Meanwhile

With Vajpayee stuck on giving only one cabinet post to the Trinamool, Mamata has to choose between herself and Panja. Not much of a choice really and she has deviously blocked Panja by raising her price for joining the Government out of Vajpayee8217;s reach. The Prime Minister can little afford to take away the Railways Ministry from Samata8217;s Nitish Kumar.

Little wonder Vajpayee has again been forced to put off his expansion plans. He is simply no match for wits trained and sharpened by murky politics in the Congress underworld.

Futileexercise

Even after sacking Naval Chief Vishnu Bhagwat so unceremoniously, the Government has not succeeded in getting Vice Admiral Harinder Singh to Headquarters as Deputy Chief of Naval Staff. According to the defence grapevine, the reason is a veto from senior naval officers.

Apparently, when the new Chief, Sushil Kumar, met his Commanders in Chief and fleet officers two days after taking over, they spoke in one voice to spike Singh8217;s transfer. Virtually everyone refused to work with the controversial Vice Admiral, much to the dismay of the Chief whose first brief was to carry out the order Bhagwat refused to implement.

The result is a rethink on Singh, which Kumar himself admitted in an interview. Now people are asking what all the fuss over Bhagwat was in the first place.

Birth of a fileworm

As a new MP in 1996, Jagmohan carried his reading habit from the India International Centre to the Parliament House library. Now as a new minister, he has transferred his penchant to the files ofthe Communications Ministry. So much so that he has incurred the wrath of the Prime Minister8217;s Office which wants him to get down to business pronto.

At the top of the PMO8217;s list is the unsettled dispute over license fees for telecom operators which is linked to the formulation of a new overall policy for this sector. But once a bureaucrat, always a bureaucrat and like a good babu, Jagmohan has sought refuge in the files.

Finally, with the PMO breathing down his neck, he relented last week and surprised his Ministry officials by agreeing to meet a delegation from the Industrial Group of Telecom 8211; his first interaction with the telecom industry since he took over as minister more than a month ago. However, there was a catch: the meeting lasted just 15 minutes. Oh! The perils of turning a bureaucrat into a minister.

Problems of age

With the retirement age for government employees going up to 60, health may well become a pre-requisite for the more strenuous posts. Consider the experience of theFood Ministry. Two of the three Secretaries in the Ministry are out of action, felled by heart attacks, one in December and one in January.

A shaken government is on a desperate hunt for replacements, sparking off speculation that this may lead to another administrative reshuffle. Till then, the lone remaining Secretary is shouldering the entire burden and probably keeping his fingers crossed that he is spared the headache of another onion crisis.

Thakre8217;s successor

BJP chief Kushabhau Thakre8217;s dismal performance has set tongues wagging that presidential polls may be held before the year is out. Although technically, Thakre is in the saddle till next April, insiders recall that his election was delayed because of the parliamentary polls in March last year. So, the process of choosing a new president can actually commence this summer when organisational elections are due.

In anticipation of a change of guard, BJP circles have already started speculating on likely candidates. Two names that seemto be at the top of the heap, largely because of the prominence they are being given currently are Govindacharya and Venkaiah Nadu, the most senior of the general secretaries. Govind is pushing hard for the job of organisational secretary which is considered a stepping stone to the top post while Naidu seems to have emerged as the party8217;s main troubleshooter in the recent crisis with the RSS over Vajpayee8217;s economic agenda.

In fact, both at the Sangh8217;s Chintan Baithak in Nagpur and at the BJP8217;s National Executive Meet in Bangalore, Naidu played a key role in warding off a confrontation between the Government and the party by toning down criticism of the former8217;s economic policies. At the Nagpur meet, he actually managed to get a damning resolution on this issue scrapped by suggesting that it be put to vote to the five BJP general secretaries present. All except one voted to keep away from a showdown at this stage.