Poetic Licence

Unhealthy Precedent

The Medical Council of India seems to have got itself into an unhealthy situation with the notification of a common entrance examination for undergraduate as well as postgraduate medical courses. While the CBSE has made it clear that it will not be able to conduct such an exam at least this year,the Union Health Ministry which is quite miffed with MCI over the notification being issued without them being consulted has also washed its hands off the affair. So even though the apex court has given the go ahead for a single entrance test,the MCI Board of Governors is not quite sure how to conduct the exam even as thousands of students desperately await a final decision.

Junior Responsibility

Many junior ministers had earlier complained to the Prime Minister that they had been given very little work,but not all of them are interested in getting busy with ministerial engagements,for varying reasons. In the Ministry of Health,while MoS Gandhiselvan anyways cannot be entrusted with much owing to his extremely elementary understanding of both Hindi and English,the other MoS Dinesh Trivedi is now in election mode. So when the Union Health Ministry wanted a ministerial guest to inaugurate their function on TB day April 24,not only did Ghulam Nabi Azad opt out because of his busy schedule but both the junior ministers have also declined the invite on some pretext. Finally the TB division has had to settle for the Delhi Health Minister Dr A K Walia and Mayor Prithiviraj Sahni to flag off its event from the Red Fort.

Animal Farm

The Delhi Zoo has suddenly become the focus of interest of quite a few high-profile people of late. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh visited the zoo for a function on the World Forestry Day. A few days prior to that,Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia took his young grandson for an outing at the zoo. Ahluwalia was not entirely happy with the condition of the zoo and promptly wrote to Jairam making a few suggestions for improvement. Jairam,always ready with a response,wrote back saying improvement measures were already being implemented.

Prayer for peace

MoS for Parliamentary Affairs V Narayanasamy was spotted offering prayers at the Hanuman temple on Tughlaq Road opposite Ajit Singhs house on Tuesday evening. A wag wondered whether this was the ministers way of giving thanks for a relatively smooth and peaceful parliamentary session this time,even though he has a traditional Tuesday date with the deity. The session finally closes this week.

Couples and Couplets

Despite coming under attack from Kapil Sibal on the WikiLeak disclosure over his 2009 conversation with an American diplomat on the nuclear deal,L K Advani chose not to respond in the Lok Sabha,a move that surprised many. Advani had wanted to intervene after Sibal provoked him saying the BJP veteran had not denied the contents of the cable but was stopped by Sushma Swaraj. By then,the heated debate had mellowed somewhat after the couplet recited by the Prime Minister which had the treasury benches roaring with laughter. It even brought a smile to Sushmas face and she later recollected that it was by Allama Iqbal. It may lead to a trend: post session,parliamentarians were busy exhibiting their knowledge of Urdu poetry.