Change is the order of the day

Speculation is rife that Sonia Gandhi's National Advisory Council may be back in a new avatar soon. And why not? There's work to be done and as the hand that rocks the UPA's cradle, Sonia intends to get it done asap. Actually, we had all forgotten about the NAC till Sonia fired off her first missive to Manmohan Singh after the recent elections. The letter was a gentle reminder to get cracking on the Congress party's election promise of putting in place a National Food Security Act guranteeing cheap food for the poor. The interesting thing was the attachment. Sonia helpfully enclosed a draft bill that she suggested could form the basis for the proposed legislation. The draft is believed to be a document on which the NAC was working till the Office of Profit controversy in 2006 dragged the Council into an unsavoury political storm. Sonia hastily quit the NAC and it was wound up shortly after that. It's a measure of Sonia's confidence today that after three years of silence, the NAC is being mentioned again. Her aides and the PMO are still fine-tuning its new shape and mandate but a recast NAC may be on the cards. Armed with a handsome election victory, Sonia need not look over her shoulder now and is set to play a more visible, pro-active role in the formulation of government policy, especially on schemes that will become the Congress party's unique selling points (USP) in the 2014 polls.

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S M Krishna's new role as external affairs minister is keeping him away from his favourite June activity - watching the semi-finals and finals at Wimbledon in England. He has been flying to this tennis Mecca for decades but this year, he's busy attending to important matters of state, first in the Italian city of Trieste, then in Prague and finally in Tokyo. By the time he winds out of those official meetings, he will have to hotfoot it back to Delhi for the budget session of Parliament. Much as he loves his job as the country's chief diplomat, Krishna has been lamenting to aides and friends that the shift to Delhi has disrupted his daily dose of tennis. He used to play religiously in Bangalore and when he was governor of Maharashtra, in Mumbai too. But he hasn't been able to find a suitable partner in Delhi yet. He hopes to settle the issue before he moves into his official residence. Fortunately, he will be living a stone's throw away from the Delhi Gymkhana Club, which means that he can take in a game every morning before setting out for the office.

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Tailpiece
One of the first things Vilasrao Deshmukh did after he was allotted the heavy industries portfolio was to ask Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) to prepare its main guesthouse in Delhi for him. Deshmukh has moved out of Maharashtra Sadan where he was staying and into the BHEL guesthouse while he waits for the previous occupant to vacate the ministerial bungalow given to him. He could have stayed on in Maharashtra Sadan but they say Deshmukh is a great believer in the old saying that walls have ears. He certainly doesn't want reports about him travelling back to chief minister Ashok Chavan in Mumbai. Deshmukh is apparently keen to get back his old job in Maharashtra and is in close touch with state politics and politicians. Now that the former chief minister is ensconced in a BHEL safehouse, Chavan has lost his window into Deshmukh's world in Delhi.