Delhi Confidential: Amit Shah recalls Ashok Singhal’s simplicity, Nitin Nabin tunes in to Mann ki Baat

Welcome to Delhi Confidential, your inside track to the power corridors of the capital. Today: From Union Home Minister Amit Shah recalling VHP leader Ashok Singhal’s “wealth of simplicity” to BJP chief Nitin Nabin beginning his first West Bengal visit by listening to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann ki Baat’ with party workers.

1. 01

   Wealth of simplicity

   Union Minister Amit Shah on Sunday recalled his days in jail while paying tribute to former VHP leader Ashok Singhal at an event marking his birth centenary. Shah said it was a “difficult period” of his life when the Congress government had put him in jail. After his release, he regularly visited Singhal at the VHP office in Delhi. What struck him, Shah said, was the simplicity of the man who came from a prosperous family. He recalled meeting Singhal when he was 15 and once questioning him about a fancy car sent by his family. “My family does not listen. It’s their car, not someone else’s,” Singhal told him with a smile. Years later, Shah found him living in a 20 sq ft space that doubled as a kitchen and toilet. Such sacrifice, Shah said, ultimately contributed to the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

2. 02

   Mann ki Baat with BJP workers

   On his

   first visit to West Bengal after the BJP came to power in the state, party president Nitin Nabin’s maiden engagement in Kolkata happened to be listening to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann ki Baat’ with senior party leaders and a large contingent of karyakartas. Nabin listened to the 138th episode of the monthly outreach amid a massive gathering of party workers from across its ranks before diving into a daylong session of organisational deliberations.