Even Distribution

The return of Drinking Water and Sanitation portfolio under Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh’s wing meant that he is now in charge of three departments which he could have distributed among the three Ministers of State under him. Instead of assigning departments to each one of them, Ramesh, on the other hand, tried to keep all his three MoSs — Sisir Adhikari, Pradeep Jain and Agatha Sangma — happy by distributing different programmes from the three departments to them. What is expected to cheer them the most is the specific order by Jairam that all files related to those programmes should come to him through the respective MoSs.

Losing Patience

Relegated to the sidelines in the party for long, senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Aslam Sher Khan seems to be losing his patience again. He has convened a “chintan baithak” of party leaders in New Delhi later this week to discuss the current political situation in the country. He had organised a similar exercise in May 2008 in which about 180 participants, mostly comprising those on the sidelines in the party, had targeted the political managers and questioned their decision to “outsource” the party’s base among different communities to regional party leaders under coalition compulsions. Given the fact that the Congress has been deferring its chintan baithak, declared by party president Sonia Gandhi some months back, Khan’s initiative is set to ruffle quite a few feathers in the party.

Allied Friction

Nationalist Youth Congress (NYC), the youth wing of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was in for disappointment last Saturday as party president Sharad Pawar could not make it to the NYC’s conference of district presidents and state office-bearers in New Delhi. The Union Minister was in the Capital that day and NYC office-bearers waited for him till evening before Tariq Anwar clarified in his valedictory remarks that Pawar could not come due to a bout of flu. The NCP chief’s presence at the function could have caused quite a few blushes to UPA managers given the fact that the NCP’s resolution lambasted the UPA government’s economic policies and targeted it for inflation. Anwar actually took a leaf out of Rahul Gandhi’s book and elaborated on how there were “two Bharats”. Incidentally, in a souvenir brought out by the NYC, titled Swabhimaan, Pawar wrote in his message that all workers of NYC were “working too hard to reach to the masses”.

Courting Access

Guess who Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda collided with outside Wimbledon’s Centre Court recently? No prize for guessing. It was External Affairs Minister S M Krishna. In the absence of the requisite passes, Krishna was not being allowed inside. Hooda, himself a tennis player, tried to help the External Affairs Minister, but Wimbledon authorities would not budge. Krishna was apparently stranded outside for quite some time before being able to gain entry.

Tall Claims

In what may alarm Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh has been claiming that many senior Bahujan Samaj Party leaders have approached himwith the desire to joining the Congress. He, however, says that the party has not shown much keenness to welcome them because they want an “assurance” of party tickets in next year’s election. The Congress cannot give any such assurance because loyalists come first for the party, says Singh. That should alarm the defectors as well.