Home Minister Amit Shah The Home Ministry was abuzz with activity on Wednesday with Home Minister Amit Shah being present in office. Not only were bureaucrats on their feet with several meetings concerning the ministry, including one on matters related to Goa, being held, several Cabinet ministers also came to meet Shah. They included Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav, Parliamentary Affairs and Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi and Law Minister Kiren Rijiju. By late afternoon, Delhi BJP leaders also came to meet Shah in the wake of the Jahangirpuri demolitions. Shah had largely kept to his residence through much of the pandemic, handling both the ministry and political work from there. With the situation improving over the months, sources said, he has begun spending more time in the ministry, holding all meetings at North Block.
Party matters: Many of the Congress leaders, who are interacting with poll strategist Prashant Kishor, are not agreeable to his pitch that the party should transform itself into an election machine. As is their wont, they believe strengthening the organisation and bringing clarity on the party’s core ideology – in other words what it stands for – is more important. Once that is done, electoral success will follow, they say. But, one senior leader who met Kishor on Wednesday, believes that the past few days of hectic activities have boosted the morale of the dejected cadre. He says there is now hope among the workers that the leadership is gearing up to do something.
Site visit: The TMC has in the past questioned the visits of delegations of BJP leaders to sites of crime, ranging from political violence to cases of alleged rape in West Bengal. With the communal clashes in Jahangirpuri and the subsequent demolition drive putting the national capital’s law and order system under the scanner, the TMC has decided to take a leaf out of the BJP’s playbook. On Friday, a team of six women MPs of the TMC, led by Lok Sabha member Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, plan to visit Jahangirpuri on a “fact-finding mission”. The team has been asked to submit a report on the matter to West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee.
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