Offices that need the pink slip

With the slide of the economy and pressure on the government to reduce expenditure, there are at least two departments that need review and, eventually, downsizing

It was amusing to see the three parliamentary affairs ministers — Messrs Pralhad Joshi, Arjun Ram Meghwal, and V Muraleedharan — standing to attention, looking important, on either side of the prime minister, as he spoke to reporters on the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament. With the size of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) majority in the Lok Sabha and healthy numbers in the Rajya Sabha, parliamentary affairs ministers need to do very little: Ordinances can become Acts effortlessly even if the Opposition opposes them bitterly. Question hour can be scrapped with little or no consultation. And