Sonia Gandhi is a tad surprised that it has been happening for the past few days, or maybe it is a coincidence that the moment she called a meeting with her kitchen cabinet, the roads close to her residence becomes a VIP route and those people coming to meet with her are usually late. She may have realized late, but she’s finally got the message.

Every day brings new twists to the 2G scam. A pamphlet is being circulated in the political corridors, about how an ED (now retired) was offered a bribe. A new channel head is active in the entire matter, who later tried to blackmail the ED. Allegedly, the ED promptly complained to the CBI about this, and the then CBI director told the ED to register a formal complain about the same, where place, time, date and names of people are mentioned. The matter got lost but the CBI has now woken up to it, and is asking the ED why he still hasn’t made a formal complain about the same.

Balram Jakhad may be 88 years old but age is not coming in the way of his ambitions. Suited in a crisp bandgala suit and looking dapper, Jakhad met Sonia Gandhi on Friday at 10.15 in the morning and requested her to give his political career a boost. A surprised Sonia could only stare at him.

A new chargesheet is going to be filed on April 25 about the 2G scam and prominent players may be named in the same. Loop Telecom, which belongs to Essar, Videocon as well as Kanhimozhi may be at the receiving end of the chargesheet. Several may even be jailed, and some behind bars may be granted bail.

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

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?

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.

Sanjay Joshi’s return to the BJP was almost sure but suddenly the entire matter did a U-turn. This time it is not the BJP (Narendra Modi is indifferent in the matter) but the Sangh Parivar that seems divided on his coming back into the fold. Where Sangh head Mohan Bhagwat and Bhaiyaji Joshi are trying to ensure Sanjay Joshi’s comeback, others such as Madandas Devi and Suresh Soni are against the move.

Coming up with the new idea of Hindu terrorism, Congress is aggressive against the BJP and especially the Sangh Parivar. How many Sangh members will be brought under the scanner and how, the Indresh incident bears testimony to the fact. The bureaucracy has harmed his reputation to the maximum. Now all such trials are being transferred to the NIA, which looks are cases related to terrorism. So, from a so-called independent agency like CBI, these matters have now come under a body of the Central government. CBI is answerable to the CVC and so you can almost call it an independent body but the NIA is truly a government organization and comes under the home ministry and under Chidambaram, who has come up with the term Hindu terrorism. That is the reason that has the Sangh leaders most worried. The government can’t remove the cases filed by the CBI but the NIA is a free-for-all – remove anyone you want, include anyone you wish.

The Parliamentary Investigation Committee has collected a lot of witnesses against Sikkim Chief Justice Dinakaran. There are so many witnesses that he can be found guilty on the basis. Of these 12-15 are primary witnesses. These are people who gave cheque of a certain amount and were then paid cash of the same amount. The best of all is what a vegetable vendor has to say, “Sahab used to take cheques from me and gave me cash in return.”