Maken it Difficult

The Ministry of Youth Affairs seems to have woken up rather late to the fact that this is the India-China friendship year.

Maken it Difficult

The Ministry of Youth Affairs seems to have woken up rather late to the fact that this is the India-China friendship year. The projected five-fold increase in the youth exchange programme was almost forgotten until someone realised that names needed to finalised within the next few months. Getting 500 suitable candidates was not going to be easy,so the minister responsible,Ajay Maken,shot off a letter to Panchayati Raj Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to send a list of 100 young panchayat representatives,who are articulate,around 30 years old or so and could present a positive image. Deshmukh has been left wondering how he can meet this demand within 10 days,as requested by Maken.

Too Many Cooks

There is confusion within the government on why four senior ministers led by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee decided to meet Baba Ramdev at the VIP lounge of the Delhi airport when this was not decided at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs CCPA. The decision at the CCPA was to send two ministers Mukherjee and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal to Sehore,Madhya Pradesh,on Tuesday to try and placate Baba Ramdev. A special aircraft had also been kept ready for the VIP trip. There are no answers as to why the ministers decided not to stick to the script finalised by the CCPA.

Lost in Translation

Not knowing Hindi can prove to be a handicap even in the rarified world of the Foreign Ministry. This week,in the MEA,an officer had asked his personal staff to call mananiya respected Sharmaji in another ministry. After about half-an-hour of calling and cross-checking,the personal staff got back to the MEA official,and said,There is one Sharmaji in that ministry. But there is nobody by the name mananiya. The official was flummoxed at the response,and had to tell the personal staff who exactly to connect to.

Making a Booking

The legal battle between controversial lobbyist Niira Radia and high-profile lawyer R K Anand over his tell-all book on her allegedly cheating him of his fees while representing one of her aviation clients is creating quite a story on its own. June 1 was the date for the official launch of the book and Anand and his publisher had hired the venue,invited the guests and arranged huge posters of the book jacket,as well as a panel to debate the issues he raises in the book,which has been co-authored by journalist Inderjit Badhwar. Radia,however,got wind of the contents and filed an injunction in the High Court on the grounds of defamation of character and was granted a stay order on the release of the book. She also slapped a Rs 1-crore defamation suit on the authors,even though the book has not been officially launched. Anand,ever feisty,remained undeterred and instead of cancelling the event,went ahead and held the cocktail party but without any posters or display of the book or a panel discussion. It was surprisingly well attended and now everybody knows what the legal battle is all about. In addition,some copies had already found their way into bookstores before the legal ban came into effect. Round one to Anand.

New Strategy

Realising that attacking Chief Minister Narendra Modi on communal issues does more good than harm to his image,the Gujarat Congress has decided to focus on corruption issues in the state. Congress MLAs from the state have sought an appointment with President Pratibha Patil to submit a memorandum on the alleged corrupt practices of the BJP regime in Gujarat. The Congress has gathered documents,purportedly containing details and evidence of alleged scams,which run into a thousand pages. Only time will tell how the new plank serves the Congress electorally.