Media reports blamed former HRD minister Arjun Singh for using up the entire ministerial discretionary quota for seats in Central government schools before he demitted office. Singh wrote an indignant letter to his successor,HRD Minister Kapil Sibal,protesting that the newspaper reports were false. In fact,he only sent out 920 recommendations,whereas the minister is entitled to make 1,200. An inquiry revealed that Singh had made 980 recommendations before he left office.
NAC to be back
The National Advisory Council is to be re-constituted shortly. There is no legal hurdle against Sonia Gandhi getting back her old position as chairperson of the council. Last week,the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional amendment passed by the Parliament three years ago,exempting some 40-odd offices,including the chairperson of NAC,from disqualification under the constitutional provision barring MPs from holding offices of profit.
The NAC,which was the thinktank behind the NREGA scheme and The Right to Information Act,was wound up shortly after Sonia Gandhi resigned as chairperson in the wake of the office of profit controversy. The NAC will once again set the official agenda in the social sector,starting with the Right to Food Bill.
Malice in Blunderland
If Rajnath Singh dragged his feet over taking action against Arun Shourie,it was partly because he felt that Shouries outburst was directed more at his rivals,L K Advani and Arun Jaitley,than himself. While Jaswant Singh criticised the RSS,Shourie adopted the opposite position,calling upon the RSS to take over the BJP. Jaswant,who has built his career on second-guessing the RSS,did not want to ruffle any feathers by taking action against an RSS favourite. Wags in the party joke that Shouries trenchant attack on the party president,quoting Alice in Wonderland and Humpty Dumpty,was in any case lost in the Hindi translation.
Through the mud slinging in the party,two leaders have maintained a studied silence,Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. In the past,both have not been on the best of terms,but of late they seem to have closed ranks and developed an amiable working relationship in Parliament.
Research on a researcher
A scholar doing research at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library was impressed to see an IAS officer in an adjacent cubicle diligently taking notes over the past two years on archival material dealing with Partition. Now that Jaswant Singhs book on Jinnah is out,comprehension has dawned. The IAS officer,who was assigned as an aide to the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha in the last government,was obviously doing research for his boss,Jaswant Singh.
De-pressing matter
Janaradhan Dwivedi,the chairperson of the media cell,has got into hot water for arranging a meeting between Sonia Gandhi and a few office bearers of the Press Club of India. At the meeting,Gandhi assured the delegation that she would help the club,whose existing structure is set for demolition due to the metro expansion,obtain possession of a plot just next to Jawahar Bhavan for constructing a new building. The committee posted pictures of its members posing with Gandhi in the club premises. But its triumph was short-lived.
The next day,a rival faction held an emergency general body meeting and passed a resolution throwing out the managing committee,alleging financial irregularities. The matter has got distinctly messy with the deposed body,meanwhile,appealing to the court,arguing that the EMG was illegally convened. An indignant Dwivedi wants to know why he was not alerted of the impending storm before he set up the meeting with his boss in good faith.
Rahuls take
Rahul Gandhi recently invited about half-a-dozen owner-editors of leading Hindi newspapers for tea. In a candid off-the-record briefing,Gandhi pointed out that the Congress has an internal mechanism to keep reinventing itself. Which is why the party managed to peacefully change course under different leaders such as Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. It has also been able to successfully keep inducting fresh blood into the party. He felt the BJP was handicapped since it had no such mechanism. The Gandhi scion said he was more interested in larger social issues than personalised politics.
