After the Phulpur rally of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi when some of the party leaders allegedly kicked a few youth for waving black flags, there appears that some soul-searching is going on within the party.

A Cabinet minister and senior Congress leader joked that if there were a football championship in Uttar Pradesh, the party would win hands down. However, on a serious note, he recalled a similar incident when India’s first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru was greeted with black flags at the same place while canvassing for Lok Sabha elections in 1957. “A group of people from the camp of Ram Manohar Lohiya had come to show black flag to Nehru. Incensed over the incident Nehru asked his followers who these people were, and when told that they were supporters of Lohiya, he said he’d go and meet them. In a span of 10 minutes the same very people who had been waving black flags were later shouting Nehru zindabad,” recalled the Cabinet minister.
However, now that the Phulpur kicking incident has gone to the court, one may advise the enthusiastic political leaders to take a cue from Nehru, who apparently had the courage to take the bulls by their horns.

OC prepares legacy report
It is said experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. The organisers of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010 are certainly going to do the same, left without a choice as they are. With the Games running into a multitude of problems including allegations of corruption and controversies, the Organising Committee (OC) of the CWG is now preparing a “legacy report” on the Games.
While the investigating agencies are preparing to register more FIRs and file chargesheets, the Committee — claims a section of the officials — is preparing to write a report that would be more in the form of recommendations. Officials said that the report would deal with the kind of precautions that are needed to host such an event in India in future.

CPI(M) to plan fresh approach
The CPI(M) which is debating its ideological document to be placed before the party congress early next year has so far missed hearing the views of its senior party leader and former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. After having pinned the blame on its West Bengal unit for electoral reverses faced by the party, the central leadership is trying to bring on board all party leaders before it finalises its fresh ideological approach. A clear indication of this comes from the party’s keeness to hold its next central committee meeting in Kolkata.
At this crucial meet, the CPI(M) will finalise its document even as it would ensure Mr Bhattacharjee’s presence during such proceedings. It may be recalled that the former West Bengal CM has skipped all party meetings held in New Delhi on the issue so far.

MPs don’t answer Sibal’s call
The Union HRD minister, Kapil Sibal, has been at work trying to get a mechanism in place to ensure that the legislative business of his department is passed at the winter session of Parliament. The minister called three meetings of MPs from the Congress and its UPA allies over the past few weeks so that he is able to garner support for the HRD ministry bills pending in Parliament.
Several MPs from the Congress and its allies had opposed several of these bills when they were taken up for discussion, forcing the HRD minister to work at ensuring their stamp of approval. However, the exercise proved to be less than effective as less than two dozen MPs from the Congress and the UPA bothered to show up at these three meetings, held ahead of the session.

Mamata takes party decision over dinner
Trinamul Congress leader and former railway minister Mamata Banerjee sure knows how to control the reins of her party. So much so that even the decision on who will head the Trinamul’s Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha parliamentary party was taken at a dinner being hosted by partyman and Union Minister of state for health, Sudip Bandopadhyay at his residence last week.
All that Mamatadi had to do was take aside her party MPs to one side of the shamiana at the get-together. And thus Sudipda was appointed the Lok Sabha parliamentary party leader, while Mamata confidant Mukul Roy was chosen for the Rajya Sabha.

Advani for pm’s post?
BJP misses no opportunity to rave about its senior leader L.K. Advani’s recently concluded “Jan Chetna” yatra against corruption which covered “7,600 kilometres in 38 days” and got “overwhelming response” with “thousands of people” attending the yatra’s rallies at different places and how he was given a “standing ovation” when party MPs met for the first time in the ongoing winter session of Parliament. But no party leader has anything to say when queries are posed on whether Mr Advani is one of the likely candidates for the PM’s post.