Inside Track

Now the BJP government in Delhi wants to give the official language policy an unofficial burial by making Sanskrit the third language. The reason the government avoids acknowledging openly that the three-language formula is dead is its fear of southern politicians, particularly the redoubtable Jayalalitha, who can well question why northIndian kids are studying Sanskrit and not Tamil, Telugu or Malayalam.

Hogging the limelight

Sonia Gandhi8217;s half-an-hour discussion with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott got more media coverage than Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee8217;s extended meeting with the US mediator on CTBT. But then an extremely self-assured Gandhi in a crisp cotton saree with stiletto heels and an immaculate hairdo provided a better photo opportunity as she majestically greeted Talbott. Some BJP allies have been privately blaming Vajpayee8217;s ambassador-at-large Jaswant Singh for encouraging Talbott to meet Gandhi and keep the limelight away from the PM. Considering that Talbott hopes to persuade the Congress not to oppose the signing of the CTBT for merely scoring points over the BJP, his visit to Gandhi was actually in the government8217;s interest.

A grouse of several Vajpayee Cabinet ministers is that while they are not invited to the official dinners hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs at Hyderabad Housefor visiting foreign dignitaries, Gandhi is perennially on the guest list.

Starry-eyed MPs

It is not the United Front leaders alone such as Mulayam Singh Yadav, B.S. Ramoowalia and Ram Vilas Paswan who were so bowled over by actress Shabana Azmi8217;s crusading charms that they signed blindly on her petition protesting the introduction of the bill seeking to scrap the Urban Land Ceiling Act, quite forgetting that as members of the previous Gujral government they had supported the very smae bill. After Azmi spoke to Prime Minister Vajpayee, he too had second thoughts and the draft bill has now been referred to a Standing Committee. Minister for Urban Development Ram Jethmalani who confidently announced that he would introduce the bill in the current Parliament session, may have to eat his words, thanks to Azmi.

Azmi, incidentally, has been allotted a ministerial, type-VIII bungalow though as a first-term MP she is entitled to only very modest accommodation. Rajya Sabha MP Kuldip Nayar asked theHousing Committee Chairman how Azmi had jumped the queue when others with much better claims were still waiting for a house. His sheepish explanation: 8220;She is a woman, a star, sir.8221;

Singhving praises

Sycophancy is part of the psyche of Indian politicians but newly-elected BJP Rajya Sabha MP L.M. Singhvi has perhaps pioneered new heights in apple polishing. At the golden jubilee celebrations of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Singhvi8217;s speech was more about extolling Vajpayee, than discussing students problems and the ABVP. Just stating that the PM stature was higher than that of the tallest mountain was inadequate, Singhvi felt, one should also realise that Vajpayee8217;s depth was more than the deepest ocean! Judging by some readers8217; shrill reaction to a line in this column earlier this month describing Singhvi8217;s unnaturally long tenure as Indian High Commissioner in London as not so distinguished8217;, his fans adopt the same sycophantic approach. A Singhviadmirer in a letter after roundly abusing this columnist for blasphemy asserted that Singhvi alone had accomplished as High Commissioner 8220;what others could not achieve during the last 45 yearsquot;. Now does this imply that Singhvi has surpassed the combined positive contribution of his predecessors from V.K. Krishna Menon and Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit downwards or does it mean that he is responsible for bringing Indo-British relations to its lowest ebb?

Cabinet carpentry

Plans to implement a Cabinet expansion have repeatedly been put on hold thanks to differences within the BJP. Although for all practical purposes Jaswant Singh is running the Ministry of External Affairs, BJP hard-liners have stoutly resisted the move to make his position official. The excuse is that since Singh is negotiating only at the level of the Deputy US Secretary of State, he cannot become a full minister overnight without upsetting the hierarchy in the negotiations with the USA on CTBT.

But their objection back-fired, whenVajpayee proposed instead that Singh take over as Finance Minister and Yashwant Sinha be transferred to the MEA. The swadeshi lobby was even more opposed to this suggestion since at present its cosy relationship with the Finance Ministry allows it to order special concessions for favoured business houses and friends!