Keeping the power dry !!

Amar Singh, Kamal Nath and Lalu Yadav have funded Uma Bharti's political outfit on the tacit understanding that she will embarrass the top leadership of BJP.

Uma Bharti is slated to unleash a campaign against BJP and its leaders from November. Who knows just before the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections in early 2008, Uma Bharti may have a direct tie up with Sonia Gandhi !!!!

Amar Singh is also backing a single-man party from Tamil Nadu who is (or was once) a well-known Ambani baiter !! To what avail ?

Never say die

Who wouldn't want to hitch their crackling bandwagon to the rising star ? Inversely, why wouldn't one try to flee a sinking ship ? In this case, the rising star is Sonia Madam and the sinking ship is the NDA. The former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) patron, Farooq Abdullah, is now trying to not only flee from the NDA but also ditch the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) that tried to make him the Vice-Presidential candidate. His aim is to replace PDP as the partner in th J & K ruling coalition. Not only that, he would like to get back to electoral politics(but when did he quit ?) and perhaps become CM again. Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is all for it so that he can return to Delhi where his heart is. With this in view, Dr Abdullah was himself in the chair at NC's Tuesday's meeting in Jammu -- normally it is his son Omar who presides -- when the party
adopted a resolution to vote for Pratibha Patil. Posturing par excellence !!

Shekhawat persona non grata

Not even for a day more can she stand his face !! Sonia Gandhi does not want Bhairon Singh Shekhawat to preside over the Rajya Sabha as its Chairman for a single day after the Presidential election. Which is precisely why the Government is reluctant to announce the dates of the monsoon session of Parliament.......... As so in all likelihood, the Parliament session will start only after Shekhawat completes his term on August 18 ; or earlier if he chooses to resign after losing the Presidential poll.

It appears Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had directed Parliamentary Affairs, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi to finalise the dates for the commencement of the Monsoon session after new President (Pratibha Patil as per their projections) takes oath on July 25 to start the monsoon session with the Presidential address to the joint sitting of the two Houses.

Knowing which side of his bread is buttered, Dasmunsi chose to act on instructions from 10 Janpath, not to convene the Parliament session until August 18 when Shekhawat's term
expires as the Vice-President of India and ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Immune to snubs, the genial and amiable Dr Manmohan Singh suggested as a via media that the session can begin at least from August 1, but quickly withdrew when he knew that he was encroaching on Madam's sacred preserve.


The Monsoon session of Parliament normally starts in the third or fourth week of July. Dasmunsi has a host of reasons for putting it off. But the crunch lies elsewhere !! He is waiting for the results of the Presidential election on Saturday and watch Shekhawat's next move over the next three, four days. His calculation is that Shekhawat will be so humiliated by the
crushing defeat that he may resign instead of pulling on till the end of his term.

Sonia Gandhi's main aim is that Shekhawat should be prevented from disposing off the petition filed by the party for disqualifying former foreign minister K Natwar Singh as
she suspects Shekhawat will give the ruling in his favour.

But, alas, Shekhawat does not require the House to be in session to take the decision !! Even so, the Congress can delay the hearing on the petition by seeking time to respond and let tthe matter go to the hands of the next Chairman.

Some gameplaying this is !!

Scams All

In the wake of the charges & counter charges regarding the GSM equipment tender, the bigger question that is being ignored is the corporatisation of BSNL years ago which has now been reduced to a mockery !!

Are PSUs Chiefs becoming the handmaiden of politicians, more than ever before ? Are bureaucrats being reduced to playing the role of backroom boys, more than ever before ? Otherwise, how do we account for the Scams Raj ? Be it SEZ scam, Quattrocchi scam, wheat import scam and the mobile scam. And very soon the SAIL modernisation scam and so on.............

The battle royale is just about to begin !!

In a bid to queer the pitch of his bete noire, Bihar's CM, Nitish Kumar has sought to wean away Lalu's Man Friday, Sudhir Kumar who is from the Bihar cadre, 1882 batch.

Sudhir Kumar is said to be Lalu's henchman as well as prima donna in the so called turnaround of the Indian Railways. He is credited for authoring much of Lalu's strategies, be it political or otherwise.

The State has the undisputed right to recall the officers of the cadre who are away on deputation and the Centre perforce has to comply. Hence Nitish Kumar is on firm ground in petitioning the Centre to revert him to the State cadre.

Though designated as one of the two Officers-on-duty (OSD), Sudhir Kumar is the man behind the show and even the top officers of the Railway Board bend to his whims. To take him away would be like chopping off Lalu's right arm.

There is an umseemly side to the issue -- Sudhir Kumar, alongwith Prem Gupta, Minister of State in charge of Company Affairs, is privy to a lot of "initiatives" , (please read "deals") of Lalu and if Sudhir Kumar goes back to his cadre, Nitish Kumar will leave no stone unturned to get Lalu's cat(s) out of the bag !!

More royal than the king

The top cop of Andhra Pradesh, Mr M A Basith, went to town saying that the bullets used in the Mecca Masjid firing were indeed rubber bullets. The one who fed Basith this info: was none other than Balwinder Singh, the Hyderabad Police Commissioner. He was till recently Secretary, Central Vigilance Commission. Amiable and easily accessible, Balwinder has a good PR with all concerned. To start with, the Mecca Masjid firing caused a dent in his image. Added to that was the false infornatio purveyed. To worsen matters, he booked the Congress dissident leader's son P Janardhan Reddy's son and son-in-law under a section related to manslaughter and packed them off to jail !! Pleasing the boss is okay but why go overboard with it ?

Travel bugs bureaucrat !!

Flying out to buy an aircraft for the Chief Minister is of top priority that can brook no delay. Realising this, the Special Chief Secretary(Finance) P Ramakanth Reddy took a six-member to Italy to negotiate the purchase of a helicopter for the revered Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. The travel bug bit him again. He was slated to have left for a three-nation tour of the Netherlands (Amsterdam), Greece (Athens) and Germany (Munich) ostensibly to study the international airports there. His trip had been cleared and a GO too was issued last week. But Reddy's travel stars suddenly turned awry. For some inexplicable reason, the trip was halted at the last moment. No regrets !! Reddy has made at least 30 foreign trips in the past three years.

From the Frying Pan to the Fire

Going through a tortuous period, after his summary removal as the Director General of Foreign Trade, BS Meena, an IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre ( 1975 Batch), has found a parking place as Secretary to the Board of Revival of Public Sector Enterprises. Interestingly Meena succeeded another batch mate of his, Neelam Nath, who left in protest against the treatment meted out to her by the fossilised Chairman, P. K. Basu. Meena is the fourth Secretary to the Board in its three-year existence. For Meena, is it the case of jumping from the frying pan to the fire ?

Archaic, Colonial Dress Code

Organising State funerals is an onerous, cumbersome task. Precision and propriety are to be finetuned. The Cabinet Secretary, Mr K M Chandrasekhar, had his first taste of it at the State funeral of his namesake, the former Prime Minister.

S. K. Sheriff, the new Home Secretary in the Delhi Administration, also had his role. He is not new to ceremonial and State functions, being a key aide to the then President, K R Narayanan. He took charge of the State funeral of Sahib Singh Verma, former chief Minister of Delhi.

Both Chandrasekhar and Sheriff, being sticklers for protocol,
wore "bandhgala" suits despite the humidity... !! The dress code can be stiff and sweaty.

Misfortunes never come singly

Sharad Pawar seems a worried man these days -- in fact so worried that he has sworn not to contest elections any more. While he is desperately staving off loud whispers on his proximity to Hassan Ali, who is in the thick of the Hawala scam, the wheat import scandal is providing fodder to his opponents who are not few in number. But what he really fears is that the Congress matriarch may use it against him at an opportune time, when he does not toe her line. He is now trying to seek a diversion by immersing himself in BCCI affairs, which alas are not less murky. It is time he realised that misfortunes never come singly !!

Allegations, counter allegations !!

All swords are now drawn. After lying low, it seems as if Dayanidhi Maran has braced himself to take on the ruling junta in Chennai. He has written to the Prime Minister asking for a probe into the controversial BSNL tender.

While the incumbent, Telecom Ministier A Raja, has alleged that the tender cleared by his predecessor would have resulted in a loss of Rs 10,000 crores, Maran has said that "a certain NRI businessman with vested interests is trying to stall the tender process so as to facilitate the undue growth of the private sector operators at the cost of BSNL..."

On one hand, what prompted Maran to take up the defiant stand is because he has been given an ultimatum to quit the Lok Sabha seat by 31st July. After which the DMK MPs are bound to demand a CBI probe into the matter. On the other, the DMK is irked by the fact that Maran had provoked the BSNL Union to go on strike and make things uncomfortable to Raja.

While the battle goes on, the unfolding of the drama may throw up a lot of dirt which may provide grist to Jayalalithaa's mill.

LID OFF TOP SECRET MISSILE PROJECT ?

Has India deliberately acknowledged the developmentof a submarine-based cruise missile "Sagarika" to send a clear message to the super power(s) ?The missile is likely to be installed on the nuclear powered submarine Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV). ATV was a also top guarded secret project till then Navy Chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat spilled the beans in an interview in 1998. This became one of the reasons why he was removed from the post by the NDA Government. "Sagarika" has been already been tested successfullythree times and is in the process of completing the third leg of the strategic triad -- giving India the capability to launch missiles from land, air and now from under the sea.

NAC in a limbo

What has happened to the once high-profile National Advisory Council (NAC) ? Its recommendations were taken as diktats in the corridors of power !! Even the Prime Minister used to carry out its bidding, since heading the council was none else but UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. He even went on record to commit that the suggestions she gave were being incorporated in the Union Budget. The great institution of NAC is, however, now practically defunct, though the Government has provided Rs 1.25 crores as the budget allocation for the year 2007-08. Arun Bhatnagar who continues to run NAC's show as its Secretary-general has been given the third extension of six months. Since Sonia has ruled out her return to head the NAC again, even after the law was amended to end her embarrassment of resigning from the Lok Sabha to escape the charge of holding an office of profit. A proposal is afoot to merge NAC with the PMO or make it a part of one of the Union Ministries. And an unconfirmed report states that the entire remuneration that Sonia Gandhi took as its chairperson has been repaid to the exchequer.

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).

Tamil Nadu's Crown Prince descends on Delhi

The Crown Prince of Tamil Nadu took Delhi by storm. It was done with great gusto with all the Union Ministers of the DMK in attendance. Karunanidhi has sent M K Stalin to Delhi --after the ignominious exit of Dayanidhi Maran -- on a dry run to test the waters of the Capital. In any case, genuflection before the ruling family of political parties is not something unusual in India !! He called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and other ministers. Though Stalin is only a State Minister, his visit was hyped as if a chief minister of a powerful ally of the ruling alliance was coming. Seven Union Ministers of DMK were at the Delhi airport to receive Stalin. Finance Minister Chidambaram, who is politically not on a good wicket, hosted a dinner in honour of Tamil Nadu's Crown Prince at Hotel Taj Mansingh. The inaffable Chidambaram waited in the hotel lobby to receive Stalin. Conducting himself as a CM, he also dropped at three other ministries to discuss the State's issues. Back in Chennai, not satisfied with removal of Dayanidhi from the Union Ministry, the Stalin-Alagiri duo are now campaigning for his resignation from the Lok Sabha. They have set the deadline of July end for Dayanidhi to put in papers, or else ..... !!

Mahabharata in the Skies

A cloak and dagger battle is on after the formation of a GOM (Group of Ministers) committee on Civil Aviation Policy.

One major airline operator, with alleged underworld links, takes the credit of denying Sharad Pawar the chairmanship of the GOM. If this is true, the strong man of Maharashtra has been literally humbled by a man who was once his main equity.

The fear that Pawar might vote for Shekhawat and derail Prathibha Patil has receded rapidly for some unknown reason. But what actually a matter to Sharad Pawar is not who is the occupant of Raisina Hill. What matters is the all-important deal for a competitor airline to operate foreign routes even before the mandatory five years of domestic existence.

The new civil aviation policy will come into operation from January 1, 2008. Although Pranab Mukherjee heads the GOM, Pawar is a member along with P Chidambaram, T R Baalu and Praful Patel .

To keep Sharad Pawar under check, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has ordered an IB probe (ostensibly under the instigation of the all-powerful senior competitor) into the deal struck between Indian (Airlines) and a foreign company to pledge seven aircraft of Indian.
The IB sleuths in their detailed report have indicted Viswapati Trivedi, MD of Indian. Apparently, this will embarrass Praful and Pawar more !!

To make things worse, the PMO has asked the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to study how Indian's aircraft can be pledged without authorisation by the Cabinet Committee on Security. The outcome could possibly be the cancellation of the MOU between "Indian" and the German company. So, Hassan Ali is not the only nightmare for Sharad Pawar !!!

Page no 35, Para 2/09 and 2/10 of the draft civil aviation:

Policy deals with the foreign route for Indian private air operators.
A sentence states that the Civil Aviation Ministry shall on "case by case basis issue permits to private operator to fly certain routes." The other private airline operator, allegedly with dubious links, has enlisted the support of P Chidambaram to oppose this clause.

So who wins -- the one with jet-speed or the king of good times? That will be finally decided on a suitcase by suitcase basis!!!

Babugiri

All in the Family
For some bureaucrats, the connections are all in the family. Check this out: D Subba Rao, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, and now designated Finance Secretary (from the 1972 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre) has his sister-in-law, Renuka Viswanathan (1971 batch Karnataka cadre) as Secretary, Department of Disinvestment. Renuka's sister, Urmila, also an IAS of 1975 batch, is the wife of Subba Rao. Renuka's other sibling, Vatsala Vats is a 1973 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer. She is posted in Bangalore as Home Secretary. Renuka's younger brother, Raghunandan, also a Karnataka IAS officer from the 1983 batch, is presently Joint Secretary, Panchayat Raj.

So, Renuka can literally coordinate within the family to finalise any draft agenda that she wants to push through to the Committee of Secretaries. Renuka's husband was Additional Director General of Police in Karnataka.
Aspiration Unfulfilled!
Once out of the hot seat in the Cabinet Secretariat, B K Chaturvedi drove to Yojana Bhawan and took over as a Member of the Planning Commission, nurturing the belief that he would continue to have as much of a say as before. He called on Deputy Chairman Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia and sought high-profile portfolios like Petroleum and Natural Gas, Transport and Infrastructure. What Ahluwalia's response was is not known, but the former Cabinet Secretary was assigned a more prosaic portfolio -- monitoring the North-East. Sources say, he is still hoping to "annex" important subjects at the year-end when there would be a shuffling of portfolios at Yojana Bhawan. The third day in the Planning Commission, Chaturvedi accompanied Union Ministers, Mani Shankar Aiyer and Jairam Ramesh, to visit Meghalaya and Assam. The two Ministers look after the North East. To cut a long story short, Chaturvedi is swotting flies as there are no pending North East files. He, however, quickly found another opportunity to get busy. He became one of the panelists on Lok Sabha TV whose viewership is best left to the imagination !! Anthony's dilemma !!

Who will be the next Defence Secretary? Anybody who gets it will get a two-year additional tenure. The Defence MinisterAnthony is quite a stickler for propriety and would not like to be seen as pushing for favourites. Among the suitors for the post are officers of the 1971 IAS batch, M S Srinivasan, Secretary, Petroleum and Natural Gas, and V Subramanian, Secretary, Non-conventional Energy, and 1972 batch G K Pillai, Commerce Secretary.

Pillai, being from the Kerala Cadre, has worked with Antony when the latter was Chief Minister. But Commerce Minister Kamalnath may not be prepared to relieve him.The choice could boild down to MS and VS. MS will be very keen to leave Petroleum as his relationship with Petroleum Minister Murli Deora can hardly be called hunky-dory. But the perception about his proximity to a powerful Mumbai-based corporate house is raising apprehensions!! The ostensible reason however will be that he is tied up with finalising gas pricing, a critical and tricky issue.

VS has everything going for him, but he also has the reputation of not maintaining confidentiality – at least that is what used to be whispered about him when he was Additional Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation. VS reportedly spent and hour with Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar last week to push his case. The latter apparently pointed to his lack of experience in Defence. Pat came VS’s answer: "I had experience in Finance. Why then didn't you consider me for the North Block?"

There are however two dark horses. One is Vijay Singh, Secertary, Surface Tansport, and son of L P Singh, ICS (retd) and brother of Vineeta Rai, former Revenue Secretary. The second is S Banerjee, Secretary, Defence Production. Watch this space for developments!

Shahrukh Khan's residence - MANNAT