Off the record: April 5

Grand old confusion

A common grouse against the ‘dissenters’ within the Congress is that their remarks on the state of party affairs provided ammunition for BJP to target the grand old party. The party had frowned upon the remarks by a section of the G-23 leaders at Jammu in February where they had expressed concern over the weakening of the Congress over the years. The dissenters, however, wonder whether Rahul Gandhi’s remarks, particularly in his interactions with professors of US-based universities, were helping the Congress. Rahul’s recent remark seeking US intervention in India’s internal affairs too has not gone down well within the party.

Sagar Kulkarni, New Delhi

In Pawar’s name

A new plant species has been named after one of India’s seniormost politician and NCP president Sharad Pawar, the longest-serving union agriculture minister. The flowering plant has been named after the octogenarian politician for his contribution to the field of agriculture. The species has been named ‘Argyreia Sharadchandrajii’, according to researchers Dr Pramod R Lawand and Dr Vinod B Shimpale, who had discovered the species in the Kolhapur district of Maharashtra. The flowering plants belong to the genus ‘Argyreia’.

Mrityunjay Bose, Mumbai

Covid festival?

In the wake of a huge surge in Covid-19 cases in Jammu and Kashmir, the government on Sunday announced the closure of all schools for a week. The decision has come exactly when the same government launched a mega Tulip Festival at the iconic Tulip Garden on the banks of Dal Lake, where celebrities like famed singer Badshah performed before a huge gathering. People, including schoolchildren and their families, had been asked to join the huge number of tourists at the Tulip Festival. Another similar function is being held at Badam Wari or Almond Park, a few miles away from the Tulip Garden. Residents of the Valley find it ridiculously contradictory. Confused by government orders, people have resorted to calling it ‘Covid Festival’!

Zulfikar Majid, Srinagar

An emergency

Home Minister Amit Shah and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel were both campaigning for the Assembly elections in Assam when Naxalites killed at least 22 security forces in an ambush in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma region. Both the leaders cut short their campaign programmes and rushed to attend to the emerging situation. Shah asked CRPF Director General Kuldip Singh to visit the encounter site, spoke to Baghel on phone and rushed to Delhi. Similarly, Baghel too returned to Raipur leaving aside his campaign tasks in Assam.

Sagar Kulkarni, New Delhi

A ‘bomb’ scare

Opposite camps in Kerala have come out with major allegations on the eve of elections to influence voters. This is not uncommon during elections. This time, Kerala is witnessing a fierce electoral battle and hence it was natural for political parties to expect election stunts by opposite camps. This time, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan went a step ahead by stating in advance that even if the opposition parties shell any bombs, it would not hit LDF’s electoral prospects. This indeed triggered widespread speculations of what could be in store and most of the speculations were related to the nexus of CPM leaders and even their family members with gold smuggling accused. Nothing of that sort has emerged yet as just one day is left for the polling.

Arjun Raghunath, Thiruvananthapuram