Karnataka Assembly polls: Is S M Krishna returning to Congress?

Krishna had surprised many by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party a year ago

As Karnataka gears up for the Assembly polls, speculation about former Congress leader S M Krishna returning to the party has set the rumour mills abuzz in the state. 

A former chief minister and external affairs minister, Krishna had surprised many by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a year ago, labelling the Congress a party in rapid decline and alleging that Rahul Gandhi had no respect for senior leaders like him. Krishna, who had won his first Assembly election in 1962 on a Praja Socialist Party ticket from Maddur, Karnataka, joined the Congress in the 1970s. Krishna has been conspicuous by his absence in several BJP meetings and events in recent months. The upcoming Assembly polls in the state is seen as a do-or-die battle for both the Congress and the BJP.

Swamy to NaMo

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha leader Subramanian Swamy is busy living up to his reputation of being provocative. He has advised Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, or CHOGM, to be held later this month in London, is the last one he attends. “It is too late for NaMo (Narendra Modi) to cancel his visit to the UK for the Commonwealth conference. But he should resolve never again to go. The Commonwealth is an insult to our freedom struggle—to accept a hereditary chairman, that is the British Queen, who refuses to return the Kohinoor and the other loot,” Swamy tweeted.

Classic bankruptcy

As the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) tries to ease the process for creditors and distressed businesses seeking an exit and even while experts grapple with the issues thrown up by the new code, an official involved in its execution joked how almost a century ago American author Ernest Hemingway had unravelled the process in one of his masterpieces, The Sun Also Rises. 

In the book, when a certain Bill Gorton asked the once-affluent Mike Campbell “how did you go bankrupt”, Mike replied, “two ways. Gradually and then suddenly”.