Union Cabinet Minister Hardeep Puri hosted a tea for women journalists to celebrate Women’s Day. Apart from the delicious snacks served at the event there was also a meet the press where the questions ranged from ethanol, petroleum reserves to his days of growing up in the capital. The minister has also edited a book on Delhi University, “Celebrating 100 Glorious Years”, which has contributions by the minister himself, Shashi Tharoor, Dinesh Singh (former Vice Chancellor, Delhi University), Sanjeev Sanyal, Raian Karanjawala and Lakshmi Puri. The foreword is by Amitabh Bachchan, who writes about his days at Kirori Mal College and the fact that it was at DU that he received his first real encouragement as an actor.
Interestingly, Hardeep Puri writes about his college life, which included both being a student at Hindu College, and after his Masters, a teaching position at St Stephens. Debating was a passion since his student days, but it was only later when he became Secretary MEA he had a chance to peep into his security clearance folder and found that it contained references to his college debates where he had spoken in favour of Bangladesh’s liberation. Many of his colleagues who had taken a stand against the government of the day had their clearances delayed while applying for the MEA. As Puri recalls with a chuckle that the “source” who had informed the report did not realize that in a two-member debating team one participant has to speak for the motion and the other against. Had he been tasked to speak against the Liberation he would have done so and his clearance too may have been similarly delayed. But it was an enjoyable evening at the minister’s well curated lawns. As an aside, when a journo referred to him as a former diplomat the minister was quick to correct “once a diplomat, always a diplomat”. It was indeed a diplomatically, politically and gender equality correct evening.
The New Delhi CM
Now that Rekha Gupta has spent about a month in her new job, the capital is getting to know its new Chief Minister. A former Delhi University president, she is certainly no pushover and is slowly but surely coming into her own, despite being a first time MLA. She is the first to admit that the new job was not a dream come true as she had never dreamt that the Prime Minister would give her this honour. She speaks the right narrative of women-led development and is all too aware of the fact that as the BJP’s only woman Chief Minister she has some heavy lifting to do in terms of setting the right optics. At a media interaction recently she also displayed a penchant for sher and shayari, when she answered a question about being a walkover with a politician’s flourish, with a quote from Rahat Indori: shakhon se tut jaaen wo patte nahin hain hum, aandhi se koi keh de, apni auqad mein rahen (I am not a leaf that breaks from the bough, tell the storm to stay within its limits). Delhi is not going to be an easy city to win over, with Sheila Dikshit still topping the popularity charts when it comes to its best remembered CM; but Rekha Gupta doesn’t seem like one who is used to giving walkovers—though it is also true that unlike the Congress, the BJP top brass has its CMs on a much shorter leash. But watch this space.