Dhoot, Bhoot, Jhoot

Congress Rajya Sabha MP thespian Dilip Kumar was not offered the haunted house, even though he had been waiting patiently for a bungalow for nearly three years. In fact, the eminent artiste seldom comes to Delhi simply because he doesn’t have a house of his own to stay in.

Old Wine, New Bottle

AFTER he was ticked off by Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee for his suggestion of a joint leadership of a lauh purush and a vikas purush, one would have supposed that BJP president Venkaiah Naidu would have abandoned the idea for good. But no such thing. At the end of the party’s Raipur session, Naidu once again was back to the familiar theme asserting that the party’s election slogan would be ‘‘Suraksha aur Vikas’’ (security and development), which cynics point out is simply a new packaging for his old concept!

Congenial Brat

US AMBASSADOR Robert Blackwill’s wife Wera and a friend were waiting at the Sahara VIP lounge in Mumbai when a glamourous movie star walked in. The Bollywood actress clearly had an attitude problem. She insisted on placing her coffee cup on the plush sofa rather than the side table and when the ambassador’s wife remonstrated that the cup could spill on the expensive upholstery the actress retorted insolently that if she felt so strongly then Ms Blackwill could pick up the cup herself.

In a further display of bad manners, the actress grabbed the TV remote control and switched the channel while the two American women were watching a news programme without even asking their permission. When the ambassador’s wife asked whether the actress was being deliberately rude, she retorted that Americans are much ruder and she didn’t need to be given lessons on etiquette.

Curiously the up and coming actress is not usually considered part of Bollywood’s spoilt brat pack, in fact, she has been dubbed Miss Congeniality and Miss Sweetness and Light by the movie magazines!

Employment for Whom?

TWO years ago, the oldest member of the Planning Commission, S.P. Gupta, was asked to prepare a report on generating employment. His committee’s conclusions differed radically from the views of economist, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, then a member of the Commission, and the report was shelved. Now once again Gupta has been asked to head a task force to discover how 50 million jobs can be added to the Indian economy in the next five years. The new 34-member committee, which will include the Chief Minister of Goa, as well as planning secretaries of West Bengal, Orissa, UP, Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Assam, is twice as large as the last task force.

The members will no doubt be extensively touring the country picking up TA and DA in the process. But while the committee may be providing gainful employment to the babus, it is doubtful whether the country will benefit, considering the last employment report had been filed away and forgotten.

Hawks can Coo

THE only outsider present at the meeting between representatives of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad was hotel owner Lalit Suri, since his Grand International Hotel conference hall in Delhi was the venue of the meeting.

The conversation was remarkably civilised with some good natured exchanges even though the two sides, led by Fazal-ur-Rahman and VHP president, Vishnu Hari Dalmia, respectively, represented fundamentally opposite viewpoints.

The MUL did not blench when it heard that the VHP was interested in breaking two more mosques, the ones at Mathura and Kashi. The JuI felt this seemed a reasonable number but reminded that it was up to the VHP to convince the Indian Muslims. The JuI proposed that SAARC countries should form a body on the lines of the EU with a single currency and suggested that India should take the initiative for this move. The point on which opinion was divided was whether there were many Hindus left in Pakistan.

Missing Topic

THE tea hosted by Sonia Gandhi for the Opposition at the start of the Parliament session was a bit like the story of the three blind men and the elephant. People saw what they wanted to see as the outcome of the meeting. Actually all that happened was that the MPs raised issues which they felt needed to be highlighted in Parliament, while Sonia listened silently. Priorities varied from Iraq, Pakistan, Mayawati and Ayodhya to floods, drought, CAS and Star. The question at the back of everyone’s mind as to whether Sonia should be acknowledged Leader of an Opposition coalition for the next general elections was not brought up.