All eyes on Sitharaman’s  balancing act

TDP Supremo Chandrababu Naidu’s reported $12 billion aggregate aid request from Central Government is a hefty sum, but the Central Government might consider it small change to avoid a political collapse, due to the compulsions of a coalition government.

For a $3.5 trillion Indian economy, the fiscal support packages sought is not much, one may argue. Nitish Kumar, another key ally, has reportedly joined the fray, asking for additional financial assistance running into few billion dollars besides special category status for Bihar.

Combined, their demands exceed the total allocations to all States put together as loan assistance for the current fiscal. All eyes are on the upcoming Budget to see how Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will mange the fisc to accommodate these massive requests from key allies.

Comedy of errors

The Chief Ministers of the two Telugu speaking States on Saturday met to resolve the pending issues post bifurcation at Praja Bhavan in Hyderabad. So what is the big deal about the venue one would ask? Almost around the same time nine years ago, K Chandrashekara Rao had given the go-ahead for a sting operation that caught Telugu Desam Party’. The episode also caught Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu talking to the MLC promising to honour all the promises made to him. This operation put Naidu in a spot politically, making him go to Vijayawada with bag and baggage, while Reddy was arrested.

Nine years later, Reddy, who subsequently quit TDP to join Congress in Telangana, and Naidu have become Chief Ministers. In a week of quick developments, Naidu wrote to his protégé Reddy, offering to settle several unresolved bifurcation issues. Reddy responded positively and offered to host the talks in Hyderabad. The meeting went off well with the two sides agreeing to set up two high-level committees to study and resolve the issues. What everyone missed was that the venue of the meeting — Praja Bhavan (it used to be called Pragati Bhavan) — is the same place from where KCR gave consent for the sting operation.

Spirit of Mumbai

Mumbai, which records the lowest turnout in any election, was in full force to celebrate the victory of cricket World Cup champions despite the wet weather. The day after the victory lap, the Bombay Municipal Corporation-appointed workers collected 9,000 kg of waste along the Marine Drive, a VIP stretch frequently used by MLAs and bureaucrats heading for the ongoing State assembly session at Vidhan Bhavan. Having found scores of discarded chappals and shoes collected from the waste during the morning walk, an avid stock investor went on to buy stocks of Bata and Campus Shoes. Is that called the spirit of the city that never sleeps?

The Bengali Dilemma

CPM MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya started his Rajya Sabha speech — on the Motion of Thanks on President’s Address — in Bengali. But was stopped midway as there was no interpreter available at that point of time. Bhattacharyya, the former mayor of Kolkata, made it a point to mention that the National anthem (Jana Gana Mana) and national song (Vande Mataram) were in Bengali and the language had brought a Nobel too. “This is the language which has given us Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram; and that language is not being interpreted,” he said, adding that India was a Union of States, a country of multiple cultures, and “language of every corner ought to be interpreted”. Bhattacharyya though was given time later, perhaps after an hour — when a translation/interpretation was arranged — to complete his speech.

Father-daughter tango

It was the launch of iVP Semiconductor in Chennai. On stage having a stand-up conversation were the father-daughter duo of P Rajamanickam, founder and CEO, and Ponni Carlin, COO. When Ponni asked Rajamanickam, a former CEO of Tata Electronics, why he wanted to set up a new semiconductor company, to much laughter from the audience, he said, I started the company for her actually! “I was in semi-retirement and she told me why don’t you start something for me!” He concluded the chat saying, that he was fortunate that he has a daughter who wants to be like the dad as children usually don’t want to follow their dads!

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