The Kerala Government had installed jammers at the recent Conference of the CPI(M), the party that leads the left Democratic Front Government in the State, to comply with CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat’s direction that no word of what was discussed behind the doors was leaked out. To stress the point Karat himself told the delegates repeatedly: “The party politburo will take stern action if anything about out discussions appears in the press.”
On his return to New Delhi the next day, Karat found that each and every detail of the internal squabbles within the Kerala unit of the party had appeared in the press. As an infuriated Karat ordered the State unit to identify the culprits, a wag in the CPI(M) national headquarters was heard saying: “Jammers can never silence leakers!”
(B) lock kiya jaaye!
Call it the mother of tall claims or plain wishful thinking but if Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi is to be believed his Ministry has found a cure for the Opposition's disruptions in Parliament.
In an interaction with Dasmunsi after the Cabinet meeting last week, scribes pointed out to him that the Opposition was not in a mood to allow either Railway Minister Lalu Prasad or Finance Minister P Chidambaram present their respective budgets. The witty minister claimed a new machine would be installed in Parliament for the better telecast of proceedings. He said the machine would blank out all other disruptive voices and would only telecast the Minister’s and the Speaker's voices. When asked about the details, Dasmunsi was dismissive about it and said that it had been tested. He wasn't exactly clear about the technology.
Baalu ko gussa kyon aata hain?
Rumours of a possible Cabinet reshuffle and his fall from favour with the powers that be in the UPA have these days makes Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, T R Baalu lose his temper at the smallest provocation.
At a recent meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the Sethusamudram issue, Minister for culture and Tourism Ambika Soni was at the receiving end of Balu's outburst. When Sonia said that the Archaeological Survey of India could not file an affidavit in the Supreme Court because it had itself conducted no study to establish whether the Adams Bridge or Ram Sethu was man-made or not, Balu openly accused her of “a conspiracy to block the project.” The outburst stunned every one, including Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee, who was presiding over the GoM. But before others could react, Soni stood up and walked out in a huff saying, “I am not here to be accused of a conspiracy!”
Valour in print!
Preparing to celebrate the centenary of ‘Sainik Samachar,’ the fortnightly journal of the Indian Armed Forces early next year, a team of defence historians recently stumbled on an interesting nugget of information. The journal was published as a weekly in Urdu and called ‘Fauji Akhbaar.’
The justification, according to the inaugural issue dated January 2, 1909, was: “With the advancement of education in the Indian Army, it has been decided to bring out a weekly magazine entitled Fauji Akhbaar to cater to its needs.” The editorial went on to add that “the effort will be to make it an interesting and instructive newspaper, free from the defects which make so many Urdu journals unsuitable for military readers.”
The journal is now published in English and 13 other Indian languages. It has gone through many vicissitudes and changes before getting its current glossy and modern look. It has shifted its base from Shimla to Lahore and then to New Delhi. During the World War-II, it also brought out an overseas edition from Cairo for the benefit of Indian soldiers deployed in the Middle East. “Shortage of staff caused by the migration of a large number of Muslim staff led to the suspension of publication for a few months immediately after Independence," says an official of the Directorate of Public Relations Defence Ministry.
A college sans scholars!
At a time when Indian academic institutions are setting new milestones of excellence in the international arena, the Eastern Forest Rangers College set up in Kurseong, West Bengal, in 1974 has set a record of a different kind. Since the mid-eighties, it has been without a single student. “We have a chairman and some members of the faculty. But there is no one to train because the State Government has not made any recruitment of rangers for many years in row,” says an official of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Wishful thinking!
The Government's acceptance of the report of the Delimitation Commission this week had Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh fuming. For it adversely affected the parliamentary constituencies of many RJD members, including his own. “Why didn't you object to it,” he was heard angrily telling his party MPs. “I wish I was just an ordinary MP. In that can I alone could have shaken up the whole issue for reconsideration of the report. But as a minister my hands are tied,” he rued.
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