Congress in a fix

It sensed an opportunity to crack the whip when Singh met BJP president Amit Shah.

The Congress high command has been annoyed by sulking Haryana Congress leader Birender Singh’s continuous tirade against Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Haryana. It sensed an opportunity to crack the whip when Singh met BJP president Amit Shah. The party promptly removed him from the Congress Working Committee and sought an explanation from him within three days. Singh has replied, but sources said the reply lacked aggression that it was expecting. He downplayed his meeting with Shah saying in politics one meets many leaders. He is also learnt to have said he never spoke about leaving the party. The high command is now in a fix as to what further action can be taken against him that too at a time when the grapevine in the party is that many Congress leaders in Haryana are planning to jump the ship ahead of Assembly elections. The party has even informally drawn up a list of those who could cross over and is keeping its fingers crossed.

MONEY GO ROUND

The Railways fined its subsidiary Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Rs 1 lakh after it found a cockroach in its food on a train last month. The news provided some unintentional mirth in certain parts of Rail Bhawan after it was pointed out that during a visit to the IRCTC central kitchen in Noida around the same time, Member Traffic of Railway Board, who is the nominal head of IRCTC, had awarded the company Rs 1 lakh for good quality in its central kitchen. The joke was that it was the same money that changed hands between the Railways and the IRCTC this time.

MUSIC TO BJP EARS

Congress Rajya Sabha member K V Rajeev Gowda drew much appreciation from BJP MPs when, during a discussion on the working of the Power Ministry, he described Piyush Goyal as Krishna with coal in one hand, power in another and renewable energy in the third. He ended his speech borrowing Spiderman’s line that, he said, Goyal should remember, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

NO INTRODUCTION

The annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs tabled in Parliament Tuesday was devoid of any preface or introductory message by the President, the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister or even the Union Home Secretary. The report prepared in 2013 was supposed to be tabled in the last session, which was dissolved in March. The 330-page report, a compilation of Home Ministry’s activities in the past one year, does contain pictures of former home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on some pages.

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