Pool resources

The PAC rejected the MEA argument that there was no point relinquishing the expensive residences since market prices were today steeper than the amount paid by the MEA. The PAC pointed out that the cost of accommodation had to be taken at current-day prices and not at the price paid in 1989 if the ministry wanted to make a proper exchange comparison. The MEA, meanwhile, is still dragging its feet on drawing up norms for purchase of houses for our ambassadors in future.

Public charade?

A decade ago, then BJP MP from South Delhi Vijay Kumar Malhotra had publicly voiced the feelings of many Delhiites. The annual Republic Day parade was a waste of money and manpower, he had said. In the fortnight before Republic Day there are four rehearsals when traffic in New Delhi comes practically to a standstill.

Malhotra estimated that the cost of the parade works out to well over Rs 100 crore and pointed out that we are probably the only country to stage such an elaborate exercise at such a central venue annually. Even in Russia the parade is held only once every four years.

But Malhotra’s suggestion that the parade be staged every four years or that the rehearsals be held in the Cantonment and not on Rajpath had evoked an outcry. Even many in Malhotra’s own BJP, which prides itself on its nationalist perspective, had been upset. But in the wake of the tsunami disaster, Malhotra’s old suggestion is finding many takers, even among his fellow MPs. The money saved from the display of India’s military might could be better spent on relief, it is felt. In fact in recent years it has been difficult to fill the enclosures for VIPs and ordinary people alike.

Guarding home front

Fed up with delay in allotment of government houses, a few MPs have taken law into their own hands. Last month Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje finally vacated her ministerial bungalow on Sunheri Bagh Road, but only after she had been assured a decent house, not a flat, for her son Dushyant, who is an MP. Raje pointed out that her nephew Jyotiraditya Scindia had retained his late father Madhavrao Scindia’s ministerial premises on Safdarjang Road even when he was a first-time MP.

The bungalow vacated by Raje was earlier allotted to Minister for Mines Sis Ram Ola, but before he could move in, Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha Charanjit Singh Atwal (Akali Dal) had taken possession with the help of a few truck drivers who moved his furniture. Ola had protested to Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister for both Parliamentary Affairs and Urban Development, but he had pleaded helplessness. Ola is still stuck at his modest Teen Murti Marg residence and Gurudas Kamat, who had been allotted this house, has been left high and dry in the bargain.

Foreword approach

Her aunt Maneka Gandhi is the family member normally associated with animal care, but Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is an ardent dog lover as well. She has reared a pack of seven golden retrievers and has just written a foreword to a book on dog care by her favourite vet Major General R M Kharb. Vadra met Dr Kharb a month after her retriever Toffee gave birth to six pups. Priyanka became worried when the pups refused to walk and kept dragging their hindquarters. One vet diagnosed rickets, another a genetic disorder. When Kharb was called in, he put the problem in the correct perspective, ‘‘You are feeding them too much. Their stomachs are so full that they can’t budge.’’ Vadra has followed Kharb’s advice ever since on raising her brood.

This is the second time that that Vadra has written a foreword to a book. Earlier she had written an introduction to a reprint by Penguin of her great grandfather Pandit Nehru’s history book for children. Kharb’s publisher, Roli Books, is so thrilled that Vadra agreed to be associated with the project that it has even splashed Vadra’s name on the book cover as the author of the foreword.

Pocketing their pride

AIADMK MPs always proudly carry a photo of their party chief Jayalalithaa in their breast pockets. Since their shirts are sometimes made of transparent material, the picture of Amma is very visible and it proclaims their AIADMK identity. Of late some AIADMK MPs on their visits to Delhi have started reversing the picture in their pocket so that Jaya’s visage is not visible. It seems they were fed up of responding to queries on airplanes and elsewhere as to why Jaya had put the Shankaracharya in jail.