Former Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi is still being talked about in the UPA. He is now the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission but his relatives and acquaintances are present is high positions. His nephew is personal secretary to the prime minister and he has quiet a clout in the PMO. His relative Atul Chaturvedi recently retired at the Ispat chief. Prabhat Chaturvedi is the secretary in labour ministry and his other relative G C Chaturvedi was the banking secretary till very recently. It is true that in the days of UPA, influential bureaucrats are having a field day.

The BJP and its leader Sushma Swaraj had already let her and the party’s displeasure known on the appointment of P J Thomas as the CVC’s new Chief Vigilance Commissioner. Sushma had also been invited for the meeting called by the prime minister about the same but problems with his nomination had already been made clear. The opposition leader wanted that there should be a discussion on other names as well in the Lok Sabha. But the government had already decided on Thomas. Everyone knows how dear Thomas is to 10 Janpath and Mukesh Ambani. His other qualifications were an added advantage to attract 10 Janpath. For instance, Thomas is a staunch Syrian Christian and his two brothers are bishops. During the entire meeting, the PM had kept quiet. The only one speaking in his favour was P Chidambaram. Can there be any better example of the church’s influence on the party and the government?

The future of Educational Tribunal Bill appears to be bleak. An entire educational lobby of parliamentarians from the south and Maharashtra are against the bill because the bill may put an end to private institutions having a free hand and uncontrolled capitation fees. The bill also has a suggestion to have a regulator appointed for the same. On the other hand, those who play a part in politics in the Hindi speaking regions of India, such as Lalu and Mulayam, are supporting the bill with gusto. Despite having passed in the Lok Sabha, the bill couldn’t make is past the Rajya Sabha where Congress supported alliance still has a majority. This bill by Sibal has come to the Parliamentary committee headed by Oscar Fernandes. On the 21st, Oscar returned the bill to Sibal with remarks against it. But Sibal placed the bill to the house without any changes on the 25th. But before this, Oscar and half-a-dozen of his loyal parliamentarians had made the rounds telling all that no one should pay heed to the bill. It is heard that one industrialist from Jalandhar, who was a sweet shop owner there and is now a part of the education mafia, has already convinced the BJP president against it, and so the bill fell on its face in the Rajya Sabha.

Party President Nitish Gadkari also threw a lunch party to the BJP Parliamentarians from UP. With the Parliament session on, the lunch hour was first kept at 1 pm and later shifted to 2 pm. And when it was time to eat, the politicians realized that the food had come from a local dhaba in plastic bags. Needless to say, the experience left a bad taste in their mouth.

Finance secretary Ashok Chawla , who is an IAS from the 1973 batch of Gujarat cadre, leads the race among those being considered for Sebi’s top seat of chairmanship.

The file about Prasar Bharti’s CEO Baljit Singh Lali’s huge financial discrepancies has been with the prime minister since the fourth of this month. The Prasar Bharti Board unearthed the discrepancies in the CEO’s tenure in May 2009, and handed over the matter to the CVC for further investigations. These include giving games rights to Nimbus, not broadcasting T-20 by Doordarshan and are considered to be breaking of the Broadcasting Act. This directly helped the ESPN sports channel. It is also said to have helped the CEO’s lawyer friend. When the matter reached the High Court, the court in its July 27, 2009, ruling, handed over the matter to the CVC. Lali approached the Supreme Court about it but failed to get any relief. The case was sent to the law ministry and it supported the report and the file is now lying with the PMO. Wonder what the prime minister’s take is on the same.

Preparations are on not only for changes in the Congress but also in the Central Cabinet ministry. The prime minister is keen on changing the portfolios of ministers against whom there have been complaints. Speculations are that Salman Khurshid will be moved from company affairs to non-resident Indians ministry and Vyalar Ravi from the ministry will be made to head company affairs. Rajiv Shukla may be rewarded for his active participation in the Parliament and maintaining cordial relations with the Opposition parties and could be made the state minister for Parliamentary Affairs instead of Prithviraj Chauhan. He might the added responsibility of showing his ability in running the Rajya Sabha more effectively.

Transport Minister Kamal Nath left no stone unturned to appoint Brahmdutt as the head of surface transport division. He did all he could to lobby the man. But when the file reached the prime minister for approval, contrary to his habits, he refused the suggestion outright. But why, you ask? Do we still need to explain things to you about the matter?

The UPA government and Law Minister Verappa Moily were the most active in having the age of judges increased. Moily wanted the bill to be presented in this session of the Parliament itself. According to this bill, the retirement age of a Supreme should be increased to 68 from 65, High Court judge’s age be increased from 63 to 65, and increase a district judge’s retirement age from 60 to 62. Moily also wanted that the bill be passed over from the Parliament’s permanent committee and sent straight to the Parliament, from where it could be sent to the states for passing. But Opposition party BJP has put a spoke in the wheel of the Congress Party. It has made clear that it doesn’t support such bill and so even if it comes straight to the house, it might not be passed. The UPA government has decided to put the matter on the back burner.

In the past 60 years, little may have changed for the people of Orissa but the top leaders have decided to change the very name of the state. The government is seriously considering this and has come up with a name-change bill, where the “r” in Orissa will be replaced by “d”. Also, the last letters are supposed to be “sha”, which makes it Odisha. Now the ministers in the state are saying that it should be Odissa and not Odisha. Someone quipped that when there was so much difference of opinion, why not ask Patnaik. To this suggestion, Patnaik’s own party minister said that Patnaik may be the chief minister but his knowledge of Oriya was limited. Instead, why don’t they form a committee of knowledgeable people and let them decide the name. We don’t know where the bill will go but the process of forming a committee of intellectuals has started.