From midnight knocks to faxes

Shooting in the dark

The operation breakaway in Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP was so secret that even BJP vice-president Sushil Modi was in the dark. After several LJP MLAs disappeared from the State, Patna was abuzz that something was cooking although nobody was quite sure in what direction the MLAs were heading. Modi held a pre-emptive press conference accusing Governor Buta Singh of trying to coerce MLAs. The Governor, in a knee-jerk reaction, retorted that parties were horse-trading. Both were, however, shooting in the dark since it was only later that news of the rebel MLAs confabulating in Jharkhand filtered through. Within the NDA, only Nitish Kumar, Sharad Yadav and Arun Jaitley seemed to be in the picture.

Different combing operation

The DGP of Andhra Pradesh, S Sen, has an extraordinary response when the media questions him on combing operations in Naxalite-affected areas. Sen simply takes off his cap, whips out his pocket comb and starts combing his hair. No one is quite sure what he means by this rather ‘‘filmi’’ gesture though some assume that he is implying that combing is only for hair and anti-terrorist forces have to resort to more effective measures.

A complaint has been made to the Home Ministry that Sen’s strange behaviour is in violation of conduct rules for civil servants. The Home Secretary and Home Minister have reportedly taken the complaint seriously.

Report card blues

A hangover of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s past as a professor is that he wants to keep producing progress reports on his cabinet colleagues. After he became PM, Singh instructed his secretariat to monitor whether ministries were adhering to the UPA’s Common Minimum Programme. The PMO’s assessments were circulated to some 55 ministries. When the news leaked to the media, there was an outcry at the arbitrariness of the mark sheets.

To avoid publicity in the next round of stocktaking, each ministry was sent only the PMO’s assessment of its own performance and there was no common mark sheet. But the media managed nevertheless to get hold of the overall report card. The appraisal was a scathing indictment since it claimed that the ministries had fulfilled only ten per cent of the CMP. Ministries such as finance, labour, power, agriculture and coal were ranked at bottom of the class. Newspapers from Sharad Pawar’s home state splashed the news that the PMO had dismissed the agriculture ministry’s record with a ‘‘could do better’’ appraisal. Pawar, who is considered an outstanding administrator, was understandably furious. He complained to the PM and accused a Maharashtrian in a senior position in the PMO of deliberately leaking the news.

In a damage control exercise, the PM’s media adviser, Sanjay Baru, denied the existence of the report card, but when confronted with a xerox of the appraisals, covered up with the ingenuous explanation that this was not a mark sheet but normal file notations. The IB was asked to find out how the assessments leaked to the newspapers.

The man behind the grading system is Pulok Chatterjee, a joint secretary in the PMO and also in the NAC secretariat. Since he wears two important hats, no one has questioned him on his marking methods, especially in view of his proximity to Sonia Gandhi.

Buta’s nine lives

Many politicians compare Buta Singh to a cat with nine lives. The media has written his political obituary more than once, but each time he has bounced back. After Operation Blue Star, Singh was ex-communicated by the Akal Takht. His own party was so annoyed with him that Rajiv Gandhi, through an Intelligence agent, reportedly sent a campaign contribution for Singh’s BJP opponent in the Lok Sabha polls. A few years later, Singh was back in the limelight. He mended fences with his community by undergoing the penance of polishing shoes at the gurdwara. He was appointed a minister in the Narasimha Rao government, where he became embroiled in the JMM bribery case.

Buta won as an Independent MP in 1998 and joined Vajpayee’s first government as minister for communication. For his swearing-in, he wore a saffron scarf and claimed that he had always been a Ram Bakht. But when he was chargesheeted in the JMM case, he had per force to resign. Many assumed that they had seen the last of Singh in active politics. But luck favoured him yet again. He re-joined his old party and though he lost the last election he was pensioned off with a governorship. He had now become a virtual ruler of Bihar.