Uma watch

One has to just observe Uma Bharti to see how much humbler one can get after six years of exile from a mainstream party.

One has to just observe Uma Bharti to see how much humbler one can get after six years of exile from a mainstream party. Back in the BJP,Bharti is in the best-conduct mode. She has already been to several important party leaders to seek their blessings before embarking on her Clean Ganga mission. However,people in the party are still skeptical whether she will stick to the present script. You never know when she would head for the Narmada, a wag commented sarcastically implying a return to the Madhya Pradesh politics.

WATERY ROAD TO SUCCESS

With bijli,sadak,paani emerging as the core demands of the rural electorate,Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has decided to go beyond the established mechanism of the Consultative Committee of Parliament to hold discussions with a larger group of elected representatives on the two issues sadak and paani that fall under his Ministry. He has decided to hold state-wise meetings with MPs from all parties. The first such meeting was held on Wednesday,where Deshmukh met MPs from Bihar in the forenoon followed by MPs from the North-Eastern states in the afternoon. The idea has been widely appreciated by the MPs,so much that Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar,who happens to be an MP from Bihar,sent her comments regarding roads and water related issues among others in writing for the ministers consideration during the meeting. Now the onus is on Deshmukh to provide teeth to the ideas.

PUSHED BACK

With the UPA leadership busy firefighting Anna Hazares and Baba Ramdevs aggressive tactics,the ruling dispensation has decided to defer the planned Cabinet reshuffle to July. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to effect the re-jig of his ministerial team in the first week of next month,barely a fortnight before the commencement of the monsoon session of Parliament. Congress partys strategists are also awaiting a signal from the DMK about the fate of its ministers. While Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Marans fate already hangs by the proverbial thread,there is uncertainty about his Cabinet and party colleague MK Alagiri who is on bail in an assault case. With A Raja already lodged in jail,ruling party strategists are apprehensive that at some point in time,the DMK leadership might decide to withdraw its ministers from the government.

THE JINXED LIST

Despite two of its top IPS officers being from the Gujarat cadre,the CBI is finding it difficult to get the list of most-wanted terrorists verified by the Gujarat police. V K Gupta,an IPS of 1977 batch,is currently posted as additional director in CBI while Keshav Kumar,a 1986 batch IPS officer,is joint director of Interpol which directly handles the most-wanted list. Kumar was also posted as DG CID of Gujarat few years back but both the officers have been snubbed by counterparts in their own cadre. The CBI had recently decided to verify the list of wanted from each state police after there was a major goof-up in the list sent to Pakistan. It seems a jinxed exercise.

TAILPIECE

The latest SMS doing the rounds Current political scenario summed up in phone setting options: Digvijaya Singh is on speaker mode,Manmohan Singh on silent mode,Sushma Swaraj on vibrate mode,Sonia and Rahul are switched off.