Delhi Confidential: Last laugh

Kiran Bedi

North East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari has all of a sudden become a hero. MPs from BJP as well as other parties were seen praising him for his “political acumen” in foreseeing BJP’s poor show in the Delhi elections under Kiran Bedi. While Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan suggested that Tiwari should encash his new stature and host a ‘Holi Milan’, NCP MP Supriya Sule praised him for being the “first BJP leader” to publicly criticise the projection of Bedi as CM during Delhi elections. As Tiwari struggled to hide his glee, a slightly envious Ramesh Bidhuri tried to temper the mood saying none of the BJP candidates from Poorvanchal region got elected. Tiwari asked him to name the candidates who won from his area.

Nishikant, Nitish or Nishant?
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, while speaking during the motion of thanks on the President’s address, had both the Treasury and the Opposition benches in splits when he kept on forgetting Godda MP Nishikant Dubey’s first name. Dubey had spoken just ahead of Kharge and the Congress leader had to refer to several of the Jharkhand MP’s remarks during his speech. First he referred to him as Nitish. When corrected, he tried saying that both Nitish and Nishikant were his good friends. A while later, he was at it again, this time referring to Dubey as Nishant.

Records on offer
Lok Sabha MPs who want to have video recordings of their respective speeches, participation or intervention in the House proceedings would no longer have to sweat it out to procure them. The Audio-Visual Unit of the Lok Sabha Secretariat plans to make available copies of Lok Sabha proceedings to members in the form of two-hour long DVDs at Rs 100 per copy. The MPs will just need to send their requests indicating the date, time and subject of their participation to avail these recordings.

Expert advice
The HRD Ministry’s focus on preserving and promoting Indian languages, especially Sanskrit, is clear from the inclusion of a language expert in the ministry’s team in an advisory capacity. Chamu Krishna Shastry of the Sanskrit Promotion Foundation, who pioneered the Speak Sanskrit Movement, has been advising the ministry and HRD Minister Smriti Irani on matters related to languages on a regular basis and is seen in the ministry almost everyday. Shastry recently also travelled with the minister to Chennai on Matribhasha Diwas.