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Journalism of Courage
Sonia Gandhi8217;s wishes are like an imperial command and it is not just Congressmen who toe the line. For instance, one of her instructions is that nobody be permitted entry when she talks to her VIP guests. Cameramen may take snapshots only from the verandahs of 10, Janpath.
Last week when the PLO chief, Yasser Arafat, visited Sonia, he carried what looked like an impressive gift covered with a red cloth. He was accompanied by his personal photographer. Arafat was ushered inside but his photographer was asked by the SPG to remain behind with the other lensmen. The Palestinian party sent frantic messages through the SPG guards that the cameraman had to take a shot of Arafat presenting his gift, but Sonia was adamant in denying permission.
Dynasty strikes back
A pre-dominance of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty in the past 50 years has ensured that Sardar Patel, the only man who could challenge Pandit Nehru in the party, has been largely ignored. The bias against Sardar is obvious from the fact that though the Central Government has funded projects for printing the collected works of Pandit Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and G.B. Pant, it has refused to do so for those of India8217;s Iron Man. It was finally left to a private society formed in 1988 by S. Nijalingappa to compile the letters and speeches of India8217;s first home minister.
While the State governments of Gujarat and Karnataka provided some funds, no financial assistance was forthcoming from the Central Government. Eleven volumes of Sardar Patel8217;s works have been published, three more are in the press, and three to four have still to be completed. But the society, which also holds the annual Sardar Patel memorial lectures, has been asked to vacate the trust office in a government bungalow in Delhi8217;s Kaka Nagar by the end of the year. Much earlier, an attempt to set up a small museum for Sardar Patel in the house in which he died on Aurangzeb Road was turned down. Ironically, a sizeable chunk of Lutyens8217; New Delhi has been gifted to house memorials for the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty.
Partisan politics
The BJP is furious over what it considers the quot;immoralityquot; of S.S. Gill8217;s appointment as Chief Executive Officer of Doordarshan by a dying government. Despite disclaimers that Gill was not a JD member, Gill in 1991 was part of the JD8217;s publicity cell and in 1994 he along with I.K. Gujral was on the team that wrote the JD manifesto for the assembly elections. Iamp;B Minister Jaipal Reddy whose brain child it was to push through the Prasar Bharati ordinance was taken aback to find that Gujral did not take his views into account while constituting the geriatric board. Reddy8217;s own man, DD Director General R.S. Sarma, has also been side-lined in the process.
Hidden hand
Having learnt its lesson in Gujarat, when the BJP tom-tommed to the world that it was going to bring down the government, this time the party swore that attempts to install a BJP government at the Centre would be a hush-hush affair. During the present political crisis, prominent BJP leaders like L.K. Advani, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Jaswant Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi deliberately avoided Parliament8217;s Central Hall, the hub of political conspiracies, so that they would not arouse suspicion. Instead, only the master of the BJP game-plan, Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, was seen regularly in Central Hall often with old friend Chandra Shekhar. But all others taking part in the operation were unknown first-term MPs rather than known BJP activists. The ostensible umbrella for the front was the first-time MPs forum campaigning against the dissolution of Parliament.
The operation was so discreet that some publicity-hungry Congress MPs did not even see the hidden hand until they were pulled up by the party for hobnobbing with the enemy. The game was up finally when some of the BJP first-timers, thrilled with their new-found importance, blabbered about the real purpose of the forum.
Freudian slip
Sitaram Kesri got very little sleep during the long drawn-out political drama taking place in Delhi since his party colleagues kept dropping in to see him at all hours of the day and night. On Sunday before last, Kesri sneaked into the Congress office at Parliament house to get a cat nap. quot;Sona haiquot; I want to sleep, he told the attendant. The man heard Sonia instead and asked if Kesri wanted to be connected by telephone to Sonia. A furious Kesri yelled angrily,quot;Kidar bhi suno Sonia, Sonia 8212; mujhe sona hai8230;!quot;
