KEEPING TABS ON THE POLITICAL GRAPEVINE

Human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar has been at pains to explain that the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been receiving awards not because of controversies but because of academic excellence. Last Tuesday, he said in Parliament that President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the best university award on JNU for good research and not for slogans in praise of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. On Monday, when JNU was ranked second among universities in the government’s ranking of educational institutions, Javadekar reiterated it got a good ranking not because of Afzal slogans but because of work. With the BJP having targeted the JNU for alleged “anti-national” activities, the HRD minister, it seems, feels compelled to add all these caveats.

Central leaders of the Congress have started intervening to pacify Karnataka leaders who are upset with chief minister Siddaramaiah’s style of functioning. Following a prolonged tussle with him, former CM SM Krishna joined the BJP recently. Another disgruntled leader CK Jaffer Sharief wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, backing RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for the President’s post. Mindful of the rising chorus against the CM, the Congress party’s Central leaders have chosen to intervene. A party MP from Karnataka recently approached vice-president Rahul Gandhi to seek his direction to the CM to sanction a medical college in his constituency. The message was conveyed to Siddaramaiah. With signs of a BJP resurgence in Karnataka that will go to polls a year later, the Congress is not taking any chances.

Trinamool Congress’ senior MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy has earned a reputation as a poet and singer. On one occasion, he started singing in Parliament. Now, parliamentarians often urge him to recite a poem before he completes his speech. Last week, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh asked Roy to recite a shayari. Roy obliged.