Elixir of victory

Crossing boundary lines

The Jharkhand fiasco has exposed the flaws in the Congress policy of division of labour, by which Race Course Road runs the government and 10 Janpath handles party and political affairs. Governor Sibte Razi got his instructions from those claiming proximity to Sonia Gandhi, and hence no one in Government dared to challenge them. Home Minister Shivraj Patil who has the authority to summon the governor for discussions remained comatose. Kapil Sibal was one of the few ministers who reportedly warned that the party was unnecessarily getting a bad name.

When Sonia Gandhi was consulted after the Supreme Court ruling on Jharkhand, she emphasised that nothing unconstitutional should be done, but offered no concrete suggestion. The views of Singh’s senior Cabinet colleagues differed. One minister even felt that the Jharkhand Speaker should ignore the court order. The next evening, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after a meeting with senior Cabinet colleagues finally advised the Governor to ask Soren to step down. It is doubtful whether the advisers at 10 Janpath appreciated Singh taking the initiative, they would have wanted ‘‘madame’’ to get the credit.

Unwarranted precedent

Now that he has lost his chief ministership a chastened Shibu Soren is keen to get back his job as union minister for coal and mines for the third time in less than a year. Last year, Soren had to step down after an arrest warrant for murder was issued against him, and he was brought back to the Cabinet only after he secured bail in the case.

Manmohan Singh, however, is in no hurry to re-induct Soren after the bad name he has brought the Government. Soren may have to cool his heels for a while after the current Parliament session ends. Another person who is in the doghouse is R K Anand, who was a key adviser for the botched-up Jharkhand operation and who has not been seen in Parliament for many days.

Family, not cultural, ties

A recent function of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations to felicitate some 250 NRI doctors who had adopted a village in Punjab was a bit out of the ordinary. The ICCR’s job is to showcase India’s cultural talents to the world and NRI doctors are not exactly part of its ambit. But ICCR Chairman Najma Heptullah’s guest list for the programme suggests that she had kept her own priorities in mind, if not those of the ICCR. Most of her NRI doctors were based in the USA and of Pakistani origin, as is Heptullah’s son-in-law who had escorted them to India. L K Advani, who was a key speaker at the function, is Heptullah’s party president. Pranab Mukherjee was the chief guest at the function, though Heptullah, who defected from the Congress is not a favourite of his party. Perhaps the fact that Mukherjee’s dancer daughter was performing at the function was the inducement.

Kashmir’s Bulbuls

More than two decades back, Shamima Dev was a popular singer on AIR Kashmir and Ghulam Nabi Azad was so smitten by her melodious voice that he married her. But since her marriage to the Congress leader, Shamima has sung in public only occasionally. Which explains the heartburn in her home state on her being awarded the Padma Shri this year, considering that the two leading singers of Kashmir, Raj Begum and the late Zoon Begum, have never made it to the Republic Day honours list.

I told you so

When Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf first sent a feeler through the media that he wanted to watch a cricket match in India, the MEA did not bite the bait. The PMO finally stepped in and took the initiative, suggesting that the MEA should appreciate the subtle difference between an official trip and a private visit. But once the invitation was sent to the canny General, he made it clear that cricket was not on his mind. The only venue acceptable to him was Delhi and there would be nothing unofficial about his trip. Now the MEA has reason to feel vindicated.

Powerhouse politics

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee assumed that the Congress would back him on a presidential reference on Jharkhand since several senior Congress ministers felt the court had overstepped its jurisdiction. The party had even sounded Fali Nariman on the possibility of representing the Government in court if the need arose. Since Nariman had made clear he favoured a presidential reference, it was assumed that the Congress was of the same view.Law Minister H R Bhardwaj advised strongly against challenging the court. This would only put up the backs of the judges and the apex court was unlikely to censure itself. Bhardwaj was particularly upset that other Cabinet colleagues should discuss legal options since he felt it was his exclusive prerogative. ‘‘I don’t bother about the party I draw my strength from the power house,’’ he remarked to a journalist. (The powerhouse being a reference to Sonia Gandhi.)