PC demolishes Rao, Baru’s book
A former Prime Minister stood at a bookshop turning the pages of different books and magazines at the Hyderabad airport, but no one recognised him. It was none other than P.V. Narasimha Rao, whom people had forgotten even in his hometown Hyderabad. This was revealed by P. Chidambaram at the launch of Sanjaya Baru’s book on Rao, 1991: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Made History. Although Baru does not admit it in as many words, but he too got the idea of writing the book when in Hyderabad, intellectuals and industrialists gave everyone but Rao the credit for economic liberalisation. Baru wrote the book to prevent Rao from fading from people’s memory. P. Chidambaram demolished Baru’s premise that Rao was the architect of the 1990s’ economic reforms. Chidambaram also said that it was wrong to assume that if Rajiv Gandhi had been alive in 1991 he would not have had the numbers to form government. Chidambaram claimed that even if Gandhi did not reach the 272-mark in Parliament to form government, he would have been the leader of the largest party and would have been invited to form government by President R. Venkatraman. Chidambaram completely demolished Baru’s book by saying that if he had written the book on 1992, the year Babri mosque was destroyed, Rao would not have been its hero.
Tyagi’s son worked for Trump
The socialist K.C. Tyagi of the Janata Dal United, was shocked to hear that his psephologist son Amarish Tyagi had gone to the US to help Donald Trump in his campaign. Amarish was invited by Alexander Nix, the CEO of the company Cambridge Analytica, which is working with the Trump campaign. Amarish was put up in San Antonio in Texas, where the Trump campaign has its war room. Amarish was invited to work there particularly with Non Resident Indians, who constitute around 3.18% of the US population. As per a report Amarish has submitted to Matt Oczkowski, the head of the war room, Indians find themselves closer to Trump because of his anti Pakistan stance, but they are confused with the Republican candidate’s migration policy. Amarish told his socialist father not to be too shocked about this as his trip to the US was for professional purposes and had nothing to do with his ideology, which remained the same as before.
Where is Kidwai?
The Congress does not have much scope of winning the Muslim vote in Uttar Pradesh since its local Muslim leaders such as Fazle Masood do not have a pan UP image. The only Muslim face in UP who has a pan UP and India image is Mohsina Kidwai. She, however, has been kept out of the campaign. She is not competing with anyone, so why has she been kept out?
Nishadswill form own party
The Nishad community in Uttar Pradesh is so unhappy that it is planning to boycott all political parties and form their own outfit ahead of the Assembly elections. The Nishads voted for the BSP in 2007, for the SP in the 2012 Assembly elections, and for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014. But no party saw to their interests. Their vote can make a difference in 70 of UP’s 403 Assembly seats. So the Nishads are likely to assemble under a party that Dr Sanjay Nishad is all set to form. The Nishad party plans to have an alliance with the Peace Party of Dr Ayub and Mahan Dal of Keshav Dev Maurya.
Tiwari creates trouble for Mathur
Ashok Bharti, the new star in the Dalit horizon, is making Prakash Ambedkar jittery. Ambedkar, the grandson of the late B.R. Ambedkar, was trying to get active nationally by organising a joint rally with CPM’s and CPI’s Sitaram Yechury and Sudhakar Reddy, respectively. However, he failed to mobilise a crowd for a sit-in on Parliament Street, in spite of promising to do so to the Left leaders. He was heard complaining that his party has been hijacked by Ashok Bharti, his man in Delhi. However, Bharti, a renowned Dalit face in Delhi, apparently told the Left leaders that it was Prakash Ambedkar who told him in Mumbai on 24 August that he did not need to mobilise his people for this Left supported programme.
Ajit finds an ally
Jat supremo Ajit Singh has finally got an ally in Uttar Pradesh. His RLD will contest the UP elections with Nitish Kumar’s JD(U). To start with, the Bihar Chief Minister will unveil the statue of Ajit Singh’s father Charan Singh on 4 October on the late leader’s birth anniversary.