National

Deep Throat

A regular column on the essential buzz

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Deep Throat
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Andhra Pradesh
Stark Comment

Actor and Telugu Desam Party MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna has embarrassed his brother-in-law, CM Chandrababu Naidu, with over-the-top remarks about his female co-stars. “My fans don’t like it when I chase heroines. They say no. But they love it when I kiss my heroines or make them pregnant,” he said at a film event. Balakrishna also spoke of being “naughty” at times and “pinching actresses”. An apology was quick in coming, but the comments are said to have left Naidu red-faced. More so, for Balakrishna uttered these gems at the audio release function of Savitri, which stars Naidu’s nephew Nara Rohit.

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New Delhi
Write Stuff

There’s lots more writing happening in central government offices now than ever before. Not policy-affecting stuff, but simple notes. Why? Because  mantris and babus are conv­inced their offices are bugged and they are under watch. When a corporate high-up walked into a minister’s office and began speaking about a pet project, he was quickly hushed and asked to write it out. The rest of the conversation, sour­ces claim, was carried out thus. Other babus too say they have adopted the same modus operandi. Pencils, not pens, are said to be the implement of choice.

Madhya Pradesh
Think Pink

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Chief Minister Shivraj Chauhan’s plans to observe International Women’s Day “in a different way” came kaput as the almost-broke BJP government had little money to organise a grand fete. But some bright babu rose to the challenge and came up with a magical idea that was not only “different” but, more importantly, would cost nothing. Once the CM’s approval came through, the chief secretary sent out an appeal to all male government officials and employees, urging them to wear pink on March 8. “Wear a pink shirt or trousers...or keep a pink handkerchief in your pocket. If you cannot do even that, just pin a pink ribbon onto your shirt”, the employees were told.

Gujarat
Fourth Time Lucky?

The lengths to which government agencies went to rake up the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case despite three previous probes coming to the same conclusion is becoming clear. The buzz is that the government has concluded that it cannot afford to allow a trial on the basis of even the diluted chargesheets filed by the CBI against seven Gujarat police officers and four IB officers. If grapevine is to be believed, the trial will not commence anytime soon. Instead, yet another SIT will be set up so that a clean chit can be given to the killers of the 19-year-old Mumbai girl.

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Heard The Aam Aadmi Party has approached Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s finmin Yashwant Sinha, whose son Jayant is in Modi Sarkar, to train its legislators in the nuances of budget-making

Overheard A short list of BJP-friendly journalists is doing the rounds to take over as editor of a prominent newspaper whose newsroom boss, on holiday now, is said to be viewing the ‘Exit’ sign

Contributed by Madhavi Tata, Prarthna Gahilote, K.S. Shaini, Uttam Sengupta, Mihir Srivastava and Ushinor Majumdar

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