Comedy of errors

For instance, Stephen Marandi was anxious to gain leverage by personally securing the support of the Independents, to use them as a bargaining chip. He thought he would lead a group of eight Independent MLAs and insisted that he alone would negotiate with the Independents. In the process, four MLAs who the Congress thought were on its side crossed over to the NDA.

From seven Independent MLAs in the UPA kitty, the number whittled down to five and finally Marandi was left with only three. (One MLA asked to be allowed to go to the toilet and never returned. Another was abusing former chief minister Arjun Munda till 3 am but was not seen the next day).

A Congress leader acknowledges that in retrospect the basic mistake was casting too wide a net and negotiating with all seven Independents together. Two of the Independents were BJP rebels who were RSS supporters. Because the Congressmen feared that one of them might actually be taping their conversations, they were inhibited from discussing terms and conditions of joining too openly with the others.

Loyalty quotients

There could soon be a falling out between Laloo Prasad Yadav and his once-faithful lieutenant Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Minister for Rural Development. Singh is increasingly voicing publicly his own views rather than those of his party president. Singh insists there were mistakes in ticket distribution which led to the RJD defeat. Laloo disagrees and blames the media, Election Commission, CISF and BSF. All of them worked against him, he feels. Laloo makes clear that his notorious brothers-in-law cannot be described as his family; they are merely relatives. ‘‘A family is a unit consisting of husband and wife. Madam (Rabri) has spoken out against them at public meetings.’’

Despite everything, no one can question Laloo’s loyalty to Sonia Gandhi. In fact, he is at times more loyal to the Congress supremo than her own party members. When George Fernandes attacked Sonia in Parliament on Wednesday, it was he and not any Congress minister who kept springing to her defence.

Custom(ex)ised sword

When millionaire MP Vijay Mallya purchased the sword of Tipu Sultan in London and brought it back to India, he assumed he would be applauded for his patriotism. He was taken aback when the Customs demanded a hefty import duty instead. Mallya did not see why he had to pay for bringing back a part of our heritage and was so infuriated at the Customs quoting the rule book that he decided to donate the sword to a museum in San Francisco. But that did not end the dispute, since the Customs declared that this would mean additional duty, since he had both imported and re-exported the sword.

Mallya appealed to Finance Minister P Chidambaram for justice. Chidambaram replied acknowledging that the sword was indeed a national treasure and there was no need for him to pay Customs duty whatsoever and he had the full authority to do what he liked with his purchase. Reassured, Mallya is now planning to bring back his sword.

Beyond mediation

At the time of UPA formation, there was a major battle between Ram Vilas Paswan and Laloo Prasad Yadav after Laloo diddled Paswan of the Railway portfolio. A truce was brokered with the help of V P Singh. But in the present crisis, the former prime minister felt it was too late to bring about a settlement since the Congress had allowed the hostilities to mount for too long. Both Laloo and Paswan spoke to Singh on the telephone after the results. Singh heard out their respective viewpoints and did not try to intervene.

MEA trips

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf informed a Pakistani journalist Wednesday before last that he would like to come to India to watch one of the Indo-Pak cricket matches. The Foreign Ministry, instead of jumping to invite him, hemmed and hawed for a week weighing the pros and cons of inviting the Pakistani President. The MEA spokesman when asked to comment simply remarked ‘‘We have no response’’.

The Prime Minister’s Office had per force to intervene when it realised that the MEA’s dilly-dallying was unnecessarily putting a damper on the sensitive ties at a time when relationship between the two neighbours was on the mend. The PMO instructed the MEA to contact its counterpart in Pakistan to fix the dates for Musharraf’s visit and pointed out that every visit of a head of state to India did not necessarily have to be an official tour. President Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka, for instance, often flies down to India on private trips. Now isn’t that something the MEA should have figured out for itself?

Pehle dulhan, phir baraat

BJP leaders say they got suspicious of Jharkhand Governor Syed Sibte Razi’s intentions when they paraded the five Independents in their camp before him. Instead of satisfying himself that the NDA had the requisite numbers, the Governor was annoyed and asked curtly: ‘‘Why have you brought the baraat before the dulhan has been chosen?’’