Respect pays

BJP leader L K Advani may have become the proverbial red rag for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by constantly taunting him as a weak PM

BJP leader L K Advani may have become the proverbial red rag for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by constantly taunting him as a weak PM, but two chief ministers belonging to the saffron party,Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh and Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh,are learnt to have endeared themselves to Singh more than any Congress chief minister over the years. The reason: their humble disposition. Chouhan,in particular,seldom fails to touch the Prime Ministers feet in the true Indian tradition and seek his blessings. Obviously,it pays to respect people who have a say in disbursement of Central funds. And,Madhya Pradesh continues to gain in the process.

High Fliers

At least three private corporate jets,with top CEOs on board,are flying straight to Pakistan to attend the first of its kind bilateral trade talks even as Commerce Minister Anand Sharma takes the land route through the Wagah border on Monday morning. Hero Groups Sunil Munjal will be flying his own jet to Lahore and is taking Rajan Mittal and KK Modi with him. Jyotsna Suri of Lalit Hotels is also taking her private plane while Tata Steel vice chairman B Muthuraman is flying across on the Tata jet. The talks are spread over three locations Lahore,Karachi and Islamabad and the private planes would obviously be of great help.

Grand Delusions

Congressmen are watching with keen interest the way senior party leaders from Uttar Pradesh have suddenly raised the pitch in their campaign. Law Minister Salman Khurshid,who is usually very reasonable,has gone hawkish on minority reservation even at the cost of inviting a reprimand from the Election Commission. Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma,who was in Samajwadi Party before joining Congress,has attacked P L Punia,who has come from the BSP. And Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has publicly announced that the next UP chief minister would be remote controlled by Rahul Gandhi. Apparently there is some method in this madness,according to veteran party leaders. They attribute this rush of blood to Rahul Gandhis recent statement that the next CM would be from the Congress. Interestingly,Khurshid,Verma and Jaiswal are all candidates for that job. Jaiswals remote control remark,in fact,is being seen as his readiness to do Rahul Gandhis bidding if he gets that job. This,when the party has little realistic chance of reaching anywhere close to three-figure mark in the Assembly.

Hard Lessons

The recent international school education survey,which put India almost at the bottom of its list in terms of quality of education,had clearly rattled the government which has been trumpeting the enactment of the Right to Education as a big achievement. That report was followed by NGO Prathams equally disappointing survey on the status of primary education in the country. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal is now ready to talk tough with the states on this issue at the upcoming meeting of the state education ministers. A key agenda of the meeting is Quality of school education and Sibal,whose other portfolio,Telecom,has been keeping him extremely busy,is learnt to have preparing himself extensively for the meeting.

Poster Problem

The National Investigation Agency is in the process of putting up posters of wanted people in some of the terror cases at public places all over the country. But it will hold back this exercise in the states where Assembly elections are being held. The NIA fears that its posters would get mixed up with the thousands of posters of election candidates and would not be taken note of. In these states,therefore,it will start putting up posters of these proclaimed offenders only after the entire election process is over.