Is the Congress Party advisory to its members not to use their feudal titles meant as a gentle hint to royals who were recently appointed ministers? For instance,the MoS in the Ministry of External Affairs,Praneet Kaur of Patiala,is used to being addressed as maharani. In the Ministry of External Affairs,there are still some who tend to be awestruck by royalty. In 1993,our Ambassador to Germany insisted on sending an official letter addressed to his Royal Highness the Maharajah of Jodhpur,inviting him to a hotel conference in Berlin,even though his deputy chief of mission protested that the only maharajah in democratic India was the Air India mascot.
Royals are resentful of the note from the Congress media cell. The Maharaja of Narsinghghar and former minister and governor Bhanu Prakash Singh feels that the advisory is the handiwork of petty minded politicians with an inferiority complex who want to divert the attention from dynasties associated with political parties. His point is,if royals are not allowed to use their titles,then why does this not apply to those who use names like Chaudhary,Rao,Khan and so on. Incidentally,many Congresspersons in private refer to Rahul Gandhi as Yuvraj.
Can she use her visa card?
Now that Praneet Kaur is an MoS is in the Ministry of External Affairs,there is speculation whether she will use her influence to deny a visa to Pakistani journalist Aroosa Alam,who is friendly with her husband,former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh. Kaur even met the party high command last year to demand that Khans visa be cancelled,but the journalist continues to visit India and was spotted in Chail during the election campaign. While visas are issued by our embassies abroad,if there is a dispute about the person being a security risk,the matter is referred to the Home Ministry,not the MEA.
Tale of two cities
Mamata Banerjee has set up camp in Kolkata in the Eastern Railways headquarters,which is across the road from Writers Building,the seat of the state government. Mamata has instructed her ministers that in preparation for the West Bengal assembly elections,they should spend five days in Kolkata and two in Delhi every week. Mamata has adopted a similar routine and the railway staff attached to the minister has to keep shuttling between the two cities. Perhaps Mamata sees it as psychological warfare against the CPI(M) government to have a shadow CM holding her darbar at its doorstep.
Neighbours envy
As leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha,Arun Jaitley gets to sit at the head of the table when the BJP parliamentary board meets. This has irked many of his colleagues in the party,who feel they are senior to him. Jaitley gets the rank and perks of a Cabinet minister and has a ground floor office in Parliament House with a secretarial staff of 10 in addition to four peons. This includes a private secretary,two additional PSes,two assistant PSes,two PAs and a Hindi stenographer. He is entitled to free travel both in India and abroad for work. The leader of the opposition decides who gets to speak on what debates and how much time is allotted. Other BJP MPs,even if they are in the Lok Sabha,are envious. In fact,Jaswant Singh,who held the position previously,has made it clear that he cannot vacate his Parliament office in a hurry.
With the job of party leader in both houses filled,senior BJP parliamentarians are now eyeing the post of chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee,which also comes with the rank of a Cabinet minister and reserved for an opposition MP.
Circular with PS
A circular from the prime minister to all ministers stipulates that there is to be only one private secretary per ministerial portfolio. Manmohan Singh does not want a repeat of the situation in the last government where one Bihar minister had some 46 private secretaries and another had three dozen. Most private secretaries hired at government expense were party workers and family associates.
