Bollywood calling

The highlight of the show was Goel’s own performance. He sang the song Udja kale kava re from Gadar, much to the surprise of his leaders.

Vajpayee remarked to the Bollywood troupe later that he had no idea his minister could sing so well. It turns out Goel, who also plays the tabla, has been trying out his voice at jagrans and cultural functions in his Chandni Chowk constituency.

The next day, the PM spent a private half hour with the artistes. They sang songs for him and he recited his poems for them. Vajpayee spoilt the cosy exchange slightly by commenting that he preferred the songs from Dilip Kumar’s Devdas. Shreya obliged by singing those as well.

Joshi gifts college

THE size and scale of the presents Vajpayee received from his BJP compatriots on his birthday rivalled those Jayalalithaa’s sycophants give her. Goel’s gift was, of course, the India Gate jamboree. Advani presented him a lifesize portrait. But Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi’s offering beat all others. He got the one-year-old IT institute in Gwalior renamed the Atal Behari Vajpayee Institute of Information Technology and Management.

The rechristening ceremony, performed on the PM’s birthday, was marred by sloganeering from Youth Congress workers demanding that the institute carry the name of the other illustrious son of Gwalior, the late Madhavrao Scindia. It’s a tussle that’s been on for some time now between the Gwalior units of the BJP and Congress. But Joshi’s argument has been that the Scindia name is all over the city. It’s time that Gwalior acknowledged Vajpayee.

IFS loses home ground

FOREIGN Service officers are dismayed at the lobbying that’s on among offices of their two ministers to head the Indian Council for Cultural Relations’ (ICCR) Tagore Centre in Berlin. Traditionally an IFS patch, former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh broke convention to reward his private secretary with the post. Now, it seems that officers serving the new minister, Yashwant Sinha, and his MoS, Digvijay Singh, are eyeing the job, much to the chagrin of the IFS which was hoping to reclaim it.

The Service has already lost the Maulana Azad Centre in Egypt to a former official in the PMO. A confidante of Advani is believed to be trying hard for a posting to London to head the Nehru Centre. There are four new ICCR offices on the anvil, in Washington, Tokyo, Teheran and Dushanbe. But the news has hardly raised a ripple in IFS circles, which fear they’ve lost a large chunk of turf to politics.

Sheila off track

DELHI’S newest toy, the Metro, hasn’t brought Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit much joy. She lost out in the publicity game to Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani when the train had its trial run a couple of months ago. When it was formally inaugurated last week, she was overshadowed by the Prime Minister.

Her worried spin doctors came up with the idea of getting her some publicity by sending her on the train again the next day. Unfortunately, Dikshit disappeared unsung and unnoticed in the mobs which came in waves for their first ride on a subway.

With Delhi Assembly elections less than a year away, the Metro has become a hot political issue with both the BJP and the Congress trying to claim credit for gifting the Capital a new transport system.

The cards seem to be stacked against the Congress, especially after Delhi BJP chief Madan Lal Khurana’s appointment as Chairman of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. Dikshit will have to make do with more mundane successes like getting buses to change over to CNG fuel and breaking the auto strike.

BJP leaders upstaged

The Young Turks of the BJP ruffled feathers at last week’s National Executive Meet by keeping former party presidents away from the dais. It’s the first time that senior leaders were denied this privilege and they didn’t hide their displeasure.

Bangaru Laxman didn’t bother to turn up for the concluding session. Jana Krishnamurthy sent word that he wasn’t well. Murli Manohar Joshi was absent for the inaugural session on the plea that he had a function to attend in Allahabad. Kushabhau Thakre is believed to have complained about the show of disrespect.