Opinion War hots up

Twitting over Twitter

The use of social networking websites for commenting on official matters by those in public office has created a slight twitter of its own. The central government indicated its displeasure to Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for his comments on his Facebook about Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. Omar Abdullah’s reaction on his site to last week’s reference in this column on the subject was that his privacy had been violated and “a serious review of friends is in order now”.

MoS Shashi Tharoor,meanwhile,clarified that the whole purpose of his twittering about his work is to demystify government and to make for greater accountability. Ninety-nine per cent of the responses he gets are from people applauding his efforts and offering suggestions. As one who has worked in the United Nations for over 30 years and once held the post of UN under secretary communications,Tharoor says he is fully conscious of what can be disclosed about his job and what is out of bounds on Twitter.

Lion turns into tiger

In a debate on the vanishing tiger in the Rajya Sabha last week,it was the scholarly veteran Dr Karan Singh who brought out fresh information on the issue. He pointed out that for the first 22 years of our Independence,it was the lion,not the tiger,which was the national animal. The lion was selected because of the Ashoka lion. In 1967,Singh,as chairperson of the Indian Board for Wildlife,had recommended that the tiger would be a more appropriate animal for our country. Lions are seen only in one part of western India but tigers are all over. At least they were till poachers started decimating our tiger population,which is now just a quarter of its earlier strength of 4,000.

Staying on

When he took back his resignation as leader of the opposition after the election defeat,most assumed that L K Advani would hold the post temporarily,until the contentious issue of succession in the party had been fully resolved. But Advani seems to have done a re-think and now believes that stepping down would amount to escapism. Advani has decided to demonstrate to his warring flock that he is the boss. His recent sharp comments to party MPs to adhere to a code of conduct have to be read in this context.

Incidentally,none of the three dissidents,Arun Shourie,Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh,turned up for a parliamentary party meeting to help draft the party’s reaction on the general budget,though they are considered the BJP’s economic experts. In response to their absence,none from the trio was asked to initiate the debate on either the general budget or the railway budget,as they have done in the past.

Only one exception

The Speaker has still not allotted the division numbers,which indicate where MPs are supposed to sit in the Lok Sabha. The delay is largely because two UPA allies,the DMK’s leader in the House,T R Baalu,and RJD leader Lalu Yadav want front row seats,which are normally reserved for ministers. Baalu cites the example of Sonia Gandhi to demand the same treatment.