Forgiven rebelAt the recent two-day conclave of the INDIA alliance in Mumbai, the presence of Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate Kapil Sibal caused much disquiet among Congress members. Part of the now-disbanded ‘group of 23’ that had sought organisational reforms in the Congress, Sibal had resigned from the party in May 2022 before getting elected to the Upper House with the Samajwadi Party’s support. He has since criticised the Congress leadership on many an occasion, taking indirect swipes at Rahul Gandhi. So, when Sibal reached the conclave venue, Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal raised a strong objection. It was only Rahul who pacified his partymen, saying he was fine with anyone joining the mission to “protect Indian democracy”. Sonia Gandhi concurred, and Sibal found his spot in the group photo, albeit far from the Gandhis.Baiter’s Bargain Y.S. Sharmila, daughter of Andhra Pradesh’s former Congress chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, is preparing to disband her YSR Telangana party and join the Congress. Following her meeting with the Gandhis in Delhi on July 31, she has put her plan in fast gear. Except the Congress high command is in two minds about her plea for a ticket to contest the Telangana assembly polls, considering her party’s lack of electoral presence. Never mind that she has been persistent in her attacks on Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.Lead by Example A few weeks ago, Karnataka deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar held a press conference to announce strict action against illegal hoardings in Bengaluru, saying that none would be spared, even his own partymen. Not long after that, Shivakumar, who is also the Pradesh Congress Committee president, received a notice for a Rs 50,000 penalty for a hoarding erected outside the party office on Queen’s Road without the municipal corporation’s permission. Shivakumar ended up paying the fine. A case of leading by example or an embarrassing oversight?The Name GameThe official invite for the G20 dinner being hosted by the President mentioned ‘India’ as ‘Bharat’, triggering a flurry of posts online. While the Congress took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party, claiming that the change in nomenclature showed that the ruling party was “scared” of the Opposition’s INDIA bloc, many social media users wondered what would be the new name of the hallowed institutions like Indian Space Research Organisation, Indian Institutes of Management and Reserve Bank of India. This, even as their names already have a Hindi alternative. With debate raging on the micro-blogging platform X, someone pointed out that even it had its name recently changed from Twitter.Long Wait (Photo: ANI)On June 23, when Rahul Gandhi visited Patna for the first meeting of Opposition parties, he asked Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar about a possible cabinet expansion. Nitish, whose Janata Dal (United) is in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress in Bihar, is said to have responded positively. But two months and two more Opposition meets later, the Congressmen, especially the wannabe ministers, are still on the waitlist. Seems like amid the push for national Opposition unity, state-level unity has taken a back seat.—With Ajay Sukumaran, Amitabh Srivastava, Amarnath K. Menon and Anilesh S. MahajanEdited By: Aditya Mohan WigPublished On: Sep 7, 2023
