Priyanka walks the talk
Without ever holding a party position, Priyanka Gandhi has always had a key role to play in the affairs of the Congress. In the initial days of her mother Sonia Gandhi’s foray into politics and Parliament, she used to be her unofficial aide. In a more formal role, she has been managing her mother and brother’s Rae Bareli and Amethi Lok Sabha constituencies for years. Now, it seems she is doubling up as her brother’s ear-to-the-ground.
On her regular hour-long evening walks at Lodhi Gardens or Nehru Park, she often gets a journalist to accompany her. That’s when she’s not jogging and the SPG is not shooing away intruders from her route. The trio, Rahul, Sonia and Priyanka, meet for an hour thereafter to exchange notes. The Congress leaders call these G-family meetings “mini CWC”.
Double Defence
The spokesperson’s job at the protocol-bou
nd Defence Ministry, with the fancy designation of Director General, is a rather prestigious one. The post was created, with ceremony and decoration, out of a Defence Minister-headed committee recommendation, way back in 1947. The panel even designated a specific room for the incumbent, with a designated telephone line, in the very nucleus of power, South Block, which has continued since. So has the practice of the appointment of a spokesperson through the I&B Ministry.
This continued till the then Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee tweaked the rules in 2005. Accepting the recommendations of another panel, which came to be known as the Kargil Review Committee, it was decided that the spokesperson would be picked in consultation with both the I&B and Defence ministers, with a minimum two-year tenure. Now, in a curious development, the Defence Ministry has ended up with not one, but two spokespersons.
One appointed by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and another by I&B Minister Smriti Irani. No sooner had Sitharaman chosen Swarnashree Rao Rajashekar, an Indian Defence Accounts Service officer, as the Ministry’s voice, Irani appointed Indian Information Service officer Nidhi Pandey to exercise her ministry’s right. Sitharaman, who had had to do without a DG or an ADG Defence Information for almost a month, had logistical reasons to jump the gun. Thankfully, Pandey is on extended childcare leave, easing out the possibility of a confrontation between two spokespersons.
Look East, West hears
The BJP dispensation’s undesignated ambassador-at-large or principal foreign policy wonk Ram Madhav’s vocalising of PM Modi’s ‘Look East’ mantra at the Raisina dialogue—best exemplified by the invitation given to the ASEAN country heads this Republic Day—got much coverage. But it did not quite please the US foreign office reps attending the meet. Much to their annoyance, Madhav sat with a group of media persons, extolling the virtues of the Prime Minister’s Look East thrust in a world where American dominance is over—within their earshot!
Not so holy!
The cow is holier than thou—but apparently not her products. Any financial transaction around the cow is banned, unless it’s for her upkeep. But her byproducts—the putatively medicinal ‘gau mutra’ (cow urine) and the age-old ‘gobar tika’, the fragrant cowdung cakes used for purifying the air—are available for retail trade. Both have many ritualistic uses as well. Now, a section of saffronites and traditionalists frequenting the sales counter at the BJP’s Ashoka Road office are majorly upset. It’s about the GST bracket these products have been put under.
The holy cow, of course, has been left beyond the pale of taxation. But bracketed under packaged water, cow urine is attracting 12 per cent GST. And the perfumed cowdung cake is coming in for 6 per cent GST, just like processed and packaged camphor. Not to mention the high rates on branded milk. The FM may soon expect a delegation-level intervention from our seers to correct this anomaly. The pious are also hoping that the Karnataka elections may come in as a divine intervention, and bring relief.
Santwana Bhattacharya
The author is Political Editor, TNIE.
Email: santwana@newindianexpress.com