Delhi Confidential: Formality call

The Congress says the government just wants to complete the formality of inviting him to inform the Supreme Court, which last Monday set a 10-day deadline for the government to share a timeline on the Lokpal’s appointment.

Mallikarjun Kharge

MALLIKARJUN KHARGE, the leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha, will not be attending a meeting of the Lokpal selection committee later this month. He had twice in the past refused to attend the meeting. The reason is the same. He will not attend the meeting as a special invitee without powers of a permanent member. As special invitee, he will not be able to veto or express his dissent. But the Congress is surprised by the way the government reached out to him this time. There was no written communication. Only a telephone call was made to his office from the PMO, asking whether Kharge would be available on July 19 to attend the meeting. The Congress says the government just wants to complete the formality of inviting him to inform the Supreme Court, which last Monday set a 10-day deadline for the government to share a timeline on the Lokpal’s appointment. The Department of Personnel and Training will have to file the reply by July 17, the next date of hearing.

‘Ideological detox’
AFTER RED Terror, rewriting history and nationalisation, the new word in the right-wing lexicon seems to be “ideological detoxification”. In the latest issue of the Organiser weekly, a report on the Cabinet’s decision to rename Agartala Airport in Tripura as Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Kishore Airport, lauds the Narendra Modi government for its move. According to the report, the move was a part of “ideological detoxification” of the state ruled by Communists for quarter of a century. Pointing out that highlighting “nationalistic views in all spheres of life” has been the BJP’s key agenda, the report recollected that the newly elected government in Tripura had “renamed Marx-Engels Sarani as Dr Syama Prasad Mookherjee Road in April”.

Choice of Words
AT A press conference of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology last week, Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was quick to correct his colleague’s choice of words. As the CEO of the Common Service Centers in the ministry was introducing a partnership with HDFC bank, he called the bank “aggressive”, to which the minister interjected, “Agressive bank? You mean performing.” The CEO responded: “Aggressive in meeting its goals.”