Tale of two cities

Mamata Banerjee has set up camp in Kolkata in the Eastern Railways headquarters, which is across the road from Writers Building, the seat of the state government. Mamata has instructed her ministers that in preparation for the West Bengal assembly elections, they should spend five days in Kolkata and two in Delhi every week. Mamata has adopted a similar routine and the railway staff attached to the minister has to keep shuttling between the two cities. Perhaps Mamata sees it as psychological warfare against the CPI(M) government to have a shadow CM holding her darbar at its doorstep.

Neighbour’s envy

As leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley gets to sit at the head of the table when the BJP parliamentary board meets. This has irked many of his colleagues in the party, who feel they are senior to him. Jaitley gets the rank and perks of a Cabinet minister and has a ground floor office in Parliament House with a secretarial staff of 10 in addition to four peons. This includes a private secretary, two additional PSes, two assistant PSes, two PAs and a Hindi stenographer. He is entitled to free travel both in India and abroad for work. The leader of the opposition decides who gets to speak on what debates and how much time is allotted. Other BJP MPs, even if they are in the Lok Sabha, are envious. In fact, Jaswant Singh, who held the position previously, has made it clear that he cannot vacate his Parliament office in a hurry.

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