JPC, not Joshi

Anyone who meets veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi these days will find the former HRD minister cracking jokes about his party. The other day, Joshi, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), told a few MPs, “It is a very strange situation. The Congress wants my committee to probe the 2G scam. But my own party doesn’t want my panel to probe it — it wants to give it to a joint parliamentary committee.”

Train of thought

The Delhi Metro is not just popular with the aam aadmi, politicians like it, too. Congress party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi once used the metro to reach home from the airport. Now, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury has gone a step ahead: he has bought a commuter pass and uses the metro everyday to travel to Parliament from his Vasant Kunj residence. But his politician’s credentials did not help his foray into the world of the common man. Once, when he was topping up his pass, he handed over a Rs 500 note but forgot to specify the refill amount, so the metro staffer refilled it for Rs 500. When Yechury protested mildly, the staffer calmly replied, “Sir, you are an MP. You people have so much money. I thought you would require a Rs 500 refill.”