CBI Director Ranjeet Sinha’s daughter’s wedding is due to take place in New Delhi to an IAS officer from Chattisgarh cadre. So, Mr Director is busy with the wedding preparations at a time when the swords are out between the CBI and the IB and tensions are mounting. But the most interesting thing is that the CBI director’s daughter is an intelligence officer with the IB. Not just that, the prime minister’s son-in-law also holds a big position in the IB. In such a scenario, how can the CBI and IB come out in the open and fight it out?

A significant signature is with the FBI and the NIA (when NIA went to interrogate David Hadley in the US) regarding Ishrat Jahan’s encounter. In today’s changed scenario, the NIA denies having any such signature but sources close to the investigative agencies reveal that David Hadley had given a statement about Ishrat Jahan that she was an operative of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Otherwise what was the reason that after her death, “Gazwa Times”, which is considered to be mouthpiece of the LeT, published an article that claimed Ishrat was Lashkar’s member? A couple of months ago, too, Lashkar’s website gave Ishrat’s death the status of dying a martyr. Before Ishrat and her companions’ encounter between Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004, the IB had got some important leads. But all those leads now seem to have been buried under the political games.

For Rajiv Shukla, a relatively small minister in the Manmohan government found the evening of Sunday to be a pleasant surprise. He got a phone from Chennai and it was the reigning queen of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa herself on the other line. She wanted to know if Shukla would be attending the Planning Commission’s meeting that was scheduled for Monday in New Delhi. After Shukla confirmed his presence, Jayalalithaa hung up. The meeting was at 10.30 on Monday morning. Exactly a quarter to 10, an official car from Tamil Nadu house stops at the Planning Commission portico, and two splendid red chairs are brought out. One of the chairs is kept in the Planning Commission vice-president Montek Singh Ahluvalia’s room and the other in the conference hall. It is said that Jayalalithaa suffers from a bad back and therefore, can’t sit on ordinary chairs. She also reached the venue at the appointed time and was carrying copies for her speech. After the meeting was over, Montek and Shukla ji went down to say bye to the Tamil queen, they both were surprised at what they saw. A special footstool was placed in her SUV, 15 Parliamentarians were lined up by the car in lungis and shirts, with the shirt pockets bearing Jayalalithaa’s photo, all standing with their heads bowed – it looked like a scene from a Tamil movie. What was surprising was that a veteran leader such as Thambi Dorai was also present in the queue. After Jayalalithaa left, both Montek and Rajiv Shukla exchanged a look and sighed with relief.

Advani is upset with NaMo on various issues. The biggest issue for Advani is that Modi’s strategy is like a double-edged sword for Advani’s constituency Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Advani has, on several occasions, asked Modi why Gandhinagar in the only seat in the state where the Congress has managed to hold its sway in local municipality elections. Gauging Modi’s intentions, Advani has changed his election attention to Bhopal. Shivraj is there, there is no danger of internal strife and a large number of Sindhi voters are an added advantage. But will Advani really contest the elections? The question is an important once because Sangh is still stuck to its ruling that any saffron leader above the age of 75 should not contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The Sangh wants that such leaders should transform themselves into the form of guardians for others in the party. If that is the case, Narendra Modi should indeed get the blessings of Advani.

All is not well with the Congress. Despite the sudden resignations of Pawan Bansal and Ashwini Kumar, the inside strife in the party refuses to die down. One Congressman is after another. Abhishek Manu Singhvi has not been able to put his CD scandal behind him and pamphlets are being issued against him in an income tax matter. Voices and pamphlets are being issued in the political corridors against Kapil Sibal and Anand Sharma. The Anand Sharma camp is blaming and glaring down at the Central Minister Kamal Nath against the bad words being spread against Sharma. Kapil Sibal camp, on the other hand, is blaming the same on those who have just being removed from the Cabinet.

Extremely happy with Congress win in Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi is busy making preparations for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. This time he wants Congress’ performance to be better in Amethi, where the party had to face defeat in the last Assembly elections. He is pretty concerned about the Rae Bareilly constituency, too. It is hoped that this time it won’t be Sonia but Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who will contest the elections from Rae Bareilly. So, this seat, too, is a matter of honour for the Gandhi family. Until now, the responsibility of Amethi constituency was on Kishorilal Sharma. After Congress’ performance in Assembly elections, Sharma’s wings have now been clipped and his place has been taken by Chandrakant Dwivedi. It is worth mentioning here that it is the same Dwivedi who was the president of NSUI in Madhya Pradesh. It is believed that Dwivedi’s case was aggressively put forward by Meenakshi Natarajan, who is a prominent member of Rahul Gandhi’s core group. On the other hand, Priti Khare of Bihar has been put together with Priyanka Gandhi for Rae Bareilly.

Last time, too, after a curt remark by the court to the CBI, the Ahmad Patel, who is considered Congress’s Chanakya and is the political advisor to Sonia Gandhi, hurriedly went to Manmohan Singh carrying a message from Sonia Gandhi. He let his feelings be known to the prime minister and said that Law Minister Ashwani Kumar should resign with immediate effect. But everyone knows how dear the prominent member of the “Chandigarh Club” Ashwani Kumar is to the prime minister. Thus, the prime minister promptly retorted that the court’s observation is towards the CBI and not the law minister. Then where is the case for the law minister resigning. Patel was left speechless – had the prime minister ever waxed opine about the relevance and irrelevance of matters?

The role of the PMO is no less subtle in the entire matter. The PMO actually had no issues with the report the CBI has prepared because the only condition the PMO had kept before the CBI was that whichever report is filed in the court, the entire report on Coalgate should not have any mention of the prime minister or any of his family members to be involved in the matter. According to sources, Pulak Chatterjee sent three SMEes to the CBI director regarding this. Not only this, a prominent member of the PMO Sanjay Lohia sent three emails to the CBI director and suggested a few amendments to it. Important Opposition leaders have copies of these emails as well. Now the CBI is caught in a corner, wondering how much to reveal to the court.

Prime Minister’s tenure as a Rajya Sabha member ends this June. What next? To look for an answer to the question when Manmohan went to meet UPA President Sonia Gandhi recently, he humbly told madam that enough was enough and that considering his health, he should be allowed to let go of the post. Trapped in the Coal-gate allegations, in seems that behind the prime minister’s reasons to retire, there is more a political necessity that is at work than a simple wish. But Sonia instantly told him that the country was making a lot of progress under his leadership so he will still have to do his duty. Where his Rajya Sabha seat is concerned, he will be appointed from Assam yet again. So, in a way, the Congress has decided that in the coming general Lok Sabha elections in 2014, the party will launch Manmohan Singh as the prime ministerial candidate yet again. The biggest reason to launch Singh is to stop spending Rahul Gandhi short. The Congress knows that in 2014, the Congress’ path is paved with challenges.

March 1 was the birthday of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Usually, Nitish prefers to keep his birthday celebrations subdued. So, most Assembly members and Parliamentarians from Bihar were unaware of March 1 being Nitish’s birthday. Renu Kumari, industry minister in Nitish Kumar’s government, stood at the Vidhan Sabha portico at about 12 minutes past eleven, and her assistant held a big bouquet of flowers hidden behind him. The minute Nitish Kumar’s car stopped there at 11.15 pm, she duly touched Nitish’s feet, gifted him the bouquet, and wished him a happy birthday. The politicians from the JD (U) standing were taken by surprise. They had no idea it was Nitish’s birthday. Now where could they get a bouquet for him at such short notice? So they made a rush for the garden there where there were roses and plucked them all. The gardener came rushing and said, “Saab, don’t do this; I will lose my job.” The politicians abused him crassly, and said, “You are worried about your job? We might lose ours!” So, the gardener kept pleading, the flowers kept getting plucked and about a dozen of the members wished the chief minister a happy birthday with those roses.