Carried Away

The minister for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath seemed to have got carried away by the occasion. Her ministry had organised a function at Vigyan Bhawan to commemorate the birth anniversary of Indira Gandhi. In the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee and Bollywood actor Aamir Khan, the ministry launched an information, education and communication campaign against malnutrition. But what really got the people talking after the event was Tirath's description of Indira Gandhi as "Rashtra Maa" (Mother of the Nation), something that no Congress leader had so far coined.

Tension Mounts

THE selection of CBI director is always full of intrigue but this time it is getting much more messy. With the name likely to be announced anytime now, attempts have been intensified to question the credentials of the shortlisted candidates or the entire selection process itself. The biggest hit has come from none other than the Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, one of the contenders who apparently has not made it to the final shortlist of three candidates. He has decided to move the Central Administrative Tribunal asking for the procedure adopted to select the CBI director. Rumours doing the rounds say V K Gupta, special director in CBI who finds himself in a similar situation as Kumar, may also take the same route and petition CAT. Irrespective of what happens to these petitions or other attempts to derail the process, the next 10 days or so are definitely going to be tense for the three contenders that are learnt to have made the final shortlist — NIA DG S C Sinha, ITBP DG Ranjit Sinha and DG (Home Guards) in Uttar Pradesh Atul Kumar.

Tree of knowledge

AFTER a satisfying visit to India, Myanmar opposition leader and international peace icon Aung San Suu Kyi went back carrying, among other things, a book on Delhi's trees. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid gifted Suu Kyi the book after she showed a lot of interest in the Capital's flora and inquired about some particular trees. Suu Kyi also wanted to visit 24 Akbar Road — the present Congress party headquarters, where she had lived as a child when her mother was posted as Ambassador but could not do so because of paucity of time. However, accompanying leaders were pleasantly surprised when she said she vividly remembered the house and promptly drew an outline of its rooms and corridors.

... contd.

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