Un-Gandhian act

With heavy weight cabinet ministers like Jagmohan, Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan losing their portfolios, few noticed that Minister of State Vasundara Raje Scindia too was stripped of the lion’s share of her small scale industries portfolio in the recent reshuffle. Khadi and Village industries was handed over to Karia Munda.

The move is particularly unkind considering that Scindia was universally said to have done an excellent job in turning around the Khadi and Village Industries Commission. Old Gandhians with the commission applauded her efforts. Scindia took the initiative in hiring a private financial consultancy firm and on its advice ordered the closure of many loss making khadi outlets, where a few individuals had simply been swallowing up government subsidies for years without advancing the cause of khadi. Leading designers were invited to fashion a new look for khadi outfits.

Scindia probably did not realise she was stepping on some powerful toes when she put forward a proposal to make Rama Krishna Hegde chairman of the KVIC in place of Mahesh Sharma. The RSS lobby was up in arms since Sharma, an engineer, is their nominee. RSS boss Madan Das called on the prime minister personally to protest. Sharma was retained and Scindia axed. Evidently, Vajpayee was willing to concede what he considered a minor victory to the RSS so that he could have his way in major decisions regarding the cabinet reshuffle.

Damage control

Conscious of George Fernandes’s damage potential if he continues outside the government, especially with both Ram Vilas Paswan and Sharad Yadav already on the warpath, the next cabinet reshuffle before the year end will see Fernandes return as defence minister. Regardless of whether the Venkatswamy commission on Tehelka completes its report. Before the recent cabinet reshuffle, there was a serious proposal for Jaswant Singh to take over the finance ministry and Yashwant Sinha to be handed the defence portfolio, for a shrewd Jaswant Singh is aware that he cannot hold on to the Defence Ministry much longer. A thwarted move to appoint Arun Shourie finance minister could well fructify in the next cabinet formation as well.Last straw

The removal of Jagmohan as minister for urban development was clinched after the Delhi Development Authority served a notice on the BJP district office in Pitampura, Delhi, last month. The DDA notice threatened to cancel the DDA flat allotment and launch criminal proceedings on the grounds that the residential flat was being put to commercial activity violating the terms of the allotment. It is a moot point whether operating a party office counts as commercial activity since all the national political parties in Delhi run their head offices from residential bungalows meant for MPs. The six other BJP MP from the Capital wasted no time in bringing the matter to the notice of the prime minister as yet another proof of Jagmohan’s cussed style.

Turf wars

The fact that the Intelligence Bureau hosts the annual conference for all the state director generals of police is a sore point with the Home Ministry. Home Secretary Kamal Pandey was unable to persuade former IB director Shamal Dutta to relinquish charge of the prestigious event. Dutta, a veteran with the same seniority as Pandey, held his ground pointing out that the practice has continued for nearly half a century. Pandey hoped that Dutta’s successor, K P Singh, would be more pliable. But Singh refused to concede the point and the IB organised the conference as usual this month.

Now Pandey, with the blessings of Home Minister L K Advani, plans to hold a parallel DGP conference next month. Despite the hair splitting that the first conference discussed operational security and the forthcoming meet is on security policies with the state chief secretaries also invited, few in the Home Ministry doubt that the rival conference is the result of a tussle over turf.OSD moves on
Unlike his predecessor Shakti Sinha, the Prime Minister’s OSD Anand Rajan has kept a low profile. Rajan, an IRS officer will be following in Sinha’s footsteps by taking up a job at the World Bank in Washington, though at a more junior level. Rajan’s position is to be filled by R P Singh, an IAS officer from UP, whose present post in Delhi is to coordinate between the PMO and his parliamentary constituency in Lucknow.

Party poopers

all Guests at a happening party in the Capital a fortnight back, were taken aback to find the ACP investigating the cocaine nexus. In the wake of the arrest of the Afghan coke dealer Naquibullah Ali, several crime reporters and some of the callers to Ali’s mobile phone were all happily socialising together!

Birthday blues

The guest list at Rama Krishna Hegde’s 75th birthday in Bangalore, which was just a few days before the cabinet reshuffle, seemed to represent only the disgruntled elements in the NDA, such as Ram Vilas Paswan, Sharad Yadav, Farooq Abdullah, Maneka Gandhi and Ram Jethmalani. Incidentally, an important guest at the do was NCP leader Sharad Pawar. Significantly, senior BJP leaders stayed away from the function honouring the veteran politician.

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