3-DD vision

Wags in the CPM have nicknamed their party the “the dada and boudi” (brother and sister-in-law) party. The irreverent name alludes to general-secretary Prakash Karat and his wife Brinda’s unchallenged sway over the CPM. Brinda is a first-time MP and member of the politburo.

The Congress is upset with Karat’s strident attacks on the UPA government in Parliament. She has been criticising the government over the tribal and AIIMS bills and blamed the Centre for the foodgrain shortage in West Bengal. Brinda even spoke to Basudev Acharya, CPM leader in the Lok Sabha, suggesting support for AIIMS director Dr P. Venugopal in his fight with Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss. A confused Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee questioned the party’s leader in Parliament, Sitaram Yechury, on the CPM’s stand on the AIIMS bill. The latter was unaware of any deviation from the official line in supporting the bill.

Additional assistance

Union minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has written to the prime minister protesting that with one exception none from the 1974 batch of IAS officers has been promoted from additional secretary to secretary, even though the officers were empanelled six months ago. The sole exception was Harish Chandra, a 1974 batch IAS officer who was promoted days before his retirement this July so that he could get the post-retirement benefits of a full secretary. The special concession for Chandra, who was at the bottom of the empanelled list, was at the behest of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. The government passed Chandra’s order at the same time as the BSP voted in favour of the Congress candidate Pratibha Patil in the presidential poll.

Central ministers Sharad Pawar and Arjun Singh have also written letters on the same lines to the government. Several officers in the 1974 batch seems to have applied to the ministers to plead their case, since even the two most powerful members of the group, Pulok Chatterjee in the PMO, and Vijay Sharma in the Cabinet Secretariat, have not been able to get the government to move swiftly.

Delhi stopover

Last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh flew for a brief visit to Singapore. From there he was scheduled to fly to Kampala, Uganda. Instead of flying directly from one country to the next, the prime minister’s plane flew back to Delhi for eleven hours. During this short period, he attended the Rajya Sabha for an hour. The circuitous route was chosen by the PMO after much deliberation. The rationale was that it was simpler to return to India rather than obtain permission to re-fuel the plane in one or the other country along the route.