Message delivered

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, Mohan Bhagwat, spent five days in Varanasi — the Lok Sabha constituency of the prime minister, Narendra Modi — earlier this month. It was the first major trip of the RSS chief after Modi visited the sangh headquarters in Nagpur at the end of March. Bhagwat’s tour generated a lot of buzz among party leaders who have been trying to connect the twin visits. The RSS said that Bhagwat’s Varanasi visit was part of the organisation’s preparations for its centenary celebrations. The RSS, founded in 1925, completes 100 years in 2025. During his stay, Bhagwat interacted with RSS leaders and cadres, students and professors, and also travelled to Lakhimpur, where he addressed Dalits associated with a Kabir ashram.

Insiders said that Bhagwat directed party cadres to hold camps in Dalit hamlets and win their trust. In the 2024 general elections, the BJP faced major reverses in Uttar Pradesh due to the Opposition’s narrative that the BJP would change the Constitution and disempower Dalits if voted to power. Modi’s victory margin in Varanasi thus came down sharply. The RSS doesn’t want a repeat of that failure in the assembly polls. A third consecutive victory for the UP chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, would also strengthen his claim as Modi’s rightful successor. This has left many in the BJP wondering whether the RSS has been rooting for Yogi over Modi’s trusted lieutenant and Union home minister, Amit Shah.

Colour bias

The Mohan Charan Majhi government in Odisha is showing its true colours. First, it changed the colour of state buses from green to saffron. Then it changed the colour of school buildings (from green to orange frost with an orange-tan border) followed by school uniforms (from green to brown and maroon). Buoyed by this trend of changing colours, some BJP supporters allegedly repainted a statue of Biju Patnaik in Cuttack in saffron. The issue was raised in the state assembly, and then suddenly, the statue was restored to its original colour overnight.

Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi poses for pictures during state level Utkal Divas (Odisha state formation day) celebration at Satyabhamapur, the birthplace of Utkala Gourav Madhusudan Das, in Cuttack, Odisha.

The Majhi government also renamed the state’s health scheme to Gopabandhu Jan Arogya Yojana. This has led to the Opposition accusing the government of focussing on changing names and colours rather than initiating its own schemes.

Clear the air

A comment by the US intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, questioning the reliability of electronic voting systems in her country prompted top Election Commission of India officials to clarify that India’s EVMs are standalone machines which aren’t connected to the internet and are fully secure. Concerns raised against electronic voting by influential voices in the US such as the technology billionaire, Elon Musk, last year, have put India’s poll body in a dilemma. While it would be improper for the quasi-judicial body to react to comments made by foreign leaders, the EC fears that its silence could lend credence to their allegations.

Shoe bite

A social media debate had been raging over whether the leader of the Opposition in the Kerala assembly, VD Satheesan, wore branded shoes worth three lakh rupees at the All India Congress Committee session held in Ahmedabad. Satheesan had apparently worn a pair of sneakers from the premium brand, Cloudtilt. The controversy was powered by the cyber handles belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Satheesan retorted by saying that the sneakers were gifted by one of his friends abroad when he accompanied Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. He also added that any CPI(M) activist who had questions about the price of his sneakers was welcome to take it at Rs 5,000. “The price of the sneakers was just over Rs 9,000... I’d already worn it on numerous occasions over the last few years,” he added. Satheesan’s fitting reply silenced his critics.

Sorry figure

The Assam CM, Himanta Biswa Sarma, put up a post on X expressing his gratitude towards a co-passenger on his flight to Dubai early this week. Sarma apologised for not being able to return the plug and charging cable lent to him by this “kind young gentleman” travelling with him on the Delhi-Dubai Emirates flight because “he disembarked in Dubai” while he was asleep. Sarma followed this up with another post saying that the Assam Police is “currently working to identify... the gentleman in question” so that the charger could be returned.

Soon the troll gates opened, with most raising questions about why the CM was using the police to locate the man. While one said that the state police has nothing better to do, another asked whether a common man can also “use the police like this”. One quipped that the state police was being used as Blinkit “to return a charger”. Clearly, an apology is best delivered in private.