Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar: Two ex-JNU students in new Modi cabinet

University of ‘greats’

So the subversives are now part of the government. So much was said to revile, run down and generally disrespect Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as an institution: The place where people supposedly spend more time politicking than studying (and engage in less reputable pursuits, as well). But out of the four member cabinet committee on security, the government’s highest policy-making body, two are students of JNU. S Jaishankar did an MA, MPhil and PhD from the university before he was selected for the foreign services. Nirmala Sitharaman was also a student there and did a masters in economics. Horror of horrors, not only was she a good student but also took an active part in politics. She was a free thinker, in opposition to the Students Federation of India that is the student wing of the CPI(M). So a university that has given the country its top ministers must be doing something right.

Numbers gone wrong

During the elections, Congress leader and party strategist Ahmed Patel got fed up of visitors coming to him asking, “What is your prediction for the polls?”. His solution was to keep several slips of paper with a pile of notes on the table. These slips had a ready reckoner of his assessment of seats, and other useful electoral data. The party couldn’t even reach his prediction midway.