Cricket diplomacy

Timothy J Roemer,the US ambassador to India,never loses an opportunity to get across the right message

Cricket diplomacy

Timothy J Roemer,the US ambassador to India,never loses an opportunity to get across the right message. So,on Monday,when TV cameras spotted him outside South Block,he was ready with a quick byte on Indias cricket triumph. Congratulating India on the World Cup win,the US politician-turned-diplomat praised Mahendra Singh Dhoni for magnificent decision-making,exercising great judgment and the glorious career of Sachin Tendulkar. On behalf of Americans,he said that US President Barack Obama congratulates the kings of cricket and kings of the world. He also had a word of praise for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the cricket diplomacy. The grapevine has it that Roemer himself was keen to attend the Mohali semi-final but had to be dissuaded just in case the American presence is viewed as a spoiler.

Call of the native

It is back to home and hearth for several ministers now with Assembly elections in West Bengal,Tamil Nadu and Kerala just around the corner. Defence Minister A K Antony is already in Gods own country and is only expected to be back in the Capital by mid-April. MoS Home M Ramchandran is also reported to be away from office preparing for the elections. In fact,he has preceded Antony and has been spotted in Kerala since March-end itself while MoS Department of Personnel amp; Training DoPT,V Narayanswamy,is off to Puducherry for elections after due clearance from the PM himself the Prime Minister holds charge of DoPT.

ANILS GESTURE

As the Public Accounts Committee PAC questioned him over the 2-G Spectrum allocation issue,industrialist Anil Ambani got an opportunity to banter with a panel member,Tiruchi Siva of DMK,outside the conference room. While heading for the washroom,Siva found Anil a few steps behind. He stopped and offered to let Anil get in first. However,Anil politely declined the offer with a loaded remark: first-come-first-served. Whether Siva caught the pun relating to the manner of the 2G auction is not known.

New Man Friday?

Dr Sharad Chauhan,a 1994 batch officer of UT cadre will be the private secretary PS to Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. The current appointment has been made after the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet turned down the request made by Azad for appointing a close aide of several years a joint secretary level official for the post. Incidentally,Azad is not very inclined towards formally appointing a PS to assist him. During his 30 years of political career Chauhan will only be the third officer to be appointed as PS. The only other private secretaries he has had are S K Srivastava during the 80s and S K Rao during the 90s.

CBIs stand

The CBI today faced a sticky situation,on consecutive days,regarding its chargesheet in the Supreme Court. Having once told the Supreme Court that it is not possible under the law to discuss the draft chargesheet with it,the agency today found itself in a fix again,courtesy the document. Advocate Prashant Bhushan sought

the courts permission to debate the CBI chargesheet but senior advocate K K Venugopal straightaway told the court that Bhushans request,if agreed upon,may visit the trial with far-reaching consequences. He told the court that once a chargesheet is filed,the trial judge has full jurisdiction over it.