Back in the frame

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Hamirpur Member of Parliament Anurag Thakur heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology. He is also the son of BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in Himachal Pradesh, Prem Kumar Dhumal. Since being removed from the post of president of the Indian cricket board earlier this year, Thakur has struggled to make headlines. The row over Hindi movie Padmavati has offered him an opportunity to claw his way back into limelight. The Thakur-led parliamentary committee on IT might have little do with films, but it asked Padmavati director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, chairperson of Central Board of Film Certification Prasoon Joshi and other officials to appear before it to “bring an end to the controversy". Thakur hails from the Rajput community, sections of which have been at the forefront of the protests against the film. His father, Dhumal, is 73, and would need to retire in two years from holding an elected office if the BJP were to apply its unwritten retirement age of 75. Thakur, 43, would be hopeful a better profile would help him succeed his father as BJP's number one leader in the hill state.