Is Prabhu on, or off? PM refuses to let on

It was the first public appearance by Suresh Prabhu after he submitted his resignation, only people did not know whether to call him Power M...

It was the first public appearance by Suresh Prabhu after he submitted his resignation, only people did not know whether to call him Power Minister or former Power Minister. And Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was no help as he skirted any reference to the issue during his speech inaugurating the international conference on Strategies for Energy Conservation organised by FICCI.

But if the attitude of minister of state for power Jaywanti Mehta is any indication, Prabhu was surely an ex-power minister. Mehta remembered the late Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, former power minister whose second death anniversary was today, more than she referred to Prabhu and said that any reforms relating to energy conservation were actually started by Kumaramangalam.

On his part Prabhu just ran after cutting the ribbon for the exhibition on energy conservation soon after the inaugural ceremony was over in order to avoid curious mediapersons with just a ‘I resigned two days ago from the cabinet as my party leader wants me to work for the party.’ He, however, declined to say whether his resignation had been accepted. FICCI organisers who had set up the exhibition were obviously a disappointed lot as Prabhu didn’t even go in to see it.

R.S. Lodha, president of FICCI, Amit Mitra, secretary general of FICCI and R. K. Pachauri, director general of Tata Energy Research Institute all took turns to laud the efforts made by Suresh Prabhu in order to push reforms in the power sector.

When it was Prabhu’s turn to address the conference, he referred to the fact that for energy conservation ‘there was need for a change in the mindset and attitude of people,’ to which there was a comment from the audience that ‘first there was need for a change in the mindset of Shiv Sena.’ Even the PM couldn’t avoid a chuckle as the whole hall broke into peals of laughter on this. However in his speech the PM, who normally has a compliment for Prabhu, stuck to the agenda of energy conservation. He unveiled a national action plan which includes reducing energy consumption by the government by 30 per cent in the next five years said that in a bid to save 25,000 MW of electricity through conservation.

Vajpayee also announced that as a first step, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had agreed to an energy audit of the Rashtrapati Bhawan and similar audits would be carried out at the North and South Blocks housing important ministries, including the Prime Minister’s Office.

Prabhu said at a time when the government had planned to add 100,000 MW by 2012, a 25,000 MW energy conservation would help save upto Rs 150,000 crore. Prabhu said this programme must be followed in the form of a national movement.