Jaya’s trusted babu joins politics
Former Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary, P. Rama Mohana Rao, who was the most trusted bureaucrat of the late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, has plunged into politics. Rao, who belongs to Andhra Pradesh, joined the Jana Sena party of Pawan Kalyan, a popular Telugu actor. Pawan Kalyan, whose real name is Konidela Kalyan Babu is the younger brother of well-known actor Chiranjeevi.
Speaking to The Sunday Guardian from Vijaywada, Rao said, “I see Jayalalithaa-like qualities in Kalyan and I will make all efforts to make him AP CM.”
In Tamil Nadu, Rao was believed to have implemented many welfare schemes and had worked out Amma’s campaign to ensure her last victory before her death. In December 2016, weeks after her death, the income-tax department had raided Rao’s office, residence and his relatives. The I-T department had claimed that “huge unaccounted for cash was seized from his premises”. Later, it was discovered that the cash seized was less than Rs 1 lakh. But the damage had been done. Rao was removed from the top post and was later posted as Director of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Chennai until his retirement in 2017.
Kalyan told this writer over telephone that “Rao effectively ran the AIDMK government without any hassle when CM Jayalalithaa was in hospital. Great people like Rao have come forward to serve my party with lots of confidence in me.”
Rao said that Andhra Pradesh was in complete distress and when the people were looking for a messiah to protect them, “Kalyan entered the political arena. Kalyan believes serving people is serving God.”
SP wooing veteran BJP leaders
Highly placed sources told The Sunday Guardian that Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav reached out to a BJP veteran through the latter’s confidant and offered to make him his party’s candidate from Lucknow and his son an MLC. The BJP stalwart is apprehensive that he will not be fielded in the Lok Sabha elections as he is way past the cut off age. However, after a few days the BJP veteran is said to have refused Akhilesh’s offer by saying that he has lived his entire life under the RSS banner and at this juncture he wouldn’t like to switch sides and face brickbats. This means that Akhilesh Yadav does not have a good party candidate for Lucknow, where, it is clear that Home Minister Rajnath Singh will be the BJP candidate again. Akhilesh, however, is in touch with many senior BJP leaders who, he thinks, may be interested in switching sides if denied the ticket to fight elections. The buzz is that 35% of BJP MPs may be denied tickets for various reasons, including non-performance.
Social Accountability Bill in Rajasthan
Rajasthan’s Congress government will table the Rajasthan Social Accountability Bill 2019 in the Assembly in March. A one day workshop was organised in Jaipur, where some experts were brought together to work on suggestions for the Bill. The Bill’s architect, Ravi Shankar Srivastava, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms, told The Sunday Guardian that there have already been civil society consultations on the Bill. “A draft Bill has been prepared on the basis of these inputs,” said Srivastava. “On 11 February, the draft Bill was uploaded on the website of the Rajasthan government and the Department of Administrative Reforms website for public feedback and suggestions,” the IAS officer said.
Rahul poll rally in Punjab
Congress president Rahul Gandhi has chalked out a series of Lok Sabha election rallies across the country to coincide with the announcement of the polls. In Punjab, he will address his first such election campaign rally on 7 March. The venue is yet to be finalised. Party sources said that it might be in Ludhiana, Jalandhar or Moga.
For Canada, India most dangerous place
For Indian Punjabis, Canada is the “most preferred nation” to settle over there. But after the terror attack in Pulwama, for the Canadian government India has spiralled to the top of the list of “dangerous places”.
The Canadian government has issued an advisory to its citizens, asking them to stay away from India’s “border with Pakistan” in view of escalating tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad. They have been advised to exercise caution owing to the constant threat of terrorist activities “throughout the country at all times”. The other “dangerous places” for Canadians, are France, Madagascar, Indonesia, Haiti, Venezuela, Philippines, Jordan, Brazil, Tunisia, Jamaica and Thailand. China too features at the end of the list.
Man Mohan can be contacted at rovingeditor@gmail.com