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Journalism of Courage
While walking around the Rashtrapati Bhavan compound, President A P J Abdul Kalam was intrigued to find a truckload of fruit being unloaded for the kitchen. He enquired why such large quantities of bananas, oranges, apples and pears were needed considering that no banquet was scheduled and he himself is a bachelor with simple eating habits. The fruit was placed in trays and used to decorate the guest rooms, was the explanation. The President gently pointed out that there was no point decorating the rooms with fruit when there were no guests. Thanks to Kalam8217;s initiative, the fruit truck no longer makes regular calls at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Predictably, not everyone at Rashtrapati Bhavan was happy with Kalam8217;s efforts to cut household expenses. An old timer grumbled that it was all very well for Kalam to introduce such penny pinching measures but his successors would have a problems living up to his frugal standards.
No panic attack
A curious aspect of the terrorist scare in Parliament on the Friday before last is that the US embassy and consulates in India, which were also supposedly under threat, continued to function normally and did not request the Indian Government for extra security. True, the US consulate in Chennai shut down briefly, but it did so in the wake of Parliament8217;s abrupt adjournment after television channels disclosed the threat to all US consulates in India as well.
Considering that US embassy officials are supposed to have tipped off the Delhi Police in the first place about the threat 8212; the embassy received the e-mail at 9:50 am on December 16, according to reports 8212; it is odd that the embassy itself took no pre-emptive action.
Kudos to Kapoor di Haati
Bollywood star of yesteryears Shashi Kapoor flew to the Capital last week along with his nephew, Rishi Chintu Kapoor and Rishi8217;s wife Neetu for the release of Madhu Jain8217;s book on this remarkable film family. Tales of the Kapoors8217; excesses are legion for they have a weakness for good wine, women and food. One of the family8217;s most endearing characteristics is that they do not try to cover up their indiscretions. Raj Kapoor once confessed candidly that his wife was the mother of his children and his heroines the mother of his films.
Bollywood8217;s first family8217;s openness is a refreshing change from most political dynasties in Delhi who insist on vetting biographies on themselves to ensure that not even a whiff of scandal gets into print. In contrast, Shashi Kapoor endorsed Jain8217;s book without even having read it. 8216;8216;So much has been written, what is there to hide,8217;8217; he explained good-naturedly.
The Kapoor family spanning four generations and over 75 years in the film industry has been compared to the Redgraves and the Barrymores, for managing to produce screen heart-throbs with each successive generation. Randhir Kapoor Dabbu, however, depreciatingly draws parallels instead to the fictitious Corleone family of The Godfather.
Plane speaking
A prominent industrialist and enthusiastic aviator was brutally frank when he called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently. He criticised the government8217;s decision to slash the minimum number of flying hours required to co-pilot a large aircraft from 250 hours to 190 hours on the grounds that there is a shortage of pilots.
The businessman warned that if the chief pilot suffered a heart attack the co-pilot would have to take over control and passengers8217; lives would be at high risk. The Prime Minister explained that the decision had been taken by the Director General of Civil Aviation.
Three-member electorate
Senior BJP leaders and office bearers were not consulted about their preferences as the next party chief. The choice was left entirely to the big three in the Sangh Parivar. Each was rooting for a different candidate. Vajpayee8217;s first preference was Murli Manohar Joshi, Advani8217;s Venkaih Naidu and RSS chief K S Sudershan wanted Rajnath Singh. Sudershan had his way, particularly as Vajpayee was also favorably disposed towards Rajnath Singh8217;s candidature.
Apart from deciding on the next party president, the BJP and RSS are also very exercised over the high proportion of BJP MPs caught in the media8217;s sting operations against corruption. The BJP prides itself on being a party with a difference and that its members are more principled than those in other parties. Normally, the RSS would have blamed the BJP8217;s departure from the Sangh8217;s traditional ideology for the declining standards of its MPs but cannot do so in this case as three of the six BJP MPs caught in the cash-for-questions scam were former RSS pracharaks. A party meeting has been called in Jaipur next month on how to weed out corrupt elements in the BJP.
