Vande Bharat flies high
With the civil aviation sector still to open fully it is the Vande Bharat flights that are serving as the lifeline between India and the rest of the world. In fact during Phase 3 of its operations, the site crashed minutes after opening because it got around 60 million hits almost immediately. What is interesting is that now it is not just the stranded traveller who is booking, but also those who need to visit for other reasons. In other words, while the virus is still out there without a vaccine there is some part of life that is returning to normal. Of course some of the return-to-normal is hampered by the court’s ambivalence on whether the middle seat can be kept empty or not. Mumbai High Court is still to pass judgement on a PIL asking that middle seats should be kept empty; but until its decision, this allowed the Vande Bharat flights to fill the middle seats. In other words, as many as 100 seats in each flight were kept in suspended animation until this go-ahead.
Curious case of K.V. Kamath
The political rumour mill is abuzz with the fact that K.V. Kamath has resigned from the National Development Bank, with speculation rife that he is heading towards the Ministry of Finance. The Prime Minister’s penchant for technocrats and bureaucrats over his political colleagues, one wonders has only added grist to the mill. For despite the fact that the current Health Minister Harsh Vardhan is also a medical doctor, it is not him but his Health Secretary, Lav Aggarwal who has become the face of the Covid crisis with his daily briefings. However, one politician who still enjoys goodwill cutting across all platforms is Nitin Gadkari for the recently announced MSME package (which may be one third of what Gadkari had asked two months ago) has done much to assuage middle class India that this government has not forgotten them.
Law of Possession favours Shivraj
Byelections for 24 seats in Madhya Pradesh are due in the middle of the month and former Congress Chief Minister Kamal Nath has been camping in Bhopal throughout lockdown, hoping to win these back. Since 22 of these are in the Gwalior Chambal region the Congress is hopeful that there will be a clash between the Congress and BJP workers over campaigning for those turncoats who joined the BJP with Scindia. But Nath has a tough task ahead. The BJP needs only 8 seats to retain its government. And the vote usually goes to the one in office. Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s chair may be a bit unstable, but as any good property lawyer will tell you, possessions in nine tenths of the law!
Old Guard Wins Again
The Congress has announced its candidate for its sole Rajya Sabha seat in Karnataka and overlooking the claims of the AICC Research Cell head Rajeev Gowda it has opted for Mallikarjun Kharge, who is a great favourite with both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul. Although his tenure as the Congress Party’s leader in the Lok Sabha was for most part unremarkable, the Congress has opted for him over the others. As for the BJP, it is still to decide though there was speculation that late Ananth Kumar’s wife Tejasvani Ananth Kumar may be accommodated after she lost the candidature of the South Bengaluru seat to Tejasvi Surya. But sources within the BJP claim that both the Prime Minister and Amit Shah are keen to avoid the label of hereditary politics so she falls a casualty to this.