Burst bubbleEven before the BJP Government won the vote of confidence, there were discussions in party circles about fresh Prasar Bharati appointments. But the new government's bubble - that it would speedily remove the members of the Prasar Bharati Board installed by I.K. Gujral's lame-duck government at its fag end and replace them with its own choices - has been pricked. The Law Ministry has advised Sushma Swaraj's Information and Broadcasting Ministry that this rosy dream may just not be possible.The BJP and many others had assumed that once the ordinance that created the Prasar Board lapsed in a few weeks, the existing members would automatically be dislodged. But the Presidential ordinance of 1997 merely amended the existing Prasar Bharati Act, which was passed by Parliament back in 1990. The act remained in cold storage till former I&B minister Jaipal Reddy had it formally notified late last year. So even if the amendments to the Act lapse, the original Act, on the basis of whichGujral's elderly board members were nominated, remains. The only way out would be through a new Act of Parliament, but the Government does not have the numbers in the Rajya Sabha to ensure it passes unless the Opposition cooperates. An easier solution for gaining control of Prasar Bharati is to co-opt more members to the board.DD's current czar S.S. Gill also claims he has legal grounds to continue as CEO for the remaining part of his six-year tenure. In his case, however, the legal position is more ambiguous. Though Gill at 70 was well beyond the retirement age of 62 prescribed by the Act, the ordinance amending the Act does not mention a retirement age. One legal viewpoint is that even if the amendment is invalidated, the CEO cannot be removed since he was appointed under a valid law at that time. The counter-argument is that Gill's appointment which is a creation of the ordinance lapses with the ordinance.Litigation on this ticklish issue could keep Gill in place for a while yet, so that a far-reachingcontract favouring a powerful media group for Hindi news bulletins on DD or control of DD 3 could be pushed through shortly.Power groupiesThe final touches to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's speech to Parliament during the confidence motion and his earlier address to the nation were given by eminent columnist and BJP sympathiser Arun Shourie. The BJP feels that a man of Shourie's known integrity and talent would be a major asset to Vajpayee in handling his demanding job, especially as a large number of hangers-on have been buzzing around the residences of Vajpayee and L.K. Advani intent on meddling in government.Already rifts and rivalries among the BJP's power groupies have come to the fore. A highly placed saffron scribe warned of the need to guard against those trying to influence the Government's decision-making. He singled out a former comrade in arms describing him as part of a group of ``self-appointed RSS middle-men'' and ``junior-level Swadeshi lobbyists''. Ironically, the verysame journalist and his coterie have been boasting to all and sundry that nothing happens in the new Government without his approval!Unhappy AmmaDespite a lion's share in the Union Cabinet and the fact that her ministerial representatives dutifully call on her every weekend in Chennai to receive orders, Jayalalitha is still dissatisfied. Her candidate for the post of Attorney General is the aging and controversial G. Ramaswamy who was AG during Chandra Shekhar and Narasimha Rao's regime, but to whom the BJP is totally opposed.Jayalalitha's chief grouse is that the BJP is dragging its feet over the dismissal of the DMK Government. As a first step, Jayalalitha had asked the Government to announce in Parliament that the Centre is bringing out a white paper on the growth of fundamentalism in Tamil Nadu. Jayalalitha is convinced that if the correspondence between the Centre and the State Government on the issue of harbouring extremist outfits is made public, it will establish the complicity ofKarunanidhi's Government. The State Government had ignored the Intelligence tip-off from Delhi that the Al-Umma was planning bomb blasts in Coimbatore. When Jayalalitha was in power, 46 fundamentalists were detained under the NSA. When M. Karunanidhi became CM, he ordered their release.Run-in walkoutRivalries within the Congress turned the walkout in the Lok Sabha last Tuesday in protest against Home Minister L.K. Advani's statement on Article 370 into a damp squib. The decision to walk out and embarrass the BJP over its double standards was taken by dynamic Congress MP Rajesh Pilot when neither the Leader of the Opposition, Sharad Pawar, nor his deputy, Shiv Shankar, was present. At Pilot's urging, some 20 MPs marched towards the door during the thinly attended session, but just seconds later Pawar and Shankar, who had no clue what was happening, walked into the House from another entrance, stymieing the walkout's impact. Pawar, who has no desire to boost Pilot's stock, even instructed someclose friends in the Marathi Press not to highlight the so called walkout.
