No one like the PM

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh recently praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sitting with chief ministers of drought-affected States for “as long as two hours” and holding detailed discussions. An official release of the agriculture ministry quoted Singh as saying this was the first time a Prime Minister was doing such a thing.

Praising the PM and attributing all positive policy decisions to him at public forums may be second nature to Singh and others. But glorifying him for discussing the handling of drought, especially when the Supreme Court had pulled up the Centre for not focussing enough on the issue, is surely a case of stretching adulation too far. Maska chaska?

The hero’s tale

The real hero in Kerala’s Assembly election is lone wolf PC George whom the political class loves to hate because of his loose tongue, unstable political stance and aggressive character. He shocked the entire State by winning his Poonjar constituency by a thumping majority. In a four-cornered contest — he was ringed by the UDF, LDF and NDA — George came up tops.

It has been real tough for an independent candidate to win an election in Kerala’s bipolar political space, but George, 64, a former government chief whip, proved his mettle. George was thrown out of the Kerala Congress (Mani), which is part of the UDF, for his constant criticism of party chairman KM Mani.

He then supported the LDF and hoped to be fielded as an LDF candidate to retain his constituency. But the LDF let him down. Offended, he stood as an independent. And now, George is the only independent in the 14th Kerala Assembly. Perseverance pays.

No power trip, this

The press conference hosted by Minister of Power and Coal Piyush Goyal to talk about his ministry’s achievements was marred by several power cuts on Friday. The irony of the situation was not missed and got the social timelines abuzz. Not only did the director-general of the Press Information Bureau order an enquiry into the incident but by the evening, the ministry of information and broadcasting also had issued a release with the preliminary enquiry report findings. 

The release elaborately defined the back-up power mechanism of the National Media Centre where the conference was held, much in the manner of the findings of a major investigative exercise. The release described how PIB officials took the “decision to put Gensets into manual mode to maintain the supply without further tripping” since power supply was not stable in automatic mode. However, the minister continued with the conference without batting an eyelid and even cracked a joke to get the situation under control.

Generally unmodified gaffe

At a recent farmers’ event in the capital, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian who was delivering a talk on resurrecting farmers’ livelihoods, waxed eloquent on BT cotton and increased productivity from GM crops. When he concluded his speech, the moderator of the evening, the former Indian Express editor Shekhar Gupta, gently pointed out the RSS stand on GM seeds and said the CEA might soon get the “same love and affection” that RBI governor Raghuram Rajan was getting. 

Counter-offensive

While on the subject of the CEA, whenever he is posed a difficult question, he responds with a stock reply: that replying to it is above his pay grade. He used this line so often when responding to questions from the audience at the farmers’ meet that people began prefixing their questions with: “Is this in your pay grade?” Now that’s being quick on the uptake.

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