The Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has always been a chief minister and an intellectual. He was also known for his recitation of Tagore and other Bengali poets and passion for world cinema. Eyeing his chair, the Trinamul Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee is not far behind. She has always been a self-styled poetess and now she wants to woo Bengal with her paintings.

Bengal’s didi’s canvases ranging from faces of goddesses, scenes from Kalighat to landscapes have been put up for an exhibition-cum-sale at a private gallery in Kolkata. Her media include oil, acrylic and charcoal.
The Bengali “bhadralok” class had never held Ms Banerjee in as high an esteem as the Marxist chief minister as far as art and literature is concerned. However, “didi”, who initially started exhibiting her poetic and painting skills amidst a captive audience of her close coterie and Bengali journalists, has now decided to reach out to all. And with chances of her wrresting Bengal from the rest, there is a beeline by all those who want to get on to her right side to buy her paintings.

Choice of nominees leaves MPs fuming
Mamatadi may have announced the names of her nominees for contesting the forthcoming Assembly polls in West Bengal. But it has certainly left many of her senior party leaders seething and fuming. However, given the Hitler-esque manner in which Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee runs her party, most are reduced to cribbing in private to those who care to listen instead of venting their unhappiness to the leader herself. Indeed, most of the Trinamul’s 19 party MPs are said to be upset with didi’s choice of candidates as they were reportedly not consulted when the nominees for the Assembly segments falling under their parliamentary constituency were selected.
Besides, there are sarcastic whispers of how “candidates from even Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore” have made the cut while the justified claims of others for a party ticket have been ignored.
Tongues also continue to wag about the choice of Ficci secretary-general as a Trinamul candidate when the very same gentleman had been fiercely critical of Ms Banerjee during the Singur and Nandigram stirs spear-headed by her. But then, as someone has wisely said, “Politics makes for strange bed-fellows.’”

Politicians score cricketing points
If senior BJP leader L.K. Advani showcased Team India cricketers Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel and Yusuf Pathan to prove the point that Muslims are well off in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, Congress has a different take on the issue. AICC spokesperson Manish Tewari said that the cricket players are there in Team India despite Mr Modi and the chief minister represents the most reprehensible face of the BJP. “You had a programme which is carried out against the minorities. You had subversion of justice taking place all these years and even today those innocents who were done to death, their next of kin are yet to get justice,” Mr Tewari said.

RSS embraces social networking
With time, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is also changing. The outfit, which has always rejected anything “foreign” and focused on everything “desi” has decided to flow with the drift. The cyber-shy outfit is now all over the cyberspace. With its numbers (read members) in the ongoing shakhas dwindling rapidly, the RSS is heavily into social networking.
The Sangh Parivar is on Facebook, trying to attract people to its controversial ideology. It has introduced cyber shakhas and is on Twitter. Plans are also afoot to change the traditional loose khaki shorts to something “smarter”. The brains behind the Sangh Parivar feel that the outfit’s approach needs to change to woo today’s youth.
However, the outfit is still completely desi when it comes to bovines. Some of its members are planning to introduce cow urine cola in a bid to give other soft drinks, particularly Coca Cola, a run for its money.

Frantic search for Joshi
BJP had to launch a frantic search recently for its leader M.M. Joshi when it was found that he was not present in the Lok Sabha at a time when the House was taking up a scientific and innovative research bill. Dr Joshi was supposed to speak on the issue and had been preparing for days, collecting research material and other information on the issue. His party colleagues left a number of messages with his staff in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) office as well as at his residence. It was after much effort that Dr Joshi, who was in a PAC meeting (not in the PAC office), got the message and rushed to the Lower House to participate.