Collective Wisdom

Ahead of the discussion in the Lok Sabha on the anti-graft ombudsman,Law Minister Salman Khursheed had collected various drafts from different groups.

Ahead of the discussion in the Lok Sabha on the anti-graft ombudsman,Law Minister Salman Khursheed had collected various drafts from different groups Sarvajan Lokpal Bill,Bahujan Lokpal Bill,and Dalit Lokpal Bill,to name a few. Together with the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by Team Anna,another draft by Aruna Roy and others,and a Working Paper on the same by Jayaprakash Narayan,there is no lack of ideas for the anti-corruption legislation. To confound matters,the Law Minister is also getting messages from anonymous people wanting to come over to his residence with their suggestions. One such message read: Keep juice and coffee ready. We are coming. The Law Minister responded to one such saying: I presume it is your sense of humour.

Memories of another day

There was an interesting,even bizarre,diversion during the debate over the Human Organ Transplant Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. One of the MPs from the Bahujan Samaj Party BSP,Gangacharan Rajput,claimed before the House that he and his wife had donated their organs and suggested that other MPs should also come forward and do the same. What was intriguing was Rajputs claim to fame. Back in 2004,immediately after the UPA was voted to power,as a Congressman he had climbed atop his car holding a revolver to his head and threatened to shoot himself if Sonia Gandhi did not become the Prime Minister. He had since crossed the fence and joined the BSP.

Oceans Apart

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav does not seem to have many friends left either at the Centre or in the state,even amongst the UPA allies. During a discussion on special status for Bihar in the Lok Sabha on Friday,as BJP MP Hukmdev Narayan Yadav finished his speech,Nationalist Congress Party NCP chief Sharad Pawar got up to say,obviously in jest,We agree to everything that you say but keep Laluji there only. The BJP MP returned the favour,arguing that Lalu had been given a place in the Union Cabinet. Who would like to come into a pond from an ocean? So,keep him here only, Yadav said.

True to Type

A missing Hindi typist in the Anna Hazare camp apparently triggered a curious set of events over the last two days. After his extensive talks with Anna late on Thursday evening,Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh wanted the fasting activist to put his three demands in a letter to the Prime Minister. Anna is learnt to have told him that he was not in a position to do so since there was no one at that time to type out the letter in Hindi,his second preferred language after Marathi. He then requested Deshmukh to get a letter drafted and bring it to him by six on Friday morning and he would sign it. Deshmukh neither got the letter drafted nor did he turn up early in the morning at Ramlila Maidan. Instead,he sent one of his personal staff to fetch the letter. The emissary was made to wait for over three hours as Annas colleagues got the letter prepared in Hindi. Meanwhile,Deshmukhs colleagues in the government had started asking about the letter which Deshmukh had assured would come. The letter was finally handed over to Deshmukhs staff around 10 oclock and was only made public by the Anna camp after that.

The Rahul Effect

Rahul Gandhi was not the only one to break his silence in Parliament on Friday. The young MPs of the Congress,who rarely speak on any public issue,made a beeline towards the television cameras in the Parliament complex to express support to their leaders statement and praise him for elevating the debate on corruption. Amongst those who held forth were ministers Sachin Pilot,Milind Deora,Jitin Prasad and RPN Singh,and also Arun Yadav,Ashok Tanwar and Meenakshi Natarajan.