Former ministers Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha had some tense moments after a buzz went round 11, Ashok Road, that the high command would not give Rajya Sabha nominations to Lok Sabha losers. This idea was floated by senior party leaders, even though the BJP had earlier adjusted names like Atal Behari Vajpayee, L K Advani, Jaswant Singh and Sushma Swaraj in the RS after they lost the Lok Sabha elections. The suspense was prolonged as party president Venkaiah Naidu left for Chennai before the critical election committee meeting. But rather than wait for the committee meeting, the RSS Jhandewalan office got into action and told the BJP that Joshi needed to go to the Rajya Sabha so that he could defend allegations of ‘‘saffronisation of education.’’ Once the RSS had given the green signal to Joshi, Yashwant Sinha’s candidature was also through. Patel spreads his wings Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel may have adopted a cautious approach to policy during his first stint as minister but that has not prevented him from following in the footsteps of his predecessors in refurbishing his new office in Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan. In fact, Patel is yet to start functioning out of his office, which is undergoing renovation at the moment, and for the past couple of weeks senior ministry officials have had to queue up at his plush residence on Gurdwara Rakabganj Marg for necessary meetings and for getting files cleared. If at all he comes to Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, the conference room is made to double up as the minister’s office. However, those close to him point out that Patel doesn’t hanker for the privileges that other civil aviation ministers were known to enjoy, and that he even offered to pay for the office renovation but that the department ‘‘just didn’t agree’’. The NCP leader also prefers using own personal car—a Honda Accord—to the official Ambassador. Rajiv Boys return It did not take very long for the Rajiv Boys to emerge out of forced exile, now that the Congress is back in power, and take up high-profile assignments in government. Top of the list is the new envoy to the United Kingdom, Kamlesh Sharma, a former foreign service officer. Sharma is also brother-in-law of Rajiv friend Suman Dubey, and has been pulled out of near anonymity from East Timor, where he was the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative. Sharma had retired from service two years ago as India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York. Another Rajiv chum is none other than new I&B Secretary Navin Chawla, who took over the high-profile post from the backroom Ministry of Consumer Affairs. Chawla’s proximity to the Gandhis come from his wife’s—art restorer and columnist, Rupika Chawla—friendship with Sonia. Other pals include Ronen Sen, who just retired two months ago as UK envoy. He was the all-powerful joint secretary in Rajiv’s PMO. Ditto for Pulok Chatterjee, yet another member-officer of Rajiv’s inner circle who has just been inducted into the PMO. To go or not to go With Shyam Saran slated to take over as Foreign Secretary on August 1, all eyes are on two secretary-level officers—R M Abhyankar and Santosh Kumar—who will have to move out of Delhi after being bypassed for the key slot. Abhyankar, who as Secretary, Asia & North Africa, was instrumental in getting mafia dons to Indian justice, has been posted as India’s Ambassador to European Union at Brussels, and replaces P K Singh, who in turn moves to Spain. Santosh Kumar, Dean, Foreign Service Institute, was initially not inclined to go as India’s Ambassador to South Africa, but now has no options. Singh too was reluctant to move out of Brussels initially as he only has eight months to retire, but has now apparently indicated to South Block that he will move to Spain in the first week of July. MEA hopes he will stick to his word or else it could lead to more complications. Leaking intelligence The defection of RAW Joint Secretary Rabinder Singh seems to have shaken the Government’s confidence in its intelligence agencies. So much so that the day when Singh was recommended for dismissal from government service by the Committee of Advisors, the Home Ministry pulled up RAW Chief C D Sahay and Director (Intelligence Bureau) for shoddy counter-surveillance on Singh and the virtual collapse of checks and balances between the two top agencies. Not only that, Sahay and his deputy had to explain Singh’s defection to M K Narayanan, the Special Advisor to PM. But Narayanan apparently was not convinced. Bharadwaj blues Hans Raj Bharadwaj’s appointment as Law Minister was almost clear once he appeared in black coat the day Congress president Sonia Gandhi filed her Lok Sabha nomination from Rae Bareli. But if Bharadwaj thought that this would give him a licence to speak on 10 Janpath, then the Law Minister was sadly mistaken. He got an earful from 10 Janpath after he went on record saying that Sonia could access any government files. Bharadwaj, it seems, has been told to shut up and concentrate on his ministry. But a true politician, he is going around blaming the media.
