Trust political veteran and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to strike a consensus in little time. He demonstrated this last week during the meeting of the GoM on restructuring of centrally sponsored schemes to prune 173 of them into a manageable number. While the proposal moved by deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia suggested that 77 was a good number,Finance Minister P Chidambaram insisted it should be no more than 59 as suggested by a committee appointed by the Planning Commission earlier. Incidentally,Ahluwalias original proposal to the Cabinet had envisaged 70 schemes,but this was revised to 77 under pressure from different departments including Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairy that is under Pawar. As chairman GoM,Pawar,however,even agreed to forego one scheme proposed by his own department in the bid to find a manageable number and with it,consensus. In a record of sorts,this GoM took a final decision in a single meeting. TAKING CONTROL CONGRESS vice-president Rahul Gandhi had a busy Saturday night. He landed at Raipur past midnight and stayed on at the airport for another hour as he was told that the air ambulance carrying a grievously injured V C Shukla from Jagdalpur was about to reach. Its believed that he even spoke to Medantas Naresh Trehan from the tarmac to take his advice. It was he who took the call to have Shukla airlifted and made necessary arrangements in the morning. This was Rahuls first such crisis and he was apparently keen to be hands on. So much so that he followed Shuklas ambulance to the hospital in Raipur before going to address an agitated Congress gathering. HOME ALONE THERE was complete chaos at Ministry of Home Affairs on the day Naxals carried out an audacious attack literally wiping out the top Congress leadership in Chhattisgarh. The new Home Secretary designate Anil Goswami could not have done much with his one hand tied at back as Home Secretary R K Singh away on US tour,in his order has instructed that in his absence the policy decisions can wait while routine issues can be tackled by Goswami. With Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde also extending his stay till May 29 in the US,the Home Ministry officials were in a tizzy when it came to chalking out strategy soon after the Maoist attack. The whole effort was eventually piloted out of the Prime Ministers Office through National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon. WEEKEND BLUES DELIVERING a lecture on Indian elections at the British Council last week,former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi gave out some very interesting information. The Election Commission,he said,takes care not to hold voting for Lok Sabha or Assembly elections on either a Friday or Monday. This decision,he disclosed,was taken after less than 45 per cent voting was recorded in Mumbai a few years ago despite appeals by cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and a Bollywood actor to the voters to come out and vote. Apparently,most Mumbaikars decided to club voting day,a Friday,with the weekend and take a short vacation. After that experience,Quraishi said,the EC decided not to schedule voting on a Monday or a Friday. TO VATICAN,FINALLY HE missed an opportunity to attend the inaugural mass of Pope Francis I in March because the dates of his visit to Vatican clashed with a Cabinet meeting convened to clear the amended Food Security Bill for introduction in Parliament. K V Thomas a devout Catholic Christian was the governments first choice to represent India at the installation mass of the new Pope on March 19. With him opting out,Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien had led the official delegation. Now,Thomas will get another chance to meet the Pope as he will be in Rome in mid-June as part of the Indian delegation led by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to attend a conference of UNs Food and Agriculture Organisation. Thomas is looking to take time off during his week-long stay to have an audience with the new Pope.
