National

Deep Throat

A regular column on the essential buzz

Advertisement
Deep Throat
info_icon

Uttar Pradesh
Lonely Furrow

While the tussle between Sonia Gandhi loyalists and the ‘baba log’ around Rahul Gandhi is old hat, the ‘Grand Old Party’ now appears divided between Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi loyalists. It is heard that Priyanka is mesmerised by election strategist Prashant Kishor, who has convinced her that the party should contest over 400 seats in UP. Agencies hired by baba log seem to have pleaded for an alliance with the BSP, even though Mayawati apparently offered the Congress just about 60 seats. The BSP-Congress combine, they have argued, could put up a far more formidable challenge.

New Delhi
Shock & Awe

Advertisement

Even at 93, maverick ‘criminal’ lawyer Ram Jethmalani continues to shock and awe the learned justices of the Supreme Court. Some lawyers have begun to carp that ‘Ram’ is indulged too much by the judges. They cite a rare case, which Jethmalani actually lost, but not before the bench went out of its way to humour him. Arguing for releasing Ashiq Hussain Faktoo, a separatist Kashmiri leader who has been in jail for the past 23 years, Jethmalani first informed the court that no review petition was filed. When the court learnt otherwise, it went out of its way to convert it into a curative petition and agreed to hear the case in the court and not in the chambers.

Advertisement

Jammu & Kashmir
Thankless Job

When the outgoing chief of the army’s northern command D.S. Hooda called upon everyone in Kashmir to step back and ‘talk’, South Block did not take it too kindly. Hooda has now been given marching orders. By all accounts, security forces, busy doing a thankless job, are increasingly fighting with their back to the wall. Protesters are learnt to have dug up roads around camps; in some places they have succeeded in stopping water and electricity supply as well. With unsubstantiated reports of policemen in the Valley deserting their posts, the situation appears grim.

Heard In the past, UP CM Akhilesh Yadav would not have defied his father. Now, he has dropped his father’s chief secy nominee and stripped uncle Shivpal of some portfolios. Is this a charade?

Overheard A heated argument between two Union ministers is feeding rumour mills in Lutyen’s Delhi. One of them is said to have complained to the PM, forcing him to do some peace-brokering.

Tags
    Advertisement
    Advertisement
    Advertisement
    Advertisement
    Advertisement
    Advertisement