Ringing in change

It was a case of two parties pushing their line on the Nepal developments. When Karan Singh was picked to go to Nepal, the Left parties were kept out of the loop despite their role in building consensus among Nepalese parties and the Maoists. A Left leader said later that this was perhaps deliberate because the government and the Left was looking at the Nepal situation differently: India wanted the king to still have a role and were ambiguous about the Maoists, while the Left were batting strongly for the Maoists and felt the king could now only be given a ceremonial role. So, when Karan Singh sought his advice from a Left leader before leaving for Nepal, he was reportedly told, 8216;8216;You were asked to give up your privileges in 1947. Tell the Nepal king he has had a 60-year bonus.8217;8217; Singh8217;s brief discussions with Left leaders were frosty. One of them said, 8216;8216;You can8217;t send a raja to talk to a raja when a people8217;s movement is on.8217;8217; Left leaders fondly hoped Singh8217;s mission would fail.

8216;Diplomatic8217; advisor

So, ambassadors Ronen Sen US, Kanwal Sibal Russia and High Commissioner Kamlesh Sharma UK are all going to get a year8217;s extension after their two-year tenures expire in September. But that8217;s not the buzz in South Block. Apparently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wants a diplomatic advisor in his office. Although National Security Advisor M K Narayanan has been helping out the UPA government on strategic issues, he functions more like John Negroponte, the intelligence chief to US President George Bush. Punters say the job will go either to Sen if he comes back from Washington, that is or to the capable Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, also facing a September superannuation. And here is how a section in the Congress reads the step: it is a sign that the PM does not want to have an external affairs minister in the near future.

In pole position

The race is on. With Cabinet Secretary Bal Krishna Chaturvedi completing his two years as the top bureaucrat on June 12, crystal-gazing is on. If the government goes by seniority, the job will go to Dhanendra Kumar, a 1968 batch officer who is currently on deputation to the World Bank. Kumar, who has served as principal secretary to then Haryana CM Bhajan Lal, retires on June 30. But the government may well let Kumar continue at the Bank. In which case it could appoint the first women cab sec in Reva Nayyar, Women and Child Development secretary, who retires on July 31. There is one other contender: Santosh Nautiyal, chairman of the National Highways Authority, who also retires on July 31. Raisina Hill insiders believe the UPA government may send Chaturvedi to the World Bank and bring in Kumar as the top babu. There is just one glitch in this plan8212;Home Secretary Vinod Duggal, of the same batch as Kumar, has made it known that he is dead serious about not reporting to a boss junior to him.

Seedy politics

Madan Lal Khurana, who resigned from BJP, has promised to release what he calls sex CDs of his former party leaders. The former Delhi CM is in in touch with a Sangh renegade who is said to be in possession of a CD featuring a Sangh heavyweight and a 8216;8216;Nari Sewak8217;8217; not quite discussing politics. Khurana is sure that the CD is authentic. But his detractors are equally sure that morphed images have been used and if Khurana went public he would have plenty to be sorry about.

Members of the bar

The Supreme Court Bar Association SCBA elections may not be breaking news. But hotshots of the legal fraternity are no slouches when it comes to campaigning. In the run up to the bar elections to be held on May 5, almost all major hotels and favoured restaurants are venues of the campaign. Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi, senior counsel, is pitted against apolitical M N Krishnamani, a past president of SCBA. 8216;8216;Singhvi8217;s is a tough task,8217;8217; said a lawyer back from a dinner meeting in one of the five star hotels, 8216;8216;as the heavyweights of the bar are in favour of Krishnamani.8217;8217; Whatever the result, the bar association has acquired a different meaning right now, as one wag put it.

Painful for Praful

Air-India has two dissatisfied customers: the PM and Sharad Pawar. Since they happen to be the people the civil aviation minister wants to always keep in good humour, Praful Patel really let it fly when he called the AI senior management. At a meeting in Mumbai, the minister told the airline bosses that if they could not manage flights they should cancel them. Incidentally, AI8217;s Mauritius service was supposed to have been launched last September but has been postponed till May now. Patel8217;s problem is that the head of AI hasn8217;t been exactly inspirational. Expecting to be transferred soon, the AI head has apparently authorised nine director-level promotions. Some of these are for now non-existent posts, like director stores.

New, clear position

Our average lower house MP isn8217;t exactly au fait with the complex details of the Indo-US nuclear deal. Neither is the average lower house American legislator. The House of Representatives is much larger than the Senate and US Congressmen tend to be rather busy with quotidian politics. Most of their voters couldn8217;t give a toss about the nuke deal. But the Congressmen8217;s votes matter for India. So, New Delhi has started playing host to key Congressmen, legislators who shape their colleagues8217; opinions on difficult issues. Last week, Tom Sheehy, advisor to the House sub-committee on terrorism and non-proliferation, was in Delhi. His views are critical for Congressmen like Henry Hyde, who heads the International Relations Committee. Sheehy was given the finest of welcomes. Senior South Block officials took out time to meet him. There was no assurance, but he went back happy, officials say. That he came in the first place was seen as good news8212;Hyde had been playing catch-me-if-you-can with New Delhi.

Again standing Atal?

Friends again? When Vajpayee was PM, Jaswant Singh and Brajesh Mishra fought a bureaucratic cold war that was widely believed to have been won by Mishra. Singh started the Talbott talks but over time Mishra emerged the key foreign policy player. Jaswant was moved out of the MEA. Recently, however, the former battlers for Vajpayee8217;s favours seem to be seeking a harmonious working relationship. Jaswant8217;s letter on the nuke deal to the PM came a few days after Vajpayee8217;s statement, which was drafted by Mishra. This was no coincidence or one-upmanship. Satish Chandra8212;Mishra8217;s Deputy NSA for most of the Vajpayee era8212;has also started doing whatever it is that out-of-establishment strategists do. There seems to be an effort to gather together under the great Vajpayee umbrella. Now, boys, remember, no fighting.

Cong management

We are not making this up. This is how politics functions. Last week, just hours before Sonia Gandhi was to leave for Rae Bareli to file her nominations, AICC general secretaries Ashok Gehlot and Oscar Fernandes were checking if her papers were in order. To their dismay they discovered that the constituency8217;s name had been wrongly entered as Amethi. The papers were immediately sent for corrections. They returned8212;with Rae Bareli spelt differently in two places. Now you know why most of the Congress8217;s troubles are self-created.

By George, for now

At least two officials were directly affected when Sonia quit her offices. Madhavan and Pillai, two government employees in Sonia8217;s secretariat responsible for her appointments were sent back to regular service after Sonia quit her official posts. That meant Vincent George returning to fix all appointments. Now, Congress politicians are again courting him for arranging a dekko with Sonia. But 10 Janpath insiders say George8217;s time under the sun is limited. Once Sonia wins in Rae Bareli and gets her job back, George will be sidelined again.

Good humour

Jaswant Singh can be a sport. Once LK Advani had brought the Kandahar 8216;8216;cave-in8217;8217; back into the news, it was inevitable the media would chase the former foreign minister for his views on an event that happened during his tenure. So, at a press conference on the nuke deal, Jaswant was suddenly asked by a journalist, 8216;8216;Should we go to Kandahar?8217;8217; Jaswant sportingly replied, 8216;8216;First let us arrange for Flight 814.8217;8217;

Level playing field

BJP leader Kirit Somaiah, currently assisting Ananth Kumar in managing L K Advani8217;s rath yatra seems to have taken his role much too seriously. At a stopover at Nirmal, between Adilabad and Nagpur, a crowd of artisans surged towards Advani8217;s vehicle to hand him a petition on the difficulties faced by them. But Somaiah, standing on the footboard, was determined to keep them at bay. As he yelled 8216;8216;stay away, stay away8217;8217;, the crowd lifted him aside and presented the memorandum to Advani. Somaiah could return to the vehicle only after the crowd withdrew.

Sea if he will

The Navy has invited Manmohan Singh for the PM8217;s Day at Sea early next month onboard its flagship aircraft carrier INS Viraat. Naval Headquarters is keeping its fingers crossed. In his two years as PM, the Navy hasn8217;t been able to host Manmohan even once despite three invitations. The first time, the PM8217;s wrist surgery came in the way. Then it was the serial blasts that rocked Delhi. And in February, it was the visits of French President Jacques Chirac and US President George W Bush that dashed the Navy8217;s hopes of having the PM for the President8217;s Fleet Review at Vizag. Will it now get 24 hours of Manmohan8217;s attention or will the PM be preparing for a sure-to-be stormy Parliament session resuming on May 10.

Dam Bachao Action

POWER Ministry officials officially say their new strategy for promoting hydel power projects has nothing to do with the Narmada dam controversy. After all, the project does not fall under their ministry. But internally they are worried that future hydel projects can be held up on account of NGO activism. At a recently held meeting, the ministry asked all the Central public-sector undertakings under it to draw up a plan to counter such activism and enlighten the public through audio-visual shows, electronic and print media campaigns and panel discussions. The PSUs have been asked to chalk out a detailed action plan in a month8217;s time and submit it to the ministry.

Mrs B after Mrs G

If the Samajwadi Party8217;s much-touted closeness to the CPIM was not true, and if its announcement of a third front in Assam was not made, then its poll campaign in West Bengal and Assam would have resembled a stalker8217;s route. And who was it tailing? None other than Sonia Gandhi. The new twosome, party general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh and disqualified star MP Jaya Bachchan, seem to magically appear in the neighbourhood of Sonia8217;s campaign locations, where they berate her for the unjust dismissal of Bachchan from Parliament. Both Singh and Bachchan not only addressed several election meetings in Assam hot on the heels of Gandhi, but they were also in Bengal last week ranting about Sonia8217;s paranoia about having people like Bachchan in the Upper House. SP insiders say it is a deliberate ploy: if you don8217;t have the opportunity to attack Gandhi face to face, take potshots at her in the vicinity and create an illusion of a confrontation. It certainly puts the lid on rumours of a rapprochement between the Gandhis and Bachchans, supposedly pushed by the kids of both families.

Payback from Mrs G?

Meanwhile, the industrialist known to be close to Amar Singh8212;not Anil Ambani, remember he just resigned from the Rajya Sabha to distance himself from politics8212;was in for a huge disappointment in the Capital last week. The industrialist and media baron waited in vain to meet both Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, but to no avail. Both refused to meet him despite high expectations of an invitation for a meeting. The industrialist is already reeling from the Finance Ministry8217;s stringent review of residuary non-banking finance companies of which he is a leader, making him wonder if he is feeling the heat for his long association with the SP general secretary.