Govt left hanging

Pranab Sen, the Chief Statistician of India, is yet to take up his new assignment though he was appointed six months back.

Pranab Sen, the Chief Statistician of India, is yet to take up his new assignment though he was appointed six months back. He prefers to continue in his old post as principal adviser to the Planning Commission. Initially, he had sought till January to take up the new post, but he is still procrastinating. His excuse is that he is helping out with the budget preparations.

The principal adviser’s post is normally assigned to officials of additional-secretary rank, but by a special dispensation it was agreed it would be upgraded to full-secretary rank for Sen when he completes his three years’ term as chief statistician.

The Cabinet Secretariat has written to the Prime Minister’s Office, pointing out that Sen’s delay in taking up the assignment has put the government in a tough spot. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has chosen not to interfere.

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And who is Sen? He is the brother of Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen. Abhijit and his wife Jayati Ghosh are the Left’s favourite economist couple.

New favourite

JAN Morcha leader Raj Babbar has produced a 52-part historical serial for Doordarshan. In Doordarshan, payments are usually held up because of red tape, but in this case, higher-ups in Prasar Bharati are pressing for clearing 75 per cent of Babbar’s payment of several crores immediately, even though the serial is yet to be telecast. The finance department, however, is dragging its feet since Babbar owes the corporation some Rs 70 lakh. Even so, political pressure from the ruling party for releasing Babbar’s payment is mounting. Ever since the actor took on Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh and came out openly against the Congress’ bete noire, Amar Singh, he has become a hot favourite of the ruling dispensation.

‘Junior league’

THE two Congress chieftains of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijay Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia, are at odds again.. In the last few months both have been touring the state extensively, addressing kisan sammelans. Each has ventured into the other’s turf.

Scindia has strayed out of his family’s former kingdom and toured Ashok Nagar, Bhind and Sagar. Singh has toured Guna, Morena, and the Chambal.

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Diggy Raja even took Sachin Pilot to some of his meetings to mobilise Gujjar support. Singh, who prides himself in being one with the common man, took a dig or two at the regal ways of his rival, remarking that the Congress party was not for rajas and maharajahs but for ordinary workers. With Pilot by his side, Singh referred to himself as a guru who had helped train many a pehelwan. The message to Scindia was, he should not consider himself in the same league as Singh.

After the state party president, Subhash Yadav, sounded the alarm, the party high-command in Delhi ordered that all personality based rallies should be discontinued.

Dynastic politics

SUJATA Koirala, only child of Nepal’s Prime Minister G.P. Koirala, was in Delhi last week and was keen to be introduced to Delhi’s power elite. Sujata, who was recently nominated to Parliament wants to stake her claim to her father’s political legacy even though she was not in active politics earlier. Her cousin Shailaja Acharya, a former minister and a close friend of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, is better known here. Though the Nepalese government has announced Shailaja’s name as ambassador to India, the Maoists have still to clear the appointment. Actually, the real inheritor of Koirala’s mantle could be another cousin, Shekhar Koirala, a physician who acted as an intermediary in talks with the Maoists.