Season of hope for Congress wannabes (Capital Buzz)

NEW DELHI - Congress hopefuls are busy trying to impress party chief Sonia Gandhi and her son and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi. And why not?

With the buzz of an imminent cabinet expansion growing louder, ambitious Congress hopefuls are keeping their fingers crossed. They are also eagerly looking forward to a special session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) next month where new office-bearers will be named.

“If not in the cabinet, at least in the AICC,” this is the muted refrain among the hopefuls.

And they are trying to impress Sonia Gandhi and Rahul with their individual record, loyalty to the Nehru-Gandhi family and their social and regional background.

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Gatecrashers, beware!

Who are these people? It was a question puzzling diplomats, mediapersons, officials, businesspersons and others who get invited to embassy parties. For some time, those who go to receptions and national day dinners hosted by embassies in the capital were intrigued by the presence of many people who would be present at nearly every do. They would be found gorging on food and drinks and then disappear as quietly as they came. The ambassadors and guests would wonder who these people are as they had hardly any credentials to be invited.

Russian Ambassador Alexander M. Kadakin finally found a way out. At a Russian embassy reception, he got some of these gatecrashers to meet him and got them photographed. And he has passed on their picture to guards manning the gates. So it will be tough for Indian Salahis - the Washginton socialite couple who managed to gatecrash President Obama’s dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year - the next time!

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Good time for India-Lanka ties

Sri Lankan diplomats cannot hide their happiness at the recent honour bestowed on their country by India when it invited President Mahinda Rajapaksa to be the guest of honour at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. This despite some rights-vigilant Western groups and Sri Lankan Tamil groups abroad asking India to send a strong message of disapproval over Colombo’s suspected human rights violations against Tamils during last year’s war against the LTTE and its immediate aftermath.

One diplomat was even heard saying that Colombo cannot afford to play the ‘China card’ (that another neighbour Nepal has been accused of) as India-Sri Lanka ties have deep cultural and social links while the ties with China were only business-oriented. “We just cannot afford to alienate India”, he said to a group of Indian strategic experts.

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Africa chalo!

Indian business, it seems, is saying ‘Africa, ho!’ The 54-nation African continent has become a magnet for Indian business so much so that Adi Godrej, a top Indian industrialist, described Africa as a “land of opportunity”. Reflecting this mood of optimism, top public sector and private businessmen trooped to a five-star hotel in the capital to exchange cards and explore new investment opportunities in Rwanda, a sunshine economy in Africa which held elections recently.

After years of vacillation, Indian business houses do not want to miss out on the opportunities opening up in Africa, with more and more countries in Africa embracing democracy and economic reforms.

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Jairam Ramesh hunting for office space!

These days Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh is busy hunting for office space to house the National Green Tribunal (NGT) - a dedicated court for environmental cases. Launched early this week, the court has been temporarily operating from the ministry’s Van Vigyan Bhawan in the capital.

Being an independent body, the minister thinks that the NGT should be operating from an independent place. According to a ministry official, Ramesh has approached the urban development ministry for a place somewhere in central Delhi. But as of now there has been no reply.

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Leader known by the company he avoids

A man is known by the company he keeps, but the buzz going around these days in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is that a leader is known by the company he avoids. The apparent reason for this is the income tax raids on businessman and party activist Sudhanshu Mittal, whose firm was awarded contracts in the Commonwealth Games. The party kept its distance from this long-time faithful who had to hold a lonely press conference to defend himself. A BJP functionary later said the party did not want to get into the trap of going the whole hog in defending Mittal and losing sight of its goal of pinning down the government on the CWG mess.

BJP President Nitin Gadkari, when asked about Mittal, even shot back: “Mittal, who?”

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Media mismanagement during CWG

The media is the maharaja, and it showed in the surfeit of negative Games stories. Many in the corridors of power are blaming bad media management for the negative stories during the Commonwealth Games. While some feel that looking for one media partner for the Games was bad business as it led to a war of sorts among others, resulting in negative reporting, which eventually was picked up and highlighted by the Western media. Also, they point out that ignoring or slighting those who were reporting negative stories boomeranged badly.

“Media should have been taken along. Their help should have been sought for this national event as the country’s image was in question. We could have better managed our press. We failed and see the result - just negative stories, despite the huge success (of the Games),” a top official said after the Games.

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CWG beautification spillover effect!

A little of the CWG beautification spilled over to, guess what, the staid Press Information Bureau (PIB). The PIB, from where news about the government is disseminated to media people, got a fresh coat of paint, and more. Earlier, its interiors used to wear a ramshackle look, with overhead electric wires hanging loose and betelnut stains on the staircase. Now, it has snazzy glass doors, floor tiles and the wires have been tucked in - giving the place a respectable corporate feel. Many who work here are now saying that the CWG was indeed a blessing in disguise for them.

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French diplomat for cricket in CWG

His country may not be part of the 53-nation Commonwealth, a grouping of former British colonies, but a French diplomat wants that cricket should be included in the Commonwealth Games. “Wales (a province of Britain which takes part in the Games separately) may be against any such move,” he commented sarcastically. Comparing cricket with kabaddi, which according to him is like rugby, he said why it is preferred over cricket in the CWG and is played by western countries when they don’t know the sport. It was good to see a French diplomat rooting for cricket, but he perhaps did not know that kabbadi is not part of the CWG.

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Second coming for Kerala’s VS?

Will Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan be taken back into the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo? A decision is likely to be taken at a meeting of the party’s central committee in New Delhi next month, the buzz goes. The issue figured in the politburo meeting early this month. However, a strong section in the party, headed by its powerful Kerala unit secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, is opposing the veteran’s re-entry into the apex body. Achuthanandan’s backers argue his re-induction will boost the party’s electoral prospect in Kerala, where assembly polls are likely in May next year. However, his opponents say his re-entry will heighten groupism in the state unit.

Achuthanandan was removed from the politburo in June last year after he demanded disciplinary action against Vijayan, who was named an accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Rs.374 crore SNC Lavalin corruption case.

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Rainy welcome!

They came in designer wear and with oodles of makeup to impress at the National Film Awards gala Friday evening. But they did not take the weather gods into reckoning.

An unexpected spell of rain had Bollywood celebrities who had descended in the capital to collect National Awards ducking for cover.

While biggies like the Bachchan clan, including megastar Amitabh Bachchan who won the best actor award for “Paa”, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani, escaped the showers by sneaking inside Vigyan Bhavan on time, many of the others were left huddling for cover outside the venue to evade getting drenched.

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Will Mamata be really there?

Is she really going to attend? That was the question that came to the minds of journalists when they saw the name of Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee in the list of ministers scheduled to address the annual economic editors’ conference.

Banerjee has rarely addressed conferences in the national capital, choosing instead to either leave it to the mandarins at Rail Bhavan or speak her mind, mainly on political affairs, from Kolkata.

That was not the only surprise in store for economic journalists on the Oct 26-27 event hosted by the Press Information Bureau. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma who seldom misses an opportunity to interact with the media will be away overseas as well.

But Communications Minister A. Raja, who is going to be in India during the two-day conference, has also apparently decided not to surprise economic editors. Yes, he is not among the ministers listed to address them, true to his practice of skipping key public meetings when controversial issues re-erupt.