09-19-2007, 08:19 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Issue Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2007
<b>Ambika silent, Baalu wary of boomerang</b>
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (Kolkata, Telegraph)
New Delhi , Sept. 18: Ambika Soni has shut herself up in her house and gone silent. Her staff had only one terse message for journalists: "Madam will answer all your questions once she meets the Prime Minister."
However, there is no word yet on when Manmohan Singh would give his culture and tourism minister time, though he has been discharged from AIIMS and returned home in "good health" after prostate surgery.
In Transport Bhavan in Parliament Street, another minister looked like he, too, was under the weather.
Shipping and transport minister T.R. Baalu called the media to put up his first defence in a case that put the government, the Congress and the UPA on the defensive after the BJP and the Sangh hit the streets over the "Ram setu" controversy.
Ambika's and Baalu's ministries were in the spotlight. The two affidavits withdrawn from the Supreme Court were based on inputs from their departments.
But while Ambika looked like she could end up becoming the fall girl for the government's now-retracted suggestion that there was no "incontrovertible" proof that Ram ever lived, Baalu declared he would "periodically fire salvos".
The difference between their positions is political and ideological. Ambika's party, the Congress, is scared of alienating the middle class, whereas Baalu's party, the DMK, has regional constituents to answer to.
The Sethusamudram project, crucial to south Tamil Nadu's uplift, has been a long-standing demand of the people of the region. The state legislature has passed at least 20 resolutions in support of the project, first envisioned in a poem by the legendary Subramaniam Bharati. The BJP feels the project would destroy a bridge Hanuman's monkey army is said to have built for Ram.
<b>The only problem is: what happens to Baalu if Ambika puts in her papers accepting responsibility for the "offending" ASI affidavit? </b>
<b>An unconfirmed report said DMK chief M. Karunanidhi, in a bid to "save" Baalu, phoned Sonia Gandhi and suggested that she should not push for Ambika's resignation.</b>
Baalu refused comment, saying: "I don't know anything about such matters."
The DMK leader said he didn't feel let down that his ministry's affidavit was withdrawn. "But the shipping ministry paid special attention to the affidavit. I myself took time off to go through each and every line," he said.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070919/asp/...ry_8334569.asp#
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<b>Ambika silent, Baalu wary of boomerang</b>
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (Kolkata, Telegraph)
New Delhi , Sept. 18: Ambika Soni has shut herself up in her house and gone silent. Her staff had only one terse message for journalists: "Madam will answer all your questions once she meets the Prime Minister."
However, there is no word yet on when Manmohan Singh would give his culture and tourism minister time, though he has been discharged from AIIMS and returned home in "good health" after prostate surgery.
In Transport Bhavan in Parliament Street, another minister looked like he, too, was under the weather.
Shipping and transport minister T.R. Baalu called the media to put up his first defence in a case that put the government, the Congress and the UPA on the defensive after the BJP and the Sangh hit the streets over the "Ram setu" controversy.
Ambika's and Baalu's ministries were in the spotlight. The two affidavits withdrawn from the Supreme Court were based on inputs from their departments.
But while Ambika looked like she could end up becoming the fall girl for the government's now-retracted suggestion that there was no "incontrovertible" proof that Ram ever lived, Baalu declared he would "periodically fire salvos".
The difference between their positions is political and ideological. Ambika's party, the Congress, is scared of alienating the middle class, whereas Baalu's party, the DMK, has regional constituents to answer to.
The Sethusamudram project, crucial to south Tamil Nadu's uplift, has been a long-standing demand of the people of the region. The state legislature has passed at least 20 resolutions in support of the project, first envisioned in a poem by the legendary Subramaniam Bharati. The BJP feels the project would destroy a bridge Hanuman's monkey army is said to have built for Ram.
<b>The only problem is: what happens to Baalu if Ambika puts in her papers accepting responsibility for the "offending" ASI affidavit? </b>
<b>An unconfirmed report said DMK chief M. Karunanidhi, in a bid to "save" Baalu, phoned Sonia Gandhi and suggested that she should not push for Ambika's resignation.</b>
Baalu refused comment, saying: "I don't know anything about such matters."
The DMK leader said he didn't feel let down that his ministry's affidavit was withdrawn. "But the shipping ministry paid special attention to the affidavit. I myself took time off to go through each and every line," he said.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070919/asp/...ry_8334569.asp#
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