Naming Game

Nirupam has voiced the demand on the ground that Rajiv Gandhi was born in the Cumballa Hill Hospital,not very far from Mumbai Central station

Naming Game

Joining the long list of Congressmen seeking to flatter the leadership,North Mumbai MP Sanjay Nirupam is initiating a signature campaign demanding that Mumbai Central be renamed as Rajiv Gandhi station. Nirupam has voiced the demand on the ground that Rajiv Gandhi was born in the Cumballa Hill Hospital,not very far from Mumbai Central station. He had raised the issue on Wednesday in the Lok Sabha while speaking on the demand for grants to the railways and had proposed that it be renamed as Rajiv Gandhi station,in the same manner in which Victoria Terminus was renamed Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

BACK TO SCHOOL

THE Information and Broadcasting Ministry is sending its mid-level officers back to school,though only for a few hours. The senior bureaucracy is apparently not entirely happy with the note-writing abilities of its junior staff. The section officers and under-secretaries in the ministry are,therefore,being sent for half-a-day of training session on Friday to hone their writing skills. The training has been organised at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. The flip side for the officers,though,is that they have to come back to office in the second half and initiate a note to show what they have learnt at the school.

DIVING LESSONS

V Narayansamy,Minister of State for Personnel,sure has a sense of humour. At an interaction with IAS probationers in the Parliament complex on Thursday,one of the young officers suggested that the government must provide driving lessons and elementary training in handling weapons. His reasoning was that such skills can come in handy during their postings in sensitive areas like Naxalite-affected districts. Narayansamy nodded in agreement and,with a straight face,replied that the probationers should not just be taught driving but also swimming. The remark evoked laughter and applause from the young trainees.

SPEECH IMPEDIMENT

THERE is a new directive for Lok Sabha MPs who are unable to speak during a discussion in Parliament because of paucity of time and therefore have to lay their written speeches on the table of the House. The Lok Sabha Secretariat has found that deciphering bad handwriting or translating speeches written in regional languages was causing inordinate delays in recording these speeches in the verbatim proceedings of the House. It has therefore now asked the MPs to submit double-spaced typed-out speeches,that should not preferably exceed two-three pages. It has also requested the MPs not to include ironical expressions or defamatory statements in these written speeches.

BILL OF FARE

IT is rare that a minister calls for the deferment of clearance of his own Bill at Cabinet meetings. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal,however,did exactly that on Thursday. When the Copyright Act amendment Bill came up for discussion,the minister requested that the matter be postponed for next weeks meeting. Apparently,Sibal bought this time to iron out differences with the Opposition on the Bill. The minister has been working overtime these days to reach out to Opposition leaders in order to win their support for his Bills,several of which are stuck in Parliament. As regards the Bill in question,its provisions relating to statutory licensing for radio broadcasters are considered quite contentious. It is learnt that Sibal is likely to meet Arun Jaitley,Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha,in the course of the next few days to find a common ground on this.