A Holi Holy-day
Their ‘elitism’ under constant attack, the first family of the Congress party decided to play Holi with the hoi polloi, the beat reporters included. There was a twist though. That Rahul Gandhi would be at the AICC lawns for the ‘festival of colours’ was known a day in advance, the surprise was in Sonia Gandhi joining him. She was seen putting colours on the party leaders. A new group of Gandhi family loyalists emerged; Shobha Oza, Randeep Surjewala, Ajay Maken along with Motilal Vora took part. Missing were K Raju, P C Joshi, Kumari Selja, Ambika Soni, also diehard G-family backers.
Answer in Rajya Sabha
Half the problem of Harish Rawat government in Uttarakhand is to do with the Rajya Sabha seat from his state. Prominent Congress rebel, Vijay Bahuguna, switched to BJP on being denied a ticket from the lower house. Rawat wanted it for Uttarakhand PCC chief Kishore Upadhyaya. The other heavyweight rebel Harak Singh Rawat, meanwhile, wanted it for his wife Deepti Rawat or friend Lakshmi Rana. Now, the party’s high command will take the final call. It seems they still think the issue can be resolved through barter of the seat, not factoring in the damage potential of Bahuguna and his powerful backers.
The Trivedi Bomb
Much to the embarrassment of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, TMC MP from Barrackpore, Dinesh Trivedi, dropped a bomb. He told industry honchos at an exclusive trade meet that the party biggies, caught on the bribe-tapes, should resign. Trivedi thereafter was given much play by a local Bengali daily, reacting to which an angry Banerjee declared ‘an unholy nexus of CPM-Congress-BJP-and-ABP’ has formed against her.
Afridi Afridi
So, in the fitness of things, Shahid Afridi hit a last shot that no one could catch. The only connection he would have had with Kashmir, before he got himself embroiled in a spat with his country’s cricket board, was a cousin by the name of Saquib. A Harkat-ul-Ansar militant, he lived for two years in Anantnag up to 2003, and often boasted about his connection to locals, before the inevitable caught up with him. His more illustrious cousin, of whose exact age only his biological parents have any idea, passed into lore this week with another shot he shouldn’t have attempted. “India has given me love, more than Pakistan,” he said. He was caught in the deep. But that’s cricket. Sedition laws don’t apply.
No Match
UP CM Akhilesh Yadav’s cricket team not only won against the bureaucrats—IAS XI—in a friendly match in Lucknow, but the CM, who batted like Virender Sehwag, was also declared the ‘Man of Match’. But was it all pre-determined?