Opinion New peace track
Pranab Mukherjee is not Mamata Banerjees favourite Congress leader as she suspects he is soft on the CPI(M). But....
Pranab Mukherjee is not Mamata Banerjees favourite Congress leader as she suspects he is soft on the CPI(M). But recently,the two once-antagonistic Bengal leaders too seem to have smoked the peace pipe. Mukherjee made overtures and Banerjee responded. On the budget exercise,Mukherjee played on to Banerjees regional chauvinism by pointing out that this year both the railway budget and the general budget would be tabled by Bengalis. He noted that this had happened only once earlier during Indira Gandhis regime when he was finance minister and A.B.A Ghani Khan Choudhury was railway minister in the early Eighties. In the run up to the budget presentation,Mamata visited Mukherjee every evening at his residence and it is believed he offered helpful hints on the budget and what steps she could take to help Bengal and her constituency.
Government twitters
The mandarins of the Ministry of External Affairs pride themselves on the need for discretion and secrecy in their line of business. They are taken aback that Minister for State,Shashi Tharoor,regularly regales his fan club on Twitter with accounts of his professional duties. Tharoor explains just which visiting dignitaries he has met,how he is trying to put the Thiruvanthapuram passport office in order and so on.
Another prominent politician who uses an Internet social networking site to air his views on public issues is J&K Chief Minister,Omar Abdullah. On his Facebook,Abdullah has come out strongly against the Indian security forces in Kashmir. Omar Abdullah has had it with security forces . Abdullahs indignation for the attempted molestation in Baramulla and subsequent shooting of a demonstrator at a protest rally is understandable,but is Facebook the right place to air your administrative frustrations?
Monsoon matters
PRime Minister Manmohan Singh came to know of the possibility of a failed monsoon only after he saw the statement by Prithviraj Chavan,Minister of State for Science and Technology at his press conference on June 24. (Chavan was trying to make the point that even though there was no chance of a failed monsoon,the PMO was ready for contingency plans if at all it was a case of a failed monsoon.) Singh immediately telephoned the Agriculture Secretary T Nanda Kumar,inquiring why he had not been kept abreast of this major development. The secretary told him that the Agriculture Ministry was waiting for the Indian Metrological Departments official forecast that was scheduled to be announced on June 25 and only after that it could have given a clear picture to the PMO. (The forecast was scheduled to be announced on June 25 but was released a day earlier by Chavan to ward off speculations in the media on the likelihood of a failed monsoon.) At that press conference,the Met Department brought down its forecast from 96 per cent that it had predicted in April to 93 per cent and said the rainfall this year was likely to be below normal. It,however,stressed that it was not going to be a case of a failed monsoon. The Cabinet Secretary later praised the Agriculture Secretary for adopting a measured approach even while keeping a backup plan ready.
Judicious delay
During the Vajpayee government,Justice Liberhan was offered the ambassadorship to Maldives by a BJP leader. He declined,explaining to the politician who made the suggestion that he wanted to be ambassador to a western country or a governor of a state other than any in the Northeast. Liberhan even fell out with his mentor,the late Bansi Lal,who was responsible for his appointment as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Lal felt it was inappropriate for Liberhan to be discussing his next assignment when his work with the commission was not complete. No one had bargained that Liberhan would take 17 years and be granted 47 extensions to finish his task.
Peanuts for them
The Department of Economic Affairs invited 22 leading industrialists,including Mukesh and Anil Ambani,Sunil Mittal,Ratan Tata and Azim Premji,to attend a pre-budget consultation with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on June 1. The interesting part about the invitation letter,sent out by the additional economic adviser,was the governments offer to reimburse return airfare (economy class) or actual rail/bus fare,as the case may be. In addition a lump sum of Rs 300 towards local transport and other incidental expenses will be paid to the invitees from outside Delhi. It is doubtful if any of the multi -millionaires availed of the generous offer. Most,in fact,flew down for the meeting in their private jets.
Share
