Delhi Confidential: Old Guard Take Guard

Away from limelight for some time, Ambika Soni is back in action.

Ambika Soni

Return of old war horses seems to be the flavour of the season in the Congress party. Away from limelight for some time, Ambika Soni is back in action. Soni was once party president Sonia Gandhi’s eyes and ears in the Congress – she was one of Sonia’s political advisers in her initial years as Congress president. She was also AICC general secretary attached to Sonia’s office. Of late, however, Soni had taken a backseat despite being an AICC general secretary in charge of Jammu and Kashmir. She has now been made a member of a panel set up by Sonia to deliberate and formulate Congress’s positions on key issues. Soni was also by Sonia’s side today when she went to Tihar Jail to meet Karnataka Congress leader D K Shivakumar.

Tackle And Sidestep

At the Cabinet briefing on Wednesday, three Union ministers deflected an issue lest it takes the focus off the government’s decision to give ownership rights to residents of Delhi’s unauthorised colonies months before the Assembly polls. With Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri present, a journalist raised the issue of new land to be allotted to the Press Club of India. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was quick to gesture to Puri to not engage, while Information and Broadcasting Minister deflected it by telling the journalist to meet him for tea later, saying that “the question is for me” and bringing the topic to an end.

Regulate On Plate

Instituting a regulator for the railways sector, a project long considered “dead”, may have got a new lease of life. Although nothing is official yet, there are talks among bureaucrats that the Railways Ministry brass has started seriously considering forming a rail tariff regulatory authority —- a new avatar of the Rail Development Authority, which was passed by the Cabinet before going into the cold storage. Now the thrust is said to be more on the prospect of private players entering passenger train operations in near future. It is felt that a tariff regulator can, if needed, regulate anti-competitive, predatory pricing practices of private players, like in the case of the telecom sector.

Problem Of Plenty

The latest round of administrative reshuffles has left the Ministry of Health with a problem of plenty. There are currently three special secretaries in the ministry: Sanjeeva Kumar, 1986-batch IAS who already held the rank, as well as Arun Singhal and Manoj Jhalani, both 1987-batch IAS officers. Singhal and Jhalani were designated as special secretaries on Tuesday. A special secretary is usually seen to be next in line to be secretary. Health Secretary Preeti Sudan is due to retire next year.