Gujarat
So Near Yet So Far
Why was BJP president Amit Shah so keen to ensure the promotion of a Gujarat police officer to the Indian Police Service ? It’s a different matter that neither he nor the PMO succeeded in the effort. N.K. Amin, an accused in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case in which Shah too had been an accused, had at one time offered to become an approver. Grapevine has it that several Gujarat officials virtually camped at the Union Public Service Commission ( UPSC) office, besides the flurry of phone calls from Shah and the PMO. But while the UPSC top brass caved in, middle-level and junior officials apparently cited rules against it.
Jammu & Kashmir
Flight Of Cards
When Omar Abdullah was the chief minister of the state till last year, the police’s CID wing reported unusual activity at the Srinagar airport. Throughout the summers of those six years, three people would almost on a daily basis arrive in the morning in Srinagar and return to Delhi by the evening flight. Curious, the CID probed what the trio was doing in Srinagar. It was found that they would arrive at the residence of Omar’s bete noire and late CM Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and play cards with him. The identity of the trio couldn’t be established, though.
Uttarakhand
Delhi Unbound
What could have prompted the state government to withdraw the no-objection certificate it had issued in November to the deputation of Indian Forest Service officer and Magsaysay awardee Sanjeev Chaturvedi to the Delhi government? While the official explanation is that the state is short of officers and that the CM wants to utilise the services of the upright officer for the state, sources claim that important members of the PMO had conveyed the message that the NOC was deemed an “unfriendly” act. The upshot is that although the Delhi government had sought Chaturvedi’s services virtually a year ago and despite the officer having ‘no work’, the deputation has once again been stalled.
West Bengal
In The Running
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury has ruled out joining hands with the Congress in the assembly elections. But it is never over till it is over. The Congress is said to be rooting for two Left names as the chief ministerial candidate in the event a tie-up does fructify— Suryakanta Mishra, who is currently the leader of the opposition, and Mohammed Salim, MP. Even a Congress name has come up in the unlikely scenario that it will be given a choice to lead the assembly should there be a Congress-Left victory. Their man would then be MP Adhir Choudhury.
Heard Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha is penning an autobiography of his heyday in the Vajpayee government with a small portion devoted to the Narendra Modi regime
Overheard As the global economy heads southward, there is buzz that RBI governor Raghuram Rajan will get an extension when his term ends—the idea being to send the right signal to investors
Contributed By Uttam Sengupta, Showkat Motta, Bula Devi
