No media on-board
During his tenure as President, Pranab Mukherjee always invited the media to travel with him abroad and on his domestic trips. Bengali journalists regularly went to Kolkata with him, and the other regional journalists to their respective state capitals. But President Ramnath Kovind will have none it. He has decided to do away with this practice of his predecessors.
So has Vice President Venkaiah Naidu. The trend of not taking plane-loads of media especially on foreign trips, was first stopped by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The PM began by restricting the media contingent to PIB officials and a Doordarshan crew. Off late, even the DD crew has been banned from travelling with the PM. Only his personal photographer and a small crew are allowed in the PM’s proximity, on-board. The President and the VP will also be doing the same. expulsion.
No Opp bites in RB
Though perceived to be low-key, President Ramnath Kovind is proving to be rather strict. He has already put an end to the practice of the opposition leaders addressing the media at the Rashtrapati Bhawan forecourt, after a meeting with the President. When the Congress, DMK and Left leaders met Kovind to demand a floor test in the Tamil Nadu assembly, they were politely asked to brief the media from the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
The AIADMK leaders of EPS-OPS, meanwhile, were given a tactical line by Home Minister Rajnath Singh—no need for a floor test since they were now a merged entity. If they want, the opposition can move a no-confidence motion. That way, any AIADMK MLA voting in favour of the opposition motion ignoring party whip, can be disqualified by the Speaker.
Logjam over Gadkhari
The Friday late evening meeting of the BJP Big-5 in the run-up to the Cabinet reshuffle happened at the Prime Minister’s behest. It was primarily to persuade Nitin Gadkari to take up the Defence portfolio. But Gadkari expressed reluctance to move out of Road, Highways and Shipping Ministry to either Railways or Defence. Finding another performing minister, like Piyush Goyal, for the Railways was not that difficult, but finding a Defence Minister proved a task. This is also because RSS-approval for this key portfolio was not coming easily.
Heralding views
Worried it’s somewhere losing the ideological battle along with the state polls, the grand old party is revamping its mouthpiece, the Sandesh, in an incremental way. Veterans, like Congress treasurer Motilal Vora, were initially of the view that Sandesh mostly read internally, needs no change of format or enhanced budget. But Rahul Gandhi’s adament, so they’ve come round to accept that it was more important for the Congress to put out its views on various policy issues to create a counter narrative, then just reports on AICC programmes. Even the National Herald is coming up with a weekend edition by September end—again to peddle the Congress views and not news.Vora has been holding hectic meetings and writing back updates to the Congress high-command.
Sonia steps in
Faced with revolt in Himachal Pradesh and Bihar, Sonia Gandhi did not wait for her son to return from his foreign trip to stem the rot. Himachal CM Virbhadra Singh threatened to split the party, if young PCC chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was not removed. Sukku was appointed by Rahul. What was surprising, Sonia immediately called up Virbhadra to calm him down. In Bihar, PCC chief Ashok Choudhury, formerly a minister in the Nitish Kumar Cabinet till the Gathbandhan broke, is now attempting to break the Congress. Sonia again promptly granted Choudhury an audience to see if the split could be avoided.
Santwana Bhattacharya
The author is Political Editor, TNIE. Email: santwana@ newindianexpress.com