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Journalism of Courage
Advani, the secretive
Piqued over what he thinks is 8220;constant leakage of information8221; to the media, Home Minister L.K. Advani has issued a new order to his staff: shut up. You can meet reporters, even offer them coffee and biscuits but if they ask for information, pass them on to designated additional secretary P.D. Shenoy. Advani8217;s order comes as a surprise to those who have watched him since his days in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry just after the Emergency where he passionately advocated transparency. Some cynics say that one shouldn8217;t take this too seriously. After all, the Prime Minister8217;s Office has four former journalists to 8220;interact with the media8221; and issue handouts. Whether Advani8217;s order applies to his daughter, who is a journalist with the ANI, is not known.
Vajpayee, Vajpayee
Atal Behari Vajpayee is on a roll. After the CHOGM conference, he8217;s flooded with messages of congratulations from all over: 8220;It8217;s almost after 10 years that India so stronglychampioned democracy and human rights.8221; Even those who criticised the BJP Government8217;s warming up to Washington were surprised to hear Vajpayee8217;s criticism of the US for taking a soft line towards Gen Musharraf8217;s regime. Former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral, who considers himself the sole expert on the non-aligned movement, personally congratulated Vajpayee. In the PM8217;s shadow, his Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra also has had his share of the limelight and applause.
What is Sitaram Kesri doing these days? Though he is professing loyalty to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he8217;s also arguing overtime and with vengeance 8212; to anybody who wants to listen 8212; that he got the party 142 seats as its president in 1998. Arjun Singh and M.L. Fotedar had said if Sonia became party chief she would revive the Congress. The result? The party is down by 30 seats in one year. And if this goes on, doom isn8217;t far away. Many agree but few are buying the line. P.V. Narasimha Rao is alsowaiting in the wings to strike back. He is waiting for the verdict in the JMM case where all witnesses have turned hostile; the St. Kitts case is over and the Lakhubhai Pathak case is on its last legs. Wait until March 2000, the old man in a hurry will have some company.
The other Advani
If L.K. Advani is the most active politician going around the town as the PM8217;s troubleshooter, another Advani Philip Advani of Aerospatiale is surely the city8217;s most active lobbyist. When Ananth Kumar was the Civil Aviation Minister, Philip had almost clinched the deal to sell 50-seater small ATR aircraft to the government. The fall of the Vajpayee government changed the scene altogether. The US ambassador, with the assistance of Boeing lobbyist Rajpal Chaudhary, got the ATR deal pushed to the backburner. Even Sharad Yadav, the new man at the Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, is not willing to touch the deal. During his recent meeting with the PM, he said it would be better if a high-powered committee of experts is set up totake the decision. A fresh feasibility study may also be undertaken about the kind of aircraft required. The Boeing is pitching for its 110-seater aircraft. Watch this space for more on the Advani-Chaudhary duel.
Sulking Mahajan
The other day Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan hosted a dinner exclusively for his media and poll survey team. Sudhanshu Mittal, Ram Mohan Rao and Tarlochan Singh were in the 40-member team which worked for almost two months. Mittal who is Mahajan8217;s Man Friday supervised the multi-crore campaign and collected these crores. But he8217;s miffed that the party hasn8217;t 8220;appreciated8221; his work, what with Mahajan now being sidelined. So much so that the once all-powerful Mahajan was made a Minister-in-Waiting for the President8217;s recent European visit. Normally, junior Cabinet ministers are sent for such assignments last time, it was Ananth Kumar, a Mahajan flunky. Political observers are wondering what has gone wrong between Mahajan and the PM. Or is it somebody elsein the PMO who cut Mahajan to size?
