Delhi Confidential: Politics over lunch

AUSPICIOUS DATE

While Narendra Modi is not particularly known for referring to any religious calendar to execute any plan, the BJP’s “Narendra Modi for PM” fund collection drive through “one vote, one note” mass campaign had to wait for religious reasons. While the campaign was firmed up and intimated to party leaders over a fortnight ago, its launch was on hold till the end of the inauspicious period on Tuesday. While BJP president Rajnath Singh launched the online “one vote, one note” campaign on Tuesday, the off-line door-to-door campaign will be launched at a mass scale from the death anniversary of Jan Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyay in February.

IN-HOUSE ANSWER
With IAS officer A K Singh, who was handling Central Universities at the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry, having been repatriated to Uttar Pradesh, there is a joint secretary-level vacancy in the ministry. The Pallam Raju-led dispensation, however, is looking to find a replacement in-house only. Two 1995-batch IAS officers serving in the school education department — Maninder Kumar Dwivedi of Chhattisgarh cadre and M Ariz Ahammed of Assam-Meghalaya cadre — are set to get empanelled as joint secretaries shortly and the ministry is planning to accommodate one of them as JS, Adult Education. Meanwhile, senior joint secretary J S Raju is holding dual charges of Adult Education and Central Universities.

THE RAW LINK
While the Intelligence Bureau roped in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for its annual lecture this time, India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), has gone in for a more unorthodox choice for the upcoming R N Kao Memorial Lecture on January 23. The agency has managed to get RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan to conduct the annual address this time. Incidentally, the economist has a connection with the RAW — his father Govind Rajan had retired as a senior RAW agent.