Fly on the wall

His Boss' daughterHeard of Priya Kumar? Not likely. A junior officer of the Information Service, she was moved from AIR to DD's news centr...

His Boss8217; daughter
Heard of Priya Kumar? Not likely. A junior officer of the Information Service, she was moved from AIR to DD8217;s news centre. The under-secretary rank officer soon found her way into the charmed circles of Mandi House and was posted as Deputy Controller Sports equivalent to the post of the deputy secretary. While some of the controllers are waiting for months for a chair to sit, she was given a separate room with PA and a budget of Rs 99 crore to handle. She is not the daughter of a powerful politician, her father is Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar. It seems R.R. Shah, temporary CEO of the Prasar Bharati, cannot afford to annoy his boss.

Looking for seat
Of the four Union Ministers from the Rajya Sabha 8212; Rajnath Singh, O. Rajagopal, Arun Jaitley and Ram Jethmalani 8212; the Law Minister is perhaps the only person who is unsure of his Rajya Sabha seat in March. Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley are sure to be fielded from UP where the BJP is set to win at least four RS seats. O. Rajagopal can enter through Madhya Pradesh. Since Jethmalani is an Independent Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra and retiring in March, the scenario is slightly different this time as Shiv Sena is not inclined to back him due to its own domestic problems. He will have to get either the BJP ticket or move to Andhra Pradesh where TDP supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu is also keen on him.

Behind the facade
Don8217;t go by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha8217;s sweet talk. He is available to every delegation and anybody these days, listening to them patiently and promising the moon. But be ready for a hard doze of taxation this February. The mounting deficit is already causing sleepless nights to Sinha despite widening the tax-payers8217; base during the past two years.

Waiting for clearance
Files have piled up in the PMO as Atal Behari Vajpayee found hardly any time to put his seal on them.

If the week-long hijack took a toll in the first place, eye ailment kept him away for the next four days. But this created a piquant situation in the National Commission for Minorities where all its seven members including the chairman retired a month ago.

This has happened at a time when the BJP is working overtime to keep them happy. Justice Mohammad Shamim, a former judge of Delhi high court, has been picked up to head the Commission. Maneka Gandhi has also recommended the names of other six members too.

Sorry, no vacancy
With M.L. Fotedar, a Gandhi family loyalist for decades, being denied the Rajya Sabha ticket by Sonia Gandhi, there is virtual panic among all those who fall in this category. The fate of Arjun Singh and K. Natwar Singh to make it to the Upper House from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively, has become uncertain. Sheila Dikshit and others were pitching for Fotedar till the end. But Sonia refused to listen. She also sent another signal to dissidents: 8220;I don8217;t care, do what you like.8221;