Homeward bound

Will Praful Patel please stand up

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had gone on record saying that he would sign the air services agreement with Iceland during President A P J Abdul Kalam8217;s visit to Reykjavik. But the minister was found missing on May 31. So what happened? It seems Patel was to be the Minister-in-waiting for Kalam8217;s 15-day trip to Russia, Switzerland, Iceland and Ukraine, but the minister declined, citing personal reasons.

However, Patel was keen to go to Reykjavik to initial the air services agreement and had expressed his desire for the same.

This apparently miffed the Rashtrapati Bhawan, who felt that either Patel should have agreed to be the Minister-in-waiting or let Jagdish Tytler, the minister accompanying Kalam, sign the agreement.

Finally External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh called up Patel to ask him to politely withdraw from the entire trip. And sure enough, Patel wrote to Rashtrapati Bhawan, saying that he could not make it to Iceland due to personal reasons.

Dreamers or moaners

When Army Chief General J J Singh opened the 8216;dreamers club8217; with a million- strong force, his plan was to get some 8216;8216;out of the box8217;8217; ideas from his officers on serious issues like Siachen, insurgency, nuclear deterrance, war doctrine, technology or jointmanship between the armed forces.

An e-mail account was opened for the officers to write in and a Colonel from the Signals Regiment was deputed to monitor these mails.

A month after the club was opened, the Chief of Army Staff8217;s office is flooded with mails8212;not on disengagement from Siachen8212;but personal grievances.

Senior Army officers are using it to air grievances on promotional aspects, implementation of the A V Singh Committee report on career progression and ask for more allowances. In fact, top brass is now seriously considering telling the chief to close down the club.

Slum politics

The politics of slums votes has been tuned to a fine art by the Congress. Last month, a Delhi court asked the DDA to demolish slums from a green land in Kalkaji Extension meant for a school.

The DDA found that certain unscrupulous jhuggi dwellers, who had been given pucca shelters by the government, had sold off the alternative accomodation and had encroached afresh.

When the DDA decided to demolish the slums, former Prime Minister V P Singh intervened and called up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Urban Development Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Delhi Lt Governor B L Joshi were summoned by the Prime Minister. Despite Azad explaining the jhuggi-dwellers8217; action to the Prime Minister, Singh would have none of it. Calling for a more humane approach, he said the people could not be left in open in summer. The meeting ended inconclusively with the Prime Minister hinting at a review of the existing policy.

While Azad and Joshi were stumped by the humane approach, they obviously forgot what happened to Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh when he went after the Mumbai slums.

Reshuffle blues

While the punters are excited over the much-awaited Cabinet reshuffle, at least a couple of Cabinet ministers are getting the jitters. The reshuffle may take place before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh goes to Gleneagles, Edinburgh, on July 6 for the G-8 summit and Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Power Minister P M Sayeed, Tourism Minister Renuka Choudhary, Mines Minister Sis Ram Ola are already nervous.

To add to uncertainity, is the desire of DMK8217;s Dayanidhi Maran to become the Commerce Minister 8212; like father Murasoli Maran 8212; by surrendering his Telecom and Information Technology portfolio. But then all this is linked up with the reorganisation of CWC and restructuring of the AICC secretariat as at least one of the cabinet ministers is tipped to go back to party.

Tailpiece

Since he took over Cabinet Secretary last June, BK Chaturvedi has been involved in the high pressure routine of UPA governance. Now with his son securing admission in MBA at Wharton, the Cabinet Secretary had decided to go holidaying to Sikkim till June 11. But given the fact that return airfares to Bagdogra costs Rs 20,000 per person, Chaturvedi and his family will go by train to Siliguri and thereon by car.

What the head of civil services does not know is that some of his enterprising deputy secretaries take their families to Europe and USA for holidays. And Chaturvedi is free to check on that.