Left out

All in the family

The moribund Janata Dal (U) has been infused with new spirit thanks to liquor baron Vijay Mallya, the party’s newest MP. Mallya invited Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav to address a JD rally at Gulbarga in Karnataka and dispatched his private plane to Patna to pick him up. Some of Laloo’s Bhojpuri may have escaped the audience which was more accustomed to Urduised Hindi, but the gist of Laloo’s fiery rhetoric was very understandable and drew loud cheers. A born showman, Laloo paid meticulous attention to every minor detail, such as ensuring that the microphones were placed at the right angles, his appearance was suitably homespun and his mop of white hair tousled.

Asked whether inviting Laloo meant he was trying to unite the RJD with Deve Gowda’s JD (U), Mallya replied confidently that they were in any case all part of the ‘‘Janata Parivar’’. Mallya, who clearly has political ambitions in Karnataka, is keen to live down his image of a playboy and project himself as a serious politician.

Laloo’s metamorphosis

Laloo Prasad Yadav is a changed man after his last sojourn in jail. Earlier, he was an enthusiastic non-vegetarian especially fond of fish. (In fact Laloo used to personally select the fish from his pond for his breakfast every morning). Now he has practically turned vegetarian and has taken to religion and austerity. In conformity with his new beliefs, Laloo generally stays these days not in the Chief Minister’s bungalow but in a spartan, thatched outhouse at the back. Laloo was converted by a holy man who visited him in jail and told him to give up meat and fish. Laloo’s confidence in his spiritual mentor was strengthened after he followed his advice and was released from prison on bail the very next day.

Flight of fancy

Vijay Mallya’s high-flying lifestyle is the talk of Parliament’s Central Hall. MPs were dazzled by the fact that Mallya’s six-seater Gulf Stream plane shuttled regularly between Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, with the industrialist freely offering rides to MPs wanting a lift to either of the two cities. Now Mallya has done one better and bought a Boeing 737 so that he can travel overseas in style. The 737 which is used by commercial airlines for transporting 140 passengers had been refitted to seat just 27. The plane includes an opulent drawing room, dining room, bedrooms, a bathroom with a shower and a dance floor. This week, Mallya flew in his new plane to attend the World Cup match in South Africa taking along fellow MPs Rajeev Shukla and Dinesh Trivedi as well as actor Sunil Shetty. The plane will make a second trip to ferry Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel and Dilip and Shobha Dey in time for the cricket finals. Laloo has also been invited, but he has yet to decide whether to go. Mallya’s guests will be seated in South African President Thabo Mbeki’s box at the World Cup stadium.

Cultural differences

The Indian Council of Cultural Relations in association with the Ministry of External Affairs is opening a cultural centre in Washington on the lines of the Nehru Centre in London and the Maulana Azad Centre in Cairo. Our embassy in Washington is looking for a suitable centrally located property to house the new centre. But even before a site has been selected, the grapevine has it that the government already has a candidate in mind for the post of director, who is being backed strongly by the RSS. The government wants the new centre to be named after one of the BJP icons, preferably the Jana Sangh founder Shama Prasad Mukherjee, and not from the Congress pantheon.

Meanwhile, the Director for the Nehru Centre, Girish Karnad, has indicated that he would like to continue for another year.

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