Omar vs Mehbooba
Jammu & Kashmir has not only lost its special status, it has been bifurcated and downgraded from a state with a six-year long assembly tenure to a union territory. Mainstream politicians of all hues who have kept the Indian democratic machinery functional in Jammu and the Valley have been taken into preventive custody. Still some things don’t change, even in the face of momentous transformation. One such thing is, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti’s relations.
The two former CMs of the erstwhile state of J&K got into such a fierce altercation that one of them had to be moved to another detention location: from Hari Niwas Palace to a forest department hut in picturesque Chashmeshahi. The verbal duel, it seems, was over who was more responsible for rolling out the red carpet for BJP. Ever since the shift to the hut, a forlorn Omar has asked for gym equipment and video games that don’t require internet connectivity. As for Mehbooba, she’s mostly praying through the day and is on a fruit diet.
A House for Mr Kharge
The buzz is that Mallikarjun Kharge took up a house in Delhi on the bidding of Sonia Gandhi, the onceagain Congress president. This was, of course, before she was reinstated as party chief. It seems the indication from her was that Kharge would succeed Rahul Gandhi as the interim chief. However, the move was tactically scuttled by the northern satraps and a close aide of Sonia Gandhi. Sensing the change in atmospherics, Kharge was the first to demand that Rahul withdraw his resignation. The rest is a familiar story: no-one-except-a- Gandhi-can-lead-the-Congress.
PM @ Home
At the President’s August 15 ‘At Home’, an annual protocol event, it seems PM Narendra Modi was in a rather jovial mood. Asked by a veteran woman journalist why he did not mention Pakistan even once in his I-Day speech, he laughed out loud: “Aap log haina uske liye”! In the debate over the PM’s talk on the population bomb and the announcement of the new post of Chief of Defence Staff, what was mostly ignored was his overture to Afghanistan on its 100th year of independence, earned much before India. The other was the way he isolated Pakistan in the neighbourhood, by telling all others — Sri Lanka and Bangladesh included — where their problem of terrorism emanates from. Without naming Islamabad’s terror factory by name though.
A vote for Israel
Another quiet development that went unnoticed was India’s vote for Israel against a resolution on Palestine. It’s remarkable because the last time, when India had only abstained from voting against Israel on a resolution (during Sushma Swaraj’s tenure), there was a huge furore. Not only in Parliament, but outside too. But this time, it went without a whimper.
The vote in favour of Israel was over the status of an NGO which Palestine calls a human rights body, but Israel asserts has terror links. India’s internal situation, Kashmir in other words, could have been one of the reasons for the favourable vote on the resolution. New Delhi’s relations with Tel Aviv have of course been growing incrementally. So much so that many in Srinagar believe the meticulous security arrangement that made the clampdown total — including the remapping of possible traffic routes — was done with Israel’s help!