The Lalu googly

RJD chief Lalu Prasad is known for throwing surprises at his opponents,but this time he has even stumped his friend and counterpart in the Samajwadi Party.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad is known for throwing surprises at his opponents,but this time he has even stumped his friend and counterpart in the Samajwadi Party,Mulayam Singh Yadav. The SP supremo,who came out in support of Ramdev after police action against him,was taken aback by Lalus attack on Ramdev last Sunday. He could not understand why Lalu was swimming against the tide. When 95 per cent of Yadavs are supporting Ramdev,why is Lalu not supporting Ramdev? he wondered. Nobody told him that Lalu,once an ardent admirer of Ramdev,had opposed the yoga guru even when he had announced his plans to raise a political party.

ONLINE SUPPORT

After mass gatherings,fasts and dharnas by activists and godmen,the anti-corruption agitation has now hit the cyber world. A hacking activist group identifying itself as Anonymous has launched Operation India to drive home its point on an anti-corruption legislation. The group,which had hacked the National Informatics Centre site a few days back,has got bolder and made a similar attempt to hack the official site of the Indian Army on Friday. While the site did not suffer much damage and was back online after about an hour,a message left by the hackers for the people of India and government said that the group does not support anyone in particular but is in favour of the anti-corruption bill. Stressing that it had not taken out any sensitive data from the Indian Army site,the group told the government to Stop Your Brutal Voilence sic and Blame games.

OMBUDsMAN RACE

The Chairman of Central Board of Excise and Custom CBEC S Dutt Majumder is likely to be appointed as the first ombudsman for the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS. It is still not clear whether Majumder will be given charge in his own state or somewhere else but it certainly has started the race for the top job among others as well. An IRS officer of 1974 batch,Majumder is set to retire by November 2011. He was appointed the chairman of the board in December last year.

ANOTHER SNAFU

Barely an hour before officials of the Health Ministry were to sign an MoU with their counterparts in the Environment Ministry on Friday over some issues related to environmental health,the function was called off. It suddenly dawned on the Health Ministry officials that because of a terrible mix-up,the matter had not been cleared by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. With Azad out in the United States,an immediate clearance could not be taken and the MoU was postponed for some other time.

RAMDEV AND 2G

It seems Baba Ramdev has even had an impact on the 2G bail application in the Supreme Court. The lawyers for Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar,who applied jointly for bail in the Supreme Court on Friday,had vowed to remain tight-lipped about their case,to be heard on Monday. When asked why,Kanis lawyer said they did not want to risk a repeat of what had happened to another lawyer,advocate Ajay Agarwal,last week. Agarwal,it seems,had filed a petition on the midnight crackdown on the Ramdev camp at the beginning of last weekend,went on to use the next two days to canvas hard to get his efforts in print,only to find an annoyed SC on Monday dismiss the petition because of his conduct.