WASTED PHOTO-OPOn March 12, on the sidelines of an India Today Group event in Guwahati, Congress leader Pawan Khera met a senior Assam Police officer and even posed for pictures with him. He had then joked that the next time Assam Police came to arrest him, he would flash the picture to show his connections. Weeks later, his remark was put to the test. On April 7, an Assam Police team reached Khera’s Delhi residence after Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, wife of chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, filed an FIR accusing him of ‘forgery and criminal conspiracy’. Khera had alleged at a press meet that Riniki had three passports and owned companies abroad, claims that were later found to be inaccurate. This isn’t Khera’s first brush with Assam Police. Three years ago, the proactive force had arrested Khera for a ‘slip of the tongue’ against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Supreme Court had given him bail then, but this time the Assam government seems determined to give no quarter. Khera’s photo-op may be in vain.FAMILY POLITICS | SIS VS MRS Cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s family continues to be in the throes of a bitter political divide. His elder sister Naynaba is contesting the April 26 local polls in Rajkot on a Congress ticket, even as wife Rivaba Jadeja is currently a BJP minister in Gujarat. The split dates back to 2019 when Rivaba joined the BJP, breaking from the family’s traditional Congress leanings. By the 2022 assembly poll, the rivalry had grown in scale, with Naynaba accusing Rivaba, the BJP candidate from Jamnagar north, of using minors for campaigning. Ravindra had campaigned for his wife then, even as his father publicly urged voters to support the Congress. Rivaba later won the seat by over 53,000 votes. Now, Naynaba is in the fray. Ravindra is busy with the IPL, but at least a few are wondering whether he’ll come out to bat for his big sister. eco watchPERSIAN ROOTS At a recent public event in Nagpur, Union minister Nitin Gadkari shared an anecdote on India’s ties with Iran from his time as shipping minister. He recalled a meeting on the Chabahar port project with the late supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, noting that the latter had spoken of civilisational links and the Persian language’s roots in Sanskrit (Tehran University even has a department dedicated to the language). Khamenei had traced his own ancestry to a village near Lucknow, according to Gadkari.NO-SHOW NETA Halfway into his term, ex-Telangana CM and now Gajwel MLA K. Chandrashekar Rao is facing a unique protest in his constituency. To mock their ‘missing’ legislator, villagers in Venkatapur took out a procession with a ‘dummy KCR’ and even submitted their petitions and grievances to it. As the accompanying drumbeats got louder, the locals even promised a “milk bath” for the leader if he showed up. Incidentally, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief and Opposition leader has also been staying away from the assembly, a fact the ruling Congress loses no opportunity to play up, especially the part about him drawing over Rs 1.06 crore in salary and allowances since December 2023 while sitting at home.BITTER PILL For almost all of his two decades as CM, Nitish Kumar has let allies handle the tricky health portfolio. But as he readies his exit, he wrote a final prescription on April 11—a sweeping ban on private practice by government doctors in Bihar. It’s a classic Nitish twist, a legacy note signed just before leaving the ward.—with Jumana Shah, Avishek G. Dastidar, Prasad Nichenametla and Amitabh Srivasta- EndsPublished By: Shyam BalasubramanianPublished On: Apr 19, 2026 12:30 IST
