Visva Bharati & ‘Acharya’ Modi
Gurudev Tagore’s Visva Bharati is getting ready for the first visit of the current Acharya (Chancellor), which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to Santiniketan later in May, likely after the panchayat polls.
There’s anticipation that the Bangladesh PM too may make it to the university town at the same time to inaugurate the Bangladesh Bhawan, provided that the atmospherics of her election-bound country permit a visit to Kolkata without a mention of an accord on Teesta. Well, all this must have brought Tagore’s university on the PM’s radar.
He gave reprints of Chinese artist Xu Beihong’s work done at Visva Bharati (though Tagore’s last visit to China, with Mao fervour on the rise, was not such a happy occasion). On honouring the creative, Modi has not entirely been even-handed.
Visva Bharati’s publication unit has been awaiting a foreword from the PM for the collected works of renowned Gujarati scholar-poet and Gandhian, Umashankar Joshi. Joshi was the first and only non-PM Chancellor of Visva Bharati. Two years and several reminders later, the collection is being printed without a foreword, to at least get it released by Modi.
Revolution @ Tripura
No one really anticipated the scale of the change in Tripura.
Biplab Deb, true to his name, has been giving the citizenry revolutionary ‘debavani’ (message from the god), from the origin of Internet to a coloured vision on beauty pageants, particularly Miss World. He set Twitter ablaze with his rather incisive take on civil engineering’s link to civil service.
Though sharing his deep knowledge on things ancient and modern with the commoners is his priority to keep his state in focus, his close aide explains, Biplab in his free time has been doing a lot of work. One of them being scuttling his predecessor’s plan to convert part of the Tripura royal palace into an archival museum on Tagore.
The national poet had spent time there, writing. Now with a foothold in the government and support of the CM, the royal family would rather retain the property than open it for a museum.
Kamal in MP
The decision to give the top party post in Madhya Pradesh to Kamal Nath came as surprise to many. Not to Jyotiraditya Scindia though. The latter has been told by the new CP that he’s not been giving enough time to the state, and Nath’s financial clout in the service of the party is known to everybody. What, however, is not being said is the Diggy Raja factor. If Nath is more of a Chhindwara phenomenon, Scindia’s popularity is not spread across the state. That leaves Digvijaya Singh as the only pan-MP Congress leader. Back from his successful Narmada Yatra, therefore, his verdict tilted the scale in favour of the veteran.
Another Tata deal
The Tatas seem all set to settle outstanding issues. After having hired former foreign secretary S Jaishankar to helm their international affairs, the buzz is that the Tatas are negotiating their dispute with the Pallonjis out of court. The figure floating around is a mind-blogging `1 lakh crore, in exchange of their 18 per cent stake, and a total tata-bye-bye for the Shapoorji Pallonji Group from the Tata Sons holdings. Ever since Cyrus Mistry’s acrimonious exit, the two sides have been fighting a bitter legal battle at the NCLT.
Jai Jai Shankar
S. Shankar’s appointment as the Tata Group’s global corporate affairs honcho has piqued some of his old friends in Lutyens’ Delhi and in the ‘foreign beat’.
Not because of the fat pay-packet that he’ll be getting (the figure has not been revealed though) nor the fact that the PMO gave him the NOC (waiving off the two-year cool-off period) rather fast without much ado, but that he had refused to speak to anyone on or off record, post retirement, citing the same cooling off period.
Oh! He was saved
It seems not one but two top Cabinet ministers advised on O Panneerselvam’s case, thus saving the TN Deputy CM from disqualification.
And, surprisingly, the advice was sent through CM Edapati Palanisamy’s close aides in Delhi.