Manish Tewari’s clout in the Congress and the government is growing. He has been invited to the Cabinet Committee on Investments as an observer, even though he is not in charge of any infrastructure portfolio. He is the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting. The other three invitees are Jayanthi Natarajan, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Montek Singh Ahluwalia. The committee comprises senior ministers and those who are in charge of various infrastructure portfolios. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is part of it, so are Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid is the notable absentee. Tewari is the son of V.N. Tewari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s late colleague in Punjab University. Tewari, a former NSUI and Youth Congress president, was PM’s choice as minister. Tewari is the only MoS who has been attending Cabinet meetings.