Guess whos missing the wedding

Vilasrao Deshmukh may be the Union Rural Development Minister but he remains just as sensitive to the various nuances of state-level politics. This came to the fore during the National Panchayat Raj Day celebration in the capital last Sunday where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi gave away awards to states for their record in devolving functions to panchayats. With Maharashtra being one of the states to be rewarded,it was state Rural Development Minister Jayant Patil,an NCP leader,who was slated to collect the award. Even as the event was well under way,it seems to have dawned on Deshmukh that having an NCP leader get away with the credit for his home state would simply not do. Sure enough,his personal staff swung into action and convinced Patil to allow his junior minister Satej Patil a Congressman to accompany him while collecting the award.

VIP Disciples

Its no secret that several political leaders,including ministers and dignitaries associated with the present government,are followers of Sathya Sai Baba. However,very few know the kind of close spiritual association that some of them had with Sai Baba. Punjab Governor Shivraj Patil,for instance,counts himself as an ardent devotee and never starts any task without remembering Sai Baba. His house has life-size portraits of Sai Baba in virtually every room. Iamp;B Minister Ambika Soni is another admirer,whose association with Sai teachings goes back a long way. In fact,both her parents,especially her father and former Goa governor the late Nakul Sen was a staunch devotee of Sai Baba and had bought houses in Puttaparthi and Whitefield to be closer to him. Some of the publications Sathyam Shivam Sundaram brought out by the Sathya Sai Sadhana trust give accounts of Sai Baba visiting the Goa Governors residence in the late 60s and spending time with the Sens. Soni,who travelled to Puttaparthi on Tuesday with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to pay her last respects to Sai Baba,was a regular visitor to Prashanthi Nilayam then and even lectured in the Sai schools on some occasions.

Claiming Credit

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had reasons to be happy last Tuesday. Three of the four concerns he had raised in a letter to the Prime Minister on the use of nuclear energy in India were addressed favourably at a meeting held to discuss the contentious Jaitapur nuclear plant issue. This included the suggestion to convert the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board into an independent and statutory body. The suggestion itself is not new and has been made several times in the past. However,since the decision to bring a legislation to create a Nuclear Regulatory Authority of India,to replace the AERB,came within days of Jairam speaking about it in public and then putting it down in his letter to the Prime Minister,the Environment Minister was in a position to claim credit for it.

Rebel Rousing

The Congress clearly has different yardsticks for different states to determine what constitutes indiscipline. For instance,it has taken action against party members who are contesting against official nominees in Tamil Nadu. Yet,in West Bengal,the Congress is yet to lift its hand against the rebels notwithstanding Pranab Mukherjees warning to them to pull out of the contest or face action. The reason: most rebels enjoy the patronage of party MPs Adhir Chaudhary and Deepa Dasmunsi,besides the family of the late Abdul Ghani Khan Chowdhury. The calculation: if the party takes action against them after having failed to accommodate their supporters,they may rebel too and there would be nothing left of the Congress in West Bengal.

In turbulent weather

Even as the the Civil Aviation sector is mired in a spate of controversies ranging from fake pilot licences to the Air India pilot strike and cases of DGCA staffers children accommodated in airline jobs,the entire top brass handling the sector is keeping away from it all. While recently-appointed Secretary Civil Aviation Naseem Zaidi was earlier in Italy for a bilateral agreement and flew directly from there to Paris for an ongoing aviation conference,the Joint Secretary handling Air India has accompanied him. To add to the leadership vacuum back in India,even Director General of Civil Aviation DGCA E K Bharat Bhushan has flown out to join the Parisian gathering.