A time to celebrate 151; and to strike work

BJP president Rajnath Singh is irrepressible when it comes to Pakistan. As the past weeks have shown, he never tires of churning out one hawkish statement after about the neighbouring country, sometimes even basing his statements on hearsay. Only last week he advised the government against allowing Pakistani aircraft from entering Indian airspace, a step last taken by the Centre after the terrorist attack on Parliament in 2001. Party insiders say there is a method to all that the BJP president has been saying of late. Known to be deeply religious, he also has great faith in astrology and among the astrologers Singh apparently consults is Sudhanshu Trivedi8212;who has advised the BJP leader that if he took a hardline stand on Pakistan-related issues, his stock would rise within the party, boost his status and cement his position as party boss. Going by what he has been saying, Singh is certainly aiming star-high.

No fruits for Blossom

Days before the Cabinet reshuffle actually took place, it was known that Pranab Mukherjee would be given the External Affairs portfolio. The search was for his replacement in the Defence Ministry. It ended at A K Antony8217;s door, but before that some people tried to persuade Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to keep the Defence portfolio with himself. They reminded him that some of his predecessors like Indira Gandhi, Narasimha Rao and V P Singh had themselves been in charge of Defence for long periods. The PM declined, having considered maybe the possibility of a arms scandal blowing up with him in charge. However, what surprised everyone about the reshuffle was the Labour portfolio going to Oscar Fernandes. Even senior Congressmen and ministers believed that Fernandes, for long a minister without portfolio, would return to the party. Congress sources now say that credit for what happened should go to Fernandes8217;s wife, Blossom. She met party president Sonia Gandhi and pleaded that her husband be given a proper slot in the Cabinet. As it turned out, the effort paid off8212;not in full measure perhaps since Fernandes managed only a posting as minister of state with independent charge and not as Cabinet minister. The disappointment of the Fernandeses was quite apparently when they did not show up at the swearing-in.

Distant voice

Continuity and consensus being the cornerstone of Indian foreign policy, it is an unwritten rule in Indian politics that when touring abroad political leader criticises the government of the day on foreign policy matters. But BJP leader Jaswant Singh, now in the US both as fellow of the Asiatic Society and to promote his book A Call to Honour, is criticising his own party to all and sundry. Singh is believed to be still piqued over the party8217;s failure to back him on his allegations about a US mole in the PMO when Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister. So, whenever an opportunity arises in the US, he lashes out at his party colleagues. The BJP veteran may not be warmly received by partymen upon his return home. Everything that Singh has said in the US against his party has been faithfully relayed back to the BJP headquarters in Delhi and to party seniors as well.

Causing a flutter

Last week, one Mr Rogers found himself in unexpected trouble when he was suddenly picked up from the Gymkhana Club where he was staying as a guest of a retired Army officer. The ever vigilant SPG man perched on a tower on the perimeter of the PM8217;s residence spotted a man moving around with a binocular in his hands and promptly alerted the Delhi Police. Within an hour, Rogers was in the company of policemen. It took until evening for the security personnel to be convinced that it was simply some clean bird watching. The handful of books on ornithology in Rogers8217; baggage saved the day for him. In his late 60s, Rogers is a keen bird watcher and had begun the day looking for birds in and around the Gymkhana, which adjoins the PM8217;s Race Course Road dwelling. It turned out that his son is married to the daughter of an ex-Army officer. This was his first visit to India and he did not know he was treading on sensitive territory.

10-year itch

Lok Sabha member from Sonepat Kishan Singh Sangwan and Abhimanyu Singh are lobbying hard to win the top post in the Haryana BJP. Both have tried to build a case for a 8220;kisan8221; read Jat state president to strengthen BJP at the grassroots. But their nemesis has come in the guise of some resourceful people in the party, who have dusted the party constitution and dug out a clause that says only someone who has been a primary member of the party for 10 years can become a party president. Sangwan was an Indian National Lok Dal member of the Lok Sabha till seven years ago. And Singh joined the BJP with at Delhi just before the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. A desperate Singh is now proffering old photo albums to all and sundry, showing pictures of himself welcoming L K Advani at Rohtak during the 1997 Swarn Jayanti rath yatra. He also shows an Election Commission identity card issued in 1999. It says he was Sahib Singh Verma8217;s poll manager then. To what avail?

Lalu for president

It puzzled senior officials at Rail Bhavan no end when day after day, the file of daily news clippings showcased stories about Brazilian President Luiz Inaacute;cio Lula da Silva who is seeking a re-election in that country. Failing to make any sense of the clippings, the babus concluded that the ministry was either firming up some plans in Brazil or Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was planning a visit to Latin America. It finally took an official to discover that the news about Lula were were finding their way into the daily briefings due to the enthusiasm of the ministry8217;s public relations arm. To the fawning men there, minister Lalu and President Lula were one and the same.

Village wisdom

While there was no talk of Mani Shankar Aiyar being anywhere in the reckoning for the External Affairs Minister8217;s job, the speculation prompted a joke in the Panchayati Raj Ministry. It was said that when Panchayati Raj was clubbed with the Petroleum ministry, it launched the Jan Kerosene Pariyojna. Now it is clubbed with the Sports and Youth Affairs, so it has plans of launching the Panchayati Yuva Khel Yojna. What would happen, if Aiyar took additional charge of External affairs: the joke was that the ministry would launch the Panchayati Export Units. And, it so happened that soon after the reshuffle, a Lankan delegation came visiting to India and the Panchayati Raj Ministry did brief them in their efforts to export India8217;s version of political devolution to neighbouring Sri Lanka.

Press and pressure

Is a top media magnate being set up by the government? That could well seem to the objective going by a meeting between I038;B and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and CPI leader A B Bardhan. When the two met last week to discuss the takeover of a news agency by the media magnate8212;an issue that Bardhan has raised with the Prime Minister8212;the minister is believed to have given the Left leader the low down on the media baron. It seems, from what was discussed, that the government has collected sufficient information to dock the media magnate for the biggest possible offence in the world of Indian communists: being a Sangh Parivar acolyte. To the Left8217;s concerns that the news agency could become a tool to ply the Indian public with dangerous communal news, Dasmunsi is said to have given an assurance that the matter was being looked into. Later that day Bardhan spoke to CPIM leader Prakash Karat and decided that the Left parties would not, after all, issue a joint statement on the takeover of the news agency since the government was being proactive on the issue. One thing that the Left leaders had not been told was that the media magnate has already paid good money for the takeover and it would be interesting to see if the government had any good ideas on how to stop him from control over the news agency.

Sweet nothings

Ever since the fresh debate on the creamy layer has started, HRD Ministry officials are seen busily conferring with each other and other ministries on possible repercussions. But, when broached to a Shastri Bhavan babu, he had a ready answer: 8220;I have stopped having pastries with the cream. Once we know, the creamy layer is in or out, I will resume eating them. I would definitely like to have with the creamy top.8221; Sure, the answer to the Supreme Court8217;s questions seem clear, at least from the movers of the controversial quota bill.

Looking for friends

Shastri Bhavan is rife with speculations about who the next Higher Education secretary will be. With Arjun Singh confidant Sudeep Banerjee retiring on October 30, there are several names doing the rounds. There are no frontrunners, but everyone knows that the new man has to be a 8220;friend8221; of Banerjee and by turn, an Arjun Singh loyalist. Prudent in these troubled times since the last thing Arjun would want is a secretary who doesn8217;t see eye to eye with him. Banerjee8217;s office tells us, many of outgoing secretary8217;s batchmates are hosting him at lunches and dinners. It remains to be seen who gets to eat the dessert.

Friends here too

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, according to sources in the Ministry, is spending sleepless nights. An important member of his coterie, Health Secretary PK Hota, is retiring on October 31. In spite of trying hard to get him an extension, the minister couldn8217;t have his way. According sources Naresh Dayal, additional secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Forests, will come in as health secretary. Many charge Hota8212;ever the Ramadoss loyalist8212;with orchestrating the Venugopal tussle for his boss and of undermining the authority of junior minister M P Panabaka Lakshmi.

All fired up

If there is a single positive from the Jamnagar refinery fire, it is the coming together of Reliance Industries and Essar Oil Ltd. Setting aside the decade-old squabble between the two oil biggies, Essar pumped in its people to quash the fire. Of the three fronts on which the conflagration could be fought, one was handed to Essar8217;s K L Malhotra. This unit strived bravely for more than two hours to extinguish the fire in the high pressure separator vessel. Now there are talks of a rapprochement between their corporate heads. There8217;s always a silver lining in the dark cloud.

Tailpiece

They may swear by all that is bharatiya, but they have just fallen victim to the Indipop bug. Yes, we are talking of the BJP. The political outfit of the puritan Sangh Parivar has finalised three slogans for the next phase of the 8220;hang-Afzal Guru drive8221; scheduled to begin from November. The first two are: 8220;Congress ka haath Afzal ke saath8221; and 8220;Maafi nahin, faansi.8221; However, the third is more interesting: 8220;No maafi, do faansi.8221; A party leader reasoned, 8220;We felt it would be more effective.8221;