Room for luck

Shriprakash Jaiswal got elevated to Cabinet status and moved to Coal Ministry.

Room for luck

The new MoS for Home,R P N Singh,was to take charge at 1.30 pm Tuesday but he arrived an hour late,with his predecessor Jitendra Singh,because that apparently was a more auspicious time to take over. Incidentally,the room that will now be occupied by R P N Singh has proved to be extremely lucky for the previous three incumbents. Shriprakash Jaiswal got elevated to Cabinet status and moved to Coal Ministry. Ajay Maken was elevated,as MoS with independent charge of Sports and Youth Affairs. In the latest reshuffle,he has been promoted again,as a Cabinet minister. The last occupant of that room,Jitendra Singh,has followed in the footsteps of Maken,having been promoted as MoS with independent charge of the Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry.

SENIORITY STAKES

SALMAN Khurshid probably was the biggest beneficiary in the recent Cabinet reshuffle,making a jump straight to the coveted Cabinet Committee on Security by virtue of being the External Affairs Minister. But that has not altered his position much in the official order of seniority within the union council of ministers. Khurshid figures below ministers like Ajit Singh,Kumari Selja,Anand Sharma,M K Alagiri and even Shriprakash Jaiswal. There is another CCS member,Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde,who does not figure in the top four seniormost ministers. After A K Antony,Sharad Pawar,and P Chidambaram,it is Ghulam Nabi Azad who is the most senior minister. Shinde comes after that. Meanwhile,while the PMO website has finally put back the list of ministers it had been missing since June after the resignation of Pranab Mukherjee the Cabinet Secretariat has still not done so.

MASTERS VOICE

N C Asthana,an IG in the CRPF,finds it difficult to keep quiet. Sometime back he had made news for expressing some controversial views on Jammu and Kashmir in a book. On Tuesday,he repeatedly interrupted his boss,CRPF director general Pranay Sahay,at the annual press conference to give his take on the questions asked. Sahay,who has taken over recently,kept his patience as Asthana cut him short time and again to give a lengthy analysis of his own. He even went on to compare the Naxal operation in India to that of US Armys in Afghanistan.

OXFORD BRIDGE

BANGLADESH foreign minister Dipu Moni was the first to congratulate new External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid. South Block mandarins were not surprised and said that the two have a personal connect as well. Khurshid and Dipu Monis husband,Tawfik Nawaz,are friends from Oxford where they studied law together. In fact,Moni had visited Khurshid in the past as well,when she had come to India.

Karnataka crisis: Gadkari deputes Jaitley,Pradhan

NEW DELHI: After cancelling his election campaign programmes in Himachal Pradesh,BJP chief Nitin Gadkari,who is battling allegations of wrongdoings in his business enterprises,Tuesday delegated his responsibility as party president to deal with the political crisis brewing in Karnataka to the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and paty general secretary in-charge of the state Dharmendra Pradhan on his behalf. Senior leaders from Karnataka,including CM Jagadish Shettar,in this context on Tuesday met Jaitley and discussed the state of affairs of the party.