Big 2, No 3

Murli Manohar Joshi is keen to establish through the media that he is the number three in the BJP. To buttress his claim, Joshi insists on s...

Murli Manohar Joshi is keen to establish through the media that he is the number three in the BJP. To buttress his claim, Joshi insists on squeezing himself next to L K Advani at airport reception lines.

At party functions he demands that a chair be put for him on the dais along with Vajpayee and Advani. But the big two in the party have deliberately kept Joshi out of the key decision-making bodies in government. The informal ministerial brains trust comprises Vajpayee, Advani, George Fernandes, Jaswant Singh and Pramod Mahajan.

Joshi has not even been made a member of such key bodies as the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and the Cabinet Committee on Security. And his efforts to upgrade his portfolio from HRD to finance have failed.

Joshi is banking on the RSS leadership to press his claim since he is on their side on economic issues. Unfortunately, the RSS8217;s blessings can no longer ensure Joshi8217;s elevation. There has been a dramatic upheaval in the RSS-BJP chain of command ever since the old RSS stalwarts like Balasaheb Deoras passed away.

Today, Vajpayee and Advani are older than the RSS chief, K S Sudarshan, who is under 70. As former pracharaks, they do not feel they have to take their junior as a pracharak too seriously, particularly since, unlike his predecessors, Sudarshan is in the habit of shooting off his mouth.

Thanking You, Advani

The RSS is unhappy with Advani for appearing on the same platform as Mayawati during her recent Lucknow rally. Advani8217;s self-serving gesture in thanking Mayawati for her help in getting him off the hook in the Babri masjid demolition case has infuriated the party8217;s Thakur backers in UP, including Rajnath Singh.

The BSP8217;s Muslim supporters are equally upset. Despite the opposition from both parties cadres, Advani is keen for the BSP to cement its alliance further by accepting a central ministership in the NDA government. If the proposal fructifies, the BSP minister in the Vajpayee government could well be Lok Sabha MP Rashid Alvi.

Watching His Weight

Before he addressed the conference of Directors General of Police in New Delhi, Prime Minister Vajpayee had a private meting with police officers from all over India. Since confidential and sensitive issues such as border security and the hunt for Veerapan were discussed, a DGP wondered whether an SPG man standing very close to the PM should be present.

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A senior police officer from Delhi explained that the SPG shadow was not hovering around to eavesdrop on the conversation, but to gesture to the waiter not to keep serving Vajpayee gulab jamuns. The overweight PM needs constant reminders of his diet restrictions!

Rebels With Cause

Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is in a quandary. He suspended three BJD MPs and a few days later they along with three others wrote to the Lok Sabha Speaker demanding that Navin8217;s ineffectual parliament party leader Arjun Charan Sethi be removed.

The six rebel MPs, who form the majority in the BJD8217;s 10 member group in the Lok Sabha, have described Sethi8217;s weekly parliamentary party conference as for 8216;8216;eating and not meeting8217;8217;. Whenever they tried to raise serious business issues, Sethi would offer them another pakora instead, they complained.

The MPs have even offered the CM their resignations provided Patnaik can deliver a 10-minute speech in Oriya without aid of a paper. This is a snide reference to the fact that after two-and-a-half years in office, Patnaik8217;s Oriya is still not even rudimentary, as he keeps bunking his language tuitions.

Rebel MP Prabhat Samantaray compares Patnaik to the emperor Nero who fiddled while Rome burned. Orissa which was the fifth poorest state in India when Patnaik took over is now at the bottom of the list. Patnaik has even washed his hands of the rebel MPs claiming it is now Vajpayee8217;s headache, not his.

Balancing Act

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Doordarshan staff8217;s standing instructions are that the three people who must be covered on important occasions are the PM, the Dy PM and the I038;B Minister Sushma Swaraj. It is permissible to omit other NDA ministers, in fact a blackout of Swaraj8217;s political rivals like BJP spokesperson Arun Jaitley is encouraged.

But DD is meticulous in ensuring that Vajpayee and Advani get almost equal play. So much so that while the PM was shown on Independence Day at the Red Fort flag hoisting, a DD camera team went to Advani8217;s residence to to balance it out and cover the Dy PM raising the flag for the benefit of his family and staff on his lawn.

During the Akshardham attack, since Vajpayee was away in the Maldives, Advani hogged the lion8217;s share of TV time in the beginning. Apprehensive that an impression was being created that Advani was in total charge while the PM was vacationing in Male, the PMO8217;s media advisers swung into action. Soon DD kept announcing that the PM was cutting short his visit to the Maldives 8212; although it was by merely a few hours 8212; so that he could fly to Gujarat.

The PMO advisers ensured that Vajpayee8217;s visit to the massacre scene overshadowed Advani8217;s visit earlier in the day.

Illustrations by Ajit Kumar