Former Chief Minister and AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa is now referred to as “People's Chief Minister” by her loyalists, after she stepped down following her conviction in a corruption case. Even government press releases by some ministries refer to taking action under the guidance of the “people's chief minister” or the “revolutionary leader, Amma” as she is commonly referred to.

When she was in power, she was known as the “ nirandhara mudhal amaichar ” meaning “chief minister forever”. A short while ago, loyalists started calling her the “prime minister of the future”. But what’s in a name change? Amma goes on forever.

Moral policing in Kozhikode

In what is being dubbed a Sri Ram Sena-style operation, activists of the Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the BJP, attacked and caused extensive damage to a hotel in Kozhikode, alleging that the hotel promoted prostitution. This followed a report telecast on a private news channel.

However, the hotel owners have denied the allegation and lodged a complaint with the local police. The Kerala Hotels and Restaurants Association and the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samiti (traders’ association) have protested the attack and urged the government to take strong action against those responsible for it. Political observers see the attack as an assertion of the increasing clout of the BJP-RSS in the State and an attempt to grab attention in view of the 2016 Assembly election.

Man of the match?

Ravi Shankar Prasad has had his share of briefing the media on Cabinet decisions, like P Chidambaram in the UPA government. But this job is back with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

In fact, briefings last week to announce key reforms for the energy sector had Jaitley facing such a volley of questions that a journalist remarked: “You are coming out every time as man of the match”!

National calorific value

The much awaited gas price announcement has turned out to be a comedy of errors. Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas officials, of course, described it as a communication gap between the team that worked on the gas price formula and those briefing Arun Jaitley.

The miscommunication resulted in the Finance Minister announcing a price of $5.61 a unit on gross calorific value which was actually the net calorific value based price. And adding further confusion was the Government’s official statement, which talked about national calorific value, a term the industry was unaware of.

It’s only words

There have been strong rumours that Road Minister Nitin Gadkari does not want NHAI Chairman RP Singh to continue. But, consider this. Less than three months ago, at a FICCI conference, Gadkari had publicly “thanked” Singh for his contribution to the road sector by going out of the way to settle disputes! “I can understand how difficult his problems were,” Gadkari had said then.

Counsel on corruption

Supreme Court senior advocate Ram Jethmalani is known for his straight talking. In a scathing letter to Arun Jaitley on Diwali day, the nonagenarian Jethmalani said the Centre’s move to file a petition in the Supreme Court on the black money issue was one of the most “ill-advised” steps taken by the new regime.

His advice to Jaitley: Please do not send the names you have got from the Germans to the Swiss. Send them to the SIT so that they can tell them what to do. Don’t use DTAT with Germany as this treaty should not be used in the current matter. Also, don’t take steps in investigation without information being supplied to SIT and permission being obtained.

Jethmalani is said to have signed the letter with the tagline “Expelled member of BJP” in true Ram Jethmalani style.

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