Inside track

Sonia’s tours may be restricted largely to State capitals but the party is planning to make a video cassette of her campaign to be distributed in all constituencies. With Sonia’s entry, Sitaram Kesri has conceded grudgingly that his mug shot will have to be dropped from party posters and other campaign material.

For the last month even former Congress MPs well disposed towards the chacha had tried to explain to him politely that his face is not exactly his fortune and projecting him will do more harm than good to Congress prospects. Kesri believes that this is an upper- caste, urban, elitist viewpoint and is politically incorrect. But if Kesri really wanted to project an endearing image in the visual media, surely he should start by combing his hair and putting a shirt over his banyan whenever he appears before the camera!

Hare-brained hubris

It sprinted off from the starting block ahead of the competition. Its ranks were so afflicted by hubris that even some PAs of the BJP shadow cabinet were throwing their weight around as if they were already installed in the Central Secretariat. Like the proverbial hare, the BJP could eventually be overtaken by the tortoise Congress and the mongoose UF, which will conspire together in the last lap.

An important question is how will the BJP respond to Sonia Gandhi’s entry into the campaign? If it reacts stridently with constant cracks about Rome Raj, Sonia’s brand of secularism and Bofors, it could rebound on the party. In India persecution and denigration are the surest ways to win sympathy for political opponents. Whether the BJP is smart enough to simply make light of the Sonia issue without getting into a slanging match and concentrate instead on its stability issue, the price of onions, and Vajapyee’s image, rather than mandirs and masjids, remains to be seen.

Meanwhile to give a face-lift to its image the BJP’s media cell has been hosting get-togethers with editors and correspondents so that the Press can interact with the high command. The BJP has also set up units rather grandly termed as work stations to monitor the coverage accorded to the BJP in 19 newspapers and Doordarshan. There are neat computerised lists of column inches devoted to Congress and BJP for its record. S.S. Gill, who says he has issued no instructions to underplay the BJP on DD, please take note.

Caretaker or undertaker?

CAT’s temporary stay of Cabinet Secretary T.V.S.R. Subramanian’s extension could trigger off a debate over how a caretaker government should conduct itself. Prime Minister I.K. Gujral maintains that there is no such thing as a caretaker government, but when there are no constitutional guidelines on the subject, such governments should take special care to abide by conventions. Otherwise it sets a wrong precedent. When Chandra Shekhar was caretaker Prime Minister, President R. Venkataraman had given written instructions placing constraints on the Cabinet to take decisions and even withholding the right to transfer Government of India secretaries.

Noted journalist Rajinder Puri feels that after Parliament was dissolved the Cabinet has taken several crucial decisions with far-reaching impact. It has, for instance, acted on proposals emanating from the WTO, amending the Pay Commission Report for a section of the forces and signing a defence deal worth billions with Russia. While US President Bill Clinton has cancelled his visit to India, Boris Yeltsin’s visit early this year still stands.

During Yeltsin’s visit the caretaker government is to sign the controversial contract to build two 1000 MW commercial nuclear power reactors and also finally settle the long pending question of the massive Indo-Russian debt agreement.

Another ticklish aspect is how the principle of collective responsibility of the Cabinet can be enforced when three ministers of Laloo Yadav’s RJD disown the actions of the UF government and shower abuse on it!

Wrong choices

Karnataka’s Ramakrishna Hegde has given himself till January 6 to decide whether his new-born Lok Shakti Party should team up with the Congress or the BJP in the state. Considering his penchant for making wrong choices, Hegde is wise to reflect long before he takes the plunge. From being a rising star of Indian politics in the ’80s, Hegde has drifted into virtual oblivion in the ’90s, by backing the wrong people at the right time and falling out with the right people at the wrong time.

H.D. Deve Gowda, S.R. Bommai, J.H. Patel owed their elevations to chief ministership to Hegde, but instead of expressing any appreciation they all turned against him. As one of the senior-most leaders in the JD, Hegde should logically have been either a prime minister or a very senior cabinet minister in the JD governments at the very least. During V.P. Singh’s regime Hegde was merely the vice-chairman of the Planning Commission and when Gowda became Prime Minister Hegde found himself booted out of the party within a month.