Furniture Fetish

Food Minister K V Thomas apparently is so smitten by the furniture in Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh's office that he wants similar ones for his room as well. Ramesh sits on the ground floor in one corner of Krishi Bhawan and Thomas has his room directly above, on the first floor. He is learnt to have ordered seats and chairs similar to the ones that Ramesh has. And recently, one aide of Thomas was found in Ramesh's room clicking pictures of his desk. But, Thomas is yet to get a similar-looking desk for himself.

TECH SAVVY

FORMER HRD minister Kapil Sibal may have held the telecom portfolio alongside, but it seems his successor M M Pallam Raju is the more tech-savvy of the two. Raju, whose office in Shastri Bhawan has taken a long time to be renovated, has just got a wi-fi system installed in his room. This is in addition to a smart interactive board for video conferences. Raju's tech-friendliness seems to be rubbing on to his officers as well. As if taking a cue from him, the Secretary of Higher Education has converted his office into a wi-fi zone.

NOT AT HOME

JUMPING from one crisis to another, Sushil Kumar Shinde must be ruing the day he took up the job of the Home Minister. In fact, he never wanted this portfolio at all. His heart was instead set on the Foreign Ministry. In the run-up to the last Cabinet reshuffle, in which he was shifted from Power Ministry to the Home Ministry, Shinde had tried to discreetly convey to the party leadership that he would be happiest if given the External Affairs portfolio. But in Congress, rarely has any leader got something that he has wanted. In his current assignment, probably the only time Shinde wore a satisfied look was after the execution of Afzal Guru earlier this month. "You are the Iron Man," said one of the innumerable text messages that Shinde received that morning, bringing a smile on his face.

... contd.

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