Ghulam Nabi Azad, a close confidante of Sonia Gandhi, has been authorised by the Union Council of Ministers to brief ‘Madam’ on Lokpal, Anna Hazare, the controversy over the death sentence of three Tamils, Afzal Guru, and other political developments.

Nervous Congress leaders are getting ready to welcome their chief, who had been abroad for treatment. Some Union Ministers and the All India Congress Committee functionaries want to maintain a semblance of normalcy to suggest that the Congress is doing fine, despite the drubbing it suffered at the hands of Team Anna. Party managers want to pass a number of legislations — the land acquisition bill, seeds bill, whistle blowers’ bill — in an effort to retrieve lost political ground. But will this be enough to hide the warts from Madam’s hawk-eye? Remains to be seen.

School for scandal
The role played by a lady friend of a Union Minister, is now being closely observed by Hindi TV channels. There is an apprehension that a TV channel might do a sting operation on the minister’s office. The lady in question was given a popular school franchise in Chennai, which she sold for a four-fold profit.

She should not take the ‘law’ into her hands, is the observation by opponents of the minister. The wife of the minister also suspects her husband. An intelligence agency has also reported to the PMO, on the extra-constitutional authority of the lady friend. As usual, the PMO has ignored the secret report.

Polyglot Ahluwalia
Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Hamid Ansari is upset with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition S S Ahluwalia for his frequent interruptions in the proceedings of the Upper House. Ansari recently told him to take his seat, but Ahluwalia, made an unparliamentary statement in Urdu. The man knows four languages, apparently well enough to creatively deploy them. The statement was removed from the records, but Ansari still plans to take up Ahluwalia’s bad manners with BJP leaders.

Gadkari does a somersault
Nitin Gadkari’s ‘somersault’ has surprised many in the BJP. Gadkari shot off a letter to Anna Hazare, pledging his party’s support to the Jan Lokpal Bill. What has surprised BJP members is that Gadkari, who has been worried by the impact of the Anna phenomenon in his home state, Maharashtra, has now suddenly decided to offer an olive branch to the activist. In fact, Gadkari has been known to share ‘Anna jokes’ during story-telling sessions in private. One such tale concerns Hazare’s ‘success’ in forcing a former Maharashtra Chief Minister to drop four tainted colleagues. The truth, according to Gadkari’s version, is that the CM, having failed to dismiss the ministers, passed some incriminating documents to Hazare, who promptly sat on a fast to demand their removal. Talk about hidden connections!

Peaches and politics
Salman Khurshid’s telephone has not stopped ringing. And, why not? Having rescued a government that was outsmarted by the wily Anna Hazare, his political stars are shining brighter than ever before. And it isn’t as if only grateful partymen have been dialing Khurshid’s number. Several civil society members have also called and congratulated Khurshid over his liberal stand regarding the Lokpal Bill.

Political opponents have not been left far behind either in the race to dial Khurshid. On Eid, Narendra Modi spoke to him over the phone; so did Mayavati, who, after having spoken to the man of the moment, asked him to hand the phone over to his wife. Khurshid’s wife, Louise Fernandes, is from Karnataka. A former English magazine journalist, she is an MLA in UP, and the couple has three adult sons.

Behenji reminded Louise that she had relished the box of fruits — peaches and apricots — that had been sent to her from Khurshid’s orchard. Louise, who has bagged a Congress ticket to contest the Farrukhabad assembly seat in the forthcoming state elections in Uttar Pradesh, assured Mayavati that a fresh stock will reach her soon. Some say that this political masterstroke is likely to earn Mrs Khurshid a smooth electoral victory.

Jaitley’s history lesson
Arun Jaitley helped the government draft the Parliamentary resolution that ended the Lokpal deadlock, rising above party politics to try and play a statesman-like role. The Rajya Sabha MP also explained the genesis of the term Lokpal as he hoped that Abhishek Singhvi’s “political pedigree” would stand him in good stead when he studied the various versions of the proposed legislation, as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law.

Jaitley said the term Lokpal was a translation of the Scandinavian concept of “Ombudsman”. On April 3, 1963, a young Independent Lok Sabha MP, L.M. Singhvi, spoke in a debate on having an ombudsman in India and said the Hindi word Lokpal could be its closest equivalent.“Now it is a coincidence that his very distinguished son, Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, has to prepare the final draft of this Bill,” Jaitley added.

Prison magic
Kiran Bedi is the next Chief Ministerial candidate for New Delhi. This is the buzz in Delhi Police circles. It is being said that the credit for organsing a mamomth agitation, without violence, goes to Bedi. She is said to have laisoned with Delhi police officers and influenced them not to use lathis on the agitators.

Thanks to Anna Hazare, supercop Bedi got a chance to revisit Tihar Jail, where she was in charge more than a decade ago. During her tenure, Bedi had instituted a number of reforms in the management of the prison, including several measures to turn it into a real ashram. With Anna being held in Tihar, Bedi was able to review the present situation in the jail. But Anna had worked his own magic on the inmates. Soon after Anna left the premises, the inmates were found following him and his movement on television news channels. It is said that some of them had even gone on a fast in support of the ‘leader’ of the masses.