Harish Gupta
Putin’s Wave That Turned Heads
It lasted barely a few seconds, but it was enough to make heads turn at the BRICS Summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin, after greeting and embracing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, suddenly stopped, turned towards India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and waved. Doval smiled and waved back.
The small gesture at Bharat Mandapam quickly became one of those fleeting diplomatic moments that said more than a formal handshake. Putin’s warm gesture towards Doval was hardly surprising to those familiar with their equation. Both men have deep roots in the world of intelligence and national security. Putin spent 16 years in the Soviet KGB, eventually retiring as a lieutenant colonel. Doval, meanwhile, served 33 years in India’s Intelligence Bureau, including a long stint handling sensitive operations and went on to become NSA.
Their familiarity goes well beyond protocol. Doval has emerged as one of India’s key interlocutors with Moscow and has held several one-to-one meetings with Putin. He travelled to Russia for direct talks with the Russian President in 2023, 2024 and again in 2025. That background perhaps explains the easy chemistry between the two. Putin, himself a former intelligence officer, is understood to have a particular appreciation for Doval’s strategic understanding and experience.
So, while Modi-Putin diplomacy commanded the spotlight, it was Putin’s spontaneous wave to Doval that supplied the summit with a little extra intrigue—an unscripted moment between two veterans of the shadowy world of intelligence who now operate in the full glare of diplomacy.
A Diya for Modi’s 25 Years
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on September 17, followed by the completion of 25 years in public life on October 7, is set to be celebrated with considerable fanfare.
But one element of the campaign stands out: beneficiaries of government schemes are being encouraged to light a Diya outside their homes or on their rooftops at 7 pm on September 17 and offer it as an “aashirwad” to Modi. The BJP and its state governments are reaching out to beneficiaries with diyas, oil, wicks and other material.
This is not the first time diyas have figured in Modi-era political outreach. During the Covid pandemic, citizens were asked to light diyas to honour frontline workers. Later, ahead of the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, people were urged to light lamps outside their homes. This time, the appeal is specifically aimed at beneficiaries who are being asked to bless the Prime Minister.
The decision was taken at a BJP meeting chaired by party president Nitin Nabin. The obvious question is: where does this stop? Several non-BJP governments also run cash-transfer and welfare schemes. Jharkhand, Karnataka and Telangana, for instance, have major beneficiary programs. If these governments were to ask beneficiaries to light diyas for their chief ministers on their birthdays, how would the BJP view it?
Political analysts say asking government-scheme beneficiaries to light a diya for him is certainly an unusual addition to the political calendar.
What's cooking in J&K
When Vinai Kumar Saxena was sent to Ladakh from Delhi, many said it was a punishment posting. Now that he has been given the charge of J&K as present incumbent Manoj Sinha has gone to the USA, eyebrows have been raised in political circles.
Manoj Sinha is currently in the US to address an event organised by former students of the IIT-BHU among other engagements. It is speculated that Manoj Sinha may be given a new role as he has served as LG, J&K for over six years. The BJP circles are agog with reports that Manoj Sinha may be brought to the Rajya Sabha from UP in November and may be inducted into the Union Cabinet soon.
One buzz doing the rounds is that Vinai Kumar Saxena could eventually be given the full-time J&K assignment. Speculation intensified after Saxena recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For now, however, Sinha’s US visit has added fresh fuel to the political grapevine.
EC Gives BJP A Breather
Strange are the ways of the Election Commission. It has announced Assembly bypolls and one Lok Sabha bypoll in Assam—but quietly left two other vacant Lok Sabha seats out of the reckoning. Three Lok Sabha constituencies are awaiting bypolls: Basirhat in West Bengal, Nagaon in Assam and Shillong in Meghalaya. Yet, only Nagaon has made the cut.
That is something of a breather for the BJP. The party would have faced a politically loaded test in all three seats, particularly after its recent setbacks in the Bankipur and Datia Assembly bypolls in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. A three-seat Lok Sabha contest could have indicated whether those defeats were merely a blip—or an early warning.
Nagaon has been vacant after Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi resigned and joined the BJP in March. With the six-month deadline approaching, the EC had little room for manoeuvre.
Basirhat, vacant since September 2024 after TMC MP Haji Nurul Islam’s death, is a far more combustible proposition. The BJP candidate Rekha Patra’s 2024 poll challenge remains before the Calcutta High Court despite the TMC candidate's death.
Shillong, vacant since February this year following MP Ricky A.J. Syngkon’s death may have to wait as the electoral-roll revision has not been completed. For now, the BJP gets one test—not three.
