Rehabilitation complete

After nearly a year on the margins,Abhishek Manu Singhvi Thursday returned to doing the job he did before the CD controversy accounted for him

After nearly a year on the margins,Abhishek Manu Singhvi Thursday returned to doing the job he did before the CD controversy accounted for him. He was partly rehabilitated recently when the party included him among the panel of persons authorised to participate in television debates. On Thursday,it went a step further,when the party officially authorised him to be the spokesperson giving out the Congress reaction on the Batla House encounter verdict,setting tongues wagging that his rehabilitation was now complete.

TWEETING FORCE

THE Army is one of the more recent government institutions to take the social media bait by setting up an account on Twitter. The adgpi handle,which is the official account of the Indian Army,has already notched up over 45,000 followers. Also,it has been officially verified as a genuine account of the Army by Twitter. Incidentally,the head of Twitter India was earlier this week spotted in South Block,meeting senior officers for a chat on the social media and its future for the Army.

TWO-PRONGED STRATEGY

THE governments two-pronged strategy of development coupled with security in the Left Wing Extremism-affected districts was on ample display at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on Thursday,albeit as a coincidence. While in one conference hall,a conference convened by the Ministry of Home Affairs saw SPs of the 27 worst-affected LWE districts as well as central forces in attendance,a simultaneous conference in another hall called by the Rural Development Ministry saw officials from state rural development ministries discuss at length a new skill development-cum-placement initiative launched in the 27 worst-affected districts. It was an interesting coincidence that both conferences one addressing security issues and the other targeting development were being held simultaneously at the same venue.

HOME ADDRESS

FINALLY,the NIA has got an address in Lutyens Delhi. It will be housed in NDMCs building on Jai Singh Marg,more than a year after it was allotted two floors there. The agency was earlier operating from a shopping complex in Jasola in Sarita Vihar. The new office for NIA though comes steep at a monthly rent of nearly Rs 1 crore that will be borne by Ministry of Home Affairs. The ministry has signed an agreement with NDMC as the multi-storey houses several of its other departments. Earlier,the NIA paid around Rs 65 lakh every month for the two floors in the district centre at Jasola.

NEPAL CALLING

NEPALS CPN UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal,who arrived in Delhi on Wednesday,is the third former Prime Minister from the country to visit India in the last few months Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda came in April end and Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba visited in early June. However,while both Madhav Kumar Nepal and Deuba were granted an audience by Congress president Sonia Gandhi,Prachanda,who is the leader of Nepals currently most powerful party and the largest in the last elected house,was not given an appointment with Sonia,despite his keenness. This is being analysed with great interest by political pundits in Nepal,particularly as the country is due to go to polls this year end. Interestingly,another former Maoist Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai was also unable to meet Sonia when he visited in October 2011.