The DMK considers Minister of State for Finance S.S. Palanimanickam a hero for his role in the recent CPM-DMK punch-up in the Lok Sabha. The MoS rushed down the aisle and formed a human shield in front of Shipping Minister T.R. Baalu to ward off the charge of the CPM brigade. DMK MPs claim that Baalu received a poke in the stomach, but the Left insists that an MP was simply trying to snatch the copy of the Maritime University Bill from Baalu’s hand and nothing more. Palanimanickam’s dhoti almost came off in the melee.Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who threatened to resign for the nth time, was particularly embarrassed since his party colleagues started the fracas. Chatterjee watched the replay of the video footage, taken by three cameras from different angles, very carefully to figure out what exactly happened, but did not pass any judgment.The next day DMK Chief M. Karunanidhi wanted to speak to the prime minister on telephone but he was snubbed and told to interact with Pranab Mukherjee instead. Sonny side up Former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral has valid reasons for campaigning in the recent Assembly poll for the Akali Dal. His son, Naresh, a businessman, was banking on the Akali Dal to nominate him to the Rajya Sabha. Gatecrash probe The IB has ordered an inquiry to find out just who escorted Massimo Quattrocchi to the birthday bash thrown last month for the wife of a prominent businessman from a political family. It was ironically Rahul Gandhi’s indignant query as to how Massimo managed to gatecrash the party that confirmed Ottavio Quattrocchi’s son’s presence there. Priyanka and Rahul did not take kindly to being greeted by Massimo publicly and the IB has been asked to find out who brought him along. The IB has interrogated a ‘Page 3’ type who came with some uninvited Italians, but a deep throat tells us that they are barking up the wrong tree. Massimo, incidentally, was visible even the next day at the Oberoi’s 360 restaurant. Family argument By tradition, when the Congress Parliamentary Party meets, only President Sonia Gandhi speaks and everyone else listens. Which is why there was consternation when an agitated MP, Harisingh Chavda, interrupted Gandhi in the middle of her address last week, insisting that he wanted to raise a point. A number of MPs were horrified at such impudence and told him firmly that he should meet the party president later if he had any complaint. Since the incident happened in the wake of Kuldip Singh Bishnoi’s suspension, many assumed that Chavda was a potential rebel and rumour spread that he wanted to complain against Ahmed Patel.Chavda, a three time MP from Banaskantha, Gujarat, says there was no question of anti-party activity. He merely wanted to express his concern about the price rise. Chavda stresses that he holds Patel in the highest esteem, but says that some in the party have complaints about Shankarsinh Vaghela’s style of functioning. “It is a family meeting, not a public forum. Soniaji appreciated my point of view,” he claims. Frozen formula It is an interesting point whether elections for the president of India, which are due later this year, will take into account the changed voting strengths of various state legislatures on the basis of recent census data. In the 2002 presidential election the strength of each MLA’s vote in different states was calculated on the 1971 census figures for the state. Whereas it should have been revised on the basis of the 2001 census. To tamper with the presidential electoral college strength using the formula based on current population data would open a Pandora’s Box. In fact the strength of our Lok Sabha has been frozen for the last 30 years because Tamil Nadu and Kerala have objected to states which effectively implemented family planning being penalised by getting less representation in Parliament.
