UNITED BY THE ED
The Congress party’s reaction to Manish Sisodia’s arrest reveals the turmoil within the party as regards the Aam Aadmi Party. On the one hand the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is talking about the need for all the opposition parties to come together and take on the BJP. Yet the Congress is wary of Arvind Kejriwal’s own prime ministerial ambitions and the fact that he wrested both Delhi and Punjab from them. Hence, initially the Congress did not condemn Sisodia’s arrest, in fact some Delhi Congress leaders like Ajay Maken and later on Sandeep Dikshit even welcomed the CBI probe. Supriya Srinate also called for a “proper investigation into the liquor scam”. However, Abhishek Manu Singhvi was one of the first to speak in Sisodia’s support but later on he stated that he was speaking not as a Congress leader but as Sisodia’s lawyer. This “clarification” was retweeted by Jairam Ramesh. However, there does seem to be some sort of a rethink after that and recently we saw Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s statement that the Congress opposed vindictive politics. But he did not mention Sisodia’s arrest. Even Jairam Ramesh spoke in general about how the CBI and ED were being used to settle scores. Guess the Congress also recalled how the Aam Aadmi Party did not speak up when Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi were being questioned in the National Herald case. But both the Congress and the AAP would do well to recall the Prime Minister’s words on the floor of the House—that the ED is uniting the opposition. The opposition would do well to take his cue and support each other for no one knows who is next on the list.
One last Cabinet reshuffle?
If the Prime Minister wants to reshuffle his Cabinet one last time before the 2024 polls then the window for that is closing rapidly. There were rumours that he would do the reshuffle early January but that did not happen. Now the buzz in Lutyens Delhi is that this could take place next week, before Parliament reconvenes its budget session on 13 March. Otherwise, the reshuffle will be pushed to May, post the Karnataka polls. These are the options that are being talked about. And that is as far as the speculation goes. No one is willing to hazard a guess as to who will be in or out. That speaks volumes both about the level of secrecy in this government as well as the level of decision making for only two people know what is going to happen. And they are not talking.
Will Sonia Gandhi retire?
Sonia Gandhi’s comments at the Raipur plenary have led to a lot of speculation that she was planning to retire and disengage from the Congress. At the Congress Plenary, Sonia had spoken about her tenure as Congress president and ended with a comment that “what gratifies me most is that my innings could conclude with the Bharat Jodo Yatra”. However, she was referring to the fact that the Congress now has a new president and the retirement comment was limited to that. She is of course not as active as she used to be, but having spent 25 years as Congress president and successfully steered the UPA coalition for over a decade she perhaps feels that it is now time to step back and let others take charge. But party leaders who have met her have told the media that she would very much be around for her “blessings and guidance”. This has come as somewhat of a relief for a large section of the Congress that is not quite sure where the Bharat Jodo yatri will be taking the party, if left to his own devices.