Front-loading

Time was when a ruling party back bencher in Parliament had to make her mark scoring debating points over the Opposition to attract the prime ministerial eye and hope to move forward to the front of the treasury benches as a minister. Things have changed, say Congress party insiders. Since there is rarely a decent debate in Parliament and rarely do good back benchers get an opportunity to speak, they have now devised a new strategy to secure ministerial berths: Attack the front benches on the treasury side! So, after party general secretary Digvijay Singh attacked Home Minister P Chidambaram, arriviste K Keshava Rao, the bearded Telangana MP, is now drawing attention to himself attacking Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal. As a backward caste MP from Telangana, Mr Rao has a good case for a good job in government.