Perfect scheme

It seems that Jairam Ramesh has found the perfect brand ambassador in Sushil Kumar – winner of the Rs 5-crore Kaun Banega Crorepati jackpot – to give a makeover to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme’s image. The scheme has come in for a lot of flak for corruption and leakage. But as Ramesh introduced Kumar to scribes, he emphasised that he needed Kumar – who worked as a data entry operator for NREGA – to tell the media about success stories since they were focusing too much on negative ones. Sure enough, Kumar seemed to have nothing negative to say about the scheme. He was also asked whether he would join Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement. Much to Ramesh’s relief, he said without hesitating for a minute that he did not know about the Anna-Hazare movement!