Opinion Menon rocks

Political connections

BCCI president N Srinivasan learnt his politics from the late Murasoli Maran,to whom he was so close that Jayalalithaa even accused Srinivasan of acting as a banker for Maran. He is also on very good terms with DMK boss M Karunanidhi. However,Maran’s sons do not share the same equation with Srinivasan. In later years,Srinivasan developed a very cordial relationship with Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. He continues to be friendly with YSR’s son Jagan Reddy and was a big investor in Jagan’s Sakshi newspaper. Srinivasan set up an India Cements factory in Cuddapah,YSR’s constituency. And the allegation is that the Andhra government favoured him with unauthorised release of water from the state’s Irrigation Department and provided other benefits.

Banning superstition

Reacting to visuals of Pawan Kumar Bansal feeding a goat just before he was removed as railway minister,JD(U) MP K C Tyagi plans to introduce a private member’s Bill to put an end to superstitious practices. Though an attempt was made in 2011 to introduce a Bill on these lines,it was never passed. The only state in the country which has a law that calls for action against those claiming extraordinary supernatural powers and extorting money on the basis of blind faith in superstition is Maharashtra. Although Bansal’s act of feeding a goat was interpreted by many TV channels as part of a superstitious ritual,he has claimed that he was simply feeding the animal and it had nothing to do with superstition.

General houses

Senior babus of New Delhi have built for themselves a cosy complex,New Moti Bagh,a gated community with imitation Lutyens-style bungalows. The houses are sought after by ministers of state,judges,secretaries and joint secretaries. Now,inspired by the New Moti Bagh complex,the Army is replicating it on a grander scale by building 100 luxury houses,each 8,000 square feet in area, overlooking the golf course in Delhi Cantonment. The fancy new bungalows are meant for only major generals and lieutenant generals will continue to stay in Lutyens bungalows.

New-style diplomacy

As External Affairs Minister,Salman Khurshid has introduced a more informal style of diplomacy than his predecessor S M Krishna. Last week,at the Egyptian Ambassador’s residence,Khurshid read extracts from his play The Sons of Babur. He had to do a lot of explaining to the Middle East ambassadors as to who was who in the Mughal dynasty. After the book reading,Khurshid signed copies of the book for many of the guests.

Rushing in to chastise

Maverick lawyer Ram Jethmalani had two key supporters for his nomination to the Rajya Sabha: L K Advani and Narendra Modi. But when it came to the question of expelling Jethmalani for six years from the BJP,Advani was the only one who tried half-heartedly to defend him. Modi,who had utilised Jethmalani’s services to defend Amit Shah in the Supreme Court,was already disenchanted with him. While officially,Jethmalani was expelled on the grounds that he had publicly berated Nitin Gadkari as party president,his real crime was barging into the party’s parliamentary party meeting on May 7 and aggressively attacking all those present,accusing them of being soft on the Congress. Earlier,Advani had tried to defend Jethmalani by arranging a meeting with Gadkari at which Jethmalani apologised to the then BJP president. But Jethmalani backed out of giving his apology in writing. If Advani has emerged weaker after Jethmalani’s ouster,party president Rajnath Singh has come out stronger by keeping two other potential dissenters in line. Singh has inducted Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh in the study teams for finance and foreign policy to enunciate the party policy for the coming elections.