Reading Between the Lines

WHILE Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal is devoting a lot of time and effort in changing the IIT entrance examination system,the same kind of zeal is nowhere to be seen when it comes to sorting out the mess that some academic appointment processes have created. The latest development that highlights the helplessness of the minister is the scrapping of the appointment process for the positions of the UGC chairman and vice-chancellor of IGNOU. Both these were in advanced stages before rival claimants to these positions stopped the process. Now even the search-cum-selection committees for these two positions have been dissolved. The committees had many eminent scholars on board,including UPSC chairperson D P Agarwal,K Kasturirangan and Prof Goverdhan Mehta. Besides bringing their wisdom and credibility in doubt,the HRD Ministrys action only reinstates the fact that much more than just the IIT entrance exam needs to be fixed.

Advance Warning

PRIME Minister Manmohan Singhs offer to quit public life if corruption allegations made against him by Team Anna were proved,was not part of the script. Asked about the charges during the on-board press conference on the return flight from Myanmar,the PM read out a prepared statement. A TV reporter requested for the statement in Hindi but his voice was lost in the din and the interaction ended. The PM,however,had registered the request when the mikes were being wound up,he singled out the reporter and started to speak extempore in Hindi with a smattering of English words like giving up his public career. Only a few recorded it,one of whom was an official who later informed the PMO top brass. There was fair amount of chaos as the quotes began getting distorted in the word-of-mouth exercise that followed. A high-level decision was taken to use the satellite phone on the plane and call up the Press Trust of India in Delhi and give out the exact statement as recorded by the government official. So by the time the plane landed,the PTI version as dictated from the plane had been running on TV screens for over an hour. It was a rare case of the government beating the electronic media and getting its line out first to avoid confusion.

At Home Abroad

RAILWAY Board chairman Vinay Mittals official trip of Europe last week was spent fire-fighting back home. First came the derailment of the Doon Express,when Mittal was travelling between Germany and Switzerland. Most of his subsequent meeting hours were used up attending to calls from his office in Delhi. Even before things had settled down,came the news of a minor fire incident on board another train. It was put out within 10 minutes but the incident had happened in Kolkata,and therefore,frantic calls were made to him. Only after returning to Delhi,did Mittal get some respite.

Coalition Compulsions

EYEBROWS are being raised over the appointment of Vimlendra Sharan as joint secretary in the Agriculture Ministry. This 1992-batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre has spent most of the last 5-6 years,when he was a director-rank officer,as private secretary to Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. Recently,he was empanelled as joint secretary,making him ineligible to continue as private secretary to a minister. But the fact that he has now been posted in the same ministry of the minister he was attached with has set tongues wagging. This does not usually happen,but now it is being attributed to yet another case of coalition compulsion.

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