Capital heat sends some VVIPs on vacation

With President K.R. Narayanan and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee finalising their summer plans, ministerial aspirants in the NDA have g...

With President K.R. Narayanan and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee finalising their summer plans, ministerial aspirants in the NDA have given up hope of a Cabinet reshuffle and expansion after the budget session ends. The President is off to Ooty on May 8 for a fortnight of Ayurvedic treatment. When he gets back, Vajpayee plans to make his annual pilgrimage to Manali. On May 30, he flies to Turkey and Kazakhstan.

Of course, a swearing-in ceremony doesn8217;t take much time or planning. But pessimism is the mood of the day in the NDA. Those waiting in the wings for a share in the spoils of office have now set their sights and hopes on the week before the monsoon session of Parliament. By then, they feel, the holiday mood in the Government will be over and Vajpayee can finally attend to the promised facelift for his Cabinet.

TDP MPs, speechless

Telugu Desam Party MPs are feeling orphaned these days. Lok Sabha Speaker GMC Balayogi8217;s sudden death has left them without a place to roost in Parliament House. Balayogi had given them a free run of the Speaker8217;s office, virtually turning it into a post office through which TDP MPs routed complaints and requests from friends, relatives and voters in their constituencies. Now Chandrababu Naidu has slammed that door shut by formally declining to nominate a successor to Balayogi.

Worse, the powers-that-be are giving them the icy treatment. TDP MPs are grumbling that they no longer have free access to NDA ministers as in the days when Babu was a valued ally. The fall in their status has driven a rift in the TDP with some of the younger MPs openly criticising Babu for getting into an unnecessary confrontation with the BJP over Gujarat.

Maya on roll: Episode 1

One would have thought IAS officers in Uttar Pradesh would be used to the transfer raj of their political masters. It appears not because a storm is brewing in Lucknow over Mayawati8217;s appointment of Shashank Shekhar Singh as Principal Secretary Industries. It8217;s a coveted post which gives Singh control over the industrial belts of NOIDA and Greater NOIDA. And he continues to head the civil aviation department. IAS circles are up in arms because they consider Singh a rank outsider. He8217;s a former pilot who made a lateral entry into the civil services thanks to the goodwil he earned by flying political leaders at election time. His unexpected rise in Mayawati8217;s charmed circle has upset bureaucratic equations. Suddenly, babus looking for cushy postings are making a beeline for Singh instead of using the established route through Mayawati8217;s Principal Secretary P L Puniya.

Naidu8217;s gravy train

It8217;s not only politicians and bureaucrats who feed on the system. So do journalists. Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has included the media in his jumbo foreign junket gift to his MLAs. Three journalists will now accompany each of the six batches of MLAs off to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and China, ostensibly to 8216;8216;study economic reforms8217;8217;.

It8217;s a neat way of bypassing inevitable criticism of the drain on the state exchequer. In fact, a concerned citizen had filed a PIL in an Andhra court against Babu8217;s sop to keep the MLAs in good humour. The PIL was dismissed but the court intervened partially to stop the MLAs from taking their spouses and children with them.

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Ironically, all the Congress MLAs are availing of Babu8217;s gravy train. Although PCC chief Satyanarayan Rao tried to stop them, he quickly backed down when there was a revolt in the ranks. Only the Leftists have refused the offer. It still adds up to a total of 290 MLAs ready to fly.

General inspiration

Loktantrik Congress MP Rajiv Shukla gave Vajpayee some food for thought during the Gujarat debate in the Rajya Sabha. He saluted Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for cracking down on fundamentalists within his country. Why can8217;t we do it here in India, he asked. There were no answers from the treasury benches.