Manmohan Singh, the Frequent Flier (Capital Buzz)
New Delhi, Dec 20 – For a person who has not taken a personal holiday in eons, Manmohan Singh will certainly go down in the annals of history as one of India’s most travelled prime ministers. A workaholic, he has set himself a scorching pace, jet setting around the world in his two tenures.
In his first stint after taking over in 2004, he made 35 trips abroad attending multilateral and bilateral summits. And in his second tenure since May, he has already gone abroad eight times in a space of seven months – a clear indicator of how things will pan out during the rest of his term.
In fact in the last month alone, he travelled to the US, Trinidad and Tobago, Russia and capped it with his trip to Copenhagen for the climate summit. Unlike other prime ministers who like to soak in the sights and sounds of foreign destinations and probably add a day or two to their official trips, Singh is disciplined and packs a very tight schedule.
And to think – as an insider in his entourage put it – ‘he is a reluctant traveller!’
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The nod for Telangana
Did the Congress’ young icon Rahul Gandhi have a say in the announcement of a separate Telangana state? After a hasty declaration by Home Minister P. Chidambaram, party heavyweights and senior ministers are now tightlipped over its gen-next leader’s role in approving a bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
Insiders now point out that Rahul Gandhi may have played an influential role in giving the green signal for a separate Telangana so as to achieve his future dream – a separate Bundelkhand state.
Last month the union cabinet announced a comprehensive Rs.7,000-crore package for Bundelkhand, supposedly pressurised by Rahul Gandhi. Though the party in Andhra Pradesh is divided over Telangana, there is no change in the stand of the high command – read Sonia Gandhi or Rahul.
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A house for Pakistani diplomats
It was once a plush complex, but Shanti Sports Club in south Delhi now looks like a ghost town with bulldozers roaring around. And Pakistani diplomats living around there are certainly going to miss the place as they move out.
They are now frantically looking for alternative accommodation after the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) declared the club building and residential apartments built inside the club as illegal and unauthorised.
They managed to prolong their stay by seeking the intervention of the external affairs ministry. But after the Delhi High Court dismissed an appeal by the club last month, it looks like they have no choice. Earlier, the Supreme Court had also ordered the demolition of the club.
Four Pakistani diplomats currently staying in rented houses inside the club enjoy all the club recreational facilities like a swimming pool, squash court, cricket ground and tennis stadium.
‘We are going to miss it. Where else can we get such facilities?’ asked a Pakistani diplomat in a plaintive tone.
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Advani’s book has a Baltic taker
The curtain may have come down on L.K. Advani’s tenure as leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha but his 986-page tome is doing well – with a little help from the man himself.
During his first official visit to India, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas met Advani and was all praise for the BJP leader. Advani gave Usackas a copy of his book, ‘My Country My Life’, which the latter gladly accepted.
‘He is a very passionate man and it was a pleasure interacting with him,’ quipped Usackas. For a good part of his trip, especially during his free moments, the foreign minister was poring over the book.
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Babus at lunch? Not quite
Do top bureaucrats in the capital slink out for a leisurely lunch and a siesta on working days, thus affecting public work? That’s precisely what Congress MP Rama Chandra Khuntia wanted to know from Prithiraj Chavan, the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office, in an unstarred question.
Khuntia was keen to know if babus were absent from their offices from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. and strolled in lightly thereafter. Under normal circumstances, such queries would have been promptly dismissed with the stock reply, ‘Question does not arise’.
But Chavan took pains to explain that the government had received no such reports and explained how measures like making available information on websites, fixing time limits for disposal of cases and fine-tuning the delivery systems were being undertaken.
With the performance of each ministry currently being evaluated, the bureaucrats can have no such luxury of playing truant.
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Meira Kumar’s sixth sense?
It is now an open secret that many MPs were reluctant to attend parliament for just one more day, especially after the weekend. And things did go their way as Speaker Meira Kumar adjourned the Lok Sabha sine die, highly agitated over the undisciplined behaviour of MPs.
But did she have an inkling that proceedings in parliament would be rocked by the Telangana issue?
She had already sent out invitations to the press corps for high tea on Friday – a customary rite reserved for the end of the session. As scribes tucked into goodies in the banquet hall of the parliament library, they wondered about her ‘prescience’!
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Didi’s anger only for Bengal Marxists
Trinamool Congress leader and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s scorn seems to be reserved only for Marxists from West Bengal. The fiery leader was all sugar and honey when Kerala Law Minister M. Vijayakumar, also a Marxist leader, came calling on her.
He wanted to get Didi’s green signal for the construction of a rail coach factory in the southern state. And Mamata agreed to his request for the project in Palakkad on 600 acres of land acquired by the state government.
Now Left parties from her home state might wonder why the soft spot for Kerala.
Posted by Vamban
on Dec 20, 2009 @ 12:48 PM Filed under National, Politics, Top Stories.
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