New Delhi, April 11
With less than a month to go for her Lok Sabha election, Congress President Sonia Gandhi is currently busy putting her house in order to ensure that she does not get embroiled any further in the office-of-profit controversy.
After putting in her papers from all trusts and organisations she is associated with, Mrs Gandhi has now sent her two close aides — P.P. Mahadhavan and S.V. Pillai — to their respective parent cadres. They are government employees but were on “loan” to the Congress President’s office.
Mr Pillai who has served as her additional private secretary has reverted to the Prime Minister’s Office while Mr Madhavan, an OSD in Mrs Gandhi’s office at 10, Janpath, has returned to the Home Ministry.
The official word at the Congress President’s office is that they are on “long leave” but party insiders disclosed that the two officials had been sent back to their parent cadres.
Even after their posting to 10, Janpath, both Pillai and Madhavan have remained on the pay roll of the Central Government.
Congress
spokesperson Rajeev Shukla confirmed that Madhavan and Pillai had been asked to go on long leave since Mrs Gandhi no longer enjoys Cabinet status after her resignation as NAC chairperson, which enabled her to avail the services of government servants.
Party sources said Mrs Gandhi was taking all these precautionary measures before she files her nomination papers for next month’s Rae Barelli election. Having been at the receiving end of an Opposition campaign on the office-of-profit issue, she wants to make sure that nobody is able to point any fingers at her this time round.
It was stated that she took these decisions after consulting legal experts.
Congress sources also maintained that Pillai and Madhavan will eventually return to their posts once all legal formalities have been sorted out.
It is not clear how long this will take but this does give an opportunity to her old loyalist and former private secretary Vincent George to stage a comeback.
George, who enjoyed unbridled power during Rajiv Gandhi’s regime and subsequently in Mrs Gandhi’s office, was eased out five years ago after CBI initiated “preliminary investigations” against him.
He was subsequently rehabilitated as the investigating agency failed to file any charges against him. Though he returned to the 10, Janpath office, George never really regained his old position as Pillai and Madhavan continued to call the shots. This situation may well change with these two trusted aides now out of the way, even if it is a temporarily.
