By IANS,
New Delhi: It was a camouflaged barb, but Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan immediately guessed the intended target and pounced on journalist-cum-Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra and asked him not to “insinuate”.
Mitra, in an obvious swipe at Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja, chose to compliment Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for naming Sachin Pilot as the minister of state of the department.
Mitra began his speech in the upper house during the debate on the communication and IT ministry’s demands for budgetary grants by complimenting the prime minister on his choice of Sachin Pilot as junior minister, but avoided referring to cabinet minister A. Raja.
Raja, of the DMK, courted controversy in the previous government when as cabinet minister of the same ministry, he was charged with not maintaining transparency in the award of WiMax franchises to certain companies for BSNL.
The Rajya Sabha deputy chairman, guessing Mitra’s import, immediately asked him “not to insinuate” about anyone. The BJP MP merely replied: “I am not insinuating, I am only complimenting the prime minister.”
Marxist worries over Trinamool
Inside parliament, Communist MPs don’t hesitate to criticise the government for virtually everything, but in the corridors of the sprawling complex the comrades, especially from West Bengal, have other worries.
Animated groups of Left MPs will often be found debating among themselves how to regain political ground in the state in the wake of the drubbing at the hands of the Trinamool Congress during the April-May general elections.
Postal officials in courier business?
If Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh Prabhat Jha is to be believed, many postal officials are running their own courier services on benami (fictitious) names.
Jha said the postal department was being bled to death by 27 percent officials “running courier companies in benami names”, but he did not clarify in parliament where he got the figure from.
Referring to postal services, journalist-cum-upper house member Chandan Mitra voiced concern that the norm of servicing a population of 3,000 people per post office was being violated.
Quoting official figures, Mitra said right now each post office on an average catered to a population of more than 7,000.
Medha meets Meira on right to education
Speaker Meira Kumar had an unusual visitor at her office Thursday before the house proceedings began for the day.
Firebrand rights activist Medha Patkar was going towards the speaker’s office when IANS caught up with her.
The Narmada Bachao Andolan leader told IANS: “I have some concerns over the Right to Education Bill (that was passed in the Rajya Sabha last week). And so I am meeting the speaker with a note on the concerns.”
In her hurry to meet Meira Kumar, she did not reveal her concerns though.