'In politics there is a rule, people whose names come up first for any post never make it and it is always people who do not figure anywhere (who) get the post.'

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Minister's prescription - turn off answering machines

Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi had some home truths to tell the over 120 members of the elite Indian Foreign Service who had gathered for a powwow of heads of missions last week.

In his speech, Ravi made a strong pitch for turning Indian missions into welcoming institutions, so as to get rid of the widespread perception of poor accessibility, lack of courtesy and the absence of a helpful approach, especially in many of the newly started missions. His formula was simple - turn off the answering machines.

Knowing fully well that answering machines are impersonal and commonplace in most missions abroad, Ravi stressed the need for human interface to be more responsive to needs of NRIs and others wanting information and help from the country's missions abroad.

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Overworked scribes, ask boss please!

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni has begun a fortnightly media durbar where reporters can ask her anything and everything, but needless to say it's her prerogative to answer. The last free-wheeling interaction held at the plush committee room next to her office in Shastri Bhavan stretched for over an hour and a half.

Nobody was expecting the interaction to last this long. The minister, however, patiently answered all questions with a dash of humour. When a scribe suggested that she use her office to enforce a five-day week for overworked journalists, Soni smiled, saying this was not the right time to raise such a demand in times of recession.

'Your bosses may not be pleased with the idea,' she said.

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What's Mamata up to, wonders Congress

Some Congress party leaders are intrigued as to why Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee inducted former BJP strategist Sudheendra Kulkarni as a member of an expert panel set up by her ministry.

Although he was appointed to the panel earlier this month, the news broke only when Kulkarni quit the BJP and said he would remain a well-wisher of the party. This has left some Congress members wondering why the minister named a serving member of an opposition party to the panel.

'Does she know that he was also a one-time CPI-M card holder,' queried one, referring to the journalist-turned-speechwriter's previous links with the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the main political adversary of Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.

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A common ground between warring camps

The row between Reliance tycoons Mukesh and Anil Ambani has reached a point where the government has had to plead with them to end their fight for the good of the economy. Though the two are locked in a bitter dispute over a gas contract that has been hogging headlines, there is a commonality that bridges both camps.

Both Shankar Adwal, vice-president, corporate affairs, RIL, who is Mukesh Ambani's pointsman, and A.N. Sethuraman, president, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, share a common lawyer. That's because both top executives were charged with violation of the Official Secrets Act for receiving and possessing classified documents in a CBI case filed in 1998 - when the two warring sides were together - and the case carries on till date.

On this count at least they seem to find common ground.