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When the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, presented a hand-made ‘wall mat', with Rabindranath Tagore's picture in the centre and one of his poems woven around it, Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, was seen on television screens waving it gleefully. US strategists heaved a sigh of relief at having ‘culturally' reined in an unpredictable Indian leader. But as Ms Clinton left India, linguists in West Bengal found umpteen mistakes and howlers in the Bengali on the wall mat.
A controversy is out in Bengali newspapers, demanding apologies from the US Embassy. Trinamool supporters have urged the US not to hurry with the FDI in retail — ‘WalMart' — but instead correct the language errors on the ‘wall mat'.
Troubled waters
The Congress Party's onslaught on its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has taken a new turn. The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Prithviraj Chavan, has now decided to bring out a White Paper on the State Irrigation Department, which has been under the control of the NCP for the last 10 years.
Chavan wants to know why 16 districts in the State are still facing drought, while over Rs 70,000 crore has been spent since 2002.
A senior State Government official observed that investigating the Irrigation Department is like opening a Pandora's Box — the Congress Party won't be able to contain the fallout.
It could lead to realignment of power equations in the State.
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