcase country’s strengths to the world. Emphasisng on teamwork, he sought the cooperation of all leaders in organising various G20 events. He pointed out that the G20 Presidency would help showcase parts of India beyond the conventional big metros, thus bringing out the uniqueness of each part of our nation. Highlighting the large number of visitors, Modi took note of the potential for promoting tourism and boosting the local economies of the venues where G20 meetings would be organized. Before Modi spoke, various political leaders shared their insights and these included former PM H D Deve Gowda, BJP president J P Nadda, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, Andhra CM Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin, Rashtriya LokJanshkti Party leader Pashupatinath Paras, Mahasrashtra CM Eknath Shinde and IUML leader K M Kader Mohideen. The best part, of course, was that the MEA got to issue a release about the PM’s all-party meeting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is meeting heads of various political parties at the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Cultural Centre to brief them about the significance of India’s G-20 presidency. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin are attending the meeting convened by the PM to rally domestic political support for events linked to G-20 through next year. Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao is skipping the event. At the meet, Modi will underline the significance of the G-20 presidency for the country, and brief leaders on how his government is approaching the “unique opportunity”. The leaders will get a glimpse of year-long activities that are being planned to showcase New Delhi’s soft power. Significantly, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge will be attending the meeting even as his party’s media-in charge Jairam Ramesh mocked PM Modi as an “event manager” and tried to point out that India’s presidency was rotational and wasn’t extraordinary. The CMs are taking interest in the PM’s G-20 tete-e tete because from the time India will be holding the G20 presidency from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023 and during this period about 200 meetings on 32 sectors at multiple locations will be held. Already, India hosted the first meeting for G-20 sherpas in Udaipur on December 4 and set the stage for important conversations including technological transformation, and spotlighting women-led development.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Nagpur tour programme has been revised as he is now scheduled to inaugurate the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) centre at the MIHAN complex in the second capital of Maharashtra. His scheduled inauguration of the first phase of the ambitious Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway will now take place from the same venue. Modi will also mark the beginning of the redevelopment of Nagpur and Ajni railway stations during the visit. It is also hinted that he will announce a Vande Bharat Express between Nagpur and Bilaspur. Modi will also inaugurate the two phases of Nagpur metro as decided earlier. The expressway, a dream project of then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, was to be ready much earlier but was delayed for various reasons, some of them political. The next phase, Shirdi-Mumbai, is expected to be commissioned early next year, cutting the travel time between Maharashtra’s capital and second capital to just eight hours. Modi will land at Nagpur at 11 am on December 11 and proceed to visit the expressway. He will then reach the MIHAN complex to declare the AIIMS centre opened. To ensure that all goes smoothly during the PM’s visit, Fadnavis and chief minister Eknath Shinde travelled the entire 520 km distance in about five hours with DCM at the wheel on Sunday.
Karnataka chief minister S R Bommai’s missive to Maharashtra not to send its two ministers to Belgaum for holding talks with Marathi-speaking agitation’s leadership has aggravated the situation as both ministers are firm on their visit. Maharashtra ministers Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraje Desai are scheduled to visit Belgaum on December 6 to meet leaders of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), which has been spearheading the agitation for merging Karnataka’s Marathi-speaking areas in Maharashtra over the past six decades. The two ministers will meet MES activists to understand their woes over the linguistic dispute. Ahead of the visit, Karnataka chief secretary has written to his Maharashtra counterpart at the instance of Bommai not to send Patil and Desai to Belgaum in view of the prevailing atmosphere. Patil, former state BJP president, said it has been Maharashtra’s consistent stand that the Centre should intercede to resolve the border dispute with Karnataka. Also, as the matter is in the Supreme Court, that factor also should be considered. In view of this, Karnataka should not try to prevent the visit. A meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah could happen after Gujarat elections, Desai indicated while reiterating his resolve to reach Belgaum on December 6.
A day after India assumed the leadership of the G-20, trust the Congress to say the presidency was rotational and inevitable, and dubbed PM Narendra Modi as an event manager. It went on to point out that none of the countries that held the responsibility earlier had staged a “high voltage drama” as was being done now. India assumed the presidency of the G-20 on December 1 with Prime Minister Narendra Modi making a strong pitch for “fundamental mindset shift” to benefit humanity as a whole, saying the country will work to further promote “oneness”. Several centrally-protected monuments including UNESCO world heritage sites spread across the country were lit up with the G-20 logo to mark the start of India’s year-long presidency of the grouping. Attacking the government, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh via Twitter went on to point out that “Previous presidents of G20 have been from the USA, UK, Canada, South Korea, France, Mexico, Russia, Australia, Turkey, China, Germany, Argentina, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Italy and Indonesia. None of these countries staged a high voltage drama as is being done around India becoming President of G20 for a year.” Adding further he said, “I’m reminded of what LK Advani said in 2014 in Gandhinagar—he called Modi a brilliant event manager. That’s all there is to all the spin around G20.” India’s G-20 sherpa Amitabh Kant dismissed the Congress attack as “bizarre”.
India has expressed its displeasure after a US state department official referred to PM Narendra Modi while talking about waiver to Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman to travel to the US. At its weekly briefing on November 25, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi frowned upon remarks made by the US state department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel in citing examples of immunity given to several heads of state including Indian PM Modi along with that of Saudi Crown Prince. “Frankly, I fail to understand how the comment on PM Modi was either relevant, necessary or contextual. Our two countries enjoy a very special relationship which is growing from strength to strength and we look forward to working with the US to further deepen it,” said Bagchi. Significantly, he also flayed attempts in the social media to downplay the outcome of the bilateral meetings at G-20 summit at Bali between US President Biden and PM Modi. “We’ve seen some social media stuff. So let me just say the PM did meet President Biden on a number of occasions during the course of the Bali Summit, including a brief bilateral meeting and trilateral meeting that involved President Widodo (Indonesia). During these interactions, they exchanged views on a number of issues. Our press releases and tweets as well as you would recall foreign secretary’s briefing in Bali, encapsulates all these conversations.”
After a day’s break, if PM Modi was back in Gujarat for electioneering it should not be a surprise; he is scheduled to address 35 more rallies in 93 assembly segments that are going to polls in the second phase on December 5. Over the next two days, he will address rallies at Mehsana, Dahod, Vadodara, Bhavnagar, Palanpur, Dehgam, Matar, and Dholka. He has already addressed 16 rallies during his first visit, taking his overall tally of meetings to 50. It is apparent that Modi’s aggressive campaign is crucial to breaking his own record of 2002 when BJP won 127 seats. In fact, at the end of his speeches Modi appeals to people to help CM Bhupendra Patel break his record so that Modi could go “back to do his work in Delhi” — that is to hand the BJP 150 seats. Gujarat takes a lot of pride in Modi’s achievement as PM. It is for this reason Modi hit out at Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry’s remark about showing “aukat” to him. Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi for hand-holding social activist Medha Patkar as someone opposed to Narmada Dam, Modi said those who stalled the Narmada project for 40 years through litigation had kept Gujarat thirsty for 40 years. “The people of Gujarat will punish those who are doing padyatra to get back to power and punish those who were against the Narmada project”.
People are still shell shocked by the concentrated and concerted effort of the BJP’s Kasi Tamil Sangam show, presided over so eloquently as a hard sell by the PM, a month long event focussed on the Tamils. Thirteen religious heads of Mutts from Tamil Nadu are camping in Kashi, Uttar Pradesh, the PM’s much vaunted constituency. Maestro Ilayaraja and his group performed a mesmerising Shiva sthotram with the PM clapping in rhythm. A full trainload of religious Tamil Savants and assorted youth was seen off by no less than Governor of TN for back to back religious events and tours of Kasi .And oh! not to forget the 13 language translation and book release of the Thirukkural, a historic spiritual work of poet Thiruvalluvar, long hijacked by the Dravidian parties as their own. Topping this blitz cake was the PM’s address; he looked comfortable in a “Veshti and Angavastram”. Kashi is the second home for Tamils. Who scripted this eclectic show? When the PM’s chopper trip to Madurai airport was cancelled due to bad weather he took the road. And BJP’s Tamil Nadu K Annamalai was handpicked as a solo companion to accompany the PM on this hour-long drive. And the entire Kashi caper was scripted and presented to the PM. Kashi, the oldest city in the world is now the newest magnetic confluence of politics.
Although Congress leader Rahul Gandhi refrained from saying a word against Veer Savarkar in his public rally at Shegaon in Vidarbha Friday evening, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav) has taken him to task for raking up ‘irrelevant and avoidable’ issues. In the same breath, it has reiterated its reverence for Savarkar, Pandit Nehru, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Sardar Patel. Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ in its editorial has lamented that even though Rahul’s Bharat Jodo yatra had been evoking huge public response, the march took an undesirable turn due to Rahul’s tirade against Savarkar. Why Rahul and the Congress repeatedly speak against Savarkar is beyond comprehension, the edit has wondered. “Rahul has caused embarrassment for even Congress people in Maharashtra by his uncalled for comments,” it said. Savarkar’s grandson Ranjit had yesterday passed some snide comments against Pandit Nehru at his media conference. Disapproving them, the editorial opined that all freedom fighters had made sacrifices for the country’s independence; hence it is unfair to speak against them. Savarkar was, in fact, the apogee of Indian freedom fighters, it stated. After Rahul’s remarks against Savarkar, widespread protests had erupted all over the state. To avoid further aggravation, Rahul avoided any reference to Savarkar. Instead, he focused his attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In his well-attended rally, Rahul alleged that the Modi government had abandoned farmers’ interests and was working for select capitalists. The yatra is scheduled to enter Madhya Pradesh tomorrow.
Who is the Prime Minister’s most favourite officer? Well, after getting yet another year-long extension on November 17, Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra will now have a longer term than the senior most bureaucrat in the country, the cabinet secretary. Mishra, an Indian Revenue Service officer, will now enter his fifth year as the ED director while the maximum term that any cabinet secretary has had so far is four years. Mishra was appointed the ED chief in 2018 and the latest order says he will continue in his chair till November 18, 2023. A number of sensitive and high-profile probes, especially against various opposition leaders, are being led by the ED presently and the move is hence expected to attract swipes from the opposition parties. The government had last year brought in an ordinance to enable itself to give a five-year term to the ED and CBI chiefs, up from two years. The government had argued before the Supreme Court, where the move was challenged, that the tenure of the ED chief had been earlier extended “in public interest” as various cases being probed by the agency were at a crucial juncture and continuity of officers means proper and expeditious disposal of cases. The ED is investigating cases against Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, TMC leaders in West Bengal, AAP minister Satyendar Jain, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and Congress leaders including Gandhi family.
Many of us may have noticed world leaders turning on warmth and bonhomie while greeting PM Narendra Modi. Be it French President Emmanuel Macron giving a friendly tap to our PM on his shoulders as he walked in or US President Joe Biden acknowledging him, it just showed the bond world leaders have been sharing with Modi. On his part, Modi also seemed to be making an effort to seal his ties with every leader. He had special gifts for each one of them showcasing India’s culture and arts. Like he gifted a Kangra miniature painting portraying ‘Shringar Rasa’ to the US President. The UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak received Mata Ni Pachedi, a sacred textile piece made by nomadic communities in Gujarat. While the head of state from Italy got the Patan Patola Dupatta packed in a ‘Sadeli’ box, which in itself is a decorative piece of woodcraft native to Surat. The Patan Patola textile woven by the Salvi family in Patan area of Northern Gujarat is so well crafted that it becomes a feast of colours, with the front and the reverse being indistinguishable. Leaders from France, Germany and Singapore received Agate bowls from Kutch which are supposed to have healing powers. Modi gifted a tribal art piece, Pithora paintings, to his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese. As for the host country, Modi gifted Indonesia a silver bowl from Gujarat and a Kinnauri shawl from Himachal.
With a focus on the South, PM Narendra Modi has in the past two days been reaching out to people in the four states inaugurating a slew of infra projects. In a marked departure, he was seen connecting with the masses who had lined up to see his cavalcade whether it was in Dindigul in Tamil Nadu or in Bengaluru in Karnataka. In fact, there was a huge crowd to welcome Modi despite the rains in Madurai. People had turned out in large numbers to greet the PM in Visakhapatnam on November 12. While in Visakhapatnam, Modi launched projects pertaining to connectivity, oil and gas sector that will give fillip to Andhra Pradesh’s growth, he will visit a fertiliser plant at Ramagundam in Telangana. Modi described his visit to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as “an eventful day with diverse programmes”. In Bengaluru, where the PM inaugurated terminal 2 of the international airport and unveiled a 108-feet tall statue of Bengaluru founder ‘Nadaprabhu’ Kempegowda, Modi said, “Unlike previous regimes, his government believes speed as India’s aspiration and scale as its strength”. He also stressed that along with physical infrastructure, social infrastructure of the country needs to be strengthened for India’s advancement. “Whether it is governance or developing a physical and digital infrastructure, India is working on a different level. The world is admiring the strides India has made in the digital payments system, was it thinkable eight years ago?”
After spending 102 days in custody Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut’s fulsome praise of Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and his indication that he would soon call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as meet Home Minister Amit Shah are perceived as a political signal fraught with multiple possibilities. However, his boss Uddhav Thackeray has said that had Sanjay wished to ‘adjust’ with the powers that be, he would not have spent a 100 days in custody. “Sanjay has shown that he does openly what he wants,” Uddhav remarked. He expressed apprehensions that Raut could be implicated in some other cases. Both leaders were interacting with the media after the MP’s release from custody on November 9. Raut had said at the press meet that the present Maharashtra government had taken some laudable decisions and he welcomed them. He complimented Fadnavis for his major decisions regarding the restoration of powers to Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA). However, he completely ignored chief minister Eknath Shinde. Playing it safe, Fadnavis reacted that he had not come across the praise showered by Raut upon him. However, about Raut meeting him, he parried the question, saying that he was open to meet anyone who sought his time. However, he said if political bitterness were to end in the state, all concerned would have to act accordingly.
With elections in Himachal Pradesh scheduled on November 12, PM Narendra Modi took permission from President Droupadi Murmu to skip the swearing-in ceremony of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on account of a hectic poll campaign. Amidst reports of rebels in as many 50% of the 68 assembly seats, Modi addressed rallies in Kangra and Sujanpur districts. Results for Himachal are to be declared along with Gujarat on December 8. In a direct appeal to people of Himachal, Modi urged them to shed their habit of not repeating a government. He pointed to how the people of Uttarakhand had changed the old tradition and made the BJP win. “In UP too, it has happened after 40 years when a party won again and came to government for the second time in a row with an absolute majority. In Manipur also the BJP government has come again. The condition of Congress is deteriorating day by day. The area which was once considered Congress’s stronghold, the party has been completely wiped out from there…It has only two states left, Rajasthan & Chhattisgarh, no news of development comes from these two states.” It is the tenacity of rebels like Kripal Parmar who have stayed on in the fray in Fatehpur seat even after Modi spoke to him that may worry the BJP. The alleged phone call with the PM had gone viral.
For reasons best known to it, the Congress kicked up a needless row over “lotus” being part of the G20 logo that was unveiled by PM Modi on November 8. It was left to Union Minister Hardeep Puri to put Jairam Ramesh in his place for trying to draw an equivalence between use of lotus — BJP’s symbol and instance of Nehru resisting Congress Party flag being adopted as flag of India. Puri pointed out that lotus wasn’t merely BJP’s symbol but had been declared India’s national flower since 1950 “by the then Congress Government. Jairam was born in 1954. God alone knows why the Congress chooses to denigrate & undermine every national symbol even as it is desperately out to ‘jodo’ itself.” In an explainer, the MEA says the G20 Logo draws inspiration from the vibrant colours of India’s national flag – saffron, white and green, and blue. It juxtaposes planet Earth with the lotus, India’s national flower that reflects growth amid challenges. Modi made it clear that the G20 presidency for India would not remain a central government event and would be a great opportunity for all states to showcase our tradition of ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’. That means events related to G-20 will not be limited to Delhi. PM Modi will be travelling to Indonesia next week where the G-20 presidency will be handed over to India.
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Editor’s Note: Short Post Is Here To Stay…
Time, they say, flies—and how true that is. Here we are celebrating our 5th Anniversary. Five years ago, when Covid-19 was wreaking havoc across the globe, I took a leap of faith and launched Short Post, India’s first website for Authentic Gossip. That was on January 31, 2021. I was convinced there was a clear gap in the market for gossip that was credible, sharp, and impactful—especially if told in just 250 words.
In this, I was fortunate. Scores of senior editors across diverse verticals bought into the idea and, in the process, gave wings to my dream. Quite honestly, Short Post could not have crossed these milestones without the unflinching support of its contributing editors. Like all start-ups, we have seen our share of ups and downs, but these editors have stood by us like a rock. I take this opportunity to doff my hat to them.
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We all know that Covid-19 has reset businesses worldwide, and the media sector is no exception. In the post-Covid era, investors have become more cautious and selective—and advertisers too. To compound matters, the entry of AI has disrupted the media landscape in equal measure. So far, we have managed to hold our ground, hopeful that some angel investors will take a shine to us.
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