PUNE, 7 May 2005 — Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on his return from New Delhi, said that journalists would not even know when the expansion of his Cabinet will take place, and the expansion will come as a shock to many.
This surprise revelation by the chief minister has ended two weeks of Cabinet expansion discussions, and has given a new turn to the event.
The chief minister attended his office after six days’ absence. Journalist in large numbers assembled in his chamber enthusiastic to know as to what had transpired between the chief minister and the Congress party high command leaders in New Delhi during his recent visit.
When quizzed about the expansion, Deshmukh shot back: “Don’t worry, the expansion will take place.” Before the journalists could fire the next question, Deshmukh took the lead and said that journalists will get a shock on the expansion news. “I have given such shock to the journalists and the politicians earlier, and I would do that again,” the chief minister said.
Deshmukh refused to comment on the remarks made against him by the All India Congress Committee General Secretary Margaret Alva and state Congress committee President Prabha Rau.
There is growing dissidence against the chief minister for his style of working. Congres workers have complained to the party leadership that the chief minister was not interacting with the legislators and parliamentarians and not addressing their grievances. Congress dissidents have been lobbying for a change of leadership in the state and want that the chief minister to be replaced at the earliest.
Congress party treasurer and MP Suresh Kalmadi has not been on good terms with the chief minister and had alleged that the chief minister was delaying or neglecting vital development projects on one pretext or the other.
In another development, the Indian Army is conducting an intelligence exercise to protect itself from its own men. In a regular security drill to check on the activity of enemy agents who may penetrate and peep into classified documents stored into the hard disks of the personal and official computers of the army, Lt. Gen. B.S. Thakkar, chief of the Southern Command headquarters of the Indian Army in Pune, has ordered the scanning of all the computers of army personnel in their offices and residences.
The order to scan the computers is applicable to all ranks, and army intelligence officials have even scanned the personal computer of their own army commander Gen. Thakkar, who had himself volunteered to the scanning of his computer.
