Insider-out

Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra’s decision to step down has not come as a surprise.

Not to J&K 

Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra’s decision to step down has not come as a surprise. In fact, his original continuation in Modi 2.0 and the conferring of cabinet rank onto him had come as a big surprise to many. The last bit was done to bring him on a par with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who in turn was given a cabinet rank to bring him to the same level as foreign secretary-turned-foreign minister S. Jaishankar.

Though much has been said and written about the presence of the ‘Gujarat cadre’ in the PMO and the government, Nripendra Misra was no less special in their midst. The first ordinance of the freshly elected Modi Government in 2014 was promulgated to appoint him as Principal Secretary. A retired IAS officer, his previous stint as TRAI chairman actually forbade him from taking any state or central government position. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1996, was amended to accommodate him. Ostensibly, he’s stepping aside for health reasons. And,  no, he’s not being appointed Governor,  J&K, as is being floated. Misra is rather upset with these ‘baseless’ speculations!  Neither is he looking for a sinecure. 

Maharaja vs Raja 
Not a day goes by without a report on social media, YouTube particularly, about Jyotiraditya Scindia’s impending departure from the Congress to the BJP. Scindia lost out to Kamal Nath in the race to the Madhya Pradesh CM’s chair, then quite unexpectedly lost his Lok Sabha stronghold Guna to his former lieutenant. Now Sonia Gandhi, in damage control mode, may appoint him MP PCC chief to stall any exit plan (since any more high-profile departures would be disastrous for the Congress). But Nath, not quite comfortable having Scindia around in Bhopal at the helm of the party, has got Digvijaya Singh to throw his hat in the ring. So, it’s the Gwalior Maharaja versus Diggy Raja. Who will outwit whom needs to be seen. 

Hooda poised for exit?  
In Haryana, it’s no better. Even the date of ex-CM Bhupendra Hooda’s exit from the Congress was written about. He was supposed to float his own party with son Deependra Hooda, once a Rahul Gandhi durbari. No such thing has happened yet. Hooda indeed has made some noises, he’s been demanding the ouster of Ashok Tanwar — a Rahul appointee as PCC chief. The buzz has it, he himself wants to replace Tanwar as the head of the state unit before the assembly elections. Well, last heard, Sonia Gandhi is in search of a compromise candidate. It could be Kumari Selja, the former Union minister close to her, or Randeep Surjewala. Meanwhile, many prominent leaders of the Congress are living in trepidation of arrest, crying foul after the grilling P. Chidambaram and D.K. Shivakumar are facing at the hands of the CBI and ED. They’ve renamed the caged parrot as KGB.

The ‘A’ and ‘I’ faction
Shashi Tharoor’s internal party ‘troubles’ have been sorted, thanks to the support he received from the ‘A’ faction of Kerala PCC. If the buzz is to be believed, it’s not Tharoor’s rather well-articulated rebuttal to the showcause notice he got for ‘praising’ PM Modi that did the trick. But a phone call from the leading light of the ‘A’ faction, Oommen Chandy, in his support. Needless to say, it was the ‘I’ faction, headed by Tharoor’s Nair caste-mate Ramesh Chennithala, that was gunning for him. Of course, A.K. Antony, the patron saint of the Congress in Kerala, waded into it in full measure to douse the fire, in Tharoor’s favour. But the solace may not endure for long: the probe on Sunanda Pushkar’s death is hanging on his head as a newly sharpened Damocles Sword.

Santwana Bhattacharya

The author is Resident Editor, Bangalore, TNIE. Email: 

santwana@newindianexpress.com

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com