Losing steam

Yashwant Sinha was sharp and fiery in his speech on the CWG debate in the Lok Sabha but his attempt to weave in a Jharkhand connection did not go down well with some from his own party.

Losing steam

Yashwant Sinha was sharp and fiery in his speech on the CWG debate in the Lok Sabha but his attempt to weave in a Jharkhand connection did not go down well with some from his own party. His hint of monetary transactions between former chief minister Madhu Koda and Sports Minister Ajay Maken,who was once the AICC in-charge of Jharkhand,not just led to huge protests from the treasury benches and shifted the focus away from CWG,but also left some of his party colleagues squirming. So much so that a visibly upset Maneka Gandhi walked up to Sinha and bluntly told him that they had now lost the debate because of his deviation. Refusing to listen to his protestations,she then walked out in a huff. Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj was not so vocal but also gave the impression that this unwanted diversion had blunted the BJP attack somewhat.

Busy Day for BJP

CLEARLY,there was more to the repeated adjournments forced by the BJP in Parliament than met the eye. When the two Houses were adjourned in the morning,the BJP had signalled that it would allow the Parliament to function in the second half. In the intervening period,some of the party MPs conveniently took time out to attend the BJP youth wings protest rally at Jantar Mantar. Towards the evening,after major Opposition parties had spoken,BJP MPs suddenly disrupted the proceedings on the issue of the lathicharge at the protest rally. The Houses had to be adjourned for the day and the BJP MPs got the opportunity to attend the screening of Tiranga,a documentary film made by L K Advanis daughter,Pratibha Advani,screened at Siri Fort auditorium at 6 pm.

Canine Care

LOK Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar is on a high after having made Minister for New and Renewable Resources Farooq Abdullah install a solar energy plant for lighting in the Parliament House. Action followed an intervention by Kumar during Question Hour in December 2009 asking Abdullah to place the Parliament House on his ministrys calendar of projects. Earlier on,Kumar,whose interest in plants is well-known,infused a lot of fresh ideas into landscaping of the complex. What has escaped her attention so far is the proliferation of the stray canine population on the campus. After all,environment has been taken care of,wildlife should come next.

Late arrival

CONGRESS spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi caused some embarrassment in the treasury benches in the Rajya Sabha when he was found missing for his speech on the CWG debate. He arrived minutes after the second Congress speaker Rashid Alvi had taken the floor. Singhvi approached Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla wanting to know whether Alvis speech could be halted midway and he be allowed to speak. Shukla told him the Oppositions consent was required for this and walked over to Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley. The BJP leader refused to cooperate. Singhvi is now slated to speak on Wednesday.

Tailpiece

AMIDST all the drama happening on the CWG debate in Rajya Sabha,CPIMs Moinul Hassan was able to keep himself quietly detached. As most of the action involved the government or the main Opposition BJP,Hassan was seen going through pages of social networking site Facebook on his tablet personal computer.