Eat, drink, be merry

The dinner hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for all UPA MPs last Wednesday was, for many, an occasion to break bread with the Congress’ bitter rival, Amar Singh. The Samajwadi Party leader, given his social relations with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was invited only after clearance from 10 Janpath. The last UPA dinner Amar Singh attended had ended as the social disaster of 2004. He was accused of gate-crashing the party to celebrate the formation of the UPA, and he had left swearing he would never step into 10 Janpath again. But this time, he was more than honoured. There were only three tables: one each for the prime minister, Sonia Gandhi and Shivraj Patil. While Singh didn’t get to sit on the two high tables, he was guided to Patil’s table, and was among the handful of nearly 500 invitees who had a seat at all. The SP leader cannot stop smiling and is still heady with this social coup.

Gold standard

It was to be a grand memento in recognition of ONGC’s achievements in its 50 years. So a proposal was moved to celebrate the corporation’s golden jubilee with a 10 g gold coin and a cash gift to each employee of ONGC. But the board decided to give the memento a miss and add its money to the gold. Now each of the 35,642 employees on the rolls on August 14 will get a gold coin worth Rs 15,000 to mark the jubilee year. The gold coin and the memorabilia are to be handed out to all the board directors—functional and part-time—too. But those who brought the ONGC to its present stature will be given the go-by.

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