Troubled land

The Congress party never loses an opportunity to hit out at the rural development minister in the Narendra Modi-led government, Birender Singh, perhaps because he quit the Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party last year. Just the other day, while lashing out at the government's so-called "double talk" on the land acquisition Bill, a senior Congress member wondered aloud if Singh had any voice at all in the issue. "Why is he, the minister concerned, silent while Nitin Gadkari, ostensibly the transport minister, so voluble on the land Bill? After all, Birender Singh spoke about incorporating a diluted consent clause if need be, but none of that has happened. Obviously, his views don't count in the party and in the government," said the Congressman smugly.