Now the Congress is also preparing itself for an aggressive reply to Team Kejriwal. All members of Team Anna and Team Kejriwal are being kept an eye on. Their past records and present dealings are being investigated. The first step would be to corner Shazia Ilmi and her husband Sajid Mallik. It is worth mentioning here that they own Ventura Secutiries and their names are being connected with the securities scam. It is, anyways the season for allegations and counter-allegations – it is also being called India’s Arab Spring. There is a lot of talk about getting a Robert Vadra special edition in this connection.

People who were educated in the US and London are in a majority in Manmohan Cabinet. Manmohan himself has completed his higher studies from Cambridge and Oxford. Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal studied at Harvard, Salman Khurshid at Oxford, and most of the young leaders in Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet have done their higher studies at either London or the US. It goes without saying that for the Congress the motto is to study abroad and to rule back home in India.

A few days ago, JD (U) Rajya Sabha leader N K Singh reached the US along with Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley. There he had to take part in a debate at Columbia University about economic liberalisation and FDI. He had to refute points raised on FDI by his political rival Salman Khurshid. Obviously, the articulate Jaitley went to Columbia all prepared. But when he reached there, he learnt that Khurshid is not coming there at all. Looking at the troubles with FDI at the moment, the UPA chief had asked him to stay back in Delhi. Which means all the ammunition Jaitley had collected with him didn’t get a chance to show itself.

The current UPA government considers itself more educated than others. Because of this, some of the prominent ministers now believe that the lesser educated public of the country just doesn’t understand the advantages of introducing FDI. Recently, a fund of Rs 100 crore has been given to the information and broadcasting ministry only so that the ministry, along with its ally ministries brings to the public the advantages of FDI through advertisements. The result of this will be seen in a few days, too.

In the days to come, IB may get a new chief in the form of Alok Joshi, who is from the Haryana cadre. Tony Mather’s name is in the lead for RAW chief position.

Sources reveal that in view of the upcoming Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Chandrashekhar Rao of the TRS and Jaganmohan Reddy’s party have agreed to form a coalition with the Congress. They are only waiting for the right time.

It is worth mentioning here that this time none of the five names Priyanka had suggested for the Assembly elections from Rae Bareilly in UP got a party ticket. And this is when Priyanka had considered Rae Bareilly’s local politics and caste equation. And ever since Sonia has taken ill and has been going to the US for treatment, Priyanka has been keeping her company and most of her time is spent with her mother. Priyanka has taken the entire responsibility of taking care of her mother – medicines on time, taking care of Sonia’s little needs and that she has lunch on time and so on. Now even Sonia has started to feel that Priyanka should start to play a more active role in the organisation. And that she should contest the elections from either Amethi or Rae Bareilly.

Even Sharad Pawar doesn’t want the Lower House of the Parliament to function. If it does, the matter of aircraft purchasing for Air India may be brought to light and there will be a lot of dust that will blow. The talks will be about Prafful, but the target will be Pawar.

To Congress ministers are directly under the scanner in Coalgate. Five Parliamentarians and their relatives are also under direct beneficiaries of the scam. To top it all, two big media companies are also tangled in the web, of which one is spread in Andhra Pradesh, while the other has an edge in Maharashtra. Sources close to the Congress reveal that when Dasari Narayan Rao and Subbarami Reddy were ministers, several complaints against them would reach Sonia Gandhi. Back then the Congress had decided that any businessman with a slip from the Congress would have an edge over others for coal block allocation. Maybe that is why Chattisgarh’s BJP Chief Minister Raman Singh is repeatedly saying that he allocated coal blocks only because of a letter from Motilal Vohra. Even the CBI is claiming without saying as much that cases against no less than 55 companies can be made prima facie.

The Congress has floated this news in the political corridors that this Monday, a high-tea of sorts will be organised, where the matter of coal-gate will be solved. But the BJP leaders are calling any such thing utter nonsense. They have clearly stated that even if there is an event such as this, they will not be going to it. The BJP looks bent upon having this Parliament session go waste on coal-gate.