Fly on the wall
Harish Gupta
When Sonia Gandhi Vetoed Rahul
In the shadowy corridors of Indian National Congress, the Tamil Nadu puzzle had begun to look less like strategy and more like a family writ. Rahul Gandhi, restless and impatient, was quietly flirting with a political gamble—ditching the old warhorse Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and exploring a bold alignment with Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) fronted by actor-turned-politician Vijay.
Signals were subtle but unmistakable. Rahul’s public defence of Vijay over censorship controversies in early January this year was no casual gesture—it was a political wink. Congress insiders whispered of back channel talks, of emissaries testing the waters, of a new southern script being drafted. The state unit, weary of playing second fiddle to the DMK, wasn’t entirely opposed either.
But the DMK wasn’t taking chances. A visibly concerned senior leader Kanimozhi made a quiet dash to Delhi, landing at 10 Janpath on a cold January evening. The message was blunt: don’t rock the boat. Yet, Rahul held his ground. The stalemate deepened, and Tamil Nadu’s alliance arithmetic teetered on collapse.
Enter Sonia Gandhi. On March 3, the Congress matriarch stepped in with characteristic finality. Calls were made, lines were drawn, and a direct channel was opened with M. K. Stalin. The message was clear—there would be no adventurism. The DMK alliance would hold. Rahul’s experiment was over before it began. Reluctantly, the party fell in line. Seat-sharing was stitched up, the façade of unity restored. It's a different matter that Rahul Gandhi did not address any joint rallies and maintained distance.
But politics has a cruel sense of timing. As results trickled in, murmurs grew louder—had Rahul seen what others missed? TVK’s rise hinted at a shifting ground reality, one the Congress chose not to ride. For now, discipline trumped instinct. Rahul deferred. Sonia decided. And somewhere in Tamil Nadu, a missed opportunity quietly lingered.
A Midnight Operation: How Amit Shah Breached the Kejriwal Fortress
For years, the Aam Aadmi Party’s compact but combative Rajya Sabha bloc of ten MPs punched far above its weight, needling the National Democratic Alliance at every turn. Even when Swati Maliwal broke ranks, the fortress held—cracks visible, but no collapse.
Then came the moment that changed the script. As Raghav Chadha—once the blue-eyed strategist of Arvind Kejriwal—lost his footing within the party, the tremors began. Whispers turned into quiet huddles; disquiet found a direction. Delhi’s political grapevine sensed movement before the headlines did.
What followed had all the elements of a classic capital intrigue. On a humid Delhi night, well past the hour of routine political activity, seven AAP MPs slipped into Amit Shah’s residence for a close-door meeting that insiders now describe as decisive. It wasn’t just a courtesy call. Shah, in his trademark clinical style, is learnt to have laid out a hard political brief—Punjab’s stalled governance, the patchy rollout of central schemes, and the shrinking space for relevance within AAP.
By the time the meeting broke, sometime close to midnight, the die was cast. Numbers, as always in Delhi, proved more decisive than noise. With over two-thirds of the bloc ready to walk, the anti-defection law turned from a barrier into a bridge.
The Kejriwal fortress didn’t fall with a bang—it was quietly unlocked from within. In the capital’s shadowy power game, this was less a rebellion and more a midnight extraction—swift, silent, and devastatingly effective.
New CDS: The
Guessing Game Intensifies
As the war in West Asia
dominates strategic conversations, a quieter but equally intense
churn is underway within India’s military establishment: who will
be the next Chief of Defence Staff? With General Anil Chauhan’s
extended tenure ending on May 30, 2026, the race has entered a
decisive phase—though officially, the field remains wide open.
The
timing adds intrigue. Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi and Navy
chief Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi are both set to retire within
months, placing them in contention. Predictably, lobbying has picked
up, with each service keenly watching how the balance of power may
shift.
Yet, the buzz in Delhi’s security circles suggests
the outcome may not rest solely within the services. National
Security Adviser Ajit Doval is widely seen as a key influence in such
appointments. His military adviser, Lt Gen. S. Raja Subramani, has
emerged as a serious contender—mirroring Chauhan’s own trajectory
from the same role to CDS. Both Chauhan and India’s first CDS, the
late General Bipin Rawat, were considered close to Doval’s
strategic worldview.
However, another appointment of a retired
Army general could trigger disquiet within the Navy and Air Force,
which have long argued against the Army’s institutional dominance.
The CDS post, after all, was conceived to foster jointness and
integration across services.
With eligibility norms now
widened to include serving and retired three-star officers, the
government has flexibility. The real test will be whether it uses
that leeway to reinforce balance—or continuity.
