A power packed punch
The India News conclave held last week saw an enviable line up of ministers, BJP and opposition leaders. From the Union Cabinet there was Anurag Thakur, Nitin Gadkari, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Piyush Goyal, Gajendra Shekhawat, Purshottam Rupala, Pralhad Patel and Jitendra Singh. From the opposition there was Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Tewari Asaduddin Owaisi, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Vivek Tankha, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Sushmita Dev, Raghav Chaddha and Rakesh Tikait, who may not be a full-fledged politician but is to be counted amongst the opposition. In fact as their sessions overlapped, Gadkari met Tikait and told him that he had a flight to catch but would meet soon. “Jab aapkahe” was the response. Anurag Thakur called this the age of the “infopedia” and asked the audience not to believe in WhatsApp forwards but to go to the real source. There was a spirited stand-off between Owaisi and Sudhanshu Trivedi. This was followed by a more nuanced one between Manish Tewari and Ram Madhav from China to the Constitution, going beyond the ambit of the topic at hand, but since both are so intelligent and articulate the duo passed the “out of syllabus” questions with flying colours. Rajeev defended the government’s handling of Covid and when his assurances were met with some scepticism he quipped, “it is the fundamental right of every journalist to be wrong”. (As much as it is the fundamental duty of every government to make good on its word?) Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal focused on Punjab politics, stating that while the AAP is taking on the BJP and the Congress, the latter is busy fighting amongst itself. From his speech it was clear that his main opposition in Punjab is the Congress and he did not mince words when taking on the sitting CM. And the government may not realise it but by suspending the opposition MPs it has given them a platform to unify on, for both the TMC’s Sushmita Dev and Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi stole the panel on the MPs’ suspension by taking on the government. In fact the Congress lost two articulate defenders when these two left the party. Another one who left the Congress was Scindia, and normally neither of these leaders who quit the party, takes potshots at the Gandhis, but at the conclave Scindia took an indirect dig at them, stating that “the country knows who is kaamdaar and who is naamdaar”. All in all, it was a power packed day.
The Selfies List
Those who were mobbed the most for selfies included Arvind Kejriwal, Anurag Thakur, Asaduddin Owaisi, Ram Madhav and Gautam Gambhir.
If the Cause is Right
Last week saw nearly 30 MPs get together for an unusual cause—in support of the livelihoods of the beedi women workers. The government is mulling an amendment to the Cigarette & Other Tobacco Products Act (COPTA) that will put in some stringent conditions making the beedi industry unviable. The launch of a book on the livelihoods of the beedi women workers had a very high powered attendance, with Union Minister Rameswar Teli on stage with Praful Patel, Sushil Modi, Dola Sen, along with the Cuban Ambassador, Ashwani Mahajan (Swadeshi Jagran Manch) and B. Surendran, organising secretary Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, along with 25 MPs in the audience. As Praful pointed out, “if Cuba can be known for cigars, why can we not have the same ecosystem for beedis?” The theme of the evening was to make a case against laws that would kill a “Made In India” brand that provides employment to over one crore women alone, with 80% in rural areas. “Most are Naxal areas,”pointed out Ashwani Mahajan. And added, “Unemployment already exists in India but if it’s made worse by a government policy then that’s unforgivable.” Surendran pointed out there’s a difference in the health impact of cigarettes, gutka and beedis so all should not be clubbed under the same laws. Alejandro Simancas, the Cuban Ambassador spoke of how his government supported the cigar industry making it a revenue earner and tourist attraction. Waving an unlit cigar on stage, he quipped, each one of these is a masterpiece, that is made to be burnt. Sushil Modi said the reason the government sometimes overlooks such concerns is because the beedi voices are weak and lawmakers don’t have all the information. However, the surprise of the evening was Union Minister for Labour, Rameswar Teli who listened intently to all the speeches, promising to take it up with his senior minister, even graciously asking one of the women MPs (Dola Sen) from the audience to come up and speak since the topic was related to women employment. Later when he took the mike he quipped that he had once smoked a beedi during his youth and said, it must be one of Praful’s brands. In fact even during the lighting of the lamp ceremony while searching for a matchbook, one of the guests on the dais quipped that for sure someone in this audience would have one.