Keeping Track

The Congress had hoped that Beni Prasad Vermas expression of regret over his remarks against Mulayam Singh Yadav would pacify the Samajwadi Party chief

The Congress had hoped that Beni Prasad Vermas expression of regret over his remarks against Mulayam Singh Yadav would pacify the Samajwadi Party chief. But it was caught off-guard when Mulayam demanded Vermas sacking. Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was once again pressed into action. Shinde sent one of his aides to Parliament to escort Mulayam and his brother Ram Gopal Yadav to his office. Before leaving,Mulayam went to the washroom,during which time the person sent by Shinde received four calls asking whether the SP leader had left. The aide probably did not want to say that Mulayam was in the loo,so he kept saying that he was on his way out of the building. But on the fourth call,he could not find any other excuse and had to tell the caller that Mulayam was in the loo and that they would leave for the North Block office when he emerges out of it.

POST TROUBLES

WHILE the UPA governments move to appoint former Supreme Court Judge Cyriac Joseph as chairman of the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has come a cropper apparently because of an adverse report by an intelligence agency,the government is now learnt to be planning to make him a member of the National Human Rights Commission. However,this move too is said to have run into problems with some officials expressing reservations. The view is that the government would find it difficult to convince Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj,who is part of the selection panel,to appoint Joseph. Swaraj is known to take this part of her job very seriously and is likely to raise the issue of adverse report against Joseph again.

TECH SAVVY

A NEW officer and quite a tech savvy one at that will soon be steering the HRD ministrys Aakash tablet project. Karnataka cadre IAS officer Rajiv Chawla is learnt to have been shortlisted for the job which also involves heading the National Mission on Education through ICT. The 1987 batch IAS officer an alumnus of IIT Kanpur has,incidentally,already made quite a name for himself in Karanataka where he is credited with implementing the BHOOMI programme for digitizing of land records. Also a recipient of the Prime Ministers Award for Excellence in Public Administration,Chawla is expected to join the HRD ministry as a Joint Secretary in the Higher Education department.

CLOSE TIES

BJP leader Yashwant Sinha is caught in a peculiar situation on the ongoing political drama over drafting of a UN resolution on the situation of Tamil population in Sri Lanka. Indias envoy to Sri Lanka,Ashok Kant,as well the permanent representative at the UN in Geneva,Dilip Sinha,happen to be his close relatives.