Led by Murli Manohar Joshi, the PAC’s term is due to end on April 30, which means the body will have to present a report on the 2G scam by April 28-29. A new PAC is set to be made on May 1, and talks and strategies are already in place for the same

For a long time, Snagh Parivar has wanted Advani to take over as a mentor of the party and instead for being at the centre of things in the political arena, he should take a backseat and from there, try to drive the party into the country’s mainstream. But the way top officials and journalists came for Advani’s high tea on Ashtami, some people even complained that they weren’t invited. So, another party was organized at his residence on the occasion of Ram Navami, and those who had been left were invited. For the first party, a half-hour movie by Advani’s talented daughter Pratibha Advani was shown, wherein devotional songs and film songs associated with Lord Ram were used as a background and Pratibha played the role of a narrator. A similar movie by Pratibha was shown on Advani’s birthday, which revealed the emotional bond of love between father and daughter.

There is a ruckus on about the Shahid Balwa and Sharad Pawar connection. But Balwa was first associated with the Karunanidhi family. He was once the frontman of T R Baalu. He emerged at the treasurer for Dramuk, before which he had just two restaurants running in Mumbai. But since his connection with Karunanidhi, Balwa came into unprecedented wealth. He first came in contact with Vinod Goenka, who introduced him to Sharad Pawar.

This may, Medical Council of India’s head Dr Shiv Kumar Sarin is due to retire. Azad and his associates are waiting for this to happen so that the current MCI committee can be disassembled, which means Ketan Desai and company may again control the MCI. Is Anna Hazare listening?

When Ghulam Nabi took over the health ministry, he found V S Ramachandran and Rao there, too. It is said that without Rao’s permission, no file ever moves in the ministry. Since S K Rao’s fame has reached the PMO, the all-powerful Kuttinair from the PMO has asked Nabi to relieve Rao of his duties. Instead of him, Nabi is now set to get an officer from the UT cadre as a PS. It is worth mentioning here that it is the same Rao whose name was named with the infamous Ketan Desai from the Medical Council.

Hoisting her flag high in the corporate and political arena, there is an interesting story about Niira Radia’s rise. How did she come to be here? When Ghulam Nabi Azad was the civil aviation minister, his then OSD introduced Radia to Azad for the first time, who was impressed with her free thinking. She has gone to Azad with her Crown Affair proposal. Then S K Rao was a part of Azad’s team. When NDA government took over at the Centre, civil aviation ministry went to Anant Kumar, by when Ramachandran was Anant’s PS. Radia and Anant’s tale goes back to those days.

A capable politician, it seems Nitish Kumar has realized governor Devanand Kunar’s intentions and popularity and that is why he has placed a new vidheyak in the Vidhan Sabha. Under the ruling, the governor will have to take approval from the state government for any vice-chancellor post nominations. The governor is being blamed for giving shelter to a known university’s vice chancellor. This same vice chancellor Dinesh Prasad Sinha tried to molest Bhojpuri folk singer Devi in an inebriated state. The governor is also being blamed for hitting a worker at Bihar Bhavan in New Delhi’s Chanakyapuri area. No matter what he does, the news is bound to travel far.

It may be good news for the BJP that this time the party may make some progress in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Some top strategy planners of the party decided to send Sushma Swaraj to south India under an organized plan. And as becomes her aggressive stance, as soon as she took over the campaigning in the south, Sushma has started the spadework for the BJP’s entry into distant Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Today, once considered to hold her own in Kannada, Sushma can give speeches in Tamil and Malayalam for 12 minutes without stopping. Sushma finds Malayalam easier since she says its closer to Sanskrit. Election campaigning in the south meant Sushma has to devote a day to Tamil and another to Malayalam alternately. For now she is back in Delhi, practicing to speak in Hindi again.

Fairly unknown in the north Indian states, when Nitin Gadkari took over the reins of the BJP, there were doubts about his leadership and little expectations. But Gadkari’s proactive working style makes one feel that it will make his critics keep shut. Contrary to his predecessor Rajnath Singh, who was known for his inability to take decisions, Gadkari has a habit of taking them in haste. Compared to his other predecessors, he is always on the move. He likes to travel and Sangh Parivar seems to like it. But his plans and speeches about the party are long, but he is busy trying to build his image into someone who gives results. He is also worried about his excess flab, and instead of grains and carbs, is concentrating more on dal and vegetables. His aim is to reduce 15 kg in the next three months. Not that it will make any difference to his political weight he flourishes.

The Congress is not going to let go of Shanti bhushan lightly. His taped conversation with Amar Singh is only the start of things – the main course remains. Several other matters associated with him will come to light. Any the Congress anyways doesn’t consider him a non-political person because in 1980, the founding year of the party, he was the vice-president of the saffron party and was also the law minister with the Janata Party government. Apart from this, his son Prashant Bhushan has his own house in Palampur in Himachal Pradesh. This calls for investigation on how a non-Himachali person has managed to buy property in the state. The conversation that has been leaked is merely one minute and 55 seconds but it is being said that the government has more conversations, which will be released timely. If sources are to be believed, the government has an entire dossier against Shanti bhushan.