Opinion The bhai factor

Two PM’s men

In the recent Cabinet reshuffle,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s hand is evident in only two appointments. Without the PM’s protection,Sports Minister M S Gill would have most likely been dropped outright. Instead,Gill was given a fig leaf by being put in charge of Statistics and Programme Implementation,hardly a full fledged ministry. Ashwani Kumar’s induction as an MoS is also courtesy the Prime Minister,although Singh would ideally have liked him to be MoS in the PMO.

Tharoor loses out

Shashi Tharoor was hopeful of being re-inducted as a central minister. He had met Sonia Gandhi recently and was at pains to emphasise that he cannot be lumped with the ministers removed for corruption. The induction of K C Venugopal from Kerala seems to have put paid to Tharoor’s chances. Venugopal,a first-time MP too,is part of Rahul Gandhi’s youth brigade. At 47,he is seven years younger than Tharoor. He has an impressive political resume. He has been an MLA thrice and made a mark as Minister for Tourism. Like Tharoor,he is a Nair,a community whose support the Congress needs in the forthcoming assembly poll.

Square peg in PMO

V Narayanasamy,who has been appointed to the coveted position of MoS in the PMO,is seen as a square peg in a round hole. Narayanasamy follows in the footsteps of the able and articulate Prithviraj Chavan who was an ideal pointsperson between 10 Janpath and Race Course Road,since he is trusted by both the PM and Sonia Gandhi. Thanks to his excellent relations with the media and leaders of other political parties,Chavan could effectively put across the PM’s views. Narayanasamy,who was once part of the Congress’s shouting brigade in Parliament,is not particularly close to either Gandhi or Manmohan Singh. An added disqualification is that he is not very fluent in Hindi.

Ministerial cold war

There is a cold war on between External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma. It started when Pakistan imposed a ban on export of onions through the overland route and Sharma responded with an angry statement against Pakistan. The MEA felt that the Commerce Ministry was interfering in its domain. Krishna immediately contacted the Pakistanis to try and restore onion supplies. The MEA and the Commerce Ministry also do not see eye to eye on disgraced diplomat Anil Verma,who is charged with wife-beating. The MEA feels that the Commerce Ministry,which selected Verma for the position of economic counsellor in the Indian High Commission in London was going out of the way to protect Verma and mislead the MEA headquarters.

Protecting his environment

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh does not take kindly to interference in his ministry. He is unhappy that party MP T Subbarami Reddy used his position as the Chairman of Standing Committee on Environment to telephone officials in the Ministry for Information on environmental clearances. The minister has taken up the matter with Chairman of the Rajya Sabha,Hamid Ansari. Ramesh is dead set against chairpersons of parliamentary committees interfering in official work and intimidating officers.

No hullabaloo over theft

There was a major theft recently in JD(S) President H D Deve Gowda’s residence in Delhi and it is suspected to be an inside job. Although a large sum of money along with a piece of jewellery and three saris were reportedly stolen,it is unclear whether a formal complaint was made to the Delhi Police.