Peevish PMO

Some element of favouritism is bound to creep in when selecting journalists to accompany the prime minister on his visits abroad. But, for Atal Behari Vajpayee’s trip to the US and Russia, the PMO has gone to great lengths to ensure the exclusion of a normally very visible scribe. The editor has impeccable connections in the Sangh Parivar, but has been black-balled because the weekly magazine and TV channel run by his media group are perceived as uncharitable to the prime minister when compared to the coverage extended to the home minister. Although the Ministry of External Affairs had included the group editor’s name in the list of invitees for the trip, the PMO struck it of. In an attempt to justify his exclusion no one representing a private TV channel or magazine is to be taken on the PM’s aircraft.

Earlier, when Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Najma Heptullah led a group of MPs and journalists to Iraq at Saddam Hussain’s invitation, she duly included the editor in her list of invitees. But his name was deleted when the list came to the PMO for approval.

In house selection

The search committee for a new chairman-cum-managing director for the Industrial Financial Corporation of India (IFCI) had a tough time as several promising candidates had to be ruled out since the pay packet of the CMD was only the equivalent of the pay of an additional secretary. A major plus point of V P Singh, an executive director with IDBI who was finally selected for the job, was that he was already accustomed to a modest government scale salary. But, curiously after the shortlisting of candidates the IFCI board passed a resolution tripling the emoluments of the CMD on the ground that it should be comparable with private sector. If the selection board, headed incidentally by the chairman of the IDBI, was interested in a wider choice, surely the decision to enhance the salary should have been announced before, not after, the shortlist was drawn up!

Indifferent table

When Germany’s Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder visited New Delhi last week guests noticed that the menu for the lunch thrown in his honour by the government at the Ashoka Hotel and the dinner banquet at Rashtrapati Bhavan, were remarkably similar; with prawns and lamb served on both occasions. Isn’t the MEA’s protocol division supposed to guard against such duplication? The meal at the Ashoka was decidedly superior to the soggy and indifferent fare at Rashtrapati Bhavan. And so was the service. At Rashtrapati Bhavan, it is not just that the food is invariably cold by the time it arrives from the kitchen, but that the elderly bearers have a disconcerting habit of giving unsolicited advice in Hindi to the Indian guests about their table manners.Double trouble

A K Pandey, the seniormost IRS officer from the 1966 batch, not only lost out in the race for the post of chairman of the Central Board of Excise and Customs but in the bargain, now has a question mark over his career. The selection board for the CBEC chairman has referred to the CVC, allegations against Pandey concerning the funding of his son’s education for a masters degree in engineering from Stanford University. The charge is that Verma as head of the DRI assisted certain individuals who evaded prosecution under the COFEPOSA and Customs Act. In return, unknown trust funds and individuals offered his son scholarships for defraying his fees abroad. Pandey claims that false charge against him have been instigated because he has alienated many by his taking strong action against some 100 odd people at the Delhi and Mumbai airports.

Class two delegates

The Vigyan Bhavan hall, where Tourism Minister Jagmohan hosted a conference for state tourism ministers last week, was packed as long as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was present. But once the prime minister left the VIP politicians and much of the audience disappeared. Several state ministers, including Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, exerted clout so that they would be allowed to make their speeches first.

By the time the tourism minister from Sikkim got a chance to speak there was practically no one left in the room. ‘‘Is this how you practice national integration’’ the minister fumed. The Nagaland minister also slotted at the end along with Manipur’s representative complained that people from the north east are ‘‘still being treated as second class citizens.’’ Tourism Secretary M P Bezbaruah had a tough time trying to explain his ministry’s criteria for order of precedence of the states which was clearly not alphabetical.

Unhealthy mix

It is listed as a health club and is located in a leading ITDC hotel in Delhi, but the club does not provide treadmills and workouts but favours massages and saunas. It is frequented by several senior bureaucrats including some half a dozen full secretaries to the GOI. The IB is now keeping a close watch on the place, since several known fixers and facilitators are also regular customers, presumably to get close to the bureaucrats.

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