Opinion Law unto themselves

LAST Monday,Minister for Communications and Information Technology A Raja arrived together with Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers M K Alagiri for a meeting in North Block of the empowered group of ministers on oil prices headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Raja,it appears,was called by his DMK colleague to act as his interpreter. However,shortly after his arrival,Raja was seen walking out of the secretariat with a grim look. He was not allowed to give moral support to Alagiri since only ministers who are part of the empowered committee were allowed entry.

Alagiri,who studiously avoids cabinet meetings,was hustled into attending the GoM by the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora,who was aware that the UPA allies were against the oil hike. Deora hoped he could persuade Alagiri change his mind if he got a chance to speak to him on his own. In any case,Alagiri did not open his mouth at the meeting and the decision on raising fuel prices and freeing petrol prices from government control had to be deferred since several members,including,Sharad Pawar,Sushil Kumar and Kamal Nath,were absent.

Turning foes into friends

MAMATA Banerjee has been quite forgiving towards former foes. Some of those responsible for pushing her out of the Congress in1997,such as Subrata Mukherjee and Somen Mitra,have themselves now left the Congress and been accepted by Mamata into the Trinamool Congress fold. Two industry representatives,FICCI Secretary General Amit Mitra and adman Suhel Seth,who criticised Banerjee sharply for her agitations at Nandigram and Singur are now her advisers. Mitra is in charge of pinpointing potential public-private partnerships for the Railways and Seth is on the committee for evolving a brand image for the Railways and advising her on advertising strategies.

Have faith in EVM,EC

THE Election Commission believes that its faith in EVMs has been reinforced by the results of the West Bengal civic polls. Mamata Banerjee,who is one of the sceptics who argued that the machines can be tampered with by those in power,has romped home in the elections. While the CPI(M),which runs the state government,has been badly mauled at the hustings. The Congress,which is the ruling party at the Centre,has fared the worst.

Limiting Access

DESPITE the assurances of the US government,when the four member team of sleuths from India arrived in Chicago last Sunday to interrogate David Headley,it was denied access to the accused in the Mumbai 26/11 terror attack. Indian officers were only permitted to talk to Headley’s lawyer. Fortunately for the National Investigation Agency team,External Affairs Minister S M Krishna also happened to be in the US last week for the Indo-US strategic talks. After Krishna took up the issue directly with the US National Security Adviser,Jim Jones,the Indian team was finally permitted to personally cross question Headley last Wednesday,though in the presence of his lawyer and American officials.

Point noted

THE official explanation as to why LK Advani was not present at the two-day conference in Mumbai for the BJP chief ministers on good governance was that he was unwell. Actually,Advani,who was meeting visitors the same day in Delhi,confessed to a journalist that he had stayed away because he did not want to give an impression that he is still running the party.