Faking news

His personal email ID got hacked and a message was sent to all the people on his contact list.

Faking news

A whole lot of trouble is brewing in cyberspace these days. While many users of social networking websites are facing problems because of the governments move to cleanse them of offensive content,former foreign minister K Natwar Singh found himself in a rather embarrassing position because of an entirely different reason. His personal email ID got hacked and a message was sent to all the people on his contact list. The message said that he was writing with tears in his eyes to inform that he had been robbed at gunpoint in Madrid and all his valuables had been taken. It said further that neither the Indian Embassy nor the local police were helping him out. Therefore,he was freaked out and needed financial assistance. Natwar Singh,currently in London,has been flooded with phone calls and messages to inform him about this obviously fake email. Incidentally,Malvika Singh,publisher of the Seminar magazine,also became a victim of similar hacking recently.

STAND UNKNOWN

AT the all-party meeting on the issue of reservation for promotions in government jobs,every political party,except the Samajwadi Party,backed the governments attempt to find a legally-sustainable solution. But Congress cleverly did not show its cards and has not taken a position till now. At the meeting,some Opposition parties sought to know what the views of the Congress were. But the party ignored the pleas under the pretext that its position would be similar to the one outlined in the concluding remarks of the Prime Minister who read out from a prepared text. The parties have now decided that at the next such meeting,they will ask the Congress to spell out its stand first.

BELATED AWAKENING

HANDLING high-profile cases of money laundering in 2G spectrum allocation and CWG,the Enforcement Directorate has finally woken up to the virtues of having a media policy and media officers. The agency,so far,did not have a spokesperson. In a recent order,the Director of ED Rajan Katoch has appointed R P Upadhyay,an IPS officer of the 1988 batch,as the chief spokesperson for the agency. Dr Rajeshwar Singh,who is deputy director and handling politically sensitive income tax cases against Jaganmohan Reddy and Baba Ramdev associate Balkrishna,will serve as the spokesperson.

SMOOTH SAILING

RELATIONS between the UPA government and Trinamool Congress are looking up,at least for the time being. And it was reflected in the manner in which the Centre stepped in to help out the West Bengal government in one of its ambitious projects of developing a financial hub in Rajarhat,a sub-city adjacent to Kolkata. With support from the Union Urban Development Ministry,the state government recently made presentations before a gathering of over 30 financial institutions,showcasing the infrastructure being set up in the proposed hub. Many financial institutions promised investments and agreed to set up facilities in the hub. That Trinamool MP Saugata Roy happens to be the MoS in Urban Development Ministry ensured that the event had a smooth sailing. States urban development minister Firhad Hakim went home a happy man.

CROSS CURRENTS

HAVING made her opposition to electoral politics clear to her Team Anna colleagues,Kiran Bedi now seems to be working at cross purposes with them. Arvind Kejriwal has been drumming up support for laying seige at the residences of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Nitin Gadkari,holding both Congress and BJP equally responsible for alleged losses in coal block allotment. But Bedi,in a recent tweet,took a position that would gladden the hearts of BJP leaders. Union Minister PM did not prefer auctioning of coal mines in Coalgate. Since when did letters of CMs become binding? she tweeted. Thats a line that even BJP has been very cautious to take. But with the on-and-off rumours about Bedis willingness to fight elections on a BJP ticket,the retired IPS officer may have inched just closer to that goal.