Lunch and dinner diplomacy is the order of the day in the Congress. S M Krishna invited journalists over for lunch, and the same night Janardan Dwivedi invited journalists over for dinner at the five-star Ashok Hotel. What is significant is that contrary to other parties of the Congress, the party had adequate preparations for those wanting to have a drink. Before this, Nirupama Rao had also invited journalists to her posh Chanakyapuri residence to a grand party. That party too had all arrangements for a great bite, drink and good times.

Karunanidhi has also joined the group of those such as Mayawati, Mulayam and Lalu. That means having them to vote in favour of the ruling UPA government will be the CBI’s responsibility.

There are talks of changing Manoranjan Kalia, who is a part of the Badal government under the BJP quota. From Jalandhar, Kalia is not only a minister in the Punjab government but also a Vidhan Sabha member. The BJP high-command is getting several complains on how Kalia is doing corrupt deals through his nephew.

The chartered flight that was organized to fly BJP dignitaries such as Advani, his daughter Pratibha, Vasundhara, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh for Gadkari’s son’s wedding, has 180 seats but had only 95 flying. In a hurry, Shyam Jaju also invited local party leaders and several other party members on the flight. When the aircraft landed in Nagpur, the guests were surprised to see that there was only one shoddy-looking bus to pick them up. When a group of three BJP members (from UP, Karnataka and Bihar) climbed the stage, Gadkari was busy talking on the phone, “Amitabh isn’t coming? Anil-Mukesh aren’t coming either. So what if they sent Nikhil Meswani and Anand Jain.” One of the members greeted him. Completing his call, Gadkari remarked, “Where are you from?” The members didn’t know why they were invited if Gadkari didn’t recognize them in the first place!

Why is BJP’s erstwhile think-tank Arun Shourie spitting fire against the party? The matter became clearer when he was seen with Mulayam Singh recently. Shourie is actually miffed with not being given the Rajya Sabha ticket by the party and Mulayam has cashed in on the hurt. He has assured Shourie that he will get a Rajya Sabha ticket through the SP.

The Congress is not worried about the Parliament not being allowed to function by the Opposition. That is why the party has told the Opposition party that if they want they can place a no-confidence motion and get a voting done on the same. By the way of the 2G scam, the Congress wants to tell the public that it is not the party that is corrupt but the coalition supporting parties. Because when the spectrum riddle is solved, the Opposition party will try to play up the CWG scams, in which several Congress members have been directly named.

Who will A Raja’s chair go to? Speculation is zeroing in on two names – Kanhimozhi and Dalit DMK leader Vijayan.

Indian government’s attempts to bring back black money from Swiss accounts aren’t’ bearing fruit. The Swiss government refuses to give the names of the account holders. It feels that if the Indian government comes out with solid proof the same, the matter can reach the court and if the court agrees, only then will the names of the account holders be given to the Indian government. And if that money has come from crime and drugs, it is a punishable crime in Switzerland, too. But the Indian government knows that most of the money in these banks belongs to industrialists, politicians and bureaucrats. And if it takes the route of the court, the matter will become all the most complicated and the government’s money will be spend in vain. And those names that will surface will be out with their money before being nabbed.

Congress doesn’t seem to be ready to give in the Opposition’s demand of a Joint Parliamentary Committee for the 2G scandal. It feels that since the PAC is already looking into the matter, why is there a need for the JPC? The president of the Public Account Committee (PAC) is from the Opposition party and Murli Manohar Joshi heads it for now. But if a JPC is formed, the ruling party’s person heads it. Congress believes that JPC is the mother of all corruption and all those Parliamentarians who are made its members start to deal in money taking or giving. It is true – the past JPC have shown a similar record.

Under the scanner about the 2G scandal, Swan Telecom has two partners – Vinod Goenka and Shahid Balwa. One of their companies in Mumbai is DV Realty. This group is also extremely close to Sharad Pawar. In the past few days, this company has got a lot of contracts in and around Mumbai. It is believed that if any big company bids for a particular construction scheme, Pawar’s office calls them up saying, “Leave it this time, make the bid next time.” The next time never comes.