NEW DELHI:
Venkaiahisms
M Venkaiah Naidu is creating ripples in his role as Rajya Sabha Chairman with his habit of punning words. Apart from telling an MP that the point of order he was raising had neither ‘point’ nor ‘order’, Naidu has been asking MPs to put out their “brief”’ questions and the ministers their “brief”’ answers. Breaking into a laugh, a minister claimed that the Chair told the opposition MPs, “I’ll change my dress but not my address”!
‘I know Hindi’
HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar’s IIM (Amendment) Bill nearly got scuttled, when irate Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Goyal reacted to RS deputy chair P J Kurien’s ruling that the House would sit for an extra hour to clear government business. “We’re people’s servant, not government servant,” Goyal shot back in chaste Hindi, citing how the treasury has reneged on the promise of allowing a ‘short duration’ and a ‘call attention’ motion every week. Kurien quipped, “I know enough Hindi to figure out, you’re twisting (my statement).”
BJP old guard
The Gujarat results may have put the BJP on the backfoot, but the old guard of the party saw it as a sobering moment. Some seem to be enjoying the temporary downturn in Amit Shah’s fortunes. He was missing in Parliament. One BJP veteran even related that everyone was worried till the PM flashed his victory sign on Monday. Gujarat was admittedly a tight-rope walk for the saffron camp.