Chatterbox: New roles

His own men are finding new slots in Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s Congress. RPN Singh has been given charge of Jharkhand, Jitender Singh Bhanwar has been given charge of Odisha, Sushmita Dev has already changed the face of the Mahila Congress since she was made the chief; while Madhu Yaskhi Goud, ex MP from neighbouring Telangana, has been handed the charge of crucial Karnataka.

 

Disciplined official

 

The most disciplined minister in the government ? It has to be Minister of State for External Affairs, General VK Singh. Whenever there is a natural disaster/crisis site to be visited, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj turns to Singh, who is ready to take on any journey, no matter how arduous (the last one he undertook was a seven hour trip in an Avro). He obeys the foreign ministry bureaucracy so scrupulously, they say it is a treat to work with him — never deviates from official speeches, not even by a comma or full stop. The result is that when he does decide to deviate from the script (like telling relatives of the Indians from Punjab killed by ISIS that the government could not be expected to gives jobs as if it were alms), there is an immediate outcry. Everyone knows the civilian government controls the Indian defence services. But such civilian control of retired defence officers! That’s real discipline for you.