Inside Track

All the same, nearly every journalist helping out in the campaign publicity has been amply rewarded by the party. Arun Shourie, Dinanath Mishra and Praful Goradia have become Rajya Sabha members. Ashok Tandon has been appointed press adviser to the Prime Minister, Sudheendhra Kulkarni has also been accommodated in the PrimeMinister8217;s Office. Balbir Punj has been made Chairman of the governing board of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication with a full secretary8217;s rank. And last week, Mohan Guruswamy was appointed adviser to the Finance Ministry.

Singh plays Santa

Over a dozen journalists from Madhya Pradesh have been sent on a five-day junket to London with a day8217;s stopover in the shoppers8217; paradise of Dubai. The ostensible purpose of the tour is a 8220;familiarisation programme8221; for the pressmen with the British media and industry. The trip is being sponsored by the Madhya Pradesh wing of the Confederation of Indian Industry CII which is footing at least 70 per cent of the minimum Rs one lakh travel and hotel expenses which each journalist will require for the tour.

Correspondents are expected to raise the remaining amount. The chairman of the CII8217;s MP wing who formally invited the scribes is M.P. Rajan, an IAS officer who also happens to be managing director of the Madhya Pradesh Industrial DevelopmentCorporation. Since Rajan is in a position to make or mar the fortunes of industrialists in the State, it is small wonder that two prominent business groups have obligingly agreed to cough up most of the expenses for the journalists8217; travels. Rajan is extremely close to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, who is the actual Santa Claus. The real purpose of the junket is obviously not furthering the industrial development of Madhya Pradesh or educating the State8217;s press corps but earning goodwill for the beleaguered Chief Minister, who desperately needs the media on his side with an Assembly election round the corner.

MEA8217;s plus to minus

During P.V. Narasimha Rao8217;s tenure as Prime Minister a property developer offered to buy some of the Indian Government8217;s prime real estate in Singapore for a whopping 9.5 million. It seemed like a good bargain to sell off a multi-storied building and use some of the money to renovate the High Commissioner8217;s residence and chancery, which were badly in needof repairs. But four years later, after half a dozen trips by various government delegations from New Delhi, no decision about the sale has been taken.

Meanwhile the Indian High Commissioner in Singapore has had to move out of his official residence because of termites and the Government pays an exorbitant rent for his apartment. Real estate prices have crashed, the Singapore dollar has plummeted and the property is today probably worth just a fraction of the original sum offered. Instead of making a killing in real estate, the Government will have to shell out enormous amounts for repairs, thanks to the dithering of the mandarins of South Block.

Perks without post

Pramod Mahajan is still waiting for the cabinet reshuffle so that he can be made a minister in the Vajpayee Government. The appointment is taking time thanks to inter-party and intra-party wrangles, but Mahajan, never one to let the grass grow under his feet, has already helped himself to all the perks of a ministerial post.

He hasoccupied the Prime Minister8217;s old ministerial bungalow at 7 Safdarjung Road and has ordered that the height of the boundary wall be doubled in anticipation of his new status. Whether the raised wall is a status symbol or to keep his visitors8217; identity secret from the prying eyes of neighbours is not clear. In Parliament House Mahajan still retains his old office next to the Prime Minister.

No common ground

There was a secret meeting last week in Delhi of senior members from the BJP, RSS and VHP with representatives of the Jamaat and some Muslim intellectuals to see if there could be a dialogue. The saffron camp queried why Muslims equated the the imposition of Article 370 with minority rights.

Why Indian Muslims never speak out against the attacks on the mohajirs in Pakistan. Why a uniform civil code is seen specifically as anti-Muslim legislation when Hindu personal law would also have to be drastically amended and so on. The Muslims wondered whether the Hindutva lobby really wanted theminorities to stay in India, they referred to the Gujarat BJP government8217;s shocking indifference to protecting minorities attacked by Hindu zealots.

After the day-long session it was clear there was little common meeting ground 8212; only an agreement to disagree.