Political Theatre | Immigration woes deepen under Trump 2.0; AAP-BJP engage in freebie war in Delhi

Greetings readers,

The political arena this week was lit up with several developments and Donald Trump making a slew of promises, claims and some “threats” in his inaugural day speech after taking oath as the 47th president of the United States, was the biggest of them. Back home, campaigning for the Delhi Assembly elections has picked up pace with both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) releasing their manifestos less than a fortnight ahead of the polling.

Elsewhere in the country, Maha Kumbh, hailed as the biggest religious and cultural extravaganza of the world, is underway with a long list of high-profile personalities including Prime Minster Narendra Modi scheduled for a holy dip at the Triveni Sangam.

So buckle up as we take you on a political tour around the world in this week’s DH Political Theatre.

Trump (is at it) again

Donald J Trump on Monday took oath for a second term as the United States President, announcing a raft of executive decisions, saying that the “golden age” of America had just begun. Little did anyone know that the “golden age” could refer to pregnant women lining up at birthing centres to get their babies delivered pre-term as the President signed an order reinterpreting US’ birthright citizenship.

Though the order has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge, Trump on Thursday said his administration will appeal the decision, thus putting a question mark on the citizenship rights of children born to immigrant parents, a significant number of whom are of Indian origin.

Sharing the rhetoric of most firebrand right wing leaders of the world, Trump said he was “saved by God to make America great again."

The Republican leader also vowed to put America "first" and said that the country would be respected under his leadership as a "peacemaker and a unifier" while aggressively asserting, in the same breath, that he would immediately roll out a list of actions including declaring a national emergency at the US-Mexico border, renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, and that the US would take back the Panama Canal.

Apart from his crackdown on immigrants and asylum seekers, Trump also put the rights of LGBTQ people in the country under threat as he proclaimed that only two genders, male and female, will be recognised in the United States. He later issued a slew of executive orders which withdrew several Biden-era initiatives that prevented discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.

Whether America reclaims its golden glory and whether Trump knows the difference between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ remains to be seen.

A freebie for a freebie

It is a war of freebies in Delhi.

After castigating other parties for announcing free schemes to woo the voters during elections and Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving it a fancy name like “revdi culture”, the BJP itself has promised a number of freebies in its manifesto for the Delhi Assembly elections.

The saffron party on Tuesday released the second part of its election manifesto which promised free education from "KG-to-PG" for needy students in government institutes and assured a Rs 10 lakh insurance and Rs 5-lakh accident cover for domestic helps and auto-taxi drivers. It also pledged a one-time assistance of Rs 15,000 for UPSC aspirants.

Meanwhile, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced a seven-point "manifesto" for the country's middle class, timed perfectly ahead of the Union Budget, saying they have been neglected by successive governments and are a victim of "tax terrorism".

The Aam Aadmi Party, often regarded as one of the pioneers of freebie culture in India, has pledged a monthly payment of Rs 2,100 to all women voters not working for the government or getting any other pension, Rs 18,000 a month to all Hindu priests and Sikh granthis, financing foreign education of students from underprivileged castes, and payments for uniforms for auto drivers and money for the weddings of their daughters.

Delhi Assembly elections are scheduled for February 5, with results to be declared on February 8.

Yogi ditches state secretariat, holds cabinet meet at Maha Kumbh

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ditched the state secretariat and chaired a cabinet meeting in the Maha Kumbh Mela area in Prayagraj on Wednesday.

The state Cabinet approved the issuance of municipal bonds for the municipal corporations of Prayagraj, Varanasi and Agra, along with the provision of funds for infrastructure development.

To make things even holier, Adityanath and his ministers, including Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, also took a dip in the Triveni Sangam after the meet.

JD(U) applies brakes soon after U-turn in Manipur

The Manipur unit of JD(U) sent a momentary flutter in the state politics after its president Kshetrimayum Biren Singh announced the withdrawal of support to the Chief Minister N Biren Singh-led government on Wednesday.

Soon after the announcement, the party jumped to damage-control and sacked the state chief, reiterating its support to the BJP dispensation.

Amid the confusion and chaos, the party’s lone MLA in Manipur, Muhammad Abdul Nasir, on Thursday, reaffirmed his support to the state government and issued a video statement, disassociating himself from Kshetrimayum Biren Singh's communication to the state governor about the withdrawal of support.

Though the withdrawal of support would have been of little impact in the violence-torn state, it would have been bad optics for the BJP-led government at the Centre, particularly ahead of next month's Delhi Assembly polls.

‘Signature’ politics in Karnataka

BJP lawmaker Basanagouda Patil Yatnal has made sensational allegations against his own partymate and BJP state president B Y Vijayendra, accusing him of forging his father and former chief minister B S Yediyurappa’s signature while he was in office.

Yatnal has claimed that Vijayendra was responsible for Yediyurappa landing in prison.

“He (Vijayendra) duplicated his father’s signature. If Congress, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar have the guts, an investigation should be done on all signatures Yediyurappa made when he was in office. Send them to the forensic lab,” Yatnal said in Hubballi.

The allegations have brought factionalism within the BJP out in the open, with the ruling Congress party leveraging the situation and offering to order a probe if Yatnal files a police complaint.

Another trouble sprung up in the opposition party on Wednesday with former minister B Sriramulu offering to quit, angered by a top leader accusing him of contributing to the party’s defeat in the November 2024 Sandur bypoll. The accusation, according to Sriramulu, came from BJP national general secretary Dr Radha Mohan Das Agrawal no less.

Feud within the BJP has given Congress the confidence to pose itself as a party with no factions just days after supporters of Deputy CM D K Shivakumar raised slogans in Belagavi to make him the next chief minister.

In a classic pot calling the kettle black response, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told reporters on Thursday, "There are three to four factions in the BJP, whereas in our party there are no factions. Me and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar are together here. Where are the factions amongst us?"

‘Act or attack?’ asks Maharashtra minister

While Saif Ali Khan’s fans are rejoicing the actor’s recovery from a recent knife attack, Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Nitesh Rane came up with a conspiracy theory and asked whether the Bollywood star was “really attacked or if he was acting”.

Refusing to ponder over several other important questions like how a popular personality of the country got stabbed in a robbery attempt at his residence in a posh area of the country’s commercial capital, Rane went to allege that people speak out when a ‘Khan’ is attacked but, similar attention is not given to Hindu actors.

“Opposition leaders Jitendra Awhad and Supriya Sule did not speak about (late actor) Sushant Singh Rajput. She is concerned only about Saif Ali Khan,” he alleged.

The statement of Rane drew sharp criticism from Congress, which accused the government of mixing religion and politics.

In response, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole condemned Rane’s remarks, labelling them as an attempt to create a “religious divide” and distract from pressing issues.

Pakistan’s ISI delegation in Dhaka raises eyebrows in Delhi

A delegation of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been on a visit to Bangladesh since Tuesday. The advisor on foreign affairs of Bangladesh’s interim government, Md Touhid Hossain, on the other hand, met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on Tuesday.

Both the events have prompted the Indian External Affairs Ministry to keep a close watch on Dhaka’s increasing engagements with China and its ‘iron brother’ Pakistan amid stress in ties between India and Bangladesh after the fall of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government in August 2024.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar discussed the issue with the new US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the first formal engagement between President Donald Trump’s administration and the Government of India.

“Yes, we had a brief discussion on Bangladesh. I don’t think it’s appropriate that I get into more details,” Jaishankar said while speaking to journalists.

That is all about the political drama that unfolded this week. DH Political Theatre will come back again next week with more political advancements from around the globe.

Exit Stage Left,

DH Newsletters Team