IB, or Intriguing Bureau

• L K Advani wanted the IB’s videotape of the demolition of the Babri Masjid from its archives to prove his innocence. The IB director, apparently instructed by officials from the PMO, refused to oblige.

• Indira Gandhi got the IB to check out whether one of her ministers was holding a yagya to destroy her. Another time a bugging device was planted in the office of a party colleague.

• Dhar helpfully ‘‘straightened out the service record’’ of Zafar Saifullah, who ended up as Cabinet Secretary.

• Rajiv Gandhi used the IB to channel funds to BJP candidate Kailash Meghwal to ensure the defeat of his Congress opponent, Buta Singh.

• The IB was used to select the Congress candidates for the 1983 Delhi Municipal Corporation election.

• The IB was asked to bring around a western UP leader to support Narasimha Rao’s government and his price tag was reportedly Rs 500 million!

Jaya boxes Congress

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa knows how to keep both her political foes and allies guessing as to her next move. Ever since her split with the BJP, there has been speculation in Chennai that Jaya might mend fences with the Congress, particularly as she has been lavishing praise on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of late. But judging by Jayalalithaa’s remarks last week in the Tamil Nadu Assembly against state Congress leaders this seems unlikely. The CM described opposition leader S R Balasubramaniam as nothing but a box which holds hing (asafoetida). The next day she remarked that she had been mistaken. Balasubramaniam was not a hing box but an empty box. Jayalalithaa also compared TNCC chief G K Vasan to a snuff box.

Birthday blues

Amar Singh’s birthday party in the last week of January is normally a social event of the Capital with the who’s who of the political world, Bollywood stars, page 3 socialites and Mumbai business magnates in attendance. But this year the SP leader did not throw his customary birthday bash because of the tsunami tragedy. Catty rivals suggest that the host was also diffident as to whether he would be able to attract the big names in politics and business because of his troubled relationship with the government. Instead of Amar Singh throwing a party for himself his bhabhi Jaya Bachchan hosted a party in his honour.

Budget first, job later

The Budget is being finalised this year without a finance secretary. The post has been vacant ever since D C Gupta retired some months back. There is a tussle for the job between Secretary, Economic Affairs, Rakesh Mohan, who was selected by Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and Adarsh Kishore, who is back in the ministry as Officer on Special Duty in the Expenditure Department. K M Chandrashekhar, the low-key Revenue Secretary, is unlikely to be in the reckoning. In response to anxious queries, the PMO has made it clear that the Finance Secretary’s post will be filled only after the Budget.

Boomerang possibility

When M L Fotedar along with Arjun Singh was made in charge of Bihar, he wanted to prove that he had not sold out to Laloo Prasad Yadav unlike his rival R K Dhawan. (For the parliamentary poll, Dhawan managed only four Lok Sabha seats for the Congress from the RJD boss, but in the bargain he secured a Rajya Sabha berth from Bihar for himself.) The Arjun Singh-Fotedar game plan to play with Ram Vilas Paswan against Laloo was initially hailed as a stroke of genius, but now the party has second thoughts about the formula. It fears that if Laloo does not make it as chief minister the rumbles will be felt at the Centre. Already UPA ally Sharad Pawar proclaimed in Patna last week that the law and order situation in many states was worse than Bihar, which seemed to be a direct response to Sonia Gandhi’s criticism of Bihar’s increasing lawlessness.

Life after being president

BJP presidents who are forced to resign from office ahead of schedule simply fade away into oblivion. But Venkaiah Naidu wants to buck this trend and make a comeback. Naidu has his eye on the vacant slot of BJP vice-president. There are seven vice-presidents so the job does not seem a big deal, except that Naidu wants to be singled out as a senior vice-president and act as Advani’s deputy. Since Advani holds two posts, in contravention of the one-man, one-post norm, Naidu would be happy to assist him in his onerous duties as party president.