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Piqued by Rahul’s approach

People are constantly surprised by the different approaches of Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul. Over the years, Sonia has overcome…

Piqued by Rahul’s approach

Rahul Gandhi (FACEBOOK)

People are constantly surprised by the different approaches of Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul. Over the years, Sonia has overcome her natural diffidence and mingles with people quite comfortably. Rahul continues to hang back and avoids meeting people he doesn’t know even after 13 years in active politics.

The contrast was starkly evident at the recent launch of a book dedicated to Indira Gandhi in her centennial year. The book was released by vice president Hamid Ansari. Sonia was absent because of health issues. Rahul was present.

A high tea followed the event and a packed hall full of young people expected to use the opportunity to meet Rahul and chat with him. But the Congress vice president disappeared immediately after the function.

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Observers later remarked that Sonia would never have vanished like her son. She would have stayed back for the high tea and met members of the audience which included the media. She has always done so at every function she has graced, whether at Teen Murti Library or Jawahar Bhavan or the Congress headquarters in Akbar Road.

But Rahul seemed uninterested. Needless to say, once they saw their boss vanish, all Congress leaders present at the function also disappeared. No one bothered to stay back to chat with guests, most of whom were Youth Congress workers. The graceless behavior only underlined how disconnected the seniors are from their younger members. It’s hardly an encouraging sign for the future.

Preparing the ground?

Two decisions by the Modi government in recent weeks are being read as powerful signals that a Modi favourite, financial services secretary Hansmukh Adhia, is poised to be the next cabinet secretary.

One was the decision to give the current cabinet secretary P K Sinha a one-year extension till mid-June 2018. This means he will have completed three years in the job when he retires next year. The extension is being seen as a move to keep the seat warm for a particular officer.

The other was to appoint a possible contender for cabinet secretary, Sanjay Mitra, as defence secretary with a fixed term of two years. With this, Mitra is effectively out of the race for cabinet secretary.

On the other hand, Adhia will be a few months away from superannuation when Sinha finishes his term in June 2018. This puts him in line for appointment as cabinet secretary with a twoyear term. He will thus oversee the Modi government in the run-up to the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Adhia is said to be Modi’s blue-eyed bureaucrat. He was entrusted with the demonetisation project. He worked on the demonetisation blueprint in absolute secrecy with a team of trusted people. The rich political dividends reaped by Modi from demonetisation in the UP assembly polls have only deepened the PM’s faith in Adhia.

The Modi-Adhia bond goes back to the year 2003 when Modi was chief minister of Gujarat and Adhia was appointed as his principal secretary. Apparently, Modi developed enormous trust and faith in the bureaucrat. Another bond is yoga. Adhia is believed to have introduced Modi to yoga.

The Gujarat officer was brought to Delhi within a year of Modi assuming office as PM. He was appointed to the critical finance ministry and is believed to be the virtual boss there with a direct line to the PM.

In a spot

Congress spokespersons found themselves in a real spot when the CBI raided the homes and offices of P Chidambaram and son Karti. The former finance minister did not bother to brief his party on the substantive points of the allegations leveled by the CBI.

Consequently, Congress spokespersons were left scratching their heads on how to defend their leader. They had no talking points. So they decided to make a political argument by accusing the government of vendetta politics and a witch hunt to silence Chidambaram.

But the political argument looked like a weak defence, particularly after the CBI held a formal press conference and listed the charges against Karti and by implication, against Chidambaram.

Significantly, neither Chidambaram nor Karti cared to rebut the substantive part of the CBI case and also fell back on the political argument. But as the Modi government moves to tighten the noose around father and son, Congress circles feel that the Chidambarams will have to come up with a proper defence, not just in court but to the media as well.

Mamata tickled

Mamata Banerjee is so tickled that a Bengali journalist, Gautam Lahiri, has been elected president of the Delhi Press Club that she insisted on dropping in at the club on her recent visit to the Capital. It was a last minute decision so the Press Club was unable to rustle a special welcome for her.

But Didi, informal as always, didn’t mind. She sat in the no smoking room and sipped tea and nibbled on pakoras while chatting with Lahiri and a few other journalists who happened to be present. Her chief query to Lahiri was to find out how he as a Bengali journalist managed to get elected as Press Club president in Delhi. Lahiri’s reply was witty.

“Scientific rigging,” he told her with a straight face. Scientific rigging is the charge Mamata used to level at the CPI(M) for winning elections that allowed the Left to rule Bengal for 34 years.

Mamata was given a brief history of the building that houses the Press Club. It is quite rundown and ramshackle but its main claim to fame is that in the 1950s, the bungalow used to be occupied by Feroze and Indira Gandhi in happier times when the former was a fiery young parliamentarian.

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