Day 1: One minister waits for an office, another for a room

“I understand that all minority-related work will be withdrawn from other ministries and will be placed under one roof,” said Antulay, forced to stay put at his Jantar Mantar bungalow for want of an office.

When will that happen? “Everything is being worked out. Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi came visiting today.”

Ministries likely to be affected by his new charge include Home, External Affairs, Human Resource Development and Social Justice. The Cabinet Secretary even gave him the impression that the National Minorities Commission, currently with the HRD Ministry, would be under his control. So would Haj affairs, presently with the MEA.

“The name (of the ministry) should be what the Prime Minister has given it, but I will focus on human development to ensure national integration.” At 77, Antulay is happy that the leadership again needs his services more than two decades after he lost the chief ministership of Maharashtra under a cloud. “My secularism has been recognised” was his happy response.

Young turk Ajay Maken may have found a berth in the Manmohan Singh Cabinet as the lone representative of the Congress’ Gen-X but there was literally no room for the new Minister of State for Urban Development in Nirman Bhavan today. “Kaise join karenge, koi room hi khali nahi hain,” was how the situation was described.

The minister had to sit at home to receive the congratulatory garlands.

Maken’s entry into the Central Cabinet as a lone member of young turks group — especially as a member of the Urban Development Ministry which oversees all land and housing issues relating to the Capital — is seen a message to Dikshit and her followers.

But, Maken’s problem may not be confined to lack of room space. For the already truncated Urban Development Ministry — the Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation Ministry was carved out of it to make room for 10 Janpath loyalist Sheilja Kumari, a MoS with independent charge — does not have much work to do.

If Maken is asked to oversee the Delhi affairs of the ministry which accounts for most of its work, Cabinet Minister for Urban Development Jaipal Reddy would be left with just the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and other such schemes for which individual states are the movers.

Even the Urban Renewal Mission is a part job as Finance Minister P Chidambaram has retained the power of sanctioning projects under him.

Elsewhere, Renuka Chowdhary, on her first day at the HRD Ministry found fault with everything on the seventh floor of Shastri Bhawan from where she will function as Minister of State for Women and Child Development. “This carpet is stinking,” she said the moment she entered her new room, wondering why it had been painted green all over. “I do not want this carpet flooring. I want it changed to wood.” On her way out, she said that Shastri Bhawan looked like a hospital.

All this after Kanti Singh got it done up in 2004.