New Delhi

June 4, 2004

Manmohan Government to have advisors in 12 key ministries

An exercise has begun to identify the retired bureaucrats and
experts in various fields for appointments in a dozen important ministries in the new government as advisors.

Though the aim is to gain from the experience of these advisors in assisting the Union Ministers, they will also be used to keep a tab on the functioning of various ministries and snoop on the bureaucrats who may try to sabotage the government's various programmes at implementation stage.

Disclosing this, a top Congress source said telecom wizard Sam Pitroda, Monteksingh Ahluwalia, N K Singh and Bimal Jalan are among the persons already identified for appointment to various ministries as advisors in the coming days with the status and powers of the ministers of state.

The ministries which will have these advisors are: Finance, Agriculture, Food Processing, Water Resources, Energy, Human Resources Development, and Information and Broadcasting.

Since it is not a Congress government but a coalition government, the appointments of the advisors would be made in the ministries only after the Prime Minister secures consent of the concerned ministers, the source said.

It is, however, an open secret that the list of the would-be advisors is not being drawn up in the Prime Minister's Office but at 10 Jan Path. The Congress will, however, deny that Sonia Gandhi was acting as a parallel centre of power.

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Sonia shifts to third slot

The third day of the new Lok Sabha on Friday and the kingmaker Sonia Gandhi quietly moved into seat No 3 on the ministerial berths.

The allocation of the permanent seats to members of the new House it yet to be made but Sonia Gandhi opted to a position close to the seat of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in deference to the wishes of a score of the Congress leaders.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was at the receiving end of protests from partymen at seating Sonia Gandhi on seat No 7 in the front row beyond the ministerial berths and himself occupying seat No 3.

He shifted to the second row and requested Sonia Gandhi to occupy seat No 3 when she arrived in the Lok Sabha hall. Between her and the PM now seats Pranab Mukherjee as leader of the House.

Right to her on the same bench were crowded four Union Ministers, Shivraj Patil, Sharad Pawar, Laloo Prasad and S Jaipal Reddy in that order.

The day's proceedings began with swearing-in of the MPs who have not taken oath in the first two days and the last among them on Friday was Trinamul Congress leader Mamta Bannerjee who preferred not to even look towards the
ruling benches as she walked past them to reach the mike to take the oath in the name of God as a member of the House.

Former Union Minister Balasaheb Vikhe Patil was in the chair as the pro-tem Speaker until 11.25 when he declared elected CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee as the new Speaker and vacated the chair as the prime minister, opposition leader L K Advani and leader of House Pranab Mukherjee escorted
Somnath da to install him in his new capacity.

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Somnath Chatterjee installed as new Lok Sabha Speaker

The 74-year old senior lawyer-turned veteran CPI(M) leader
Somnath Chatterjee was formally installed as the Speaker of the 14th Lok Sabha immediately after pro-tem Speaker Balasaheb Vikhe Patil declared him elected unopposed at 11.25 on Friday.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, leader of House Pranab Mukherjee and Opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani walked to him sitting on the bench in front of the Speaker's podium, congratulated him and escorted him to the chair.

The Speakers have been elected unopposed in the past but it is for the first time that the motions to elect Somnath Chatterjee came not only from the ruling parties but also from the Opposition like BJP (Vajpayee moved and Advani seconded) and Janata Dal(U) (Nitish Kumar moved and Prabhunath Singh seconded).

Attired in the typical Bengali "Dhoti Punjabi" (dhoti-kurta) with half Jawahar coat, Somnath da profusely thanked everyone and hoped he comes up to their expectations in his thanks-giving speech after over an hour of praise showered on him by all parties. On the day, he went to the Rashtrapati Bhawan to take oath as a pro-tem Speaker, he had to wear a buttoned-up Nehru suit because of protocol but he looked much comfortable in his Bengali dress on Friday.

Everyone expressed great expectations from Somnath Chatterjee who occupies the seat of the Speaker after more than three decades of experience as one of the most active members of the House. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee had a typical gem of remark to point out that Chatterjee has been elected election after election from Bolpur constituency and known for speaking a lot in the House but the new responsibility will deprive him of that privilege.

The process of Somnath da's election was over in just five minutes as 19 motions for the Speaker's election were moved and seconded by leaders of various parties, including Sonia Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and leaders of 18 other parties.

BJD's Arjun Sethi and Akali Dal's S S Dhindsa, who had apparently not given notice of motions by the deadline that ended at noon on Thursday, tried to bring motion in the House to join rest of the parties in unanimously electing the Speaker but the pro-tem Speaker didn't oblige. They later got opportunity to welcome Somnath Chatterjee during the
speeches that followed his installation as the Speaker.

Interestingly, among the 19 motions were four proposed by the four left parties -- CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Block -- but none called him "comrade" as they have been doing every day as the movers alike those of other parties preferred to call him "Shri Somnath Chatterjee." All motions
read : "That Shri Somnath Chatterjee, a member of this House, be chosen as the Speaker of this House."

One of the motions was by JMM leader Shibu Soren, seconded by his party colleague Hemlal Murmu, but Shibu sent the House into laughter by not reading his motion but stating that "Sonia Gandhi ne jo prastav kiya hai, uska mai samarthan karta hun (I support the motion brought by Sonia
Gandhi)" and Murmu to referring to Sonia Gandhi's motion while seconding. Pro-tem Speaker Balasaheb had to ask him: "Sorenji, aap apna khud ka motion move kare (Soren, move your own motion)" and then only Shibu Soren corrected.

Though both the ruling and the opposition parties sponsored motions to elect Somnath Chatterjee, there was no thumping of desks from the opposition when Sonia Gndhi moved the first motion and Pranab Mukherjee seconded. The thumping of desk was throughout the House, however, when former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee moved the second motion.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was the first to greet Somnath Chatterjee in the speeches that followed his installation in the chair. The PM described him as "our guide, friend and philosopher" over the next five years.

Opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani was signalling Vajpayee to speak next but Somnath Chatterjee chose to call Pranab Mukherjee second as the leader of House and then Advani as the leader of the Opposition, followed by Sonia Gandhi and then Vajpayee. There were murmurs when Sonia Gandhi,
reading out from her written speech chose to also state that "people have rejected politics of divisiveness."

Basudeb Acharya, who becomes leader of the CPI(M) with Somnath Chatterjee's elevation as the Speaker, was nonstoppable as ever even in felicitation. He went on and on until Somnath Chatterjee finally intervened, amid laughter, to state that in his new avatar the first order that he has to give is that "CPI(M) member end speech." Basudeb still went
on for another one minute before concluding.

Advani said the parties with different ideologies get elected and he was confident that under a liberal like Somnath Chatterjee the ideology will not be a matter of "untouchability." He certainly had reason to state so as Somnath Chatterjee's leftist ideology can never pal with the rightist ideology of the BJP.

He also exuded confidence that the Speaker would give more importance to the Opposition so that "Opposition has its say since in any case the government with majority will always have its way."