Family Friction

It is not political differences but domestic problems which seem to have caused the misunderstanding. When Omar returned to Kashmir as National Conference chief, he discovered that there was very little room for his family in the Abdullah house on Gupkar Road.

Constricted by the lack of space, Payal opened up a room which she thought was vacant for her use, but her two sisters-in-law took objection. Omar has now moved out of the family home and is living in a bungalow allotted to IGP A K Bhan. Omar reportedly has an eye on the palatial Fair View Guest House which Ashok Jaitly, adviser to the chief minister, occupies.

If Omar becomes chief minister, he would like to appoint his own men in key positions since he feels his father’s team has proved inadequate.

Statuesque Dilemma

On October 1, President A P J Kalam will unveil the statues of C N Annadurai, the DMK founder, Muthuramalinga Thevar, who led the movement for opening up Tamil Nadu temples to dalits, S Satyamurthy, a prominent Congress MP from Tamil Nadu and Gopinath Bordoloi, a freedom fighter from Assam.

The inauguration of four different statues at Parliament House has been clubbed together since the President’s Office made it clear that Kalam could not keep visiting Parliament to preside over separate installation ceremonies. The Congress, DMK and Jayalalithaa are now in a predicament since they fear that Subramaniam Swamy, who has donated the statues of Thevar and Satyamurthy, will try and hog the limelight at the function.

Swamy, in fact, has worked systematically for over a year to ensure his two statues get installed. He secured the approval of Parliament’s Statue Committee and got the nod from the late Lok Sabha speaker, G M C Balayogi, and the current Speaker, Manohar Joshi. The Dravidian parties woke up only recently to the embarrassing fact that a statue of Annadurai had been lying under wraps in a corner of the Parliament House library for several years.

In the bargain, the Assam Government, which had commissioned a statue of Bordoloi, realised that if it didn’t act fast enough, there would be no more niches left in Parliament, what with the Tamilians grabbing the lion’s share.

Jayalalithaa has been invited for the ceremony, but it is a moot question whether she will attend, given Swamy’s presence. But can she afford to be absent when three heroes from her state are being honoured? Sonia Gandhi faces a similar dilemma. Does she want to be present at the same show as Swamy, who has launched a dozen cases against her? But with tributes being paid to two Congress stalwarts of an earlier era, her absence will be noted.

Copyright Problem

Narendra Modi has a way with words and was the BJP’s main copywriter in Gujarat for the party’s election slogans long before he became a leader in his own right.

But now that he mouths his own copy, Modi’s demagoguery frequently gives his party a bad name. After the Swaminarayan temple massacre, Vajpayee ordered Modi to display circumspection, but even then Modi could not resist referring to the Pakistan President as ‘‘Miyan Musharraf’’.

The BJP is worried about the VHP’s boast that it will distribute cassettes of Modi’s inflammatory Muslim-bashing yatra speech. Once the electoral process gets into motion, legal experts fear that the speech cassette could be sufficient ground for the Election Commission to disqualify Modi.

Renovation Cycle

The Ministry of External Affairs permitted Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat to move into Hyderabad House as a temporary measure until he could take over his official residence at Maulana Azad Road.

But it is over a month now and the MEA wants Hyderabad House back since it’s the venue for important conferences and banquets for visiting foreign dignitaries. But there is no knowing when the VP will move into his designated house. The ministry is also alarmed over reports of blocked toilet drains and broken fittings in its showpiece palace ever since over two dozen members of the vice president’s family and staff took possession.

Shekhawat, however, can’t move out since Krishan Kant’s widow still occupies his official bungalow. She is waiting for renovations worth Rs 20 lakh for her new house in Krishna Menon Marg to be completed. After which the CPWD will spend around Rs 50 lakh on Shekhawat’s bungalow.

Web of Evidence

The Deputy Prime Minister’s staff has been busy of late locating old photographs and speeches of L K Advani. The ostensible purpose is for a family album, but a deep throat suggests that Advani is planning to open his personal website.