Didi's day in Parliament: Both Houses again adjourned for the day

As the stalemate continued in Parliament with the two Houses again failing to transact any business, the day belonged to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Several Opposition leaders queued up to meet Banerjee at her Trinamool Congress party office inside Parliament and also in Parliament’s Central Hall. 

Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien could be seen rushing from one party office to another to facilitate the meetings. He also played a good host by arranging fish fries for the guests, party MPs as well as the throng of journalists who had gathered to speak with Banerjee.

Cong settles scores...

The Congress on Tuesday got an opportunity to settle scores with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) days after the latter had ridiculed Rahul Gandhi for his lack of knowledge about the National Cadet Corps. Addressing the media in Karnataka, BJP chief Amit Shah said a retired Supreme Court judge had claimed if a comparison was made on corruption, the “Yeddyurappa government” would get the number one award. Shah corrected himself after being nudged by former BJP state chief Prahlad Joshi to name Siddaramaiah, the Congress CM. 

But the damage was done. Congress social media in-charge Divya Spandana tweeted, “Who knew Amit Shah could also speak the truth-we all concur with you Amit ji. BS Yeddyurappa is the most corrupt!” Gandhi joined in later, saying, “Now that the BJP IT cell has announced Karnataka elections, time for a sneak preview of our top secret campaign video! Gifted to us by the BJP President, our campaign in Karnataka is off to a fabulous start. He says Yeddyurappa ran the most corrupt government ever...True.”

...and scores own goal

But social media can be a great leveller. The day didn’t start well for the Congress social media cell either. Its official Twitter handle, @INCIndia, conducted an online poll. “Do you think the death of 39 Indians in Iraq is Sushma Swaraj’s biggest failure as the foreign minister?” it asked with the hashtag “India Speaks”. At 10.49 am, Swaraj retweeted the poll from her Twitter handle. As many as 33,879 people had voted and 76 per cent answered “no”. Swaraj had met the families of the 39 Indians on Monday.