Antony’s Commandments
As the armed forces were pressed into service to rescue stranded pilgrims in Uttarakhand, Defence Minister AK Antony issued a set of guidelines to senior officers to refrain from hogging the limelight during the grim situation. Now known as St Antony’s Commandments in the defence circle, these orders barred any military officer or bureaucrat sitting in air-conditioned rooms in South Block from giving juicy television bytes. The Minister directed that only those engaged in rescue operations in the field be projected in the media. Antony himself refrained from meeting media during the last one fortnight. In fact, his room in South Block became the control room and all the three Services Chiefs and Defence Secretary were stationed there most of the time to brief Antony.
lucky Mistry
Most Congress leaders had no clue about the roles they were assigned in the AICC reshuffle, but not General Secretary Madhusudan Mistry. He was conveyed seven month in advance that he will be given the responsibility of Uttar Pradesh. There was so much secrecy around the reshuffle that someone like Shakeel Ahmad thrice carried back all his belongings from AICC headquarters thinking he would not find a place in the list of General Secretary. But Mistry, who is close to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, was told in November he should start working in UP as he is going to get responsibility of the crucial State.
Mind your words
The use of the word “mind-boggling” by a litigant addressing the case before the Supreme Court last week angered the Bench. little impressed by the litigant’s attempt to impress the court by the use of such high sounding adjective, Justice AK Patnaik remarked, “Don’t use such words etc this is television stuff.”
left without power
left Parties were left powerless last week when in the middle of a crucial Press conference on gas price hike, electricity supply snapped for few minutes. The agenda of the Press meet was to expose the nexus between Government Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries limited that controls gas production from KG gas basin. With power distribution in central and south Delhi managed by Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Power, senior CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta remarked, “This is really sabotage.”
Keeping an eye
After introducing biometric attendance system at its various offices, the Union Rural Development Ministry has now asked its staff to submit leave applications / tour / training proposals online. The move is likely to irk many employees as the leave / tour proposals will be linked to the biometric attendance report to account for the days of absence as per biometric record. It is learnt that many employees are yet to register themselves with the bio-metric
system.
NHAI’s double-body corruption
A top General Manager rank woman officer at NHAI has linked corruption and ‘use of her body’ by a female colleague in seeking promotions. The GM’s complaint to Prime Minister, Minister of Road Transport and Highways and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has created a flutter in NHAI and given sleepless nights to male officials. But in defence of her other female colleagues at the NHAI, the petitioner also mentions: “Every woman is not like her (an officer), we have some dignity, we are disgusted and fed-up”.
Prized picture
lK Advani is franticly searching a rare photograph figuring him along with party patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee. The picture was taken at Kota Railway Station where Advani met both these leaders. “Several people promised to deliver it to me, but it has not reached my hand,” Advani said at a function to commemorate death anniversary of Mookerjee recently.
lucky mascot
SS Ahluwalia has turned out to be the “lucky” mascot for BJP in Assam. Within days of his appointment as prabhari of that State, BJP emerged as the second largest party in Guwahati Municipal election, pushing Assom Gana Parishad in near oblivion and wiping out the AIUDF of Badruddin Ajmal. With Ahluwalia as prabhari, BJP won 10 Assembly seats in 2004 and four lok Sabha seats in 2009.
Respecting nature
After the Uttarakhand disaster, Environment Ministry is fuming over the indifference of the State Government towards the need to respect the green norms while pursuing developmental activities. A senior official quipped, “We had repeatedly warned the Uttarakhand Government against such rampant river bed mining and danger posed by the hydro power projects, but our warnings were not heeded. If you continuously go on bullying nature, it will certainly bully you back.”