NEW DELHI: In a dramatic operation to upgrade his status, Minister of State for External Affairs Eduardo Faleiro left his own room and occupied the Foreign Minister’s room left vacant since Madhaysinh Solanki resigned from the Cabinet post.
The move came less than 24 hours after Prime Minister Narasimha Rao appointed veteran Congressman R.L.Bhatiaas the other Minister of State for External Affairs. In fact, Faleiro is reported to have started moving his files into the Cabinet Minster’s room, within hours of Bhatia’s name being announced as Minister of State in the Foreign Office.
An army of peons rushed to and fro to finish moving room for Faleiro. By the time Bhatia came to South Block for his first day at office, Faleiro had already moved lock, stock, and barrel. Since Faleiro had already put up his own nameplate on the door of the room Solanki used to occupy. Bhatia had little option but to move into the room his new colleague had vacated.
Faleiro’s bizz are rush to change rooms appears to be motivated by his keenness to avoid the impression that his colleague in the ministry is senior to him, Since Bhatia is far senior 10 Faleiro both in age and in years spent in the Congress, the latter is believed to be quite jittery at the advent of the former in the ministry.
Faleiro is not the only one in the Foreign Office who is feeling uneasy about Bhatia’s appointment.
Senior External Affairs Ministry officials are also uncertain about whether they will continue to have free run.
Ever since Rao came to power, officials in the ministry have had unprecedented autonomy since both Solanki and Faleiro had lite aptitude or inclination to interfere in policy making.
Bhatia, on the other hand, was previously the convener of the Foreign Affairs Cell of the All India Congress Committee and was used by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for some key diplomatic assignments, including to Afghanistan and China,
Article extracted from this publication >> July 17, 1992
