Shadowy fire to fight fire

Being in charge of internal security and the intelligence agencies, Home Minister Shivraj Patil knew he was a dead duck as he walked into Thursday8217;s cabinet meeting. Not surprisingly, his colleagues had some adverse comments on the state of the country8217;s security apparatus. Two of his esteemed teammates tried to steer the discussion away by bringing divisive politics to the table, but for the most part, Patil, and later National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, were put through the grinder. The most scathing comment came from a senior cabinet minister. At a time when India was looking for big investments, it was crucial the intelligence machinery worked in tandem with the government, he said. But, he observed wryly, the agencies were in another astral sphere or else anticipatory measures would have been taken.

Negotiation room

Guess what, journalists covering the Home Ministry will soon have the exclusive 8216;8216;privilege8217;8217; of having their own room in North Block. There8217;s more: free phone calls will also be provided. All this to prevent dogged journalists from loitering in the corridors and accosting senior officials for information. The move to allot the room was supposedly made after G S Rajagopal, special secretary in charge of internal security, collided with reporters desperately seeking an update on the investigations into the Mumbai blasts. Rajagopal typically was disinclined to open up. Subsequently, nervous ministry officials floated the idea of implementing the Defence Ministry model barring journalists from entering its premises without appointment. But it was immediately dumped for fear of further anatgonising the media that was biting in its criticism of the Home Ministry in its handling of the Mumbai blasts.

A touch of style

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, the Most Globe-Trotting Minister after Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel in the Cabinet, now has an unusual member in his overseas entourage. Apparently, the India Brand Equity Foundation, a public-private partnership between the ministry and CII, sends a fashion designer along with Nath. Ritu Beri and one other designer have already travelled with the minister. We presume this is ostensibly to showcase India8217;s fashion accomplishments as well as its textiles. Nath, in any case, is no stranger to the fashion world. As Textiles Minister he was credited with promoting Indian fashion abroad. And some will remember that earlier this year, when Beri brought out a book on her 8220;rise from obscurity to becoming the unofficial fashion ambassador to style capitals in the world8217;8217;, she had Nath as a guest at the launch.

Papered over

After the political fiasco over the NLC disinvestment, indignant Congress members and cabinet ministers went to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and advocated a new Common Minimum Programme. The new document, grandiosely titled 8216;8216;One Thousand Day Vision8217;8217;, would spell out the government8217;s programme for the remaining three years of the coalition8217;s tenure. Apart from other changes, the paper would underline its commitment to the disinvestment of non-navaratna PSUs, quite unlike the ambiguous nature of the current one. But Dr Singh would have none of it. A new NCMP would mean more discord with the Left and southern allies, making his government even more meaningless. Apparently the PM recalled May 2004, when busy with the cabinet formation, he had Jairam Ramesh negotiating the NCMP with the CPIM8217;s Prakash Karat. The newly sworn-in PM had reportedly cursed himself when he saw the document.

Sick leave

A key Union secretary was missing from the meeting of AIIMS board of governors, where Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss had armtwisted members to oust director Dr P Venugopal. We hear the senior IAS officer of MP state cadre was undergoing treatment at the institute at the time the governing body was meeting. The officer decided to stay away from the meeting8212;he didn8217;t want to offend either Ramadoss or Venugopal. Now the talk in the Shastri Bhavan corridors is about which way the esteemed bureaucrat might have voted if he had attended the meeting.

correction.cong

After this newspaper reported that Congress-ruled states were the worst performers on the 20-Point Programme introduced by its own government in 1986, it seems the instant introspection which followed within the party included a website check-up too. The webpage of the 8216;8216;largest democratic party in the world8217;8217; had a major anomaly till the middle of last week. The section that described the strengths and resources available in each of the Congress-ruled states included states where the party was no longer in power: Karnataka and Kerala where the UDF government, the site claimed, was doing great work. Moreover, there were no links to three states8212; Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. The most glaring oversight, however, was that a state where the Congress is in power was missed out: Jammu and Kashmir. Two days later, the bloomers were gone and what8217;s more, all the links are now active. If only the same could be done to Congress-ruled states8217; performance ratings. Jammu and Kashmir, if we may add, is at the bottom of the list, at No 24.

Babel syndrome

The Congress has not been able to settle the language question in its media briefings. Tamil Nadu leader and party spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan8217;s predicament with her Hindi often gives reporters a hearty laugh. Last week, following the Mumbai blasts she was repeatedly questioned by reporters on the capabilities of Home Minister Shivraj Patil. Natarajan stood her ground and maintained that Patil was not to blame and that he had taken all possible measures. Then came the Hindi googly 8216;8216;Aap bol rahe hain woh kamyab hain You insist the Home Minister was successful?8217;8217; asked a reporter. An irate Natarajan, believing she was being forced to say something against Patil retorted, 8216;8216;Whichever way you frame the question, I reject your assumption.8217;8217; This time perhaps the linguistic faux pas was closer to the truth.

Pressing on

There will be nothing new if we were to tell you that the national highway development programmes, be it NHDP I, II III or IV, are running behind schedule. This has been the story of the past year and little has been done to reverse the trend. But midway through its tenure, there seems to be a sense of urgency in the UPA government to change things. Apart from asking the Ministry of Road Transport to set realistic deadlines to finish the projects and implement monitorable milestones, the Committee on Infrastructure, the UPA government8217;s nodal point on infrastructure policies, seems to rely on the Fourth Estate to ensure deadlines are met. In a missive that was drafted for the Road Ministry, the panel says, 8216;8216;8230;these recommendations are being offered as a means of putting the road programme on a firm footing for the next two years8230; as you know this is as very important programme of the government8217;s infrastructure strategy and is being keenly watched by the Press. We need to gear ourselves.8217;8217; The UPA is certainly not taking any chances with bad publicity.