Union HRD Ministry officials are in a bind as Minister MM Pallam Raju plays the guessing game over his resignation over Telangana, especially since some important events like an award ceremony to be presided by him in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee are scheduled during the week.
With both the Ministers of State Shashi Tharoor and Jitin Prasad too unavailable in the Capital, another significant meeting of CABE — the highest decision making body on secondary and higher education of the country — is also lined up this week.
Raju has not turned up in his office at Shastri Bhawan since Thursday and most of the important decisions, meetings scheduled for him in his capacity as the HRD Minister have either been pending, put on hold or cancelled. Protesting the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh (AP) by Union Cabinet last week, Raju tendered his resignation but was asked to stay back by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Raju called on Sonia on Saturday also to discuss the possibilities of his inclusion in the EGOM on Telangana.
“Either way he has resigned and seems to be in no double frame of mind. But since his resignation has not been accepted, he technically continues to remain the HRM. However, only he will have to take a call on the functions. The most important one is the President’s function related to Tamil Nadu Education Department where the HRD is to preside on Wednesday. As of now he is ‘working’ from his residence,” said a close confidant of the HRM.
CABE meeting will see the presence of all the State Education Ministers and Secretaries and top educationists and officials and authorities from across the country on Thursday.
Sources close to him confided that fearing a backlash by the people of constituency, Raju has not visited Kakinada for over two months, though he has been to Hyderabad number of times. “In his capacity as HRM the most precarious situation he is facing now is that all the important educational institutions including IIT, NIT and other universities are in Hyderabad and there is no Plan-B on the issue for the bifurcated state,” sources pointed.