Lalu Yadav bats for son
Lobbying is an art in which every politician has to excel. Lobbying to stall the Indo-US nuclear deal, lobbying in favour of negotiations for the deal, lobbying for party posts and the list goes on.

And now the story is while the UPA and the Left leadership are breaking their heads on issues of “national interests” like the Hyde Act and its impact on India’s independent foreign policy, RJD chief Lalu Prasad is lobbying in a “sporting spirit.”

The Railway Minister, who is popular among his colleagues for his quotable quotes, wanted to give them a break during the meeting of the joint UPA-Left committee on nuclear deal, by lobbying for his cricketer son Tejashwi.
So as soon as BCCI President Sharad Pawar, who is also a member of the committee, entered the meeting room, Lalu told the Left leaders, “Arre bhai, kabhi mera bhi saath dia karo (please give me your support). Please put in a request to Pawar on my behalf to include my son in the national cricket team.”

And what’s wrong in it? After all, this is also an issue of “national interest!”

Shruba Mukherjee

‘It’s time for sycophancy’
For delegates who thronged the Talkatora Stadium in the capital for the one-day AICC meeting this weekend, the only thing of importance was to hear newly-appointed general secretary Rahul Gandhi speak.

From the very beginning of the meeting, they kept on shouting the name of the Congress’ Family No 1 scion, not relenting even when senior party leader Janardan Dwivedi said he would speak in the afternoon.

The leadership, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and others like Pranab Mukherjee, did not help matters much by praising Rahul sky high during their speeches. The situation became such that when a woman delegate from Orissa came up to speak on the resolutions, she was not allowed to start by shouting delegates demanding that Rahul speak, till Sonia Gandhi came up to the podium and asked them to listen to the lady’s speech.

And when Rahul Gandhi’s turn to speak came, for a while nothing was audible as the delegates competed with each other to shout slogans in his name. Quite predictably, every sentence of Rahul’s written speech was accepted with thunderous applause, including his “Congress president, Prime Minister, senior leaders and bhaiyon aur behno” line. And also quite predictably, as soon as he finished his about 10-minute speech, the delegates started leaving the venue in droves, as if the meeting had come to an end!

Utpal Borpujari