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| Farooq foxes Speaker by pulling pun through his Punjabi | | | ABID SHAH
EARLY TIMES REPORT
NEW DELHI, Apr 30: Famous for his antics and homilies, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah enlivened the Lok Sabha today by speaking Punjabi though for a brief while. Yet this did not amuse the chair. And Speaker Meira Kumar had to admonish the Minister.
Abdullah tried out speaking Punjabi while replying a supplementary put by Congress member Pratap Singh Bajwa who wanted to know about Government steps taken for generating solar energy and augmenting power generation through alternative sources.
Though Bajwa's supplementary question was put in English, Abdullah switched to Punjabi. And when he fumbled, the right Punjabi words were promptly offered by to senior Minister by his Cabinet colleague Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Abdullah told the Congress member that as many as 40 research and development projects for efficient generation and distribution of solar energy were on and even in Parliament solar panels could replace present lighting system. The Minister also told the Lok Sabha that efforts to reduce the cost of solar energy were also being made to make it affordable for its users.
But Speaker took note of the use of Punjabi language by the Minister while making clarifications. She told Abdullah after he was through with his reply to always speak in English or Hindi so that each member could understand him or else he should give a prior notice so that an interpreter could be arranged. Abdullah only nodded in agreement.
Yet Abdullah was able to make his mark by answering a question from a member from Punjab in Punjabi. And, thus, the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir added another anecdote in his new role as a Central Minister.
This is more so since he has been throwing thrills earlier by breaking a tune at a function while on a visit to a North Eastern State Capital; and making light of last year's austerity drive by describing himself too tall to fit in the economy class of an aircraft in the wake of the Union Finance Ministry's writ issued to put restrain on expenses by Government higher ups like Abdullah.
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