Capital Buzz: Arun Jaitley flooded with calls after ‘job applicant at 80’ jibe

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday morning received many phone calls and also SMS. Many might have after reading the newspapers wanted to call him for the pun Jaitley used against Yashwant Sinha. For the phrase Jaitley  called Sinha was  ‘job applicant at 80’.

Most of the dailies had this as the lead story with this as headlines.  Jaitley, while countering Yashwant Sinha ticked him off for the 'bad economy' during Yashwant Sinha’s regime as Finance Minister.

The telephone callers to Jaitley greeted him for his quick retort without offending Yashwant Sinha. At the same time gave mouthful of criticisms. In Twitter and Facebook the clippings of Jaitley’s speech at the book release saying this phrase has gone viral.

It is learnt that even seniors in the PMO also enjoyed the phrase which meant that Jaitley is still not having the luxury of being a former finance minister who can write columns and criticise the present sitting Finance Minister.

But the controversy between father and the son, Yashwant Sinha and Jayant Sinha has brought  disrepute to the son, who is now a Junior Minister in Civil Aviation.

The inner circle in the BJP also murmur about the wife of Jayant Sinha getting into the Board of Directors in a well known I.T. company based in Bengaluru. That according to Capital Buzz, caused Jayant Sinha’s  removal as Minister of state of Finance.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rejects Z Plus security

Nirmala Sitharaman, the Defence Minister rejected Z Plus security provided to her. Home Minister, Rajnath Singh spoke to her and insisted that being in the Cabinet Committee on Security, Sitharaman should be given close security. It is an absolute must for the position she holds, and the Z Plus is not given as an individual in Sitharaman’s case.

In her case the Union Home Ministry has however, given her plain clothesmen, so that the security is as unobtrusive as possible. The military intelligence department also beefs up her personal security during her visits outside New Delhi.

Nirmala Sitharaman must have obviously not liked to get into criticism for exhibitionism of gun- toting commandoes.  It is an internal politics in BJP, which might irritate other senior ministers, and that Rajnath Singh, having understood the diplomatic consequences, nodded his head. Nirmala does not use a bulletproof car in New Delhi.

She uses a civilian car with an Army man driving it. As Defence Minister she is entitled to have army security also.

DMK likely to boycott one judge inquiry into Jayalalithaa’s death

DMK is likely to 'boycott' Arumugam’s one-judge inquiry commission into the death of former chief minister Jayalalithaa. Reason, DMK’s official policy is to have a CBI probe. Whichever way one looks at this, the inquiry will obviously will have to begin from Sasikala.  She spent 75 days with Jayalalithaa during her hospitalisation days. Apart from this, the inquiry will also focus whether Jayalalithaa was pushed to the floor by 'someone' before Jaya was taken in an ambulance to the Apollo Hospital.

DMK wants to avoid bringing in Sasikala. And, DMK does not want to get into the Sasikala versus

others squabble syndrome. There is a political catch here. Sasikala belongs to Thevar case but the Chief Minister E Palaniswamy is a Gownder. DMK does not want to antagonise the Thevar community.

Vote Bank politics, that is why  DMK has taken a conscious decision to stick to the CBI probe. Which will be methodical and will have legal teeth. Whereas this inquiry commission will have no locus standi. You can expect it to create a flutter on a day-to-day basis in Tamil media by way of reportage on the proceedings of the commission.

R Rajagopalan is a senior correspondent in New Delhi. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect those of Asianet Newsable