New Delhi, June 27 (IANS) Arjun Singh has virtually locked himself away in his heavily-guarded residence on Akbar Road ever since the Bhopal gas verdict.
Singh, who is now hogging the headlines for his alleged role in letting then Union Carbide boss Warren Anderson out of the country over two decades ago, decided to give a skip to a recent conference on Palestine, his pet cause. Panthers Party chief Bhim Singh, who had just returned from Palestine, had hosted the conference where Arjun Singh, who was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh at the time of the Dec 2-3, 1984, Bhopal gas tragedy, was expected as chief guest.
Singh, however, chose to stay away as the seasoned politician knew that sound byte-hungry journalists must be waiting to pounce on him. ‘He is in a Catch-22 situation,’ said Bhim Singh lamely, in a bid to placate waiting television reporters.
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Magic of 10, Janpath
He may have triggered a controversy with his comments on Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s anti-Maoist policy and former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson’s release in the Bhopal gas leak case, but Congress leader Digvijay Singh’s stars continue to shine bright at 10, Janpath.
Recently, Sonia Gandhi nominated him to address the global gathering of social democrats at the council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York. Singh spoke eloquently about the millennium development goals, the global financial meltdown and India’s growth story at the UN meet. In his speech he made glowing references to Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.
Curiously, there was no mention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Shows who is in power!
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China-Pakistan deal keeps South Block on toes
China and Pakistan are twin obsessions and pet paranoia of India’s foreign office and a captive media – and it was more so this week.
With two back-to-back meetings of foreign secretaries and home ministers of India and Pakistan, diplomats and media pundits frenziedly speculated on the outcome of the talks.
But more than the India-Pakistan re-engagement, it was the China-Pakistan nuclear deal that triggered anxiety in South Block and competed for front page headlines. Will NSG clear the deal? – this was the buzz in diplomatic circles.
In the event, the Nuclear Suppliers Group has only asked China obliquely for consultations and transparency on its deal to sell two new reactors to Pakistan, but it came as a bit of a reprieve for a worried foreign office which only weeks ago were dead confident that the deal will be vetoed by the powerful nuclear cartel.
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Calls that turned Nitish around
It was the BJP’s chief trouble-shooter, Arun Jaitley, who again seems to have saved the day.
When an advertisement brought the BJP and long-time ally Nitish Kumar in Bihar on the brink of a rupture, the suave lawyer is said to have played a key role in the patch-up.
When the crisis was spinning out of hand with Nitish Kumar deciding to return Gujarat’s donation for Kosi flood relief, Jaitley was holidaying on a cruise in Europe. The moment he heard about it, he sent an SOS to his friend in Patna and followed it up with numerous calls to soothe an angry Nitish Kumar, sources said.
The BJP heaved a sigh of relief when Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar finally relented to participate at a poll rally with BJP’s Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi. All is well !
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Gadkari, the nightbird
Late evening meetings are normally associated with the Congress. But the youngest president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has started the trend in the party too.
When Nitin Gadkari scheduled his meeting with Bihar party leaders at 9 p.m. earlier this week, there were quite a few who were taken by surprise. The meeting, which began late, continued well past midnight and a party leader had to come midway to brief the waiting mediapersons.
Gadkari had some months back held a marathon eight-hour meeting on the Rajasthan imbroglio faced by the party.
The BJP leaders are slowly getting used to the new culture.
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Visa ghosts at Canada party
The Canadian high commission hosted a cocktail reception on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first visit to Toronto and to celebrate the G20 summit Canada is hosting.
There was much bonhomie and feel-good chatter about robust Indo-Canadian relations, but the ghosts of the recent visa row quivered in the evening air.
The denial of visas to former officers of Indian paramilitary forces on grounds of their indirect complicity in human rights abuses had angered India, and almost threatened to strain Indo-Canada relations. Nearly everyone present voiced his outrage in whispers at Canada’s arrogant conduct, but Canadian diplomats were on their best behaviour.
The inside buzz is that officials in the visa department responsible for the offensive denial letters were pulled up by the Canadian high commissioner, who was unaware that all this was going on.
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Bollywood versus Art
Art and glamour make for a good cocktail at socialite evenings in the capital. Go to any exhibition, you will find more socialites and Page 3 divas than art lovers.
This week, Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt opened an exhibition of pristine landscape shots of Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh at the Visual Arts Gallery in the capital. Bhatt was mobbed by the media about his new films while the exhibition was blithely forgotten. ‘Bollywood sells, art does not,’ quipped a smart aleck journo as he picked his way to grab a few bytes from Bhatt, oblivious of the artist he should be interviewing.
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No more free rides for cops and babus!
The days of free joy rides are over for babus and policemen.
Last week the Delhi government put up a notice in all its red-coloured AC buses, tersely announcing that ‘government employees and policemen travelling in AC buses need to buy tickets’.
The notice came as a revelation to those unfamiliar with the freebie culture enjoyed by the so-called public servants.
