The ‘e’asier way?

Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is hailed as the one who ushered in computerisation in the country. In the current age of computers and internet, it is natural if ministers and MPs demand the appointment-seekers to send in their request by e-mail rather than through oral telephone requests or even fax.

That’s how, the Congress’s heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi wants it to be. With the Amethi MP being made general secretary, the 37-year-old son of Rajiv, gets hundreds of requests for appointments. To keep a track of such requests on their computer screens, the office of the Lok Sabha MP wants the visitors-to-be to put in their requests through e-mail.

However, one appointment-seeker left the office managers of Rahul stumped the other day. This visitor from Amethi constituency of the yuvraj who telephoned to seek an appointment, was asked to put in his request through e-mail. The humble Amethiite shot back: “It  is difficult to even find a cybercafe in Amethi, or even computer literates in this constituency and you want us to e-mail you our request?”

Taken aback, the office staff agreed with the person on the end and dutifully took down the request for appointment.

B S Arun

‘Vora’cious worker

As the Indo-US nuclear deal has been put on the back burner, mid-term poll worries for the Congress has evaporated. After party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave clear hints about both, party leaders immediately started breathing easy.

The pronouncements having come just before the start of the festival season, senior Congress leaders have started implementing their festivity-related plans, which many of them had feared would have to be put on the back burner if the political situation had precipitated.

So, if Digvijay Singh is off to his ancestral home Raghogarh in Madhya Pradesh for a vacation of nearly 10 days to observe the religious rituals associated with Navaratri followed by the festivities of Dussehra, Sonia Gandhi herself is embarking on a three-day visit of Rae Bareli to be followed by a four-day visit to China. In the meantime, the Prime Minister is also off to his Nigeria and South Africa visits.

Quite understandably, the weekend saw no leader present at the AICC headquarters, except, of course, treasurer Motilal Vora who also looks after the administrative work of AICC. A workaholic, Vora, who just got an angioplasty done and will enter 80 this December, has been religiously attending office and clearing off files with virtually no visitors to disturb him.

Utpal Borpujari