Opinion Keeping tabs for no taps
The staff in the PMO who had been using Airtel mobile phones have been ordered to switch to the state-owned MTNL.....
The staff in the PMO who had been using Airtel mobile phones have been ordered to switch to the state-owned MTNL. PMO officials are unhappy with the new telephone service since there are breaks in connectivity and sometimes the bureaucrats have to step out of the building to make a call. The change in the service provider has been done presumably for security reasons. It is easier to keep checks on a government undertaking than a private company.
Quacking blunder
Those responsible for making arrangements for the BJPs national convention outside Indore earlier this month were instructed to create a rural setting. They went about their task as if they were preparing a film set. Apart from lining the auditorium walls with straw and cow dung,they also brought in cows,goats and ducks to give the convention site a village look. What the organisers had not calculated was that the ducks,which had been tied so that they would stay in one place,would quack while the speeches were going on. The quacking could be heard clearly inside the auditorium. Later in the day,animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi solved the problem by insisting that the ducks be untied.
Protesters face bharta
Minister for Environment Jairam Ramesh finds himself isolated in the Cabinet on the Bt brinjal issue,with Sharad Pawar,Prithviraj Chavan and Kapil Sibal ranged against him. If a draft Bill,pending for two years,calling for the setting up of a biotechnology authority is passed in this session,it will in any case take the decision out of Rameshs hands. The draft of the Bill,which has not been made public so far,calls for setting up an authority with regulatory power on agriculture,forests,fisheries,human and veterinary health,and industrial and environmental applications.
One of the draconian provisions of the Bill,which was drafted in March 2008,when Sibal was Minister for Science and Technology,states,Whoever,without any evidence or scientific record,misleads the public against the safety of the organisms and products specified in Part 1,Part II or Part III of Schedule I,shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months,but which may extend to one year and with fine,which may extend to two lakh rupees,or with both. The agitators against Bt brinjal could well be held liable under this provision.
Circular instructions
The Director,Establishment for the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games,sent an unusual circular on February 18. The circular alerted the staff that Digvijay Singh,former Madhya Pradesh chief minister,would visit the second and fourth floor of the organising committee headquarters at 10 a.m. the next day. The staff was warned to arrive early. As an additional precaution,the circular instructed the third floor staff to go and sit on vacant seats on the other floors before the arrival of the dignitary.
The Congress general secretary has no official status and it appears that he was deputed by Sonia Gandhi to keep a watch on the organising committee. His visit followed a letter of complaint against Suresh Kalmadi,chairperson of the organising committee,by Sports Minister M.S. Gill.
Separatists too separate
When senior Pakistan officials visit India,they invariably schedule an appointment with Kashmiri separatist leaders. That way they can make the point that Kashmir is very much on the agenda in any talks with India. The problem is that Syed Ali Geelani,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammed Yasin Malik refuse to meet visiting Pakistani officials together. Each of them insists on a one-to-one meeting. During Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashirs brief visit to India last week,Pakistani officials were heard grumbling that they had to arrange three separate appointments with the Kashmiri separatists when Bashir was pressed for time. Not surprisingly,the Pakistani foreign secretary urged the separatists to work under one banner after his meetings.
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