The recent change in retirement rules for the Home and Defence Secretaries as well as the RAW and IB chiefs is projected as a measure to ensure a fixed tenure of two years for these key positions. This is actually not the case. The new rule merely states that the concerned officer may continue in the post for upto two years. The continuance in service depends on the discretion of the government, which can decide to relieve the officer earlier, a common practice when governments change hands or if the officer becomes too independent. Left of Left CPI(M) GENERAL secretary Prakash Karat’s harsh words against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government over the Iran vote in the party publication, People’s Democracy, is a reflection of the tough anti-American line which has always been espoused by the Kerala unit of the party. The CPI(M)’s top leaders from Bengal, Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, are more pragmatic and would have preferred a less confrontational approach. So would Sitaram Yechuri, but in the CPI(M) it is the general secretary who calls the shots. The Congress has a list of 40-odd leaders who will be going to Bihar for the election campaign. That makes it one national leader per constituency since the party is contesting from only 50 Assembly seats and in many cases it is only putting up a token fight. The Congress has fielded 15 candidates who lost their security deposits in the last election. The BJP also has no shortage of campaigners. Arun Jaitley who was recuperating after his heart operation is moving back to Patna as the party’s campaign in-charge, together with his cook to ensure he gets boiled food as the doctor ordered. The question is whether the BJP’s biggest crowd puller in Bihar, Shatrughan Sinha, will be part of the campaign. The BJP is hopeful of bringing him around even though Sinha has been evasive so far about giving firm dates for the campaign. Last time, he displayed his unhappiness with the party for not declaring him as the chief ministerial candidate, and left the campaign midway for a visit to the US. But he returned and eventually addressed some 70 meetings. True he did insist that he be put up at the Maurya hotel in Patna though he has his own Luv Kush bungalow there. More vulture than culture The 300-odd employees of the Indira Gandhi National Centre of the Arts are apprehensive that the 78-year-old chairperson, Kapila Vatsayan, is preparing the ground to convert the IGNCA into a private trust. But even though the centre is technically under the Ministry of Culture for the last 20 years, the government has discreetly avoided interfering or demanding any accountability because of the centre’s proximity to the Gandhi family. To date, the government must have poured some Rs 300 crores into the IGNCA, apart from donating 20 acres of land in the heart of New Delhi, but the IGNCA shows no sign of becoming the cultural hub, that it was expected to be. There is no art gallery, theatre, dance stage or acoustical system. The library is used largely by staff members and there is no proper record of the enormous amount of microfilm purchased. What exactly the huge staff is supposed to do remains a mystery to most on the IGNCA payroll.
