Perfecting Cat-naps

Snoozing at public meetings is a great trait. Among those who practised it include the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru and V K Krishna Menon. There was also a Prime Minister, Deva Gowda, who enjoyed a public cat-nap. The latest practitioner is Sontosh Mohan Dev who has a habit of dozing off in Cabinet meetings. Well, he has a point. None of the subjects under discussion has hardly anything to do with his Ministry, which is Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise. But he has perfected his snooze to an art. He suddenly wakes up and creates a flutter by asking pointed questions that do not have easy answers.

Noticing that he sleeps so often at the Cabinet meetings, the Prime Minister, in deference to Sontosh Mohan Dev's age and ailments suggested to him poliely that he may attend the Cabinet meetings only when his subjects are taken up. He, however, ignores the advice and makes it a point to turn up at every Cabinet meeting.

The other day he woke up to cry a halt to the discussion on Vision 2020 of the Civil Aviation Ministry. Where is the approval of the Committee of Secretaries(CoS), he thundered ? Let them deliberate on it first, examine it in the light of their experience and give the inputs.The other ministers echoed his suggestion. Praful Patel, who had put up the vision document for approval of the Cabinet, went red in the face. Intervening,the Prime Minister complimented Sontosh Mohan Dev for induling in "profound thinking" while in deep slumber, but decreed that the document be sent to the GoM (Group of Ministers) and not to the CoS (Committee of Secretaries).