Peter says Paul

In a bid to cut its costs,the loss-making state-owned airline Air India has been selling some of its highly-valued properties abroad.

In a bid to cut its costs,the loss-making state-owned airline Air India has been selling some of its highly-valued properties abroad. A plush residential property that it owned in central Paris has been bought by none else than the Ministry of External Affairs for nearly a million dollars. The property was meant for the airlines overseas staff,many of whom are being recalled from different destinations. It will now house an Indian diplomat.

Fixing Blame

The post-mortems of the recent Assembly polls have begun and the BJP has decided to affix responsibility for its poor performance in Assam,the only state where it had something at stake. The person who has been found responsible for the below-par performance is none other than the man who conducted a pre-poll survey and predicted a BJP tally of 24 seats. The party actually ended up with only five seats. That person is now being blamed for having misled the party.

Strategic Options

Covert operations and surgical strikes seem to be the flavour of the season after the Abbottabad incident,with many in the military discussing options and strategies. So much so that even the forthcoming Joint Commanders Conference attended by top officers of the three armed forces that will kick off this week will have a session reserved to review Indias capability to carry out surgical strikes. The key capability that would be reviewed would be Indias options of wiping out Pakistani nuclear installations in case of a confrontation.

The Probables List

While speculation over the appointment of the next Cabinet Secretary has been on for a long time now,the government is learnt to have made the first official short-list of possible candidates. It contains the names of seven IAS officers Ajit Kumar Seth,Secretary Public Grievances and Coordination in the Cabinet Secretariat,Shipping Secretary K Mohandas,Deepak Gupta,Secretary in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy,Bihar Chief Secretary Anup Mukherjee,DoPT Secretary Alka Sirohi,K M Acharya,Secretary in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment,and Vivek Mehrotra,Secretary,Minority Affairs. However,murmurs of another extension to outgoing Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar refuse to subside,leading to much heartburn among the probables.

Crossed Connections

The goof-up in the list of terror suspects that India handed to Pakistan has once again exposed the disconnect between the Home Ministry and the Ministry for External Affairs. Apparently,the MHA never shared the list with MEA before handing it over to Pakistan during the Home Secretary-level meeting on March 28-29 this year. The dossier that was given by Pakistan to India was also not shared with MEA. The result has been that when MEA officials were informally asked about the discrepancy in the list,they were completely stumped. Neither this list nor the dossier given by Pakistan are part of MEA records. What is more,this is not the first time such a thing has happened. The MHA has,in the past,on more than one occasion failed to keep the MEA in the loop in its dealings with Pakistan.