Manmohan dons the thinking cap

Sonia ‘loses out’ to Karan

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi was certainly the highest dignitary to visit the ongoing Festival of India in Brussels, but the Indian Council of Cultural Relations’ (ICCR) journal Indian Horizons has failed to acknowledge her presence and swords are out in the Congress for Karan Singh, Congress MP and chairman of ICCR. The entire two-page foreword by Pavan K Verma in the latest issue of the journal is about the festival at Palais des Beaux Arts and even has a photograph of Karan Singh at the inauguration, but fails to mention an exhibition titled Tejas inaugurated by Sonia Gandhi, nor does it mention the honour bestowed on her by the Belgians.

The words got too lopsided

Defence Minister AK Antony’s speech to the armed forces on Vijay Diwas a fortnight ago had all the familiar inspirational flourishes that make such speeches predictable but this particular speech was not, however, written by his personal staff or the PR department, but rather the MoD Ceremonials Directorate, a department under the army. As a result, the minister’s well-attended address at the National Stadium in the Capital was devoted much more to applauding the army than the other two services. As an alert officer noted, the army got 255 words in Antony’s speech, while the air force got 73 words and the navy a measly 50. It created a stir in South Block so much so it has now been decided that all future speeches will be screened.

Essar’s troubled stretches

Last week’s business headline news has got some officials perplexed. The week has been agog with speculation over the mega takeover of Essar-Hutch services and the global giants in the race for it. But walk into the Road Transport ministry or for that matter NHAI, the story becomes clearer. As one senior member of NHAI put it, they find it strange that a company like Essar with all this financial power along with its JV partners, is still struggling to finish a few kilometres of the GQ on three stretches between Mumbai and Chennai.

Lalu’s media management

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav knows how to grab headlines when he sees it falling into an abyss. Once he was done with narrating the Indian Railways’ turnaround story to his audience from Harvard and Wharton at a closed door session, away from media glare,Yadav now wanted to talk about his prime ministerial ambitions. With no one asking, Lalu asked his officials to locate a Pakistani youth whom he recalled posing this query at a prior programme. The boy was located and he promptly asked the question. A beaming Lalu said his plans were on hold as he was still young and could afford to wait.

Few takers for job scheme

The UPA government may have begun 2006 with huge fanfare by launching its flagship job guarantee scheme, but by the year-end, the hoopla seems to be fading with both the policy mandarins and political bosses too. The Union Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had called a meeting of at least 100 MPs to deliberate on the progress on implementation in their states in December. But only 20 appeared. And what is more appalling is that no one from UP came to the meeting. The two Congress ministers did not appear either.

Antulay, Ahamed spar over Haj

Managing Haj is snowballing into fight between Union Minority Affairs Minister AR Antulay another senior Muslim leader in the government, Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed. There were demands that Haj should be given to the newly-created Minority Affairs Ministry, but it still remains with the MEA. Those close to Antulay have been saying only he can clean up the mess in the Haj system. Antulay has not only said India should opt for Tabung Haji, a Malaysian model, he has also devised an innovative way to motivate Muslims to save for their expenses to perform the Haj, and create a fund for the overall benefit of Hajis and poor Muslims. No prizes for guessing who shot down the suggestion — Ahamed.

What was Guv doing there?

The 19th Centenary IB Endowment Lecture by President APJ Abdul Kalam saw a near-packed house at Siri Fort as he held forth on security challenges the intelligence community faced today, but eyebrows were raised at the presence of UP Governor TV Rajeshwar. It is learnt that even the President was a trifle taken aback, enquiring about Rajeshwar’s unexpected presence. IB officials hurriedly explained that the Governor was there in his capacity as a former director of the agency and that Rajeshwar had to be accommodated on the dais since protocol demanded it. It’s not known if Kalam was entirely satisfied with this explanation.

Dasmunsi’s Singur flop show

If Singur has willy-nilly dented Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s image, it has also brought bad tidings for Congress’ minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi. The Congress high command, it seems, is upset with him for first going overboard with Mamata and then loosing the show to BJP chief Rajnath Singh. Singur has not only helped BJP patch up with Mamata, the Congress command is embarrassed that an impression has gained ground that Dasmusni was Sonia Gandhi’s messenger boy. So to cover up Munshi’s flop show, it is now being said to all that “Soniaji does not need Dasmunsi to keep in touch with Mamata. The latter has a direct access to her!”

Tailpiece

Haryana Congress leaders wishing to please Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda miss no opportunity to put his picture in newspaper ads. But Sohna MLA Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria takes the cake. His New Year greetings to the people of state carry photographs of Hooda, his father, grandfather and son. “The first example of Haryana— all four generations of Chaudhary Bhupinder Singh Hooda dedicated to Congress,” newspaper readers were told. Lest Congress president Sonia Gandhi was threatened by any in-house competition, Jaunapuria was careful to put photographs of five generations of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty too — from Jawaharlal Nehru to Rahul Gandhi. There is a slip though. Moti Lal Nehru has been omitted.