Who is afraid of snap poll?
Uppermost in the minds of a large number of Congress guests attending Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Iftar party on Saturday was the question of stability of the UPA government. Pranab Mukherjee was not among those who attended the PM’s Iftar. But it was his reported plain-speak to Left leaders at Friday’s UPA-Left nuclear panel deal meeting that the government could not indefinitely hold back finalisation of the India-specific safeguards agreement with the IAEA which triggered renewed speculations about the possibilities of early Lok Sabha elections.

CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, who attended the Iftar, did not say anything about the talk of inevitable early elections. But he certainly was rather grim. May be because Congress leaders were not as warm towards him as they have been in the past.

Yechury was not the only ally who might have felt rather isolated. Congress’ Kashmir ally Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who too made it to the Iftar, was confined to a lonely corner. His Congress rival, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, was though doing all the talking. “They are all doubtful allies now,” remarked a Congress leader alluding to leaders like Yechury and the Mufti.

The poser of the occasion, however, was this: With so many unhappy allies around, would the Congress accept H D Deve Gowda as its ally in Karnataka all over again? “If Lok Sabha elections are there, we might as well have assembly elections in Karnataka simultaneously rather than do business with Gowda,” quipped one Congress leader. But not everyone was so sure. 
K Subrahmanya

See-through chambers
What could be more important for a public figure or for that matter for a public servant — other than transparency?

And what could be a better way to show “total transparency”? Any guess!

What about the idea of installing a see-through glass door at the entry of office chamber? It seems this idea has inspired Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh as he is the only Central minister, who has put this into action.

Quite some time back, Ramesh after assuming office had installed a see-through glass door at the entry of his official chamber in the Udyog Bhavan.

Apparently taking a cue from Ramesh, the Member-Secretary of the Planning Commission, R R Shah, has also recently installed a see-through glass door at the entry of his official chamber in the Yojana Bhavan.

It seems this has impressed not only visitors to the Planning Commission but also other officials.
Aditya Raj Das