Delhi Confidential: Out of favour

Though former Indian hockey team captain Dilip Tirkey, now a BJD MP, has been a regular in the House, he is usually a silent presence on the Rajya Sabha front bench. But of late, Tirkey has started participating. He responded to Jharna Das Baidya during zero hour and also took part in the insurance debate. He also raised the matter of tribal welfare during zero hour.

Brawnie points

The turbulent first half in the Lok Sabha Friday saw some light moments too. Raising the issue of rising incidents of robberies in ATMs during question hour, BJP’s Sanjay Dhotre said security guards in several ATM branches look “weak” and it is only because of their uniforms that they can be identified. An MP promptly joked that guards with big moustaches should be deployed. MoS for Finance Jayant Sinha said they will tell banks to make their guards “stronger” and if some members believe moustaches will scare robbers, then even that is a good suggestion and the government will consider it, leading to another round of laughter.

Boot camp

While compulsory military training for youth has often been talked about, the not-so-young mandarins working with the Centre may have a reason to feel concerned. If a Private Member’s Bill moved by BJP’s Lok Sabha MP B C Khanduri sees the light of day in Parliament, “able-bodied gazetted officers” of the central government could have to undergo compulsory military training in the coming years.

Poetry session

As he completes one year in jail over default in refunding investors, Subrata Roy and Sahara have engaged senior advocate Kapil Sibal as the new counsel. Sibal asked for a sympathetic view for his client, prompting Justice T S Thakur to ask Sibal, who is known to write poems, if he would want to recite something to describe the situation. Justice Thakur even invoked Mirza Ghalib to help Sibal. He said: “Runj se khun gar hua insan to mit jata hai runj, mushkilen mujh par padi itni ki aasan ho gayi. (When a person gets too many sorrows then sorrows disappear. So many difficulties fell upon me that everything became easy.)” Sibal nodded along and proceeded to argue his case.