Favourite CM

After he stepped down as foreign secretary to make way for Shiv Shankar Menon, Shyam Saran was appointed special envoy for India’s ongoing nuclear dialogue with the US. But it is noticeable that Saran has not played a very prominent role in the bilateral talks. In fact, he was missing from the recent discussions in South Africa and he will probably not take part in the forthcoming talks in Washington, since Menon will be leading the Indian team. Small wonder there is a buzz about Saran getting another diplomatic assignment shortly.

The Americans nurse a grievance that most of the negotiators from the Indian side have a negative mindset and are prejudiced against them. To reassure the Americans of our good faith, senior IFS officer S. Jaishankar is usually part of the Indian delegation. The former joint secretary in charge of the American desk, who incidentally is the son of strategic affairs expert K. Subrahmanyam, is not just more knowledgeable than most about the nitty-gritty of the nuclear deal, he is also one of the few Indian diplomats whom the Americans trust. Although Jaishankar was posted as high commissioner to Singapore last December, he is recalled whenever the talks are held and will be part of the team to Washington.

Charitra lacuna

Since the RSS prides itself on character building, it has come as a rude shock to the organisation to discover that most BJP representatives involved in major scandals recently are hardcore members of the sangh parivar and are not outside recruits. BJP MP Babubhai Katara, who was arrested for human trafficking is from the RSS, so were the BJP MPs involved in the cash-for-questions scandal. Even the TRS MP from Andhra A. Narendra, accused of charging money from would-be-illegal immigrants, has an RSS background.

The on-going investigation into the fake encounter death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh suggests that the mastermind was not so much the BJP leadership in Gujarat as a senior party leader from Rajasthan, a former pracharak. The victim may have been killed in Gujarat but he reportedly operated an extortion racket in Rajasthan where he targeted marble merchants and builders, which was why the Rajasthan police was involved in the operation.

New command chain

It is an old tradition that the Cabinet Committee on Appointments consists of only the prime minister, the home minister and the concerned minister. While the file is routed through the establishment officer, he merely acts as a secretariat for forwarding on the file to the cabinet secretary. But of late there has been a change in the chain of command in government. The establishment officer sends the file to the minister of state for personnel for approval. This was evident when a month back the finance ministry forwarded certain names to be appointed independent directors to bank boards. The MoS Suresh Pachauri turned down the names before they could be sent on to the CCA. The finance ministry submitted a fresh list of nominees.

Bound to Delhi

As a confidence building measure, India and Pakistan had agreed four months back that Pakistani diplomats posted in Delhi would in future be entitled to visit NOIDA and Gurgaon without seeking special permission, just as Indian diplomats in Lahore would be free to visit Muree, Rawalpindi and Taxila. But it seems orders to this effect have still not been issued. The Pakistan High Commissioner when recently invited to NOIDA explained he needed at least a week’s notice to get clearance from the Indian authorities.