Better coordination

The recently created Research amp; Coordination department of the Congress is emerging as the second-most important think tank in the ruling party after the Core Group.

The recently created Research amp; Coordination department of the Congress is emerging as the second-most important think tank in the ruling party after the Core Group. It has met about a dozen times since it was formed in early August. Its increasing importance and relevance is evident from the fact that while Suresh Pachauri is the convenor of the department,Congress president Sonia Gandhis political secretary Ahmed Patel is present at most of the meetings. With many senior leaders like Digvijaya Singh,Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ambika Soni being its members,this 12-member department has been dealing with a host of issues from discussing partys pre-poll surveys to giving inputs to MPs when Parliament was in session. On Anna Hazares campaign though,it decided to leave it to the government.

Selective blogging

The latest post on L K Advanis blog talks about the praise being heaped on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Apart from referring to the report of the US Congressional Research Service,the blog post quotes extensively from an interesting report published in online newspaper Firstpost.com,which has its editorial staff mainly in India. But while reproducing a bulk of that report,Advani has taken care to omit the inconvenient references to Modi. One entire paragraph which described Modi as someone who has overseen impressive development successes in his state,but who is also dogged by controversy over his alleged complicity in lethal anti-Muslim rioting there in 2002,has been totally overlooked in the blog.

No comments

Sometimes silence speaks louder than words. So it was in the case of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who was in Delhi on Friday. With a number of prominent leaders of the BJP and its allies headed to Ahmedabad on Saturday to support Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modis fast,Kumar was asked whether he too would travel to Ahmedabad. A smiling Kumar pushed the mikes away and quietly manoeuvred his way out.

Justice served

Farewells are occasions to lavish praises on the person retiring. Justice Mukundakam Sharma,the fourth Supreme Court judge to retire within a month,was no exception. As speaker after speaker recalled the virtues of Justice Sharma,the final word was delivered,not surprisingly,by the Chief Justice of India himself. After dwelling on his expertise and sensitivities,Chief Justice S H Kapadia delivered his punch-line: Justice Sharma,he said,was work-centred,justice-centred8230; possibly even wife-centred,but never self-centred.

Online upgrade

After two months of maintenance shutdown,the website of the National Investigation Agency has finally gone online again. The refurbished website sports a more professional look and has several new features,even a 24215;7 helpline,the concept of which is said to be borrowed from the FBI of the United States. It no longer carries chargesheets filed in old cases,but now has a list of names and photographs of wanted terrorists in cases being investigated by it. It also has photographs of the NIA in action.