The offer of support from AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa is ‘too hot’ for the Congress to handle. This was admitted by the trusted troubleshooter of the Congress, Pranab Mukherjee, in a lighter vein. At a dinner hosted by parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal, Pranab, was quizzed about the offer. Pranab, who was finding the soup hot, decided to remain mum. When asked whether the question was as hot as the soup, he snapped back, “It’s too hot!” In fact the offer has surprised everyone, including the NDA. The Opposition is of the view that Jayalalithaa has jumped the gun. She should have waited for the Congress to decide for itself how it wants to come out of the imbroglio. Though the Congress is compelled to defend A Raja, it is unhappy to carry on the extra burden of corruption of its coalition partner. It is mainly the lack of personal equations between Jaya and Sonia that keeps the two parties apart. It is unlikely that there would a repeat of the famous tea party of 1999, which brought the two together.
Obama’s dinner
Apparently there was a mess up over dinner invites for the BJP top-brass during the visit of US President Barack Obama. While NDA working chairman L K Advani and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley were invited for Manmohan Singh’s dinner, Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj was conspicuous by her absence from the guests list. Similarly, for the banquet hosted by the president, Sushma Swaraj was invited well in advance, but the invite for Jaitley was faxed on the day of banquet. A surprised Jaitley was clearly not ready to go merely on the basis of a fax. But late in the evening, the formal invite was delivered. The presence of Rahul Gandhi at the high table of the US First Couple at the PM’s dinner raised several eyebrows. Is this the way to promote dynasty, wondered an invitee. The American guests were surprised over Indian national dress, as dresses of invitees to banquet ranged from Jodhpuri suit, to dhoti and sherwani. An American invitee chuckled that they only need to have black tie. Although the romance with the erstwhile Soviet Union is long over, Awara hu of that era was played at the banquet, apart from Jai Ho.
Michelle impresses
US First Lady Michelle Obama was under close watch. A senior politician was overheard telling Hema Malini that both Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama reminded him of her film, Seeta Aur Geeta. Hillary dressed like Geeta, mostly in suits, while Michelle was like Seeta, always decked-up in glamorous and graceful dresses. At the state functions, Michelle covered herself to ankles, in keeping with the sensitivities of the people.
Obama query
US President Barack Obama had a curious question to one of leaders. How come the Left has survived in India, when it was fading out the world over? Obama was told that Left survives only in some pockets of the country and that, too, where it carried out movements in the past.