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Journalism of Courage
Road Transport and Highways Minister C P Joshi was so sure of retaining the Railway Ministry,which he had got as additional charge some time back,in the recent reshuffle that he had moved his entire office and staff to Rail Bhawan. Grapevine has it that he was told that he would be divested of the Road Transport and Highways portfolio and be given the Railways which has a higher profile and is much in demand. So when the portfolios were announced,he was taken by surprise. He has now been left explaining that he had moved his office to Rail Bhawan just so that his office in Transport Bhawan could be refurbished.
Unreserved Berth
Gurgaons Great Leap
THE conference of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation brought Gurgaon on the map of locations that can host large multinational international conferences. It is learnt that the Haryana government,especially Bhupinder Singh Hooda,had worked very hard to convince the MEA that Gurgaon could successfully host a big inter-governmental conference like this. Foreign Ministers and secretaries from 19 countries in the region participated in the conference. And though Hooda himself could not make it to the event,new External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid thanked him profusely for ensuring that the conference went off smoothly.
Getting the Treatment
WITH the Prime Ministers Office finally putting up the list of Cabinet ministers on its website,the nearly six-month ambiguity about who the number two in the Cabinet pecking order is has been settled beyond doubt. Defence Minister A K Antony the senior most minister after the Prime Minister however,was unable to attend the first meeting of the entire Council of Ministers that the Prime Minister had called on Thursday after the recent reshuffle. Antony is undergoing his annual naturopathy treatment that does not get over before 11.30 am. His treatment is slated to be over on November 6. He,therefore,has a convenient reason to excuse himself from a November 4 rally in Delhi in support of FDI as well. Antony has been caught in a tight situation because many senior Congress leaders from his home state Kerala have been demanding that FDI in retail must not be allowed.
