Varun Gandhi three others dropped from BJP Executive

Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

New Delhi, Oct 7

The BJP high command gave a tough message to those crossing the “Laxman Rekha” by dropping them from the national executive of the party today.

In the mega 309-member mega National Executive re-constituted today, almost two years after J P Nadda took over as president, three sitting MPs dropped.

Former Union Minister Ms Maneka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi, both Lok Sabha MPs, Dr Subramanian Swamy and ex-minister Birender Singh removed.

Party's official sources explained this was a routine exercise when a new president takes over.

Varun Gandhi had lately been indulging in a flurry of tweets by condemning events of Lakhimpur Kheri and was the only BJP leader to take flag the issue, in which the son of Minister of State for Home has been accused of murder.

Many felt that Varun Gandhi, by choosing to go public had made his intentions clear to the high command that he was ready to face the consequences including expulsion. But the Pilibhit MP's stance is clearly a sign of revolt at a time when the BJP is working hard to mobilise support before the Assembly polls.

On Tuesday, Varun Gandhi had tweeted a rather grainy video of a black SUV ploughing through a group of peaceful protesters from behind forcing the high command to act not only against him but also his mother who is a seven time Lok Sabha MP. Calling it "murder", Varun Gandhi said the video was enough to "shake the soul".

Swamy has taken on senior BJP leaders and the central government on multiple occasions. On Tuesday, he said that increasing petrol and diesel prices constitute a “tragedy for honest people of India”.

There are 80 members in the National Executive and 50 special invitees while 179 permanent invitees.

When Ministers go Sulking

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

special story

When Ministers go Sulking

Taking Charge Tell Strange tails

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, June 4

After being sworn in on May 30 and portfolios allotted on May 31 noon, the story didn't end there. The Ministers of the Modi government handing and taking over charge of their respective ministries tell strange stories and these were all visible to political watchers.

All eyes were set on North Block where most powerful Minister Amit Shah had gone to take to take charge of the Home Ministry on June 2. But his predecessor Rajnath Singh was nowhere to be seen to hand-over the charge. The sulking official Number 2 in the Modi government was sitting at his residence clearing 200-odd files before Amit Shah could reach the desk.

Singh was upset because his predecessor Nirmala Sithraman who shifted to Finance Ministry had not come to handover charge to him on June 1. Secondly, Defence Ministry is governed directly by the PMO with NDA Ajit Doval keeping a direct eye and PM personally handling all sensitive matters. Interestingly, Nirmala Sitharaman did not miss even an hour and rushed to take the charge of the Finance Ministry on May 31 immediately after allocation of portfolio. Earlier, she went to the residence of Arun Jaitley and took his blessings and straight went to the North Block. When Rajnath Singh reached there on June he found only secretaries and defence forces heads.

Same happened to S Jaishankar when he landed at the Ministry as his predecessor Sushma Swaraj was not there to handover the charge. Since she was not a member of parliament either and had not been inducted into any ministry, she sat home and watched events on TV. The story was same with Ravi Shankar Prasad who had taken charge of the Communications Ministry as his predecessor Manoj Sinha was nowhere to be seen as he had lost his Lok Sabha seat. Of course, he got a big promotion as he retained his other two ministries- Law and IT. Woman & Child and Texiles Minister Smriti Irani expected that Maneka Gandhi would come to hand over the charge. But the 8^th term MP didn't show up to handover the charge of the Woman & child Development Ministry. Later, Smriti Irani went to her house to pay her regards.

Ambala MP Rattan Lal Kataria who was appointed a Minister of State for Social Justice & Environment landed in the ministry to take the charge. There is one Cabinet Minister and three MoS in the ministry of “great importance” in the Modi's social engineering era. But neither he had the room and nor anyone to receive him there. Frustrated Katarai called up his senior Thaawar Chand Gehlot who told him to come on June 4 to take charge with him. Suresh Prabhu was the only former minister in the commerce who was present to handover the charge to Piyush Goyal in Udyog Bhawan as per protocol and best of courtesies.

Ends 

Food for Children: PMO overrules two Union Ministries

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Special Report 

Food for Children: PMO overrules two Union Ministries

States can give packaged food 

Shot in the arm of packaged food industry 

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Nov 9

The running battle between some of the Central ministries and the states for years on whether the children be given cooked or packaged food has been resolved by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

While the Ministries of Health and Women & Child Development ministries have been strongly advocating the need for giving cooked food to children falling in the severely acute malnutrition category. However, many states including Maharashtra were pitching for ready-to-use food for them.

After prolonged discussions with the states, expert committee reports and obtaining the views of the concerned ministries, the Prime Minister's Office mandated that states be allowed to decide their own policy in this respect. If the states want to give packaged food, so be it. The decision of the PMO has come as a big shot in the arm for the packaged food industry. Some say it will be a big incentive to the big players in the market such as Patanjali Foods, ITC and others.

In fact, the PMO overruled directives of the two concerned union ministries who were against providing ready-to-use food to children. The PMO said that individual states be allowed to formulate their own policy to give nutritious food to children. The PMO, however, clearly stated that the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) where hot-cooked food is served to children in the age group of 3-6 years will continue unhindered. The scheme to provide food to children in the age group of upto three years will remain unchanged. But the states will have the discretion to give ready-to-use food to children above the age of 6 years.

The tussle began when the WCD Ministry headed by Maneka Gandhi issued a directive to states that the ready-to-use food is against the stated policy. Therefore, the matter went to the PMO where it was resolved. Even the health ministry was of the opinion that the nutritious food quality is better in the hot cooked food rather than in the Ready-To-Use Food packets. In fact, the ministry had set up an expert committee. However, the states contested the claim and wanted their own way to implement the scheme which is centrally funded scheme with Centre footing the 50% of funds to states. The Health Ministry had, in fact, stressed as early as in 2009 that the use of RUTF was not an accepted policy of the government. And in 2013, the centre had asked Jharkhand to stop distributing RUTF to malnourished kids. However, the inter-ministerial group also spoke in two languages when it said that the Packaged food was helpful only temporarily and would not affect eating habits of the family. The WCD letter also pointed to concerns that the use of RUTF may replace family foods habits that children should normally be eating.