Royal punches

The unseemly war for supremacy between the rajas of Madhya Pradesh is spiralling out of control. Jyotiraditya Scindia and Digvijay Singh may not be in the same league (the Gwalior scion is a young MP, the Raghogarh royal has been chief minister twice) but it continues unabated. If Singh addresses rallies in the state, Scindia accuses him of not working within the limits of organisational discipline. Finally, an exasperated Sonia Gandhi issued a directive to both to back off. But it is not to be. Singh’s statement that the Congress is not a party for feudals—a not-so-veiled attack on Scindia—has again aggravated the situation. Singh defends himself saying, “The Congress is a party for the poor and downtrodden.” But then this is hardly an olive branch.

Words worth

Finance Minister P Chidambaram wanted the President’s address to the joint session of Parliament to have sufficient references to “inclusive growth,” a politically correct justification for the party’s growing worries over rising prices, amidst high growth rate. So, President APJ Abdul Kalam’s speech made seven references to inclusive growth. By the way, the PMO had drafted a speech of 40 minutes, comprising 6,000 words, for the President. But the President added another five minutes of his own, which also included a Tamil couplet translated into Hindi.

Tiff in Parivar

The RSS has finally flung aside the cloak of culturalism and has declared its political agenda. At the recently concluded celebrations marking Guru Golwalkar’s birth centenary, it promised to campaign against the UPA’s so-called soft approach to terrorism and minority appeasement. A top RSS national executive member was also convinced the Golwalkar celebrations would pay rich political dividends for its political wing, the BJP. But such open claims are a touchy issue with the BJP, with its top leaders insisting the RSS restrict itself to providing ideological leadership. Some hold party president Rajnath Singh responsible for a pro-active RSS, but unfortunately for Singh, he is not a hit with the Sangh either and his attempts to “seek certificates” from the RSS for his controversial actions have been rebuffed.

... contd.