Opinion Mind your language
BJP President Nitin Gadkari has described himself more than once as a mediocre person while interacting with the media.
Mind your language
BJP President Nitin Gadkari has described himself more than once as a mediocre person while interacting with the media. At the same time,Gadkari has been dropping hints that he is in reckoning as the partys prime ministerial candidate. In this context,the use of the adjective mediocre seems a bit contradictory. According to a fellow Maharashtrian,Gadkari takes mediocre to mean a middle-class person and not the literal definition of a person of no great ability. Incidentally,Gadkari has of late consciously tried to avoid his colourful language. But at a recent dinner for the media,he forgot his resolve and irritated by the arguments of a journalist,he yelled hat,meaning get lost.
Politicians revenge
The debate as to who should come under Lokpal will hot up in the winter session of Parliament when the Jan Lokpal advocates push their demand for the lower bureaucracy and the Prime Minister to be included in the ambit of the Lokpal Bill. Few seem to have noticed that Parliamentarians,meanwhile,have had a revenge of sorts in their draft Bill. Chapter seven,section 17,sub-sections e,f ,g,of the draft states that any person who is or has been a director,manager,secretary or any officer of any society,association or Trust,whether registered or not,which has been partly aided by government or received donations from the public,comes under the Lokpal purview. That makes every major NGO and Trust accountable to the Lokpal,including those being run by members of Team Anna.
Delightfully vague
The government has ordered an internal inquiry to find out who leaked Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seths letter laying down the new pecking order in the PMs absence. The contents of the note are embarrassing since the PM has ensured that there is ambiguity as to who presides over the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs when he is not in Delhi. Manmohan Singh will be out of India on three separate occasions in November itself. In the past,Pranab Mukherjee was deemed the senior-most minister in the Cabinet,but this is no longer certain,judging by the Cabinet Secretarys recent note which states,Either the Minister for Home Affairs or the Minister for Finance may remain in Delhi during the period of the PMs absence. The running feud between the Home Minister and the Finance Minister is believed to be the reason for the PMs vagueness.
Unpredictable boss
Mamata Banerjee was annoyed with her Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi during her recent trip to Delhi. Banerjee remarked to a journalist that if she desired,she could get rid of Trivedi with a snap of her fingers. The West Bengal Chief Minister had come to the Capital for the National Development Council and when she is in Delhi,she expects her ministers to dance attendance on her. But Trivedi had to leave Banerjee for a meeting called by the Prime Minister at Hyderabad House to brief the visiting Nepal delegation headed by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on half-a-dozen joint railway projects with Nepal. Trivedis real problem could be that he takes his job too seriously for his party chiefs liking.
Absent without explanation
The fact that the PMs media adviser Harish Khare was missing from the PMs entourage on his recent trip to Pretoria for the Indo-Brazil-South Africa summit was curious. Till the last minute Khare was expected to be part of the delegation and the media party received invitations for a dinner at the Moyo restaurant in Pretoria to be co-hosted by Khare and the MEA spokesperson Vishnu Prakash. But when the journalists landed in South Africa,they were presented a fresh invitation with only Prakash mentioned as the host.
No-gifts notice
There was no recession visible in the glut of extravagant Diwali gifts for Delhis political bigwigs. To get around the problem of unwanted presents,Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi put up a notice on his gate: Happy Diwali.
Your wishes are the best gift. No gifts please.
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