Capital – Scrap Book
?Chanakya
Since day one of his assuming the charge of HRD Ministry, Arjun Singh has one-point agenda to communalise the education curriculum under the pretext of ?desaffronisation?. In this game, the old communist fellow-travellers again accompanied him. But this time, this tactic boomeranged on the HRD Minister himself. The ?Evaluation Report? of the Prime Minister'sOffice on HRD Ministry marked it as a very poorly performing department and the whole year it wasted time running after only one issue, i.e. ?desaffronisation?. No new initiatives were taken to promote quality education. In the next Cabinet reshuffle, NAC Chairman Sonia Gandhi is all set to show the door to Arjun Singh, say the PMO sources.
As soon as the Cabinet reshuffle takes place, 10, Janpath will put before a long list for bureaucratic reshuffle. It is said that Pulak Chaterjee, Joint Secretary, PMO, and Congress chief'sconfidential man, is doing permutations and combinations to prepare a list of bureaucrats who would act according to the instruction of Sonia Gandhi, not Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. This is seen as an attempt to clip the wings of Dr Singh, as Sonia Gandhi has also decided to bring her son Rahul as the member of Congress Working Committee.
As discussions are going round for the Cabinet reshuffule, the Union Urban Development Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has adopted a new strategy that since he sacrificed the post of the Chief Minister of J&K, he wants an important portfolio in the Cabinet. The grapevine has it that Shivraj Patil would lose his job, so Azad has started lobbying for the Home portfolio. His argument is that Sonia Gandhi would not let Pranab Mukherji be the Home Minister. So, he claims, as a Sonia confidant he is the only alternative.
Recently Doordarshan organised a panel discussion on the Bofors issue. Leaders of different political parties participated in the discussion, which was on how the CBI spent Rs 2.5 crore on Bofors investigation. As the discussion progressed, it totally went against the Congress. So, the DD decided not to broadcast it and said that it would be shown later. This is a proof of the fact that the government media truly obliges the ruling parties, specially if the Congress is at the centrestage.
It is reported that DMK has made a demand to replace Kamalnath with Dayanidhi Maran in the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, which Murasoli Maran held during the NDA regime. But Kamalnath is strongly resisting the demand.
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