Inside Track

Vajpayee’s once sunny demeanour is now grim and listless. Long pauses when replying to tricky questions before delivering his repartee were part of his trade mark style, but now his jaw simply drops open without him uttering a word. At Cabinet meetings Vajpayee, instead of taking charge, allows his ministers to let off steam and go off tangent. When there is the slightest dissent on any issue, he takes the line of least resistance and the decision is put on hold and the buck passed to a ministerial sub-committee.

Dealing with the media is an extension of diplomacy and Vajpayee who as foreign minister inMorarjee Desai’s cabinet was popular with the press was a great disappointment to the media at the SAARC conference in Sri Lanka.

While Pakistan’s Nawaz Sharif charmed the press corps by interacting with them and granting interviews, Vajpayee shied away from speaking to the media. He was conspicuous as the only prime minister who did not even grant an interview to the host country’s TV. Increasingly, Vajpayee has isolated himself and interacts with very few people. Pramod Mahajan is one of the regulars at Race Course Road and Mahajan’s image as a glorified operator hardly adds to the PMO’s lustre. The Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra is responsible for the disastrous letter to the US government naming China as the reason for our nuclear tests, but far from being pulled up for his incompetence, Mishra not only continues to run the Foreign Office but tries to block others’ access to the Prime Minister.

Jaswant Singh is one of the few capable and far-sighted advisers in the PM’s camp buthe has his hands full with too many difficult tasks.

It is one of the ironies of Indian politics that those about whom there was the most hope and promise — from Rajiv Gandhi to V.P. Singh and now Vajpayee — proved to be the greatest disappointments when they donned the mantle of prime ministership. But those about whom there were few expectations — like P.V. Narasimha Rao and H.D. Deve Gowda — rose valiantly to the occasion. At this rate, perhaps, Sonia Gandhi despite her woeful lack of experience and minimal qualifications other than having married into the Gandhi family and looking elegant, might yet surprise the sceptics!

Blind mice

Jayalalitha claimed in a recent interview that she doesn’t suffer fools gladly. But her choices for ministers in the Vajpayee government were not on the basis of their cerebral qualities but their blind obedience to her. An essential requisite for Jaya’s ministers is that they should not act independently but must refer every decision to her. Even cabinetpapers are faxed to Chennai. Poor R.K. Kumar who displayed a trace of initiative in the Finance Ministry was quickly axed.

Jayalalitha screams that she was not consulted on the Cauvery accord, but her partyman, Law Minister M. Thambidurai did not bother to attend the concerned Cabinet meeting, which clinched the issue, since he thought attending a school function was more important. Thambidurai, incidentally, has asked his personal staff members to go on leave for a fortnight fuelling speculation that he is about to quit the Government. Another Jayalalitha minister, MOS for Banking, R. Janarthanam twice made preparations for a trip abroad but had to back out at the last minute, each time since Amma ordered him to stay put in Delhi.

Supping with the enemy

After a temporary truce, the BJP’s UP unit president Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister Kalyan Singh have declared an all-out war against each other.

Instigated by the Brahmin lobby, Rajnath has aspirations of ousting Kalyan and is backed by apowerful cartel of liquor barons and even a businessman extremely close to Mulayam Singh Yadav. Rajnath, as part of his campaign to oust Kalyan, asked those MPs and MLAs loyal to him to write letters to the party high command complaining against Kalyan’s regime and the worsening law and order in UP.

The canny Kalyan launched a counter-offensive with his men writing letters accusing Rajnath of conspiring with Mulayam against Kalyan. The presence of Mulayam’s multi-faceted entrepreneur friend at the meeting of Rajnath with UP businessmen in Delhi’s Defence Colony was cited as clinching evidence. Kalyan’s attack proved effective. Both Vajpayee and L.K. Advani immediately issued statements backing Kalyan’s continuance as chief minister.

Presidential prerogative

President K.R. Narayanan’s interview to journalist N. Ram, an old friend, instead of the customary August 15 broadcast, was not shot at one go. After the initial shoot at Rashtrapati Bhawan, the DD camera crew was summoned a few days later forsome re-takes. The President’s Press Secretary insists that the second shooting at which Ram was not present was simply for technical reasons and not to add or change the answers. But the variation in the technical quality of the interview suggests otherwise.