Chaturvedi146;s coup

Chaturvedi took advantage of the deadlock to push for retaining his job for one more year. He was supported by the PM8217;s Principal Secretary, T K A Nair, who feared that otherwise Chaturvedi might be inducted into the PMO. Before formalising the extension, Manmohan Singh took the precaution of sending his Joint Secretary, Pulok Chatterjee, to 10 Janpath to get Sonia Gandhi8217;s approval.

Quotaed out of turn

L K Advani has yet to come to terms with the fact that he can no longer call the shots in the party. The BJP core committee met last Friday and jointly decided the party8217;s position on reservations and agreed that it would be spelt out by party president Rajnath Singh in his presidential speech at the national executive. But Advani preempted the announcement by speaking on reservations at the inauguration of a small park in south Delhi on Sunday. He issued a press release of his speech and followed it up with an interview to a Delhi newspaper. Advani did not merely try to steal the president8217;s thunder, he also digressed from the official party line.

The normally mild-mannered Singh was infuriated enough to contemplate mentioning in his speech that only the party president can make a statement about policy changes. He was persuaded not to make his annoyance public.

Oops, another Kalamity

President Abdul Kalam, who has become more alert after his faux pas giving assent to the Governor8217;s order on the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly, seems to have done his homework on the office-of-profit Bill thoroughly and all on his own. He became concerned after reading a newspaper article by noted jurist Fali S Nariman criticising the legislation. The President asked for a CD and copies of the speeches of the parliamentary debate on the Bill. Kalam, who sits up late at night reading and researching on the Internet, is believed to have gone through all the articles on the subject. From the Election Commission website he reportedly personally downloaded his own order disqualifying Jaya Bachchan.

Youthful games

The Congress move to install Rahul Gandhi as general secretary of the party has got temporarily derailed with the continuing agitation on the OBC reservation issue. It does not make sense to project Gandhi as a youth icon at a time when young students are up in arms over quotas. The Congress hopes to make Rahul8217;s youth and patrician image its special weapon in next year8217;s assembly elections in UP.

UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav recently remarked that if the Samajwadi Party won the assembly elections in 2007 his position would be the same as that of Jyoti Basu in West Bengal. Most assumed that Mulayam8217;s statement was merely to please the Left, which unlike other UPA allies has steadfastly refrained from attacking him. But an alternative construction that could be put on his words is that Mulayam sees for himself a position like Basu as paterfamilias while his son Akhilesh gets to play the role of Buddhadev Bhattacharya. The SP plans to project Akhilesh as a counter to Rahul in the coming assembly polls. Akhilesh at 32 is younger than Rahul, who is 35. He has a management degree from Australia and has worked extensively in his Kannauj constituency.

Of treasurers and treasures

As treasurer of the Congress party, Moti Lal Vora had to appear before the Pathak Commission since the party was named as one of the beneficiaries of the oil-for-food scam in the Volcker report. With the CBI, Vora managed to avoid cross-examination by sending an affidavit stating that no money had been received by the party.

Official party treasurers are generally the last to know about major fundraising efforts. Vora, who has been treasurer for nearly a decade, is in the same mould as one of his predecessors, Sitaram Kesri. He is basically a loyalist who makes sure that lights are switched off and that bills for election expenses submitted on time. Large-scale money collections are done by others in the party who don8217;t necessarily make entries in ledger books. It is party treasures such as Murli Deora, Kamal Nath, Subbi Rama Reddy, Ahmed Patel and sundry chief ministers who help out with fundraising.

Similarly, in the BJP, Ved Prakash Goel might be the official treasurer, but it is others like the late Pramod Mahajan who the party turns to when hardpressed for cash.

Upper House raises bar

The Rajya Sabha General Purposes Committee has taken the high moral ground by rejecting the proposal for a 24-hour parliamentary TV channel on the lines of the Lok Sabha8217;s new channel. At a meeting last month, most MPs opposed the concept of the channel and were unanimous that the financial help of PSUs should in any case not be sought since these bodies are subject to scrutiny by various parliamentary committees.