Lutyens’ Delhi’s Bollywood Connect
The 1940s vintage Lodhi Colony in Central Delhi had survived as one of those leafy, quiet government quarters on the edge of Lutyens’ city all these years, dressed up in stolid municipality yellow. Till a group of graffiti artists from all over the world splashed some of the walls with vibrant rainbow hues; the eye-catching images that took shape put old Lodi Colony in the headlines. Bollywood seems to have noticed. Residents woke up this weekend to some filmi buzz and stardust as Sridevi and Akshaye Khanna landed up with crew for the shooting of a film called Mom. We don’t know yet if there’s any Rahul-Sonia angle to the story.
No Fairytale Ending
This story of a raja is no fairytale. It’s full of spectrum and spleen. But for the DMK-Congress alliance, A Raja was all set to release his biography focusing on the 2G days, apparently with an insider’s take on Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram and even the occupant of a high constitutional office. But his plans of releasing the book in tandem with the reservation of a court order is now in quandary. Still, a few in his party are keeping a close watch on his next move.
Land in Report
The Anwar Manippady report on the Wakf Board land scam has put the Congress in Karnataka on the backfoot. Apparently, 10 party bigwigs have been allegedly named in the `1 lakh crore scam, including the likes of Rahman Khan, C M Ibrahim, Roshan Baig, N A Harris, Dharam Singh, M Kharge and Qamarul Islam. Despite a high court order to table the report, the state government has hemmed and hawed. This is also because after Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Congress expects a coup in Karnataka.
Big Fat Wedding
Self-proclaimed Congress supporter Tehseen Poonawalla’s wedding to Monika Vadera, Sonia Gandhi’s controversial son-in-law Robert Vadera’s young cousin, was a talked about event. Not only because Sonia and Priyanka were seen openly bonding with the Vadera family after a long time, but also because of the attendance from the other side of the fence: BJP veteran L K Advani, the Gandhi’s estranged cousin Varun Gandhi and BJP spokespersons Sudhanshu Trivedi, Sudhanshu Mittal and Sambit Patra.