Telephone trouble

Telephone trouble

Subramanian Swamy has a reputation for giving his political opponents a tough time. But the roles are now reversed. An anonymous opponent of the Janata party president has created turmoil in the Swamy household. Advertisements were inserted in two of Agra's leading Hindi newspapers offering Rs 20,000 in monthly wages for part-time work. Phone numbers and e-mail addresses were listed for respondents to get in touch. Among the phone numbers listed were Swamy's, his wife's, as well as that of his office and party office. When Swamy was deluged with requests for jobs, he realised a prankster was at work and promptly disconnected all his phones. The mischief makers, however, continued their tricks by distributing similar pamphlet ads at the Pune railway station. This was followed by leaflets in Delhi informing of a distress sale of flats in Nizamuddin. Yet another ad solicited recruits for a char dham yatra for senor citizens. In each of these cases, Swamy's telephone numbers were listed. The biggest sufferer is Swamy's wife Roxna who has not yet disconnected her mobile phone.

Noteworthy sale

A London-based dealer has put up for sale the official RBI specimen of a Rs 10,000 note issued in 1954 with serial number 0000000. The specimen note prepared by the Government Mint is normally kept with the RBI to be used as the standard to check the authenticity of all notes of this denomination and detect forgeries. The rare note has been valued at 18,000-24,000 pounds sterling in the auction catalogue. Shouldn't the Finance Ministry be concerned enough to order an inquiry to find out how the note was smuggled out of the RBI and sent abroad?

Return favour

Although not in conformity with its ideology, the DMK voted with the UPA in Parliament on the issue of FDI in retail. The reason for this U-turn on FDI is because the DMK has an agenda of its own. DMK chief M Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi's Rajya Sabha term ends next year and the DMK does not have enough votes on its own to get her re-elected. The Congress has only five MLAs which is not enough either. But the DMK hopes that the Congress can influence actor-turned-politician Vijayakanth—whose party DMDK has 28 votes—to offer a helping hand. After quitting the AIADMK coalition, he has moved closer to the Congress.

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