Race Course Road/The Sunday Standard/June 12, 2011

UPA II in a tizzy over transparency

For the UPA government, transparency is the new survival mantra. Defence Minister A K Antony’s credibility eclipsed that of his colleagues when he said the nation was going through a transparency revolution. Antony is perceived as both the face and voice of the Congress Establishment. Simultaneously, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh directed the cabinet secretary to issue a six-page circular to all ministers asking them to declare not only their moveable and immovable assets but also their interests in corporate entities, if any. This isn’t the first time. It is a routine question after budget sessions of Parliament, but has been met with indifference or partial compliance reports. The administration blocked all RTI queries on ministerial assets. The PMO put their assets list on the Government website. According to insiders, the new order came after civil society leaders made their assets public. Ironically, most ministerial declarations are near-repeats of what they submitted to the Election Commission in 2009. The Government’s competitive transparency has now irked chief ministers and their cabinet colleagues. The political class is now desperately seeking lawyers and chartered accountants to keep their Assets and Liabilities Register in proper shape to avoid public ire but so far no one has declared imported cars or luxury palaces. They are also fuming over the leadership’s surrender to civil society leaders—whose own hunger for political harakiri is insatiable. Some ministers grumble in private that the time is not far away when they will be asked to make public their lunch and dinner menus too. Sonia and Manmohan would rather ride the transparency revolution even if means leaving others behind.

Alagiri brings back the aggression

The DMK wasn’t going to withdraw its support to the UPA government anyway. After M Karunanidhi’s emergency party meeting in Chennai last week, the party’s strategy now is to fight for their jailed leaders legally, and assert its authority in the Government. Lacking work in their own state, its ministers are spending more time in their offices. The Government got a taste of DMK’s veto power when the Empowered Group of Ministers on Petroleum Product Prices had to postpone a meeting following Fertilisers Minister M K Alagiri’s surprise intervention. The EGoM was to clear an increase in the prices of cooking gas, diesel, kerosene oil and petrol to offset losses of the state oil companies. But a 12th increase in less than a year would only add fuel to the fire of inflamed public opinion. The Centre raises over 18 per cent of its revenue from taxes on petroleum products. Pranabda and his market-friendly advisers don’t want the state to lose revenue or look for alternative sources to raise money. Alagiri spoilt the party by making it clear that the DMK wasn’t in favour of raising prices as it would have an adverse impact on fertiliser prices. Alagiri, who has been accused of ignoring his ministry, ambushed the prime minister by attending all Cabinet meetings and shooting off detailed letters on ministerial issues. Alagiri’s interference is the first visible bite of a wounded ally. No wonder, with one sun setting in the south, the other son is rising again in the Capital—and he has no skeletons in his cupboard.

NCP goes about its business

As the DMK asserts itself, the Nationalist Congress Party—another important UPA ally—is engaged in a war of nerves with the Congress leadership. With both Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Minister for Heavy Industry Praful Patel under attack from a section of the Congress, the NCP decided to take one step backward for two steps forward later. Their 12th anniversary celebration in Maharashtra was meant to be a gala affair but Pawar converted it into a sober political meet. He advised his daughter Supriya Sule—a Lok Sabha MP and Kanimozhi’s best friend—to keep a low profile. Pawar kept the Congress guessing by keeping quiet on Ramdev. His party also scored by formally demanding that the century-old Dadar Railway Station be renamed Chaityabhoomi Railway Station, which is associated with the Dalit messiah Baba Ambedkar. Pawar has also sent ominous signals to the Congress by cosying up to opposition leaders like the TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu.

Manmohan’s Baba hangover

On the face of it, the Government seems to be celebrating the abortion of the Ramdev movement. In private, it is scurrying to unearth moles within the establishment who were leaking confidential information on Operation Baba. The PMO is baffled by how the media was informed about the supposedly secret airport visit of the four ministers accompanied by senior bureaucrats to meet Ramdev, something he had decided only that morning. They were instructed to send him back from the airport itself. Pranabda was furious at the presence of TV vans and journalists . He escaped the cameras, but other ministers and babus couldn’t duck. An angry Pranabda asked the IB chief about the leakage. The hapless intelligence chief is in no position to disclose information as it involves a Union minister. According to IB sources, a cellphone call from a minister to the media was the leak and the PMO was briefed about it. Meanwhile, the police failure to monitor Baba’s movements after midnight has worried the home ministry. Once the police swooped down on the dais, Baba disappeared and was untraceable for nearly two hours. They caught him later, but imagine what could have happened had the Baba got away!

Snippets / Mail Today, June 28, 2010

These babus neither tire nor retire

LIKE old soldiers, retired bureaucrats don’t pass on, but unlike them, former babus don’t fade away. Many are getting resurrected as MPs, ministers or in some cases political advisers, cosying up to the powers that be, at the Centre or the states. Quite a few of them are turning out to be the cause of friction in the parties which adopted them and none more so than Pyari Mohan Mahapatra, the former IAS officer and now Rajya Sabha MP of the Biju Janata Dal ( BJD), and N. K. Singh , the former finance secretary whom Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar sent to the Upper House as a JD( U) MP.

Last year, Mahapatra, who is said to be Naveen Patnaik’s chief strategist, played a key role in pulling the BJD out of the NDA and, if the grapevine is to be believed, Singh is doing the same in Bihar. Reports suggest that Singh is the cause of the rift in the JD( U)- BJP tie up which is almost a decade- and- a- half old.

It is said that Singh, a networker par excellence who counts the Ambani brothers, Sunil Mittal, Praful Patel and the like among his close friends, is acting at the behest of a senior Congress minister who wants to bring the Congress and the JD( U) closer before the state assembly elections later this year.

If true, Mahapatra and Singh are merely following in the footsteps of their predecessors, some of whom have caused immense embarrassment to the parties that inducted them into politics.
Nitish Sengupta, a former revenue secretary, joined the Trinamool Congress in 1999 and successfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Contai in West Bengal, but Mamata Banerjee had to show him the door after he tried to sabotage TC- BJP ties.

Among JD( U) and BJD cadres in Bihar and Orissa, there is immense resentment over the disruptive tendencies of these retirees and it will come as no surprise if both find their wings clipped in the not too distant future.

Get ready for Alagiri’s yankee- style makeover

HE WAS seen as someone who was in the cabinet only because his father, M. Karunanidhi’s clout in the UPA is second only to its chairperson Sonia Gandhi. He was mocked as an ignoramus who knew nothing about the important portfolios that he handled, fertilisers and chemicals, and for his inability to connect with anybody outside his Madurai constituency because he could understand no language other than his native Tamil.

His record of truancy in office and in cabinet meetings rivalled that of the temperamental Mamata Banerjee. But M. K. Alagiri, the eldest of the Tamil patriarch’s politically ambitious children is undergoing a sudden and rapid transformation that would make his critics blush if they had any shame.

He skipped the inauguration of the World Tamil Conference in Coimbatore last week, where he was to have inaugurated the book fair, and was the only DMK minister who attended the Empowered Group of Ministers meeting on Bhopal.

Papa Kalaignar has apparently told him that he must either take his duties as a minister seriously or stay away from politics altogether. The underlying message to Alagiri is that he will no more dabble in politics at the state level which is the domain of his younger brother, M. K. Stalin.

Last week, Alagiri sought and got permission from the Prime Minister’s Office for a fortnight’s leave to take his mother, Dayalu Ammal, to the US for medical treatment. Alagiri will be off in the first week of July and will return well before the Parliament’s monsoon session begins.
That will give him enough time to brush up on Rapid English Speaking lessons that he is said to be taking. When the session starts on July 26, we may be in a for a surprise: a dapper Alagiri, shedding his trademark mundu- shirt for a safari suit and replying to questions in Queen’s English.

THE second extension that K. M. Chandrashekhar got as cabinet secretary last month was said to be due to the need for continuity in view of the Commonwealth Games that Delhi is to host in October. But with tales of shady deals going on at the Organising Committee( OC), he is said to be having second thoughts on the extension. There is nothing that happens in the OC without someone being on the take and if a few upright ones decide to spill the beans, it would take nothing less than a joint parliamentary committee to unearth the magnitude of the plunder.

Recently, the CabSec himself had to intervene after the secretary in the ministry of sports accused the Delhi Police of forcibly taking away food packets meant for officials at the test events in archery, wrestling, boxing and tennis.

Special commissioner of the Delhi Police Neeraj Kumar was incensed. He refuted the charges saying the police had organised food for its force on duty at Rs 25 per packet and threw the ball right back at the OC by offering to pay the shortfall if the OC produced bills to show exactly how much it had paid the caterers.

This is just loose change. My hunch is that the gigantic scale of this ConWealth Games will emerge only after the event is over. A. Raja will then look like a saint.

Snippets / Mail Today, May 10, 2010

Curious ‘ illness’ of absent MPs

MORE ON Parliament. There is much that is going wrong and MPs absenteeism is only one of them. There are some who get elected and haven’t seen the inside of the House, others don’t attend sessions for weeks together. Technically, any member who remains absent for 60 days or more without permission forfeits his seat, but it is seldom that the Parliamentary Committee on Absence resorts to the harsh step. A cursory glance at the report submitted to the Lok Sabha speaker by the Committee on Absence makes for interesting reading. While applying for leave, MPs have to detail the number of days for which leave is being sought and the reasons. Shibu Soren who never attended a sitting said he was ill while seeking leave from November 19, 2009 to December 12, 2009 and again from Feb 22, 2010 to March 23, 2010.

But he continued with his duties as the Jharkand chief minister in Ranchi and turned up in the Lok Sabha to bail out the government on the finance bill cut motion. As with most things about Soren, this too was bizarre as he was an ally of the BJP in Jharkand. He was granted leave for a total of 56 days. K Chandrasekhar Rao of the Telengana Rashtriya Samiti applied for leave from Nov 19,2009 to Dec 21, 2009 and then again from Feb 22, 2010 to March 16,2010, a total of 56 days.

His application clearly stated that he was on a hunger strike for a separate state of Telengana and the CoA agreed to give him leave. Soren’s party colleague Kameshwar Baitha was in jail for 33 days, leave granted. Kabir Suman ( Trinamool) claimed illness to take 20 days off but during the period, newspapers reported extensively on the Maoist sympathiser’s public activities. Neither sarkari babus nor even school children would have had it so easy.

The return of the prodigal minister

IS THE irrepressible Alagiri turning over a new leaf? It’s not just the DMK leaders, but even other MPs seem to think so and the evidence is plenty. It now transpires that after Alagiri raised the banner of revolt by vowing to contest for the post of Chief Minister and president of the DMK once his father calls it a day, M Karunanidhi decided to crack the whip and a disciplinary notice was even drafted.

Alagiri got wind of this and knew that if the party suspended him, DMK MPs and MLAs who swore by him would desert him, making younger brother MK Stalin, the undisputed successor. Big brother was convinced that the succession battle would be fought on a level playing field only if stayed within the party.

Besides, the booty from the highly lucrative ministries that are in his charge would also come in handy to fight the cash rich Stalin. Once his aides tipped him off on disciplinary action, Alagiri flew into Delhi from Madurai, attended a cabinet meeting, sat through an entire day's proceedings in the Lok Sabha and even began attending office for three hours every day.
He also seems to be taking rapid English lessons because the man who spoke nothing but his native Tamil is suddenly talking, even if in monosyllables sometimes, in English. But what surely takes the vada is this: in front of many MPs in Central Hall last week, he called to one of the canteen bearers and asked him " Aaj Kya Kya Hein Menu Mein?" Even as those around him wondered how he had overnight managed to master the national language, Alagiri pulled out a piece of paper from his shirt pocket and held it aloft for everyone to see the question in Hindi written in the Tamil script.
There were chuckles all around which turned into loud laughter when one of the MPs remarked that even national leaders routinely read out Hindi speeches written in the Roman script.

LATE last year, Cabinet Sectretary KM Chandrashekhar who is quite net savvy and an ardent votary of e- governance sent memos to secretaries of all departments about the pathetic quality of the government websites. They were pathetic in terms of design, accessibility, quality and currency of content, all of which were compounded by the obsolete technology that was used. “ Today, websites are considered the virtual face of the Department in cyber space… and must accurately reflect the Department's activities and initiatives in the real world as well as offer more and more services online” his note said and asked all department Secretaries to nominate senior officers at Additional Secretary or Joint Secretary level who would ensure up- to- date and high quality content on the websites as well as ensure timely response on queries received through websites.

He has now gone a step further and has decided to give incentives to the ministries/ departments than maintain the best websites. The National Informatics Centre maintains more than 450 websites relating to virtually any government department or organisation and a new software developed by NIC translates all contents into about 85 foreign languages. Prizes will be given away in November this year and the winner stands to gain a prize of one lakh rupees. As the prime minister very graciously put in recently, " e- tarakki" is a major achievement of both the NDA and UPA governments.

Snippets / Mail Today, April 26, 2010

The case of the missing ministers

THERE are some people whose actions — or lack of it — never cease to amaze. M. K. Alagiri, the Union fertilisers’ minister and the DMK supremo M. Karunaidhi’s son is one such. He is an embarrassment to the UPA government, but since he has a doting father, there is nothing Manmohan Singh or Sonia Gandhi can do but grin and bear the nuisance. Last week, he again caused red faces in the government by failing to turn up in Parliament for the question hour.
That he doesn’t attend cabinet meetings, even when matters concerning his department are up for discussion, is well known. Alagiri of course is not the only one. Mamata’s truancy is legendary as is A. Raja’s and so many other ministers, all belonging to alliance parties.

Some months ago, the India Today magazine had invoked the RTI to find out the attendance record at cabinet meetings after we learnt that at some sittings, it was less than 50 per cent. Our request was thrown out, almost as if we were seeking a state secret. In December, Sonia Gandhi had sent a missive to Congress MPs after the question hour in the Lok Sabha fell through one morning because of lack of quorum. Delinquency among ministers and MPs is nothing new but is rising alarmingly by the day. The latter can be dealt with by their respective party chief whips, but who is to rein in delinquent ministers? In the current coalition setup, the Prime Minister does not have the power to change even a junior level assistant to a minister from an alliance partner.

What is worrying in all this is that in a parliamentary democracy, collective responsibility reigns. What happens to the concept of collective responsibility if half the cabinet is on perpetual leave? The people have a right to know what their ministers are up to. The cabinet secretary would do the country a great favour if, after every cabinet meeting, his secretariat issues a circular that tells us who attended and who did not. The people will then know about the rotten apples.

Lotus fails to bloom in the Delhi heat

SINCE its ouster from power six years ago, the BJP has been bumbling from one blunder to another. The election of its youngest president hasn’t changed its fortunes and the litany of disasters continues. Last week’s anti- inflation rally in the Capital was the latest. It was to have been the party’s biggest rally in the Capital in more than a decade and was meant to signal the main opposition party’s new found vigour and a fresh offensive against the government.

That it turned out to be a damp squib was partly because it was ill- timed and partly because the well- planned but badly executed event was overtaken by other events. The party had threatened to unleash one million protesters on the Capital’s streets, but on the day, less than two lakh turned up. The reason was that in its catchment areas of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the party faithful were too busy harvesting. The oppressive heat in Delhi ensured that barring the hardcore, its substantial middle class supporters in the Capital stayed indoors. The party had hoped that the rally will monopolise TV airtime and print space, but thanks to Lalit Modi, the only pictures that newspapers carried and the only clips news channels showed were that of the party chief Nitin Gadkari, unable to bear the scorching sun, fainting towards the end of his speech and being helped to his feet by party colleagues who put wet towels on his overheated head.

The Delhi summer could take its toll on the fittest of men. But the sight of the man, who was brought in to inject fresh life into the party, collapsing, while others around him including 83- year- old Advani braved it out, has done no good to the morale of the party.

IN NORMAL times, the visit could have been dubbed as just one more foreign jaunt by another bunch of babus. But next week’s tour to Australia by a team led by Arun Mathur, director ( Enforcement) at the department of revenue, has attracted unusual attention from both the top echelons of the government and the corporate world. For the record, they will be participating in a meeting organised by the Financial Actions Task Group ( FATG) to monitor real- time money laundering by suspected terror outfits and drug smugglers.

India is just an observer for such meetings and has been lobbying hard for formal membership of the FATG. For the past week, the ministry of finance has been in a tizzy over Mathur’s agenda at the FATG. The government is already under attack for not making serious efforts to track the black money which is stashed in Swiss banks. The goings on in the IPL has added another dimension to the visit. The government is mulling over whether IPL should be added to Mathur’s agenda. It fears that if it does and gets a negative report, the entire investigative process will collapse. Thus, there is a suggestion for detailed but informal discussions with the top brass of the FATG before proceeding further. The government wants to be cautious now rather than regret later.

Snippets/ Mail Today, October 12, 2009

Just what should we do with MK Alagiri?

CABINET secretary KM Chandrashekhar may have found a way to deal with truant babus, but who will tame truant ministers? MK Alagiri has raised the truancy bar to new heights. It’s almost five months since he took charge of three very important departments as the minister for chemicals, petrochemicals and fertilisers, yet his attendance in office has been abysmal and important files are piling up.

Though there are two secretaries to assist him — Bijoy Chatterjee in chemicals and petrochemicals and Atul Chaturvedi in fertilisers — the minister is in dread of meeting them. The reason: communication problem. Alagiri speaks only Tamil and both secretaries do not understand the language.

Being senior officers, they are not going to let the simple matter of language come in the way of effective governance. One of them even wrote to the cabinet secretary to say that he had not seen his minister for over two months while the other is biding his time in office waiting for Alagiri to show up. Recently, the minister skipped the meeting of the 13th Finance Commission where he was to present the fertiliser ministry’s projections.

He also gave the go- by to the meeting of the apex body of industry on fertiliser imports. It is no secret that Alagiri’s heart lies in matters relating to the DMK. Sources in the DMK say that Alagiri has held out twin threats: either he be assigned secretaries who speak Tamil. If that is not possible, he wants to be reassigned to Tamil Nadu. Most would say the latter is the better option.

But until either happens, a lot of important work will continue to be held up. But on the flip side, consider this. The minister isn’t around, the official cars are lying idle, the lights and the airconditioners have never been switched on in his office. That’s a lot of saving on petrol and energy bills. That’s austerity Alagiri style.

RAHUL Gandhi’s well- meaning forays, often unscheduled, into the hinterland are turning out to be a nightmare for his security men. Even senior Congress leaders are beginning to get worried. On his visit to Kerala last week, he took off unannounced on three different occasions, sending the SPG and the local police into a tizzy. On such occasions, policemen do get anxious, even irritated, just like you or me would if a son or a daughter stayed out late. In Kozhikode, he suddenly stepped out at night for a stroll on the beach leaving an anxious state police officer to ask another “ Where is our friend hanging around now?” It was an innocuous query. But it was picked up by the police wireless and soon the Youth Congress was seeking the officer’s suspension. What are police officers supposed to do? Particularly when someone like Rahul disregards their advice, skips their cover and simply vanishes. I am reminded of the time when during his prime ministership, Rajiv Gandhi — an ex- Indian Airlines pilot — wanted to take command of the special IAF plane that was flying him. The SPG chief, who was on board, politely but firmly vetoed him. It’s time BV Wanchoo, the current SPG chief, did some plain speaking to Rahul.

How to hold on to Diwali bonanza

AFTER a long hot and tiring summer, there is finally a nip in the air. It’s that time of the year when ministers, senior bureaucrats, income tax officers and sundry PAs get ready to receive fatcat businessmen with big hearts and deep pockets. Biz czars see Diwali as the ideal time to line pockets as an investment for the future. A bureaucrat friend told me recently that in Delhi alone, gifts worth several hundreds of crores are distributed by corporates, real estate tycoons, big stock market players and such like during the festive season.

The good times may just be over. Last week, the government announced that henceforth all gifts valued above Rs 50,000 will be taxable for the receiver unless the donor is a relative or gifts are given during special occasions such as marriage. Bureaucrats and others who were used to their annual festive time stimulus package are naturally seething with rage because their loss is enormous.

Time was when babus were happy with a suit length, a bottle of Black Label and couple of kilos of dry fruits. Now moneybags are known to hand out imported cars and penthouse apartments. Previously such gifts were exempted from tax. That’s why I doff my hat to Mayawati who admits her rags to riches transformation to the donations in “ small change” from millions across the country.

Yet I believe it won’t be long before they find a way out of this one. For one, who will decide on the value of the gifts? In the past, it was easier to put a price on gifts. But at a time when a Mercedes comes free on purchase of a penthouse apartment, the task of putting a price on a gift is not easy. A plasma TV whose value you or me may declare as Rs 50,000 may be only worth a tenth of that to the brazen babu. So trust them to find a loophole here. My hunch is that despite Pranab da ’s diktat, most of them will remain unscathed.