A number of eyebrows were raised when the Samajwadi Party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav shared the dais with Anna Hazare at Jantar Mantar last Sunday. What surprised most was that Yadav offered full support to team Anna for their key demands. This was very much a U-turn, as the party had earlier been a sharp critic of team Anna.

Later, an SP insider explained that the move was to return in kind what the Congress had been doing to the socialist party in Uttar Pradesh on the poll eve.
“We bailed out the UPA government at the time of the Indo-US nuclear deal but the Congress in turn is hurting us the most. The Congress tied up with RLD chief Ajit Singh to damage us and also lured away Rashid Masood from our party. To top it all, the Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is making all kinds of unkind remarks against our leader Ram Gopal Yadav. So, what do you expect of us?” said a senior SP functionary.

Buddhadeb opts to skip party meet
The CPI(M) yet again held its politburo meeting to discuss the politicial ideological line to be adopted at its party congress early next year but the meet of the top body failed to see the presence of senior member and former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The party sources said that Bhattacharjee is expected to only make his presence in the meet which is expected to be held in Kolkata next time.
While some party leaders attributed his move to skip politburo meetings in Delhi to his ill health, others suggested that the senior leader remains miffed with the party’s central leadership, especially after the Left’s electoral defeat in West Bengal.

Bureaucrat to pen a play
These days babus in the finance ministry are gossiping over the said plans of chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu to write a play with the characters from the South and North block once he leaves his post next year. Finance ministry officials are wondering who will feature in this play and whether Mr Basu, who is seen as an outsider, will take a dig at the bureaucrats and some politicians.
Mr Basu is an academic and has been on leave from Cornell University where he is Professor of Economics and the C. Marks Professor of International Studies. According to officials Mr Basu, who has been a student of Amartya Sen, had earlier also tried his hand at writing a play.

Smoke and fire about FDI in retail
The controversy over allowing Foreign Direct Investment in retail is having many fallouts. And repeated clashes in Parliament aren’t the only issue. While the Opposition was united by the issue, the Congress on its part also hasn’t left any chance to get back at the Opposition
leaders with even their smoking habits being targeted. UPA minister Jyotiraditya Scindia was quick to point out that though CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury had opposed FDI in retail tooth and nail, Yechury had not been able to justify his fondness for smoking cigarettes of a well-known international MNC. The jab by the young minister elicited just a smile from Yechury, who preferred not to oppose the government on this issue.

Aircraft deal gives govt a tough time
With the value of the 126 fighter aircraft acquisition deal expected to reach US $20 billion, the two contenders — the French Rafale aircraft manufactured by Dassault and the German-led Eurofighter — are readying for the final lap, even as speculation mounts every other day that one or the other contender has made the grade. While both contenders have passed the technical trials, the government is examining the financial bids. But with the intense media speculation about the final winner, the government is having a tough time advising caution.
As a senior Indian Air Force (IAF) officer put it to reporters at a recent function, “Complicated calculations are on to identify the lowest bidder. Therefore, the media should be cautious. If you (the media) announce that one vendor is the winner, it could well turn out after all the calculations that it is the other.” The point was well taken by the reporters. But due to the sheer magnitude of the deal, it may be one lesson that some in the media could find difficult to absorb.

Intelligence community to stay mum
Highest quarters in the Government have sent out a terse message to the intelligence community to remain tightlipped on their internal turf war. The unofficial gag order comes in wake of a series of stories in a section of the media regarding the inadequate functioning of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO). It is common knowledge that an influential section within New Delhi’s intelligence and security community were unhappy when NTRO was conceived by the Government as an elite unit. The Government now wants to put an end to ongoing war within various agencies being fought through the media.