You surely must have seen the prime minister showing new confidence and waxing eloquent and using sher-shayari to face Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj before the Budget session. Even those who barely understand politics have realized that Manmohan Singh is anxious to move out of the shadows of 10, Janpath. The forthcoming central Cabinet reshuffle may be a sign of things to come. This may happen in April or after May 5, when elections in all five states are over. Most people are coveting the law minister’s post. For instance, Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Salman Khurshid, Ashvini Kumar, Pavan Bansal and so on. Sonia feels Kapil Sibal is most suited to the post and the PM wants Ashvini Kumar to take over. But how much can one man Sibal take care of – he already handles the portfolios of human resource and development and telecom. Ghulam Nabi Azad’s name was also considered but after the Niira Radia tapes, he might not stand such a good chance. But the most active is Pavan Bansal, both within the Parliament and outside. It’s like his sleeping ambitions have suddenly woken up.

Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha S S Ahluvalia gets excited easily and when he does, it’s tough for him to control what he says. When the Upper House was being convened by P J Kurian, Ahluvalia locked horns with Kurian about adjourning the house and use some words that were not only in bad taste but also unparliamentary. Kurian was so upset that he had decided to render his resignation. When the vice president got wind of this, we called for an all party meeting and he privilege motion was almost agreed upon. SP’s Ramgopal and RJD’s Rajneeti Prasad also took Ahluvalia’s case and he was left on the backfoot, and had to render an apology to Kurian. Kurian was then persuaded to not resign and S S breathed a sigh of relief – and so did the BJP.

It’s the season of Holi and political hues abound. If there’s so much that is false in Wikileaks, then why are so many cases registered against its founder Assange? For Manmohan Singh, denying Wikileaks information is like saying he is not controlled by the powers that be at 10, Janpath. The Hindu knew about these cables three months ago, then why were they revealed now? That’s because elections are due in five states and the editor of the newspaper N Ram is said to be close to the Communist Party and is often heard advocating a balanced society. So now, when the Wikileaks cables have leaked, the egg will be on Congress’ face and the Communist Party may stand to gain in states such as West Bengal and Kerala. At least that’s what N Ram is gunning for.

Ever since BJP’s old ironman L K Advani has been surrounded by gurumurti Ram Jethmalani, Balbir Punj and Subramaniam Swami, two opposites from the Advani camp, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley have left their differences behind and are bonding. Since the friendship is newly found, it is obviously creating waves. When both leaders went to Pranab Mukherjee for the JPC demand, never had such coordination been seen between the Opposition leaders of Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. If you leave the Advani coterie aside, everyone including the Sangh Parivar has approved of the friendship.

All is clear for the way of forming a JPC on the 2G scam. Pranab Mukherjee told Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj that if a JPC would help in the Parliament working again, so be it. Pranab da also spoke to the Opposition party regarding the terms of reference. Now’s the time for all Parliament members to put in their names for being a part of the JPC.

Rajya Sabha member and noted industrialist from Bihar K D Singh is soaring high on new political innings. When he was limited to Jharkhand, he would talk about endlessly about his friendship with Central Minister Subodh Kant Sahay. Then when he managed to get into the Rajya Sabha and came to Delhi and made some new friends who were different from what the party would ask. So he was pally with Salman Khurshid and Sashi Tharoor from the Congress, Rajeev Prasad Rudy from the BJP, and Mukul Rai from Trinamool. For Singh, Delhi was new and so were the friends, hopes and the way for a new political innings. To oblige his newly-found friends, he also set another benchmark – Singh made available his private plane to his friends with a ‘fly where you will’ offer. On one end he nursed his political ambitions and on the other, his friends made full use of the offer. When a complex issue of his company was stuck in the Company Affairs Ministry, the then Company Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid got it fixed in a jiffy.

Thanks to Shipping Minister for State Mukul Rai, who has taken it upon himself to get D K Singh’s political boat to anchor. So he had Singh meet his party president Mamata in an informal meeting. God knows what green pastures Singh promised didi but she seemed to have warmed towards him has made him a member of a Trinamool Committee. It is heard that he will help the party in a big financial way for the oncoming state elections. In exchange he wants a post at the centre from the party. Since didi will have taken over as the chief minister of state, Singh is seeing himself as the next railways minister! It’s a case of: “If you want to see my flight, raise the sky even higher.”

World Cup, the mahakumbh of cricket has started and it is natural for the countrymen to flow with the wave. Once this one-day gala is done, following close on heels is the T-20 with IPL 4. The controversy here is that the IPL is being dogged by the Kochi franchisee. But the Kerala stamp in the team is just in name since only one Malyali Venu Nair has invested his money in it, and that too for just one per cent; the rest belongs to the diamond merchants from Gujarat. Now the Kochi franchisee has written to the BCCI asking the body to transfer it to Ahmedabad franchisee. The reason cited in the letter is as interesting as the franchisees. They argue that the Kerala government has not given them land for a stadium as yet, the tax in the state is too much and so on. BCCI is taken aback by this proposal.

It is being said that the minister who has been dropped from Sheila Dixit’s Cabinet has a CD story attached to him. Singhal, who has been shown the door by her had a CD of his circulating in the market and it somehow reached the chief minister. Do we need to elaborate what the CD could have been?

This sudden press conference by the prime minister has shocked even the managers of Congress. Such a stunt by a non-political prime minister and nothing comes of it is a cause for worry. The party has already shared its fears and worried with the prime minister. The way the PM has correlated the JPC demand to Gujarat’s former home minister Amit Shah’s arrest is a sign of political immaturity according to Congressmen. So when the stars of BJP Sushma and Jaitley approached Pranab Mukherjee regarding the JPC demand on Wednesday, Pranab da understood why these two leaders were a little pulled down. Despite them being younger, Pranab da asked them for apologies about the PM’s comment with folded hands and called it a political mistake.