Split Wide Open

The networking skills of Manoj Jayaswal,the controversial Nagpur-based businessman now embroiled in the coal block allocations scandal,is well known given that he cultivated politicians and bureaucrats extensively,throwing lavish parties for them and showering them with expensive gifts to further his business. In fact,the entire expense of a senior politicians sons wedding a couple of years ago was said to have been borne by Jayaswal. However,after his name has surfaced in the coal block allocation scam,politicians and bureaucrats alike are trying to eliminate traces of their association with him. This,very interestingly,includes a two feet high imported sculpture of a horse that Jayaswal presented to VVIPs in the Capital as part of an invite of his daughters wedding two years back. The horses had adorned some drawing rooms in Lutyens Delhi but have now suddenly vanished.

Right to Advise

ITS been a long time since Wajahat Habibullah completed his tenure as Chief Information Commissioner and took over as the Chairperson of National Commission of Minorities. But,this has not stopped him from continuing to voice his opinion on the way the Right to Information Act is being administered in the states. Recently,he wrote to Jamp;K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to question some changes to the RTI Act that the state government has proposed. The changes,he has told the CM,will weaken the RTI usage in the state. The Jamp;K government is yet to accept his viewpoint.

Surprise Honour

Considering its current relations with the UPA-led coalition,a government award for the office of Comptroller and Auditor General CAG,however trivial,last week came as a big surprise. The CAG was given the second best prize for the Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Award for the implementation of Rajbhasha Policy for the year 2010-11. The award is given by the Department of Official Languages of the Home Ministry every year.

Foreign examples

To convince his colleagues of the inevitability of effecting the diesel price hike,Finance Minister P Chidambaram used the example of Greece and Portugal,two troubled European economies,at the Cabinet meeting on Thursday. He is learnt to have argued that if the subsidy bills of the government were not brought down urgently,India could soon be staring at a financial crisis similar to the one that has befallen these two countries.

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