Price of cooking gas should not rise: Kitchen cabinet
Gursharan Kaur says she is fully confident that her husband would do a "good job" as Prime Minister.
What can we expect from India’s next prime minister? Manmohan Singh hasn’t yet started tinkering with the economy, but if his wife Gursharan Kaur has any influence on the PM-designate, at least the price of LPG may remain unchanged. Gursharan, who spends most of her time reciting the Gurbani and cooking, hoped on Thursday that the new PM wouldn’t hike the price of cooking gas.
Though Singh’s family is about to move up from 19 Safdarjung to 7 Race Course in a matter of days, there are no we-struck-it-rich airs. But the celebrations are on. The bhangra doesn’t stop and barfis are being distributed at the bungalow. The house is being taken over by a mix of agencies such as the SPG, the Delhi Police, CRPF and the RAF which are having a hard time dealing with “genuine relatives” wanting to greet Singh in person.
Singh’s grandson Raghav, who studies in Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, is apprehensive about the "danger and pressure" of the top job, saying he would have preferred it if Singh was just finance minister. "But then all this excitement happened and Sonia Gandhi said she would not be PM.”
He can’t hide his excitement though. Reason: the Prime Minister’s residence will be bigger and his cousin’s dog Snoopy will have more space to play.
Singh’s sisters Govind Kaur and Pritam Kaur, who live in Kolkata, were confident that the “intelligent boy” would make it big some day.
“Prime ministership has come as a great surprise. A man of his integrity deserves it,” says Govind as her children, grandchildren and other family members start dancing. “They haven’t stopped dancing and making merry, ever since the news broke,” says a neighbour.
Asking for a ceiling on the price of LPG is one thing, but for favour-seekers in general, here’s a word of advice — just beat it. Says another sister of Singh, Amarjit Kaur: “My brother is a straightforward and honest man and no one in the family dares ask him for favours.”