Learning the ropes

The new Sports Minister M S Gill took an indirect barb at predecessor Mani Shankar Aiyar last week in Rajya Sabha, when replying to a question on the Government’s efforts to take sports to the villages. While referring to Aiyar’s pet project of the Panchayat Yuva Krida Abhiyan, Gill found difficulty in pronouncing “krida”. Exasperated, he said, “I wish people gave simpler names to government schemes…I would prefer to refer to it as picca (PYKA) for the sake of convenience.” Then, a few minutes later, with PM Manmohan Singh sitting in the Rajya Sabha, he said, “I hope the PM doubles the sports budget because it’s too low.” This left many red faces, with ministers Anand Sharma and Vyalar Ravi nodding that this wasn’t the “right way” to answer questions. The bureaucrat-turned-politician’s straight-talking is not going too well with his political colleagues, it seems.