Office, but no work
The HRD ministry has two ministers of state, Ram Shankar Katheria and Upendra Kushwaha, whereas in the UPA regime Shashi Tharoor was the solitary MoS. The result is a space crunch and the second MoS office was created by appropriating a section of the canteen pantry. But space is not the real problem for the two junior HRD ministers. Cabinet minister Smriti Irani has a strong hold over her ministry and hence there is little power delegated to either of Irani’s two deputies. Tharoor was fortunate.

Call me lucky
Minister of minority affairs Najma Heptulla confessed at the annual day of the Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) last week that she and her daughter have been lucky with lotteries. Far from being thrilled about her good fortune, Heptulla is deeply embarrassed since on several occasions, she has picked her own number out of a hat. Once, at an Air India event where the winner of the lucky ticket got a trip to Singapore, Heptulla warned the organisers that she did not want to do the actual picking of the lucky number because of her previous experiences, but they persisted. Sure enough, she won the prize but insisted that the free trip go to somebody else. At the IWPC Diwali mela, once again Heptulla as chief guest was made to pick the lucky number despite her protestations. Again she picked her own name and rejected the raffle prize of a dinner for two at a five-star hotel, but the women journalists insisted that at least she take home the gift hamper.

Rising star
While Kanishka Singh and Digvijaya Singh have been sidelined, the rising star in Rahul Gandhi’s inner coterie at present is Koppula Raju. Though officially his designation is simply head of the party’s scheduled caste cell, privately Congress members refer to Raju as Rahul’s Ahmed Patel. Rahul’s visit to Faridabad last week to condole the death of two Dalit children is part of Raju’s larger scheme to focus on the poor and downtrodden. The Andhra cadre IAS officer, who left the service prematurely after working with Sonia Gandhi in the National Advisory Council, is also the brains behind the Congress campaign to belatedly claim the legacy of BR Ambedkar. Raju persuaded Rahul after his long vacation to visit Mhow, Ambedkar’s birthplace, as part of Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary celebrations. Next April, the Gandhis will visit Deekshabhoomi in Nagpur for Ambedkar Jayanti while the party will also organise a padyatra to re-enact Ambedkar’s protest against untouchables forbidden from using a water tank at Malad.

Apolitical meet?
In view of the strained relationship between the Shiv Sena and the BJP in Maharashtra, a flying visit by finance minister Arun Jaitley to Baramati, Sharad Pawar’s bastion, has intrigued political circles. Both parties insisted that there was nothing more to the visit than Jaitley being invited to preside over functions organised by Pawar’s educational institutions in his former constituency, now represented by daughter Supriya Sule. But can the meeting of two major politicians really be completely apolitical?

Uncle Sam
Sam Pitroda was a power to reckon with when the Congress was in power because of his closeness to the Gandhi family, but his clout remains undiminished even now. Last week, Pitroda’s autobiography was launched in Delhi by former prime minister Manmohan Singh with Rahul Gandhi giving a speech in praise of uncle Sam. In Mumbai, industrialist Mukesh Ambani released the book while in Bangalore former Isro chief Kasturirangan was the chief guest. In Ahmedabad, Ela Bhatt of SEWA fame and Nirma’s Karsanbhai Patel presided over the book launch. In Bhubaneswar, CM Naveen Patnaik released the book.

Selective memory
In his book Chinar Leaves, Makhan Lal Fotedar, a factotum of Indira Gandhi, displays selective memory and a not-so-loyal touch, according to party members. For instance, Fotedar claims that Mrs Gandhi confided to him that she saw Priyanka emerging as her political heir. But those who know the family well say Indira Gandhi always had a soft corner for Rahul, and even Priyanka in an interview acknowledged that Rahul was his grandmother’s favourite. Fotedar’s recollection of Madhavrao Scindia’s alleged role against his party in 1999 seems tinged by the fact that the erstwhile maharaja had a royal disdain for the former section officer in the Jammu and Kashmir government.