Inside Track

Indo-Pak secretary-level talks have been characterised by both countries8217; unwillingness to concede an inch. And this narrow-minded intransigence is projected as a diplomatic triumph by the media of their respective countries, who unquestioningly accept whatever they are told by their Foreign Offices.

The diplomatic breakthrough by Atal Behari Vajpayee8217;s visit to Lahore was possible only because both Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif reached out toeach other over the heads of their secretariats and used the media instead as the go-between. The Foreign Office was silently seething, since the Indo-Pak secretary-level talks which were scheduled at the same time had become virtually redundant.

At the SAARC conference at Nuwara Eliya, thanks to pettifogging bureaucrats, there was danger of the standing committee draft report ending up as a one-page damp squib, referring only to the SAARC budget and the restructuring of the secretariat. The official Indian contingent maintained that the Lahore Declaration was a bilateral issue and should not figure in a SAARC report. It was only after the chairman of the SAARC committee Lakshman Kadirgamar took the two foreign ministers Sartaj Aziz and Jaswant Singh into a separate room minus their respective babus that an agreement could be hammered out on how to make a reference to the Lahore Declaration without offending either side.

On the house

Just how subservient Doordarshan is to Information andBroadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan8217;s diktats is evident from the fact that the regional bulletins and the national news bulletins in English and Hindi were rescheduled arbitrarily on March 18 simply to accommodate live coverage by DD of the Mahajan extravaganza at Hauz Khas. Shifting the timing of a news bulletin is a rare event, which does not normally occur even during the live coverage of cricket matches. Since the decision to go live was a last-minute affair, there was no time to arrange commercial sponsors and the more-than-two-hour-long programme resulted in a major financial loss to Prasar Bharati. With Mahajan often stressing that the government is subsidising the so-called independent corporation, it seems he has got his own money8217;s worth out of DD as compensation.

Tourism Minister Ananth Kumar being Mahajan8217;s good friend, the ITDC-run Delhi hotels 8212; Ranjit, Janpath, Kanishka and Ashok Yatri Niwas 8212; were ordered to give a week8217;s complimentary stay to BJP loyalists who had come to Delhi towitness the show. Eighty-six rooms were booked for the free loaders. All were occupied except the 25 rooms booked at the Ashoka Yatri Niwas, since the hotel was considered not grand enough by the Mahajan groupies.

Junior8217;s woes

A minister of state8217;s lot is not a happy one normally. Uma Bharati8217;s differences with her senior minister Murli Manohar Joshi are a matter of record. M.A. Naqvi ruled the roost and figured regularly in the news holding forth on this and that and making all sorts of policy statements 8212; which were unlikely to be ever implemented 8212; as long as there was no senior minister over his head. Now that Pramod Mahajan is his boss, his wings have been clipped and one seldom hears about him any more.

Union Industry Minister Sikander Bakht is an old hand at smoothly reining in an eager beaver junior minister 8212; Sukhinder Singh Badal. In the Communications Ministry, minister of state K. Purkayastha did not even get to see official files under Buta Singh and later Sushma Swaraj. EvenSwaraj8217;s special assistant acted as if he were more important than him. It is a refreshing change for Purkayastha having Jagmohan as boss for Jagmohan has instructed that all files be routed through his junior. Inviting troublePramod Mahajan has ended up creating more enemies than friends with his first anniversary bash for the Vajpayee government. With Vajpayee himself acting very coy about attending the show 8212; indicating some internal politics in the PMO 8212; Mahajan could not dispatch the invitations with Vajpayee8217;s name as chief guest till the night before the event. Except for a few ministers, Mahajan did not bother to send out invitations to any. Instead anyone who wanted a card had simply to call him up for passes. In the bargain, a large number of senior party functionaries who had expected to be invited were deeply offended. Even many of those who did get passes found they were barred entry since all the seats were occupied by the time they turned up. The number of passes issued far exceeded theseating capacity. The next day, Mahajan8217;s rival Sushma Swaraj publicly sympathised with the Hauz Khas colony residents for the vandalising of their environment.