Opinion Pointed omission

Pranab Mukherjee is designated as No. 2 in the Cabinet and officiates in the absence of the Prime Minister. But there are straws in the wind to suggest that Defence Minister A K Antony may soon move to the No. 2 slot. At the AICC meet in Talkatora grounds,Sonia Gandhi,who always rehearses her speeches in advance,mentioned Antony’s name immediately after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ahead of Mukherjee. Significance has also been attached to the omission of Mukherjee’s name in Rahul’s list of top-rated ministers. To add to Mukherjee’s woes,a mischievous organisation that calls itself the Congress Secular Hindu Forum,has put up posters in Lutyens’ Delhi,asserting that after a Sikh Prime Minister,the next one should be a Hindu and not a Christian. The clear reference is to Antony and Mukherjee. A furious Mukherjee has tried to get the posters removed as he believes they have been brought out by his enemies to embarrass him.

Is he ready for office?

Minister for Urban Development Jaipal Reddy was hopeful of being made chief minister of Andhra Pradesh,because of his seniority and experience. The surprise selection of N Kiran Kumar Reddy took aback not just Jaipal Reddy,but most in the party. The 50-year-old Reddy was introduced to Rahul Gandhi by M M Pallam Raju,MoS for Defence. Both Reddy and Raju fit in to Rahul’s preferred mould for politicians. They are relatively young for politicians and have public school backgrounds. Raju and Reddy,in fact,were contemporaries at the Hyderabad Public School,the city’s leading school. Reddy is a former Ranji player who belongs to the right community.

But the new chief minister has already rubbed several in his party the wrong way. When he flew down to Delhi recently,he did not bother to consult party MPs about the Cabinet formation. Senior ministers were informed of their inclusion only around midnight or in the early morning of the swearing-in. The political grapevine claims that on his way to and from the swearing-in,a cat crossed the new chief minister’s path. Superstition was reinforced when a minister quit Reddy’s cabinet on the very first day. Rahul Gandhi’s former choice for Maharashtra,Ashok Chavan,came a cropper and the party is keeping its fingers crossed over his latest selection.

Now MEA says so tweet

The Ministry of External Affairs has organised a seminar next week on public diplomacy and social networking,with former minister Shashi Tharoor as one of the speakers. Ironically,when Tharoor lost his berth in the MEA,some diplomats in South Block had smugly cited tweeting as a major cause for his downfall. After all,it was Lalit Modi’s retaliatory tweet on the Kochi IPL which proved to be Tharoor’s undoing. But even before that,Tharoor had got into hot water for indiscreet tweets—his references to cattle-class or his taking a dig at Chinese policies.

Not role models

First it was B S Yeddyurappa who blotted the copybook of development oriented BJP chief ministers. Now,Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal threatens to follow suit. When news leaked in the media that the state government had sold a large tract of land between Haridwar and Rishikesh for a song,the chief minister hastily cancelled the deal. He also backtracked on an agreement for a questionable hydel project. But Pokhriyal is nervous,since he fears that it is his own partymen who are out to get him. The state BJP is presently arguing over whether yoga guru Ramdev was referring to Pokhriyal’s or B C Khanduri’s tenure when he claimed a minister demanded a huge bribe from him.