In Karachi, Natwar has date with MQM

In Karachi, the External Affairs Minister will also hold official meetings with the Sindh Governor and Chief Minister.

IA chief can’t chair her board

Sushma Chawla was the toast of all TV channels in June when she took over as the first woman chairperson-cum-managing director of Indian Airlines. Little attention, though, was paid to the fact that she was an interim appointment.

Even the PMO was surprised as prior approval of Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) was not taken by the Civil Aviation Ministry. Finally, after hectic communications, a letter from the Department of Personnel confirmed Chawla’s appointment till the selection of a new CMD.

This letter, however, has not made its way to the airlines headquarters. And, as a result, no board meeting was held for a long time because babus in Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan insisted she wasn’t authorised to chair one. Last week, however, a board meeting was held—it is is mandatory for a PSU to hold one every quarter. And Chawla, strangely, was a special invitee. The board was chaired by K Ramalingam, chairman, Airports Authority of India.

No major decision was taken but it was made clear that Ramalingam would head future meetings. Meanwhile, an interview for the new CMD is expected to be held on October 7.

‘Super babus’ get more time in office

On Friday, RA&W chief P K Hormese Tharakan became the first beneficiary of the Cabinet’s fixed-tenure decision. He will now help restructure India’s external intelligence agency till January 31, 2007. Next in line are Home Secretary Vinod Duggal (retirement due on October 31), IB chief E S L Narasimhan (November 30) and Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt (December 31).

Forget the resentment in the bureaucracy over granting fixed tenures of up to two years for a select few, the Cabinet decision has also raised eyebrows on the manner in which it was taken. PM Manmohan Singh was all for giving fixed tenures to secretaries of a number of departments to maintain continuity—the posts of foreign and finance secretaries were in the original list. But the Law Ministry felt that this could invite trouble as all secretaries were equal and one could not be selective. The government then sought the opinion of Attorney General Milon Banerjee. His advice: as defence and internal security occupied a special place in the Constitution, the government should only give fixed tenures to Home and Defence secretaries, apart from IB and RA&W chiefs. Perhaps, the AG knows that defence and internal security have long been treated as holy cows and even MPs think twice before taking them on.

Burra sahibs & Gymkhana jam

Nobody messes with the ‘burra sahibs’ of Gymkhana Club. No member of the high-profile Congress Core Group complained of traffic jams due to cars parked outside the club last Saturday.

In fact, the Cabinet Secretary endured a 15-minute wait to get through to the Prime Minister’s residence. Even Chairperson Sonia Gandhi opted to take the wrong lane rather than cross their path. After the Core Group meeting, traffic to 7 RCR was stopped at Samrat Hotel so that Gandhi’s entourage could take the wrong side of the road and get to Kautilya Marg and onward home.

The reason for the chaos: club members had turned up in large numbers to elect a new president. For the record, former RA&W chief A S ‘‘Bubbles’’ Dulat beat Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad by 75 votes.

On home ground, Karat on backfoot

CPI(M) boss Prakash Karat was on a sticky wicket on what should have been familiar ground—the Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he was once union president. The occasion, ironically, was a late evening meeting at a hostel where Karat delivered a lecture on ‘Left in India, Possibilities for Advance’.

But, a group of students from Kerala was more worried about the CPM leadership’s handling of factionalism in the party the state. They raised a few tough questions, to which they evidently did not get a straight reply. Then, they wanted to present a memorandum to Karat, but could not. Finally, as Karat prepared to leave the auditorium, he was heckled. Some students shouted slogans of ‘‘Achuthanandan Zindabad’’ in favour of the Kerala CPM leader, representing the old guard. An SFI member later tried to play down the incident saying it was only a ‘‘joke’’ and ‘‘happened everywhere’’.

FM’s turn to talk on markets

It’s been a love-hate week between the media and the government. After the PMO wrote to a few media houses to initiate an internal inquiry on how a story of its intervention on the markets issue came into being, a couple of TV channels did a U-turn. They started hosting debates on whether an ‘irresponsible’ media was responsible for the Dalal Street crash last Thursday!

When Finance Minister P Chidambaram returned from his trip to New York, he wasn’t amused. ‘‘I see the media has been having a party when I was away,’’ he told reporters. Joint Secretary, in charge of capital markets at the Finance Ministry, U K Sinha, couldn’t resist a barb at the media, either. Especially because he was the official who had purportedly travelled to Mumbai to ‘‘intervene’’ on the Sensex (he was actually there to attend a board meeting of UTI Mutual Fund). Sinha told reporters: ‘‘Next time I travel to Mumbai, I’ll take the media’s permission first.’’

Then again, after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs met on Thursday, Chidambaram was asked by a TV reporter: ‘‘Sir, the market has gone up another 100 points and has crossed 8,700… What do you have to say?’’ The FM replied: ‘‘Congratulations to you.’’

Despite Iran, US ties on course

Regardless of the Left’s accusation that the Manmohan Singh government is toeing a pro-US foreign policy, New Delhi is looking at business as usual with Washington. On September 26, two days after the Iran vote, Ratan Tata, chairman, TATA Group, and Indian leader on the Indo-US CEOs forum, went on board the 95,000-tonne US nuclear-powered USS Nimitz for lunch along with senior Indian defence officials—off the Mumbai coast. USS Nimitz, named after World War II Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, is part of the American fleet currently exercising with the Indian Navy in the Arabian Sea.

Top US officials are also making a beeline to India to promote bilateral ties. Leading them is Treasury Secretary John Snow in November, Undersecretary of Political Affairs Nicholas Burns and Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. Ratan Tata, meanwhile, will interact with forum counterparts from the US in London. Perhaps, the Left will now get the message.

Tailpiece

The overall growth rate is on course, the Sensex is surging, and the PM has finally found time to address other pressing issues.

His diary for last week:

• Tuesday: Chaired a full Planning Commission meet on agricultural growth. That afternoon, he addressed rural development ministers of all states and assured them of all possible help on the Employment Guarantee Act. The same evening, he met a delegation of food processing industries.

• Wednesday: Summoned Health Minister to ask why indicators like Infant Mortality Rate were not showing signs of improvement.

• Friday: It was the Environment and Forests Ministry. He brainstormed with the wildlife conservationists and tribal activists for nearly two hours on the Tribal Bill. The same day, his office studied the modalities of the Wildlife Crime Bureau.