Both Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrashekhar and Union Minister for Heavy Industries Santosh Mohan Dev are at a loss on how to deal with Prahlad Basu, the octogenarian chairperson of the Board of Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises, who was appointed at the behest of the Left.

Three secretaries have left the commission during Basu’s three years in office and now he is at loggerheads with the present incumbent, Jivtesh Singh Maini, a Punjab cadre IAS officer. Last Sunday Basu asked Delhi Police for special protection from Maini, claiming he feared for his life. He demanded that Maini be barred from attending the board meeting that day. The police descended on the CGO complex where the meeting was to be held and started checking everyone’s identity. In protest, employees of the board stayed away and the meeting had to be cancelled.

Basu complains that Maini’s behaviour as an officer is unacceptable. But his ire perhaps stems from the fact that Maini has written a letter to the cabinet secretary complaining that Basu loses his temper, has slapped a driver, and thrown files at officers. The cabinet secretary has ruled that since Basu is only a part-time chairperson he cannot prevent his secretary from attending the board meeting.

Secure position

While her mother and brother were in China talking with the country’s top leadership, Priyanka Gandhi was spotted in a small hole-in-the-wall speciality kids store in Delhi’s Greater Kailash market. “What an unlikely place to find you!” remarked a journalist who was shopping there. Priyanka, who many believe is the politically most astute member of the family, retorted that in fact such shops were the places she was most likely to be found. She is kept busy, running errands for her children Rehan and Maria. Priyanka and a friend were ordering bed sheets with their children’s names printed on them. She was without any security guards.

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