The government’s dialogue with the Ulfa is stuck. Ulfa’s hardliner group (Paresh Barua) is not ready to accept the pro forma of the government’s agreement. So that the dialogue doesn’t break midway, the government mediators have already sprung to action and are trying to make the agreement a lot more flexible. Arvind Rajkhowa is ready but Barua is giving the government a hard time sitting in Myanmar.

The biggest case of impeachment motion on a serving judge will soon reach the Parliament. The case is about Soumitra Sen, who is being accused that as a liquidator (when he was a lawyer), the money from a property was put in his personal account. The committee formed to investigate the matter has held Sen guilty. The impeachment motion will now reach the Rajya Sabha on 17-18 August, and on 24-25 in Lok Sabha. For the Parliament to pass it, the motion will have to get a majority of two-third votes, but a whip can’t be passed for the same. Until the last moment, the law ministry is trying to get the justice to resign himself so that he can save everyone the trouble.

Uttar Pradesh’s DGP Karamveer Singh is going to retire soon, but only as far as his post goes, and now where his ambitions are concerned. There was a time when he wiped Maya madam’s shoes and it kicked such a fuss. Now he is ready to do anything for the Congress, too. So on Satish Mishra’s behest, Digvijay Singh himself is representing him. Karamveer is karamveer (a solid worker) and wants the Central government to give him a chance to serve it, too, so that he either becomes a special secretary with the home ministry or a state governor. Since he does know well the way to get a good post, you never know….

The deputy chief minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi has been made the chairman of the Goods and Service Tax Committee. Before this, the CPI-M’s Aseem Dasgupta held the post. He was also the finance minister of West Bengal government then. When things were going against the party in the state then, Trinamul Congress was hoping that it will get the post. But the central Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had something else in his mind. Actually, the Congress wants uniformity of the GST in Congress-ruled states. The party believes that the sales tax in all states should be the same. BJP-ruled governments in states such as Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are totally against it, so much so that Sushil Kumar Modi himself doesn’t agree with this line of thinking. But the BJP has made him the chairman of the committee. The party wants that as a chairman of the committee, Modi junior should express his views against the idea.

Retired justice Markandeya Katju could be the new chairperson of the Press Council of India, but Justice Sirpudkekar’s name is also in the race.

After the report of Lokayukta Justice Hegde, the CBI has forwarded the files of two more industrialists – Gautam Adani and Sajjan Jindal. While the whole matter will be looked into by the mining ministry, the CBI has read the motives of the home ministry well and is ready to do the preliminary enquiry.

Karnataka’s Home Minister B S Acharya, who was once Yeddyurappa’s yes man has gone against him. There was a time when he was coaxing Yeddyurappa to revolt against the party because he felt that if Yeddy went, he could be next in line for the top post. But Yeddy has named Shobha and Sadanand as his successors and incidentally, both are Vokalingas. A few days ago, Yeddyurappa had placed his hand on Acharya’s shoulder and said, “If I make you the CM, both Lingayats and Vokalingas will be upset, who collectively make up 35 per cent of the votes. You are a Brahmin and they make for just three per cent of the votes.” Acharya wanted to know how that could be a problem since Ramakrishna Hegde was also a Brahmin. To this, Yeddy clarified that back then the Lingayats didn’t have a leader of their own, and considered Hegde their own leader. Actually, what Yeddyurappa wants is to get a stay order on the illegal mining case in the next three months and get back the chief minister’s post. He is planning his entire strategy around it.

There’s only one thing that the Congress wants during this Monsoon session and that is that the working of the Parliament should not be disrupted. That’s because it is pretty serious about the Food Security Bill, Land Reform Bill and the Communal Harmony Bill. Also, the UPA wants to give an impetus to economic reforms in the banking, pension and insurance sectors. The government is also serious about the Double Taxation Advocation Act and wants to make a law on the same, which should please the non-resident Indians, too. For this, it is crucial that the working of the Parliament is smooth, and that is why when Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal and his junior Rajiv Shukla went to meet Opposition leader in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj at her 8, Safdarjung residence, they didn’t look very at ease, although Sushma was calm. Is it the lull before the storm?

Barring the Raja and the Rani (Kanhimozhi), all those in Tihar jail in connection with the 2G scam secretly wishes that the CBI make him approver. What with Tihar’s claustrophobic walls, mugginess, heat, the life in prison, imprisoned breaths, the hassle of being present in courts every other day, the business lobby is obsessed over turning approver. But the CBI wanted to be sure about it before choosing someone. It didn’t trust the business lobby and was eyeing the telecom officials for the same. Which means that for now, it could be Behura or Chadolia but it seems that Behura is more liked by the CBI presently.

The IT raids on Nitin Gadkari’s son Nikhil Gadkari’s company are only a hint. Before going to London, Gadkari had directly attacked the Congress President Sonia Gandhi. In the interview Gadkari had gone to the extent of saying that the government has remained silent on the matter of black money because several big leaders from the party have their money in foreign banks, and which includes Sonia Gandhi. So this raid was in reply to Gadkari’s attack.