New Delhi
It Takes Two To Tango
What’s brewing between Subramanian Swamy and UPA’s former law minister Hansraj Bharadwaj? The buzz is that the two have joined in a “secret project”, apparently with blessings “from the top”. On the anvil is an innocent sounding report on the judiciary—but the real objective, apparently, is an independent appraisal of attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi and solicitor-general Ranjit Kumar, both walking mates of finmin Arun Jaitley at Lodhi Garden. As it is, Swamy has declared that the two should go for their handling of the Uttarakhand and Kohinoor cases. Little wonder that Swamy is Bharadwaj’s favourite dining companion.
Andhra Pradesh
A House For Mr Naidu
Chandrababu Naidu has shifted from his Jubilee Hills residence since it’s apparently not fully vaastu-compliant. Ever since he became chief minister two years ago, Naidu has changed his camp office four times. His latest abode is Madinaguda, about 10 km from HiTec City. Sprawling over several acres, this is where Naidu now stays whenever he is in Hyderabad. Vaastu requirements had earlier prompted Naidu to remodel his office at the secretariat, but lately he has stopped going there entirely. No prizes for guessing who bears the cost of all this zipping around.
Uttar Pradesh
All In The Family
Akhilesh Yadav may have chosen to laugh away his father Mulayam Singh Yadav’s many public slights, but the latest actions of the Samajwadi Party chief—or netaji, as he is popularly known—seem to have become difficult for the young chief minister to ignore. As it is, nominating several controversial persons, like Amar Singh, Beni Prasad Yadav Verma and builder Sanjay Seth was weighing heavy in Akhilesh’s mind. But the induction of his brother Prateek’s wife into the political arena—making her the 20th member of the Yadav clan in the Samajwadi Party hierarchy—seems to have added fuel to the family fire. And this comes ahead of elections—Uttar Pradesh goes to the polls next year.
New Delhi
A Lot’s In A Name
Smriti Irani lacks anything but a sense of humour. In a Twitter blowout with a Congress spokesperson who had complained of ‘Nirbhaya-like’ rape, when the journalist Mihir Sharma tweeted, “This is exactly how a responsible Union minister should respond to woman reporting a rape threat. Right? Right”, Irani was contrite. Later, however, she apologised: “I seemed to have mistaken you for your namesake in Outlook.” When Sharma pointed out that there were too many Mihirs in the world, Madam Minister concurred: “Tell me about it I saw 4 of them change in 1 serial :-)”
Heard Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s name is doing the rounds as potential vice-president when incumbent Hamid Ansari, already in his second term, retires in August 2017
Overheard After the PTI board rebuffed a bid to install an Arun Jaitley nominee as editor, Prasar Bharti has revived efforts to lower the news agency’s annual subscription fee from Rs 9 cr to Rs 2 cr
Contributed by Prarthna Gahilote, Sharat Pradhan, Mihir Srivastava, Bula Devi and Pritam Sengupta
