Glasshouse

STATS AND SPIRITUALITY

It had to be a first. Hours after the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the budget for 2026-27, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew to Dera Sachkhand Ballan in Punjab to mark Guru Ravidas Jayanti. Never has a prime minister left the national capital on Budget Day. So, while analysts parsed deficits and growth, Modi was busy bowing before Sant Niranjan Dass, the Dera chief and a recent Padma Shri awardee. Rooted in the Ad Dharm and Ravidassia movements, Dera Ballan has long embodied Dalit self-respect in Punjab’s Doaba region. With his visit, Modi drew that history into the national frame, recasting a symbol of spiritual autonomy as one of cultural unity.

EMPTYING THE NEST

Forgiven trespasses

Two high-profile politicians who defected to the BJP ahead of the 2024 general election are now under the Rajasthan anti-corruption bureau (ACB) scanner. Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, a tribal leader who quit the Congress and his assembly seat to contest the Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket, only to lose, saw his offices searched soon after signalling a return to his old party. Meanwhile, the ACB has also registered a case in the mid-day meal scam case, where another ex-Congress minister and turncoat, Rajendra Yadav, had been raided by the ED earlier. So, is this a dual strategy: CM Bhajan Lal Sharma using the investigative agencies to pressure defectors while also blunting the ‘washing machine’ tag the BJP is saddled with vis--vis turncoats?

SARI STATECRAFT

As important as the economic signals the Union budget sends is the sartorial statement Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman makes while presenting it. It was a handwoven Kanjivaram silk sari this time, a purple kattam with light golden-brown checks and a coffee-brown border, a tribute to Tamil Nadu’s storied weaving tradition. Like the diplomatic gesture European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s made with her Benarasi brocade jacket during her Republic Day appearance, the FM’s sartorial choices too are an exercise in soft advocacy, whether the drape is Kanjivaram, Mangalgiri, Ikat, Kantha or Madhubani.

JAB THEY MET

It did not matter that their meeting produced no alliance, seat deal or ideological exchange. The very fact that CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Salim met former Trinamool Congress leader Humayun Kabir at a New Town hotel was enough to stir outrage. Kabir, suspended from TMC and now running the Janata Unnayan Party, has a reputation for communal overtures. No amount of clarifications from Salim that in politics everybody speaks to everybody could undo the damage.

IF WORDS CAN KILL

Like her husband, the cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, Rivaba Jadeja can bowl a political googly as well as she can pick one. Responding to Rahul Gandhi’s social media attack on crime in Gujarat, the BJP minister said the state is far safer than he claims, especially for women, citing crime rates well below the national average. She didn’t stop at that, though, predicting that the Congress would be reduced to ‘single digits’ next state election from its 17-seat tally in 2022 (currently down to 12 after five defections). The words are decimating enough, but who will have the last stab?

—with Anilesh S. Mahajan, Sonal Khetarpal, Amitabh Srivastava, Arkamoy Datta Majumdar and Jumana Shah