The foreign ministry is upset with Anand Sharma and so is the ministry’s head, S M Krishna. They have complains that Anand Sharma interferes in the ministry’s territory at times. But this is one of Sharma’s old habits – for several years he has been sending concised notes to Sonia Gandhi pertaining to the foreign policy, the activities of neighbouring countries, and significant international issues. He continued with the habit when Sonia Gandhi was away in the US for her treatment. Sonia may not have been able to go through the notes, but Krishna has read the intentions behind the same – that Anand is eyeing the foreign minister’s post. Sharma’s in-laws are an NRI family from Africa, his wife lives in London, and so Sharma spends a considerable amount of time there. Whenever he gets a change, he flies away to London. It is said that the PM is not very happy with this, but Sharma has full faith in 10, Janpath.

Contrary to the party line (till such time that the BJP was in confusion about supporting Anna or not), the way Varun Gandhi supported the Anna Hazare movement has led to a lot of young supporters for him. Sri Sri Ravishankar had Anna meet Varun, and Anna had asked the saffron Gandhi to come to Ramlila Maidan but had also clarified that he will be unable to call Varun on the stage. That’s because according to his previous decision, the stage was barred for politicians. But Varun Gandhi caught the pulse of the moment and understood that even if he went to the venue and sat among the crowd, he will still get a lot of praise. So he got a lot of political mileage from the movement, contrary to his cousin.

After Manish Tiwari, are Sanjay Nirupam and Rashid Alvi next? Both of them also speak more than they should, at times. And let’s not even get started on their English. So Sanjay Nirupam, without blinking, said to a TV channel, “Anna was a zero, Anna is a hero.” The anchor promptly asked if that was the view most Congress people had to Anna and Nirupam was seen sitting there, not knowing what to say.

After a TV channel’s recent public opinion survey, the BJP is brimming with confidence. According to the survey results, along with Delhi, all Hindi-speaking states are said to have a preference for the BJP over the Congress. But the lotus may wilt in Punjab, and sensing this, a saffron leader from Amritsar Navjot Singh Siddhu has decided that this time he will contest the Lok Sabha elections from west Delhi. Also, another shining star of the party Arun Jaitley may try his luck from the New Delhi Parliamentary area.

During the rule of UPA I, when Sushma Swaraj was the president of the standing committee of the home ministry and Advani was the member of the committee, to show respect to Advani, Sushma would go to Advani’s home to present a report to him – she would also brief him about the meeting. She never thought it was necessary to call Advani for the meeting. But during UPA2, when Venkaiah Naidu became the president of the committee, he would call Advani for every meeting of the standing committee, so much so that when the standing committee members went to the police academy in Hyderabad, Venkaiah took Advani along. Seeing Advani at a place where he had laid the foundation stones for several projects during his rule as a deputy prime minister, several people were shocked and said, “Advani ji, you here, as an ordinary member?” Advani said, “I don’t breed egos. I respect the democracy and that is why I am here.” Actually he wanted to put on display his physical capabilities even at that age. It was almost like he was challenging his opponents in the party and the Sangh and saying, “Buddah hoga tera baap!”

Munni got a bad name in the Nepali Parliament, too. The Nepali Congress Parliamentarian, Minendra Rijal, who is also a former cultural minister, and has a soft corner for Hindi movie songs. So the moment the Parliament started its work on Thursday, Rijal faced the prime minister Jhala Nath Khanal with “Munni badnaam hui…” on his lips and asked for his resignation. While Rijal called the prime minister Munni, he likened former Maoist chief Pushp Kamal Dahal as the darling. It is worth mentioning that Khanal got the post of the prime minister only because of the support of the Maoists and now they are pressuring the prime minister to make 24 of its people ministers. But the Nepali Congress doesn’t want a reshuffle and thus the Parliament work is stalled for the past one month.

The “One drop of life” of the Pulse Polio movement proved to be fatal for Al Qaeda’s Laden. A British newspaper has recently reported this. All that the CIA knew was that someone important from the Al Qaeda lived in Abottabad, but didn’t know who it was. A known doctor Shakeel Afridi, who lives in an area in the Khyber Pass on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was given a big funding by the American agencies. The doctor went there with his nurses and tried to find out more through phone via the Pulse Polio movement but failed. The doctor’s nurses then started home visits on the pretext of Hepatitis-B. In the focus came Laden’s most trusted bodyguard-cum-courier. Laden lived on the top floor and the courier lived on the ground floor with his wife and child. The courier came to the medical centre with his wife and child, and the nurses came to his with the excuse of vaccination. They didn’t see Laden but noticed the SUVs parked there and the security arrangements. What followed was a green signal to Operation Laden.

Salman Khurshid knows the art of not sullying his clothes in a coal mine. Several corporate houses are thus happy with him being made the law minister, for instance Anil Ambani’s ADJ. When Salman was the corporate affairs minister, he had given a clean chit to Anil’s company regarding the 2G scam. Now Anil is convinced he will see him through several legal wrangles.

The way private airlines IndiGo have taken over the skies is nothing less than a miracle. The company has not only made a profit of Rs 700 crore, but has also placed a big order for purchasing 180 aircraft. Where companies such as Kingfisher owe crore to the Airport Authority of India, IndiGo is paying the authority money in advance and enjoying a rebate of upto 30 per cent. It has paid Indian Oil money in advance for a year for air turbine fuel and is enjoying hefty discounts as a result. The company was started by a travel agent Rahul Bhatia in 2006, who had a travel agency by the name of Globe Enterprises. Bhatia has connections in the political circles and it is believed that he has the blessings of two heavyweight Cabinet minister of the Manmohan Singh government, which could be the possible explanation for his company being so cash rich. It is being said that IndiGo has got permission to fly to Dubai and this permission has allegedly been granted by overlooking several rules by the home ministry. According to the home ministry guidelines, any private airlines wishing to conduct flights overseas should have its own security staff, but IndiGo has outsourced the function to another price security agency for the Dubai flights.

Cabinet secretary K M Chandrashekhar’s tenure gets over on June 13. It is likely that he may get an extension of another six months, but several heavyweights are in the fray for the post. Pulak Chatterjee seems to be leading, and no matter how much he tries to deny it, he has a strong case. Pulak has been Rajeev Gandhi’s private secretary and has also been with the Rajeev Gandhi Foundation. The other person with a strong case is Anup Mukherjee of the 1974 IAS batch, who has also been Bihar’s chief secretary. UP cadre’s Ajit Kumar Seth is also in the race. K Mohandas from the Shipping Ministry is being backed by the Malyali lobby. Alka Sirohi from Madhya Pradesh cadre is also fanning her ambitions.