Good God!

YOGA POLITICS

While Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath was the one who faced a lot of flak from within the Congress for his yoga session with Baba Ramdev — a party MP even wrote to Sonia Gandhi demanding action against him — it turns out that it was the yoga guru who had taken the initiative,calling up Kamal Nath to seek a meeting with him. While the minister had never met Ramdev before,he could not decline the request as the yoga camp was in his parliamentary constituency. Kamal Nath has told his party colleagues that Ramdev informed him about the Prime Minister’s letter and his talks with Pranab Mukherjee to drive home the point that his proposed fast was not targeted against the Congress. Incidentally,while some of his party colleagues criticised him for joining Ramdev’s yoga session,Kamal Nath was actually asked to negotiate with the yoga guru,a request he politely declined.

CHEW ON THIS

The chewing gum theory that the government has propagated after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee dismissed as bogus the “security breach” at his North Block office,is now posing a different problem for two of his Cabinet colleagues. In a lighter vein,Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath and Social Justice Minister Mukul Wasnik are now being asked by colleagues when was the last time they visited Pranabda’s office. Both the ministers are in the habit of popping nicorette chewing gum that is supposed to help them stop smoking. Nath has been taking nicorettes gums for a long time,while Wasnik began about two years back after he suffered a stroke. When Wasnik told an inquiring colleague that he had last met Pranabda in his office about five months back,pat came the response,amidst guffaws,that it was the precise time that the “security breach” took place there.

NO NOVICE

RK Singh,who is set to take over the job of the Home Secretary from incumbent GK Pillai,has an interesting past of handling difficult situations. The toughest was in 1990 when,as Registrar of Cooperative Societies in Patna,he was suddenly summoned and notified overnight as Special Additional District Magistrate of Samastipur by the Bihar government. Singh was so empowered because he had been chosen to arrest L K Advani,who had halted in Samastipur during his famous Rath Yatra. Singh was the one who had arrested Advani along with then IPS officer and now Congress politician Rameshwar Oraon. Interestingly,years later,he was also part of Advani’s home ministry team,handling Centre-State relations and doing equally well. His bipartisanship is being quoted as his strength.

PULOK’S POST

The rumour mills are abuzz again with news that senior bureaucrat Pulok Chaterji,known for his closeness to the Nehru-Gandhi family,could be planning a comeback to the capital,possibly to a senior position in the PMO. The speculation has been triggered by a circular issued by the department of personnel earlier this week calling applicants for the post of Executive Director of the World Bank in Washington,currently occupied by Chaterji. He had joined the World Bank assignment with a three-year tenure in February 2009. The 1974 UP cadre officer’s name had earlier done the rounds for the post of Cabinet Secretary,to which his batchmate Ajit Kumar Seth was appointed. Trying to read between the lines,officials contend that the circular has been issued prematurely by the personnel ministry. Applicants are to send their nominations by next month.