JD(U) chief's ghar wapsi, courtesy Modi-Shah

While the media in Bihar had been predicting that Janata Dal (United) president and chief minister Nitish Kumar was set to part company with the Rashtriya Janata Dal any day, his colleague in Delhi, Sharad Yadav, was apparently taken aback when the Grand Alliance collapsed last week. It is well known that he does not have a very cordial relationship with Mr Kumar, which probably explains why Mr Yadav was kept in the dark about his decision to resign and tie-up with the Bharatiya Janata Party again. On the other hand, Mr Kumar is learnt to have assured Mr Yadav that the alliance was intact.

Mr Yadav, in fact, conveyed as much to a senior Congress leader on the day Mr Kumar had met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi when he came to Delhi for former President Pranab Mukherjee’s farewell function.

Mr Yadav told the Congress leader that he had a long chat with Mr Kumar after his meeting with Mr Gandhi, and the chief minister, though crestfallen, had told him that the ongoing impasse would be resolved soon. But those who are acquainted with Mr Kumar are not surprised as he is known to be a master of doublespeak and, therefore, cannot be taken at face value.

JD(U) president Nitish Kumar’s ghar wapsi to the BJP was painstakingly planned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah. The strategy was obvious: discredit RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members to such an extent that it becomes impossible for Mr Kumar to continue his partnership with the RJD. Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi was initially not involved in this exercise as the Modi-Shah duo were not sure about his loyalties because of his old association with veteran leader L.K. Advani.

In fact, it was for this reason that he was denied a Rajya Sabha seat. It was finance minister Arun Jaitley who managed to persuade the Prime Minister and the BJP president that Sushil be entrusted with the task of running the campaign against the RJD chief because he had the necessary skills for this task. Although they were initially reluctant, the BJP bosses are pleased with the sustained campaign run by Sushil as it finally yielded the desired result. As a reward for his hard work, Sushil got his old job back as deputy chief minister of Bihar.

Mediapersons covering the external affairs ministry are normally informed in advance about the weekly briefings by the official spokesperson. The routine message, sent to all on the mailing list, usually said: All media cordially invited, which meant that journalists holding a Press Information Bureau card could attend the briefing. But of late, there has been a change. The message now reads: The recipients of this message are invited.

This may have gone unnoticed except for the fact that the security personnel at Jawaharlal Nehru Bhavan, the ministry’s official headquarters, have been checking the mobile phones of mediapersons to see if they had received the invitation. Those who did not receive the message have been denied entry even if they possess a PIB card. The move to restrict entry to its official briefings is being seen as yet another example of the concerted efforts being made by this government to deny access to mediapersons. The external affairs ministry has never been comfortable with journalists who do not toe its line and this latest move is essentially meant to ensure that only “friendly journalists” are invited for the briefings.

Although he is the minister of informational technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad recently realised the power and reach of social media. When his daughter got married to an Iyer boy recently, the minister tweeted about it and sought everybody’s blessings for the young couple. Mr Prasad was amazed by the response to his tweet. The minister was inundated with thousands of congratulatory messages, bulk of them from Tamil Nadu. While one tweet remarked that the people of Tamil Nadu were happy to welcome his daughter as their daughter-in-law, another one congratulated him for following in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and C. Rajagopalachari, who are the grandparents of Gopal Gandhi, the Opposition’s vice-presidential candidate.

In an unusual move, the Congress expressed its unhappiness over President Ram Nath Kovind’s inaugural speech as it failed to mention Jawaharlal Nehru while referring to those who led the freedom movement. The party reacted strongly at its official media briefing first and subsequently raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha. While the Congress was quick to complain about Mr Kovind, it was constrained from doing so about former President Pranab Mukherjee whose written farewell speech did not refer to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Though he did make amends by referring to her while delivering his speech, the Congress is furious at this lapse. What enraged the party further is that Mr Mukherjee devoted a full para to praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Congress is seething but is unable to say anything publicly.