Bachi Singh Rawat, former minister of state for defence and now representing science and technology, learnt a rude but important lesson about power: Silence is golden. According to the grapevine, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Uttarakhand was packed off from defence for embarrassing the entire establishment by publicly announcing the existence of the inter-continental ballistic missile project. Rawat earned the condemnation of the top brass of the all-powerful Defence Research and Development Organisation headed by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam after he announced in Uttarakhand that the ICBM would be test-fired soon. The minister's faux pas seriously jeopardised national security, complained DRDO top brass. Defence Minister George Fernandes agreed. The ICBM project, nicknamed Surya, is one of India's 'Top Secret' projects, whose existence is continuously denied by everyone in power. It is another matter that the media constantly reports it. Fernandes, who accused ex-admiral Vishnu Bhagwat of jeopardising national security by acknowledging the existence of a project to build a nuclear submarine, found Rawat's statements indigestible. The issue was taken up with the prime minister and, after repeated denials, Rawat was shown the door. To Dr Murli Manohar Joshi's science and technology ministry, where there is not even a room awaiting him. Vajpayee's jumbo-sized ministry is causing much turmoil in Delhi's power corridors. And one of the worst victims has been the minister and staff of the newly created department of tribal affairs. The Orissa tribal politician, Juel Oram, and his high-profile secretary Bhure Lal, are yet to settle down. Sliced away from the social welfare ministry, the new department has no space for the minister and his secretary. While the former has now been allotted a room, the latter continues to function from his house. If rumours are true, Bhure Lal virtually sat in the corridor for a day before deciding to return home. While most of the bureaucrats and ministers are troubled by the space constraints, some of the former are finding it increasingly difficult to work with the new breed of ministers. According to sources, D K Manavalan (earlier with social welfare and now secretary for sports affairs) has gone on leave in protest against the lack of work. Apparently, the sports department is held to ransom by middle-level bureaucrats and some con men from the sports world. Though no official reason has been given for Manavalan's leave, it is obvious that he does not enjoy working with Minister Ananth Kumar. The RSS man from Karnataka, meanwhile, is himself trying to adjust to the low profile ministry of culture, sports and youth affairs. His high-profile tenure as civil aviation minister in the last government seems to have earned the displeasure of his political bosses. But those who thought he would now lie low are sadly mistaken. Ananth Kumar is getting his own back by indulging in hardcore Sangh activity. As the first step, he has announced his intention to introduce a policy that will resist cultural invasion and promote Indianness. Since he has not specified the meaning of 'cultural invasion', he is quite certain to court controversy this time as well. Pramod Mahajan, on the other hand, is finally smiling now that the PM has gifted him information technology, a ministry expected to become very high profile due to IT's amazing growth in the country. His low-profile secretary, P V Jaikrishnan, a man known for his no-nonsense approach, is already on the job. The grapevine, though, has it that the IT secretary's post is fast becoming a much sought-after one. It is already being eyed, among others, by the high-profile Planning Commission member, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who recently appeared in the Y2K awareness advertisement. But Mahajan's cronies are still unhappy. This includes Ajay Singh, Mahajan's all-powerful OSD in the previous government. The suave engineer, in his days in power, would dictate terms to the Doordarshan newsroom on a daily basis. Whatever the criticism of Singh, he is a technology-friendly chap. In fact, when attached to the transport minister of Delhi's last BJP government, he had unsuccessfully pushed for the purchase of the Euro II model buses for the city. Now that Mahajan is in IT, speculation is rife that Singh could return. Another unhappy soul is HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi. He has reportedly written to the prime minister, protesting against the splitting of his ministry, especially education, and the taking away of information technology from the science and technology department. He had been eyeing IT, but has been left with only a truncated HRD ministry. This time round, Joshi does not get to rule over sports, youth affairs and culture either. Moreover, he has too many ministers of state under him. Last time, he had only Uma Bharati, who refused to enter the ministry for six months after a face-off with Joshi. Which, of course, left Joshi a very happy man. Illustration: Dominic Xavier Josy Joseph is certainly amused by the goings-on in the corridors of power.
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