Pawar point

ON RIGHT TRACK

A STRING of electoral reverses has forced the Communists to finally wake up to change. The CPM has already announced its plan to revisit its ideological approach to deal with challenges like globalisation,growing caste influence in politics,and identity politics. Now,the CPI has decided to go a step further. It is reworking its party programme which guides its policies,stands,strategies and tactics. It is learnt that party general secretary A B Bardhan has himself taken up the task of redrafting the decades-old document. The idea apparently is to re-brand the party,factoring in the changes in the society and economy,to regain lost ground and relevance.

BOVINE REQUEST

AHEAD of the visit of its Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to New Delhi,Nepal has officially sought Indias assistance to import 10,000 high milk-yielding variety of cows a proposal that stands out alongside big requests to SEZs. Nepal,it turns out,is facing an acute shortage of milk and dairy products. Incidentally,this request for cows has a history. Last year,yoga guru Baba Ramdev had promised to gift 50,000 cows and 2,000 bulls to Nepal during a visit. He apparently wanted to go ahead with the promise until it came to light that the government does not allow export of cows. While that promise is yet to be fulfilled,Kathmandu now feels at least New Delhi can finance import of these cows. Meanwhile,Bhattarai is also likely to visit Haridwar and it remains to be seen whether he drops Ramdev a reminder of his promise.

SUCCESSOR HUNT

THE coveted job of the SPG director is up for a contest as incumbent Bharat Wanchoo retires on October 31. The grapevine has it that he is likely to have a big say on who would be his successor. But the Home Ministry,on the other hand,has created a flutter by floating a panel of three names which includes old SPG hand and Delhi Police Special Commissioner crime Ranjit Narayan. Meanwhile,Delhis curious eyes are watching where Wanchoo will be headed after retirement.

PEP-UP TALK

AMIDST the prevailing gloomy mood in the government,Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth convened meetings of secretaries twice in the last one week on corruption and effective governance. While the first meeting was a large gathering of almost every secretary in town,the second was attended by 10-12 secretaries. New Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Pulok Chatterji is also learnt to have attended the meetings and is learnt to be drawing up a new monitoring system for specific government initiatives.