Blair’s red carpet in Neemrana Fort?

After Wen Jiabao and Junichiro Koizumi, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is the next on New Delhi’s VVIP guest list. Expected date: so...

After Wen Jiabao and Junichiro Koizumi, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is the next on New Delhi’s VVIP guest list. Expected date: sometime in early September. As the red carpet is being stitched, one idea doing the rounds—and sources say this came from the ‘‘highest level’’—is to host Blair in Neemrana Fort, 118 km away from capital, down the smooth Jaipur highway.

The idea, perhaps, is to create just the right cultural ambience in one of the better-known heritage sites near Delhi. The government has begun the exercise of getting the necessary clearances. Provided, of course, Blair’s schedule-planners say OK. Given the London attacks, however, everyone is playing safe. Whether the drive through the Indian countryside proves to be a major security hazard is a call that New Delhi and London will now have to take.

Did Mr Sen join the joint statement?

The Left may scream over the joint statement, the BJP may quietly sulk but it doesn’t matter: UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is on board. The ink was barely dry on the statement—four drafts had already been exchanged by then—when External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh followed by Manmohan Singh called Congress President Sonia to tell her that it was a done deal. Sonia is said to have expressed her satisfaction as well—and asked if Indian Ambassador to US Ronnen Sen was on board. Which he, of course, was along with the scientific top brass, including the chiefs of the Atomic Energy Commission and ISRO.

Safety belt signs still on at IA

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These are exciting times in aviation and challenging times for those who represent the old guard. Indian Airlines is clearly in the second category, but to its credit, it has begun to show signs of a financial turnaround in the past couple of quarters.

All said, it is still a prized government venture and to be its head is a plum assignment for any bureaucrat, which also explains the three-way tussle between the PMO, Civil Aviation Ministry and the Cabinet Secretariat.

Add to this the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB). As reported in this column earlier, the PMO wasn’t happy when it was kept out of the loop on the interim appointment of Sushma Chawla as CMD after Sunil Arora ended his term in mid-June.

To shortlist a panel of names, a search committee was formed with the Cabinet Secretary as the head and Civil Aviation Secretary along with Secretary, Personnel, and PESB Chairman as members.

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This committee is said to have worked overtime but the PMO decided to scrap the entire process and, instead, threw back the rule book. So, the job was entrusted to the PESB.

Given that the Civil Aviation Ministry had not informed the PESB in the first place, the entire process will now have to start afresh with nominations being sought from Chief Secretaries of various state governments. Then the shortlisting, then the interviews and then the selection. All this could take up to three months. All eyes are now on Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel who will now have to step in so that the grounded process can taxi, if not take off.

The affluent and the thirsty

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s plans to rope in international private players to provide 24×7 water to South and South-West Delhi has hit a dry patch. No, it’s not the Left this time but the Congress High Command which is worried whether the aam aadmi will be deprived of water by the affluent classes in South and South-West Delhi.

Tired of pleading with the Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab governments to give Delhi its share of water, Dikshit wanted to involve four reputed international companies to launch pilot projects in South Delhi. But the NGOs would have nothing to do with it and using their clout with the Congress High Command, ensured that the dream of 24×7 water in the Capital will, for now, remain just that—a dream.

Indo-Nepal Express on Track II

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India and Nepal have a relationship that operates at many levels beyond the reach of Raisina Hill and the Royal Palace in Kathmandu.

As New Delhi is keen to buy hydro-electric power from Nepal, India is looking for a closure of the West Seti project so that Power Trading Corporation can plug into 750 MW. However, with the Delhi-Kathmandu relationship under a cloud ever since the February 1 Royal Coup, agreements are difficult to come by. Help, however, has come from an unexpected place. On a recent visit to India, King Gyanendra’s son-in-law, the US-educated Kunwar Raj Bahadhur Singh, offered his services to push the hydro-electric power agreement.

Kathmandu-watchers are not surprised. After all, the decision to revoke the suspension of arms supplies to Nepal was aided and abetted by the religious head of the Kamakhya Temple in Assam, who is highly regarded by both the King and a senior Minister of the UPA government.

Tailpiece

Corporates have hit on a new strategy to ‘‘maintain’’ their relationship with business journalists. The latest corporate gift: Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince. Given that the next one is J K Rowling’s last, one wonders what PR managers will come up with next.