Digging his own grave

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda regrets his efforts to bail out the UPA Government during the confidence vote in Parliament...

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda regrets his efforts to bail out the UPA Government during the confidence vote in Parliament by securing the support of the five JMM MPs. Before the vote, the BJP had almost succeeded in luring Shibu Soren to its side with the promise of making him chief minister. Soren, angry with the UPA for dragging its feet over reappointing him coal minister, flew to Kolkata to finalise the deal with the BJP. In his absence, Koda quietly won over three JMM MPs, who agreed to support the Government. Soren returned to find that his MPs were firmly ensconced in the UPA camp and he had no option but to go along, since the BJP was interested in all five MPs and not just him alone. Now that Soren has managed to unseat Koda, he has had the last laugh.

Staying on

Asif Zardari was confident about winning the presidential election and much of his confidence stemmed from his cosy understanding with Pervez Musharraf. For instance, Nawaz Sharif assumed that Musharraf would be expelled from Pakistan after stepping down as President. At the time of Musharraf8217;s resignation, rumours were rife that he would be leaving the country and a Saudi aircraft was even kept in readiness. Sharif had anticipated revenge with the General exiled and forced to stay in the Saroor Palace in Saudi Arabia, where he himself had been confined for several years. But his hopes were belied, thanks to Zardari. Musharraf is not planning to leave Pakistan. Instead, he will be moving into his well-appointed farmhouse on 1 A Park Road in Chak Shehzad, Lahore.

Dress statement

A business suit is not the conventional dress code for an Indian politician who is expected to wear clothes more in tune with the aam janta. In fact, former bureaucrat N.K. Singh and senior Reliance executive Parimal Nathwani, who were recently sworn in as Rajya Sabha members, were advised by Janata Dal President Sharad Yadav to give up their business suits and wear something more 8220;neta-like8221; when attending Parliament. As a consequence, the two new MPs have since modified their attire to add a khadi jacket to their western clothes.

Catch 22 in rules

According to Election Commission rules, political parties are expected to explain the source of their funding. The snag is that the rule is not enforceable since a penalty clause is not mentioned. Out of the 920 registered political parties, only 21 have supplied the requisite information on funding to the Election Commission. Mayawati8217;s BSP has not complied. Neither has Lalu Prasad8217;s RJD, even though it is part of the UPA Government. The EC is in fact keen to set up an independent body to audit the finances of political parties.

Pushing for merger

With RAW8217;s image taking a beating in the wake of Nisha Bhatia8217;s charges of sexual harassment, the demand to re-merge RAW and IB has once again surfaced. The suggestion has been made before by past IB chiefs, but this time it carries additional weight since National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan has been stressing the same point in internal discussions. Narayanan is a former IB man and like most from the bureau, he believes that there was no point in the separation of the two organisations, which has resulted in duplication of work and at times mutual recrimination and finger pointing.