The gift

Home Minister Rajnath Singh has posted a picture on Facebook, of him attending the Interpol meet in Monaco along with CBI Director Ranjit Sinha.

Before the bilateral meeting of the Commerce Ministers in Beijing, the Indian and Chinese sides had agreed that there was no need for the customary exchange of gifts. So Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was pleasantly surprised when her Chinese counterpart Gao Hucheng gifted her a Chinese silk sari. Gao, whose office had prepared a sumptuous vegetarian spread for Sitharaman, asked the minister and her delegation to wait for few seconds after lunch. He then handed over the gift and insisted that Sitharaman should open it there itself. Sitharaman opened it and found that it was a marine blue sari with digital printed dark blue waves on it. Embarrassed MEA officials, who had not arranged for any gift, quickly organised a blue vase to reciprocate the gesture. However, Sitharaman has kept the gift in the ministry itself.

DIPLOMATIC MOVE

A gathering of more than 25 diplomats stationed in India, at least a dozen of them ambassadors, is not a common event. Especially, when it is not a South Block or government event. So when ambassadors of Afghanistan, Maldives, Vietnam, Fiji, Algeria, Uganda among others turned up at the Samrat hotel this week, there was widespread curiosity. It turned out that they were there for a Lions Club event, organised by Vijay Jolly of the Overseas Friends of BJP. It was evident that these envoys and diplomats who want to keep the BJP leaders in good humour, came for the event, where they were awarded “lifetime achievement” awards — replete with a plaque, a pagdi and a scarf.

COMING SOON

Another aide of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is writing a book. Harish Khare, veteran journalist and media adviser to Singh, has signed a deal with publisher Hachette, to write a book on the 2014 general elections. The book is expected to be released in a few months. Congress leaders hope that Khare’s book will not as “unkind” to Congress president Sonia Gandhi as was the The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh by Sanjaya Baru, another media adviser to Singh.

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