The swinging ball
While many from ‘other walks of life’ are planning a political debut, particularly in Tamil Nadu, the buzz in capital circles is that cricket legend Kapil Dev too could be marking his run-up all over again —provided he decides to take the plunge for an altogether different kind of innings.
The buzz is, the BJP is wooing him. The nominated Rajya Sabha seat from which motormouth Navjot Sidhu resigned, before switching camps to the Congress, has since been filled by Bengali actress-turned-BJP leader Roopa Ganguly. The former ace cricketer’s family would not have him join ‘without a position commensurate with his stature’; a close friend indicated that Kapil-paaji’s aware he’s a national icon and politics is not quite his pitch. We need to wait to see which way the ball swings.
The Chhattisgarh sleaze tape scandal
Senior journalist Vinod Verma’s arrest from his Ghaziabad residence has sent a chill down the spine of Delhi mediapersons for two reasons. First, its manner: the Chhattisgarh cops arrived at Verma’s doorstep in the dead of night, when he had no access to legal aid. And second, his version of what was recovered from his house (‘just a pen-drive’), differs considerably from what the cops say (500 CDs, cash etc).
Next day, Verma managed to throw just that line at the TV crews in wait before he was driven off to Raipur by road. Verma’s Congress connection, it’s believed, has landed him in trouble. He comes from the same village as Chattisgarh PCC chief Bhupesh Baghel’s wife. Because of this village kinship, Verma, who runs his own digital media company now after a stint with BBC and Amar Ujala, was roped in to give lectures on how to use social media to state Congress leaders.
The Raman Singh government’s pre-emptive late-night strike, followed by an FIR against Baghel as well, was meant to stop the release of a sleaze tape on his PWD minister. The state police, it seems, got a tip-off that a national daily was about to run a report. Now it seems a CBI probe has been ordered to track the original CD! If only such alacrity was on view in other cases.
Insurance plea
Judging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be in a magnanimous mood — since the Gujarat elections are bringing a bonanza for all and sundry — a group of journalists thought it fit to place their old demand for an insurance scheme before him at a luncheon meeting he hosted for them. Since the BJP government is in damage control mode, they presumed success. Accordingly, some of them reported that the PM readily agreed and even directed I&B Minister Smriti Irani to take a blueprint of the proposal from the media group and actively work towards realising it. Others say, though, that’s there’s no real assurance about the insurance policy yet!
Presidential speech
President Ram Nath Kovind’s speech at the Karnataka assembly created headlines across the country. While CM Siddaramaiah hailed it as sign of ‘statesmanship’, the Karnataka BJP was quick to blame the state government for the input on ‘heroic’ Tipu Sultan and his famed Mysore rockets. All governments and institutions are expected to provide talking points to the President when he’s scheduled to deliver a speech, but the speech itself, Rashtrapati Bhawan confirms, was written at their end.
Santwana Bhattacharya
The author is Political Editor, TNIE.
Email: santwana@newindianexpress.com