Delhi confidential: Sweating It Out

This time, he took the staircase but as soon as he entered the auditorium, the electricity snapped and he had to sit on the dais in the dark for 10 minutes.

Rajnath Singh

Home Minister Rajnath Singh had to sweat it out at CRPF’s Shaurya Institute in Vasant Kunj on Friday as the power of the building tripped just before his arrival. Singh was there to attend a BSF function. This is the second time Singh had an unpleasant experience in the building. Last time, he got stuck in the elevator for few minutes. This time, he took the staircase but as soon as he entered the auditorium, the electricity snapped and he had to sit on the dais in the dark for 10 minutes after which backup lights lit the room partially. After completing his speech, Singh was seen wiping his face and forehead as the air-conditioning was not working. Officials put together four fans to run on power backup. Incidentally, the original venue for function was Vigyan Bhavan but, at the last moment, organisers were informed that it had been booked for a function to be attended by the Prime Minister.

Dinner Meet
With the government completing a year in office next week, Finance and I&B Minister Arun Jaitley has over the past three weeks invited groups of journalists over dinner at his residence in Krishna Menon Marg. In each of these five meetings (the last one was on Friday), Prime Minister Narendra Modi dropped by and spent a good two hours, interacting with journalists in a candid manner. Modi answered most of the questions, with Jaitley chipping in as and when required.

Wi-Fi Zone
This would probably give Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal some idea about the enormity of his promise to provide free wi-fi across Delhi. Rashtrapati Bhawan went 100 per cent wi-fi from Friday. For that purpose, 24 hot spots with 30 wi-fi access points have been set up in the President’s Estate.

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Word Play
Union Minister Jitendra Singh is fond of telling people that while ISRO has given MOM (Mars Orbiter Mission) to the country, he has offered DAD. Apart from a few other ministries, Singh is in-charge of Development of North-Eastern Region (DONER) Ministry as well. A few months ago, DONER decided that one of its officials will set up a temporary office in any one of the North-Eastern states for 15 days every month. Officials are supposed to take turns to do this. Singh says this is about having DONER at (the region’s) doorstep, or DAD.

Roster Trouble
The schedule prepared for the ministers to address press conferences during the first anniversary week has left many unhappy. Some are displeased at having been left out of the list while others do not agree with the date or venue assigned to them. They are now asking for changes to be made, and the original roster which has already seen a few changes, has been rendered largely redundant. Uma Bharati, left out of the list, wants to address a press conference. Nitin Gadkari wants to do it in Mumbai and wants Prakash Javadekar to make way for him by shifting to Jaipur. Ramvilas Paswan is supposed to hold his press conference in Bihar, but he wants one in Delhi as well. Nirmala Sitharaman was supposed to be part of a ‘Talkathon’ but dropped out because she had other engagement. Even Rajnath Singh opted for a change of date. The ministers complain that they were not consulted while finalising the roster.

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