There is a buzz in the corridors of power at the Prime Minister’s Office after Shyam Saran, special envoy on climate change and on the India-US nuclear deal, decided to call it a day.
Already there is huge speculation over who will inherit Saran’s spacious office in the second floor rear corridor of South Block. There are only three other offices in that corridor, those of National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon, prime minister’s principal secretary T.K.A. Nair and prime minister’s personal secretary Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi, whose office is next to that of Saran’s.
Bureaucrats say those who have offices in that corridor are specially close to the prime minister; so the choice of who will occupy that office after mid-March will be a strong indicator of Manmohan Singh’s preference.
