Cool Breeze: Surprise guest list

SURPRISE GUEST LIST

Congress national spokesperson and former Union minister Manish Tewari recently hosted a lunch in the capital for Fred Kempe, the visiting CEO of Atlantic Council, a global think tank of which Tewari is a distinguished senior fellow. It was a well attended lunch, with MPs cutting across party lines, but the surprise guest was none other than Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. Surprise, because Tewari’s detractors have been claiming that he is “out of favour” with the high command. Clearly, that was one rumour that was nailed that day.

WHY IS NAIDU LOSING his COOL?

Last week Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu lost his cool with a man at a rally simply because the individual contradicted his claim of providing power supply 24 hours a day. “Tell me which party are you from? Are you from YSRCP? Who sent you here? You don’t have eyes to see the current that is coming,” thundered Naidu. The incident took place at a public meeting in Kurnool district. But this apparently is not the first time the CM has lost his cool with anyone claiming that they had not got the farm loan waiver. “I will send a collector to your place to verify this. If you are lying I will book you.” Clearly not the way to win friends, or votes Mr CM.

IT IS ALL ABOUT PAYBACK

One thing about Amit Shah is that he doesn’t forget or forgive—a friend or a foe. That much is clear with the zeal with which he is ensuring that Ahmed Patel loses his Rajya Sabha seat in the coming elections. And Patel is right when he says it’s personal between the two. According to sources, Amit Shah holds Patel as responsible for him being jailed in the fake encounter case. This is now payback time.