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Safety first
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee plays it safe, when it’s about flying. Recently when his helicopter took off from Dum Dum Airport in Kolkata for election campaign in interior parts of West Bengal, Dada noticed that a plastic sheet had got stuck in the blades. He immediately ordered the pilot to ground. The chopper took off only after the sheet was removed. After Andhra Pradesh CM YSR Reddy and Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorje Khandu death in separate helicopter crash, Congress leaders are playing safe, literally.
Who after Mamata?
The West Bengal Assembly elections are still on, but Rail Bhawan has already started speculating about replacement to Mamata Banerjee, who expects to the don the Chief Ministerial cap a few days from now. Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy is frontrunner, even as names of junior Ministers Prof Saugata Roy and Dinesh Trivedi and Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay are doing the rounds.
Rao for US?
Nirupama Rao who is to retire on July 31 after the completion of two-year term in as India’s Foreign Secretary may take Meera Shankar’s job and head to Washington as the Indian Ambassador in USA. The term of the incumbent Indian Ambassador to USA is coming to an end in July. Nirupama Rao, who served in several capacities including Minister of Press Affairs in Washington, is keeping her fingers crossed as a final call is to be made by PMO. Rao got an extension last December till July 2011 has been much appreciated for her work and in improving Indo-US ties.
Unhappy babus
The spate of transfers in Ministry of External Affairs has not gone down well with the mandarins of the South Block. According to Grapevine, none of the officers affected by the reshuffle are happy with the allotment of work. The ministry recently moved Rajiv K Chander, a 1983-batch IFS officer, from the Gulf & Haj division to the SAARC division. He has been replaced by AR Ghanshyam, who held the Joint Secretary post in the United Nations Economic Social (UNES) division till recently. TS Tirumurti has been shifted from the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka-Myanmar-Maldives (BSM) division to UNES division. Tirumurti has been replaced by Harsh Vardhan Shringla. Shringla was earlier working in the United Nations (Political) division. He has been replaced by Pavan Kapoor who was heading the SAARC division.
No rose show for Raja
Sources close to former Telecom Minister A Raja say their leader misses the ongoing world famous Rose Show conducted annually in his constituency Nilagiri. For the past three years, Raja and his “co-conspirator” in the spectrum scam, were the main organisers of the panoramic flower show. In his hey days, Raja even spent the entire day during the show. But all that is past. Raja’s life is now limited to Tihar jail and Patiala court, leaving him only to reminisce the good old days during the Rose Show.
Headless Women’s Commission
For the past one month, the National Commission for Women is headless after its chairperson Girija Vyas’ tenure expired. Several Mahila Congress leaders are ready to offer their services to this coveted post. But there is a catch. The chairperson of NCW is under the Minister of State for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath whereas the aspirants want Cabinet Rank like other Commissions such as Minority, Backward Class and SC/ST and not willing to work under “so junior” Tirath. Grapevine has it that there was even an order issued (later frozen) to appoint veteran Congress MP Chandresh Kumari as the chairperson of the NCW. But she also refused to take up the assignment because of “ ego” issue.
Long wait
It has been over a year since the CRPF DG K Vijay Kumar took over as the boss of the world’s biggest paramilitary force after the audacious Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh in which 76 personnel of the force were killed. But Kumar has not interacted with the beat correspondents so far. When asked why the CRPF boss is reluctant to meet the journos, public relations officials of the CRPF said he will do so when the paramilitary does something big against the ultra-Left extremists. Scribes are left with no option but to wait for the moment that seems to linger on forever.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee plays it safe, when it’s about flying. Recently when his helicopter took off from Dum Dum Airport in Kolkata for election campaign in interior parts of West Bengal, Dada noticed that a plastic sheet had got stuck in the blades. He immediately ordered the pilot to ground. The chopper took off only after the sheet was removed. After Andhra Pradesh CM YSR Reddy and Arunachal Pradesh CM Dorje Khandu death in separate helicopter crash, Congress leaders are playing safe, literally.
Who after Mamata?
The West Bengal Assembly elections are still on, but Rail Bhawan has already started speculating about replacement to Mamata Banerjee, who expects to the don the Chief Ministerial cap a few days from now. Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy is frontrunner, even as names of junior Ministers Prof Saugata Roy and Dinesh Trivedi and Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay are doing the rounds.
Rao for US?
Nirupama Rao who is to retire on July 31 after the completion of two-year term in as India’s Foreign Secretary may take Meera Shankar’s job and head to Washington as the Indian Ambassador in USA. The term of the incumbent Indian Ambassador to USA is coming to an end in July. Nirupama Rao, who served in several capacities including Minister of Press Affairs in Washington, is keeping her fingers crossed as a final call is to be made by PMO. Rao got an extension last December till July 2011 has been much appreciated for her work and in improving Indo-US ties.
Unhappy babus
The spate of transfers in Ministry of External Affairs has not gone down well with the mandarins of the South Block. According to Grapevine, none of the officers affected by the reshuffle are happy with the allotment of work. The ministry recently moved Rajiv K Chander, a 1983-batch IFS officer, from the Gulf & Haj division to the SAARC division. He has been replaced by AR Ghanshyam, who held the Joint Secretary post in the United Nations Economic Social (UNES) division till recently. TS Tirumurti has been shifted from the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka-Myanmar-Maldives (BSM) division to UNES division. Tirumurti has been replaced by Harsh Vardhan Shringla. Shringla was earlier working in the United Nations (Political) division. He has been replaced by Pavan Kapoor who was heading the SAARC division.
No rose show for Raja
Sources close to former Telecom Minister A Raja say their leader misses the ongoing world famous Rose Show conducted annually in his constituency Nilagiri. For the past three years, Raja and his “co-conspirator” in the spectrum scam, were the main organisers of the panoramic flower show. In his hey days, Raja even spent the entire day during the show. But all that is past. Raja’s life is now limited to Tihar jail and Patiala court, leaving him only to reminisce the good old days during the Rose Show.
Headless Women’s Commission
For the past one month, the National Commission for Women is headless after its chairperson Girija Vyas’ tenure expired. Several Mahila Congress leaders are ready to offer their services to this coveted post. But there is a catch. The chairperson of NCW is under the Minister of State for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath whereas the aspirants want Cabinet Rank like other Commissions such as Minority, Backward Class and SC/ST and not willing to work under “so junior” Tirath. Grapevine has it that there was even an order issued (later frozen) to appoint veteran Congress MP Chandresh Kumari as the chairperson of the NCW. But she also refused to take up the assignment because of “ ego” issue.
Long wait
It has been over a year since the CRPF DG K Vijay Kumar took over as the boss of the world’s biggest paramilitary force after the audacious Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh in which 76 personnel of the force were killed. But Kumar has not interacted with the beat correspondents so far. When asked why the CRPF boss is reluctant to meet the journos, public relations officials of the CRPF said he will do so when the paramilitary does something big against the ultra-Left extremists. Scribes are left with no option but to wait for the moment that seems to linger on forever.
