The succession question

The appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner is traditionally made on the basis of seniority...

The appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner is traditionally made on the basis of seniority, but there is a question mark on whether Navin Chawla, the seniormost EC, will take over from N Gopalaswami when he retires on April 15 next year. The government may have to delay announcing the name of the next CEC because a petition filed by BJP leader Arun Jaitley calling for Chawla8217;s disqualification is still pending. Former President Abdul Kalam had asked for Gopalaswami8217;s comments on the petition, which charges Chawla with misusing a family trust. The CEC in turn has asked Chawla to explain. The remarks, which Gopalaswami enters in Chawla8217;s confidential file, will be crucial. If the government delays announcing the next CEC8217;s name, waiting for the decision on the petition to be decided first, general elections could be called in the meantime. In which case, it will be up to the next elected government to choose the CEC. It is an open secret that the two ECs are not on the best of terms and have often differed on major issues.

Learning on the job

The new spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Vishnu Prakash succeeds a seasoned professional like Navtej Sarna. And it is a tough act to follow. On the Prime Minister8217;s recent trip to Japan and China, it was clear that Prakash was still learning the ropes. At the PM8217;s press conference on the plane back home, he outsourced his responsibilities to a senior editor. He even suggested to a correspondent that it would help if he apprised him in advance of the questions likely to be put. His effort throughout the trip was to keep the PM and the accompanying media party at an arms length.

In Beijing, an Indian journalist was left behind at the Great Wall of China and the Indian authorities were not even aware that he was missing. It was the Chinese Police who alerted the Indian Embassy that one of the members of the Indian PM8217;s press party had been left behind.

Predicting hard times

After highlighting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh8217;s part in the nuclear deal, his aides now want to project him as an oracle on the global economy. They compare him to Nobel Prize winner economist Paul Krugman, pointing out that the PM had predicted the global meltdown at the last ASEAN conference. A PMO official boasted that Hu Jintao was so impressed by Singh8217;s closing address at the recent ASEM summit in Beijing that he had got up to personally thank him for his speech. Actually the Chinese PM had shown similar courtesy to all the speakers at the conference.

Entertaining petition

The Delhi government agreed to waive entertainment tax on tickets for the India-Australia test series in Delhi. Despite Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit8217;s assurances, the promised exemption order failed to materialise even four days before the match. Then Arun Jaitley, president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association, pressed the panic button. He approached Delhi Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna, saying that he could not even print tickets, let alone sell them, because of the Delhi Government8217;s indecision. Khanna cleared the tax exemption file on his own. He decreed that since elections to the Delhi Assembly have been announced, EC rules empowered him to do so.

Breaching the spy code

Former RAW employee Major General Vinay Kumar Singh feels the CBI is victimising him for his alleged violation of the Official Secrets Act in his recently released book India8217;s External Intelligence: Secrets of RAW. Singh points out that no action was taken against other retired RAW and IB officials, pointing in particular to B Raman8217;s book, The Kaoboys of RAW. Singh has been singled out because he broke two cardinal rules of the cloak and dagger business. Although many former spies have written books, unlike Singh, they refrained from describing security details of presidents and prime ministers. The SPG director, B.V. Wanchoo, is reportedly furious with Singh for giving details of VVIP security. Singh also made critical references to serving officers, another breach of convention.