Anita Katyal | Fuss over edited Amit Shah clip; how Priyanka got her ‘Bangla’ bag
Irrespective of who is to blame for last week’s scuffle between MPs of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress on the Parliament House premises, the fact is that the Narendra Modi government was rattled by the campaign launched by a united Opposition against home minister Amit Shah for what it described as “derogatory” references to Babasaheb Ambedkar in his Rajya Sabha speech. The Congress circulated a clip of Mr Shah’s speech to prove its point. Here, the Congress appears to have learnt from the BJP’s IT cell which has edited innumerable speeches of Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders to show them in poor light. Coming at a time when all political parties are seeking to appropriate Ambedkar’s legacy with an eye on the dalit vote, Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended Mr Shah in a series of tweets in which he also attacked the Congress with the use of extreme terms like its “rotten ecosystem”. This was followed the next day with the BJP amassing its MPs outside Parliament as a counter to the Opposition protests.
A nervous Congress rushed into damage control mode last week when Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra stirred a controversy by carrying a tote bag to Parliament with Palestine written on it. The BJP lost no time in accusing her of minority appeasement, stating that while she was sympathetic to the Palestine cause, Priyanka had not spoken about the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh. Finding itself on the backfoot, the Congress went on an overdrive to procure a fresh set of bags with Bangladesh emblazoned on them. A batch of hundred cloth bags were ordered from Tirupur in Tamil Nadu. These were stitched overnight so they could reach before the Parliament session commenced the next day so that Priyanka could carry this bag. The bags were said to have been procured with the help of Kanyakumari MP Vijay Vasanth who has contacts with several vendors in Tirupur. He had also helped organise cloth bags and T-shirts during Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Army chief Upendra Dwivedi ‘s recent actions have raised quite a few eyebrows within the service and invited open criticism from veterans for bending backwards to please the political establishment. According to the buzz in Army circles, this could be because Gen. Dwivedi’s elevation as Army chief was not a smooth affair. Apparently, the Modi government was not too pleased because his stint as Northern Army commander witnessed a spike in terror strikes in the Jammu region. It was speculated that this was the reason the government delayed announcing his name as Army chief, giving his predecessor an extension. Gen. Dwivedi recently courted controversy when the painting showing the ceremonial surrender of Pakistani soldiers to the Indian Army following the 1971 war removed from his South Block office and replaced with a garish painting with mythological images from the Mahabharata, a portrait of Chanakya along with tanks, planes and submarines. Dismayed veterans said this was an insult to those who fought and died in the 1971 war and blamed the Army chief for bringing religion into the armed forces. Gen. Dwivedi was also in the news when he went to Prayagraj on the anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition and spoke appreciatively of the collaboration between the Army and local civil administration in the redevelopment of the historic Patalpuri Temple and other religious places.
It was a book launch on Bollywood actresses but Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor made political capital out of it by using the occasion to pay homage to both soldiers who laid down their lives in the 1971 war and Indira Gandhi for her able leadership because of which India registered a historic victory. Participating in a discussion on retired diplomat Surendra Kumar’s book, Unforgettable Divas of Bollywood, Mr Tharoor first spoke at length about the contribution of women in Indian cinema, how they have put the spotlight on gender and social issues through their roles while many have taken up causes outside their work and still others made a mark in public life. Since the programme was held on December 16, celebrated as Vijay Diwas to commemorate India’s victory in the 1971 war, Mr Tharoor took full advantage of this and ended his talk with a tribute to Indira Gandhi and the soldiers who died in the war.
While his cousins are constantly in the news, Varun Gandhi is neither seen nor heard these days. For starters, he’s no longer an MP as he was denied a ticket by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the last Lok Sabha election. Currently at a loose end, Varun is spending most of his time at his Delhi farmhouse or travelling abroad. However, he is also said to be exploring other options. According to the Delhi political grapevine, Varun is in touch with a leader of a regional party and is not averse to switching sides if he gets the right offer. Though Varun and the regional party leader are on friendly terms, the latter is learnt to have remarked jokingly that a “A Mercedes part would not fit into a Fiat.” But then politics is the art of possible.