Role reversal

Can a Union minister call a political meeting of the party to which he belongs in his government office? That is the question being raised by some of the detractors of Commerce Minister Anand Sharma

CAN a Union minister call a political meeting of the party to which he belongs in his government office? That is the question being raised by some of the detractors of Commerce Minister Anand Sharma who has convened a meeting of the Himachal Pradesh Congresss manifesto committee in his Udyog Bhawan office Monday afternoon. Sharma was recently made chairperson of the manifesto committee of the Congress for Himachal Pradesh,which goes to polls later this year. Sharma may have decided to do so probably to save time in travelling to and fro from his office,but the move has raised eyebrows in the party.

PERSONAL FIGHT

THERE would not have been the unusually high number of invalid votes 81 invalid votes including 15 by MPs in the Presidential election but for the coincidence that the election representatives of Pranab Mukherjee and P A Sangma Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal and Satya Pal Jain,respectively happen to be bitter political rivals from Chandigarh and have a long history of political rivalry. As counting progressed in Parliament House and the votes began to gather in favour of Mukherjee,Jain is said to have interjected on almost every ballot paper,pointing to the smallest of errors and raising objections to even small ink marks on them. It was because of such protests that counting,from an estimated time of four hours,went on for about seven hours. Bansals requests that they should not be treated as errors were turned down by Jain who clearly was more interested in troubling Bansal than in the victory of his candidate. He has never treated me as a political rival. He never once invited me for marriage functions in his family,so why should I listen now, Jain is believed to have told some UPA managers who tried to convince him. Given that Mukherjee was anyway winning with a huge margin,Bansal eventually thought it better to accept Jains protests and treat the votes as invalid instead of trying to argue it out,which would have only lengthened the proceedings further.

Playing Safe

WHILE the Samajwadi Party had assured its support to Pranab Mukherjee in the Presidential election,the Congress party did not want to leave anything to chance. The Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh,Digvijaya Singh,met SPs Ram Gopal Yadav ahead of the poll to work out the logistics of polling exercise in Lucknow. Ram Gopal,who is the younger brother of Mulayam Singh,is learnt to have indicated the key contacts in the Samajwadi legislature party in Lucknow that Digvijaya could get in touch with. To assure Digvijaya further,he himself also passed on instructions to Lucknow to his MLAs to ensure Mukherjees victory. In hindsight,it was good that Digvijaya approached Ram Gopal,and not Mulayam himself,for sending out clear instructions to MLAs in Lucknow. For the Samajwadi Party chief himself made a mistake during voting that rendered his vote invalid.

Translation Trouble

THE launch of the logo and website for the World Hindi Conference,to be held later this year,turned out to be a discussion on why most government websites did not have a Hindi version. Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur and Congress leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi the two VIPs present on the occasion were faced with queries on the lack of adequate use of Hindi in official communications. Chaturvedi had to admit that many times he had to pick up the English version of answers to Parliament questions because of the difficulty in comprehending the Hindi that is used in official answers. The common refrain was that the chaste Hindi that is used in government communications was preventing people from using the national language in official circles. As the questions became more sharp,the moderator of the ceremony had to use the excuse of limited time to bring an end to the interactive session.

Vicarious Liability

THE Supreme Court last week gave a new meaning to the term vicarious liability. The Bench of Justice B S Chauhan was hearing a petition of a man who had been ordered to pay maintenance to his daughter-in-law,as his son had run away. The man tried to argue that only his son was liable to pay maintenance. Justice Chauhan then asked him whether he had led his sons baraat to the brides house. When the man replied in the affirmative,the judge said: You took the baraat to her house. Now,you are vicariously liable to provide monetary assistance to the woman. You got your son married. Share the burden now. He gave the petitioner two options either settle the dispute with the daughter-in-law or get your petition dismissed. The court gave the man a few days to decide.

Tailpiece

RURAL Development Minister Jairam Ramesh surely has his way with words. He is known to customise the salutations in his letters to government functionaries. The many letters he writes to the Prime Minister are interestingly addressed. They begin with Most Esteemed Mr Prime Minister Sir.