India Today – August 13, 2018

18 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 13, 2018

GLASSHOUSE

W

alking in step with the

BJP’s stated priority

to bring greater transparen-

cy in financial transactions,

the RSS on Guru Purnima

(July 27-29) this year,

departed from its decades-

old tradition of anonymous

donations. Workers were

encouraged to register their

names and pay by cheque.

—Sandeep Unnithan with Shweta Punj, Anshuman Tiwari, Sahil Joshi,

Kiran D. Tare, Jeemon Jacob and Amitabh Srivastava

SHOW ME

THE MONEY

K

erala chief minister

Pinarayi Vijayan

leaves for Minnesota in the

US on August 19 for treat-

ment of an undisclosed ail-

ment. The 17-day trip

follows clinical tests

in March at Apollo

Hospital, Chen-

nai. The state

government

will bear the

cost of the

treatment.

The buzz in

the state

secretariat

is about who

will be acting

CM and home

minister. Given

PV’s one-man-

show style, no

one might want

to step in.

F

ormer Congress president Sonia
Gandhi didn’t mind Odisha PCC chief
Niranjan Patnaik’s veiled critique of party
president Rahul Gandhi’s wink in Parliament
at a recent meeting of the extended Congress
Working Committee. But she snapped when
Patnaik held out for a special status for
Odisha like Andhra Pradesh. Clearly, Sonia
Gandhi hasn’t forgotten that the state’s
bifurcation was largely her idea.

F

inance Minister Arun
Jaitley has been confined
to his 2, Krishna Menon
Marg residence since early June
after a kidney replacement
surgery. Railway minister
Piyush Goyal continues to
hold additional charge
of the finance ministry.
Jaitley has started
meeting a chosen few
friends from across
a specially installed
glass partition. Finance
ministry bureaucrats
video-conference with
a convalescing Jaitley on
various policy issues. The buzz
on Raisina Hill is that Jaitley will
return to North Block after the
monsoon session of Parliament
ends on August 10. Seating
changes are likely in office—
Jaitley will sit at the end of a long
conference table away
from visitors.

THE COMEBACK SAGA

If Not PV, Who?

History Bites

LOSING

TRACK

T

ejashwi Yadav’s cycle yatra

from Gaya’s Gandhi Maidan

got off to a lousy start. He had

to change bicycles four times

as they developed snags, at

least once because of a flat tyre.

Then Yadav blamed the state

government for the lousy roads,

forgetting, of course, that he held

the road construction portfolio

till July 2017.

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

ment. The 17-day trip

follows clinical tests

in March at Apollo

Hospital, Chen-

minister. Given

PV’s one-man-

show style, no

one might want

M ZHAZO