A BRAVE NEW STEP
Last week the rich and famous of Delhi got together for a power packed charity fund raising gala evening. This evening was the initiative of the first lady of Kashmir, Payal Abdullah the wife of the young Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. It was also the first ever Charity Fund Raiser Ball in the capital. Never has anybody had guts belonging to a political family to take this step but of course the Abdullahs’ are a class apart. Even though married into the first family of Kashmir Payal obviously has not lost her identity. Payal comes from an army background and till now has happily remained in the shadows of the Abdullahs’.
Payal runs a charity called “Raahat”. She founded this NGO after the earthquake rocked Kashmir and it left many families and children helpless and alone. As many of us privileged lot do think of doing things for the poor but then we give it up as soon as we get busy in our own daily chores. But Payal and her two friends kept on feeding, clothing and housing the effected thousands of helpless orphans and widows and kept “Raahat” low key, out of everybody’s sight. But she dreams of providing education to every child of under-privileged Kashmir. So, this was Payal’s brilliant idea now to lure the rich and famous by hosting what they enjoy best, that is a sit-down dinner and in the process also invade their deep pockets to fund her project. Her mother-in-law Molly especially flew in from London to encourage her daughter-in-law’s good work and her husband Omar Abdullah was the perfect host to most of the invitees who had willfully paid for their dinner.
There were Shiela Dikhsit, Robert Vadra, Sunil Mittal and from Bollywood there were Pooja Bedi, Sanjay Dutt and the master of ceremonies for the evening was Rahul Bose. Sanjay and Pooja had been in the Lawrence School in Sanawar with Omar. The energetic Farooq Abdullah danced through the evening while Omar and his two sons were the cynosure of all eyes as they presented Payal a bouquet of flowers as their appreciation for her bold initiative.
Hopefully, this step of Payal’s will bring new light into the deprived lot of Kashmiri’s. A brave step in an orthodox political system but a right one no doubt.
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SPYING SCANDAL
Suddenly it is the season of spies. The shock of a woman IFS Officer Madhuri Gupta in Islamabad being caught passing information on to Pakistani handlers has rocked the local establishment. For once though it looks like the counter intelligence folks were happily ahead of the race. In such sensitive matters of course very little really gets revealed. Except for the official leaks. Locally it is natural that Delhi circles are speculating based on what those in their business comment informally. Once again there is a similarity with the spy scandal. How deep and how far it goes is uncharted territory. But given that the NTRO like the RAW is shadowy and silent, the tongues wag and truth stays conveniently obscured. Internal security systems in our embassies are still rather primitive.
Delhi can get rather tight tipped as far as the official establishment is concerned. But on another kind of spying the tongues are wagging alright every minute. The phone tapping of local politicians has opened up many cans of worms. Nobody is quite sure who has been tapped and what has been recorded.
Sharad Pawar was the earlier recipient of tapped and taped conversations on the IPL matter. It helped to reduce pressure on government in Parliament. Other political leaders like Arun Jaitely were silenced with the fact that the NTRO was set up as a rogue outfit by the NDA and accountable only to the National Security Advisor. While the Pawar CD is whispered about many other politicians went strangely quiet on sensitive issues and Pranab Mukherjee pulled his budget through with relative comfort. Thanks to intelligence agencies and pervert devices.
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