Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 19 March 2018 | Seite 10

deep throat
GOES AS HE LIKES
Days before Andhra Pradesh
chief minister Chandrababu
Naidu decided to pull out TDP
ministers from the BJP-led
government at the Centre, his
MP from Chittoor, N. Sivapra­
sad had been trying to attract
attention to the cause in his
own way. Demanding Special
Category status for AP, the
actor-turned-politician ado­p­
ted dramatic ways of protest in
Par­l­iament: From dressing up
like a tantric, bare-chested with
a long-haired wig and as Lord
Kri­­s­­hna, to staging a street-play
and protesting ins­ide the House
with a rattle. He even dressed
up like TDP founder NTR. A
BJP colleague says: “At this rate
he’ll be Kamalahaasan of TDP”!
COURTING MARRIAGE
With deaths, strikes and political
manoeuvres filling the news
cycle in Jammu and Kashmir, a
smaller event has gone unnoticed.
Earlier this month, Omar Abdullah
reportedly submitted to Delhi
High Court that his marriage with
Payal Abdullah has broken down
irretri­evably and that he wants
to remarry. The news evoked
no interest in Srinagar. The HC
has sought the response of the
estranged wife of the former CM,
asking her to file a reply before the
next date of hearing on April 23.
Even social media was silent on
this; no one speculated about the
woman Omar wants to marry. It
seems people have lost interest in
the private lives of politicians. This
public silence on matters personal,
especially in the Valley, might
please the National Conference.
WAITING FOR EXODUS
After the huge success in
Tripura and other northeast­
ern states, the BJP is now eye­
ing Orissa. It is not just the
ruling BJD which is jittery,
the Congress too is feeling the
heat. Struggling with a weak
organisation in the state, the
Congress’s priority is to pre­
vent its cadres and state lead­
ers from jumping ship. Orissa
state leaders are believed to
be waiting for the “high com­
mand” to act or for a “good
offer” from the BJP, which
had carried out a mass induc­
tion of Congress cadres and
leaders into its fold in Trip­
ura. Orissa may see a similar
exodus. A similar result too,
the BJP would fondly hope.
OVERHEARD A Congress leader on Rahul Gandhi’s absence during the Tripura poll results: “The
Northeast is not the limit for him. He looks further east...he’s on his way to Singapore and Malaysia!”
10 OUTLOOK 19 March 2018