Happy Janamdin

A B Vajpayee's birthday gift to L K Advani this year probably broke every tenet in the swadeshi book. It was a bouquet of Thai flowers, purc...

A B Vajpayee8217;s birthday gift to L K Advani this year probably broke every tenet in the swadeshi book. It was a bouquet of Thai flowers, purchased at the Bangkok airport just before he boarded the plane on his way back from his trip to Laos and Cambodia. But then Vajpayee was never a hidebound ideologue. He readily agreed when his aides suggested that he arrive in New Delhi with flowers from Thailand for Advani whose birthday coincided with his return. There was more of the 8216;8216;foreign8217;8217; influence. The PM surprised his entourage by using the English word8212;birthday8212;instead of the chaste Hindi one8212;janamdin8212;when he walked into the arrival lounge. 8216;8216;Aaj Advanji ka birthday hai8217;8217; he announced. And he proceeded to break the protocol line, walking past the emissaries from Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Vice President to wish the DPM before the ceremonial welcome.

UP-II, Playing In Gujarat?

The unseemly scenes by dissidents in Uttar Pradesh may seem like a picnic compared to what8217;s likely to hit the BJP in Gujarat when it gets down to distributing tickets for the forthcoming assembly elections. The VHP is believed to have demanded one-third of the tickets for its nominees as a reward for helping to polarise the Hindu vote through the recent communal violence. The demand could have been dismissed as a bargaining chip similar to the pressure it put on the party in the heydays of the Ramjanambhoomi frenzy. Except that this time, the VHP is said to have threatened to do a Jammu in Gujarat by floating an independent morcha to contest the elections if the BJP doesn8217;t acquiesce. It8217;s put the party in a terrible dilemma. The defeat in Jammu8212;and the consequent Congress victory8212;will haunt the BJP for a long time. It can hardly afford a repeat in its flagship state, Gujarat. The rub is that the VHP can only be accommodated at the cost of denying tickets to sitting MLAs and long time party workers. Is there another rebellion brewing in the ranks, then?

In And Out Of Mt Abu

The ups and downs of Congress palace intrigues leave political watchers breathless. What should they make of the absence of Uttaranchal Chief Minister N D Tiwari and Nagaland Chief Minister S C Jamir at the recent CMs8217; conclave at Mt Abu? The official explanation for Tiwari was that he was busy with the second anniversary celebrations of Uttaranchal Day. Jamir was said to be indisposed. But Assam CM Tarun Gogoi was also unwell. Yet he showed up, even if he had to be helped up the stairs at the railway station. So Gogoi is in but Tiwari and Jamir are out.

Also out is Rajasthan PCC chief Girija Vyas. She was nowhere to be seen at the conclave site although Mt Abu is a stone8217;s throw from her hometown, Udaipur. It can8217;t be because she8217;s a party office bearer and not a chief minister. At the first CMs8217; conclave in Guwahati earlier this year, Assam PCC chief Pavan Singh Ghatawar was all over the place, supervising the arrangements and looking after the media. The buzz on the grapevine is that Vyas was told to stay away. She seems to have taken a major toss in the hierarchy after it was discovered that she was one of the beneficiaries of the petrol pump allotment scam.

Congress Disconnect

The Congress meet meant two unhappy days for the residents of Mt Abu and the hordes of Gujarati tourists on holiday at Rajasthan8217;s only hill resort. The town has only 40 STD lines and all of them were diverted for dedicated use at the conclave. Local PCOs were expressly ordered to allow only delegates to use the phone lines. The journalists who went to cover the conclave shared the misery of the residents. With chief ministers and securitymen for competition, they hardly had any access to the telephones. It was a nightmarish scramble to get their stories out. They left wondering whether this was the 21st century vision promised by the Congress.