Inside Track

In a hard-hitting editorial last week, the RSS periodical Panchjanya noted that simply posturing as Sardar Patel was not enough. If the Home Minister wanted to ensure that his government was not perceived to be as ineffective as the earlier secular regimes, harsher measures were necessary to eradicate terrorists.

RSS general secretary H.V. Seshadri in Calcutta, reacting to the massacre of 25 people in Doda, expounded his tit-for-tat theory towards Pakistan. He felt that it was now up to Delhi and Srinagar to show the world that things had really changed under the new regime. "The minimum evidence of the change would be of course to pursue the killers till every one of them, and their immediate collaborators, isliquidated. It would indeed be ridiculous to go on with the policy of nabbing the killers or allowing them to kill our jawans first and then act in defence!," he observed.

“And all this because of the dread of the hue and cry that would be raised by the so-called human rightswallahs who are in fact very much part of the joint power game of the western imperialist powers and Pakistan in Kashmir," Seshadri concluded.

One wonders what is next in store for the country if such stone-age think tanks are to influence government policy!

Tied in knots

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sushma Swaraj has tied herself in knots over Prasar Bharati. Ignoring advice, she took Prasar Bharati CEO S.S. Gill at his word that once the ordinance amending the PB Bill lapsed, he would step down. But Gill now refuses to go. He is emboldened by the Law Ministry’s opinion that though with the lapse of the ordinance the age limit of 62 for the CEO stood restored, it does not apply to the septuagenarian Gillhimself since the ordinance was in force at the time of his appointment. Swaraj assumed she could push through a new bill on Prasar Bharati to enforce the age limit of the CEO with retrospective effect. But now the Opposition which Swaraj believed she had brought around to her way of thinking has reservations about supporting the new bill. And after giving notice of the proposed bill she cannot now bring in a fresh ordinance to oust Gill.

Not surprisingly, Gill’s brief honeymoon with the BJP has ended and DD’s coverage of the Vajpayee government’s completion of a 100 days in office was distinctly lukewarm and increasingly current affairs programmes are being forked out to anti-BJP scribes. One of the few BJP leaders to receive special treatment on DD is Pramod Mahajan, who aspires for the Information and Broadcasting portfolio, along with Parliamentary Affairs now that he is an MP. A saffron-hued magazine editor is also very close to Gill but his clout is always utilised to help his proprietor getconcessions and not for furthering government causes. Already Gill has bestowed largesse of three additional programmes on Doordarshan to this media group, which is also hopeful of securing an FM radio slot at the expense of an equally powerful publishing house.

Surviving the axe

Shortly before the Vajpayee Government was sworn in, BJP groupies boasted that a special list of loyal and not-so-loyal bureaucrats had been drawn up and soon heads would roll in the central secretariat. But after a 100 days, the only full secretary who has been transferred is Health Secretary K.B. Saxena and with good reason. Saxena and his minister Dalit Ezhilmalai insisted on monopolising a trip to Geneva for a WHO meeting and they permitted no one else from the ministry to attend. But at the last minute, their own trip had to be cancelled because of the nurses’ strike. By default, several hundred Indians lost their WHO fellowships since there was no Indian representative at the conference to take up this very routinematter.

The original hit list of secretaries was supposed to include the home secretary, finance secretary and defence secretary, but Home Secretary B.P. Singh, who was once close to Sitaram Kesri and Martand Singh seems to have developed a happy working relationship with his new boss, Advani. Whispers, however, continue that revenue secretary N.K. Singh and finance secretary Montek Singh Ahluwallia who have become practically permanent fixtures in the Finance Ministry are to be moved.

Stage-managed sale

The recent auction of BJP Party President Khushabhau Thakre’s shawls which raised Rs 5 lakh for cyclone relief was stage-managed. A list had been prepared of supporters of Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma from the trading community. Each Delhi trader was informed which shawl he was to bid for and at what price. The cat was let out of the bag when several confused bidders were overheard inquiring from a BJP functionary armed with the master list, as to which shawl they were expected to bidfor since some were doubling for absent friends as well!