Bt brinjal: Why Jairam made haste

Ramdev’s presidential visitor

NEPAL President Ram Baran Yadav,who arrives in India on Monday,had just one special request when his visit was being planned. He wanted arrangements to be made so that he could visit Hardwar and meet Baba Ramdev. A dedicated follower of the Baba,Yadav is himself a doctor and was the personal physician of former Nepal PM G P Koirala,which also proved handy for his entry into politics. Incidentally,he studied medicine in Kolkata and then did his specialisation in pathology from PGI,Chandigarh.

‘Seniormost unemployed’ Congman

IF SOME Congress leaders are still grumbling about being left out of the trappings of power — particularly those bereft of even the gubernatorial option — a special mention has to be made of former Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar,who wears his disenchantment on his sleeve. Convenor of the party committee responsible for holding 125th anniversary celebrations of the Congress,Aiyer did not shy from voicing his feelings at a recent meeting. “I am the seniormost unemployed Congress leader,” he declared while underlining seniority to his colleague Ghulam Nabi Azad,when they could not agree on some point relating to the celebrations. Azad,needless to say,had no answer to Aiyar’s Brahmaastra.

A little older Youth Cong

THE Indian Youth Congress made some changes in its constitution recently to raise the age limit of its office-bearers from 35 to 37 years. Newly appointed IYC president Rajeev Satav,who replaced Ashok Tanwar,was the first beneficiary of this amendment. A product of Rahul Gandhi’s Talent Search programme,Satav was born in September 1974 and was found to have crossed the age limit when he was being considered for the new assignment. Expected to deliver on his home turf Maharashtra,Satav is waiting for the IYC membership drive in Mumbai to get over next week before he trains the new members to take on the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. His first initiative as IYC president is to start a “performance appraisal system” for office-bearers so that performers could be rewarded. He also has plans to announce “Best Performers” in the Youth Congress, both at national and state levels.

Diplomatic gaffe

LAST week saw a diplomatic gaffe involving the Iran envoy. Iranian Ambassador Syed Mehdi Nabizadeh had an appointment with HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday evening,but when he came to Shastri Bhavan,the guards didn’t let him in,since there was no message left at the ground floor gates about his arrival. When he finally managed to get past the gate,he went straight to Sibal’s third-floor office,but the minister wasn’t there. Realising there was a mix-up,Sibal’s aides immediately contacted his residence and volunteered to take Nabizadeh there. Iran mission officials were taken aback,but went along.

Divided on Australia

WHILE the External Affairs Ministry maintains that the spate of attacks on Indians has impacted India-Australia ties,the other arms of the government don’t seem to share this view. A delegation of officials from the HRD and Labour Ministries visited Australia last week to take forward bilateral cooperation in the sphere of vocational education and training. The delegation went to several cities and after interacting with Indians and Australian officials,some of the members felt that the attacks were being blown out of proportion. They also found some merit in the argument of Australia that the attacks were not racially motivated and were only incidents of crime. In fact,the delegation was so impressed with the vocational education and training system in Australia that they are planning to replicate some of the good practices in India.

Waning influence of Amar

RAJA Bhaiya,an Independent MLA considered the bellweather of Thakur politics in Uttar Pradesh,not only hosted SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav recently for dinner to clear the air about his proximity with Amar Singh,he appears to have also stamped his seal of approval on Ram Gopal Yadav’s new-found prominence in the party. A clear indication of it came last week when Raja Bhaiya made it a point to attend the wedding ceremony of Ram Gopal’s son in Etawah. Many other Thakur MLAs also considered close to Amar Singh’s camp attended the festivities. As did Abu Asim Azmi,who was also perceived to be close to the estranged SP general secretary but who made it a point to fly in from Mumbai for the ceremony. However,in some disappointment for the SP,Azam Khan did not make an appearance despite an invitation being sent to him as well.

Mamata the unpredictable

WHILE no one can still be sure if she will make it for a Cabinet meeting,Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is fast acquiring a reputation for extreme punctuality in her daily engagements. Recently,she reached Udyog Bhavan 15 minutes early for a meeting with Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran,and proceeded to while away the time hanging around and getting herself photographed with some paramilitary personnel. A few days later,Mamata did an encore,reaching the programme venue of a discussion with industry players a few minutes before schedule,sending senior Railway officials into a tizzy. Clearly,there’s no predicting the unpredictable Mamata.

Congress,Mamata-style

LIKE her previous party Congress,Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress too has a core committee. But given Mamata’s style of functioning,party members sometimes have no idea when the committee will meet. One of the seniormost leaders of the party,Minister of State for Urban Development Saugata Roy,reached Delhi on Tuesday last week for the meeting,and learnt that the committee was instead meeting the next day in Kolkata. He wondered as to why he had not been informed as he was in Kolkata and even had a long chat with Mamata before leaving for Delhi. There was more in store. As Roy planned to fly back,he got another message: that the meeting had been postponed.

Look who came for dinner

ASHOK Chaturvedi of Flex Industries continues to draw the who’s who of the country’s power circuit,notwithstanding his controversial past,including arrest by the CBI. At a dinner hosted by him at his farmhouse last week,those who showed up included Ahmed Patel,political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi,AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh,Rajya Sabha MP Rajiv Shukla,and former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh,among others. At one point of time,Shukla and Amar Singh were on the board of directors of the Flex Group and the two bitter political rivals have in Chaturvedi a common friend with proven mettle as a go-between. The presence of top Congress leaders and Amar Singh at Chaturvedi’s dinner set political circles abuzz about efforts for rapprochement between the former SP leader and the Congress. Digvijaya Singh,however,maintained that he was at the dinner for just 10 minutes and did not meet Amar Singh.

Rashtrapati Bhavan’s own botanist

IT’S February and the Mughal Gardens in the President’s Estate has been thrown open to the public. But guess who takes personal interest in the garden

and its upkeep? It’s the seniormost official in the President’s secretariat,Christy Fernandes. The secretary to the President,who is a Botany graduate,knows and loves his plants and flowers so much so that he does not mind coming back to the Rashtrapati Bhavan as a horticulture consultant when he retires from his job. “I am serious. I would like to come back,” says Fernandes,whose present assignment will end along with the tenure of President Pratibha Patil.

Heeding the Chair in the House

WITH heated political attacks expected against the government in the Budget session over the price rise issue,the latter is doing its bit to ensure that at least the Chairs in both Houses are kept in good humour. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal recently wrote to all the ministers to be cautious and refrain from antagonising the Chair during the session. Ministers have also been told that if they can’t be present in the House when a listed business under their name is to be raised in the concerned House,they should write personally to the Chair to seek permission for another minister to represent them,rather than let their staff do it.

CBI tries to plug leaks

The premier investigating agency CBI is getting increasingly paranoid about sharing information. Last week,it circulated an internal note asking officers to be extremely careful about who they meet since they could be trapped in a sting operation. Now,it emerges,the CBI is also looking to change its spokesperson. The official reason is that the incumbent is too senior an officer for the post. But insiders say the organisation wants someone more effective at controlling information leaks,which are happening despite its best efforts. Management jargon has also made its way into the CBI’s functioning,with the Director spelling out key result areas for each of his officers to evaluate their performance. The organisation is also working hard to produce a coffee-table book on itself. Whether all this is going to help complete investigations in over 1,000 pending cases is another matter.

MEA revolving door

The Ministry of External Affairs is abuzz about sudden changes in the portfolios of senior joint secretaries who had been posted only recently to these posts. If the JS (Eurasia) and JS (Administration) were suddenly replaced barely three months into their new postings,the JS (SAARC) has been moved after a month. Clearly,Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao wants her handpicked team,but in the process,other joint secretaries have been left jittery about comes next. A couple of them are learnt to have let it be known that they would rather be posted out of Delhi than be shifted around.

Reprieve for Rehman

K Rehman Khan has got a reprieve from the Congress leadership in the controversial Amarnath Cooperative Bank scam case,in which his name along with many other prominent personalities from the Muslim community figured. The scam involved misappropriation of crores of funds meant for poor Muslims. The Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman recently met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and handed her documents purportedly absolving him of all charges in the eight-year-old case. One of the founder members of the bank,Rehman was said to have told Sonia that his political opponents within and outside the party were behind the conspiracy to malign his image. He has been asked by the party leadership to keep quiet and ingore the row.