SP leader’s plight
Ask Ram Gopal Yadav how it is when people forget your name. On Friday, a TV reporter asked for a “tic-tac” with the SP leader and introduced him as Ram Gopal Verma. Yadav immediately corrected him. The second reporter doing the tic-tac said, “humare saath baat karne ke liye hai…Narendra Modi” A fuming Yadav shut the door on for all reporters interested in a tic-tac.
What a miss!
Uddhav Thackeray is too big a leader to be given a miss. But he did not figure in the newspaper advertisement released by BJP in Raipur on Thursday, the day Raman Singh took oath as Chief Minister for the third time. The advertisement carried picture of Akali Dal chief Prakash Singh Badal, another ally of the NDA. The worst came when the announcer at the stage, a Cabinet Minister in the previous Government, took name of every leader but gave Thackeray a miss.
Jaya’s candies
last week, one day Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan sat in Rajya Sabha relishing candies and waiting for resumption of the House post lunch. She could not enjoy the candies all by herself for long as members like Ram Gopal Yadav and Derek O’Brien reached out to her for their share. Jaya did not disappoint them.
CBI chief’s stay
CBI Director Ranjit Sinha stayed at Dronacharya Cottage, a guest house of Coal India ltd at Ranchi, when he went to Ranchi to attend a wedding of one of his relatives. Sinha received the hospitality from the Central PSU from last Wednesday to Friday before leaving for Delhi. The stay at the guest house during a private visit has raised eyebrows within the agency circles as the CBI is investigating a number of cases relating to the coal block allocations.
Soli all the way
On completing 60 years at the bar, Soli Sorabjee was greeted by his friends and well-wishers at a function organised by lawyers who worked under him over the decades. All who spoke at the event praised the legal brain, the good human being, the civil liberties activist and the jazz lover in him. Noted jurist Ram Jethmalani, however, made everyone laugh when he said completing 60 years in the profession was no big deal as he had already crossed the benchmark of 72 in the profession. He profusely thanked Soli for coming to his defence during the Emergency days. Soli later admitted that the Emergency period was the most memorable time he cherished in his career so far.
Time keeper
The Union Tourism Ministry is the latest one to install biometric machines at its office at Transport Bhawan to keep a tab on the attendance of its staff. It has instructed them to be at the office by 9 am with 30-minute of grace period for late comer. Of course, the later comers will have to work extra one hour,
which means till 6.30 pm instead of office hour 5.30 pm.
Forced invite
last fortnight, senior officials from Union Health Ministry had no option but to reluctantly send an invitation to Sayeeda Hamid, member of the Planning Commission to attend the Mission Steering Group (MSG) of the National Health Mission headed by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. As per rule, Deputy Chairman of the Commission Montek Singh Ahuluwalia, should have been invited to attend the Mission. But the Health officials had to overlook the rulebook when Sayeeda insisted that she too was keen
to attend.