Comrades up in arms
Grapevine has it that the ideological tussle in the CPI(M) over the alliance with Congress has led to mudslinging and leaking of documents against each other by rival camps. The tussle has brought face to face the pro-Congress Bengal lobby led by Sitaram Yechury and anti-Congress Kerala lobby led by Prakash Karat . Days after Karat’s “no-alliance” line prevailed in the CPI(M), there was selective “leaking” of a report regarding financial irregularities against Kerala state secretary’s son in the media. A by a UAE national filed a complaint with the party’s head quarters against the Kerala leader’s son for cheating him of Rs 13 crores.
CRB ko gussa aaya
last week, a gathering of railway employees saw the ‘angry version’ of Chairman Railway Board (CRB) Ashwani lohani. During an event within the North East Frontier (NFR) Railway in North-East region last week, lohani expressed his annoyance over plaques with names of General Managers (GMs) of the NFR Zone exhibited at the venue. The CRB directed removal of all plaques with names of GMs within 30 days. lohani also directed that now onwards the foundation stones or inaugural plaques should have the names of concerned supervisors and the engineers-those who have contributed in making and shaping of the project.
Super Mario
Super Mario a video game is a new flavour of Delhi politicians to target its rivals. Recently BJP youth leader Tejinder Pal Singh Bagga uploaded a game in which Arvind Kejriwal is super Mario. The title is “Super Kejru “ in which Kejriwal is shown clearing barriers.
‘Udi, udi patang’
Union Minister Vijay Goel , who delivers a kind of running commentary on the current affairs through a hoarding display before his Ashok Road residence, has this time round show Prime Minister Narendra Modi flying a BJP kite with ‘kamal’. The title is ‘udi, udi patang’. Goel who himself flew kite during an event on ‘Makar Sankranti’ shows symbols of other political parties like Congress, BSP, SP, Trinamool flying much lower than that of Modi’s kite.
Scribes’ delight
Controversy surrounding assigning of politically sensitive cases by Chief Justice of India to one judge, Justice Arun Mishra, probably seems to be the reason behind four seniormost judges of the Supreme Court rebelling against the CJI. While media persons remained stationed outside the residence of Justice Jasti Chelameswar, to track the events on the following days, they were in for a surprise. Staff from the residence of Justice Arun Mishra organised water and delicious gajak (a mix of peanut and jaggery) for the waiting journalists. Although Justice Mishra may have caused heartburn to his brother judges, he won the hearts of the waiting scribes.
Pull out all the stops
The Ministry of External Affairs had roped in all its old and new, old and young and, some yet to be diplomats, for the smooth conduct of Commemorative ASEAN-India Summit in New Delhi. With ten heads of States accompanied by a huge media and official delegation there was a lot to be done with care. Hence, officers posted in various Indian embassies abroad were called home to assist people here. While the senior officials of the MEA were busy with the main action at the Summit and liasoning with the delegates, the probationers of the Indian Foreign Services were also pushed at other work under a supervision of a senior. Some of the probationers were also positioned at the special media centre set up for the mega event. After all, tomorrow they will have to hosts such mega events and learning on ground is the best way of training. Baptism by fire, is how the probationers described their experience.