New equations

The bonhomie between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party is getting interesting by the day

THE bonhomie between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party is getting interesting by the day. At the simple oath-taking ceremony for nominated Rajya Sabha member Sachin Tendulkar in the chamber of Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari on Monday,only one MP was present besides three Ministers of State in the government V Narayansamy,Rajiv Shukla and Harish Rawat. That happened to be Samajwadi Partys Ram Gopal Yadav. Apparently Shukla,who brought Tendulkar to Parliament in his own car,made a special request to Yadav to be present on the occasion.

Divided House

THE IIT alumni are quite offended at the idea of changing the entrance exams for the IITs. A few alumni associations have decided to petition the courts against the move to introduce a common entrance examination for all the engineering colleges. However,they are finding themselves up against another set of IIT alumni,serving within the government,who happen to be pushing for the introduction of the new system. One of them is V Umashankar private secretary to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal a Haryana cadre IAS officer who has an IIT background. CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi is another. An alumnus of IIT Kanpur,Joshi is a supporter of the move to give weightage to school marks in IIT entrance. However,there is one whose heart lies on the other side of the fence. Apurva Chandra,a joint secretary in the HRD Ministry,is BTech and MTech from IIT Delhi and is no fan of the new entrance format. At a recent meeting of school boards,Chandra is learnt to have expressed his doubts over the move to give weightage to school marks but apparently has been won over by Joshis arguments.

Seated Right

MAYBE the party is reading too much into it. But these are days in the run-up to the Presidential election and signals count for much. At the Congress Working Committee meeting,chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi,some party leaders couldnt help but notice the seating arrangement. On the left of Sonia was seated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,while Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was seated to her right. Convention in the party,apparently,is that the person most important after the one chairing a meeting sits on the right side of the presiding officer. Some leaders recalled that in earlier party meetings,Manmohan Singh used to sit on the right of Sonia.

Hot Seats

THE governments austerity measures have grounded most ministers in Delhi in this sweltering heat. The Opposition too seems to have taken a cue with most senior BJP leaders sweating it out in Delhi. Party president Nitin Gadkari,senior leaders L K Advani,Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh are all staying put. Only Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley has bucked the trend and taken off for his annual vacation,to the cool comforts of Europe.