Hyderabad, December 2
The spectre of political uncertainty loomed large over Andhra Pradesh following open rebellion by senior ministers sulking over allocation of “insignificant portfolios” to them.

The Congress leadership was engaged in a damage control exercise today after rumblings of discontent came to the fore barely a few hours after the new Cabinet took oath yesterday.

The resignation of Tourism Minister V Vasanth Kumar and open criticism of the leadership by several senior ministers came as a major embarrassment for the ruling party which was already grappling with the political fallout of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s exit.

The squabbling over portfolios proved to be the first major challenge to the new Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy who was chosen by the high command for the top job.

Rattled by the developments, the central leadership launched hectic efforts to mollify the ministers and decided to send senior leaders Veerappa Moily and Ghulam Nabi Azad to Hyderabad to sort out the matters.

Barely a few hours after taking oath, the Cabinet found itself caught in the midst of a crisis with Vasanth Kumar faxing his resignation letter. This was followed by reports of several other seniors expressing their unhappiness over the portfolios allotted to them.

At least 10 ministers went into a sulk after the portfolios were announced. The alleged neglect of Backward Classes and disproportionate representation to the “Reddy” community in portfolio allocation added to the woes of the government. There are 14 members from the Reddy community in the 39-member cabinet.

Senior Ministers, including D Prasada Rao, B Satyanarayana, K Venkat Reddy and D Raja Narasimha, were said to be upset over the portfolios allocated to them. They went into a huddle with close followers to chalk out their next course of action.

A worried Chief Minister deputed two of his senior colleagues A Ramnarayan Reddy and K Jana Reddy to speak to the sulking ministers who had gathered at the residence of Vasanth Kumar.

Vasanth Kumar's residence in the ministers' colony in Jubilee Hills was the beehive of political activity as he was closeted with other senior ministers and party MLAs to discuss about the next move. He stayed away from the maiden Cabinet meeting in the evening where the mood was sullen following differences over portfolios allocation.

The Congress leadership is worried that internal rumblings could weaken the party and trigger exodus to the rebel camp led by Jagan, the first-time MP and former Chief Minister late YS Rajasekhar Reddy’s son, who quit the party recently.

Jagan will launch a political party soon to carry forward the political legacy of YSR. “He is currently holding discussions with his followers and well-wishers and will soon come before the media with the announcement,” the MP’s close aide A Rambabu told reporters.

Asserting that Jagan was not interested in toppling the Kiran Kumar Reddy government, he said: “It is falling under its own contradictions.”

New Delhi, December 2
Except for some ingenious trading of charges between the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP, the Parliament saw nothing new on Day 15 of continued disruptions over constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the 2G Spectrum scam.

The Congress appeared in a ballistic mood outside the House, with its spokesperson Manish Tewari comparing the BJP with Maoists. “Maoists say democracy does not reflect people’s aspirations. The Opposition is proving them right,” he said. The comment attracted an equally inventive rebuttal from BJP’s Prakash Javadekar, who slammed the Congress as Quattarochi’s agents.

The heated exchange refreshed memories of the Bofors issue that had led to the constitution in 1987 of the first-ever investigative JPC in the parliamentary history of India. Subsequently, three more followed.

Inside the Lok Sabha, usual chaos prevailed as the government pushed through Supplementary Demands for Railways and the Appropriation Bill, the railways finishing the last bit of important financial business it was to transact in the current session.

The rest of the legislative business can wait until the next session though the CPI was quick to warn the government today on its ignorance of Opposition’s demands. “Let them not forget they have to return to this very Parliament to pass the Budget in the budget session. They have to deal with this very Opposition,” CPI’s Gurudas Dasgupta said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal ruled out sine die adjournment of the session and renewed the government’s offer to the Opposition to discuss the JPC issue in the House.

As earlier reported by The Tribune, Bansal extended another defence for a Public Accounts Committee over a JPC saying the latter was less representative as parties would find a place in the JPC on the basis of their floor strength. That means, smaller parties like the CPI might actually not figure in the JPC.

New Delhi, December 2
Lt-Gen Arvinder Singh Lamba will take over as the new Vice-Chief of the Army. Gen Lamba hails from Punjab and is from the artillery regiment of the Army.

Lamba, who headed the Shimla-based Army Training Command, will replace Lt-Gen PC Bharadwaj who retired from service on November 30, official sources said here today.

In another important move, Lt-Gen SK Singh, who was the Corps Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, will be the GoC-in-C of the Jaipur-based South Western Command. Lt-Gen Ravi Dastane will replace him at Leh. Lt-Gen KT Parnaik will be the new GoC-in-C of the Udhampur-based Northern Command from January 1. He will replace the present Northern Army Commander, Lt-Gen JS Jaswal, who retires on December 31.

Lt-Gen NC Marwaha, who was heading the Srinagar-based 15 Corps, will head the Andaman and Nicobar-based Tri-Services Command. Lt-Gen SA Hasnain will replace him.

New Delhi, December 2
The Supreme Court today issued a notice to the Centre and the CBI on Tata group chairman Ratan Tata’s plea for preventing publication of further details of private conversations corporate lobbyist Niira Radia had with politicians, journalists and bureaucrats. A Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly passed the order, observing that Tata’s petition seeking protection of individuals’ privacy “should not be reduced to an academic exercise.”

The court has also sought the responses of the Income Tax Department, which did the telephone tapping in a move to detect tax evasions by corporate houses, the Finance Ministry and two magazines -- Open and Outlook -- which have carried some of the intercepted messages.

Though Tata had not named the magazines as parties to the case, the Bench clarified that this was necessary as the court would like to hear their views. It was the media which took such conversations to the public, it explained.

Senior counsel Harish Salve, who mentioned the Tata’s petition before the Bench seeking an urgent hearing, said his client had no objection to such taps by government agencies. But it was the responsibility of these agencies or departments to utilise such information only for the purpose for which the tapping was done.

New Delhi, December 2
In the opening plenary at United Nations climate conference in Cancun, Japan tried to justify why it wanted to withdraw from the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol-currently the only international agreement that binds member countries to limiting their emissions.

As is it, Indian environmentalists are not expecting any “constructive outcome” from Cancun. However, CSE director Chandra Bhushan believes that Annex I countries are doing ground work for what might prove to be destructive for an equitable climate deal in future.

Chandra Bhushan says while this is not the first time that Japan has threatened to pull out of the second commitment period, it is the first time that the country has talked about it openly. “There is no other instrument to hold developed countries to account, if Kyoto ends,” he adds

Prospects of Cancun ending up like Copenhagen because of near-deadlock among nations on how to share the burden in cutting greenhouse gas emissions are real. However, this time there is also fear that failure of talks at Cancun may lead to the lapse of landmark carbon-cutting agreement signed at Kyoto. “In fact we have to make sure how to get America into the deal rather than do away with a target instrument like Kyoto,” Chandra Bhushan says.

To contain global carbon emissions, India has already reiterated the need for Kyoto Protocol to continue, even after the end of first commitment period in 2012.

Incidentally, negotiators from across the globe have voiced concern that failure to deliver in Cancun could lead to loss of trust in the UN system, which has already been weakened by poor show at Copenhagen. They say that weak outcome from Cancun will increase pressure on Durban, which is hosting the next summit in December.

The Durban summit will be held just a month before the expiry of the first commitment period of Kyoto.

Represented by MoEF officials, the Indian team headed by Environment Secretary Vijai Sharma has adopted a cautious wait and watch approach.

Mumbai, December 2
Fissures appear to have developed between the over two-decade old Shiv Sena-BJP saffron alliance in Maharashtra, which has, in the recent past, undergone many upheavals.

The Sena, which reluctantly gave up the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly to ally BJP, is now accused of working behind the scenes to sabotage the saffron party’s growth.

None other than Eknath Khadse, Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, has accused the Shiv Sena of betraying the trust of his party after his son Nikhil was defeated in the Legislative Council elections last week. Nikhil Khadse polled 228 votes while the winner, Nationalist Congress Party rebel candidate Manish Jain, bagged 243 votes. The official NCP candidate Anil Choudhary had just 81 votes in the kitty.

Eknath Khadse has accused Sureshdada Jain, Shiv Sena leader from Jalgaon, of masterminding his son’s defeat. The Shiv Sena, Khadse said, was treacherous and crafty. “There will be long-term implications for the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance,” Khadse told reporters in Nagpur.

He went on to say that the Shiv Sena should make it clear if it wanted to break up with the BJP.

New Delhi, December 2
Top economist Prof Jagdish Bhagwati today brought smiles to the face of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his team of economic growth drivers when he gave country’s reform agenda a solid go-ahead.

Slamming as a “myth” the belief that liberal reforms had bypassed the country’s poor, Bhagwati, currently Professor of Economics and Law at the Columbia University, said today that the hypercritical narrative around India’s reform processes was “mistaken”.

He was delivering the third Hiren Mukherjee lecture at Parliament.

Expressing hope that corruption in public life could be stemmed by the use of scientific and technological innovations like the UID project to root out corruption, Prof Bhagwati went on to build a case in favour of country’s pending reform agenda, including further liberalisation of trade, in all sectors, substantial freeing up of the retail sector and labour market reforms.

Such intensification and broadening of what the visiting economist called “Stage 1” reforms will add to the good that these reforms do for the poor and the underprivileged, he argued.

“How to get the most for the buck from programmes under Stage 2 reforms is where we have to be turning our attention as well,” the economist added.

Earlier, he said several analyses showed that the enhanced growth rate had been good for reducing poverty while it had not increased inequality and that large majorities of virtually all underprivileged groups polled said their financial situation had not worsened and significant numbers said it had indeed improved.“The growth has led to greater revenue so we are spending more on health and education for the poor,” Professor Bhagwati said, terming conventional growth-enhancing reforms as Stage 1 reforms.

“The spending on the health and education of the poor defines what I call Stage 2 reforms. Both are inclusive,” he added, urging the parliamentarians to pursue the reform path.

“The politicians would do well to strengthen the conventional Stage 1 reforms by extending them to the unfinished reform agenda of the early 1990s,” he advised the Left MPs listening.

On corruption which has rocked the Parliament in the winter session, Prof Bhagwati said: “In India, public figures are considered to be corrupt unless they prove to you otherwise. A most distinguished Indian bureaucrat once told me that his mother said to him that she believed he was not corrupt only because he was her son.” He, however, added that science could be used to get at corruption.

Here he mentioned Nandan Nilekani’s project of national database of identity details of Indians. This should take the political corruption out of the Public Distribution System and in the Employment Guarantee Scheme, Prof Bhagwati said.

BRIEFLY

Cong distances from Tewari’s remarks
New Delhi: Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari's comparison of Opposition with Maoists not only angered the Opposition but also embarrassed his party. Distancing themselves from Tewari’s remarks, senior Congress leaders are believed to have told him to clarify his statement and avoid being so ‘adventurous with words’ in future. In AICC briefing, Tewari said his intention was not to insult Opposition parties but strongly condemn their behaviour in Parliament. Tewari had said the Opposition’s boycott of Parliament gave credence to the Naxals’ propaganda that democracy did not serve the needs of the people.