Brotherly Ties

This is one rakhi that President Pranab Mukherjee must have cherished

This is one rakhi that President Pranab Mukherjee must have cherished. In yet another indication that she is keen to turn the page and move forward,Mamata Banerjee has sent a rakhi to Pranabda on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. In fact,the unpredictable West Bengal Chief Minister is known to have had a blow-hot blow-cold relationship with Mukherjee in the past. She reportedly gets chocolates for him every time she meets him and insists he have them then and there. When she was the Railway Minister,she once had also taken a cake to Mukherjees office in Parliament on his birthday. With the rakhi reaching the President,functionaries in both the leaders camps feel the famous bonhomie of the past was now back.

Ill Wind

The change of weather has definitely not suited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,who has been down with fever for the past couple of days. In fact,he has been indisposed ever since his return from Assam. It was largely for this reason that the Cabinet meeting,scheduled for 5:30 pm Thursday,had to be shifted for Friday,6 pm. Given the long and hectic agenda of this weeks Cabinet meet,it was felt that the PM should properly recover from his bout of ill-health.

Fast Forward

The holy month of Ramzan has started and so have Iftar parties by politicians to mark breaking of the day-long fast. But BJPs prominent Muslim face Shahnawaz Hussain is nowadays breaking his roza at Leader of Opposition Sushma Swarajs official residence,for he finds himself there invariably every evening for the daily strategy sessions for the forthcoming Vice-Presidential election. Hussains presence is necessary since he is one of the election agents of Jaswant Singh. But,mindful of Hussains fast,Swaraj has been offering him dates everyday to break his fast making it a working Iftar for him.

Press Problems

Newly-appointed Power Minister M Veerappa Moily it seems has rubbed media professionals from his home state the wrong way. The buzz is that Moily curtly turned down a request by some visual media persons from his state for a byte in Kannada after his press conference on Wednesday after taking office as the power minister. His act apparently upset the media personnel as it came in the presence of the national media. Sensing that he has rubbed them the wrong way,Moilys office in a damage control exercise scheduled a press meet today exclusively for the Kannada media,but one gets to hear that the media chose not to attend in protest.

Aesthetics Sake

The officer on whom Pranab Mukherjees office leaned during his stint as External Affairs Minister to improve the aesthetics of South Block has now been pulled back from her current assignment in France to take up the job of President Mukherjees Social Secretary. Gaitri Issar Kumar,who served as joint secretary establishment during Mukherjees stint at MEA and was later rewarded with the Americas division,is a 1986-batch IFS officer who earned praise for making the MEA wing of South Block more hospitable for foreign guests. Her new job in Rashtrapati Bhawan will largely deal with protocol arrangement,an important facet to the Presidents diplomatic fanfare. Kumars husband,incidentally,runs the famous Globe Detective agency. Meanwhile,the Indian Foreign Service,has also wrested the position of Press Secretary after a long gap from the Indian Information Service. T P Seetharam,who is now Indias envoy in Mauritius,was the last IFS officer to be the Press Secretary in Rashtrapati Bhawan during President K R Narayanans term.