periscope

Abhimanyu

Bending Beni mulayam

Sensing that the SP chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav held the key to the survival of  her government the  Congress president Sonia Gandhi did not waste any  time to walk up to where Samajwadi party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav sat in the Lok  Sabha to tender him an apology for remarks made by Congress minister Beni Prasad  Verma.  She folded her hands before the SP leader and was engaged in a conversation  with him for nearly five minutes as some SP MPs stood  nearby. Earlier, just before the  adjournment, leader of the opposition, Sushma Swaraj had made a brief speech slamming  Beni Prasad and demanding that he either apologise or be dropped as a Central minister. A senior party leader quipped: “Mrs Gandhi should now go to Tamil Nadu and stand with  folded hands before the DMK boss, Karunanidhi.”

Home turf booes family

After the brother and mother virtually  booed out of the home turf, Priyanka Gandhi has  taken charge of  Rae Bareli. This is her mother, Sonia Gandhi’s parliamentary  constituency. She was in Rae Bareli on a day-long visit to inaugurate a five-day training  camp for nyaya panchayat and block presidents of the Congress. An official release issued  by the district Congress stated : “In-charge of Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency  Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has said that the members in the training camp will know about  their rights and later help the people in improving their quality of life.” The camp was also  being viewed as an effort to brainwash the people as the members will not be allowed to  come out of Bhuemau Guest House till their training gets over on March 23. They have  been asked to switch off their mobile phones. They have also been given white trouser,  white T-shirt with the picture of Congress flag on it and a black cap so that they could be  identified easily.  Some feel that Priyanka’s gameplan is to create cadre base that  “aggressively campaign in elections and manage the polling booths.”  She’s personally  interviewing the candidates who would work as the Gandhi brigade.

Land deal Scam

Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka has called the government’s inquiry report on the land  deal between UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and DLF “an  attempt to defend the land licensing transaction of companies owned by Vadra” and  sought details of all the land deals by the compaies in Haryana. The state government had  asked for Khemka’s comments on the probe report submitted by a three-member  committee after they conducted an inquiry into issues raised by Khemka on Vadra’s land  deals. In a letter to chief secretary PK Chaudhery Khemka asked the government whether  it received any appeal from Vadra or DLF against his orders cancelling the mutation of the  land deal. He asked for all files related to the grant, renewal and transfer of licences to the  companies of Vadra including Skylight Hospitality. Khemka when he was the director  general of land consolidation department had on October 15, 2012 cancelled the mutation  of Vadra-DLF land deal saying that the assistant consolidation officer who executed the  mutation was not competent to do so. The probe committee has termed the cancellation of  mutation as wrong. In another order on October 12, Khemka had asked deputy  commissioners of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Palwal and Mewat to inspect all documents related  to land deals registered from 2005 on behalf of Vadra.

SP praise for Atalji

A day after the DMK pulled out of the UPA government, its outside supporter Samajwadi  Party said the former NDA dispensation was “more cohesive” and Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s  style of functioning better. “The style of functioning of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, I would say,  was better than this present (UPA) government. I would say NDA’s coalition was more  cohesive,” SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said. He went on to add : “NDA’s  coalition was led by Vajpayee and he was a big personality. Other leaders in the coalition  such as L K Advani are one of the biggest leaders of the country.”

Pay up media barons

Let’s take a sneak peek at some of the media barons in India.  Market regulator Sebi has  sought a direction from the Supreme Court allowing it to arrest Sahara promoter Subrata  Roy and two other directors of the company to force them to pay up Rs 24,000 crore to  around 3 crore investors. Sebi also sought court approval to appoint an officer on special  duty to recover the money owed to investors by selling Sahara assets attached so far.  Further, it asked the court to direct the promoter and three directors to surrender their  passports to the top court and not leave the country. Unable to trace funds amounting to  over Rs 4,300 crore lent by 24 banks and financial institutions to Deccan Chronicle  Holdings Ltd (DCHL), Canara Bank has filed a case alleging fraud with the Central  Bureau of Investigation (CBI).The funds were lent to DCHL over a period spanning 15  months between March 2011 and June 2012. Two senior Zee news editors were arrested  when they allegedly tried to extort around Rs 100 crore from a corporate firm. The case is  still on. Interestingly all these barons run newspapers and TV channels, which are expected  to expose and crusade against corruption in the system. But the media in this country has  now been reduced to a farce.