'Dhokla rajneeti' would not work in West Bengal, says Derek O'Brien

Alluding to the controversy over Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers reaching the residence of the Kolkata police commissioner on Sunday in connection with the investigation of a scam, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien (pictured) on Monday said "dhokla rajneeti" would not work in West Bengal. When told that dhokla, a Gujarati snack, was quite delicious, O’Brien said he loved it himself. Interestingly, dhokla is served routinely during press conferences of political parties when held inside Parliament. There have, however, been occasions when the Trinamool Congress has specially organised serving fish fry to journalists.

Extra time for assault   

On Saturday, the Chhattisgarh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) found itself braving protests from journalists after one of them, Suman Pandey, was allegedly beaten up by some party functionaries. While the episode was followed by an FIR by Pandey and the arrest of three party workers, journalists expressed their anguish at the response of the BJP’s local leadership by holding a sit-in outside the party’s state headquarters that evening. As two senior party leaders, including leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Dharamlal Kaushik, came out to break the impasse in the early hours of Sunday, an angry Pandey threw a jibe at them: “You should clarify if journalists are invited to be bashed up by your colleagues. In future we will keep extra time in hand – 20 minutes for getting assaulted and the remainder for coverage.” He and others reminded Kaushik how those behind the assault were garlanded by their party colleagues immediately after they were granted bail in the assault case.

Congress' social media army

After its 2014 Lok Sabha election debacle, the Congress figured out the key role social media plays in shaping public opinion. In the run-up to the 2019 elections, it is using that lesson to good use. The youth wing of the party is putting together a social media army comprising a standalone team for every Lok Sabha constituency in the country. The team will be trained to bust fake news items, identify paid news and so on. The group has been branded Super 272-social media warriors. The party would also "invite the youth of the country to come forward and be part of Congress party's countrywide campaign to bring change".