Faux pas
Sonia unwittingly reveals the party’s top 10
Congress president Sonia Gandhi last week invited election strategist Prashant Kishor to give a presentation to the party brass on his strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The party leaders she invited to attend the session revealed to the Congress rank and file the hierarchy in the minds of the Gandhis. They were immediately termed as Sonia’s top ten. These ten leaders were: Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, A K Antony, Ambika Soni, Digvijaya Singh, Mukul Wasnik, K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh and Ajay Maken. Not only the names of attendees, but also those who were not invited were a subject of animated discussion among the Congressmen. Questions were asked if leaders like P Chidambaram, Kamal Nath, Randeep Surjewala, besides the two CMs — Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel — had fallen out of favour with the Gandhis. As the talk of new favourites became pervasive, the leadership moved quickly and arranged for a few more presentations by Kishor. Sources said there was no other reason for Kishor’s repeated presentations except to quell the talk of emergence of new favourites by engaging all top leaders in the process of consultation.
Tale of satrap
Hooda wants to have the cake and eat it too
Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s efforts to reach out to G-23 dissidents are turning out to be a one-way street. She has reportedly promised a Rajya Sabha seat to leader of the rebellious group Ghulam Nabi Azad and Haryana Congress presidentship to Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a post he has been coveting for long. The party has also offered to give the post to his son Deepender Singh Hooda, if he so chooses. Hooda is at present holding the post of Congress Legislature Party leader in the Haryana Assembly, which makes him the Leader of Opposition. Sonia wants to give the post of the Leader of Opposition to Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of late Bhajan Lal. But Hooda wants his protégé Geeta Bhukkal to be given the important post of the Leader of Opposition. The Congress leadership has asked him to choose between the state party presidentship or the CLP leadership, and told him that he cannot have both. Sources said Hooda would ultimately let go of the CLP leadership and take charge as the state party president.
Hindi imposition?
BJP stops issuing press release in English
The ruling BJP’s talk of making Hindi a pan India language is no lip service. The party takes the promotion of Hindi very seriously. PM Narendra Modi has said that English cannot remain the medium of running the government, and has ordered use of Hindi for all government communications. Home minister Amit Shah recently said that Hindi, not English, should be the link language for the countrymen. He said citizens of states who speak different languages should use Hindi instead of English to communicate with each other. There was the usual pushback from southern states which said the preservation of culture and tradition was closely linked to the survival of language, and the attempt to impose Hindi tantamounts to an attack on their culture and tradition. The BJP, however, is pushing ahead with the promotion of Hindi. There are reports that the party’s central headquarters has stopped issuing press releases in English. The releases are issued in Hindi. Protests from media persons who cannot read Hindi have been ignored and they have been asked to make an effort to learn the national language.