Babus under scanner
These are not the best of times for “politicised” bureaucrats—not since they came under fire after 2G and Coalgate for mindlessly doing the government’s bidding. Now, the CBI is likely to question finance ministry officials in the Karti Chidambaram-INX Media Ltd case. The probe so far shows that Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) officials may have overlooked the company’s illegalities to help INX Media. Sources believe these officials were posted with FIPB when P. Chidambaram was the finance minister and INX Media deliberately violated conditions of the FIPB approval. Alarm bells ringing?
Bash over prez nominee
On June 3, top leaders of all major national parties in Tamil Nadu, except the BJP, will gather at DMK veteran M. Karunanidhi’s house to celebrate his 93rd birthday. Buzz is there will also be confabulations about the joint presidential candidate that the Opposition parties want to field against the BJP’s candidate. Rahul Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury, D. Raja, Nitish Kumar, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar and Farooq Abdullah are likely to attend. Sources say the leaders may finalise the candidate there, though M.K. Stalin says it will just be a birthday function. The choice seems to be narrowing down to Gopalkrishna Gandhi, but without Sharad Pawar in the fray, say observers, the Opposition won’t have the numbers to win.
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Congress Concerns
Indira Gandhi’s birth centenary has triggered a race among Congress leaders. While a commemorative volume compiled by Anand Sharma was released by vice-president Hamid Ansari in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee and Sonia Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh—who is said to have no love lost for his former cabinet colleague Sharma—seems to have lost out. Soon after, Ramesh sent out mails about his forthcoming book, Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature, which talks about the former PM’s green concerns. Whether the book would get a high-profile launch seems to be Ramesh’s concern.
Overheard All is not well with the Goa government. CM Manohar Parrikar seems to be waging a daily war, with all the 13 BJP MLAs in the 40-member assembly demanding their pound of flesh.