It was an open secret that it was Mr Shukla who had suggested Justice Katju to head the Press Council when the UPA-2 was in power. But the minister had better watch out. President Pranab Mukherjee, who is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, also intervened to ensure that Mrs Gandhi was attended to immediately.When the Supreme Court recently ordered for the Lodha committee recommendations on the functioning of BCCI be implemented, politicians involved in cricket administration were most unhappy as they would lose their positions in the all-powerful and cash-rich sports body. Having delegated its problems to Justice Katju, the Beige rabbit fur faux fur fabric BCCI is now sitting back and watching as the two ex-judges are busy battling it out in full public view. But in reality, the outspoken Justice Katju was handpicked by the BCCI because he has no qualms about taking on the apex court. Mrs Gandhi’s political secretary.
Ahmad Patel, immediately called up the Rashtrapati Bhavan whose team of doctors alerted the Army hospital as it obviously had no prior information about this VIP emergency visitor. It was hurriedly decided to take her to the Army’s Research and Referral Hospital which is not far from the airport. Sometimes, they are spoilt for choices — recently, they had to scurry from Ms Sule’s place to Shiromani Akali Dal MP Naresh Gujaral’s residence as both hosted a lunch on the same day.
And Khan market is one of their favourite destinations, although they also patronise the canteens in state bhavans, especially Andhra Bhavan. This is just as well as it is difficult to imagine Ms Irani and Ms Lekhi working together given the cold vibes they share. But on the drive from the Delhi airport, Mrs Gandhi’s doctors advised that she needed immediate medical attention as her condition had deteriorated and that the journey to the hospitals would take too long.Finance minister Arun Jaitley calls them the “Khan market” group of young MPs and has named NCP’s Supriya Sule, as its chairperson.The writer is a Delhi-based journalist.After lying low for nearly a month over what was widely perceived to be a step down from the ministry of human resource development, minister for textiles Smriti Irani has now started taking interest in her new portfolio. Yet, nobody was willing to confront the Supreme Court or Justice Lodha although BCCI office-bearers constantly complain about them in private.
Unwilling to antagonise the judiciary, the BCCI decided to outsource its fight to former Supreme Court judge, Justice Markandey Katju, who was hired, ostensibly, to oversee the implementation of the Lodha panel’s report. It also helps that Rajeev Shukla, Congress’ MP from Rajya Sabha and IPL chief, knows Justice Katju. In fact, the necessary arrangements were made at both these hospitals. She announced her arrival with a politically-correct social media campaign for the promotion of handloom fabrics.While she has discovered the beauty of Indian handlooms, Ms Irani faces stiff competition from her party colleague and bête noire, Lok Sabha MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who has been passionately involved in the promotion of khadi for some time now. Ms Lekhi has even drafted designer Ritu Beri to design a line of outfits for Khadi emporiums in a bid to popularise the handspun fabric and has been instrumental in the setting up of a Khadi emporium outlet in the Parliament Annexe building. Ms Irani got herself photographed in a handwoven sari, posted it on Twitter, tagged five people and tweeted “I support Indian weavers, here’s my #IwearHandloomlook”. They never fail to point out that Justice Lodha and his team are working out of an expensive suite in a five-star hotel, all at the BCCI’s expense.
When Mr Jaitley mentioned these luncheons to Ms Sule, she was quick to point out that despite their outings, the young MPs attended Parliament regularly and participated enthusiastically in the proceedings. Though she does not have the advantage of heading a ministry, she is doing her bit by helping out Kalraj Mishra, minister for medium and small enterprises, as the Khadi and Village Industries Commission is under his charge. The reason: Ms Sule and a host of young MPs, cutting across party lines, including Sushmita Dev of the Congress, Nishikant Dubey of the BJP and Samajwadi Party’s Neeraj Shekhar are one happy gang which is constantly out lunching when Parliament is in session. And when they are not eating out, they often meet for lunch at Ms Sule’s residence.Recently, when Congress president Sonia Gandhi cut short her road show in Varanasi owing to ill-health, it was arranged for her to be driven either to Gangaram Hospital or the AIIMS on arrival in Delhi. So far, Justice Katju has not disappointed the BCCI as he lost no time in denouncing the Lodha committee recommendations as “unconstitutional and illegal”
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