Inside Track

Swaraj, who is the only woman minister with a cabinet rank in the Vajpayee government, guards her turf zealously. She had set her sights on the Information and Broadcasting portfolio even before the swearing-in and refused to be swayed by suggestions that she was the ideal choice for Speaker of the Lok Sabha — that is before Chandrababu Naidu introduced the unknown G.M.C. Balayogi.

As I&B minister Swaraj soon discovered that minus DD and AIR — which is nowcontrolled by Prasar Bharati — she had little to do other than overseeing the function of Directorate of Audio Visual Publicity. When Buta Singh stepped down, Swaraj wasted no time in taking over the Communication ministry and made it clear that she was its boss permanently and not on an ad hoc basis. Ministerial aspirants who hoped that Swaraj would automatically be giving up her earlier truncated ministry (which should now rightly be called merely the Information ministry) were disappointed. Sushma feels that the Communication and I&B are long-lost twins which should have been merged since all questions of licensing and clearances for technology for TV and Radio are dealt with, in any case, by the Communication ministry.

Powerful patrons

A.K. PANDEY was not just a joint secretary in the PMO under Prime Minister I.K. Gujral. As a brother-in-law of Gujral’s son, Naresh, he was a very powerful officer. Though Pandey has been moved out of the PMO under the new dispensation, the MEA has gone out ofits way to grant him a posting of his choice. Pandey could not be obliged with his first option of Paris or London since he was not considered senior enough for these premiere stations. He did not want Rome. Now Pandey has settled for Bonn, where he will be deputy chief of mission. To accommodate him B. Roy, an IFS officer only half way through his tenure, is to be transferred out.

The recent tussle for the post of spokesman of the ministry of External Affairs saw Pawan Verma lose out to K.C. Singh. Verma, an able spokesman was marked as a Gujral groupie, while Singh was backed by a coterie of journalists now close to the BJP. However, the real loser in the reshuffle was the hapless joint secretary in charge of the Africa Division, Francis Vaz, who had to make place for Verma and was posted to the thankless assignment of heading the Passport Division, which Singh had just vacated.

Unhealthy practice?

The Health ministry wants to slowly withdraw the elaborate medical arrangements provided toformer prime ministers. Under the SPG Act, along with the security, ex-PMs are entitled to the same health services as an incumbent prime minister.

At present the government maintains two VVIP units at AIIMS and Ram Manohar Lohia hospital simply for former premieres. Each unit has a senior doctor on call round-the-clock, plus nurses and a wireless connection to the SPG. P.V. Narasimha Rao even has an ambulance with an ICU fitted on trailing him wherever he goes. Following the request by V.P. Singh and H.D. Deve Gowda to withdraw their SPG cover, the Health ministry has suggested that in that case they can avail of the excellent medical facilities provided for MPs and ex-MPs.

Fronts and affronts

OFFSHOOTS of the perennially squabbling Janata family tree are now keen to join forces. The Janata Dal’s old guard, Madhu Dandavate, S.R. Bommai and Surendra Mohan have proposed the formation of a Janata Party Federal Front consisting basically of the JD, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) andLaloo Prasad Yadav’s Rastriya Janata Dal (RJD). The separate parties would fight polls on a common symbol and have exclusive control in their respective spheres of influence. UP would go to Mulayam, Bihar to Laloo and Orissa and the South to the JD. The technicalities of a new constitution for the front are being worked out, but the ticklish question of who should lead it has not been satisfactorily resolved.

Chandra Shekhar of the Samajwadi Janata Party (SJP) feels he has a superior claim. Mulayam Singh Yadav is still talking of Sonia being prime ministerial candidate in an omnibus anti-BJP coalition, but Deve Gowda has reservations over Gandhi’s leadership. Sharad Yadav, who is JD president, finds that he is presiding over a rapidly disintegrating party and is amenable to a tie-up with Laloo, but Ram Vilas Paswan is not reconciled to such an alliance.