Inside Track

Holy cow no moreAfter Kargil, Army Chief V.P. Malik was confident of being appointed the first Chief of Defence Staff, head of a new set-...

Holy cow no more

After Kargil, Army Chief V.P. Malik was confident of being appointed the first Chief of Defence Staff, head of a new set-up which would liaise between the political establishment and the armed forces. The concept of a Chief of Defence Staff was mooted by Defence Minister George Fernandes in January, while acknowledging that the service headquarters and the civilian secretariat often work at cross purposes. In fact, the two departments maintain parallel files, whether on weapons purchases or promotions, and the Army is not permitted to see the file maintained by the Defence Secretariat.

Malik, who has of late been talking rather contemptuously of politicians, was convinced that no one would dare take him on after Kargil. He did not bargain on the media questioning the Army8217;s 8212; particularly Malik8217;s favourite General V.S. Budhwar8217;s 8212; delay in responding to intelligence reports. After a newspaper article, presumably leaked by the Army, implicated the government for the Army8217;s slowresponse to the Pakistan intrusions, a pro-Government newspaper, which had earlier dubbed anyone attacking the Army as anti-national, launched an offensive against the holy cow. In a series of articles it held army officials, including the Army Chief, guilty of gross negligence.

With Fernandes likely to return as Defence Minister, it now seems doubtful whether Malik will get the post to which he aspires.

Comeback behenji

Three months ago, it seemed as if Sushma Swaraj8217;s dream of 8220;agli baari, behen hamari8221; was over. Her husband Swaraj Kaushal had resigned in a huff as adviser to the government on North-East affairs and virtually called the PM a liar. After that, it seemed unlikely that Vajpayee would ever take her back in his Cabinet, even if L.K. Advani pleaded her case. Sulking at the way the government had treated her, Sushma announced she wouldn8217;t contest from her South Delhi constituency and nobody really bothered to persuade her to change her mind either.

Then came Bellaryand Sushma was back with a bang. Her Kannada by rote left people astounded. Her gharelu style, big bindis and big-sister act were a big hit. With amazing stamina and determination, she made sure she covered the length and breadth of the constituency. Despite the last-minute Sonia and Priyanka blitzkrieg, the chances are high that Sushma may well pull off a coup in Bellary. And with that kind of a triumph not even the Prime Minister can keep her out of the Cabinet.

Brat pack

Like many city folk, I have never been comfortable with the idea of political dynasties, a concept which in the countryside is accepted rather unquestioningly. The argument is that the dhobi8217;s son becomes a dhobi, so why shouldn8217;t the politician8217;s kid benefit from the goodwill his family has built up.

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There is at least one plus point to political dynasties. It ensures that young blood gets a chance in a profession where the top rungs are monopolised by the geriatric. Since politicians never retire, the median ageof our leaders is above 65. Madhavrao Scindia, Digvijay Singh, Rajesh Pilot and Pramod Mahajan, who are part of our relatively younger generation have crossed 50. Even Sushma Swaraj, Chandrababu Naidu and Ashok Gehlot are above 45. In contrast, Feroze Varun Gandhi is 19, Priyanka Gandhi 28, Rahul Gandhi 29, Omar Farooq 27, bringing a whiff of fresh air to voters weary of elderly faces. Incidentally, Rahul8217;s formal initiation into politics is expected shortly when he becomes the president of the Youth Congress.

Invisible channel

The latest bright idea at Doordarshan is to induct staff members for anchoring the shows on the new News and Current Affairs channel. Curiously, the selection of who-is-to-do-what is totally at variance with the skills of the person concerned. A man who till recently was in charge of transport has been asked to anchor the political stories, somebody knowledgeable in politics has been asked to look after business and sports and so on. The game plan is not to encourageindigenous talent but to show up DD staff as incompetent so that a case can be made out for assigning even more programmes to private producers.

Some Rs 200 crore-worth of programmes has been doled out already. Since there is no budgetary provision for the channel, one presumes that DD, already in the red, will pick up the tab of the new channel. And all this for a channel which almost nobody watches, even the few who actually have access to it. Comfortable in the knowledge that here are no viewers, the boring talk shows are repeated ad nauseam. For instance, Nafisa Ali interviewing Amir Raza Hussain was telecast nearly half-a-dozen times in a week!