Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 23 July 2018 | Page 10

Image of the Week
GETTY IMAGES
DELUGE Heavy rains have caused extensive flooding in Mumbai and the surrounding areas and continue to disrupt life
deep throat
HOMEWARD BOUND
PM Narendra Modi is already
in poll mode. It is clear from his
itinerary that his dom­estic con-
stituency has taken precedence
over international outreach.
Sources say that he may give
the G20 summit—to be held in
Buenos Aires in November—a
miss, as it would take him out of
the country for at least five–six
days. After visiting Rwanda and
Uganda on July 23–24 on his
way to the BRICS summit in
South Africa, Modi is likely to
be largely home-bound. He
may just make an exception for
‘fast friend’ Japan with whom a
bilateral meeting is due. After
all, progress on the bullet train
project will have to be show-
cased in the run-up to the polls.
10 OUTLOOK 23 July 2018
SHAVIAN SHOTGUN
Shatrughan Sinha may be no
int­­ellectual, but few can ignore his
one-liners. “Bernard Shaw ke baare
mein utni jankari nahi hai, par Amit
Shah ko khub jaante hain (I may
not know much about Bernard
Shaw but I know Amit Shah well),”
he quipped at a recent Delhi book
launch. “Unse roz joojhna padta
hai (We have to grapple with him
everyday),” Sinha said, making no
bones about his testy ties with
the BJP president. Insiders say the
yesteryear Bollywood superstar is
miffed at not being given sufficient
importance in the party since the
Modi-Shah duo took over. But, in
Bihar at least, Shatrughan is still
a big name who can draw crowds.
More importantly, he can be of nui-
sance value to the Modi detractors.
Could this be the reason he has not
yet been thrown out of the party?
POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat finds
himself in news quite fre-
quently these days. First
Pranab Mukherjee, and now
the buzz is that Ratan Tata has
agreed to share a stage with
Bhagwat at an event in Mumbai
next month. The sarsanghcha-
lak had earlier this year courted
controversy when he said the
organisation could prepare an
‘army’ in three days to fight for
the country. Incidentally,
Bhagwat is bel­ieved to have a
keen interest in the study of
war. Sources claim that the RSS
chief, a voracious reader, likes
to sit back and relax with a good
war book or watch a war movie.
His iPad is his fav­ourite gadget
to watch movies on the go.