Bhopal footage,and mileage

AT A meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) last week to discuss issues relating to Prasar Bharati,the organisation CEO B S Lalli found himself on the wrong end of the stick when he was taken to task by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram,who heads the GoM. In the middle of the meeting,Chidambaram suddenly asked Lalli if he had finished matters relating to recruitment rules in Prasar Bharati and if he had made proposals relating to recruitments in the board. Jumping up from his seat,Lalli nodded to state that he had done this a day before. It was then,according to those present,that the Home Minister caught him off guard. He asked pointly how Lalli had achieved this when the Prasar Bharati board had not even been meeting. Chidambaram apparently had a letter in front of him from Prasar Bharati board chairperson Mrinal Pande,complaining of the non-cooperation shown by Lalli. He has now been asked to provide full reports to the GoM when it meets next on all the queries raised in last weeks meeting.

An officer and a minister

HRD Minister Kapil Sibal had to part with his close aide and Personal Secretary A J Kurian last week since the latter has been empanelled as Joint Secretary and his term in Central deputation is over. Sibal,however,made the parting worthwhile. Not only did he throw a special farewell dinner for Kurian,he also added a personal touch by cooking himself. That apart,the minister is learnt to have seen off Kurian right to his car as the party ended. The ministers thoughtfulness has sure left the HRD babus impressed. Meanwhile,Kurian is set to return to the UT cadre and join the Delhi government.

Race for new V-Cs

TWO high-profile central universities will soon have new vice-chancellors and the selection process is set to be an interesting one. While the names of former Union minister Yoginder Alagh,former scientific advisor to PM R Chidamabram,former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan and former Indian National Science Academy president M M Sharma are doing the rounds for filling in Deepak Pentals shoes at Delhi University,the names doing the rounds for Jawaharlal Nehru University are Indian Institute of Sciences Dr Balram,Infosys founder Narayan Murthy,economist Nitin Desai and ICSSR Chairman Javeed Alam.

Alagiri builds his Tamil case

WITH inability to speak in either English or Hindi cited as a reason for his enduring silence in Parliament,DMK leader and Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers M K Alagiri is now trying to get the Union Law Ministry to allow lawyers in Tamil Nadu to argue their cases before the Madras High Court in Tamil. He has already spoken to Law Minister M Veerappa Moily,asking him to get the issue resolved as lawyers in Madurai are on relay fast in support of their demand that Tamil be made court language. Alagiri has already told his supporters that a decision would be taken within 15 days. Since only English is so far allowed as court language in higher judiciary,it remains to be seen how the minister gets the job done.

Gadkari settles in

A KNOWN foodie,BJP chief Nitin Gadkari appears to have developed a liking for Delhis cuisine. Amidst his hectic schedule,he finds time to visit an eatery in Pandara Park. Since his family is still in Nagpur,Gadkari frequents Gulati restaurant,sometimes with friends. Still staying in a temporary accommodation,Gadkari has been alloted a house in Teen Murti Lane and is set to move in there within two months. Interestingly,the BJP chief will have Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh as his neighbour. It is yet to be seen whether Singhs re-entry into the BJP precedes their becoming neighbours.

The Mallya touch

VIJAY Mallya has made it to the Rajya Sabha,but the BJP did give him a scare. Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and a section of the MLAs were not in favour of backing him but had to give in after the central leadership directed the state unit to support him. Mallya,it seems,had sensed the mood of some of the state leaders. The grapevine is that the shrewd businessman met Nitin Gadkari last week,two-three days before the elections,and secured the much-needed support. The message flowed to the state unit and the MLAs fell in line. Yeddyurappa,however,did made it known that the BJP supported him on the directions of the central leadership.

In Judge Kumars court

JUSTICE D V Shylendra Kumar,better known as the blogger judge,appears to have many friends both in the bar and the bench. Only last week,while hearing a case against him filed by Karnataka HC Chief Justice P D Dinakaran,the judge,Justice Deepak Verma,fondly remembered how whenever he visited Bangalore,he would stop over at Justice Kumars residence and have coffee. Even Dinakarans counsel,who was arguing against Kumar,recalled him as his classmate.

Meiras Bihar bogey

WONDER what Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar did soon after Congress president Sonia Gandhi named Mahboob Ali Kaiser as the new president of the Bihar Congress? She planted a pair of pine trees in the Parliament House complex. On the face of it,the occasion was her completing one year in office. But the subtle message underlining the move was hopefully not lost on the party leadership. Kumar is wary of the Bihar party presidency and wanted the high command to know that she was happy in her current position. However,the threat of her being thrown into the rough and tumble of electioneering in the poll-bound state is far from over,with some leaders demanding that the Speaker be projected as the Congresss chief ministerial candidate. Time for Kumar to devise a clearer signal for the high command?

Turning the tide

IT MAY have emerged a winner against Pakistans foreign consultants on the Baglihar project,using the services of Indian experts and legal counsel,but India was put in a bind by Pakistan over referring the Kishanganga project to the international court of arbitration. With Pakistan nominating two Europeans as its nominees for arbitrators,India apprehended that nominating Indian nationals as its arbitrators would give Pakistan a handle to claim partiality after the verdict. Not taking any chances,India also opted to nominate two Europeans as its arbitrators for the international court of arbitration on Kishanganga.

Party above all

CONGRESS leaders in the Union Cabinet are known to take their party responsibility more seriously than their ministership,and New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah learnt it the hard way last week. Having gone out of his way to provide funds from his ministry to a pet project of Rural Development Minister C P Joshi in Rajasthan,Abdullah expected Joshi to grace the occasion for one of his ministrys functions last week. However,Joshi,who is the Rajasthan PCC chief,ignored the personal invitation from Abdullah,choosing to instead camp in Jaipur to garner support for Independent candidate Santosh Bagrodia in the just-concluded Rajya Sabha elections after Congress the threw its weight behind him. Its a different matter that Joshis presence in Jaipur did not make much difference to the fortunes of Bagrodia.

Rly boards,& a familiar track

DESPITE the tall claims of having cleaned up the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs),even replacing all RRB Chairmen in one go in November last year in an overnight exercise,Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee was left embarrassed when a fresh scam erupted in the Mumbai RRB last week. But true to her ways,Mamata chose not to utter a single word on the scam,even as her PR machinery pushed home the point that the Mumbai RRB Chairman had been suspended and that any other officials,if found responsible,would be dealt with severely. Meanwhile,with the latest scam having forced the ministry to postpone a forthcoming All India RRB exam to recruit Enquiry cum Reservation Clerks and Goods Guards,Mamatas next move on RRBs will be closely watched.

CABE no-show

THE Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) prides itself on its diverse representation,with state education ministers,educationists and artistes on board. But the 57th meeting of the countrys apex education body on Saturday failed to reflect the same,with those in the artist/social activist category largely giving it a miss. While almost all state education ministers spent the day brainstorming on education,the likes of lyricist Javed Akhtar,educationist Vinod Raina,activist Teesta Setalvad,Mahasweta Devi and some other well-known names failed to turn up.

The curious case of the Bhopal SP

SWARAJ Puri,the Bhopal Superintendent of Police at the time of the gas tragedy,who later rose to become DGP of the state,may have lost his post-retirement job in the Narmada Valley Development Authority in the wake of the current controversy,but until a few years back he was trying hard to get a Ashok Chakra for his efforts in tackling the emergency. Its believed that Puri had approached the Centre to be considered for this peacetime gallantry award as he went about rescue efforts without even a proper gas mask. He apparently also claimed that because of this exposure,he has had to endure long-term ramifications on his personal health. However,he seemed to have failed to convince the authorities as his contention was politely turned down. Puri,incidentally,was the one to arrest Warren Anderson and later had to find ways to let him go.