PMO’s goof ups

GOOF ups in the PMO are getting far too common. Since this is not just another government department, the mistakes often have a far reaching impact. For instance, the other day the PMO sent out a condolence message on the death of Uttamrao Patil who was referred to as a sitting MP. After the PTI news agency flashed the message, many journalists telephoned the residence of the Congress MP by the same name who protested that he was alive and well. The Patil who died was, in fact, a former BJP legislator.

While releasing the names of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Reforms, commerce minister Murasoli’s Maran’s name was omitted by mistake, which triggered off speculation among political columnists that Maran was being dropped because of the changing equation between the BJP and the DMK. Last week at a dinner for a visiting foreign dignitary Prime Minister, Vajpayee suggested that former foreign secretary Maharaj Kumar Rasgotra be called. His secretariat blundered yet again and invited Education Secretary Maharaj Kishan Kaw instead!

Jogi unburdens

CHATTISGARH Chief Minister Ajit Jogi invited Delhi journalists to tea on a Saturday as part of the new state’s first anniversary celebrations. At the end of the meal, each pressperson was presented with a small iron figurine from the state as a momento. Jogi as a Christian and a tribal was not aware that in the Hindu scriptures if a man wants to pass on his burden (boj) to somebody else you invite 11 Brahmins for a feast and present them with a piece of iron on a Saturday. Since the majority of journalists on the guest list happened to be Brahmins, the superstitious among them perceived the tea party as a deep rooted conspiracy by Jogi to shift his woes onto them. So strong was the suspicion that some Brahmin journalists on reaching their offices promptly threw the iron artifact into the dustbin.

When I’m 64

SUPER bureaucrat N K Singh has a knack of grabbing centre stage. His ingenuity is evident even in the Planning Commission where he is now posted and which for most others is a backwater transition point. With Afghanistan dominating the news, Singh convened a meeting of the Commission to discuss the reconstruction of Afghanistan which Planning Commission chairman K C Pant and the special envoy for Afghanistan Satish Lamba duly attended. Such is Singh’s clout that no one questioned the necessity of the PC holding a meeting on Afghanistan, which is totally outside its ambit!

Since four of the officials present Singh—Lamba, N C Saksena and Ajit Kumar—belong to the 1964 batch Singh observed jocularly that this was a get together of the 64s. Actually, the 1964 IAS-IFS cadre is unpopular with the rest of the service since it is felt that the batch has hogged the top assignments for far too long. A junior officer was heard remarking sarcastically, ‘‘You mean they are 64 years and still holding on!’’

Unending tenure

ENVIRONMENTALISTS have been waiting for long for the chairman of the pollution control board, Dilip Biswas to step down because of his poor record in taking action against polluting industries. Biswas was appointed in 1993 for a three-year term. After his term ended in 1996 he continued for another four years on a daily wage basis. In 2000 the Environment Ministry passed a special order that Biswas be retained as chairman till September last year when he retired from government service. Post retirement, Biswas still lingers on since the ministry claims that no successor can be found.

In fact, an application has been placed before the Cabinet that the retirement age of the chairman be raised to 62 and on par with a high court judge.

Uncivil action

SHOULDN’T those responsible for the vilification campaign against Michael Mascrenhas, who was suspended as managing director of Air India for six months, be held accountable, considering that the CBI has now given Mascrenhas a clean chit? An important question raised by the Mascrenhas affair is whether a nodal minister has the power to sack an officer when the official has been selected by the Public Enterprises Selection Board and his name cleared by the cabinet committee on appointments. Mascrenhas was a simple pawn caught in the middle in a the spat between former civil aviation minister Sharad Yadav, who was opposed to disinvestment, and the central government which favoured it.

Yadav was all the more furious with Mascrenhas because he refused to reinstate V K Verma, a former sports officer as commercial director of the airlines after the PMO had ordered Verma’s removal. Verma had given a speech to the Air India senior staff which was perceived as blatantly anti-disinvestment and which, unknown to the speaker, was videotaped. Yadav hit back by implicating Mascrenhas in a corruption case in which Verma was one of the star witnesses against him.

Practicing his preaching

RAJYA Sabha MP Kuldip Nayar holds the view that MPs should not get bigger pay packets when the economy is in decline. The left MPs may have also opposed the salary hike when parliamentarians voted themselves a Rs 8,000 monthly increment in the House, but Nayar has gone a step further. He has refused to accept the additional emoluments and asked that it be sent on his behalf to the PM’s Relief Fund.

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