Stalwart’s choice
Congress leaders and top legal brains Kapil Sibal and P Chidambaram came in for some unexpected praise from rare quarters in the Supreme Court last week. Chidambaram and Sibal were up against legal luminary Fali Nariman in a case from Mumbai. As Nariman proceeded with his arguments, he realised that he had able opponents to meet on the other side. Pointing at both the lawyers he told Justice Dipak Misra, “These are the great stalwarts of the bar.” Chidambaram was quick to respond, “We are only pygmies,” returning the compliment to Nariman.
Desperate lawyers
lawyers, who once made big bucks defending jailed Subrata Roy, are now desperately trying to distance themselves from the chairman of Sahara India in Supreme Court. Many of them even want their name to be removed from any judgment delivered on Roy’s plea, knowing the court was not going to be lenient to any of Roy’s associates. Senior advocate N Ganesh, one of Roy’s top counsels, even engaged another senior lawyer KK Venugopal to convey to the court that he is having “sleepless nights” over these cases and pleaded removal of his names from judgments. Another senior counsel also made similar plea. However, Justice TS Thakur set a said he will not deal with these petitions till Roy deposited the last penny in this case. The top lawyers have now no choice but to pray for Roy’s early release.
For the sake of animals
love for animals made WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi call up Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar to coerce him for formally sending an application for claiming the sanctioned fund of Rs1.5 crore from the Centre to develop elephant rehabilitation centre in the State, as the fund would lapse by the end of March. She told Khattar that lack of will and complete apathy on the part of the animal welfare officer in Haryana is causing the wildlife in the State to suffer.
Unity in diversity
BJP MP and yesteryear actress Hema Malini seems to be playing ‘diverse and difficult’ roles outside the big screen. Originally a Tamilian Brahmin, she was recently seen representing ‘Jats’ in a farmer’s delegation meeting Prime Minister. A case of ‘Unity in diversity.’
Impact!
Soon after the new Director General of the CRPF, Prakash Mishra, took over as the head of the paramilitary forces he ordered for significant renovation of the reception office at the CGO headquarters here. The interiors of the reception hall have been completely redone, new chairs have been installed, and even the visitors cards have been given a compact look with reduced size.
Rahul to resurface
Greeted by “Missing Rahul” posters in Amethi, when Congress chief Sonia Gandhi commented that “Rahul will be back soon,” it again raised speculations about the Gandhi scion’s whereabouts. Party leaders insisted that after his “return”, some time next month, Rahul is expected to take a call on whether or not he will assume the party chief’s post. If Rahul decides to become party chief, Sonia will continue as the chairperson of the Congress parliamentary party. “Earlier he takes the responsibility, the better it will be for the party. Sonia has already done the ground works for him by leading from front the protest on controversial land bill,” said a Congress leader.
Bhushan vs Athawale
Despite being extremely angry for the past few days over the happenings in the AAP, Prashant Bhushan broke into a paroxysm of laughter after watching a news flash on TV channels on Sunday afternoon that RPI leader Ramdas Athawale has invited him and Yogendra Yadav to join his party. To add to his mirth, another report said that Athawale has also inducted controversial filmstar Rakhi Swant to join his party and had made her head of the women’s wing of RPI.
Musical Ganga
Namami Gange — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s signature project for cleaning of the holy river — has now turned musical. Noted vocalists and musicians from Carnatic tradition — Trichur Brothers — will compose the an anthem for Ganga, a first-of-its-kind song that would be dedicated to the cleaning of the river. The lyrics will aim at inspiring the common man to join hands with the Government in cleaning the river.