Changing its mind

Members of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a US government body, have been denied visas to visit India since 2002. After an informal agreement with the Indian government, the commission’s visit to India was finally fixed for June 12. At the last minute the trip was cancelled since visas were not granted. The commission had already indicated in its report to the US Congress that it wanted to investigate the status of religious freedom in Gujarat and Orissa. Since the commission’s findings could only have embarrassed opposition parties like the BJP and the BKD, and except for Cuba most countries have granted the commission access, some found the Indian government’s position rather puzzling. Could it be the fact that L K Advani took up the issue with Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon that led to the last minute denial of visas?

Dressing down

Our High Commissioner in London, Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, hosted a tea party for the visiting Indian cricket team who were playing against England the next day. True, the invitation stated ‘informal dress’. All the same the prim and proper guests, including several diplomats, were taken aback by the scruffy appearance of the guests of honour. Our sportsmen turned up in T-shirts, wearing sneakers and some even sported a two-day-old stubble. It was expected that they would at least don their official blazers on such a formal occasion.

Scandal free term

After he took charge as prime minister for the second time, Manmohan Singh had an emotional get together with his entire staff, including peons and drivers. For most in the PMO, their soft spoken and kindly boss is their real hero. Singh thanked all those working for him for ensuring that there was no scandal in the PMO during his five years in office. This is something that few of his predecessors in office had been able to manage.

Write off Maharani

In the wake of the Congress media cell advisory urging former royalty not to use their titles, a retired IFS officer has written to the Ministry of External Affairs pointing out that the official website listing the resume of new Minister of State Praneet Kaur describes her as wife of the Maharaja of Patiala.

Change of heart

IB directors have for long tried to impress upon the West Bengal government the danger of the spread of Maoism, with little effect. When the Maoist threat to West Bengal was raised at the chief ministers conference in December last year, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya belittled the efforts of other states in tackling the problem. He felt that the Andhra government had simply pushed the Naxalites into the neighbouring states and Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh were following suit without solving the problem. Bhattacharya also mocked state governments for raising forces to fight Naxalites using animal names for the operations such as Greyhounds and Cobra.

Now Bhattacharya seems to have had a change of heart, even if his party chief has not.

Selecting the best

Probably no minister was as methodical in selecting his private secretary as Home Minister P Chidambaram. The Home Ministry put out the word that the minister was looking for a suitable candidate and some 20 IAS and IPS officers applied. A dozen were shortlisted and Chidambaram spent five minutes interviewing each candidate. He finally selected M Siddique, an IAS officer who graduated from IIT.

Chidambaram’s OSD, Safi Rizvi, an IPS officer is an IIM-Ahmedabad graduate. Earlier in the Finance Ministry, Chidambaram had also shown a marked preference for officers with a solid institutional background which includes such prestigious institutions as IIM, IIT or Delhi’s St Stephen’s College.