Left in Limbo

Moving with the times,the official publications of the RSS have just undergone an image makeover.

Left in Limbo

Till some time back,the top decision-making bodies of the CPM,the Politburo and the central committee,used to generally meet on the weekends. The ostensible reason being that it would make it easier for some of the members,who also happened to be government functionaries in CPM-ruled West Bengal and Kerala,to attend. With the party having lost both these states in the last round of Assembly elections,there is obviously no such compulsion now. So the ongoing Politburo meeting has been kept on Thursday and Friday. Even then,former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee chose to keep away from the meeting,making it amply clear that it was not his chief ministerial duties that were preventing him from attending the recent party meetings.

Political Redesigns

Moving with the times,the official publications of the RSS have just undergone an image makeover. On Thursday,the outfit launched the redesigned websites of both Organiser and Panchajanya the English and Hindi magazines,respectively to make it look more slick,happening and viewer friendly. The new websites have also added the facility for an e-paper,which is to be launched soon.

EXPLOSIVE ISSUE

WITH the blasts outside the High Court still fresh in memory,a suspiciously parked car led to a bomb alert in the Supreme Court on Thursday. Policemen outside the court noticed a lone white Ambassador with diplomatic number plate and thought something was not quite right with the car. They swung into action,cordoned off the road and called the bomb disposal squad. Within minutes,the cars front window glass was broken to check inside,as lawyers,litigants and journalists gathered anxiously. Just then two women,one of them a foreigner,walked to the policemen to claim the car. A couple of policemen helped in clearing the broken glass pieces from the car seats.

GUARDED REACTION

THE National Investigation Agency has requested the Delhi Police to provide four commandos from its SWAT team to guard the two boys from Kishtwar it has taken in custody in connection with the probe into the High Court blast. The boys are currently being kept at a location in Noida. Incidentally,when NIA sleuths had gone to Kashmir for the initial probe,it had refused to include officers from the Delhi Police in the team. The Delhi Police had felt snubbed at that time. So the latest request is seen as a way of making up.

UP IN THE AIR

THE vacancy created in the Civil Aviation Ministry by the appointment of joint secretary Rohit Nandan as CMD of Air India is likely to be filled by Susheel Kumar,a 1982-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre. Kumar is not just a batchmate of Nandan,who,too,belongs to UP cadre,but currently holds the same post Managing Director of the state tourism corporation a post Nandan held before moving to the ministry. Kumars appointment would also continue the dominance of UP cadre officers in the ministry. Secretary Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi and the two other joint secretaries also belong to the same cadre.