Knight Out
IAS officer Ubagarampillai Sagayam, slender at 53, has become a Twitter hero. This is after he spent a night at the site of the infamous human sacrifice burial ground in the alleged multi-crore granite scam, just to protect evidence—a day before the exhumation. Sagayam, who has a bit of a cult following, is being seen in New Delhi as the ‘ultimate rationalist’.
Rahul Vs RS Lobby
The Rahul Gandhi camp in the Congress is a disappointed lot, because of his elevation as President or even ‘Working President’ not having come through. This despite Sonia Gandhi making clear that executive decision-making powers will be vested on him. A senior Congress cabal, comprising Rajya Sabha stalwarts, is seen to have scuttled Rahul’s elevation for the time being. Even though Sonia may be in principle with them and her heart is set on it, she has had to go along with the desire of the RS group who are key to Congress politics now.
House Jinx
India’s top bureaucrats are seen to be in for bad luck if their actions do not match with the expectations of the political masters. LC Goyal, who had to go as Union Home Secretary despite being an old BJP supporter, is the latest instance. Some babus seem to think the bad luck flows from the designated residence of the Union Home Secretary, 3 Moti Bagh. So much so that the new Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi—a Modi favourite—is reluctant to leave the Lodhi Road bungalow which he was occupying as Finance Secretary. The occupants of 3 Moti Bagh have had a long run of misfortune. Before Goyal, Anil Goswami and R K Singh being the other two examples. Goswami was sacked and Singh had an uneasy equation with UPA’s Sushil Kumar Shinde.
A Tamil Nadu gambit
The BJP’s much-desired entry into the Tamil Nadu political landscape may come about through specific community outreach. To this end, a delegation of scheduled caste community led by Devendra Kula Vellalar was given audience with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The facilitators were BJP chief Amit Shah and general secretary Muralidhar Rao. The community has a presence in southern Tamil Nadu which the BJP sees as on open field. Despite RSS’s formal reluctance to cultivate caste groups, Velarar community’s demand to be accorded a single caste identity on the SC list is being considered. Now, they appear as various separate groups on the reservation list.
Friends of Rahman
The liberal academic stars Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, with artists Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Vivan Sundaram and others, are up in arms. But this time, it is not a Hindutva bogey object. At the receiving end of their wrath is Mumbai’s Raza Academy, a Sunni group that issued a fatwa against music composer A R Rahman for giving the score to Iranian maestro Majid Majidi’s film on the Prophet.
Vote-cutter
A new word has entered the political lexicon in view of MIM’s foray into Bihar: Vote-cutter and its cruder Hindi variant.