To thomass rescue

Sharad Pawar gave Food Minister K V Thomas a convenient excuse to skip a ceremony in Ernakulam his constituency which he did not want to attend in any case

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To thomass rescue

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To thomass rescue

Sharad Pawar gave Food Minister K V Thomas a convenient excuse to skip a ceremony in Ernakulam his constituency which he did not want to attend in any case. Thomas was invited to attend the function to launch the logo of Kochi Metro rail project,but he was not listed as one of the speakers. Thomas is learnt to have made his displeasure known to state chief minister Oommen Chandy. In the meanwhile,Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar convened a meeting of an Empowered Group of Ministers dealing with drought situation on Tuesday. Being the Food Minister,Thomas cannot afford to miss the EGoM meeting. And therefore,he can now decline the invitation from Kerala.

FASTING AND MORE

Team Anna clearly believes in bringing variety to their activities. When Anna Hazare begins his promised fast on Sunday,he will also release a book by Arvind Kejriwal who is already on fast. The launch of the book called Swaraj will be followed by a book-reading session by the author. The venue of the launch is Jantar Mantar where the book has already been put up for sale since Kejriwals fast began on Wednesday,thereby making the formal release function redundant.

PLAYING SAFE

THE Ministry of External Affairs was extremely careful about the arrangements for two foreign delegations this week. In case of both Bangladesh foreign secretarys team and Indonesian foreign ministers contingent,New Delhi took care of the fact that the Ramzan fast was being observed by the visitors. So,although the talks were held with Indian counterparts in Hyderabad House during the lunch time,the hosts did not serve lunch or any food or water. The Indian side,mindful of the sensitivities,avoided consuming anything during the talks. However,the South Block officials hosted a dinner for the visitors. Old-timers remembered how Delhi had once goofed up,when it had planned a lunch for the Afghan President Najibullah in the eighties which was cancelled and the protocol officials have learnt their lessons since then.

FINGERS CROSSED

PRANAB Mukherjee may have already started living in Rashtrapati Bhawan but the drama around the election continues. Defeated candidate P A Sangma has not yet said with certainty that he will challenge Mukherjees election,but there are indications that if he does so,he is likely to also question Rajya Sabha Secretary General V K Agnihotris role in allowing SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to vote twice. Yadav had mistakenly voted for Sangma before tearing away the ballot paper and casting his vote again in favour of Mukherjee. Agnihotri incidentally is on an extension.

CODE CONSCIOUS

ASSEMBLY polls in states like Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are due this year-end and the Election Commission is being proactive in preventing the use of religion to garner votes. The poll panel has come out with a reminder to its state election officers and returning officers about misuse of religious institutions for political purposes under the model code of conduct. Violation of this code by using religious institutions or receiving funds from such institutions for propagation of political parties carries imprisonment up to 5 years. Such violations,according to EC officials,were noticed in the Karnataka Assembly elections last.