Missing Minister

Course correction

Much was made about the difference in the BJPs approaches while attacking the Prime Minister in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha after the Supreme Court struck down the appointment of P J Thomas as the CVC. The partys LS wing was seen to be going soft on the PM,and that was taken to be as a reflection of deep divisions within BJPs top leadership. As if to dispel that notion,the BJP MPs in Lok Sabha today demanded clarifications on the PMs statement on WikiLeaks. Though there is no bar,the LS generally does not demand clarifications on the PMs statements while it is common practice in the RS. Later in the day,Leader of Opposition in LS Sushma Swaraj was able to joke that tongues would have started wagging had the BJP not demanded clarifications in the LS as well.

WikiLeaks fallout

The latest disclosures by the WikiLeaks website exposed certain differences of opinion between the Congress and the government on how to deal with the crisis. While the party was not in favour of responding,the PM is said to have prevailed while arguing that there was nothing to hide and went ahead and made his statement in Parliament. In another instance,a clutch of Congress MPs were advised by some ministers against moving a privilege motion against Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj for defying the ruling from the Chair after the PMs statement in the LS. Those MPs were told that there was no need to provoke the BJP and escalate the tensions despite the Opposition partys plan to go ahead with a breach of privilege motion against the PM for allegedly furnishing incorrect information regarding the conclusions of a parliamentary committee.

Parliamentary lessons

It was a revision lesson of Parliament rules for the RS members when they were stopped by chairman Hamid Ansari from questioning the PMs statement. The chairman tried to quell the situation inside the House by repeatedly referring to the Parliament rules,and when nobody was ready to give up,he adjourned the RS for half-an-hour. This duration was utilised by most members to brush up their knowledge about the rules which Ansari was referring to. Many of them were seen glancing through the rules book and getting it photocopied.

Babus day out

This years celebrations of Civil Servants Day is set to be a high profile but different affair from previous years. Recently,Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar sought the views of his civil servant colleagues on steps that could be taken to turn the programme into a special occasion. While the actual event is scheduled to be held on April 21,the Cabinet Secretary is already writing to ministers and other important government functionaries to block the date so that they can attend the function at Hotel Ashok. It remains to be seen how many suggestions from the bureaucracy are finally incorporated in the celebrations.

Waiting for the PM

Amidst the frenzy over the WikiLeaks storm that the government was trying to ride over yesterday in Parliament,there was one lady visitor who patiently waited for over two hours to get an audience with the PM. Padmaja Venugopal,daughter of the late Congress stalwart from Kerala,K Karunakaran,was seen pacing up and down outside the PMO. Padmaja,of course,was here to lobby for a party ticket for herself for the Assembly elections in Kerala. She faces tough competition from her own brother Muralidharan,who too has been camping in the capital for a party ticket.

Message from Mani

On a day when Parliament and the entire political spectrum was engrossed in discussing the latest disclosures from WikiLeaks,Mani Shanker Aiyar was clear on his preferences. Scheduled to speak in Parliament during the discussion on the working of the Tribal Affairs Ministry,Aiyar had asked one of his assistants to alert reporters about his upcoming speech. The message from his assistant read: Subject to deceptions that may be caused in the Rajya Sabha,Shri Mani Shanker Aiyar is expected to speak on the working of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs at about 11.45 am this morning. His speak notes will be emailed to you immediately after his finishes speaking. That speech never happened but the poorly drafted message seemed to have sufficiently embarrassed Aiyar,who is an accomplished speaker and greatly values his linguistic skills. The former minister promptly sent another email expressing regret that the word disruption had wrongly been typed as deception while speaking notes had been mentioned as speak notes. But even Aiyar missed out on correcting the last part of the message which was written as his finishes speaking instead of he finishes speaking.

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