Gabbing attention

While BJPs lone Muslim Lok Sabha MP Shahnawaz Hussain cancelled his iftaar this Ramzan

Grabbing attention

While BJPs lone Muslim Lok Sabha MP Shahnawaz Hussain cancelled his iftaar this Ramzan due to Uttarakhand tragedy,the Eid celebration on Friday was almost a full-house despite the fact that he did not send formal invitations. Those coming to his residence to greet him Friday included BJP president Rajnath Singh,Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley,Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and her Haryana counterpart Bhupinder Singh Hooda and also children from the government school where his wife teaches. A galaxy of leaders from Bihar also dropped in,including state BJP chief Mangal Pandey,Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Nand Kishore Yadav,C P Thakur,Ravi Shankar Prasad,Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Shatrughan Sinha. One of the guests who attracted the most attention though was CBI director Ranjit Sinha.

Squaring Off

With the heat on in Parliament over Pakistan,Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid made light of it at a book release function on Thursday night at the Habitat Centre. Releasing the book,Khurshid made a short speech where he cracked jokes,saying at least he was in a place where people were listening to him,unlike Parliament where no one listens to anything you say and the noise drowns your voice in any case. He also took a dig at the Opposition for jumping into the well of the House and then wanting their names deleted from a list. They dont want credit,unlike the author of this book who deserves it. BJPs Jaswant Singh,foreign minister during the NDA rule,who spoke next,took a dig at Khurshid by asking him to get the foreign ministry to buy 1,500 copies of the book,since he had praised it so much. The book happened to be on Rajasthan,Singhs home state.

SUBTLE REMINDER

On Friday,Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh posted Soniajis five point to fight corruption on his twitter handle with link to the party presidents plenary session speech in December 2010. One of the five points,she had recommended then,was all party chief ministers and Union ministers should review and relinquish discretionary powers. Department of Personnel and Training DoPT had asked every ministry and department a year back to frame guidelines for exercising discretionary powers and forward it a copy. But despite three reminders,64 ministries and departments out of total 89 are yet to comply. Early this week,DoPT sent another reminder to concerned secretaries to personally look into the matter and expedite the requisite information. The list of defaulters include Agriculture,Civil Aviation,Commerce,Defence,MEA,Home,Planning Commission and two departments under charge of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

While introduction of biometric in Home Ministry by former Home Minister P Chidambaram ensured punctuality,Home Secretary Anil Goswamis tough working hours is keeping his juniors on toes from early morning. After taking over as Home Secretary,Goswami has been reporting to work as early as 8.30 am and stays in office till beyond 9 pm. A seasoned bureaucrat from Jammu and Kashmir cadre,Goswami prefers to familiarise himself and give personal attention to all important issues concerning the ministry,which,in turn,results in long working hours for his junior colleagues.

INVOKING GOD

On Thursday,Minister of State in the Prime Ministers Office was having a hard time outside Parliament fielding queries about Defence Minister A K Antonys first statement after the killing of Indian soldiers at the LoC. As he started walking off without saying anything,he noticed Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh coming towards him. Narayanasamy started chanting Jaisiaram much to the amusement of everybody around.