Counting chickens

Amending attitude

The amendment of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act had a smooth and speedy passage through Parliament. The consensus in Parliament was because Home Minister P. Chidambaram ensured that the Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani was taken into confidence before the presentation of the Bill. Advani, in turn, suggested that the Home Ministry consult Arun Jaitley. Many of Jaitley8217;s suggestions, including some taken from POTA, were incorporated.

On the other hand, some non-Congress chief ministers have not taken kindly to the rather peremptory 8220;tone and tenure8221; of a Home Ministry advisory this month on steps to be taken to contain terrorism. The Kerala Home Minister, for one, felt that the Centre seemed to assume it was addressing centrally funded organisations rather than autonomous State governments. He warned that such an attitude would hurt centre-state relations.

Greeted with song

The senior hierarchy of the Congress, including Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, was present at the wedding festivities of Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer8217;s youngest daughter Sana. Even DMK chief M. Karunanidhi8217;s daughter, Kanimozhi, flew down from Chennai. The exuberant Aiyer sang three old favourites from the sixties for the benefit of the bridal couple, his wife and the wedding guests. Vice-president Hamid Ansari, an old friend who arrived while Aiyer was belting out the Stevie Wonder song I just called to say I love you waited patiently for the host to finish. Aiyer remarked, tongue in cheek, that the vice-president had probably never been welcomed before in quite this manner.

Debarred from politics

Sanjay Dutt was seen recently in Uttar Pradesh attending a function organised by Mulayam Singh Yadav. This fuelled speculation in the media that the actor, who has expressed a desire to join politics, would be the SP-Congress candidate for the Lucknow or Mainpuri parliamentary seat. Actually Dutt cannot stand for election since he has been convicted for illegal possession of an AK 47 and destruction of evidence. Unless the Supreme Court overturns Dutt8217;s conviction, he is debarred for life from contesting under Election Commission rules.

Slept through it all

There is an unusual tale of a trapped guest in the Taj hotel during the terrorist attack which never made it to the newspapers. A septuagenarian Parsi gentleman living in Hong Kong visits the Taj, Mumbai, every November and stays in the same room in the heritage wing. On the night of the siege of the hotel, the elderly guest had taken off his hearing aid and dentures and gone to sleep, blissfully unaware of the turmoil at his doorstep. The next morning, finding no one answering his call for room service, he headed towards the breakfast room. A stunned commando saw him walking down the deserted corridor and asked him just where he thought he was heading. Finding it difficult to make the guest understand the gravity of the situation, the commando simply wrapped the guest up in a blanket and whisked him out of the building, while the old man protested angrily that he first had to collect his luggage.

Options open

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna has sent a circular announcing a meeting of the UP coordination committee, of which Rahul Gandhi is also a member, on January 3. The circular asks the committee members to submit names of suitable candidates for all 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Does this mean that the Congress is uncertain about an electoral tie-up with the Samajwadi Party in UP and is keeping an alternative plan ready in case of a breakdown of talks? Or is it a way of putting pressure on the SP during negotiations over seat sharing?