Inside track 8212; His master8217;s voice

Does she or doesn't she...? Only her secretary Vincent George knows for sure whether the instructions he conveys to Congressmen are actuall...

Does she or doesn8217;t she8230;? Only her secretary Vincent George knows for sure whether the instructions he conveys to Congressmen are actually diktats from the party8217;s reigning deity. Which is why the former typist at the AICC office wields such enormous clout. Arjun Singh, for instance, does not consider it infra dig to sit for hours in George8217;s office even when madam8217;, as Sonia is referred to, is out of the country.

Some years ago, K. Karunakaran had objected to George being granted a Rajya Sabha ticket from Karnataka remarking 8220;Let him wait a few more years.8221; Karunakaran found himself in the dog house at 10, Janpath for a long spell after that. Narasimha Rao who was then Prime Minister and did not intercede on George8217;s behalf was permanently black-listed. It is George who fixes appointments for Sonia, who telephones select newsmen to leak selective information and informs photographers when they will be allowed to take madam8217;s photographs and so on.

By refusing to talk directly, Sonia is merely following the example of her late mother-in-law who left the nitty-gritty of actual operations to underlings like R.K. Dhawan. A Congress MP confesses that everyone in the party is too intimidated to ask Sonia outright what she really wants.

Selective inquiry

Thanks to the pace at which it works, the Jain Commission which was appointed by Chandra Shekhar for a six-month tenure, have outlasted three prime ministers. Narasimha Rao as Prime Minister tried at one stage to deny Jain an extension since it was clear to everyone that the commission was going wildly off track and deliberately dawdling. The proposal to deny Jain a further extension was discussed at more than one Cabinet meeting and embarrassingly for the Congress all Rao8217;s ministers, including Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, Sitaram Kesri and Pranab Mukherjee, voiced no objection to winding up the commission. The only dissenter was Arjun Singh. This will be highlighted by the UF if there is a discussion in Parliament on the report.The attempt to deny Jain an extension fizzled out but someone leaked the news to Jain and Sonia Gandhi and the needle of suspicion points at Arjun Singh who has been in constant touch with the Jain Commission, so as to keep in the good books of 10, Janpath.

In his interim report, Jain has made innuendoes against many: V.P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar, Chandraswami, Subramaniam Swamy and Narasimha Rao among others, but he has totally ignored the role of Maragatham Chandrashekhar. A former AICC general secretary, Chandrashekhar insisted that Rajiv Gandhi come to the backwaters of Sriperumbadur despite opposition from her party and Gandhi8217;s security set-up. What is more curious is that one of the conspirators actually stayed at Chandrashekhar8217;s house.

Que sera Kesri?

The Jain Commission fall-out completely marginalised Sitaram Kesri. Some attribute Kesri8217;s downfall to the fact that he no longer has the late Surendra Pratap Singh, SP, a journalist with a brilliant understanding of politics, to rely on for advice. Kesri8217;s new friend from the media is too academic in his approach and does not understand realpolitik.

In hindsight, Kesri blundered on many counts. He should have declined to call a meeting of the Congress parliamentary party, over which he had little control, since a resolution had already been passed by the CWC on the Jain Commission report. He should have asked Gujral to immediately contradict Home Minister Indrajit Gupta8217;s provocative remark about tabling the ATR. Kesri should have asked one of his men to question how Mamata Banerjee could hold forth at the Congress parliamentary meet when she claims to be in the Trinamul Congress and has left the main party. Most importantly, he should not have allowed the whole world to know that it took him two long days to get an appointment with Sonia Gandhi!

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Arjun Singh, Jitendra Prasada and K. Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy staged a coup so easily because anti-Kesri feeling in the party is rife. Congressmen expected some perks and privileges for supporting the UF government, but Kesri puffed up in his new role, was oblivious to the wishes of his colleagues, while Gujral kept making his friends governors, Rajya Sabha MPs and ambassadors. As Congress MP P. Upendra put it, 8220;What to talk of not getting governorships, when I sent a request for four party workers to get confirmed reservations of second-class tickets, the Railway Ministry took no notice.8221;

Yes Boss

Even before the collapse of the present Government, the signs of strain were beginning to tell on Prime Minister Gujral. Normally courteous and soft-spoken, Gujral of late has become snappy and bad-tempered. Several of his ministers were at the receiving end of his ill humour. In one case, Gujral was instructing a woman minister and she kept murmuring 8220;han han8221; as if to show compliance. However, Gujral interpreted it otherwise and snapped at her, 8220;Don8217;t take this so lightly. It is an order.8221; Gujral was smarting under the feeling that he was not being taken seriously enough as the boss.