Papa,pappu & supari

Trust Amar Singh to dramatise every public appearance he makes and it seems to be contagious

Papa,pappu & supari

Trust Amar Singh to dramatise every public appearance he makes and it seems to be contagious. It should be ascertained Who is Papa of this Pappu (CD)? he thundered as he resurfaced on the political scene following the controversial CD episode. Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan,who had already got on to the ascertaining job and sent the CD for scientific analysis even before the police could get into the act,responded with: Papa of this Pappu will be surely identified. Now we have BJP spokesperson Rajeev Pratap Rudy,who has also jumped onto the CD bandwagon,using similar quips. His contention was that both hardware and software in the case of Amar Singh have given way. Even Rudys party colleague Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi,was inspired to join in. His take was that the UPA government has given supari (contract) to professionals to defame the campaign of Anna Hazare. With such dialogues being bandied about,the CD affair is starting to resemble one of those Bollywood plots that Amar Singh is so fond of.

Faction Friction

Congress general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu Ghulam Nabi Azad is facing flak in the party for allegedly promoting factionalism in the state unit of the Congress. While the party high command is already said to be upset with him for leading a faction against Jammu & Kashmir PCC chief Saifuddin Soz in his home state,the former J&K chief minister seems to be pursuing a similar agenda in Tamil Nadu. A day after the April 13 Assembly elections in the state,Tamil Nadu Congress president K V Thangkabalu expelled 19 leaders for alleged anti-party activities. Those expelled happened to belong to his rival factions in the state Congress. While many senior leaders have complained to the high command against Thangkabalus action,they are also peeved with Azad for supporting the PCC chief. Divide and Rule didnt end with the British.

Hail Democracy

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The visit by the Prime Minister of the worlds largest democracy was the best thing to have happened to Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev,who was looking for an endorsement to his avowed commitment to democracy. The Indian Prime Minister was the first world leader to visit Astana after Nazarbayev took oath for the fourth consecutive term last week. In return,the Kazakh President went out of the way to showcase the event. Almost the entire diplomatic corps,which meant ambassadors of over 50 countries,were invited to Akorda,or the Presidential Palace,and lined up to meet Manmohan Singh alongside Nazarbayev. The showpiece event was kept under wraps and even the Indian side came to know of it at the last minute. Protocol ensured that the two leaders shook hands with each of the ambassadors before moving inside for bilateral talks.

Turf Wars

The turf war between the Central Information Commission (CIC) and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is far from over. If it was earlier the issue of appointment of Transparency Officers in each government ministry/department over which the two locked horns,now the Commission is in conflict with DoPT over the release of payment to HUDCO. Unless DoPT releases this amount to HUDCO,the CIC will not be able to get possession of four additional rooms to add to its cramped August Kranti Bhavan office. While HUDCO is insistent on full and final

payment before releasing the additional office space,which incidentally is fully ready for occupancy,the DoPT,which is the nodal ministry for implementation of the RTI Act,is taking its time to go through the procedures,irking many at the CIC.

Man in the hot seat

The UPA governments flagship rural job guarantee scheme NREGS has finally got a Joint Secretary in charge and the man in the hot seat will be Maharashtra Cadre officer D K Jain,from the Panchayati Raj Ministry. The position had fallen vacant a week ago after Amita Sharma a Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer who served as the Joint Secretary in charge of NREGS since 2006 when the scheme first rolled out was repatriated to her parent cadre. Sharma had managed to get a one-year extension last year but had to give up her NREGS job this year. Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is said to have been keen on getting an IAS officer either from the Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh or Maharastra to fill her shoes. In fact,besides Jain,it was an Andhra cadre officer,K Raju,currently a Joint Secretary in the Sonia Gandhi-led NAC,who was in the fray. However,not many IAS officers would leave their coveted positions at the high profile NAC,so Jain gets the job.