Advance notice

The AICC general secretary in charge of Haryana, Janardhan Dwivedi, barely set foot in the State during the poll campaign. In fact, rather than Dwivedi it is party treasurer Motilal Vohra who accompanied Sonia Gandhi on her election rallies. Even during the screening committee meetings for selecting the candidates, Dwivedi took a back seat, though newspapers alleged that large sums had exchanged hands during the ticket distribution.

Dwivedi reportedly developed cold feet in interfering in the Haryana power struggle after a Haryana political stalwart put a gun to his head. The chief ministerial aspirant, encouraged by Dwivedi’s rivals in the party, made allegations about Dwivedi’s matrimonial tangles, which the general secretary did not want to be brought to Sonia’s notice.

No match points

The Asian Eleven versus the World Eleven cricket match was held in Australia, but our deputy high commissioner in Canberra refused to be associated with the event, sponsored by the ICC to raise money for tsunami victims. The deputy high commissioner kept away from the meetings where the arrangements were finalised and did not even show up for the match in Melbourne.

As the Indian high commissioner was mostly out of the country, his deputy was uncertain what line he was expected to adopt towards the fundraiser. After all, the GoI has made clear that it does not want to accept any aid from other countries for tsunami relief. It seems to have escaped the envoy’s notice that the captain of the Asian team was our very own Saurav Ganguly and there were several Indian players participating.

Clubbed club

The lights are flickering in one of the Capital’s best known watering holes, the venerable Press Club of India. There is an air of gloom since all the better liquor brands are missing from the bar. Some regulars have even started bringing their own booze bottles from home. Many of the club’s suppliers have refused to replenish stocks till old dues are settled. The club’s accounts at January-end showed that Rs 55 lakhs was owed to creditors. There were huge amounts outstanding for liquor, groceries as well as the payments to the Employees Provident Fund, ESI etc. Defaulting members have run up Rs 30 lakhs worth of unpaid bills. An additional loss for the club is that the last managing committee, taking a cue from politicians, had agreed to waive club fees for members over 60.

The president, general secretary, treasurer, vice-president and most members of the managing committee have resigned over the last two months. In fact, because of the bad blood among managing committee members, the only communication is through the club’s notice board. Last week, the eight remaining members of the managing committee called for an extraordinary general body meeting to decide on the future course of action.

Caught on wrong foot

Last year, five senior Indian Information Service (IIS) officers were served notices after they demonstrated against the Secretary, Information and Broadcasting, outside his office. They were protesting against Doordarshan’s recruitment of outsiders at salaries far higher than the long-term employees. The appointment of anchorman Deepak Chaurasia, who was perceived to be close to BJP president L K Advani, was particularly resented. The agitation came to nought, but Chaurasia and other political appointees were eased out anyway after the Congress-led UPA came to power last May.

But despite the change in regime, the I&B ministry flatly refused to take back the cases against the charge-sheeted officers. After eight months, a settlement was finally reached that the IIS Officers Association would apologise on behalf of all its cadres and the cases against the five would be closed. A day after the IIS Association’s written apology was received, Prasar Bharati followed the example of the previous government and appointed six politically-connected outsiders to Doordarshan, including Rahul Gandhi’s former press adviser Pankaj Shankar. The salaries of the new appointees are higher than that of the I&B Secretary. The IIS Association, which had apologised just a day back, looks foolish and has no grounds to launch a fresh protest.

Allied suspicion

In the Bihar Assembly elections, Laloo Yadav feels threatened more by his own ally, the Congress, than the BJP. His campaign on the Godhra fire was not just to consolidate Muslim voters in his favour, but to ensure that the upper-caste Hindu voter stays with the BJP and does not shift to the Congress. Laloo fears that the Congress could upset his till-now winning formula of Muslims and Yadavs.

The BJP, meanwhile, is suspicious of its ally, Nitish Kumar. It feels that the JD(U) would happily dump the NDA if the Congress and Ram Vilas Paswan were to be within striking distance of forming a majority in the Assembly.