COOL BREEZE

The Political Chai

Akhilesh Yadav was one of the star attractions at the India News Manch last week. Apart from politics he also commented on a lighter note how he makes tea every morning at this gym and then quipped that, those who make tea go on to become Prime Minister! When asked if the I.N.D.I.A group was a cricket team, then who would be the captain, coach or the highest run-maker, he was quick to retort that he would definitely be the highest run-maker. As for the matter of a PM candidate from the Opposition, he said unlike the BJP, the opposition has many choices depending on what the nation wants—if the public wants an older person, younger face or a woman, they have it all. Well that’s one way of looking at it.

Last man standing in VRS

Much is being made about the decision to deny the BJP’s old guard a chance at Chief Ministership in the three states that just went to the polls

. Vasundhara Raje, Raman Singh and Shivraj Singh Chouhan all could have been made Chief Ministers—all belonged to the old guard, the Vajpayee-Advani era. And all three were looked over in favour of new, and younger, faces, leading the media to quip that the BJP followed the VRS: Vasundhara, Raman Singh and Shivraj, otherwise also known as the Voluntary Retirement Scheme. What is interesting is that now there are very few faces left from the Vajpayee-Advani era. In fact, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is probably the last man standing from the Vajpayee-Advani cabinet. Perhaps this is because it was Rajnath who was the BJP president in 2013-14 when Narendra Modi was projected as the party’s PM face, and unlike some of the older guard, he did not demur but facilitated a transition that involved him stepping back from the limelight.

A Daughter’s Tribute

Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmistha’s book based on her father’s diary is currently trending in the media. The former President’s habit of writing notes in a diary every evening is well known. He left behind as many as 51 diaries and it is to Sharmistha’s credit that she has reproduced them in a very engaging and readable style, adding her own impressions to the events of the time. The interactions with her father specially bring a smile for in these we see the Pranab-Da that we all knew as reporters, for he didn’t hold back in scolding, correcting or praising any one of us. Sharmistha reveals how as a young child when she saw boxes of files come home for her father’s signature, she also signed one of the files thinking that if her father could sign so many why couldn’t she sign at least one. Well, that created its own issues, for Pranab was clearly not amused as he had always been a stickler for playing it by the rule book. Pranab Mukherjee’s observations on Rahul Gandhi have been doing the rounds but what is also there in the book is his interaction with Indira Gandhi, someone whom he saw as a mentor. Once, after he was made a Union Minister, she saw Pranab in a half-sleeves shirt, she told him that now as a minister he must be formally dressed. After that Pranab was always seen in his trademark bundgalas. She also pulled his leg when once she saw Pranab eating an ice cream and said that since he was not very tall and could not grow vertically he should be careful not to grow horizontally and become rotund like the late Piloo Modi (who was also standing nearby). It is this banter that adds to the political heft of the diaries, bringing back an era gone by.