When the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement, with Anna Hazare at its head, began their protests amid much excitement and frenzy last year, I was among the first to say that it left me cold, reminding me suspiciously of a real life Peepli Live from Jantar Mantar.
When Sharad Pawar split the Congress in 1999, a party MP told me, "Pawar is not bothered about Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin. All that worries him is losing his prominent seating position in the Lok Sabha."
Sujata Anandan writes.
"Aww... I like happy endings!" a friend on my timeline tweeted as reports came in that Raj Thackeray, president of MNS, had driven his estranged cousin Uddhav Thackeray home: after a day spent in hospital.
Sujata Anandan writes.
It is not surprising that Maharashtra's Congress legislators have sounded the bugle of revolt against chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.
Sujata Anandan writes.
For someone who flips-flops on most issues, there is one thing to be said about Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray – he is a man of distinct dislikes and he will not be swayed by any consideration to change his mind about his bugbears.
I do not know why the BJP is so surprised that Abu Jundal's home town should be Beed in Maharashtra --- it is also the home district of Gopinath Munde, the BJP's tallest leader from the state.
Sujata Anandan writes.
Last week, when it seemed as though the nation was headed toward a mid-term poll for the Congress-led UPA’s seeming inability to have a president of its choice, an All India Congress Committee functionary told me categorically: "The presidential candidate will be Sonia Gandhi’s choice and everyone will eventually come around."
Sujata Anandan writes.
Why I would not credit Narendra Modi solely for Gujarat's prosperity is this: the state already had a thriving culture of business and development and it was easy to build on the foundations laid by others.
Sujata Anandan writes.
Crime is always glamorous and has been the subject of many Bollywood films over the years. Policing never was.
On Sunday morning, I received a text message from a friend in Gujarat informing me that chief minister Narendra Modi, after forcing Sanjay Joshi to resign from the BJP’s national executive, also compelled him to cancel his return to New Delhi. Sujata Anandan writes.
As I write this, 21 years after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, I cannot help but recall the two great lessons I imbibed during the 1991 Lok Sabha campaign from two PMs–Chandrashekhar who was at the time caretaker PM and AB Vajpayee who was destined for the future. Sujata Anandan writes.
Several years ago, when Sharad Pawar was returned to Maharashtra as chief minister by then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao – there was a brilliant cartoon by renowned cartoonist RK Laxman that said it all.
Sujata Anandan writes.
Sometimes Bal Thackeray can get too big for his boots - and trip over them. There can be no better example of this than when he claimed to have demolished the Babri Masjid - or, at least, claimed pride in its demolition by his Shiv Sainiks. Sujata Anandan writes.
As recently as January, a very senior Congress leader from New Delhi, in a private chat with a handful of journalists from Bombay, told us rather cynically, ``If we could fish out someone like Pratibha Patil and bring her in from nowhere, do you think we would ever find it difficult to get our own candidate into Rashtrapati Bhavan again?’’
Sharad Pawar is no Bal Thackeray and, yet, these days he seems to be behaving increasingly like one – a bully, I mean.
Sujata Anandan writes.