Congress leader Shilpi Arora has become a driving force for farmers from her state Uttarakhand, who are protesting at the Ghazipur border at Delhi against the three farm laws. Shilpi has been organizing tractor rallies at Gadarpur, in Udham Singh Nagar district and has been visiting Ghazipur border regularly, driving a tractor loaded with farmers.
Shilpi has come to be known as “Tractor Rani”. And now the Congress has made her the party’s social media head for Uttarakhand. She earlier worked as the party spokesperson and held the post of general secretary. In the previous assembly polls, she had worked as the party’s campaign committee head. Uttarakhand goes to the assembly polls in January 2022.
As an advertising professional (she has been running an ad company in New Delhi for long), Shilpi is confident of handling the Congress social media campaign successfully. “The ruling BJP in the state is on a sliding path and we are going to make it more steep for them,” she told The Sunday Guardian.
Shilpi runs a pan-India NGO, Women Association for Training, Empowerment and Resettlement (WATER), which campaigns for all national and regional political parties to field more women candidates in elections.
what next for Azad?
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emotional farewell speech to senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad in the Rajya Sabha, speculation is rife over Azad’s political future. Azad is one of those 23 Congress leaders who in mid-2020 wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi calling for sweeping changes in the organisation. Many are wondering if Azad is a potential NDA-backed candidate for the post of Vice President/Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha or the Governor of an important state. But there are some who see him as a possible “saffron face” in Jammu and Kashmir, where the government plans to hold elections sometime in future. However, Congress has dismissed these rumours saying that “one should not read much into warm-hearted respect accorded to a senior Opposition leader by the PM”. A BJP leader told this writer that the next J&K Chief Minister would be from Jammu and Azad is from Srinagar.
Lahaul-Spiti Against Hydel Projects
Uttarakhand’s recent natural tragedy has shaken up the people of the adjoining hill state, Himachal Pradesh. They fear Uttarakhand-like catastrophe in certain upper reaches in their region. The people og Lahaul-Spiti district have raised their pitch against the proposed hydel projects in the ecologically fragile Chenab river basin. HP has allocated several power projects in the Chenab basin to prominent companies like the SJVNL, NHPC, HPCL and NTPC. In addition, several hydropower projects are in the pipeline in Tandi, Rashil, Bardang, Miyar and Jispa in Lahaul-Spiti. Lahaul-Spiti is home to over 100 glaciers, including state’s largest glacier Bada Shigri. Nearly 16 mega-hydel projects are proposed for the Chenab basin, in Lahaul and Pangi valley with a combined power generation capacity of over 5,000MW. Tandi and Goshal panchayats held a meeting to oppose the proposed projects. Tandi panchayat pradhan Virender Kumar told The Sunday Guardian that they are against power projects in Lahaul-Spiti “as it will adversely affect the ecology of the area.” According to Rigzin Semphel Heyreppa, president of the Jispa Dam Sangharsh Samiti, “In Kinnaur, projects have been set up indiscriminately, causing severe damage to the ecology.”
Rajnath Not A Buzurg
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury should be careful with Hindi words, although the Bengali leader speaks the language fluently. The other day, Chowdhury in his speech referred to Rajnath Singh as “buzurg” (elderly). Singh, nearly 70, just smiled. But many BJP MPs were not amused. Admitting that he should have used the right word for Singh, Chowdhury later explained that he meant to say “varisht” (senior) but had ended up saying “buzurg” in haste.
Chance Encounter Outside Sonia Gandhi’s Residence
The other day, newly appointed Maharashtra Congress president, Nana Patole was seen talking to BJP Rajya Sabha member, Udayanraje Bhonsle, and that too, outside Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence. The political circles were abuzz, wondering what Bhonsle was doing near a “Congress territory”. Patole told The Sunday Guardian that “it was a chance encounter”. Bhonsle, says Patole, was passing by when he saw him outside Sonia Gandhi’s residence, so he stopped to greet him since he had just taken over as MPCC president. But Patole has meanwhile signalled that he is working “to ensure some defections from other parties to the Congress”. Smiling, he said, “Just wait and watch, there will be surprises.”