By IANS,
New Delhi: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s admonition has evidently got under Union Minister Jairam Ramesh’s skin. Having been asked to speak in Hindi, the latter stuck to the language for an entire day.
Mulayam Singh had asked Ramesh to speak in Hindi, saying “this is the Lok Sabha, not London”. At a press briefing the same afternoon, Ramesh – whose mother tongue is Telugu – started reading out long numerals in Hindi in response to a question from a journalist in a Hindi newspaper.
Then he got stuck at the number 47. “What’s 47 in Hindi?” Ramesh asked the official sitting next to him, quickly adding: “I hope Mulayamji is not listening in!”
A bit later at the same press conference, another journalist from a Hindi newspaper asked a question in English, and Ramesh immediately responded. “You are from a Hindi newspaper,” he told her in the national language, “Why are you asking a question in English? Shall I tell Mulayamji?”
Taken aback, the journalist could only mutter: “There’s no ban on asking a question in English, is there?”
The return of Sanjaya Baru
Having been a journalist, would Sanjaya Baru like to set the facts straight? The rumour mills have certainly been on an overdrive ever since the former media adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was seen in Delhi last week.
Many are talking about his imminent return for a new assignment in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). It’s believed that Baru met Manmohan Singh just before the prime minister left for France and Egypt for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit.
This time around Baru will play a different role. According to knowledgeable sources, he is expected to head the newly constituted Delivery Monitoring Unit in the PMO. The unit will monitor flagship programmes, fast track iconic projects and report on their status publicly.
Baru, who is currently a visiting professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, a position he took up last August, is expected to return next month.
Though his second innings with the prime minister is expected to be vastly different, many insiders still believe Baru will also be roped in to finetune the PM’s speeches.
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Cool woman power looms over boisterous men?
She is the first woman speaker of the Indian parliament, and Meira Kumar is slowly yet surely coming to grips with a house that can, at the slightest provocation, turn boisterous and even unmanageable. But she might just have an edge.
Unlike her predecessor, the avuncular Somnath Chatterjee who often had to coax, cajole, chide MPs and at times threw up his hands in exasperation, Meira Kumar is using what MPs describe as “woman power” to conduct the proceedings.
Many parliamentarians believe she has a psychological advantage over male MPs in the house and this has worked to her benefit. The softspoken Meira Kumar has occasionally raised her voice but has so far not lost her cool. How long this will last in a fractious Lok Sabha is anybody’s guess.
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Minister’s mango tango with scribes
New ministers can’t seem to stop celebrating the sweet taste of success. And Salman Khurshid, the minister in charge of minority and corporate affairs, did it too – though a little differently. He threw a mango party!
Khurshid had the choicest of alphonso, langda, chausa, daseri and totapari mangoes brought in from Uttar Pradesh – the state that houses his Farrukhabad constituency – and other parts of the country for journalists to feast on at his South Avenue residence.
And it sure tasted good on a hot July afternoon. Many scribes skipped the rest of the lunch and just gorged on the succulent king of fruits kept in huge aluminium cans filled with ice-cold water. Needless to say, some journalists hung around for over two hours.
Congress poster boy persuades Metro man
An accident that killed six people at a Delhi Metro site prompted its chief E. Sreedharan to submit his resignation and he refused to withdraw it. But it was a phone call from Congress general secretary and MP Rahul Gandhi that finally made him stay.
A slew of bigwigs, from Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to Lt.Governor Tajender Khanna to Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy had called up Sreedharan, popularly called Metro man and tried to persuade him not to resign.
Finally it was Rahul Gandhi – he wants to ensure that the 2010 Commonwealth Games conclude without any hiccups – who prevailed. “Please don’t (resign). We are all behind you” is what Gandhi told the Delhi Metro boss.
Now Sreedharan has decided not to quit till Phase II of the Metro work is complete and the Commonwealth Games concludes in October next year.
Political greenhorn gets along – with a little help
The corridors of power can be quite overwhelming. First time MP Ravneet Singh, known for his flamboyant dress sense, looks a bit forlorn and lost in the parliament galleries despite trying to exude confidence.
Singh, the 33-year-old grandson of late Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, used to distribute press releases to mediapersons in Punjab until last year. But then lady luck smiled when he was elected president of the Punjab Youth Congress.
Because of his political lineage and the backing of former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, he contested from the Anandpur Sahib constituency this year and stunned everyone by winning.
But even now he finds comfort by talking to journalists from his state. Last heard, he was asking a scribe for help about which parliamentary committee he should join.
A different minister, a different environment
Things have turned around drastically since Jairam Ramesh took charge of the environment and forest ministry. Until a year ago, officials would saunter in casually to office, enjoy extended tea breaks and take life easy. But not any more.
There’s a new work ethic in place in Paryavaran Bhavan with Ramesh cracking the whip and making it amply clear that the casual administration and tardy ways that many were accustomed to will just not do. Insiders say Ramesh is constantly buzzing in and out of office at the Central Government Offices complex off Lodhi Road.
From climate change initiatives to changes in environment clearance formats, Ramesh is whipping up a storm. He gives short notices and then the job simply has to be done. In fact, he is doing some long-term planning and in preparation for the Copenhagen summit on climate in December, the ministry is holding regular press briefings on India’s position