Amar Singh, Kamal Nath and Lalu Yadav have funded Uma Bharti's political outfit on the tacit understanding that she will embarrass the top leadership of BJP.
Uma Bharti is slated to unleash a campaign against BJP and its leaders from November. Who knows just before the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections in early 2008, Uma Bharti may have a direct tie up with Sonia Gandhi !!!!
Amar Singh is also backing a single-man party from Tamil Nadu who is (or was once) a well-known Ambani baiter !! To what avail ?
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Never say die
Who wouldn't want to hitch their crackling bandwagon to the rising star ? Inversely, why wouldn't one try to flee a sinking ship ? In this case, the rising star is Sonia Madam and the sinking ship is the NDA. The former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) patron, Farooq Abdullah, is now trying to not only flee from the NDA but also ditch the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) that tried to make him the Vice-Presidential candidate. His aim is to replace PDP as the partner in th J & K ruling coalition. Not only that, he would like to get back to electoral politics(but when did he quit ?) and perhaps become CM again. Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is all for it so that he can return to Delhi where his heart is. With this in view, Dr Abdullah was himself in the chair at NC's Tuesday's meeting in Jammu -- normally it is his son Omar who presides -- when the party
adopted a resolution to vote for Pratibha Patil. Posturing par excellence !!
adopted a resolution to vote for Pratibha Patil. Posturing par excellence !!
Shekhawat persona non grata
Not even for a day more can she stand his face !! Sonia Gandhi does not want Bhairon Singh Shekhawat to preside over the Rajya Sabha as its Chairman for a single day after the Presidential election. Which is precisely why the Government is reluctant to announce the dates of the monsoon session of Parliament.......... As so in all likelihood, the Parliament session will start only after Shekhawat completes his term on August 18 ; or earlier if he chooses to resign after losing the Presidential poll.
It appears Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had directed Parliamentary Affairs, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi to finalise the dates for the commencement of the Monsoon session after new President (Pratibha Patil as per their projections) takes oath on July 25 to start the monsoon session with the Presidential address to the joint sitting of the two Houses.
Knowing which side of his bread is buttered, Dasmunsi chose to act on instructions from 10 Janpath, not to convene the Parliament session until August 18 when Shekhawat's term
expires as the Vice-President of India and ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
Immune to snubs, the genial and amiable Dr Manmohan Singh suggested as a via media that the session can begin at least from August 1, but quickly withdrew when he knew that he was encroaching on Madam's sacred preserve.
The Monsoon session of Parliament normally starts in the third or fourth week of July. Dasmunsi has a host of reasons for putting it off. But the crunch lies elsewhere !! He is waiting for the results of the Presidential election on Saturday and watch Shekhawat's next move over the next three, four days. His calculation is that Shekhawat will be so humiliated by the
crushing defeat that he may resign instead of pulling on till the end of his term.
Sonia Gandhi's main aim is that Shekhawat should be prevented from disposing off the petition filed by the party for disqualifying former foreign minister K Natwar Singh as
she suspects Shekhawat will give the ruling in his favour.
But, alas, Shekhawat does not require the House to be in session to take the decision !! Even so, the Congress can delay the hearing on the petition by seeking time to respond and let tthe matter go to the hands of the next Chairman.
Some gameplaying this is !!
It appears Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had directed Parliamentary Affairs, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi to finalise the dates for the commencement of the Monsoon session after new President (Pratibha Patil as per their projections) takes oath on July 25 to start the monsoon session with the Presidential address to the joint sitting of the two Houses.
Knowing which side of his bread is buttered, Dasmunsi chose to act on instructions from 10 Janpath, not to convene the Parliament session until August 18 when Shekhawat's term
expires as the Vice-President of India and ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
Immune to snubs, the genial and amiable Dr Manmohan Singh suggested as a via media that the session can begin at least from August 1, but quickly withdrew when he knew that he was encroaching on Madam's sacred preserve.
The Monsoon session of Parliament normally starts in the third or fourth week of July. Dasmunsi has a host of reasons for putting it off. But the crunch lies elsewhere !! He is waiting for the results of the Presidential election on Saturday and watch Shekhawat's next move over the next three, four days. His calculation is that Shekhawat will be so humiliated by the
crushing defeat that he may resign instead of pulling on till the end of his term.
Sonia Gandhi's main aim is that Shekhawat should be prevented from disposing off the petition filed by the party for disqualifying former foreign minister K Natwar Singh as
she suspects Shekhawat will give the ruling in his favour.
But, alas, Shekhawat does not require the House to be in session to take the decision !! Even so, the Congress can delay the hearing on the petition by seeking time to respond and let tthe matter go to the hands of the next Chairman.
Some gameplaying this is !!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Scams All
In the wake of the charges & counter charges regarding the GSM equipment tender, the bigger question that is being ignored is the corporatisation of BSNL years ago which has now been reduced to a mockery !!
Are PSUs Chiefs becoming the handmaiden of politicians, more than ever before ? Are bureaucrats being reduced to playing the role of backroom boys, more than ever before ? Otherwise, how do we account for the Scams Raj ? Be it SEZ scam, Quattrocchi scam, wheat import scam and the mobile scam. And very soon the SAIL modernisation scam and so on.............
Are PSUs Chiefs becoming the handmaiden of politicians, more than ever before ? Are bureaucrats being reduced to playing the role of backroom boys, more than ever before ? Otherwise, how do we account for the Scams Raj ? Be it SEZ scam, Quattrocchi scam, wheat import scam and the mobile scam. And very soon the SAIL modernisation scam and so on.............
The battle royale is just about to begin !!
In a bid to queer the pitch of his bete noire, Bihar's CM, Nitish Kumar has sought to wean away Lalu's Man Friday, Sudhir Kumar who is from the Bihar cadre, 1882 batch.
Sudhir Kumar is said to be Lalu's henchman as well as prima donna in the so called turnaround of the Indian Railways. He is credited for authoring much of Lalu's strategies, be it political or otherwise.
The State has the undisputed right to recall the officers of the cadre who are away on deputation and the Centre perforce has to comply. Hence Nitish Kumar is on firm ground in petitioning the Centre to revert him to the State cadre.
Though designated as one of the two Officers-on-duty (OSD), Sudhir Kumar is the man behind the show and even the top officers of the Railway Board bend to his whims. To take him away would be like chopping off Lalu's right arm.
There is an umseemly side to the issue -- Sudhir Kumar, alongwith Prem Gupta, Minister of State in charge of Company Affairs, is privy to a lot of "initiatives" , (please read "deals") of Lalu and if Sudhir Kumar goes back to his cadre, Nitish Kumar will leave no stone unturned to get Lalu's cat(s) out of the bag !!
Sudhir Kumar is said to be Lalu's henchman as well as prima donna in the so called turnaround of the Indian Railways. He is credited for authoring much of Lalu's strategies, be it political or otherwise.
The State has the undisputed right to recall the officers of the cadre who are away on deputation and the Centre perforce has to comply. Hence Nitish Kumar is on firm ground in petitioning the Centre to revert him to the State cadre.
Though designated as one of the two Officers-on-duty (OSD), Sudhir Kumar is the man behind the show and even the top officers of the Railway Board bend to his whims. To take him away would be like chopping off Lalu's right arm.
There is an umseemly side to the issue -- Sudhir Kumar, alongwith Prem Gupta, Minister of State in charge of Company Affairs, is privy to a lot of "initiatives" , (please read "deals") of Lalu and if Sudhir Kumar goes back to his cadre, Nitish Kumar will leave no stone unturned to get Lalu's cat(s) out of the bag !!
Monday, July 16, 2007
More royal than the king
The top cop of Andhra Pradesh, Mr M A Basith, went to town saying that the bullets used in the Mecca Masjid firing were indeed rubber bullets. The one who fed Basith this info: was none other than Balwinder Singh, the Hyderabad Police Commissioner. He was till recently Secretary, Central Vigilance Commission. Amiable and easily accessible, Balwinder has a good PR with all concerned. To start with, the Mecca Masjid firing caused a dent in his image. Added to that was the false infornatio purveyed. To worsen matters, he booked the Congress dissident leader's son P Janardhan Reddy's son and son-in-law under a section related to manslaughter and packed them off to jail !! Pleasing the boss is okay but why go overboard with it ?
Travel bugs bureaucrat !!
Flying out to buy an aircraft for the Chief Minister is of top priority that can brook no delay. Realising this, the Special Chief Secretary(Finance) P Ramakanth Reddy took a six-member to Italy to negotiate the purchase of a helicopter for the revered Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. The travel bug bit him again. He was slated to have left for a three-nation tour of the Netherlands (Amsterdam), Greece (Athens) and Germany (Munich) ostensibly to study the international airports there. His trip had been cleared and a GO too was issued last week. But Reddy's travel stars suddenly turned awry. For some inexplicable reason, the trip was halted at the last moment. No regrets !! Reddy has made at least 30 foreign trips in the past three years.
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