The PM has institutionalised a special item in his foreign visits. He always writes in a special way in the visitor books. Once sidelined, it is now believed that Irani will be the face of Amethi in the 2019 polls. The buzz is that number of SPG guards for the former PMs and the Gandhis are set to be reduced.
The PM's special note for foreign trips:
So what's on the PM's menu - apart from talks on strategic, security and defence issues? The PM has institutionalised a special item in his foreign visits. He always writes in Gujarati or Hindi in the Visitors Books of the places he drops by, during bilateral and multilateral visits to any country.
During the visit to France, Modi wrote six lines in Gujarati with a beautiful handwriting. On seeing this the new President of France asked him what had been written.
Modi replied in English, saying that they were words of salutations to the War Memorial he was visiting. PM Modi has certainly changed the pattern, say senior diplomats.
He also seems to have changed the pattern for hiring. Indian embassies now depute seniors specialised in the local language and Hindi, to translate the PM's chaste Hindi for the host country's listeners.
'Kyu ki Irani bhikabhi insider thi'
Smriti Irani, the Union Minister for Textiles, is back in the BJP's national headquarters.
According to the political grapevine, she was kept at a distance by the BJP leadership for certain "reasons", best known to her. Gossip in BJP circles is that Irani had a long meeting with the Prime Minister, and she is said to have apologised for certain remarks made by her against certain leaders of BJP.
As she put herself on a 'correction course', the seems to have BJP pardoned her. It is now believed that Irani will be the face of Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. She meticulously works with zeal, say BJP leaders, who are prompt to deny the other common rumour - that the RSS does not like her.
These rumours were triggered after Irani's removal as the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development. Several projects of the RSS were to be implemented via this Ministry, and rumours say Irani could not win the RSS's faith - hence Irani was downgraded to Union Ministry of Textiles.
Rumours in BJP now say that she has since learnt her lessons, and is now on the right path. Her graph is on the rise.
Kitne Aadmi the?
The Special Protection Group (SPG), which guards PM Modi, also protects former Prime Ministers Dr Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihar Vajpayee and the family of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi - Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi.
Incidentally, the boss of the SPG, Secretary Security, has a chamber in North Block.
The grapevine buzz making the rounds in the corridors of North Block is that, in a review meeting held recently, it was decided to reduce the level of deployment of the SPG guards across the board.
For PM Vajpayee's bungalow, the numbers are supposed to come down from 85 to 65. Whereas Dr Manmohan Singh's guards will be reduced to 95 from 125 right now.
Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi also have commando deployment, but their numbers are being slowly getting reduced as well. Only Rahul Gandhi's contingent, which is any way larger than the above-mentioned folk, remains unchanged. In fact, the SPG has actually increased the number of guards.
The total strength of the SPG is 5600. More than sixty per cent of them are deployed to protect the Prime Minister.
(R Rajagopalan is a senior journalist based in Delhi. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect that of Asianet Newsable.)
