Back to basics

Defence Minister A K Antony seemed to miss talking in his mother tongue.

While speaking at a function to celebrate 100 years of the Malayala Manorama group on Wednesday, Defence Minister A K Antony seemed to miss talking in his mother tongue. After greeting those present on the dais in English, Antony suddenly broke into Malayalam. He said he would have loved to speak about the group in Malayalam but since there were many in the audience who couldn’t understand the language, he was forced to switch to English. His few sentences in Malayalam were greeted with enthusiastic applause by a section of the audience. But considering that several, including PM Manmohan Singh, present at the function do not understand the language, Antony went on to deliver the rest of his speech in English.

FLYING HIGH

The sudden exit of Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi has thrown the entire Navy hierarchy in disarray but may have given an indirect advantage to the air force. In the normal course of things, Joshi would have taken over as the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) in May after the retirement of Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh. However, with Joshi out, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha is now likely to take over as COSC as he would be the senior most armed forces chief when Singh retires. If that happens, Raha will have over two and a half years as the COSC!

ON WAY OUT

It now seems certain that over the next few days, the defence ministry shall see the exit of at least one Joint Secretary over the recent spate of incidents in the Navy that saw the exit of Admiral D K Joshi. Ram Subhag Singh, JS, Navy, is said to be on his way out shortly. There had been criticism in certain quarters that all the responsibility for the spate of accidents had been borne by the navy chief and that the bureaucracy had not been held responsible.

ATTENTION-SEEKER

After being in denial on accepting VIP security cover, AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal requested the top brass of Delhi Police to withdraw Inspector Dinesh Sharma from his security contingent. Kejriwal reportedly complained that Sharma was all pervasive and he was being seen in all the photographs and video footage during rallies and meetings. Sharma, who is part of the security wing of Delhi Police, was also part of former CM Sheila Dikshit’s security contingent.

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