Abdullah Junior146;s tearjerker

It doesn8217;t take much to get Farooq Abdullah8217;s tear ducts working. But those who know Major Ved Prakash, secretary of the Congress ...

It doesn8217;t take much to get Farooq Abdullah8217;s tear ducts working. But those who know Major Ved Prakash, secretary of the Congress party8217;s public relations department, were surprised to learn that he was sobbing openly along with Farooq in the visitor8217;s gallery during last week8217;s Lok Sabha discussion on Jammu and Kashmir. It was Omar Abdullah8217;s eloquence that moved the Major, who is known for his ability to keep his emotions in check. Prakash confessed to friends later that being an ex-serviceman, he couldn8217;t hold back his tears as he listened to Omar8217;s emotional description of the recent massacre at the Kaluchak Army camp near Jammu.

It seems Omar tugged at several heartstrings. Fellow MPs, including some from the Congress, went out of their way to congratulate him when he finished although there were a few who felt he spoke more as an opposition leader than as a government minister. But then Omar is preparing to head home to lead the National Conference in an election in which he will inevitably have to go hammer and tongs at New Delhi if he wants to scoop up votes.

Azadi from Azad?

It8217;s not just government houses that politicians hang on to. The newly appointed office bearers in the AICC are wondering when Ghulam Nabi Azad will vacate his room on Akbar Road. It8217;s been over a month since he moved to Jammu and Kashmir as the PCC chief but his nameboard continues to hang outside one of the most prized office spaces in the Congress headquarters. The result is Mukul Wasnik, who was promoted to general secretary in last month8217;s reshuffle, remains tucked away in his tiny room in the hutments at the back. And Ahmed Patel, one of the two political advisors to Sonia Gandhi, is functioning out of home. The buzz is that Jammu 038; Kashmir has a special status not just in the Indian Constitution, but in the Congress as well.

Vijay Goel8217;s durbar turn

After lying low for many months, Minister of State in the PMO Vijay Goel has gone pro-active. Among the many jobs he8217;s lined up for himself is to turn the Public Grievances Cell of the Prime Minister8217;s Office from a post office into an impromptu consumer court. Last week, he called in Delhi8217;s Police Commissioner Ajai Raj Sharma to dispose off 40-odd complaints the PMO had received from aggrieved citizens against the police. Next on his agenda is his pet peeve: chit funds and financial companies. He8217;s summoned the Additional Secretary Banking this week for speedy redressal of the grievances piling up on his desk.

Goel apparently feels that he8217;s at last found his feet in the awesome corridors of power. So it8217;s time to flex those muscles and make the PMO more responsive with a personal touch, Goel style. It8217;s Vajpayee8217;s take on the old Janata Durbar Indira Gandhi used to hold at her residence every week.

Practice makes a Rajya Sabha MP

The Congress seems to have a penchant for promoting legal experts. It8217;s got four prominent ones in the Rajya Sabha 8212; Kapil Sibal, Ranganath Mishra, R K Anand and H R Bhardwaj. It8217;s got two as spokesmen 8212; Anand Sharma and Abhishek Singhvi. Now, it8217;s pushed a fifth lawyer into the Rajya Sabha, Ashwani Kumar whose long cherished dream finally came true when his name was cleared last week for the bye-election from Punjab. Considering that the luminaries often don8217;t see eye to eye on various issues, a surfeit of lawyers can only produce a Tower of Babel effect. For instance, while Sibal was preparing a case for the Congress to oppose POTA, Kumar was apparently briefing select correspondents on why the party should support the Bill.