Raje raj

Literacy for girls in Rajasthan has shot up from 22 to 44 per cent. The infant mortality rate has dropped from 80 per 1,000 to 65 per 1,000; maternal mortality has dropped from 670 per 100,000 to 445. Complete immunisation has gone up from 17.3 per cent to 26.5 per cent.

No write-off

Those who predicted that L.K. Advani could be written off as a major power centre in the BJP after his Jinnah gaffe need a rethink. Last month, Advani hosted a dinner for the screening of his daughter Pratibha’s film Vande Mataram and both the powerful RSS General-Secretary Mohan Bhagwat and RSS-BJP pointsman Suresh Soni were present. Bhagwat, who had once issued the RSS note protesting against Jinnah’s glorification, was happily tucking away the gol gappas.

Neighbour’s pride

A very senior member of the ministry of external affairs had his own take on Bangladesh’s defeat of India at the World Cup. He apprehended that it would only make our tiny neighbour more aggressive at the forthcoming SAARC meet. Now that Sri Lanka has also bested India in cricket, the MEA fears that it will have two very assertive neighbours to deal with.

Fluid seniority

Former Ambassador to Bangladesh Veena Sikri has not helped her own cause by writing to Central Information Commissioner, Wajahat Habibullah, demanding to know why 16 eligible officers were superseded last year to pave the way for Shiv Shankar Menon’s appointment as foreign secretary. It appears that the government is not defensive about giving the seniority rule a go-by even in subsequent appointments, such as the recent appointment of the home secretary.

In the case of the selection of the next cabinet secretary, the question of seniority is in any case fluid, since it really depends just when the redoubtable B.K. Chaturvedi would finally call it a day.

Chaturvedi, after all, has already enjoyed three extensions in his post. The present order of seniority is Tourism Secretary, Ashok Mishra, Environment Secretary, Pratipto Ghosh, Finance Secretary, Ashok Jha, Revenue Secretary, K.M. Chandrashekhar, and Rural Development Secretary, Meenakshi Dutta Ghosh. But only the last two will still be around if Chaturvedi retires on the due date in June.

Chandrashekhar shares the same advantage as Menon: He belongs to Kerala, the state from which some of the key decision-makers in the PMO hail, but whether Chaturvedi steps down still remains a big if.

Memo(rable) spat

As chairperson of the Rajya Sabha Committee on Petitions, Venkaiah Naidu complained to Cabinet Secretary B.K. Chaturvedi that several ministries, from oil to woman and child welfare and urban development, had ignored his memos requesting information. Chaturvedi promptly admonished all secretaries, telling them that in future “utmost priority” should be given to parliamentary matters. But Chaturvedi’s missive has not gone down well with some secretaries who had been instructed by their minister to ignore Naidu’s request, since they felt he was trying to gain political mileage. The secretaries point out that the correct procedure is for Naidu to write to the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who should have then forwarded the request to the government.