Power & Politics/ The Sunday Standard /October 23, 2011

CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME, AND
POSITIVISM MUST FLOW FROM THE PMO

Even a great leader of high personal integrity who doesn’t practice what he preaches is bound to carry very little conviction and credibility with the people. On Saturday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pleaded with 25-odd chief ministers to “guard against the mood of negativism that seems to have gripped the country”. For most of them, the sermon was salt on wounds inflicted by the Centre. Three of them took the UPA to task for its negative attitude towards their states and imposing “fascist legislation”. Manmohan queered the pitch. While UPA ministers and Congress chief ministers ignored his remarks, the rest were assertive in placing the blame on the UPA’s doorstep for being confrontationist and for targeting non-Congress governments and leaders.

Negativism begets negativism. For the past seven years, the UPA hasn’t built a consensus on any national issue. It has conceived and planned schemes and policies that have shaken the very foundation of Indian democracy’s federal character. Both fiscal and social sector policies involving MGNREGA, national highways, Value Added Tax, environment and forest clearances, higher education expansion, power generation projects, etc have been designed in such a way that state governments are finding it difficult to sustain their growth momentum. If a power project is cleared by a state, the coal ministry finds it extremely difficult to allocate coal. If a new airport is proposed, the Environment Ministry makes life miserable for the promoters with inane objections. Furthermore, most legislations adopted by state governments are held up for years either by governors or at the Centre. Some governors, in states like Gujarat, Orissa and Karnataka, have been needling their state governments on one pretext or the other, while encouraging dissidence. At the Centre, the UPA has been at war with the Opposition. Using technical objections, its members didn’t allow the Public Accounts Committee to finish its reports, a tactic also used by the Congress in Goa.

Approval for over a dozen laws, duly passed by the Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar Assemblies is pending with either the governor or the President. Instead of offering a sympathetic ear, the Centre hasn’t responded to numerous requests from various chief ministers for special packages. For example, even special resolutions passed by Orissa and Bihar, seeking special assistance, haven’t been properly considered. On the other hand, Manmohan and his ministers don’t take a minute to announce significant financial assistance to their regional allies. It is due to the Central leadership’s unresponsive attitude that most chief ministers have stopped visiting Delhi. Instead, they operate through their civil servants. Manmohan, who rarely visits the states, has hardly made any extra gesture to fly to any of the non-Congress ruled states to help resolve their problems.

If most states are peeved with the Centre for its negative vibes, so are the leaders of civil society and constitutional bodies. Recently, Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai was subjected to a vicious smear campaign for his bold reports on the 2G scam and other financial irregularities. This immediately prompted attempts to dig for dirt in his past record. Expecting a strong reaction, it was left to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to defend Rai. Most despicable is the vicious campaign against civil society leaders, from Baba Ramdev to Kiran Bedi. Various agencies were unleashed to snoop out every hole in their closets for hidden wealth and secret documents. It was the worst kind of political butchery of the civil society movement; instead of reading the message, the Government and its megaphones shot the messengers. But it failed miserably. If the corporate sector is unable to perform today, it is not due to negative feelings against the Government. Not one of them is sure of getting clearances on time. For one Union minister who helps the industry, there are at least two who are out to torpedo their colleagues. Legislation on both sports and manufacturing policy fell through because of the static of negativity within the Prime Minister’s office.

If Manmohan is determined to create a positive environment for better governance and healthy democracy, he and his colleagues have to be more tolerant and less abrasive. The might of the state may maim and incapacitate a few individuals, but this generates such a negative force that can lead to much more catastrophic results. Let the Prime Minister begin the charity of positivity from his own home. He may, then, find many others walking the extra mile.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com

Race Course Road/ The Sunday Standard Magazine/October 09, 2011

Manmohan can depend on well-treated CMs

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may not be able to handle some of his recalcitrant ministers, but his equation with the chief ministers is rather smooth and cordial. With more than half of them belonging to non-Congress parties, the PMO deals with them with extra care. Indeed, the Prime Minister has evolved a special mechanism which ensures a prompt response to any communication from a chief minister. V Narayanswamy, Minister of State in the PMO, has been assigned the task of going through the letters and suggesting appropriate response, both political and administrative. The special attention is not surprising, considering that some of the chief ministers not only control their own party, but are also in a position to destabilise the Government at the Centre. And it’s these very chief ministers who prefer to deal with the Prime Minister directly even on matters which don’t come under his direct charge. Unlike most of the BJP and Congress chief ministers who prefer to deal with the ministers concerned, Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, J Jayalalithaa, Naveen Patnaik, Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi talk only to the man at the top. But there are differences even among these ‘special correspondents’. While Patnaik, Nitish and Modi write rarely, the Prime Minister is flooded with letters from Jayalalithaa and Mayawati, almost on a weekly basis. Both of them raise fundamental issues like security and poor availability of funds for Centrally-sponsored schemes. The flow of letters from Mayawati has substantially increased of late, with most of the letters being written keeping the forthcoming elections in mind. Sources at the PMO say while all the chief ministers get a quick response, the women chief ministers’ letters are dealt with at breakneck speed as they are the ones who raise the most demands and even try to influence foreign policy. All the hard work is paying off. The Prime Minister may be under attack from various quarters but the chief ministers have refrained from attacking him.

Rahul Cabinet Before Rahul PM?

While no one is speculating about any Cabinet expansion or reshuffle in the near future, there are a few well-connected political birdies who are twittering about significant changes in the composition and character of the Union Council of Ministers. Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh didn’t rule out the possibility while speaking to the media after the last reshuffle. With Sonia back and Rahul taking unusual interest in the functioning of the Government, the Congress leadership is seriously looking for a new-look Cabinet that will lead the party in the 2014 elections. Most of the ministers who are above 70 and have been in the Government for more than seven years are likely to be moved out. Over half a dozen young ministers will be given either independent charge or elevated to Cabinet level. Of the dozen-odd young ones, those with a rural base and who pose no threat to Rahul Gandhi will be given preference. Some of them have already been given the political responsibility of handling the election-bound states and are reporting directly to Rahul. In fact for many young ministers, all roads now lead to 12, Tughlak Lane, the official residence of the young Gandhi.

Back to Babulok For Manmohan

The Congress party appears to be visibly happy with the formal induction of Pulok Chatterjee as principal secretary to the Prime Minister. Chatterjee is not the youngest-ever principal secretary since the 1980s, he is also the first officer to return to the PMO as the most powerful civil servant after serving there at a junior level. He joined the PMO as joint secretary soon after Manmohan Singh took over as Prime Minister in 2004. Earlier, he served as private secretary to Sonia Gandhi when she was Leader of the Opposition and dealt with Manmohan Singh who was then Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Chatterjee is known as much for his high personal integrity and efficiency as his loyalty to the Gandhis. As the returning officer for Amethi Constituency, he created a flutter in bureaucratic circles for standing up when Rajiv Gandhi came in to file his nomination for the Lok Sabha elections in 1981. Given that he enjoys the confidence of Sonia, the party expects the relationship between the Government and the party to improve with his coming. Along with Chatterjee, the Prime Minister has also brought in some other officials. One is his former private secretary B V R Subramanyam, who returns to the PMO as a joint secretary. He replaces Vini Mahajan, who was in the news for receiving a controversial note from the finance ministry on 2G scam. The Prime Minister has also brought in two young IAS officers from his home state of Punjab and Assam, his political habitat. With the politicians letting him down, the Prime Minister needs to depend on his babus to survive the remaining term.

Pulok Will Start From the Top

One of Pulok Chatterjee’s top priorities will be finding the right people for filling the posts of secretaries. By the end of this year, over half a dozen senior secretaries, including Secretary, Commerce, Steel and Health, will have either retired or be retiring soon. His predecessor TKA Nair stopped processing his files once he knew Chatterjee was to join. Last week, Raghu Menon, Secretary, Information and Broadcasting, retired. Since the PMO was unable to fill in the vacancy in time, an additional secretary was given charge for couple of days. The delay was due to political leadership’s inability to arrive at a consensus. Since the I&B Ministry is likely to play an important role during the next few months, Minister Ambika Soni wants an officer who has no political affiliations and can help her project the correct image of the government. According to procedure, it is the PMO which chooses a person to fill a post of a secretary and merely consults the minister concerned. Manmohan Singh had extended the courtesy to the minister to make the first move. But with Chatterjee’s induction, the PMO is bound to have the last word on all senior-level appointments.

Race Course Road/The Sunday Standard Magazine, October 2, 2011

Sonia Leaves Cabinet Illness to the Doctor

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may pooh pooh all charges of growing dissension within his Cabinet, but the conduct of his senior colleagues leaves little to the imagination. Most are not on speaking terms; they communicate only during Cabinet meetings or through written notes opposing each other. Last week, the Congress party was pushed into a corner when a note written by a junior finance ministry official—concerning Home Minister P Chidambaram and spectrum pricing—to the Prime Minister was leaked. Both Manmohan and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee made all the right noises defending Chidambaram. Pranabda even called his “valued colleague” Chidambaram from the US, as well as from New Delhi after he returned, but apparently did not have the inclination or time for a face-to-face meeting. He refused to make any statement on the note, even as other ministers and Congress functionary came out openly in the beleaguered home minister’s support. It was evident that even Congress President Sonia Gandhi is aware of the soured chemistry between the two UPA top guns. When matters careened out of control, she decided to play mediator. But Sonia discovered it would be calamitous to summon both to discuss the contentious note together. Perhaps she knew confabulations would be impossible with both Mukherjee and Chidambaram present at the same meeting. She didn’t want a third party around either. So, she decided to listen to each one individually. It is not clear whether Sonia was already in possession of the voluminous correspondence between the PMO and the finance ministry on the issue because both Chidambaram and Pranabda spent hardly 20 minutes each with her. It was their first meeting with Sonia after her surgery. According to insiders, both exchanged pleasantries with her and gave a short brief on the controversy. Chidambaram insisted that the finance ministry take some sort of action to remove the cloud of suspicion hanging over him. But Pranabda did not budge. Instead, he sent a long letter to the PMO supporting his ministry. Sensing a major confrontation, Sonia has now left it to the Prime Minister to clean up the mess and restrain his ministers from washing dirty linen in public.

Steel frame on show in America

PMO officials were baffled to see former foreign secretary and now India’s ambassador to the US, Nirupama Rao, in New York during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit. Rao was not only present at the airport to welcome Manmohan, she also made it a point to attend all non-official functions held for the Prime Minister or External Affairs Minister S M Krishna. Normally, the Indian ambassador is not a part of India’s official UN delegation during the visit of the Prime Minister. Rao may not have contributed to the deliberations on Manmohan’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly, but she did provide gracious company to Gursharan Kaur, the Prime Minister’s wife. Rao sat next to her all through the Prime Minister’s speech. Along with her husband, Rao also checked into the same hotel in which other dignitaries were staying. She wasn’t the only senior Indian official hanging around in New York; around six Cabinet ministers also were present. Around half a dozen senior babus also found their way into Manhattan on one pretext or the other. It is evident that as the political leadership gets weaker, bureaucracy is regaining its steel frame once again.

Rahul sticks to comfort zone

Rahul Gandhi’s final destination may be 7 Race Course Road, but for the time being he has decided to stay away from India’s great plains after the rather rowdy welcome he received at a Delhi hospital following the High Court blasts. Instead, he has chosen to visit only those states which have Baba-friendly chief ministers. After keeping a low-profile for a few weeks, Rahul surfaced in Gangtok, Sikkim, last week to meet earthquake victims. Since he wasn’t entitled to official transport for what was a purely political visit, it was left to Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling to organise a helicopter for Rahul’s visit to the forward areas. Normally, the Prime Minister or Sonia Gandhi visits areas hit by natural calamities. Since neither could go, the Gandhi scion stood in. But Rahul sprang another surprise by landing in Srinagar without a formal programme. He visited the university in jeans and a kurta. He also followed the age-old Gandhi tradition of paying a visit to Hazratbal shrine. Rahul was the first Gandhi to go to the shrine after his father Rajiv visited Hazratbal in 1986. There is no record of Sonia ever having gone there. But Rahul wasn’t able to visit the Kheer Bhawani temple where his grandmother Indira Gandhi would pray without fail. But Rahul’s Kashmiri pedigree did help him in connecting with the local youth.

All leaks and no work in UPA

With the wicked leaks on the 2G Scam inflicting serious wounds on many UPA ministers, their babus have chosen to remain totally neutral and stay away from the corridors of power. For the past few weeks, no bureaucrat has sent any important file to their ministers for a decision, only routine files. Even senior secretaries have stopped looking at the Congress manifesto to draw up notes for legislation promised by the party. Over a dozen important ministers dealing with key social and infrastructure ministries haven’t been able to finalise a single note for the Cabinet to take a final call. Most of them don’t even go to work, visiting office only to meet important visitors. Chief ministers have stopped calling on Union ministers, including the Prime Minister, because they don’t get any response. Even the meetings of the Committee of Secretaries that handles inter-ministerial disputes have been rare as nothing is brought for discussion. The agenda for the Cabinet is shrinking faster than the image of the UPA government.

Race Course Road/The Sunday Standrad Magazine/September 25, 2011

PM's Frequently Flying Ministers Do NY Duty

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is known for unlimited levels of tolerance. So much so, that he allows his ministers not only to skip Cabinet meetings but also to derail one another. Bills and important economic decisions have been postponed because of vociferous objections from just one minister. Now, the Prime Minister has allowed colleagues to earn extra air miles by frequently travelling abroad on one pretext or the other. Last week, over half a dozen ministers were in the US on various official missions. Besides the Prime Minister himself, others spotted in New York include Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, Minister for Heavy Industry Praful Patel, Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who was present along with another member. A couple of senior government officials like Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon were also around. An official accompanying Manmohan joked: “Why should the Prime Minister appoint someone else to handle his responsibilities in his absence from Delhi, when all ministers are with him in the US?” Jokes apart, many ministers who aren’t even part of economic diplomacy have been merrily defying the Prime Minister’s advice to avoid unnecessary foreign travel; in June 2008, the PMO had issued a missive to all ministers in this regard. Obviously it has had no impact because the total government expense on foreign travel exceeds over `200 crore so far. Manmohan repeated this order again in August 2010, which has been ignored with even greater impunity. These frequent fliers are becoming a big headache for Indian diplomats, as they have to organise everything from cars to hotels. Hundered vehicles have been hired by our missions in the US to ferry powerful VPVIPs (Very Powerful Very Important Persons) so far. But the Prime Minister is helpless since he needs their support to stay on in office.

Suffering DMK Tries Solo Ride

If senior DMK insiders are to be believed, a frustrated M Karunanidhi, former Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK paterfamilias, has revived contact with Congress President Sonia Gandhi after her return from the US. But he hasn’t got a positive response about an early end to daughter K Kanimozhi’s woes yet. This has led him to question the UPA’s motives behind letting DMK ministers and leaders suffer, both at the Centre and in the state. He has joined the ranks of other allies who suspect the Congress is out to defame its regional partners by witch-hunting them. With over a dozen former ministers and MLAs in jail on charges of land grabbing, Karunanidhi appears to have lost all patience and is now willing to bite the bullet. His decision to dump the Congress in the Tamil Nadu Municipal Elections is meant to test the waters. If the DMK does fairly well, it will set the tone for finally ditching the UPA. Since Karunanidhi doesn’t expect any support from the Centre, he would like to further weaken the coalition led by Manmohan Singh.

Jaya Puts Manmohan to N-test

If ministers can dictate terms to the Prime Minister, powerful chief ministers can’t be far behind. After West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, it is the turn of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to show her political clout. And she hit the UPA where it hurts the most—a Russian-made nuclear energy plant in Tamil Nadu. It is for the first time that the Prime Minister’s resolve is being sorely tested in the southern state. In 2008, he risked his government for nuclear energy’s sake. Of late, many people have been rising in protest against the construction of N-plants in various parts of the country. These protests were promptly silenced. Apart from Tamil Nadu, in other states, too, all voices against setting up nuclear power plants were quelled through force—for example, Jaitapur in Maharashtra. But when villagers from Koodankoolam in Tamil Nadu went on a fast against nuclear power, not only did the state government support their demands but also refused to take any action. Jayalalithaa then demanded that work on the site be stopped and asked the Prime Minister to send one of his ministers to deal with the agitators. She hasn’t withdrawn her own objections to the plant. Now, the Nuclear Suppliers Group is watching the outcome of the standoff between the Prime Minister and the chief minister with great concern. The outcome will decide not only the future of many multinationals trading in power plants, only but also the Prime Minister’s control over the states.

Babus Deal With Yatra Fears

Though law and order is a state subject, it is the Central government which is losing its sleep over the series of political yatras beginning during festival season next month. According to known plans, nationwide yatras led by Anna Hazare, L K Advani and Baba Ramdev will criss-cross the country almost around the same time. The Prime Minister is worried about the fallout of at least two: the ones led by Ramdev and Advani. Since a major part of the yatra routes fall under states ruled by non-Congress governments, both the PMO and the home ministry are getting ready to gauge the political impact on both state elections and a possible realignment of political parties. Though it is Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth’s primary responsibility to coordinate the monitoring, it is Home Secretary R P Singh who has been entrusted with the job of collecting information and passing it on to the PMO and even to the chief ministers. Seth, as usual, seems to be satisfied with being the back room operator as he always has been. Unlike many of his predecessors, he doesn’t throw his weight around.

Race Course Road/ The Sunday Standared Magazine/ September 18, 2011

Manmohan Set to Fly, But who'll Play PM?

It’s quite amazing that many Union ministers are more interested in who will perform the duties of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he is out of India, rather than how is he doing at home. The Prime Minister is leaving for the US to attend the United Nations General Assembly session early this week. He will be away for almost a week. At the same time, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will also be in the US to attend the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Though there is no constitutional provision for an acting prime minister, it has always been Mukherjee, however, who calls emergency Cabinet meetings in Manmohan’s absence. Now with both away, various ministers are speculating on who will be authorised by Manmohan to stand in for him. According to convention, the Prime Minister nominates one of his Cabinet colleagues, in writing, to coordinate on his behalf with all other ministries, and preside over full Cabinet meetings to discuss and decide on matters of importance. So far, the finance minister was performing this role. Now the Prime Minister appears to be in a dilemma as he has to choose between Home Minister P Chidambaram and Defence Minister A K Antony. Since the Prime Minister’s decision has political implications for both the party and the Cabinet, he has to consult Congress President Sonia Gandhi before taking a final call. In normal circumstances Chidambaram would have been a normal choice. Since he was nominated as one of the four members of the committee to deal with political affairs during Sonia’s absence, the Prime Minister may find the decision justified. But Manmohan isn’t sure whether he will be able to meet Sonia before his departure. He also has the option of not nominating anyone, and leaving it open until a situation that needs a stand-in arises.

Will the CAG be gagged?

The Congress party already stands accused of subverting various constitutional institutions like the judiciary, the Chief Vigilance Commission and even the Election Commission of India. Now an attempt is being made to undermine the authority of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Vinod Rai, a 1972 batch IAS officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, has rubbed the ruling establishment the wrong way with his highly critical reports on 2G, Reliance, and CWG. He has made the CAG the country’s most feared and respected audit agency. Stung by Rai’s reports, a section of the ruling party is encouraging some of the smaller parties to mobilise MPs for moving an impeachment motion against him. Rai, who was appointed in 2008 has three more years to go and can be removed only with the consent of both Houses of Parliament. A legally correct representation is being drafted to collect at least 80 signatures, which is to be submitted for discussion during the Winter Session of the Lok Sabha. What angered the Congress was the CAG’s greed for excessive publicity and the premature leakage of some of its reports. Only extraordinary precautions taken by the Government ensured that the last two reports on Reliance and Air India didn’t find their way to the media until the last day of Parliament. However, some others smell an attempt to intimidate the CAG so that his reports don’t make headlines in the near future.

Uncle Sam trains India spooks

It’s surprising that both Indian and Pakistani counter-intelligence agencies are being trained by the US to tackle terrorism. Last week, American spooks concluded a two-week-long counter-terrorism programme at the Indian Detective Training School in Chandigarh. They trained agents how to decipher and decode digital evidence. The training was partnered by the US Embassy and the Home Ministry and led by US State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security under its Anti-terrorism Assistance (ATA) programme. Over two dozen officials from the National Investigation Agency and other covert organisations from the Indian Central and state police participated. More importantly, senior diplomats from the US Embassy, New Delhi, were allowed to address the Indian security establishment. The US has been conducting similar training sessions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Though the course was altered to fit Indian needs, the excessive access given to the US by the Indian counter-terrorism establishment has raised eyebrows, since the US has failed to contain terror emanating from Pakistan. Indian officials also suspect that it may use the information collected from India to its advantage in dealing with Pakistan.

Didi shows her might to Pranab

After snubbing the PMO by withdrawing from the Indian delegation to Bangladesh, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is now setting the tone for dealing with the next man in command at the Centre. According to the bureaucratic grapevine, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee wanted a particular junior officer from West Bengal to replace Manoj Pant, his private secretary in North Block who is due to retire soon. But when the name was sent to the chief minister for the final relieving orders, she decided to put it on hold. Suddenly, the concerned civil servant serving as a district collector in Birbhum had become indispensable to the state Government! The suspicious Banerjee was given the impression that the officer was being rewarded for services rendered to Abhijit Mukherjee, the finance minister’s son, who won the election from that district. If a section of the local Congress is to be believed, Didi’s decision is aimed to cut the stature of the finance minister to size in his own state, where he still commands more respect than she does. Didi’s message is clear: ‘When it comes to West Bengal, I am the reigning deity’.

Race Course Road/ The Sunday Standard/ September 11, 2011

Manmohan tries to plug leaking cabinet

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is more concerned about the leaks regarding secret Cabinet meetings than the Opposition’s attack on him in Parliament. For the past few months, informal discussions on important issues have been finding their way not only to prominent Opposition leaders but also to TV news channels. The Prime Minister is already peeved over the public display of differences between senior ministers on various issues. Since the Government was under severe attack for its inability to handle graft, a couple of over-enthusiastic ministers mooted the idea of enforcing news guidelines. One suggestion was to impose a time limit on advertisements and mass agitations. A legislation to prevent cross-ownership of various news platforms was also suggested. While there was no formal decision on the formation of an Empowered Group of Ministers, a minister immediately sounded out friendly Opposition leaders. The move to muzzle the media through a regulatory authority were made known to select journalists and BJP leaders; when the news broke, the embarrassed Government beat a hasty retreat. It has also come to the PMO’s notice that a couple of ministers were spotted lunching with Opposition leaders in the south Indian restaurant of a five-star hotel soon after, or on the eve, of Cabinet meetings. They run key ministries, which decide the fate of mega projects. Premature leakages of the Government’s move have given opponents a political advantage. Outsiders know the details of the agenda even before it reaches the Cabinet, as well as of Cabinet notes. The PMO is now evolving ways and means to plug these leaks. To begin with, the Cabinet Secretary will be directed to ensure that those ministers who aren’t entitled to attend a full-fledged Cabinet meeting don’t stay on after their item on the agenda is dealt with. As per rule, all Cabinet ministers are expected to leave their agenda papers on the table after the meeting is over. But many carry them back. The Cabinet Secretary will now keep a count of numbered copies. In addition, the Prime Minister himself will monitor all media coverage on Cabinet proceedings to spot habitual leakers. Since some of them claim proximity to 10 Janpath, Manmohan will have to walk the extra mile to either contain them or get rid of them.

No Urgency for Core Group Meet

Though Congress President Sonia Gandhi is back after her successful surgery, she didn’t attend the party’s core group meeting held last week. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to hold it at his residence the day after terror struck the Delhi High Court, instead of calling an emergency sitting on last Wednesday’s terror attacks. Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister A K Antony, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and political adviser to the Congress President, Ahmed Patel, attended. Besides discussing the terror attack, the group also confabulated on the confrontation between the BJP and the UPA over the appointment of a Lokayukta in Gujarat. But some of the Congress leaders are surprised over the delay on the Prime Minister’s part to convene a meeting on terror soon after his arrival from Dhaka on September 7. He had landed in New Delhi by early evening, and various officials in the Home Ministry, Cabinet Secretary and intelligence agencies were kept waiting for a possible review meeting. But the call never came. However, the home minister had briefed the Prime Minister when Manmohan was still in Bangladesh.

Teesta Fiasco Endangers NSA

The relationship between the Prime Minister and a chief minister is a sensitive one. It has now acquired much more importance in view of coalition compulsions. Chief ministers are becoming more powerful than the Prime Minister. The recent fiasco over the Teesta water allocation to Bangladesh has exposed the disconnect between the PMO and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had disclosed that Banerjee was fully involved in finalising the agreement. On the other hand, Didi made it clear that the final draft was at variance with what was approved by her. Then who is responsible for the embarrassing miscommunication? National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon is the usual suspect. He had met Banerjee a couple of times to discuss the finer points of the agreement. Now, both the Congress and Trinamool leaders feel that Menon exceeded his brief and was pushing his own agenda. Since Menon is the Prime Minister’s most trusted adviser, he has often been found wanting in striking a balance between political compulsions and diplomatic concessions. He has been blamed for ignoring national and state elements while drafting statements and agreements. Earlier, for the Sharm el-Sheikh fiasco—the joint Indo-Pak statement on delinking terror from dialogue and Baluchistan—he had to be reprimanded for including a few phrases which were against the spirit of the dialogue. Recently, his overt eagerness for a dialogue with Pakistan hasn’t been taken kindly by the Congress leadership. Not surprisingly, the voices seeking his resignation are getting louder.

More Politics Please, It’s the PMO

With National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon on a sticky wicket, the PMO is under heavy pressure to re-examine the role of his office. Congress leaders are peeved with the dominance of officers drawn from the Indian Foreign Service in the PMO. According to insiders, Menon wasn’t alone in drafting the aborted Teesta water agreement with Bangladesh. Another IFS officer who claims expertise over geographical history aided him. Now the party wants people with political grounding to advise the Prime Minister. Manmohan has already appointed Pulok Chatterjee, a Gandhi loyalist, as his principal secretary, replacing TKA Nair who has been elevated to adviser. Chatterjee is likely to join on October 4. Contrary to popular perception that Chatterjee stayed back in New York to look after the Congress president, he was holidaying in another country and planning the wedding of his daughter before he plunges into his new high-voltage job. But he is unlikely to have the full run of the PMO his predecessor enjoyed. Manmohan has decided that Nair, a Singh loyalist, will reign supreme over a Gandhi loyalist.

Race Course Road/The Sunday Standard/September 04, 2011

Maken missile for Congress allies, BJP

It took Ajay Maken, Union Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare, more than six months to finalise the first-ever comprehensive National Sports Development Bill. But it took only 60 minutes for six ministers to demolish his dream. Neither does Maken control any sports body in the country, nor is he linked with any sports lobby in his party. But freeing sports from its mafia is both his passion and mission. As the sports minister, he has been working on a legal and advisory framework to make all Indian sports bodies accountable and transparent. Since he was aware of the sports connections of powerful ministers, Maken took the Prime Minister into confidence before embarking on his mission. He got Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi’s support as well. Maken instructed his ministry to draft a legislation which brings all sports bodies under the Right to Information Act and prescribes the age and tenure of office-bearers, and make it mandatory for a long-term sports development plan to be submitted. Since many other ministries were also involved in the process, the draft bill was circulated to the home, finance, law, external affairs and human resources ministries for suggestions and objections. All supported the Bill. But surprisingly, at the Cabinet meeting, barring one minister, all others either kept schtum, or opposed it. In an unprecedented move, ministers holding posts in wealthy sports bodies roped in important Opposition leaders to scuttle the Bill. Within a few hours, a powerful coalition comprising the Congress, BJP, NCP and Akali Dal was formed to save their sports fiefdoms. While their parties didn’t take any official stand, its leaders went hammer and tongs against Maken. They led a delegation to meet the finance minister. Pranab Mukherjee expressed helplessness: “By looking at the discussion, I don’t think we will able to get the Bill passed in Parliament.” But Home Minister P Chidambaram, armed with reports about the activities of the sports bodies, rescued the Bill from certain death. He suggested modifications. Finally, the Prime Minister used his authority to support Maken, even after Pawar threatened to seek recourse from the UPA chairperson. According to PMO sources, the Congress party will use Maken to as its own Hazare to expose its allies and the BJP, which have interests in loaded sports organisations.

iPads Help MPs in the House

According to Parliamentary convention, MPs are not expected to read written speeches when they speak during Zero Hour. This healthy convention was established on the grounds that a written speech might reflect the mind of the person who wrote it, and not necessarily of the one who made it. They, however, are permitted to refer to published reports or other documents to bolster their arguments. Last week Rahul Gandhi made a spirited intervention, using written notes. He isn’t the only one. Many others including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other opposition leaders come to the House with written speeches. In order to escape the charge of reading from a written speech, some tech-savvy parliamentarians have acquired the art of using their iPad 2-s to make their interventions. The Government recently provided them with state-of-the-art iPads. Earlier they were given laptops. Now, thanks to the new gadgets, our MPs can either write, or ask aides to vet their speeches in order to make the necessary impact.

The BJP’s Many PMs-in-Waiting

Even though there is no vacancy for the post of the Prime Minister, many central BJP leaders have set their sights on 7 Race Course Road. They are holding special media briefings, distributing their Parliament speeches, even using YouTube to reach out to the social networks. Their pitch is not based on the support they enjoy in the party and among the cadres, but in the drawing rooms of Delhi’s chatteratti. Ignoring other party MPs, they are building bridges with smaller parties. Their desperate urge to become prime minister even prevented them from taking up Narendra Modi’s cause as he had expected them to. Even the discussions held at the conclave of 60-odd Sangh Parivar leaders in Ujjain recently were twisted out of context to the advantage of an individual. According to Sangh sources, no views were expressed on who will be the party’s premier candidate for 2014. However, the media was misled that the choice was limited to three: L K Advani, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. It was left to BJP President Nitin Gadkari to set the record straight by making an unequivocal statement that the party doesn’t declare its candidate in advance. The internal power struggle was reflected in the conduct of BJP’s parliamentarians; its leadership was charged with adopting a soft line towards the Government because it wanted to project the image of being reasonable. But a determined group of Rajya Sabha MPs from Gujarat forced the leadership to go on the offensive against targeting the Gujarat chief minister. A weak Modi will never pose a threat to BJP’s central leadership. But a stronger Modi will leave them behind by miles.

Government Mulls Media Control

The Prime Minister is seriously concerned about what he considers a hostile media. The PMO is also baffled over formerly friendly media turning into a foe. The Cabinet Secretariat has done a study on the negative space given to the Prime Minister and the UPA during the last six months. Last week, an attempt was made to tame the press by invoking certain conditions imposed on TV channels while granting them licences. Some ministers suggested that the Prime Minister should appoint a Group of Ministers to devise a strategy to deal with recalcitrant media organisations. The Government is very much peeved with the 24X7 coverage given to the Anna agitation. A suggestion was made to evolve guidelines that would impose a time limit for the coverage of agitations. But the PMO resisted the idea as it would amount to censorship. Moreover, earlier experiments of fielding a Group of Ministers headed by the home minister to face the media had come a cropper in currying media favour. Most are reluctant to face the media and field questions on current affairs. Keeping in view the Congress’s history of taming the media, the Government may spring a surprise in one form or the other.

Race Course Road/ The Sunday Standard/August 28, 2011

PM’s Crisis Managers Lack Political Skills

The success of a leader depends on the team he chooses. His effectiveness also lies in trusting some who may have been part of his predecessor’s kitchen cabinet. If Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is passing through an agonising phase, it’s because he ignored those who possess formidable skills in political manoeuvering and negotiation. Many senior Congress leaders feel that by drafting in his team only those who haven’t handled political crises in the past to deal with Crisis Anna, the Prime Minister walked into a trap laid by civil society leaders and the Opposition. Some feel that those who were once associated with Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi have been kept out. While they admire both the commitment and talents of the negotiators led by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Congressmen also argue that involving experienced persons would have yielded better results. For the past few months, a high power group comprising Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Law Minister Salman Khurshid, Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal have been dealing with various political catastrophes, including the Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev agitations. The team is adept at legalese and procedure, but none among them has the necessary experience to deal with complex, relentless social activism. For Team Pranab, excessive use of authority, instead of dialogue, or invoking statutes appears to be the best tool to defeat dissent. Even Manmohan has no experience in handling powerful social or political agitations. Congress insiders are wondering why ministers and leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kamal Nath, Anand Sharma, Veerappa Moily, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Ambika Soni et al were kept out of the negotiating team. All of them are known as champions of political wrestling. They possess enough talent to tire their opponents out, and do whatever it takes to break the opposition. Both Indira and Rajiv used them to handle difficult political situations in various states as well as at the Centre. They may have got ministerial berths in Manmohan’s Cabinet, but the Prime Minister seems to be more comfortable with those who carry no past baggage.

Sonia’s Civil Society Allies Ignored

If the Government left out political leaders from the Indira-Rajiv era from the mainstream dialogue with Anna, even the few VIP civil society leaders associated with Congress President Sonia Gandhi have also become irrelevant. Some of them are members of the powerful National Advisory Council. They have always been part of the Government’s consultative process for formulating any new legislation. But when Sonia fell sick and left for a surgery abroad, the Government didn’t involve even highly vocal NAC members like Aruna Roy and Harsh Mander in the process of finalising the Lokpal Bill. Finally, Roy had to submit her version of the Bill to the Standing Committee for consideration, forcing the Prime Minister to include her speech in his proposal as well. In the absence of a direct invitation from the Prime Minister or the Government, Mander and Roy are actively participating in TV debates and pushing their own variants of the Lokpal Bill.

Manmohan’s Governor Surprise

Even as the entire nation was discussing the Lokpal Bill, the Government sprang a surprise by appointing 78-year-old K Rosaiah as the Tamil Nadu governor. The former Andhra Pradesh chief minisiter was charged by the state Anti-corruption Bureau in March for passing an order regularising occupation of prime land worth over Rs 200 crore. The Centre delayed his appointment till the court acquitted him. However, an appeal has been filed against the lower court’s order. Rosaiah is one of the four new governors appointed; two others were merely shifted from one state to another. Another surprising feature of these gubernatorial appointments is the preference given to antiquated politicians. Both Ram Naresh Yadav, a former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, and Vakkom Purushothaman, a former speaker of the Kerala Assembly, are in their mid-eighties. But the Prime Minister seems to have learned some lessons from the conduct of Hans Raj Bhardwaj, the governor of Karnataka. Manmohan has chosen as governors only those Congressmen who do not have a reputation for confrontationist posturing. Purushothaman, Yadav and Rosaiah are known for their objectivity and genteel behaviour. Even MOH Farook, the new Kerala governor, has always avoided confrontation with chief ministers. Rosaiah and Yadav have been sent to states ruled by non-Congress governments like Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh. According to top government officials, the Prime Minister was under pressure to appoint aggressive Congress leaders in various Raj Bhavans, but he resisted. He, however, agreed to move Farook to Kerala, which is now ruled by the Congress. It’s obvious that these appointments didn’t reflect the hand of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Ministers Make Their Own Drafts

Anna Hazare has not only made duly elected representatives irrelevant, his movement has also made the steel frame of the Indian civil services dispensable. For the first time, the political class took over the function of formulating laws and legislation. Normally, the Cabinet Secretariat and its senior officials are involved in drafting legislation, along with the officers of the concerned ministry. But this time round, the ministers themselves decided to do the job. Various drafts were circulated, written by politicians; these reflected their politics, instead of being feasible or legally robust. The newly appointed Cabinet Secretary was, in fact, learning about the contents of the proposed laws from television debates. Ministers and interlocutors were so confident of their skills that they even kept the officials from the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and the Law Ministry at bay. Only the private secretaries of the concerned ministers were trusted. But civil servants are having the last laugh as none of the drafts have cut any ice till now.

Race Course Road / The Sunday Standard/ August 21, 2011

Ratings Race Prompts Rethink in Congress

Normally, the Congress and the Prime Minister ignore the results of opinion polls, even the excessively unfavorable ones. But of late, Congress supporters and members of the Prime Minister’s think tank have been minutely dissecting various surveys to spot trends that may need timely corrections for the 2014 polls. However, the party and the Prime Minister’s supporters seem to have different agendas. While Manmohan’s promoters are looking at ways and means to salvage his plummeting popularity, the Congress party is busy spotting a potential threat to heir apparent Rahul Gandhi. Though he tops the list of popular candidates for prime minister, Rahul’s popularity rating hovers around 20 per cent as against Sonia’s mere 10 per cent. Both the

Congress and the Prime Minister’s Office are seriously concerned about the rising acceptability of Narendra Modi—their prime political target for the past few years. Not only has he beaten both Manmohan and Sonia in a recent opinion poll, but he doesn’t seem to be considered a pariah among the minorities in most parts of India. More Muslims support him for the top job than they do even for Nitish Kumar. Congress analysts feel Modi’s popularity could go up if Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s name is excluded from the list. In some major states, Modi outscores Rahul. Even in Rahul’s karambhumi Uttar Pradesh, the BJP, Uma Bharati and Gujarat’s chief minister are drawing more voter attention than the Congress. What is bothering the party is that the losses suffered by both Sonia and the Prime Minister are not being converted into gains for Rahul. The Congress is now revising its strategy to promote and strengthen Brand Rahul by totally disassociating him from the follies of the prime minister and his Government. Rahul was advised to distance himself from the Anna-led Lokpal Bill movement, but was encouraged by his counselors to instead visit the families of the farmers who were recently killed in police firing in Maharashtra. Soon, a new roadmap for resurrecting both Brand Manmohan and Brand Rahul will be unfolded in the form of massive media and public relations exercises. But the focus will be more on the future and less on the present.

More Grist for Pranab’s Mill

If the withdrawal of Pranab Mukherjee from heavy political duties is any indication of changing political equations, the Prime Minister has now entrusted him with more economic responsibilities. Last week, Pranab held a joint meeting with C Rangarajan , chairman of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council on Economic Affairs, and D Subbarao, Governor, Reserve Bank of India, to review the performance of the economy. Normally the Prime Minister presides over such meetings. Earlier, Pranab had summoned leading corporate honchos to discuss how to bring the ailing economy back on track. For the past few months, Pranab was the one tackling all the political problems of the UPA Government. He was the chairman of the drafting committee which formulated the government’s Lokpal Bill. Though he was present along with the Prime Minister at the AICC office on Independence Day to brief Rahul Gandhi, he has been keeping away from various other political parleys. From all indications, both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister will be confined to Government, and leave politics to those who will be part of the future Cabinet.

Ambika Takes a Different Line

It is mandatory for all ministries to release massive newspaper ads on the occasion of both the birth and death anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru. On August 20—former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s 67th birth Anniversary—over a dozen ads carrying his pictures and statements were carried by over 200 publications in the country. But the one that stood out was issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting headed by Ambika Soni. The half-page ad contained an excerpt from one of Rajiv’s speeches which read: “The democratic way of nation building requires patience, perseverance and a spirit of conciliation.” Since Soni has been leading the attack on Hazare’s movement from the front, the advertisement took all Congress leaders by surprise because all the other advertisements from different ministries carried only inane messages from the former Prime Minister. According to senior officials of various ministries, they were instructed by their ministers last month to raise additional funds for the campaign. But none of them were directed to choose for publication any particular part of Rajiv Gandhi’s speeches. The ministers simply approved the text and the photograph put up to them by their babus. But I&B Ministry officials were directed to pick up the lines by the minister herself, which indicated a change in the Government’s attitude. Comparing Rajiv’s name to an olive branch was, however, lost on Team Anna. Surprisingly, not one ministry controlled by the allies, and ministers considered close to the Prime Minister, could find the necessary funds to pay homage to the departed leader.

India First is Manmohan Edict

While the government’s recently launched austerity drive has come a cropper, the Prime Minister has decided to ground his ministers and senior civil servants for the time being. He had been quite liberal with his colleagues and allowed most of them to go on foreign jaunts, even to attend frivolous seminars and meetings. He had also allowed External Affairs Minister S M Krishna to spend extra days abroad, even after his official work was done. Now, the message has been sent out that no minister will leave the country during the current Parliament session. In case of any emergency, only a senior official from the concerned ministry will fly out, and that too for the minimum possible period. The first victim of the Prime Minister’s missive was environment Jayanthi Natrajan who wanted to go to Brazil for a three-day official visit. Manmohan vetoed her visit, to send out the clear signal that even UPA allies will be given a similar treatment. The PMO had got a whiff that some important ministers were trying to stay away from the country to avoid Heat Hazare.

Race Course Road/The Sunday Standard/August 14, 2011

Manmohan's UPA Clueless, Comatose

The past two weeks in Parliament have been disastrous for both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA Government he leads. The chaos in the House also exposed the internal weaknesses of the Congress Party in handling the business of governance. The politics of confrontation has led to a complete breakdown of dialogue between the ruling party and the Opposition. Moreover, it also exposed the truth that the recent Cabinet reshuffle hasn’t made the Government more effective. The Congress was fighting a lonely battle, with its allies sitting on the fence and letting it suffer political humiliation. The Government failed to get even three of the 35 bills listed for Parliament’s approval passed. The Prime Minister had to skip the session for a day after coming under relentless opposition fire. He was relying on the team of three Cabinet colleagues headed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal, to ensure smooth sailing in the House. But not one of them could strike a deal with an unusually aggressive Bharatiya Janata Party, or strategically divide the opposition to rescue the Government from periodic embarrassment in both Houses of Parliament. Over 50 per cent of the total Parliament time was lost in boycott, filibustering and adjournments. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi’s absence made life even more difficult for the Prime Minister and his trusted colleagues. While the young ministers were missing in action, the confrontationist approach of the senior ones made communication with the Opposition difficult. The premier seemed clueless; for example, he would spot a minister he believed could open informal talks, either with the BJP or non-saffron parties, to end the impasse, but he would hesitate to take the matter forward being unsure of the political implications of involving senior ministers like Sharad Pawar or Trinamool leaders. Finally, the hapless Manmohan turned to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as usual, to contact and plead with the BJP leadership and others to let the Government get some of its legislative business done. Pranabda walked the whole mile, but he wasn’t successful. Now, the trapped Prime Minister has initiated a search for a new set of troubleshooters who will save him from the troublesome Opposition in Parliament.

And the Babus are Infected Too

Troubles for the UPA Government never seem to end. Most of its ministers are unable to take decisions because senior civil servants are avoiding putting files up to their ministers. Even the agenda for Cabinet meetings is prepared at the last minute. There appears to be an informal agreement among top babus that they would only follow instructions and not take the initiative. Moreover, upright and efficient officers based in various states are unwilling to come to the Centre. All of them are particularly peeved over the inability of the political leadership to protect them from over-active and coercive investigative agencies and Comptroller and Auditor General of India reports. Earlier, CAG reports were filed away, after submitting an Action Taken Report. Now, adverse reports involving even minor procedural delays are referred to the CBI, or other agencies, for scrutiny and possible prosecution. Due to bureaucratic inaction, many infrastructural projects, important policy decisions and even proposals for foreign direct investment are not being processed. Babus are now passing the buck to the Empowered Group of Ministers with the message: take it or leave it.

Can the PM Hold the Fort?

Minister Manmohan Singh will be the first non-Gandhi Prime Minister to address the nation for the eighth time from the ramparts of the Red Fort. Before him, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had the privilege of making six speeches. But the record is still held by Jawahar Lal Nehru and Indira Gandhi who made 17 and 16 speeches each, from the Red Fort. Both would speak extempore while Manmohan Singh still reads from written notes. And that has posed fresh problems. For the past two weeks, officials from the Prime Minister’s Office have been seeking inputs from all the Union ministries to draft a speech that would restore Manmohan’s credibility and re-establish his authority. Since his last speech on August 15, 2010, Manmohan has suffered a severe blow to his personal reputation, thanks to various scams. His last seven speeches dealt with predictable subjects like agriculture, terrorism, infrastructure, North-East, Jammu and Kashmir and the usual flattering references to the Gandhis and a Nehru. The Prime Minister’s unofficial think tank and aides have run out of ideas for a speech that would be an ideal mix of politics, economics, diplomacy and social issues, which will project Manmohan as a statesman and not just a UPA leader. This time around, he was advised to emphasise his resolve to fight corruption and ensure a stable economy. The real challenge for PMO speechwriters, who are formulating the Prime Minister’s speech, is how to erase negative perception with an emotional outpouring of purple prose, from the mind of an economist-turned-politician.

Union Cabinet Has MoS Hiccup

Some of the newly appointed Ministers of State (MoS) with independent charge are yet to understand the protocol involved in attending a Cabinet meeting. According to the rules, no MoS is expected to attend a meeting of the Cabinet, unless an item relating to his or her ministry is on the agenda. Once a decision on the item has been taken, the MoS has to leave the meeting so that other MoSs may join. But for the past two meetings, newly appointed MoS Jayanthi Natarajan forgot to follow the format due to sheer ignorance or forgetfulness. She had been an MoS earlier too, but without independent charge. Now, after becoming the MoS with independent charge of the important Ministry of Environment and Forests, Jayanthi has been landing up earlier than necessary for Cabinet meetings, even if no matters related to her ministry are listed on the agenda. It was left to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, with a polite signal, to remind her about procedures regarding participating in a Cabinet meeting. Jayanthi would have been saved from the embarrassment if only the newly appointed Cabinet Secretary had given her a proper briefing.

Race Course Road / The Sunday Standard/ August 07, 2011

CAG effect, or How UPA Learnt a Lesson

The political establishment is concerned about the growing clout of various constitutional authorities like the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the judiciary, Lokayuktas, the Election Commission and even the institution of the Chief Information Commissioner. What is worrisome is not the extent or the nature of exposes by these authorities, but their tendency to run after publicity and encourage selective leakages of portions involving the Prime Minister, Union ministers and chief ministers. Some of the these institutions have been in existence since Independence, but never before have their chiefs held press briefings and made public comments, soon after, or even before, their reports were submitted to the concerned authorities. Last week, deputy CAG Rekha Gupta released the audit report on the Commonwealth Games at a crowded press conference within minutes of the copies having been submitted to Parliament. Earlier, some parts of the report were leaked to the press. In the south, Lokayukta Santosh Hegde’s report reached the media even before it was formally signed. After that, Hegde chose to appear on all national TV channels offering advice on how to implement his findings. It’s worth remembering that CAG findings on Bofors were not publicised by the then-CAG T N Chaturvedi through a press release; yet it demolished the credibility of Rajiv Gandhi’s government. The UPA leadership is now convinced that the time has come to restrain CAG and others from exceeding their constitutional brief and to prevent them from becoming power centres. The PMO is likely to set the tone by selecting only those who go by the book, not those who seek to make waves.

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Some powerful state honchos are causing serious problems for the UPA leadership. With the erosion of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s political authority, chief ministers like Mamata Banerjee and J Jayalalithaa are dictating terms to the Central government and redefining the political agenda. Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh had a taste of Mamata’s clout during his Kolkata visit; when he sought an appointment, he was told Mamata was extremely busy. When Jairam insisted, he was advised to wait for her at the office of a private Bangla news channel where Didi had gone for a two-hour-long live interview. Poor Jairam got a short audience during a commercial break. Mamata has sent clear signals that all Union ministers, including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, can meet her only at her convenience. Even to seek funds, she sent West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra, a former FICCI official, to meet Pranabda. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa uses her MPs to carry missives to various ministers, and even the Prime Minister. Power seems to be shifting from the Centre to the states.

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For the beleaguered PMO, offence is the best defence now. The Prime Minister feels that having a Group of Ministers to deal with the media has paid dividends. Now young ministers will be fielded not only to defend the premier, but also to throw the mud back on prime minister baiters. Most enjoy a clean image. They are well-connected with their constituencies and opinion-makers. Last week, the PMO directed Sports Minister Ajay Maken to turn the tables on the NDA on Suresh Kalmadi’s appointment as the chairperson of the Organising Committee for the CWG. The PMO opened all its files to him. Maken is digging deep into decisions taken by the NDA government. Kalmadi may be a pariah for the Congress, but he was the darling of the capital’s powerful chatteratti club comprising prominent political leaders and India Inc. Various government agencies have collected enough evidence about his connections to the other side, which will be reflected in the counter attack by the UPA’s young guns.

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The first victim of Sonia Gandhi’s sudden illness seems to be the Governors’ Conference, slated to happen by August-end. The President’s secretariat has conveyed to all the governors that it has been postponed again. Initially to be held by July-end, it was postponed due to political compulsions. The ongoing Parliament session will be cited as the official reason for the second delay. The real reason, however, is the government’s inability to fill some of the Raj Bhavan vacancies. The Congress hasn’t decided the fate of controversial Puducherry Lt Governor Iqbal Singh yet. President Pratibha Patil is resignedly waiting for the next date.

Race Course Road/The Sunday Standard/July 31, 2011

Rahul shows his intent with
Delhi inauguration

It’s official now. If the Congress wins the 2014 elections, Rahul Gandhi will be the prime minister. Rahul’s presence as the chief guest at a Delhi government function on Friday appears to be the beginning of his yatra towards Raisina Hill. Until now, he has been evading all invitations from state governments and Union ministries to inaugurate official functions. For the past seven years, whenever he has visited a non-Congress state, it was only to attend political rallies and conclaves, leaving government events to be presided over either by his mother, or the prime minister. Last week, however, he drove all the way to the Delhi-Haryana border to dedicate the Guru Tegh Bahadur Memorial to the capital’s Sikhs. His mother, Sonia Gandhi, laid the foundation stone four years ago. Spread over 12 acres, the project cost over Rs 22 crore. Since the memorial is meant to pay homage to the ninth Guru of Sikhs, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a devout Sikh himself, was expected to be the chief guest. But Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit pulled off a coup by getting Rahul to shed his reservations about openly associating himself with Government-sponsored functions. She was determined to get Rahul, and only Rahul, to do the honours. According to local Congress leaders, the Gandhi scion hadn’t responded to her request for months. However, considering the coming civic elections in Delhi and Punjab state Assembly elections, Rahul was advised by his aides to grab the opportunity to connect with the powerful Sikh community. He made stirring speeches about the sacrifices made by the community and its gurus. Rahul even praised the prime minister, who he described as the community’s most precious gift to the Congress. By accepting Dikshit’s invitation, Rahul has sent a clear signal to all other chief ministers and Union ministers that he is now available to promote, inaugurate and launch new projects and schemes at official inaugural functions. The competition to get Rahul over to other states will ratchet up now—he will also get excessive media and political exposure at government cost. Does it mean less exposure for Sonia and Manmohan until the 2014 elections? Stay tuned.

Loyalty is Key for PMO Positions

Along with the Cabinet, the PMO has also been restructured. Like with the Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has played a game of musical chairs. While Pulok Chatterjee, a Gandhi loyalist IAS officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been brought in to replace Kutty Nair as the prime minister’s principal secretary, Nair will serve as the prime minister’s adviser with Minister of State rank. Some officials who have completed seven years in the PMO are being moved out. Chatterjee’s appointment has created ripples in the upper echelons of the Indian bureaucracy. For the first time in decades, a person far junior to around half a dozen secretaries, including Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth, has taken over as principal secretary. Retired senior civil servants like Nair, Brajesh Mishra and A K Verma were chosen for the job because the principal secretary’s authority is so exalted that he even presides over various official government meetings, including those held by the chiefs of the armed forces. He also gives directions to all other secretaries. Chatterjee, a brilliant and efficient officer, is however junior to Deepak Gupta, Secretary, Non-Renewable Energy Ministry, Alka Sirohi, Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training, and K M Acharya, Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment. Even some state chief secretaries are senior to him. The prime minister usually follows protocol while filling sensitive posts; he opted for seniority while choosing the new foreign secretary and the cabinet secretary. Chatterjee was in the race even then. But when it came to choosing his own chief of staff, he had to accept loyalty over seniority—for the second time Manmohan had to keep the Gandhi connection in mind. Earlier, he inducted Bharat Vir Wanchoo as Director, Special Protection Group, superseding over a dozen senior IPS officers. Wanchoo also has been associated with the Gandhis for over two decades.

Chief Ministers Play Lokpal Game

Why are most chief ministers not protesting the prime minister’s exclusion from the purview of the proposed Lokpal Bill? Because if passed by Parliament, it will give them an excuse to keep themselves out of a Lokayukta probe. If the Bill is passed in its current form, the chief ministers are likely to insist on an amendment to the Lokayukta’s powers. Stung by recent Lokayukta activism in Karnataka and Delhi, most chief ministers are arguing that a politically motivated Lokayukta could damage their moral authority by launching frivolous inquiries. However, none of them have made a formal move yet; but some prominent chief ministers, cutting across party lines are lobbying within their own parties to make the suggestion during the Parliament debate on the Lokpal Bill.

Khar in J&K a Net Gain for Omar

While Union External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his trusted diplomats were dismissing Hina Rabbani Khar’s meeting with Kashmiri separatists as a minor irritant, Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was taking her on. Using his huge Twitter following, Abdullah reminded the attractive lady from Pakistan that she could have returned home better informed had she met leaders of the state’s mainline political parties and other opinion-makers. He conveyed to overtly pro-Pak diplomats and bleeding heart liberals that the genuine Kashmiri leadership doesn’t care for the looks of a dignitary who is of no substance or consequence to the state.

Race Course Road/The Sunday Standard/July 24, 2011

Scam-Hobbled UPA to Take War to Opposition

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is gearing for a stormy five-week session of Parliament, from August 1. The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has already shortlisted the issues on which the Opposition would like to grill the Government. The Prime Minister expects the session to be disrupted for the first few days on various issues like inaction on black money, CWG scams, CAG reports on various ministries; a strategy to deal with the trouble is in place. The PMO is particularly elated by corruption charges against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. The Bihar government has been accused of doling out huge industrial plots to the relatives of ministers belonging to both the BJP and the Janata Dal (United). The UPA is determined to make use of report of Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde against Yeddyurappa and his predecessor H D Kumaraswamy. Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is also on the list of the UPA’s attention-diverting targets. The PMO has instructed various agencies to collate and compile complete information on scams involving non-Congress governments. All the members of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on media briefings have been instructed to deal with corruption in states and avoid talking about civil society-led agitation for which it was constituted. It is rare for Union ministers to publicly attack Opposition chief ministers directly as they have to deal with them on a regular basis. The UPA has, however, decided to sacrifice such niceties and go for the jugular. Spokespersons seem to have been forgotten as the confrontationist mood of the Opposition and UPA leads to yet another round of dirty politics.

Congress Keeps an Eye on its Ally

There was no threat to the stability of the UPA government, but the PMO and various intelligence agencies were closing monitoring the proceedings of the two-day DMK conference in Coimbatore. The PMO was particularly concerned over the DMK’s decision to send its new nominees to replace A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran. As part of the understanding between the DMK and the Congress, both the ministries—Communications and Textiles—have been given to the Congress ministers as additional charges.While the Congress is willing to return Textiles, it has refused to surrender Telecommunications. The DMK leadership is equally determined to get it back even if it has to wait for few more months. But the PMO was more interested in gauging the mood of the DMK cadres. In the absence of any trustworthy insider, it was left to the IB to infiltrate into the venue. So worried was the UPA leadership that IB director Nischal Sandhu, who had gone to Thimpu for the meeting of SAARC home ministers, was personally keeping track of the deliberations and making a dossier for his bosses, including the prime minister.

Vasundhara Prepares for Round 2

Come summer and most of our rich and mighty, famous and infamous, idle or busy elitist politicians make London their rendezvous for either dining and wining or oblige a few think tanks by delivering lectures on Indian politics, business, and even governance. Last month, over 50 top social climbers, a few politicians, relevant and otherwise, and a couple of drawing room debaters descended in London for an exchange of views. Some of them were staying in their own houses while others made a hotel owned by Taj Group the meeting point. One exception, however, was former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje. She is also a frequent visitor to the UK, for medical check-ups. But Raje made the best use of her presence in British capital; she delivered lectures on good governance. In fact, Raje has been avoiding Rajasthan politics for the past few months. Despite her popular support, she was asked to quit as Leader of the Opposition. She was later appointed one of the general secretaries of the BJP at the Centre, a post she has never taken seriously for her heart is always in Rajasthan. When the BJP failed to find an equally credible leader to replace her, she was sent back as Leader of the Opposition. After making her triumphant comeback, she took up an extensive tour of the state. She, however, chose to keep a low profile and let Ashok Gehlot run the state without any opposition. She seems to be recouping her strength before a fresh charge against the Congress government.

Manmohan Devises Another Swap

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh strongly believes in the principle of swapping positions—both political and administrative. His Cabinet reshuffles during the past few months have led to some of the ministers swapping departments with each other. For example, Law Minister Veerappa Moily was moved to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs which was once held by new Law Minister Salman Khurshid. When it came to changing the face of his all-powerful office, the prime minister seems to be following the same formula. According to insiders, Manmohan Singh has made up his mind to replace his secretary M N Prasad with Pulok Chatterjee, India’s executive director on the board of the World Bank. Chatterjee, a Gandhi family loyalist, is yet to complete his three-year tenure. Prasad will be sent to Washington to Chatterjee’s post. Prasad, however, would get less than a two-year term as against a three-year term as he turns 65 in 2013, retirement age for top World Bank executives.