Cool Breeze: Clash of the Sadhus

Clash of the Sadhus

Is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar blaming Baba Ramdev for all the negative publicity received by his event in Delhi? According to sources, the Sri Sri camp is having some not so spiritual feelings towards the other guru who also holds sway over the saffron camp. Until now it has been Ramdev who has been in the spiritual limelight holding shakti pradarshans (display of strength) by sharing the dais with various ministers and other dignitaries.

Peace at last?

On a more constructive note, is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar using his goodwill across political camps to broker a truce between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal? Both enjoy a good rapport with Sri Sri. Watch this space for more on this.

Political Holi

This Holi the Prime Minister used his personal Twitter handle to follow nearly 150 political rivals. This was seen as a gesture of goodwill from the PMO. The PM has “followed” political rivals such as Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar, Shashi Tharoor and even Digvijaya Singh. The Delhi CM has responded with an equally warm tweet hoping that this would lead to a thaw in Centre-State relations. Well, we’ll wait a while before we retweet that.

Advani’s Stoic Silence

Those present at BJP’s national executive in Delhi last week were waiting and watching. When L.K. Advani shared the dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley, there was anticipation that he would exchange a word or a gesture with the others. But no such thing happened. The veteran BJP leader sat in stoic silence throughout and did not reach out to any of the three leaders on the dais. Nor did he clap or applaud any of the speeches that were made that day.

The Mike Brigade

But there was one voice that was not silent. Party general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal, who spoke at the opening day of the national executive, droned on and on and finally had to be silenced by Amit Shah so others could have a turn at the mike. But this is not what upset the PM. Apparently the PM was none too pleased at the sycophantic nature of Ram Lal’s speech, especially since this encouraged others like Venkaiah Naidu to make similar laudatory comparisons.