Nick of time

Wrong man, wrong time

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, it is no secret that India and China are the flavour of the season. So, it was an astute prime minister who handpicked the Indian team: Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia. But a replacement was urgently sought when the FM dropped out due to commitments at home. To everyone’s surprise, Ashwini Kumar, Minister of State for Industry, better known for trying to be in the PM’s good books by being obsequious, was chosen. Naturally, Nath and Ahluwalia were invited to address almost every gathering at Davos to the point they could do no more. Kumar was drafted in to be the keynote speaker at the odd meet, but it was immediately apparent why he should not have been at Davos at all. We are told that all prospective sponsors dropped out of sight at the political lightweight.

Student’s stake

Punjab’s Finance Minister Surinder Singla, Congress candidate for the Amritsar seat, happens to be a former student of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Party sources say the PM is “definitely fond” of Singla, who will contest against the BJP’s motor mouth Navjot Singh Sidhu. In fact, the buzz at Raisina Hill is that should Singla win, he is certain to get a ministerial berth at the Centre.

Not on solid ground

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had reportedly hijacked the proposal of setting up a civilian enclave at the Halwara airbase in Punjab, a project that Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had set his heart on. The PM too had given the go-ahead as the proposed cargo hub would have eased the exports route from Ludhiana and other manufacturing towns of Punjab. However, if Dada, as Mukherjee is fondly referred to, had noted that civilian enclaves should not be allowed on frontline airbases, then pray, what about Jammu, Pathankot, Lohgaon (Pune) and Srinagar?

Cutting it fine

Can somebody explain the last minute dash to finalise the names for this year’s Padma awards? President A P J Abdul Kalam is learnt to have cleared the names shortly before midnight on January 25. The file containing the names selected by the government reached Rashtrapati Bhavan at about 8 p.m., when the president was busy with the banquet for Russian President Vladimir Putin. So, Kalam got to see the list only after the banquet ended at about 10.15 p.m. He cleared it in an hour, then sent the file to the Home Ministry, which announced the names of the recipients at around midnight. Usually, the government sends the list a day or two in advance. Was the delay this year due to last-minute changes and additions to the list of awardees?

Inspecting the parade

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is all set to have a new chief, with the recently constituted committee headed by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil having met last week to shortlist names of officers for the post. The force currently has an acting director-general, J K Dutt, who is the head of the elite National Security Guards. Dutt is believed to be keen to take over CRPF, a force that has a presence across the country and has recently taken over counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir from the BSF. But there are other contenders for the key post as well—Delhi Commissioner of Delhi Police K K Paul and Central Industrial Security Force chief SIS Ahmed. And before the Election Commission ordered his removal from the Punjab DG’s post, the name of S S Virk had also cropped up.

The Patna test

Last week, the Income-Tax department announced the launch of a new ‘refund banker’ scheme, where designated banks (starting with SBI) would directly refund IT refunds to assessees within three working days. After the launch, the finance minister said that as a pilot project, the scheme would be launched first at Delhi and Patna. This would give a feedback from two different grades of cities, which can then be replicated in other parts of the country. But the real reason for selecting Patna, says an IT official, was because if it worked in Patna, it would work anywhere in the country.

Tailpiece

Flush with a $38 billion dollar arms deal and an MoU for joint development of the fifth generation fighter, it was a jubilant Russian President Vladimir Putin who spoke at the PM’s lunch, applauding the new military relationship between the two countries. But there were peals of laughter when Putin said he was looking forward to the day in bilateral ties when Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov would be happy in the dress (mundu and angvastram) worn by Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony. Only, we know Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would prefer it the other way round.