Birthday nostalgia

February 14 has always been an important day for Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj,not because it is Valentines Day but because it is her birthday

February 14 has always been an important day for Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj,not because it is Valentines Day but because it is her birthday. The senior BJP leader,who turned 60 on Tuesday,followed the same routine which she has been doing for years. She made her way to the leper colony in RK Puram with food that she cooked herself and shared it with the inhabitants there. For her Twitter fans though,she had a pleasant surprise when she posted a black and white photograph of hers when she was two years old. Riding pillion on a tricycle driven by her brother Gulshan,now a doctor in Ambala,the picture speaks for itself of an era gone by.

Flight Fright

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar thanked his luck last week when he managed to catch a connecting flight to Pune from the Capital within an hour after embarking from a long haul fight from the United States. But his relief was short-lived when he discovered that he had Suresh Kalmadi for company on the flight to Pune. He faced a greater dilemma on landing in Pune. Javadekar was aware that the last time Kalmadi had come to his hometown,immediately after being released from Tihar jail,a large crowd had gathered at the airport along with television crews. Keen to avoid being in the same frame as Kalmadi,Javadekar delayed his exit from the airport,only to realise that this time no one had come to receive Kalmadi,except two Maharashtra Police constables.

Leading Light

The Congress partys latest list of its star campaigners for the remaining four phases of polls in Uttar Pradesh includes the name of Aziz Burney,author of the provocatively titled book RSS ka Shadyantra,26/11 RSS conspiracy,26/11. Burney had hit national headlines when he got Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh to release his book. Never mind the fact,that some time later,he had to publicly apologise to the RSS in a front-page article of the newspaper that he edits. Burney now finds pride of place in the list of campaigners,ahead of the partys young guns like Deepender Hooda,Jyotiraditya Scindia,Sachin Pilot,Jitin Prasada,R P N Singh,Naveen Jindal and Ashok Tanwar. He is also mentioned ahead of Bollywood stars like Sanjay Dutt,Nagma and Ravi Kishen who the Congress has roped in for campaigning.

Shifting Home

The Home Ministry has just seen a re-allocation of work at the joint-secretary level. M Gopal Reddy,who was in-charge of Union Territory division,has moved out of North Block and will now sit in Lok Nayak Bhawan in the internal security division. He has replaced Rashmi Goel,who has moved to the Human Resource division. Meanwhile,Bhagwan Shanker moves from the Human Resource division to the Police Modernisation division while K K Pathak has shifted from the Centre States division to Union Territory division. The Centre State division will now be looked after by S Suresh Kumar,who was serving in the Police Modernisation division earlier.

Accounting Rules

Defence Minister A K Antony has found a novel way to ensure accountability in defence deals. Burdened with representations and complaints on almost every defence deal,the minister has made it clear that the responsibility of answering these should rest squarely on the concerned military arm. Not just that,he has made it a rule that these responses should then be made part of the Cabinet note. Recently,one such deal was sent back from the Cabinet Committee on Security because it did not contain all the responses. More paperwork for the service headquarters,but better accountability,feels South Block.