| Published on 11-03-2008 In National |
| Viewed 1285 times |
| Corridor Whispers - Mar 11 Part - 1 |
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Written by
Insider |
Mani's woes of discovery
Mani Shankar Aiyar is a man with a mission. The Union Minister for Sports, North-eastern states and Panchayati Raj was in the Vidharbha region few days after his country cousin P. Chidambaram presented a "historic" budget. The career diplomat decided to get a feel of things and hear out the "aam admi." He barred district officials from accompanying him. The outcome was a shocker of sorts as in village after village farmers expressed their disappointment with Chidambaram's sops. In a region that has seen over 4000 suicides, the farmers told Aiyar that restricting loan waiver to those owning less than two hectares of land was faulty as there were many who owned more land and suffered more.
Aiyar has now prepared a note for "Madame's eyes only" and plans to present it personally to Sonia Gandhi.
But Aiyar's detractors in the Congress point at the pathetic assembly poll results from Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura to get even with him. They wonder how the minister for north-eastern states kept touring these states projecting central schemes and policies but failed to convert them into votes.
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Jitin's Doon network
AICC secretary Jitin Prasada is discovering more and more connections in Madhya Pradesh, an election bound state which he is suppose to look after. Jitin has a Doon School network - Jyotiraditya Scindia was his school senior while Kamal Nath's son Nakul (a budding politician in MP) was his classmate.
On caste lines, he and MPCC chief Suresh Pachauri are Brahmins. Both Arjun Singh and Digvijay Singh have
a link as Jitin's mother is from an aristocratic thakur family.
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AIMPLB's publicity problems
Delhi Minorities Commission chairman Kamal Faruqui drew flak at the All India Muslim Personal Law Board meeting recently held in Calcutta. Faruqui was upset that the meet opened on the day when union budget hogged media limelight. He suggested that next time the AIMPLB should hire an "event management" company to promote its meet. Clearly Faruqui was ahead of his time, as the proposal did not go down well with the bulk of Maulanas and Maulvis. The dominant view at the meet was AIMPLB should not try to attract media as it was engaged in far more serious matters. Faruqui is now struggling to keep his place in AIMPLB.
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Arjun in Karmic mode
Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh is upset with the glare on his ministry and speculation over his continuation in office. The minister is turning more and more religious. Recently he traveled to hometown Churhat to attend a katha where Swami Avdheshanand spoke about karma, path of peace and salvation and urged listeners to wean away from the worldly delusions.
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