Inside track

Since there were some half a dozen persons privy to the letters in both offices, the PMO feels it will be difficult to pinpoint the Deep Throat. In fact, a venerable newspaper from the south often gives exclusive reports on the thinking in the President8217;s camp quoting 8220;responsible quarters.8221; Theresponsible quarters passing on the information can clearly be traced to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Interestingly, the first inkling of the Presidential missive came from a financial paper of the same publishing group.

George8217;s leaky umbrella

George Fernandes8217;s grand design to head a separate front within the National Democratic Alliance NDA so as to exert more clout has not gone down well with the BJP. Samata Party secretary Digvijay Singh tried to persuade Naveen Patnaik to join the Samata umbrella by citing the example of Bansi Lal8217;s HVP which got double-crossed by the BJP. Patnaik, annoyed at Fernandes8217;s earlier attempts to poach on his territory, promptly relayed the conversation to L.K. Advani. The BJP leader ticked off Singh.

Fernandes has been trying for over a year to enlarge his Samata Party at others8217; expense. But despite regular meetings, with alliance partners such as Naveen Patnaik, Ram Jethmalani, R.K. Hedge, Maneka Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee the scheme did not take off. But recentlywhen Hegde sought Fernandes8217;s help in persuading J.H. Patel to join the Lok Shakti, Fernandes seized the initiative and in the bargain the wobbly Janata Dal came crashing down nationally. Fernandes is confident that after the polls he will replace Sharad Yadav as the Janata Dal president. But the BJP is determined that the discredited JD leaders shopping for safe constituencies do not get a free ride at the BJP8217;s expense, particularly as they refused to vote with the government on the confidence vote.

There was a serious move to rope in Chandra Shekhar as the president of the new JD-Samata combine, but he declined. Shekhar would rather join forces with Sharad Pawar and Mulayam Singh Yadav. But Shekhar is in the fortunate position of having his cake and eating it too; the BJP has again promised him a safe passage in his Ballia constituency.

Artistic exchange

A film distributor, who has of late become active in the art world, recently organised an art camp for eminent Indian artists in Mauritius.The artists got to travel free and stay in luxury at a beech resort, the businessman got the rights for a water colour executed by each painter. Ghulam Sheikh, Bhupen Kakkar, Arpita Singh, Paramjit Singh, Manu Parekh, Madhavi Parekh, Shamshad Husain and Jatin Das were among the 14 who participated in the programme. Their patron had lined up sponsors, including the Mauritius Tourism Department and some local business houses.

A minor hitch was that while the package tour included a free stay at the luxury hotel, hard drinks were not on the house. Worried about the mounting overheads, the sponsor complained against the Mauritius Tourism Department and the Indian High Commission in the local media for letting him down. The hosts in Mauritius were taken aback by this churlishness especially as the artists met the President of Mauritius on the very day the critical interview appeared. The Indian High Commission, meanwhile, wrote a stiff letter to the newspapers clarifying it was being dragged unnecessarily intothe controversy since it had nothing whatsoever to do with the visit of the Indian artists under the aegis of a private sponsor.

Mis-matched messenger

The choice of Manmohan Singh to negotiate with Jayalalitha over seat-sharing in Tamil Nadu was ill-advised. The lady has a memory like an elephant. She recalled that Singh as finance minister had sanctioned her prosecution in several cases referred by the Enforcement Directorate. At their meetings Jayalalitha spent her time haranguing Singh for clearing the cases against her rather than discussing the modalities of the seat-sharing arrangements.Prior to Singh, Sonia Gandhi8217;s selection of Sharad Pawar as negotiator for the Congress was equally unfortunate. While Pawar had excellent rapport with Jayalalitha, he was not interested in pleading the Congress8217;s case as he was planning to quit the party anyway! Considering Sonia Gandhi8217;s poor choice of emissaries, it is no surprise that Jayalalitha agreed to concede only 12 of the 39 TN parliamentary seatsto the Congress party. In Rajiv Gandhi8217;s time, the seat sharing ratio used to be 60:40, in favour of the Congress.