BJP’s National Treasurer and Rajya Sabha Member Piyush Goel may be a chartered accountant by profession, but his nature is that of an economist. Recently, when a Parliamentary Representative Committee, which included JD(U)’s N K Singh (who has been the revenue secretary) and four other Parliamentarians went for an Indo-Japan Partnership seminar, it was Piyush Goel’s speech that was appreciated the most. He talked about the disadvantages of the Japanese high-cost economy and advised that if Japan wanted to stay in the global economy and become more competitive, it will have to import cheap Indian labour. The Parliamentarian from Kyoto was so impressed with Piyush’s speech that after the seminar, he invited Piyush to Kyoto and Piyush returned to India two days after the other Indian representatives.

The changing times have changed Rahul, too. His political thinking and language has changed, too. A few days ago, Rahul was walking down the central hall with young BJP leader Kamlesh Paswan of Basgaon village of UP, when state minister RPN Singh called out to Rahul from behind saying, “Sir, have you seen the UP paper…” Rahul ignored it and kept walking and the minister hurried up to walk alongside Rahul and repeated the question. Rahul gave the Congressman a piercing look and said, “When I’ve read it, I’ll let you know.” Only until very recently, Rahul could be seen talking to his party members jovially. Something has happened for him to change tack.

The Gangavaram Port issue is back in news again. It is believed that the matter cost former Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh his post. That’s because the issue of making Gangavaram Port permanent gained ground during his tenure, and the board too had given it a 15-year agreement. But looks like the current minister has not learnt any lessons from his former counterpart and is getting ready to be obliged and give the go-ahead to the port anytime. But why is the Congress high command so unhappy with Gangavaram, especially since its inauguration had been done by Sonia Gandhi herself during Rajshekhar Reddy’s tenure as chief minister. Sources reveal that Jaganmohan Reddy has a big share in the port, which is being taken care of by his frontman DVS Raju. Vishakhapatnam has another port Kakinada, but only ships carrying material less than 50,000 tonne can come here, whereas Gangavaram port’s cap size is 50,000-1,50,000 tonnes. The plan to make the port permanent has been in the offing for a long time, but no central minister has given it a sanction until now, but now that the minister is ready to take the dire step, there’s nothing much one can do.

Till Amar was in Tihar, he was in a bad state. Not that it stopped him from being a loudmouth. But his health really deteriorated and the infection in his body spread. So that is why he couldn’t control his emotions at times and would scream, “I’ll either die or open my mouth before dying and that will be the undoing of several big names.” Clearly, he carries several secrets in his heart, which are connected to the “Cash for vote” and the nuclear deal. The most surprising is America’s interest in Amar Singh. The India-based American embassy is always anxious to know how Amar Singh is doing. America’s interest in Amar in such a way is clearly a matter of deep speculation.

The government is upset with the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA’s) performance regarding the Delhi bomb blast. It is unhappy that the aim with which the NIA was formed has not been met by the agency. It has not been able to solve even one case until now. But what can the NIA do; the government hasn’t given it any law protection. Its duties include investigating terrorism, prevent it, and prosecute those found guilty. But the question is that when the agency doesn’t have its own intelligence set up how can it collect any information? That is the reason it hasn’t been able to see any case to its natural solving since the 26/11 attack. The NIA neither has its own active intelligence, nor does it get any assistance from other government investigative agencies at the right time. The right thing to do would have been to recruit the best IPS officers of India in the agency and they should have been selected from different states. But what is really happening? Only such officials are being appointed in the agency who have made state CMs unhappy and it is like a kalapani posting. Most officers in the agency are those that have never served a terror-infested area during their service. Also, they have neither got any professional training nor legal. They have no machine for intelligence gathering, no team of super cops, and neither a head command like Gill or Riberio. So how can you blame the NIA alone?

According to most political experts, news channel anchors have been rechristened noisemen and not newsmen.

The same question is being asked within the Congress: which genius prepared Rahul’s speech during the Anna episode, because of which Manmohan got brownie points and the speech flopped. All fingers are pointing at Kapil Sibal.

The prime minister’s former media advisor Sanjay Baru, who is currently traveling to Geneva and New York, will be back in India on September 19 and will resign from Business Standard, and will join London-based Institute. But he will be posted in Delhi so that he can freely advise the prime minister.

This is not the first time when a complaint against Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma has reached the prime minister. The recent one is about NMDC (National Mineral Development Corporation), which comes under the steel ministry. The PSB, that is Public Enterprising Selection Board has selected an honest officer M S Rana for the CMD’s post, but under pressure from the mining lobby, the minister is advocating the appointment of NMDC’s director, technical, N K Nanda for the post. It is the same Nanda who was once in-charge of the mining in Bellary, and nothing about what happened there is hidden. The PMO itself seems to be in favour of Rana, because of the radical steps Rana has taken as the mint’s in-charge. The PMO wants him to repeat the success at NMDC, but the minister himself doesn’t see eye-to-eye with the PM on this.

For those (Sangh) who pushed Advani to the fringes of politics, this roar from the old lion might be a new challenge. It seems like Advani is bent to prove that he is neither tired not retired. Advani says that he has consulted with Gadkari himself about the rath yatra against corruption but the Gadkari camp says that Advani had merely informed them about the same. So who says Advani is not in the fray for the prime minister’s post? But what is most surprising is that the anchor for Advani’s rath yatra is going to be none other than Anant Kumar. One can’t really digest the fact that Anant Kumar will be the one talking against corruption since the one thing most famous about him is that corruption starts from the place where he stands.