From The India Gate: 'Pilot'less drift, BJP leader's wrong 'park'ing and more
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FollowMUTE BUTTON
Who gagged Basangouda Patil Yatnal, BJP MLA? Yatnal is known for showering vitriol on opponents, including his party colleagues and seniors like B S Yeddyurappa and Minister Murugesh Nirani.
But after a recent secret visit to Delhi, Yatnal seems to be in silent mode. People initially thought it was the Delhi chill that had frozen his vocal cords. But then it became public that the mute button was activated following a strong warning by Home Minister Amit Shah.
Shah's 'advice' to keep quiet has made this firebrand leader douse his emotional outbursts. Party insiders say the lollipop offered as quid pro quo was an assurance to resolve the Panchamasali reservation issue. Yatnal is one of the staunch advocates of this cause.
But sources said the 'Shah-cause' notice is literally a second yellow card to Yatnal, who has very few friends even in the RSS. His solace was former stalwart Anant Kumar. While Yatnal was a member of the A B Vajpayee Cabinet, even L K Advani had to play referee many a time.
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HEIR RAISING, INDEED
Her mind is 'without fear' whenever she attacks the Centre. And Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee converts every possible opportunity to flay Centre and its policies.
This time around, she used a celebrity shoulder to fire salvos at the Union government; that too none other than Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen's.
Visva Bharati recently served a notice to Sen (like in the case of other ex-ashramites) to vacate the land on the campus. He is one among the many eminent personalities who were asked to vacate. They all had inherited the plot as heirs of former faculty members of the University, established by Rabindra Nath Tagore.
Sen's mother was Amrita Sen, and maternal grandfather Kshiti Mohan Sen were close associates of Kabi Guru Rabindra Nath Tagore. In fact, Kshiti Mohan was the second Vice-Chancellor of the Visva Bharati.
Amartya Sen refused to leave the plot on the campus, citing his status as its legal heir. Soon, Mamata visited Sen in his house Pratichi on Shantiniketan and handed over documents.
She later said the land was registered in the name of the Sen family in 1943, and there was no need to forfeit it. Sen, however, termed the notice served as a move to avenge his stand against the central government.
Mamata echoed the sentiments and flayed University authorities and the Centre for 'revenge' politics. One needs to learn the art of escalating a non-issue from leaders like Didi. But none seemed to be bothered about the third or fourth-generation heirs occupying the land in spite of owning their own real estate elsewhere.
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CURRY FAVOUR
The party with a mango symbol has fallen into the spicy syrup of Tamil Nadu politics. The attempt is to find a speck of space on the political thali.
To please the palate of the ruling party honchos, father and son -- who lead the party -- have found an easy route of attacking the Governor. In fact, the party is making disproportionate noise in strongly condemning the delay in approving the online gambling bill.
But an acceptable recipe seems to elude the party as one of the allies of the ruling party is opposing any move to accord prominence to the father-son duo. The leader of the constituent party seems to have twisted his moustache to browbeat any attempt to include Mango in the DMK basket.
Whether the hopes of father and son would ripe in time for the 2024 elections or turn sour is a moot point.
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PULLING THE LADDER UP
Climbing the political ladder (incidentally, the symbol of the Indian Union Muslim League) is the hope of any party functionary. But IUML seems to be exercising some filtering to weed out rebel voices in the party, especially those opposing All India General Secretary P K Kunhalikutty while revamping its state committee.
A new committee has to be installed before League's national conference scheduled to be held in March. Leaders opposed to Kunhalikutty, including K S Hamza, K M Shaji and P M Sadikali, do not find mention in the list. Once again, this clearly exposes the double stand of the party, always crying hoarse for proportionate space in the opposition section.
With this, it is now clear that P M A Salam will continue as the secretary.
The official faction is also ensuring to include like-minded party members in its district units also. As part of the campaign, recently, there was an effort to bring a movie star to its fold in Thiruvananthapuram. But the second-tier leaders are unhappy about the whole exercise. For many feel their chances of making it to the big league would now remain an unfulfilled ambition.
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WRONG 'PARK'ING
The venue of a gala wedding event organized for his daughter has landed this UP BJP leader in soup. The toast of UP attended the ceremony organized at Lucknow’s Janeshwar Mishra Park, one of the achievements of the former Samajwadi Party government.
Social media handles of the Samajwadi Party immediately started the chatter that the developmental landmarks made during their reign were the most sought-after destinations for BJP leaders.
With the chorus getting louder, even BJP leaders feel it was an avoidable embarrassment, and the top leader could have organized the marriage ceremony elsewhere.
'PILOT'LESS DRIFT
The Gujjar community, with a significant hold on 40 Vidhan Sabha seats of Rajasthan, is like a herd searching for shepherds.
Till now, most of the Gujjar leaders were following a Congress leader who 'pilot'ed them through the political landscape. But with the Congress leader getting embroiled in internal politics, he remains elusive and politically eclipsed.
Though Gujjar leaders have realized that they need a new leader, their search has been futile.
Their feeling of becoming politically insignificant grew manifold when none of them was invited to a function where Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Gujjar community. These leaders have realized that they are at a crossroads, and if a new leader is not identified at the earliest, the community may soon be reaching the dead end of the political road.
