Playing hardball

Mindful of the difficult task ahead,no senior leader is showing an inclination to step into the shoes of K V Thangkabalu,who resigned as Tamil Nadu Congress president following the party debacle in recent Assembly polls. Neither G K Vasan nor E V K S Elangovan is keen on the job. The party,it appears,would eventually settle down for Rajya Sabha member Sudarsana Natchiappan. But that hasnt stopped many leaders from the state suggesting sarcastically in private that it is time Madam Sonia Gandhi tests the leadership qualities of the high-profile Jayanthi Natarajan,who is well into a fourth term in the Rajya Sabha,by parking her at Sathyamurthy Bhavan in Chennai.

Vacancy Issues

The countrys premier aeronautical company,HAL,after a considerable gap,is looking for a chairman from outside the organisation. While the vacancy has triggered a war between the Air Force that wants a serving officer in the post and the bureaucracy lobby that is keen to see an IAS officer taking over,the reason for looking outside is said to be an acute lack of talent within the company. None in the senior management is eligible for the top post,though two well regarded officials are missing out on the criterion of two years of residue service by a few months only. To add to the woes of the company,several other top posts are also lying vacant or are about to get vacant. These include Director Human Resource,Director Finance and Director Design and Development.

Lost in Translation

Here comes another gaffe from an investigating agency with matters related to sharing of information with Pakistan. It is learnt that some of the documents sent to Pakistan by the National Investigation Agency NIA in connection with the 26/11 probe were in Marathi! The NIA had obtained the documents relating to 26/11 accused Ajmal Kasab from the Mumbai Police,which operates mostly in the Marathi language. Instead of sending a translated version,the NIA mistakenly passed on the original to Pakistan along with a Letter Rogatory the government had sent. The papers were eventually returned by Pakistan and they had to be replaced by NIA with a fresh set of documents.

Sitting idle

This is one GoM that is obviously not headed anywhere. In June last year,the government had constituted a GoM on energy security,to provide policy guidance on matters related to energy,particularly where it pertained to securing support from other countries. It was to look at opportunities of overseas acquisition of energy resources,bilateral and multilateral cooperation on energy and options for increasing the proportion of clean and renewable energy in Indias overall energy mix. In the one year since,the GoM has held only one meeting,immediately after being constituted. Obviously,the government has been preoccupied with more pressing matters after that.