FOOT IN MOUTH

Of late, many Union ministers have started getting calls from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office asking them whether they have any names to propose for senior-level appointments to fill up vacancies that may soon be arising in their ministries. The first call has usually been coming around a month before a vacancy arises and has been followed up in the run-up to the date of appointment. In fact, Modi is learnt to have even called up many of his ministers personally asking them if they had any particular officials in mind for appointment for some secretary-level posts. While many view this as an exercise to display democratisation in decision-making, not many ministers have so far managed to get back to the PMO with any suggestions on the officials they would prefer in their ministries.

HOUSE JOB

Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Jogen Chowdhury has been asked by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to make 12 Parliament themed sketches. These sketches will be compiled in the form of a calendar for 2015 and will be distributed among all members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha as well as to the senior Parliament officials. The calendar will be ready in December 2014 for distribution.

INVOKING EINSTEIN

Albert Einstein’s “theory of relativity” witnessed an unusual mention when the Supreme Court upheld the life term of two convicts in a murder case citing this. The convicts’ counsel argued that eyewitnesses could not have identified the ‘real’ murderers who they had seen merely for 90 seconds. The SC rejected the arguments, citing the theory of relativity. It illustrated how a boy sitting with his girlfriend would feel the time fly away and 60 minutes would seem like 60 seconds but if he puts his finger in a hot boiling water, 60 seconds would feel like 60 minutes. “This is the theory of relativity,” said the bench while holding 90 seconds was long enough to never forget the faces of the ‘real’ murderers.