High command rattled

Rahul Gandhi's comments at a dinner last week for NSUI alumni in Delhi had the party high command in a tizzy. Rahul, who moved from table to table interacting with the guests, deplored the fact that decisions in the Congress are made by just half a dozen people. Decisions should be arrived at by first consulting thousands, if not lakhs. Gandhi's remarks seemed to suggest that bodies like the Congress Election Committee and the CWC should be rendered far more representative than they are at present. However, a high command member felt that if Rahul's suggestion was implemented, it would lead to chaos.

Tripped up in Amritsar

Arun Jaitley's wife Sangeeta is a part of a women's group which likes to travel to different parts of the country. After Goa and Ajmer Sharif, the group decided to visit Amritsar. What they did not bargain for was that a section of the media would jump to the conclusion that they were part of an advance recce party to check out Amritsar as a potential constituency for Jaitley. Jaitley's wife's trip may have been coincidental but there are straws in the wind that the BJP may in fact ask the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha to contest from the Amritsar seat. Sitting MP Navjot Singh Sidhu has alienated the BJP's ally, the Akali Dal. Powerful Akali minister Bikram Majithia has a long-standing feud with him. They want Jaitley to contest from Amritsar instead. Meanwhile, the BJP, which lost all the Delhi parliamentary seats in the last general election, wants to ensure that a Sikh, a Jat and a Bihari are each fielded from the constituencies in the national capital this time. Sidhu is considered the likely Sikh choice for a Delhi seat.

Lying low

though Amar Singh continues to be a Rajya Sabha MP, he does not normally attend Parliament. Singh's seat is controversial. When he left the Samajwadi Party in 2010, he offered to give up his seat, but Mulayam Singh Yadav asked him to continue, explaining that if Singh resigned, the seat would go to a BSP candidate. But six months later, Mulayam changed his tune and asked Singh to vacate his allotted seat in the House and resign his membership. Singh's hackles were up and he petitioned the Supreme Court challenging the SP's belated decision. The Supreme Court ruled that a larger judicial bench would have to be set up to decide the issue. In the meantime, Amar Singh can continue as an MP till 2014.

Jaya waits to have say

Amar Singh has to decide which party is best suited for his protégé, actress Jaya Prada, who has quit the Samajwadi Party. The Congress would presumably be happy to field Jaya from her Rampur constituency, but Jaganmohan Reddy, Singh's neighbour on Lodhi Road, is keen she joins the YSR Congress party in Andhra Pradesh. Jaya remains a big draw as an actress in the South. She intends to complain to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha that an Uttar Pradesh traffic police officer and 40 policemen recently barged into her residence in Rampur at the instance of UP Minister Azam Khan and threatened and abused her for using a red beacon on her car. However, since the Lok Sabha gets adjourned daily, she has not been able to raise the issue.

Opting for power

All parties claim piously that their concern is for the deprived and disadvantaged sections of society. But strangely enough, there is no demand from most of the smaller parties for representation on the parliamentary committees for SCs and STs and OBCs. This is because the smaller parties, including the CPM, the Samajwadi Party, the DMK, the AIADMK and the Akali Dal, would prefer to have a member in such prestigious parliamentary committees as the COPU (Committee on Public Undertakings) and PAC (Public Accounts Committee).

Vacant positions

While the number of parliamentary committees keeps increasing, the number of parliamentary reporters to cover the House and meetings of various committees has declined dramatically. Of a total of 45 slots for English language parliamentary reporters, there are 19 vacancies. The position for Hindi reporting is only slightly better. The two director-level posts in the English reporting division have not been filled, although 75 per cent of the work in Parliament is in English. In recent times, 10 reporters quit the department and left for other jobs.

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