Some birthday gifts for Amar Singh

HE may be close to the Clintons and now a Padma awardee too,but Sant Singh Chatwal failed to make it to US President Barack Obamas list of invitees for his first White House state banquet in honour of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last November. It was a dent in his pride,and had it not been for old friend Congressman Gary Ackerman a known India caucus member Chatwal would have been missing from the biggest India party in Washington DC. Since every invitee is allowed to bring in an accompanying partner,which is usually the spouse or a friend,Ackerman chose to bring Chatwal as his guest.

Centre wanted Punjab to nominate Chatwal

AS the brouhaha over honouring US hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal with the Padma Award reached a crescendo,with questions being raised over who nominated his name,those who are a part of the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government in Punjab suggested that they had been approached by the Centre which wanted the state government to recommend Chatwals name. Not playing along,the SAD-BJP government apparently wanted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to personally speak to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal,SAD sources claimed. However,with the PM not keen to oblige,it was apparently left to the PMO to push for Chatwals candidature on its own.

Pawar wants Padma for farmers

AMONG all the protests against the selection of Padma awardees,the one which stands out is a letter from Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to the Prime Minister some time back. He suggested that the government should make the gesture of awarding the countrys high civilian award to representatives from the farming community too. Notwithstanding the diverse sphere to pick from,his argument is that most of the awardees have been from filmdom,art,public affairs,sports and industry.

No bitter note at Avadesh farewell

A DAY before Army Chief Gen Deepak Kapoor issued orders to court martial his outgoing Military Secretary Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash,the customary farewell function for the latter,who retired on January 31,went off as usual. While Gen Kapoor thanked his key staff officer for his services,Prakash was calm and even apologised to his colleagues in case he had annoyed any of them while dealing with promotions,postings and transfers. For many,it was a welcome feature that the acrimony had not found its way into well-known customs and traditions of the Army. However,others wondered if Prakash was aware of what actually lay in store for him the next day.

Routine first week for NSA Menon

NEW NSA Shivshanker Menons first week in office has been rather uneventful. There has been no formal notification curtailing the role of the NSA,as was being widely speculated. So,Menon,in theory at least,remains as powerful as his predecessor M K Narayanan was. Like Narayanan,Menon too has been attending the daily 12 noon meeting of intelligence chiefs convened by the Home Minister.

Nepal seeks date with Manmohan

AMID growing criticism that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rarely visits neighbours,a strong push is being made by Nepal to have him there in March. In fact,the last Indian PM to visit Kathmandu was I K Gujral some 13 years back. And to drive home the point,Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav is himself going to be here this month. The only hurdle could be that the PM may visit Saudi Arabia in March,and that too is important because his trips to Islamic countries have become fewer. The other neighbour on the PMs radar is Bhutan,which he might visit in late April. Incidentally,he will be mostly out of the country in April,which includes a trip to US for the nuclear security summit.

Why AMUs invite has PMO in fix

PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh is usually not one to accept doctorates from educational institutes in India. The only exception he made was for his alma mater,Panjab University,which conferred an honorary D Litt on him. Now,it is learnt that a proposal to confer a doctorate on the PM has come from the Aligarh Muslim University. This has put the PMO in a fix as there is an inquiry process on against the AMU V-C. At the same time,Rahul Gandhi visited the varsity recently. It remains to be seen whether the PM will go to the varsity.

Didi makes Cong see red

CONGRESSMEN are miffed about Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjees standoffish approach towards their party president Sonia Gandhi. When Sonia went to Kolkata recently to pay tribute to veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu,the Congress tried to get Mamata to accompany her. Earlier,the mercurial TMC leader had stayed away from Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs visits to Kolkata,sending confusing signals about the state of alliance between the two parties. Congress crisis managers were,therefore,very anxious to get Mamata to make an appearance with Sonia in Kolkata. Pranab Mukherjee called up Mamata to urge her to at least accompany Sonia in Kolkata and then return with her to Delhi in a special plane. While Mamata assured Mukherjee that she would receive and accompany Sonia during her stay in Kolkata,she seems to have changed her mind later.

More woman power in BJP

WITH Sushma Swaraj having taken over as Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha,the party is set to have a fair share of women represented in the organisational hierarchy too. Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje would be a general secretary while Smriti Irani,a secretary in the outgoing team,is likely to land an important position. Durg MP Saroj Pandey,known as a good orator,could be accommodated in the partys womens wing while party national executive member Nirmala Sitharaman,who was among those invited to a thinkers meet at the Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini in Mumbai last year,is likely to be elevated. One-third of posts in the organisation are now reserved for women something that Rajnath Singh had accomplished during his term as party president.

No takers for Congress office

THE Congress headquarters at 24,Akbar Road has a deserted look nowadays. Very few senior leaders bother to visit the party office. AICC general secretaries and ministers like Prithviraj Chavan,Ghulam Nabi Azad and V Narayansami have stopped coming to the party headquarters after assuming ministerial responsibilities while Rahul Gandhi has not entered his room at the AICC office despite its renovation some months back. The room,adjacent to Congress president Sonia Gandhis room,used to be general secretary Janardan Dwivedis room.

Lalu bid to score poll points

FOR RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav,who is trying to revive his political fortunes,the Bihar bandh call given by his party was an occasion to show his strength in an election year. As he prepared to hit the road to enforce the bandh,his partner,LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan,was not present in Patna. A desperate Lalu made phone calls and found that Paswan was in Gorakhpur,where he had gone to address a rally organised by the Justice Party a regional outfit. Realising that it was pointless to wait,Lalu finally went out alone. Though Paswan reached Patna in the afternoon,courted arrest and joined Lalu in the stadium where the police had kept those rounded up during the bandh,the RJD chief was reported to be upset. The grapevine has it that Lalu has started doubting the intentions of Paswan as he braces up for the Assembly polls later this year.

HRD Ministrys Bollywood connection

THE HRD Ministry doesnt have only academics walking its Shastri Bhawan corridors. Last week saw film directors Mahesh Bhatt and Yash Chopra call on minister Kapil Sibal. While the ministry is facilitating a tie-up between Subhash Ghais Whistling Woods and the CBSE to draw up a curriculum in film studies,Bhatt and Chopra were there for another reason. They had come to voice their concern over the amendments to the Copyright Bill.

A matter of timing for ITBP

ASPIRING to set a world record of successfully skiing down Mount Everest from the Nepal side,a 28-member mountaineering team from the Indo Tibetan Border Police ITBP was in for a heartbreak when it was forced to return from just over Base 3,on the route to the worlds highest peak. Due to heavy snowfall,the team could not get closer to scaling the peak,leaving the force a bit red-faced. Earlier,whenever ITBP personnel scaled the peak,it was in the pre-monsoon season. So the post-mortem of the failed expedition has concluded that making the attempt in the post-monsoon season was a bad idea to begin with. Last heard,the team will make a fresh bid in March.

Tailpiece

CALL it the Krishna Tirath effect. After the embarrassing faux pas,in which the Prime Ministers photo went out with a former Pakistani Air Chief in an advertisement put out by the Women and Child Development Ministry,the PMO seems to have become extra careful in allowing the use of Manmohan Singhs photograph. irst casualty has been the Power Ministry,which was unable to come out with a brochure for an annual award that it gives. Every year,the brochure contains a message from the Prime Minister along with his photograph. This time apparently,the message and the photo did not arrive on time from the PMO.