If there has been a trenchant critic of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Congress camp in the Rajya Sabha it is former Union minister and senior leader Jairam Ramesh. Ramesh, one of the 53 members who retired from the Rajya Sabha, in a brief farewell speech took a jibe at Jaitley, saying he was one of the top "spinners" in the government. "The Leader of the House is a master spinner of facts," he said, comparing Jaitley to cricket spinners. Ramesh's advice to Jaitley: "Stop spinning and start governing." When Ramesh alluded to something he thought former cricketer Vijay Merchant had said - "It is better to go when people ask why he is going rather than why he isn't going" - Jaitley, in his address, said he was "correcting his friend for the last time". Those words were spoken by Sunil Gavaskar, not Merchant, said Jaitley.

Ramesh, Jaitley engage in friendly banter

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In a recent TV interview, Himanta Biswa Sarma, who crossed over from the Congress - where he was once former chief minister Tarun Gogoi's right-hand man - to the Bharatiya Janata Party explained why he did so. He had no problems with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, whom he described as a woman with dignity and grace. It was with party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi that he had difficulties, Sarma said. Why? Rahul Gandhi had a short attention span, said Sarma. He added that whenever he  met Rahul Gandhi the latter would either be playing with his cell phone or with his dog - who would then jump on to the table and eat up all the biscuits, unchecked by its owner.

Quit Congress because of Rahul's short attention span, says Sarma

Call drop penalty was never the right solution

Improve telecom infra

The Supreme Court was peeved at the indiscreet way in which President's rule was imposed in Uttarakhand by the Centre

Letters: Draw the right lessons

Draft Bill on passive euthanasia is progressive

The right to die

Panagariya goes on to claim that railway track expansion "has risen to 7 kilometres per day during 2015-16 from 4.3 kilometres per day during the previous six years"

Letters: A different view

Without taking anyone's name, Sibal said, someone, popularly referred to as the "call drop" minister, took that moniker personally and conceived of this "populist" measure

Taking things personally

Yadav had earlier courted controversy when he equated the Pathankot terror attack in January this year with the Gaya road rage incident

Compare and comment

In a tweet, Khattar asked Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh that the road named after Akbar, considered the greatest of the Mughal emperors, be changed

A change of name

FII shareholding down, domestic up

Listed companies have seen a decline in promoter and foreign portfolio investor (FPI) holdings during 2015-16

'Mauritius route' ends

Police personnel searching Bihar Legislative Council member Manorama Devi's Gaya home for her son Rocky Yadav - who has since been arrested in a road rage case - accidentally discovered six bottles of liquor. But charges of violation of prohibition were not pressed against her. The police explained that in Bihar "women generally don't drink". The FIR, however, mentioned the name of her husband Bindeshwari Prasad Yadav, who is in judicial custody for allegedly helping his son escape after the crime. State Excise Minister Abdul Jalil Mastan said: "Us aurat ka malik kaun hai? Husband hai. Humne husband par FIR kiya hai (who is her master? Her husband. So we have lodged an FIR against him)."

Twisted logic

The Twitterati did not take kindly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi comparing Kerala to Somalia. In a recent election speech Modi compared "God's own country" to the African nation which is in the news quite often for its marauding pirates. Soon, the micro-blogging site was flooded with angry anti-Modi posts with the #PoMoneModi. The hashtag was inspired by Malayalam superstar Mohanlal's punchline "Po mone Dinesha" from the film Narasimham (2000) that means "you are fired". One Vinay Dokania used statistics to justify his outrage: "Kerala literacy: 94 per cent; BJP vote share: 6 per cent. That's 100 per cent #PoMoneModi." In an open letter, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy also expressed anger over the comparison.

Modi attracts Twitter ire

While policymakers and economists seem wary of making long-term projections, given the uncertain global economic scenario, politicians in general are never short of breath or braggadocio. So at an event in Delhi, when a member of the audience requested Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan to predict the exchange rate and the inflation rate five years from now, he seemed to dither for a moment. As the packed hall broke into laughter, someone in the audience quipped, "Only (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi can answer that."

A question of answers

The article, "Just how bad are the bad loans" (May 10), by Nitin Sethi and Ishan Bakshi was interesting. Data analysis of bad loans is done after loans are disbursed; their causes are not analysed before.The main cause is lack of supervision at the operational level. Often, large loan amounts, for example, Rs 100 crore or above, are sanctioned at the head office or regional office of banks and sometimes under political pressure. Rarely is the branch head involved in the sanctioning process, hence monitoring of the loan post disbursement is neglected. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) comes into the picture only after loans have turned bad in terms of their classification as SMA-0 to loss assets.Unless the RBI makes drastic changes in the sanctioning and monitoring process, the non-performing assets of banks will increase. One must remember: a stitch in time saves nine.S A Bhave   PuneLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafa

Letters: Nip NPAs in the bud

A K Bhattacharya, in his article, "Towards a new cooking gas regime" (May 11), has not only appreciated the direct benefits transfer of LPG subsidies of the Narendra Modi government for saving more than Rs 27,000 crore and reducing corruption through fake LPG connections, but he has also suggested three sound measures that can be implemented in the next phase of cooking gas reform.The suggested measures are: (i) cooking gas subsidies be abolished as soon as possible and that they not be based on income but on physical assets of consumers; (ii) the principle of the direct benefits transfer scheme be extended to all modes of cooking gas supplies, including the connections issued to poor families in the next three years and; (iii) that Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan put into place a plan to strengthen the city gas distribution system across the country through piped cooking gas connections, except for a few small cities and rural areas.If these suggesti

Letters: On the right path

Apropos A K Bhattacharya's article, "Towards a new cooking gas regime", I agree that the criterion for granting subsidy to the rich should be determined on the basis of identifiable physical assets.The easiest way to do this is on the basis of car ownership. If a person can afford to maintain a car, his/her family should be in no need of a cooking gas subsidy. As the database of car owners is in existence, it should not be difficult to implement the proposal. Further, at the time of new car purchases, owners should be asked to produce a certificate from the gas agencies cancelling their gas subsidy.Navin Bhatia   via emailLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: Have car, don't need sop

With reference to M J Antony's column, "Turning a mirror to judiciary" (May 10), one of the important reforms the judiciary should undertake is the application of information and communication technology for speedy disposal of cases and to free innocent undertrials from jail. The establishment of e-courts or virtual courts; computerisation at all levels of the courts, coupled with imparting training in legal e-literacy; video-conferencing are all in line with the spirit of e-governance and represent a major step towards modernisation of the judiciary.C V Krishna Manoj   HyderabadLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: Applying IT in judiciary

After President's rule

PM Modi's diplomacy yet to match the level of breakthrough diplomacy as achieved by Dr Manmohan Singh

Mr Modi's high-profile diplomacy not matched by substance

Tamil Nadu assembly: Poll runners

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysed self-sworn affidavits of 997 of the 1,107 candidates contesting from major parties

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