Older Than He Looks
Congress leader and ace lawyer Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi was recently felicitated at a dinner hosted by Sundeep Bhutoria, Founder & Managing Trustee of Prabha Khaitan Foundation. This was in honour of his being nominated to the Rajya Sabha for the fifth time. Interestingly, Dr Singhvi is now one of the four seniormost MPs in the House of Elders; that is seniority, by way of experience (and perhaps wisdom as well). Singhvi is a fifth term Rajya Sabha MP and there are only three others apart from him who can boast of this. These include Ram Gopal Yadav (SP), Tiruchi Siva (DMK) and Jaya Bachchan (also of the SP). Interestingly, ever since Independence, the Rajya Sabha has had only 17 or so members who have completed five terms. This makes Dr Singhvi the 18th one to do so, plus two six-termers (including Ram Jethamalani) and one seven-termer (Mahender Prasad). So while he may not be the eldest in terms of biological age, Dr Singhvi is definitely older than he looks, at least in terms of experience.
Interestingly, the dinner also revealed another side of Dr Singhvi. While his wife Anita is a well-known Indian classical singer, Dr Singhvi himself is fond of humming a few songs. And does so creditably well, for he obliged the guests at the dinner by singing a few songs including “Ae mere pyare watan”. When asked why he didn’t sing more often he quipped that “my wife thinks I need more practice”. Well, that’s one House where he can’t pull rank.
Wanted, and yetNot
The Congress seems fairly confident of winning Kerala, so much so that speculation has already begun as to who the next Chief Minister will be. While Ramesh Chennithala wins in terms of seniority, the Leader of Opposition in the state, V.D. Satheesan seems more popular on ground. Then there is the curious case of K.C. Venugopal, the all-powerful general secretary who is also from Kerala. Here the story takes an interesting turn, for if you ask the local leadership and district presidents then very few would like to see KCV as the next CM. But if you talk to party leaders in New Delhi—and outside Kerala—there is an unnatural unanimity on sending KCV to Kerala.
Curious Timing of Raghav Chadha’s Exit
The question really is not why Raghav Chadha quit the Aam Admi Party or even why he joined the BJP (though if you ask me the Congress would have been a better fit for the kind of politics Raghav has been practising so far)—rather the question is why the BJP chose to make the announcement right in the middle of a crucial Bengal election. Apparently, Operation Lotus (move to break away MPs from other parties) got delayed. It was supposed to happen a week earlier, in time for the Special Session of Parliament where the additional seven Rajya Sabha MPs could give the government added heft to pass the Delimitation Bill. But sources claim that Raghav could not get the requisite number in time and hence the delay. It was crucial for Raghav to get as many as seven on board to avoid the anti-defection clause. Anyhow, that bill did not pass muster in the Lok Sabha so the delay was not all that catastrophic, but the operation remained a work in progress. And soon after, there were a spate of ED raids on Ashok Mittal, the founder of Lovely University in Punjab. Then Ashok Mittal came on board as did some of the others. The announcement was made as soon as Chadha gave the go ahead because the BJP wanted to strike “while the iron was hot” and not give the MPs any time for a rethink.
That is realpolitik.
BJP’s Punjab Mathematics
It is clear that the BJP’s focus in weaning away Raghav Chadha and his band of MPs is the Punjab election and not the ongoing Bengal polls; though the announcement was made just a day before Arvind Kejriwal was all set to campaign in Bengal. But that is probably just a fortuitous coincidence. The real target is clearly Punjab and there are those who claim that breaking away AAP’s MLAs in the state could be next on BJP’s agenda. The state of Punjab goes to polls early next year, and Home Minister Amit Shah told reporters on the sidelines of his press conference in Kolkata that the day the campaign in Bengal ends, his next focus will be UP and Punjab. Currently, the BJP’s tally in Punjab is 2 MLAs, 0 Lok Sabha MPs, but 7 Rajya Sabha MPs. Go, figure.
Fair & Lovely
Social media has been having a field day post the AAP breakup, with one user tweeting on X that with Raghav Chadha and Ashok Mittal’s exit the Aam Admi Party has lost both Fair & Lovely. The reference being to Raghav’s fair complexion and Mittal’s business enterprise, for he is the founder of Lovely University in Punjab.
But Mittal’s rise is interesting because the family first ran a sweetshop under the name of Lovely Sweets, founded by his father Baldev Raj Mittal. When that thrived the family decided to open other branches and toyed with a name change. But these did not do as well and it was then decided that the name Lovely was bringing them good luck. And though it is not a deemed university the Lovely Professional University (LPU) is recognised by the University Grants Commission as a private university and has the reputation of being one of the leading private universities in India.
As for Narain Das Gupta, the other businessman who has been given a Rajya Sabha berth by the Aam Aadmi Party, and one who did not jump ship, there is a very interesting back story. Apparently, Gupta was very close to the late Arun Jaitley and it was he who facilitated a negotiation between Arvind Kejriwal and Jaitley when the latter filed a defamation suit against the AAP leader. But Gupta is one of the three AAP MPs who has stayed back.
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