Delhi Confidential: Lighter Side

NC leader Farooq Abdullah and Union minister Giriraj Singh in Parliament on Tuesday. (Photo: Tashi Tobgyal)

NATIONAL CONFERENCE’S Farooq Abdullah is one of those leaders who is always surrounded by television cameras when he comes out of Parliament House Building. He often obliges requests for soundbite too. On Tuesday, after he gave some comments to a few channels, two women journalists approached him with microphones. He playfully pretended that he wanted to run away and said: “Someone please save me from these ladies.” He looked around and saw Union minister Giriraj Singh standing near the gate and he repeated his request. In the same lighter vein, Singh said: “This nation should be saved from you. Who would save you.” Abdullah had a laugh and walked away.

Different Plans
ON A day when Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was scheduled to visit Central hall of Parliament, Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien undertook the job of setting the stage, literally, for her interaction with leaders of other parties. All in vain, though. Mamata did not bother to sit at the spot where he was seen telling people she would. Instead she chose to sit with them first at the Trinamool parliamentary party office and later at the NCP office. While Mamata’s visit had been projected as a sort of exercise to mobilise anti-BJP forces, there was a small twist in the tale. She also sat down with Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for a while to share a slice of bread and coffee.

Self-Goal
EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Minister Sushma Swaraj may be on the backfoot over the death of 39 Indians in Iraq, but a Congress bid to embarrass her turned out to work in her favour. A Twitter poll by the Congress on whether it was Swaraj’s biggest failure saw at least 76 per cent of respondents replying in the negative. So much so that Swaraj herself retweeted the poll.