Opinion Still flying high

Promotion after prison

Kanimozhi has emerged from jail as a heroine for the DMK. Step-brother M K Alagiri,who was earlier not on the best of terms with her,is keen to promote Kanimozhi in the party. Alagiri calculates that Kanimozhi’s elevation will pose a threat to his younger brother,M K Stalin,who has emerged as his father’s political heir. One of the few 2G scam accused still in Tihar jail is former Telecom Minister,A Raja,who has not bothered to apply for bail so far. Raja believes that he has time on his side and like Kanimozhi,hopes to better his political prospects because of his sacrifice for the party. Raja continues to be the party’s organising secretary and has not been suspended.

Anti-smoking fumes

The Health Ministry has come out with some draconian suggestions for movies in which the hero is shown smoking a cigarette. It proposes that before the start of the movie,the hero should make an anti-smoking endorsement pitch. There should be subtitles below every smoking scene cautioning the audience of the dangers of smoking. Nominated MP Javed Akhtar feels the Health Ministry’s suggestions are impractical and has taken up the issue with Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni. Akhtar points out that if such statutory warnings are put into effect,then there should be similar messages for every rape or murder in a film or even for liquor. Besides,how does one tackle a smoking scene in a Hollywood movie?

Urdu ban

Javed Akhtar was perturbed after reading an interview of relatives of Dr Khalil Chishty,the Pakistani academic now in Ajmer jail. Chishty’s daughter Shoa mentioned to The Indian Express that she had brought some English books for her father to read since Urdu books are forbidden in jail. The lyricist wondered under what rule prisoners were not permitted to read Urdu. Is it because the jail authorities cannot understand the contents?

Complaining to daddy

The tall young lady with two heavy Louis Vuitton bags boarded the Indigo flight from Mumbai to Delhi almost as the plane was about to depart. She was in a foul mood and threatened the airline staff repeatedly,saying that “you’ve had it’’. Her complaint: the ground staff had forced her to hurry and no crew member had come forward to carry her bags. She wanted to telephone her daddy to complain and threatened to disembark. The plane was held up for a good 15 minutes as the terrified crew tried to pacify the irate passenger,even though she was in the wrong. It turns out that daddy was a former civil aviation minister.

Mixed reviews

Appreciating Pranab Mukherjee’s role as a troubleshooter in the logjam over FDI in retail,the CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury remarked that Mukherjee was known to resolve problems for his party even though he did not create them in the first place. Not everyone,however,expresses confidence in Mukherjee’s abilities as a conciliator,particularly those whom he has rubbed the wrong way because of his uncontrollable temper. At the Cabinet meeting on FDI in retail,Mukherjee snapped at Dinesh Trivedi that he was a first-time minister and knew nothing about the stock market. And Mukherjee ticked off Jairam Ramesh by reminding him that he had never won an election in his life.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul

Kingfisher Airlines boss Vijay Mallya called on Minister for Civil Aviation Vayalar Ravi last week to plead for help for his beleaguered airline which has cut down drastically on the number of its flight routes. Ravi was unsympathetic. He felt that the Rs 800 crore the airline required to service its huge debt could be temporarily re-paid from Mallya’s thriving liquor business. He suggested that if the King of Good Times charged one rupee extra per bottle,his financial problem could be solved.