Lost in Translation

Congressmen do not seem to have been able to figure out their vice-president yet. Lauding Rahul Gandhis recent efforts to interact with party office-bearers

Congressmen do not seem to have been able to figure out their vice-president yet. Lauding Rahul Gandhis recent efforts to interact with party office-bearers,the editorial in the latest issue of the ruling party mouthpiece Congress Sandesh gushed how he,in his enigmatic way,continued to engage in the process of dialogue with all levels of party cadre. In the Hindi edition of the mouthpiece though,the editorial uses the word karishmai or charismatic to describe Rahuls efforts. The message was apparently lost in translation.

CAUGHT ON WRONG FOOT

The Iamp;B Ministry is upset with a law officer of the Government of India who appeared unprepared before the Gujarat High Court to defend the March 31 deadline for putting an end to non-digital broadcast of television signals in four cities of the state. The result was that the court granted a stay on the planned switch-over to digital broadcast until April 8. The Additional Solicitor General,appearing on behalf of the Centre,had not bothered to get in touch with the ministry to counter the plea by some cable operators who had approached the court seeking a six-month stay on the mandatory switch-over to digital signals by April 1 in Ahmedabad,Vadodara,Surat and Rajkot,which are amongst the 38 cities across India where digitisation is being imposed in the current phase. Since he failed to furnish the ministrys argument,the court stayed the process by 10 days,thereby extending the deadline in these four cities. An angry Iamp;B Ministry,it is learnt,is now planning to write to the Law Ministry and the Attorney General to place on record its unhappiness over the conduct of the law officer.

Wi-Fi ON TRACK

Following the announcement in the Rail Budget,Railway Minister Pawan Bansal is getting ready to launch the countrys first Wi-Fi facility on trains on Tuesday on the Kolkata Rajdhani. The officials on Monday were busy making preparations to see to it that the new facility does not throw up complaints of slowness,lack of connectivity and the like on its maiden run. More so because the train would be going to West Bengal,where the ruling party is said to be not so favourably disposed towards Railways regime at the Centre. Also,since the announcement in budget,the Trinamool Congress has been telling anyone who cares to listen that the Wi-Fi on train was originally Didis idea.

FAMILY MATTERS

An interesting fact about the family of Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran was revealed at a function on Sunday. A senior lawyer,who has appeared in many cases alongside the SGs father and former Rajya Sabha member K Parasaran,remarked that the Parasarans could be the only family in the country where three generations of lawyers have argued against each other in court. Mohan Parasaran has appeared in cases in Madras High Court where the opposing counsel was either his father or grandfather,the late senior advocate R Kesava Aiyangar. SGs father and grandfather have also fought many legal battles against each other.