Capturing Insights

Core Dispirit

As the continuing drift in governance sets off alarm bells,meetings of the Congress Core Group are becoming less and less frequent. Comprising the Prime Minister,three senior Cabinet ministers,the Congress president and her political secretary,the Core Group was instrumental in formulating UPA governments immediate response to crises,political as well as those related to governance,as also its long-term policy. It usually met on Friday every week and even more frequently depending on the urgency of a situation. The Core Group has,however,been meeting much less frequently in the past few months. It met last Friday after about three weeks. Before that also,its meetings were irregular. Already grappling with health issues,Sonia Gandhi is said to be no longer very enthusiastic about the fire-fighting mechanism of the UPA government,which stumbles from one crisis to another.

Scare Scenario

Arguing a PIL in the Supreme Court against lack of safety in nuclear plants in the country,advocate Prashant Bhushan described the situation as nightmarish. But Justice AK Patnaik interrupted the lawyer to ask him whether one persons doomsday projection is enough reason to stop the entire nuclear project. The judge,who is part of the Bench which has been constantly maintaining that it does not have the expertise to decide on the safety issues regarding the plants,further requested Bhushan to not scare us. Then you should stop aircraft,trains,trucks because there is possibility of an accident, remarked Justice Patnaik.

Easier Passage

BJP veteran S S Ahluwalia being denied a nomination to the Rajya Sabha may have upset many in the party,but the Kapil Sibal led Human Resource Development HRD ministry is a tad relieved. Ahluwalia strongly opposed HRD ministrys many bills in the Upper House. While it is true that Sibals own partymen have played a role in stalling his bills,Ahluwalia has been equally difficult. Even during the last parliament session Sibal had managed convince both Arun Jaitley and Murli Manohar Joshi on the necessity of passing the IIT amendment bill. However,Ahluwalia was against it and the legislation is still in RS. The NIT amendment bill also met a similar fate in the last session. With 14 legislations pending in Parliament and the deferring of the Education Tribunal Bill by the RS still not forgotten,the HRD ministry is hoping that Ahluwalias exit may make it easier for the passage of these Bills in the House of Elders.

Taking Positions

While former minister Rajendra Singh Rathore was a great favourite of Vasundhara Raje,her detractors within the Rajasthan BJP disliked him for precisely the same reason. Therefore,it was surprising to see these detractors close their ranks behind her and hit the street recently to shield Rathore in a CBI case pertaining to an alleged fake encounter killing. It turns out that this show of unity is not because of an upswing in Rathores credibility within the party. The fact is,with Vasundhara back as the undisputed party boss,people are only positioning themselves for the allotment of tickets for the assembly polls,due late next year.

Panel chief says troop movement routine

Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence Satpal Maharaj on Sunday sought to downplay the controversy over the alleged unnotified movement of two Army units towards the Capital in mid-January,saying such exercises are routinely held.

The Army troops movement in the month of January was a routine exercise and such exercises are routinely held, Maharaj,a Lok Sabha member from Pauri,said in a statement here. He said the Army has full faith in the Constitution as well as the high values of democracy and is committed to protecting them. Maharaj,however,did not comment on whether the Army should have notified the government.