Love match

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna is a lawn tennis aficionado.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna is a lawn tennis aficionado. At 79,he still manages a game or two. During his recent London trip where he met British Foreign Secretary William Hague for Foreign Office consultations,he decided to stay back for a couple of days to watch the ongoing Wimbledon championship. While the grapevine is abuzz with rumours that he got the Indian Embassy to foot the bill for his extra stay,he has made it clear that he paid from his own pocket for the extra days in London. Krishnas liking for tennis is so well-known that French ambassador Jerme Bonnafont had during Krishnas early days as minister in 2009 invited him to watch the French Open at the embassy premises. Krishna,however,had then politely declined.

Speakers Sympathy

While installing her as the Lok Sabha Speaker,the Congress clearly wanted to establish Meira Kumar as a possible counter to UP Chief Minister Mayawati. And Kumar,it seems,is not taking that role any lightly than her parliamentary duties. Recently,she had it conveyed to civic authorities that the workers to be deployed for fixing water-logging problem in and around the Parliament House be equipped with gas masks and other protective gear. It turns out that she was inspired by the incident involving the death of two sanitation workers while cleaning an underground drain near the residence of Mayawatis close associate,UP Health Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui,last month.

Talking Tough

Wary of straining its relations with the DMK even further,the Congress is playing cautiously on the alleged involvement of Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran in the 2G spectrum case,hoping for a favourable direction from the Supreme Court instead of initiating action on its own. The DMK,however,seems in no mood to make things easy for the Congress. This was evident in a recent remark made by Maran to one of his Cabinet colleagues. Evidently ruling out his resignation,Maran is said to have told this minister that he was ready to take on the Opposition in the coming monsoon session of Parliament.

Keeping a Watch

Former Rural Development Minister,Raghuvansh Prasad Singh,who launched UPAs flagship rural job guarantee scheme NREGS,has been acting as a watchdog on the scheme after demitting office. Recently,he drew the ministrys attention towards a fake gazette notification regarding the creation of a separate ministry for NREGA workers welfare. The fake notification apparently lured unsuspecting candidates to jobs in NREGA workers welfare commissions to be set up at state and district levels. Yadav is believed to have rung up his former colleagues in the ministry who in turn informed the officials concerned. Rural Development Secretary B K Sinha is learnt to have initiated action on this attempted case of forgery.

Crash Landing

At a recent Group of Ministers meeting on the restructuring of Air India,Petroleum Minister Jaipal Reddy is learnt to have questioned the need for having a flag carrier. His objection was overruled by chairperson Pranab Mukherjee but Reddy was the only one to be doubting Air Indias ability to do a turnaround. After a presentation by the airlines CMD on the financial restructuring plan,Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia is also said to have voiced concerns over Air Indias poor track record and repeated failures in meeting targets set by it.