Opinion Undoing the decor

Questionable expense

The Central Government was nervous when it learnt last week that Justice B N Srikrishna was meeting the media even before he presented his report on Telangana to the Home Ministry. The press get-together,however,turned out to be just a PR exercise for the Commission in which complimentary wall clocks were presented to journalists. Commission secretary Vinod Duggal was behind the proposal to distribute a few hundred clocks to the media in Delhi,Hyderabad,Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. Justice Srikrishna did not express disapproval of the inappropriate gesture. Other questionable expenses include: Duggal hosting a cocktail party for his friends in government to celebrate the completion of the report and the Commission sponsoring half-page ‘thank you’ advertisements in the Delhi and Hyderabad newspapers.

Tug-of-war

The Congress high command is still mulling over the changes to be made in the new year in Manmohan Singh’s cabinet and in the CWC. Infighting among Singh’s ministers is at an all time high and it is suspected that several scandals involving ministers have been leaked by ministerial rivals. According to astrologers,the auspicious period for a cabinet reshuffle is between January 14 and 22. The fate of two ministers will reflect just how much influence Manmohan Sigh wields. The prime minister is keen to axe Jairam Ramesh and Anand Sharma,but both are Gandhi family favourites. Several Congress chief ministers and central ministers have complained to the PM against Ramesh’s obstructionism towards industrial projects and now even MPs are up in arms with Ramesh accusing them of being lobbyists. Anand Sharma has irritated the PM and his cabinet colleagues by constantly evoking Sonia Gandhi’s name for all his actions. The replacement for Prithviraj Chavan as MoS in the PMO is expected to be from Rahul’s youth squad.

Photo-op avoided

At Arun Jaitley’s big birthday luncheon last week,some prominent names that figured in the Radia tapes,made an appearance. N K Singh,Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt were together at a table when a journalist suggested it provided an excellent photo-op. The three immediately dispersed. Singh has tried to make amends for his disparaging remarks about Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on the tapes by sending a long apologetic SMS to Patel. Patel,who was heard saying he would have to select his friends more carefully in future,was seen chatting with Singh at the party.

Brothers bond

M Karunanidhi’s two sons,M K Stalin and M K Alagiri,who are usually at odds with each other,have of late joined forces to bring down step-sister Kanimozhi. But the patriarch remains protective of their younger sibling and has not called a meeting of the DMK executive or the party’s political affairs committee to discuss the fallout of the 2G scam. In fact,Karunanidhi even attended Kanimozhi’s son’s birthday,skipping the birthday celebrations of Alagiri’s wife,Kanthi. So far the only impact of the telecom scandal in the party is that

A Raja has been taken off the list of campaigners for the forthcoming state assembly poll.

Semi-gag order

Concerned over the possibility of a breakdown of law and order in Andhra Pradesh once the Srikrishna report is made public,the state government,on the advice of the Union Home Ministry,has warned 48 Telugu news channels and 4,800 cable operators in the state that their licences can be revoked and their offices sealed if they present the report in a sensational fashion and it would be considered a violation of the Cable Operators Act 1995. The National Broadcasters Association has come out with a 20-point list of dos and don’ts for the coverage of the report. The warnings are similar to those issued when the Allahabad High Court verdict on the Babri Masjid case was expected.